OK, before we get to the basic woodworking, we must pause for this fabulous imagination moment brought to us by my daughter. That is my scarf she is using for the river. Love it. And some toys that hadn’t been played with in a while which also make me smile.

Today’s project was making a pencil holder. A great starter project that lets the kids work on sawing and drilling skills. I also got some fun fuzzy pencils for them when they finished.

Well, during our craft time, Mother Nature decided to send a huge and impressing rainstorm our way. This filled the streets with water and well. the kids could not help themselves and I really could not blame them. We did get some of the holes drilled and hope to finish the rest this week.

Today turned out surprisingly good! At first my kids were cranky about the errands I needed to run…and then all the “gimme” stuff. But I was in a craft mood, and being in art stores, well, we did pick up some fun artist markers for them.

Then in JoAnn’s while I was waiting in the fabric cut line, I let the kids go look around the kids area. Tyler brings back this bead thing where you decorate a peg board and iron the result. A friend brought one over to the house a year ago, he loved it then and had been asking to do it again. It is more creative than most things there and is great for fine motor skills so I acquiesced.

All afternoon, he made things and so did Quinn. I finally made myself sit down and knit. And there we were, all working on our crafts, singing to the songs on the radio and cherishing this cloudy, rainy Friday. Really, it was heaven.

After while, Quinn moved onto other things. Putting a hat and leash on her cat Skiddish, cause he is always going places. And then she decided to put her fish on a leash as well, but it needed tape she said because the leash was too big.

….and then onto drawing with the new artist markers, crushing peanuts to somehow make robots, onto play, and then a Mommy-imposed sweeping session (those peanuts were getting cleaned up!) before we ate the best meatballs ever for dinner!

Some days the play and creativity just come so easily…and some days it just isn’t there. Today was like a fountain gushing ideas.

Today is Friday, but Daddy is in Oklahoma for an arts show and so it is a bit different today. I was feeling a bit lonely actually. The universe sought to solve that by having me and the kids run into my brother at the store and then at the playground, run into a childhood friend who lives in my hood! We got to chat for a while and catch up. That was nice.

And the weather was amazing and our walk was heavenly. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera. I did snap this shot of the incredible clouds when we returned home. Also below are all the creations made by the kids today.

It was a great day! Looking forward to the big adventure the kids and I have planned for tomorrow!

So after a wondrous afternoon at Bull Creek, Tyler comes home with a plan of something he wants to make. He gets that art supplies out and sets out to work.

He created a game. It has a cover and when you opened it up it had the seen where he drew out the game screen.

Then he had all these buttons – the start, the stop and the the shooting buttons that would shoot different things depending on which one you pushed. He demonstrated this for me.

My favorite part though had to be the pockets he put on the back. One pocket held a spear and a sword and then other pocket was for a spare battery. I loved this!!

We don’t own the handheld games nor does he play video games, so it is not something he sees everyday. I just loved the creativity in all of it – and the pockets – I so heart those pockets.

This was in late July and we were entering a phase where he was blowing me away on a daily basis. Creating and teaching himself to read and spell. It is such an amazing thing to get to watch him grow into this amazing boy and I feel so very blessed to have the opportunity to do so.

Tyler was never into fingerpainting so much…at least “back then”. And so I think at some point, I passed on all of my stash. Quinn is a different kid – highly tactile. We recently got more fingerpaint from Grandma Susie who was cleaning our her art supplies. Color me surprised when my kids enthusiastically wanted to fingerpaint!

And so we did and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves! So I guess I might be getting more after we use up what we have. Sometimes I fall into that trap of attaching certain activities to ages forgetting that it all depends on the child. Maybe Tyler just wasn’t really ready for it then or as interested?

I have had fabric for some summer napkins for over a year now. I finally decided to get on the project and see if I could include the kids. Tyler has used a sewing machine at school and so was happy to help me figure out how to make it work. He decided to squeeze the foot pedal with his hands while I guided the fabric. As we were sewing the next set of stitches, he asked if we could do the one like a lightening bolt. Sure! I thought the napkin came out great!

Then it was Quinn’s form. Since Tyler had picked a fun stitch, I let Quinn take a look, Of course she picked the complex decorative ones and of course she wanted a different one on each side! We got through it and hers came out great too.

It was fun and I am glad I included the kids..and they say they want to help me finish the rest. I think we will stick to one fancy stitch this time though!

We attended Tyler’s Crossing Over ceremony. A celebration of his leaving his preschool, ready for grade school and the new adventures that await. We were so lucky to have Uncle Bryan and Aunt Lorena join us for the celebration and a meal to follow! Additionally, I re-remembered that making crepes is not that hard and I should do it more often and we did some family painting! It was a nice day.

We have another installment of “Kids with the camera” for you. This one brought to you by Quinn. As always I am thankful when the photograph their feet – makes it so much easier to see whose eyes we are seeing through! I think I am going to dig back into my archives to find more of these to post – they are totally cracking me up!