Summer with kids...Week 6 !!

Wow!! time flies, sometimes fast,sometimes slowly, but  it does fly. When I started this summer camp thing I was thinking of trying it for 1-2 weeks...may be 3,but now 6 weeks have passed and 7th going on steadily. Now when I think just 1 more week after this week ,it kind of gives mixed emotions.Sometimes I'm happy that I'll get some time just with my kids, sometimes relieved when I think of not much noise and less of mess and sometimes sad when I think of no more giggles and chattering of girls.
 Also this year my son starts full day Kindergarten, which makes me more sad and little lost,when I think of being all alone in the house for the whole day,especially  after all these weeks of  FULL HOUSE :) I have not been away with him for such a long time ever before and the separation anxiety is biting me more I suppose(he is totally ready and super excited to go to school for full day)

I hope after few days I would know what to do with my free time, for now I'm going to enjoy as much as possible with the kids. For me, enjoying and relaxing with kids means crafting with them(I do love playing board games too with my daughter,but pretend play with them is not my cup of tea.)
So coming to this week's crafts, here is what I did  for the 6th week of the summer with kids:

MONDAY :  We started the week with an easy project...making pom poms.I gave the kids a big enough piece of yarn and showed them how to wrap  it on a piece of card board.After they had  wrapped it, I slid it out and tied the knot for them.Kids had to cut the joined pieces at both the ends after that.

Each kid made two pom poms. These were supposed to be made into flowers by adding a floral wire,but one girl didn't wanted to make flower and the others decided to follow her only :(
One of these days I'm gonna convince my son to lend me his pom poms to make them into flowers or will make some more of them for the flowers.

TUESDAY:  Again I got a painting project out  for the kids to do on Tuesday.Older kids got wooden baskets in shape of tulips and dragonflies( which I got in sale at Michaels.) where as younger ones got some fancy shaped wood pieces.

I'm thinking of making some small size tissue paper flowers(or may be the pom pom flowers ) to decorate these baskets...and use my leftover floral stem for them...won't that be cute :) what do you say??

WEDNESDAY : For me the craft we did on Wednesday was a very significant one. I've been doing this every year with my daughter, ever since my son was born and actually years before, when I was not married, for my brothers as well. On Thursday, we had a festival to celebrate known as Raksha Bandhan . This festival is a brother- sister festival observed in India.On  this day sisters tie a sacred thread (called Rakhi) on the wrists of their brothers/cousins  praying for their well-being and brothers vows to protect and take care of their sisters/cousins lifelong.
Girls were very excited when I told them that we'll be making Rakhis for their brothers. Traditional rakhis are made on silk pieces with extensive zardozi work.We made use of whatever we could find in my craft closet and made our version of Rakhi.

These look like kind of friendship bracelets, right??
The red and yellow thread we used is a sacred thread called Mauli which is generally used in making Rakhis and is considered very auspicious for all Hindu religious ceremonies. For the base of our rakhis we used foam circles and than decorated them with gems and beads.
These actually turned out cuter and more authentic looking than I imagined.

THURSDAY:  Once more a relaxing day for me. I gave some wooden plaques and paint colours to kids and set them to work while I had  a glass of juice :)

FRIDAY : Oh! I never waited for Fridays this much (I thought I did...but now realised not this much...) I do love being with kids but still look forward to weekends to spend time with my family.O.k. coming to craft...Remember we made some play dough beads last week well kids made bracelets (I know, I know to many bracelets and necklaces...but the girls love them...who am I to say no:)) out of those hand made beads.

 I have no idea how strong they will be...but they do look pretty, don't you think ??

With all these activities the week ended....
Did you liked the things made by kids.Do let me know.I would love to hear from you :)

Till we meet next ..take care everyone...

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Summer with kids....Week 5 !!

Being with so many kids for last 5 weeks...and going through 6th week, has unfolded a newer side of me to me too....I never knew I could be so patient with kids. Also this summer has given me and my kids lots of new experiences ...

Firstly, from a stay at home mom, I became a stay at home and work mom :)
My kids are participating in a Talent show, which will be a first for them.Both of them are dancing for the first time and are going to be on stage for the first time as well (I'm so excited.....)
Other than these two exciting things ,for the first time in our marriage of 10 years, I had to be' home alone' (with my kids though)  without my hubby.These two weeks without him, in turn, taught me so many things about myself, my neighbours and my friends.But that would be a post for some other time. Now is the time to show you all what we did the whole last week.

MONDAY :  I got a pencil topper kit from the craft store(I don't remember Michaels or Joann...). I  already had some pencils at home which they used with their toppers. Kids had to stick the foam pieces on the pencil and decorate their toppers with gems and glitters included in the kit.

but the end result was not that satisfying.Next day itself the foam stickers started coming apart and I had to glue everthing again, which was a pain :(

TUESDAY:  Boys were not that interested in doing crafts that day...they were happy building Legos( though that is creative for boys..hmm..) so i searched my craft closet for some girly stuff. I came across some felt which I got for my daughter's birthday pink tea  party but never actually used it.Also I had other stuff( flowers,gems,feathers) leftover from the party. I folded the felt into half and hot glued them...girls decided the decorations and I helped them hot glue those on......

...and we got the Purses....don't you think they look cute. I am thinking that these can be used as their lunch money wallets or to store their clips and barretts for travelling, what do you say??

WEDNESDAY : There were these ceramic pieces  on sale a couple of weeks back in Joann...which we painted on Wednesday...

THURSDAY: Whenever i go to Michaels I can't help but take 1-2 wooden photo frames they carry...there are endless ideas on how you can decorate them. For my daughter's  6th birthday party ,I had kids decorate them with foam stickers. This time we decided to paint them.

 I love how one of the youngest kid decided(unintentionally)  to mix all the colours he could get ....the final result(extreme right in middle row) was beautiful. I'm sure I cannot acheive that even if i try to :)

FRIDAY: Playdough is the best thing to give to kids when you need a little time for yourself. My kids even at 7 and 5 years of age still love to get their hands on playdough and would be engaged for hours ,so for Friday I took out the playdough box and showed kids how to mix colours and make beads out of it.

Kids went wild with mixing colours and making multi-coloured beads :) We have put these beads away for the weekend to dry out and will bo making something out of it next week.

So this is it for this week....see you next week with some more fun projects and crafts.
Your comments would be a great motivation for me to keep going...so feel free to let me know what you think :)

Take care ...

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