A daddy and his girl, being crafty

Sometimes, it is easier as a parent to connect with a child who is most like you.  For example, Max loves to play computer games, and Ella likes to craft.    For me being crafty is a no brainer, but I do have to concentrate to keep up with Max in a video game.

Well one rainy day (I know which one, since we have had so many) I asked Craig to paint a background with Ella and she and I would make the owls together.  Well I think they both had a great time.

The background is just a misc. piece of cardboard we had hanging around.

  The owls were made out of : paper towel tubes, paint, googly eyes, and fabric for the wings.

Didn't the Hubster do a great job on the background.  I love him for it.

I know the orange owl looks kind of scary, but just imagine him with two eyes. Or that he is winking at you.

Ella just doesn't ever feel a piece is done unless there is something sparkly on it.  We are missing one of our owls as it was a family of four.  That owl has flown the coupe, all the way to Ottawa to send well wishes.

Thank you Craigger, for taking the time to make memories with Ella that she can appreciate. The craft idea is not mine, I saw it at http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/2011/01/top-10-posts-of-2010-1.html

She has such easy, doable crafts that I know we will use some more ideas soon.

Good deeds

We have had for a while the good deeds chart in our house.  It is basically a behaviour chart.  I originally saw the idea on a blog. http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/2010/05/3-more-days.html.  I have to agree with her, when you tell my children they are going to move down a level there is a little pleading fest.  "No Mom please! No Please I will be good".

I knew that Kung Fu Panda 2 was coming out so they have been working towards getting 20 good deeds tokens to go and see the movie.  Well the day arose after much counting that we reached 20.  Although I am not positive that this little girl didn't add one, two, or ten while Momma wasn't looking.

We did one final count and cashed in our tokens.  With excitement in the air and popcorn and drinks in our laps we settled in to enjoy the show.  For this day, I pretended a budget wasn't part of our equation.  Although Ella had a hard time keeping her butt in the seat they enjoyed their highly anticipated reward.   

The good news is that Max asked "what are we going to work towards now Mom?" I am excited that the system is working now Momma just needs to find a cheaper or free reward.

The writing is on the wall..............

The chalkboard wall ofcourse.  The chalk board paint stinks to high heaven.  For those of you who like the smell of magic marker than have at it.  I probably need another coat, but I was doing this project with stuff I already had on hand.  The problem with me is that I have lots of great ideas, and purchase things for those ideas, but they never seem to get done.

Onwards, that is the new mission of the Laverty house.  To live with less stuff, to try and create less waste, to be on a budget.  I know that last one seems obvious but let's just say the Hubster and I have always been the buy now pay later mentality.  I digress, back to the chalk board.



This space is pretty boring and underutilized.



Yes I like it, but the chalk is not good enough.







           I bought some chalkboard markers and they are perfect.         

So chalkboard is done big fat check. Yahoo!  Now I need to hem some pants for my growing little man.


Working the weekend away, and loving it.

So the long weekend is upon us, yahoo.  Yesterday was spent clearing out weeds and dead plant life.  I planted some new ones, and then came inside.  While I was gardening Craig was helping Ella do this.

This is her first go..............................

 This is how it ended.......................

Those are tears and major disappointment.  Don't give up yet bean Just keep trying, keep trying never give up.  That was sung in my YO GABBA GABBA voice.  If you are missing the reference, don't fret it is an annoying kids show.
So now with the training wheels off I am left to wonder should we just put them back on for a while.  I guess it is kind of like diapers vs potty training.  It is just easier for me to have her have them on. Ella is like someone else who will remain nameless.  She doesn't like if she can't do something with relative ease.  For now we will stick it out, there is always tomorrow.

Today I spray painted frames BRIGHT YELLOW.  It is perhaps not the colouring I was aiming for, and the spray paint job is not perfect, but I love the intended function of it all.  Max and Ella's gallery.

Oh ya, just keeping it real that is dirty laundry on the floor, but oh so close to the bin.  To the left is Max's room, can you tell where some of these dirty clothes came from???

The pictures are just held in place with the clips so that the artwork can be changed as often as their clothes.  The words on Ella's picture say "I want to be a lion when I grow up".  Ella has informed me that the daycare teacher didn't know what she was saying.  Ella said "I want to be a ballerina teacher when I grow up".  Max saw the artwork and offered this comment "she looks scary".  I think it is the giant fingers, but not sure.

I hope to finish the chalkboard wall tomorrow, I will let you know how it turns out.

A little Man in the house

Today, my first born baby, lost his tooth.  I am not one of those emotional mommas but this seems like such a coming of age thing. Well I am emotional, but not over everything.

I just feel like life is flying by me lately and I need a way to soak it all up.  So this is why I have jumped into the world of blogging. 

After closer inspection of this picture I have to laugh his teeth look grey.  I am not sure if it was because of the grey background, or the lousy night light, or the fact that we haven't had any darn sun so we all still have pasty complexions. I assure you his teeth are not grey.

The close up showcases the huge gash on his chin.  This is due to his very short experiment with a razor.  It reminds me that although he is growing up so fast he still needs loving guidance of what to say, do, or touch.

But, for today we will shout hooray and celebrate a milestone being met, and smile at Max's innocence.  He asked " does the tooth fairy have to take my tooth tonight cause I want to show it off at school tomorrow first"?  I explained to him that the tooth fairy does not take a tooth unless it is under his pillow.  Like I said, loving guidance.