Salad Spinner Art

Ashten and Ayden getting ready to take their turns Ayden giving it a good spin
Ashten kept spinning and spinning.
"I don't like it yet"

Ashten's "turkey feathers"

Ayden and Ashten with their finished projects

For our craft today I looked online for something new to try out and I found salad spinner art. I am mostly glad I found this because I have a salad spinner, which I never use, but now I have a use for it. haha I cut out large circle out of cardstock and let the kids squirt paint on it. After that we put the lid on it and let it spin. Then I cut out the head and body and had the kids decorate with crayons and googly eyes. I think salad spinner art is going to be very popular in our house, it was surprisingly clean and took less than five minutes for me to clean everything back up.

Pajamarama Story Time

Ashten and Ayden during Story TimeThe puppet show
Ayden and Ashten who is bowing after his performanceAshten
Tonight we went to Pajamarama Story Time at the Federal Way Library. I forgot about it until about 630pm and it starts a t 7pm, so I had Ayden and Ashten hurry and get ready (Anderson was sleeping). They get to wear their jammies and bring either a blanket or a stuffed animal. Ashten was very wiggly but they both had a good time. Afterwards, they played the computers that the library has set up for kids. They really like doing that although Ashten has a hard time with the mouse. I'm not sure if this is because he doesn't have a ton of practice or if it's because he's a lefty. Just before we left the kids put on a puppet show for me. They don't know to make the puppets talk...when I asked Ayden about this he told me: "the puppets mouth doesn't open so I can't make it talk". Anyway, it was good to get out of the house and the boys are always excited to go somewhere at night, they always think it's an adventure.

"Are These Real Turkey Feathers?"

Ayden lining up his favorite feathers for his turkey feather hat Ashten liked the straight and bent feathers Ashten and Ayden and their finished projects I found some cute ideas on the MSN website for Thanksgiving crafts, I love doing Holiday crafts with the kids during the week. It makes the day go by fast and the kids have lots of fun. My Mom had some feathers for us to use. After she dropped them by this morning, I got the kids set up. They loved this craft and it was clean and easy for them. I think they look great!

Thank You

Ayden working hard to sign his name One of his completed cardsOne of my finished cards Ashten made his own thank you cards for when it's his birthday

I decided that Ayden was old enough this year to make his own thank you notes for his birthday gifts. I got out my dinosaur stamps and put him to work. He did really well considering he had to make 12. I ended up making 3 and he did 9. I asked him what he wanted to say in each card and wrote it down for him. Then, I had him sign his name in each card. I hope by starting him young he will always remember to thank people properly.

Escape 2 Africa

Ashten, Daddy, and Ayden

Anderson really wanted to play. I let him spin for me but then he wouldn't share the spinner with the other players. Then he was eating the cards so he had to get down. Cassi and Gavin sent Ayden a Madagascar game. We waited for Daddy to come and after dinner we set it up and played. It was actually a lot of fun. Ayden was the final winner and Daddy was a very close second. Ashten and I were the biggest losers, but hopefully Ashten learned out to be a happy loser.

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

The kids' basket train
Ayden the Engineer

Anderson was being silly spinning his arms around as you do when singing Wheels on the Bus
Ashten was reading "Chugga Chugga Poo Poooooo! The Potty Train"

I can't believe the things they find at the library. I was lucky enough to be able to sleep in today while Armand took care of the kids. When I finally decided to wake up, I found that Ayden and Ashten had constructed this "train" using belts and all the empty laundry baskets that I had finally got emptied after a whole day of laundry. I don't remember the last time we had five empty baskets at the same time. Don't get me wrong we still have one more day of laundry until we are caught back up completely.

Star Wars

Ayden and Ashten fighting with light sabres Ayden is really into it.
Ashten kept getting beat
I know this picture is all blurry looking but I was trying to show the effect of the light sabres

Ayden and Ashten have been really into Star Wars ever since McDonald's had Star Wars Clone Wars toys in their kids meals. They watched Star Wars II with Armand the other day when I was out and they both really liked it. I can't believe they are already into this stuff, I thought I still had time. Anyway, today we went over to Grandma Acheta's to help work on her house a little. The kids brought Star Wars II with them to watch while we were working. Grandpa Acheta gave the kids these flashlights to play with. Next thing I know, they were fighting each other with their flashlights. It was very funny. Ayden would swing his at Ashten and say "Your light sabre is broken" then Ashten would switch off his flashlight/light sabre. We were watching the show in the dark and it really did look like light sabres flashing around. Those boys crack me up!