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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Summer with kids...Week 4!!

Yay!! I'm half way done with my planned summer activities.4 weeks done....4 more to go....Don't get me wrong I love being with kids,spending time with them and especially doing crafts with them. But this whole planned summer activities and schedule is something totally new for me. There are days when I simply cannot think of a craft idea or there is not much of energy to go through the process...but the kids are really awesome and when they show their eagerness to craft...pieces start falling together :)

This week's post is again delayed but I have good reasons for them. My kids are participating in a fundraising event...Talent show...and we (yes, me too with them...) been particing for good number of hours for their group dances. Though it's taking up a lot of my time but I'm so glad to see them dancing and being good at that too (insert proud emoticon)

So coming to this week's crafts, here is what we did the whole last week :

MONDAY:   Week started with a simple painting project. Kids painted some wooden butterflies according to their imaginations :) and I hot glued magnet strips at their back thus making butterfly magnets for our fridge.

 TUESDAY:   I got a mosiac sticker kit for all the kids.It was again a simple,fun but time taking activity.The kit had glittery square stickers which kids had to peel off and stick on the picture which came in the kit.

I think they turned out cute...what do you say??

WEDNESDAY :  Once again we were hooked with a painting project.If clay pot painting was fun than gluing gems on the pot was even better.All the kids came to an agreement that these pots will be pen /pencil holder for them.

THURSDAY :  Some kids were not able to finish their mosiac pictures on Tuesday so they finished their projects. Since there was not enough time left after that ,we had to go through a quick painting(yes, painting once again.....) project. On a white coloured cardstock, kids drew with crayons.After they were done with crayons I gave them watered down black paint, to paint on the whole paper. Some wrote their names,some tried to make designs, while the younger ones just scribbled...but the end results were all the same...beautiful.

Kids were surprised to see that the black paint didn't went on their drawings  and were so excited to see their designs turning out so beautiful.They have even asked me to do this project once again with them . Who am I to say no :) :)

FRIDAY :  Those who have read my earlier posts of week1 week 2 and week 3 will remember that I admitted earlier that by the time Friday comes I am in need of an activity where my participation should be minimum(though this week I hardly helped the younger ones) and that is where beading comes into play....
Boys were more interested in doing puzzles that day, so I left them with puzzles while girls got to make a neclace and matching bracelet set....girls can never have enough  necklaces and bracelets :)

Some where in the middle of the week kids were able to finish the second 500 pieces puzzle which they started working on last week.

....and thus ended the week....

Hope you liked what we did....I would love to hear what art/craft you did with your kids,I'm always looking for ideas and suggestions.
Have fun filled days everyone and take care :)

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Summer with kids..Week 3

Here I'm again,ready to share all that we did the last week.For those of you who haven't read the week 1 and week 2 posts, I've been doing some fun crafts with kids for the summer vacations.I love how sometimes they come up with brilliant ideas themselves and sometimes are just eager to listen and learn whatever is being taught to them.There are 8 kids in all, with varied age groups but the thing which make them come together as a group is the want of creating something new every day.

So here is what we did the whole week.

MONDAY:

Kids painted these wooden flower in pot, shapes with water colors.

TUESDAY:

Two girls tried to copy this artwork(more to come of it,later)and were very good in that.

For the craft we made a sequence artwork.Kids had to peel and stick sequence on the spots.Though it was not as easy as it sounds.Peeling the dots was a pain and finally we realised that just gluing them on the spots was an easier thing to do.

WEDNESDAY:  This one has to be my favorite till date.Kids used rocks and other craft materials to make faces.
Each had their own imaginations and one even made a one-eyed funny monster :)

THURSDAY: For Thursday we made finger puppets.Younger kids needed a lot of help in this one but  still enjoyed throughly.

I love how some of them are same yet have kinda different expressions.They really turned out cute...what do you say??

FRIDAY: By the time Friday comes I'm looking for a craft which kids will enjoy but will be a little less busy for me.Beading is a very good option when you want to engage kids for a long time all by themselves.Just take out the stuff, get them started and let the imagination run....and re-run...

So that is how my week was..full of energy and ideas...how was yours??Let me know,I would love to hear from you.

Take care everyone till we meet again:)


Linking up here :

Summer with kids week 2!!

This is a delayed post for the 2nd week of summer activities.Delayed as in a full week delay.I planned to do this weekly post of activities which my kids do the whole week with their friends.For the second week number of kids increased from 6 to 8 and it took a while to settle down.Now that I'm more comfortable, this post is finally  here.
 So like the 1st week ,this week too we did crafts,some drawings and puzzles.Here are the pictures of things we did this week.

MONDAY:

Making these sun catchers was surely the best way to start the week.Even the youngest of the group were able to do it by themselves without any help...umm almost.(the paint jars were very unstable and the older ones had to keep holding them for the younger ones...but that was it.)

TUESDAY:

Kids tried their hands once again at drawing,with these simple Cardinals.I showed them how to draw with inspiration from here .I love how cute these came out.
Since next day was July 4th our craft on Tuesday had to be something representing that.Nothing seemed more appropriate than this flag making craft.

Once again I looked here for the inspiration but changed it a little bit.This flag was made with popsicle/craft sticks.Sticks were painted red and white and alternated.Blue construction paper was used with white crayons to make the stars.

WEDNESDAY: Kids and me had a day off to celebrate with family and friends(I can now understand the value of a day off in middle of the week:) The day spent with friends, for an outdoor picnic and fireworks later at Gas Works Park in Seattle, totally recharged me.

 THURSDAY: Though I was in high spirits when the day started, by the afternoon things went downhill.My daughter V has Cyclic Vomitting Syndrome, which shows up ...anytime,anywhere, and it decided to show up that day:(. I cannot leave her for a long time alone so decided that kids need to do something for which they won't need me much(especially the younger ones)
Finger painting was suggested by the kids themselves and was totally loved by all of them,no matter what age.

FRIDAY:  Sand painting was chosen for the day.Kids had fun making their own designs with cookie cutter shapes and stencils.I just suggested them to make wider designs so that they can easily fill sand.They applied glue with brushes and than sprinkled sand on the glued portions.This was also done with minimal help.

 Along with all this craft work ,the kids worked hard with their age appropriate puzzles too:

                                         48 pieces Giant floor puzzle for the younger ones(3-4 years)

                      
                                                     100 pieces for kids aged 4-5 years

                500 pieces finished by 7 year olds  (it took a while but they did all by themselves)
                                                    I was so proud of them all .

And thus the 2nd week ended.I hope you enjoyed the crafts done by the kids.I also hope to post the 3rd week activities soon.Let me know what do think of these crafts by commenting below(your comments does matter)  and visit back soon for some more fun crafts.
Till then, take care of youself :)

Pretty in Pink Tea Party...7th Birthday

Finally I have time,energy and mood all to get my stuff together and compose this long due post. So, on a June weekend V celebrated her 7th birthday and after thinking and changing her mind a few times she (and me) decided that she wanted a Tea Party with her friends.While figuring out decorations and activities to-do the Tea Party became Pretty in Pink Tea Party.

Invitations:
Starting with the Invitations:

We(read my husband)printed these' pretty' invitations(4 on 1 sheet of cardstock)

I enclosed them in a see through designed loot bags.These made a cute envelope for the invites.


Decorations:


For decorations I wanted a very girly and dressy kind of decor.What could be better for a tea party than Pom poms and Pinwheels :) I followed the Tissue pom poms tutorial from here and Paper pinwheel directions from here.

The tea cups hanging from the HB banner were felt tea cups brought in Michaels and attached to a Strawberry Shortcake's banner(which was used in her previous birhday)

here are some more decoration pics:

These Tea pot banners were made by alternating paper circles and tea pots(which were actually invites that came with the party pack I ordered online,but were otherwise useless as we had already printed and sent our invites by that time.)

Table Setting:

 



                                                                  A closer view.                                     

                                               Paper Doilies were used as placemats.

2 of these Tea sets were brought in Michaels on clearance for $1 each( seriously,no kidding) and painted. You can find some awesome stuff in clearance section of Michaels and there was nothing wrong with these except that these were last in stock :)

Activities:

When the girls arrived they were given some blank papers to make birthday cards for V.We had two activity centers.First one was to decorate their Pink bags and on the second one girls got to design their own barretts.While others were doing their cards 4 girls (2 on each table) did their crafts. A dear friend of mine came to help me with these craft stations(and much more) (Thanks Abhi without you this party wouldn't have gone this smoothly:)All the bows and flowers for these activities were made by me in advance.  Girls decided how to place them with  gems,pearls and other stuff and we adults helped them with gluing.

                                                              Barrett making table.

We used these bags as their Favor bags.
After the crafts stations were done we played pass the Teapot and used the game for gift  opening as well.Whoever had the tea pot when music stopped was able to give their gift to V and she opened it with them.

Food:

For food we had Fruit kabobs,Tea pot shaped sandwiches,Pink lemonade,Strawberry popsicles,Pizza and Pink cupcakes.Everything except Pizza and cupcakes was made at home.

Favors:

For favors we had the decorated bag for each girl with their decorated barretts,hats,a tea party themed sticker sheet, teapot/tea cup shaped cookie,and the plastic straw tea cups which they used for water during party.

Cookies was my first attempt at baking and decorating.I found this awesome eggless sugar cookie receipe here and decorated with the cookie decorating icing found in baking aisle of grocery store.I think they were pretty good for the first timer and they  tasted really good.
I packed these cookies again in the same loot bag in which I sent Invites.

The stuffed favour bags:

All the pictures were taken by my husband,which BTW explains missing food on food table(he took pic before I could place all the stuff,and forgot to take it again afterwards.)and the pic of bags turned the wrong way:(  You see he's still not able to understand why those photos are so important and how I need them....but still he is a wonderful husband and dad(and hopefully will figure out soon, how I want those pics.)

All in all this was a fun party and V was super happy. Most of the stuff for the party was DIY which made this a very low budget affair.The effort was all for the love of crafting and decorating and the compliment of "Crafty Mom"  given by my daughter made it all worth and more....

Take care everybody and let me know your views on the party :)