If I Just Had More Time

I want to make a shamrock wreath for the door, but who knows if I can find the time...Going skiing tomorrow, finishing up a bracelet for a friend, teaching Riley's science class on Monday, Jog-a-thon meeting Monday night, my parents come to town on Wednesday, hopefully at least one ski day next weekend, much needed hair appt. next weekend, etc...

But if I could find more time, I'd love to make this:

If you have the time, the directions can be found at Spare Time Insanity.  Maybe you could make one for me too?

Anticipating More Snow...

We're supposed to wake up to snow falling and 1-3 inches by the time we leave for school.  It should last through the two days...Just perfect for my skiing friend date with Kevin on Sunday!  Kendall begged me for an art project this afternoon and with her knowing that we bought miniature marshmellows this morning specifically for an art project, I had a hard time saying no.

Here's what we did...based on a project we did at my friend Stacy's house a month or so ago.

I drew the shape and arms, eyes, hat, etc. and then we used Elmer's glue and she placed the "marshies" on the glue.  I was surprised that more ended up on Frosty than in her mouth!

She wanted to do more so we created a snowflake!

My little crafter...following in her Momma's craftaholic footsteps!

I LOVE IT!

You Know Your A Craftaholic When...

Linda over at Craftaholics Anonymous posted entries received about how you know when you're a "craftaholic."  I felt there were sooo many I could relate with that I thought I share some to see if you are also a "craftaholic!"


You know you're a craftaholic when...


your kids have watched Disney for 8 hours straight in their pajamas and you    
are happily sitting at the sewing machine!

You wake up in the middle of the night and say "oooo remember to stop and   
get fabric tomorrow".

Mod Podge is your way to exfoliate.

you consider your hot glue gun blisters badges of honor.

you go shopping and stealthily take pictures of things because "I can make that!!"



you scurry around at nap time trying to get AS MANY DIY projects in as possible! (my work bench is filled with unfinished ideas)

you regret getting rid of previous supplies, even if it was years ago.


you see things in the store and say "why would I buy that for X when I could make it for less!


you have no fingerprints because of how many times you have burned your fingers with hot glue.


you get a little excited about a stained or bleached shirt because you know you can use the rest of it to make something pretty.


you have to move crafty supplies to the side to make room for your kids to eat at the table.


the photo library on your cell phone has been consumed by things you see in the store to replicate. Suddenly the pictures of the little people in your life are the minority. 


your husband hides your sewing machine cord so you can't sew until you put the laundry away.


the only store you will shop at is etsy.


you have the largest room in the house for your crafting, and it is still too small sometimes.

you move to a new city and the only place you know how to get to without GPS is the craft store!

your collection of projects you want to do is too big to complete in your lifetime and you still plan to do them all.


you've gone to Joann and Michael's more than the grocery store this month.

you see something you like and immediately say "I can SO make that. for cheaper. and better. and cuter."

your dining table holds a sewing machine instead of a serving dish and swatches in place of spoons!


your credit card statement reads "hobby lobby $xx michaels $xx a.c. moore $xx" repeated 6 times.

you'd rather have a craft budget than a cell phone plan

you start to rip apart perfectly good items/clothing/etc. "just to see how it's made"!

you can't even feel the glue gun burns anymore.


dinner is still on the table the night before. :)

your friend asks you what the rash on your hands is from and you say "Oh! Those are just glue gun burns."

you keep looking for cute new project ideas, even though you have a million projects started or supplies purchased for such projects.


...you see your kids about to tear their new jeans and you give them an extra nudge. 


you buy craft items and don't have a clue what you'll do with them!


There are so many more posted on Linda's blog if you want to check it out.  These made me laugh and feel better that I'm not the only "craftaholic" out there!


Are YOU a craftaholic too?

Letter Of The Week:

This week is the letter "C."  So today's art project was a letter C in the form of a caterpillar!

We also read the Hungry Little Caterpillar and ate chicken nuggets for lunch!  Got to start planning for letter D next week!  Maybe a field trip to Beyond Glaze for donuts?  Sounds like a delicious idea!

Spending A Day At The Lanes

As a family, we headed out to the bowling alley with the task of teaching the kids how to bowl.  Neither of our kids had ever gone bowling before - probably because of the age difference between them.  Riley has a field trip to the bowling alley this coming week so I thought it would be a good idea to take him in advance.

Both kids had a blast!  Riley was giddy over each turn!  Thank goodness for bumpers though.  Too bad Uncle Kevin was out of town this weekend or we would have recruited him for bowling lessons for the kids!

Here's a peek at our family fun day at the bowling alley:

Daddy giving Riley some pointers

Strike?

First attempt

Second attempt

Success!

(I do have an awesome new camera that records great HD video, but Blogger doesn't post videos in a high resolution...Bummer!)

We had so much fun but didn't realize how expensive bowling has become!  Maybe it's just been too long since either of us have bowled.  But it was money well spent.  The kids had fun and we enjoyed spending time together, sharing a new experience with them.  

Playroom Ideas...

Most of you know I've been struggling with how to decorate our playroom for oh, about a year now.  I think I've got it organized the way I want it so now it's time to decorate the rest of it.

We've got this great magnet board that I made for the kids last spring using paint, my cricut and some mod podge:

It's hanging on the wall in the playroom.  I also created this to hang up their artwork in the playroom based on one I had seen at Pottery Barn:

But the walls still need a little more color and decoration...so when we were installing the door panel curtains on the french doors of the playroom this morning and Kendall was cleaning up the magnet letters and putting them back on the board while singing Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, it hit me!  Let's put a big palm tree up on the wall that's leaning towards the magnet board and then have the letters tumbling down towards the board...just like in the book!  

So since I'm not much of an artist, I decided to take the path of least resistance and look for a vinyl palm tree online.  I found a 7 foot vinyl king palm wall sticker at a great price!  Once it arrives we'll put it up on the wall and then I plan to head over to Roberts to buy some different colors of vinyl to cut the alphabet out with my cricut and put them up on the wall!  I can't wait to get the whole thing completed!  This is the tree I found:

Isn't it great?

It's our goal to finally get this house decorated and look like we really live here - that it doesn't look like it's just a temporary address.  We're getting closer every week to making it finally look and feel like home.

Can't wait to post pictures of the completed project!

Can't Wait For Hiking Weather...

You've probably seen numerous pictures of me with Kendall on my back like this:

Well, that pack weighs almost as much as she does!  It was awesome for our hikes here in Utah because it had that great hood to protect her from sun and rain (it rained on us at Zion which is where this picture is from) and lots of space to pack food, water, tissues, diapers, etc.  But she's getting bigger and as you can see in this picture, she's all but outgrown this pack.  Her legs are pretty scrunched in there.  Andy's back bothers him more often than not so that means I'm the one toting Miss K up and down all the mountains.

I was thinking of our trip to Alaska this summer and how I didn't want to take a stroller, but wanted to hike/walk while we're there.  I considered dragging this monster with us, but decided what a pain that would be!  I searched online and found a great alternative.  I thought the Boba Carrier would be a fantastic solution.  A friend of mine has one and she said it would be perfect for my needs.  This thing can hold up to 45 lbs!  Kendall is topping the scales at 27 lbs so I can easily use it this spring through fall.  I was concerned with how we'd enjoy hiking this year if she had to walk all the time, but now I have no worries!  

My Boba came in the mail today and we tried it out and she and I both LOVED it!  It was so much lighter than my Kelty pack and now that we are no longer in need of diapers, wipes, etc. on our hikes, my new Boba will be the perfect way for us to enjoy the Wasatch and Uintas this summer as well as hiking Exit Glacier in Alaska.  

Here's the best part...I found this one on sale at Zulily.  It was 40% off the regular retail price!  Sweet!  Can't wait for this weather to break and to do some hiking this spring!  Well, I can wait a little, I want to do some more skiing this winter before the snow melts!  But at least I have something to look forward to!

Artist in Residence

Painting is Kendall's newest passion.  She asks to do it daily and appears to need no help with her brush, water, etc.  Since she's a typically messy kid, I make her strip down...need to remember to pick up another art smock at Ikea the next time I'm there!  Even with washable paint, she still manages to make a mess!

I even splurged and got her a new easel from Ikea because she loves painting so much ($15 so not too much of a splurge) but this one has a spot for our roll of paper to attach to it.  Our old Little Tykes easel still works, but I kept having to cut paper to fit and then tape it down around it...I think I'll give that one away or keep it outside for messy finger pudding paint this summer!

The B Says Buzz!

The letter of the week is "B."  So today's art project was to create a bee in the form of the letter B.

Here's my little princess (yes, she's often found in her Rapunzel dress while at home - the thing has so many rips and tears, but she doesn't care!) making her art project.  She has been loving the time spent being creative while learning about her letters and sounds.

I never cease to be amazed by her fine motor coordination...I guess compared to Riley, she seems so advanced!  (For those of you who don't know, Riley's fine motor skills were as weak as could be without qualifying him for services when he received speech therapy as a toddler.)

Here she is putting black stripes on her bee - she did help cut some of the stripes, but Momma had to make the longer ones.

Bees have to have antenna and eyes as well as a purple stinger!

Ta Da!

And what kind of teacher would I "bee" if I didn't include a snack that starts with the letter B?  Yum!

Happy Heart Day!

Just a few of the ways we celebrate Valentine's Day here at the Chunko House...

Handmade Valentine's for Riley's classmates...Super easy to do and hopefully original.  I cut the envelopes out with my cricut as well as the hearts, glued it all together and inserted a package of pop rocks!

I just finished this Saturday night...Just in time for Valentine's day, right?  Whew!  Not as perfect as I would have liked, but not bad for a first attempt.  The heart on this shirt is made from strips of ruffled cotton that I cut from an old shirt of Riley's.  

And who doesn't love red velvet whoopie pies in a heart shape served up on a heart shaped plate?  Breakfast will also be heart shaped pancakes served on these same plates!

Normally I don't like to do a lot of candy with the kids so we'll spend time reading about Valentine's day (Kendall loves her Valentine "Fancy Fancy" book she got from my parents) as well as doing things that show others how much we love them!  Kendall and I are also going to decorate cookies with MOMS Club for Valentine's day with some of her friends while Riley has a fun party at school.  Then Andy and I are taking advantage of inexpensive babysitting at church for the night.  For both kids, from 5:30-9pm, it will cost us $20!  Can't beat that!  What a great fund raiser for the youth!  I think we're going to grab dinner and do a little shopping!  Our "real" date night will be next Friday - dinner at Tuscany!  I've been wanting to go there since my friend in Jax (who grew up in Sandy) told me about it before we moved here!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Princess Party

One of Kendall's friends from church had her birthday party today.  It was a PRINCESS PARTY!  What fun!  Sleeping Beauty made an appearance and all the little girls were in love!  If you've never seen a girl crush...watch some little girls when they see a real live princess!  They were so good and quiet and did everything Aurora asked of them.  Maybe I can get her to come live at our house?  Ha!

Here is some video I took of the princess party:

Every princess needs to be fed strawberries!

Meeting Aurora

Pretending to be a real princess

Hanging with her friend Nat Nat

Learning how to dance like a princess

Candy Momma!

Lovin' her some Sleeping Beauty!

Birthday girl blowing out her candle

What a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon!  Thanks for inviting us Avery!  Kendall had so much fun and actually took a nap for the first time this week!

Art Project

So, I posted about starting the Letter of the Week with Kendall and I actually started it today!  Kendall had so much fun working on her "project."  She's so proud of herself and it was a blast to do together.  She really enjoys coloring, painting and cutting paper.

Here are some pictures of our little artist at work:

Practicing her painting skills while her letter A is drying.

We ended up getting the easel out of the basement to make it easier for her to  paint.

Gluing the back of her letter A

Putting the alligator's teeth on her A.

Trying to get the google eyes to stick to the paper instead of sticking to her fingers!

Alligator starts with A!

She had so much fun that I need to be more disciplined to do at least one art project with her each week if not more.  We hung this project in the playroom from our artwork wire.  She was so proud of it and can't wait for Daddy to come home and see what she's done!