Art and Craft Time...

What do you do with the kids when you are tired and are sick of hearing constant bickering?

Arts and crafts time!

My son is having fun cutting out pictures from magazines. Who knew a cheap pair of safety scissors and some old magazines could be so much fun?

My daughter is coloring with markers and crayons. Thank God they the markers are washable and non-toxic because she decided to color her arms and her tongue with them.

Now to just make this wonderful peace and quiet last until nap time...

Teacher Gift- My Son's Masterpiece!

My son's last day of nursery school was this past Thursday so I needed to think of something to give his teacher. I am not one for feeling obligated to give people gifts but my son's teacher was just so good with him this year and he really likes her so I wanted to get her something to show our appreciation for all of her work.

I gave my son some glue, paint and buttons and told him to make something beautiful for his teacher. Once his creation dried I put it into a frame and then painted a thank you note on it. He was so proud of his little masterpiece and you should have seen his face when he gave it to Ms. Mary.

I bought a plain brown gift bag from Michael's, some ribbon and some tissue paper and put this gift bag together- looks nice enough. I also wrote a thank you note to his teacher letting her know how much my husband and I appreciate all that she has done for our son this past year and included a $20 gift card to Panera. The kind of person who has the patience to be around preschoolers all day just amazes me- they are all a bunch of saints in my eyes.

So now my little baby is out of school and will be home all day every day to terrorize his little sister and me. What an absolutely wonderful time of year this is...

Beautiful and Fugly Mashed Up into One

This is my son's "homework" from nursery school. He had to make a collage of his family's hand prints.

I think it is beautiful. If someone else's child made it I would think it was kind of ugly.

As a mom I look at this and see time that my son and I spent together and how much effort he put into gluing on the feathers and glitter. I see how proud he was when it was finished and the smile he had when I told him he did a great job and that he was a little artist.

Now I know that when I made art projects when I was a kid that were just awful, my mom was totally lying when she said she loved them. She thought they were ugly but she loved the effort I put into them and the memories they would bring to her when she looked at them years later.

But yeah, kid art can be kind of fugly.