snow day

staring down the barrel of yet another snow day? not sure you can muster the energy to build your twelfth snowman or snow angel? try this super easy snow painting project on for size.

bug and i had a ball spray painting the 36 inches that feel on our yard a few weeks ago. bug's art (below) had a more abstract, graffiti feel than mine (above), but we both thought our projects turned out well for an afternoon's adventure. and our paintings lasted for days.



our spray bottles are already poised in the garage in anticipation of the next round of snowfall we're expecting tonight!

snow painting

what you'll need: spray bottles (one per color), food coloring, water and snow

1. plan your colors



aside from the four standard food coloring options, you can also create...

pink (small amount of red)
purple (equal parts red and blue)
orange (equal parts red and yellow)
aquamarine (two parts blue to one part green)
chartreuse (equal parts green and yellow)
magenta (two parts red to one part blue)
gold (three parts yellow to one part red)
brown (equal parts green and red)
black (three parts red and three parts blue to two parts green)

2. in spray bottles, combine food coloring and water to desired colors



3. suit up with snow bibs, hats and mittens

4. spray, spray, spray



5. when empty, refill bottles with new colors and paint some more

as a variation, fill bowls instead of spray bottles and use paint brushes to create a masterpiece!

what's your favorite snow day activity?

for the birds

bug is a collector. it's really not his fault. it's genetics, pure and simple. his grandpap is a collector of world war two books, model airplanes, old romance novels, milk glass, old fishing tackle, and mcdonald's fast food toys (and that's not really even scratching the surface). his grampy searches craigslist and ebay on a daily basis in hopes of finding all manner of odds and ends he's looking for. my husband and i are no better. i've got more art history books, milk glass, and needlepoint pillows than i could ever use. my hubs has, well... really, anything electronic will do.

with all of this at work in his dna, it should have been no surprise to me when, over last summer, bug acquired the habit of collecting pine cones whenever we visited the park. it was always the same scene. first, the excited squeal: "momm-mme!". then, the race to find me from across the park. next, the ceremonious display of his thrilling new find. always followed by my utter shock and amazement at this unbelievably beautiful tree dropping. and last, his insistence that we really, really needed to bring it home with us. what mother could turn away such innocent pleas from her adorable three year old son?

this would have been okay if it had happened once or twice. but my little boy is a true collector. and so, by summer's end we had amassed a collection of pine cones to rival the most dedicated child's collection of thomas trains or bakugan toys. we had a lot of pine cones.

on occasion throughout the fall, i would remind bug of the presence of his pine cones. say when i found another two or three in a cup holder in the back of the truck. or in the bottom of the stroller. or when my eyes focused for a moment on the large clear, glass jar on the kitchen counter which proudly displayed the majority of bug's collection. each time i would make the mistake of asking if he might (pretty please) be ready to dispose of them. silly mommy. of course he wasn't ready to get rid of them. he thought they were great.

fortunately, as tends to happen with most things around here, it all sorted itself out. it took several months for this project to resolve itself. but i think we're all pretty proud of the result.

fall eventually turned to winter here in the mid-atlantic. and we actually got some snow. and bug and i talked about how the birds have a hard time finding food to eat in the winter when snow is covering the bushes and the ground. and bug decided that we should make baby bird feeders with his pine cones. not just plain old bird feeders; baby bird feeders. perfect. bug and the future mrs. bug (his little buddy lou) had a ball creating their baby bird feeder masterpieces on a cold winter's day earlier this year.

the final product hanging in one of our trees...

we're hoping the birds like them just as much as the kids enjoyed making them.

baby bird feeders

what you'll need: pine cones, peanut butter, bird seed, butter knife, small bowl, plate and string.

1. gather pine cones

2. fill small bowl about half full with bird seed

3. using knife, cover pine cones thoroughly with peanut butter

4. roll pine cones in bird seed

5. set pine cones on plate until dry

6. using string, hang pine cones in trees

7. watch out the window for customers!

what are some of your childrens' favorite winter arts and crafts projects?

see ya real soon

our thanksgiving this year was stuffed full. we had lots of good quality time visiting with family that we don't often see and a delicious, locally raised turkey on the table with all the seasonal fixins. we even pretended to be rock stars. belting out tunes and playing drums with beatles rock band. bug was a natural with the mic (should i be worried?).

and now the grand holiday season is officially upon us. and i've got lots of blog posts on the tip of my tongue (er, fingertips). i'm feeling terrible about not posting anything since thanksgiving, and am anxious to get some of my ideas down on virtual paper... from repurposing wine corks (from all those bottles you polished off while basting the turkey), to recycling the holiday cards you'll receive to a good cause. and i'll be baking too. our traditional christmas morning breakfast, homemade sticky buns. i can't wait to dig into some holiday-centric posts.

so why is this entry not dedicated to one of those projects? we're leaving tomorrow morning for another vacation. i know, we're very, very lucky. nana and grandpap are generously taking us to walt disney world for the week. or, rather, they are taking lulu and bug on their first trip to walt disney world and i'm going along for the ride. merry early christmas to us!

my mother recently sent me these nearly-vintage disney vacation photos. taken during one of my early trips to the magic kingdom in the late 1970s. here, with my mom and tigger...



and taking a magical ride with dumbo...

i can't wait to introduce lulu and bug to mickey. it is likely that lulu (at her tender age of twenty months) will scream bloody murder and cling to me desparately, but what would childhood be without a few of those terribly scarring experiences in our pockets?

see you when we return from the mouse house! a new blog entry should be posted on monday, december 7th.

what's your favorite disney theme park?

giving back

i used to be an active volunteer... i participated in community clean-up events, tutored elementary school children on a weekly basis, and i walked (or ran, depending on the year) in awareness events for cancer and diabetes several times each year. i made monetary donations to charities. i gave my time to be an art information volunteer at a gallery in our nation's capital.

and then somewhere between moving away from the metropolitan area and having two babies, most of my time and energy became consumed with feeding, diapering, nurturing and generally doting on those two babies, and the household that we created as a growing family. and for a while (supplemented with my annual participation in a cancer awareness event) that was about all the giving i thought was physically capable of.

but over the past several months, i've been thinking about volunteering again. more specifically, i've been thinking about how important it is for my children to understand what volunteering is, and why it's important. and to figure out a way to involve my children in our family's volunteer activities. i was shocked when i struggled to find a way do this. of course there were plenty of organizations and causes that were worthy of our time and effort, but i began to realize that there were surprisingly few volunteer activities that were appropriate for my little ones to participate in.

my kids see that we donate our gently used items to organizations like goodwill and habitat for humanity's restore. and each november we dutifully set out our bag of canned goods for our local boy scout troop's scouting for food event. but mostly they are just vaguely aware of these things; they aren't yet old enough to wield hammers or paint walls.

when bug was two years old, we were members of the national zoo. to this day, he still talks about that holiday season and taking christmas presents to the animals... our zoo created a wish list for the animals that winter, so bug and i took that wish list to our local animal supply store and filled a large bag with kong balls and other items for the various animals to play with. we made our tax-deductible donation on the night that we attended the zoo lights event that year. the fact that my now four year old son still remembers that donation tells me (in a very powerful way) that these small actions leave a huge footprint on our children.

with all of this swirling in my mind, i attended my first (ever) parent participation meeting. and i volunteered our family to do weeding on the playground at bug's preschool. it took us a full week to get the job done... i took the kids to the playground each afternoon after naptime and they played while i tugged, yanked and cursed weeds out of the mulch for two hours ever day. and you know what? they wanted to help. bug brought his little shovel and his gardening gloves and helped me bag up all those weeds. that weekend, we took daddy with us and - for the very first time as a family of four - we worked all afternoon in the crisp fall air to finish the job. it makes me so very happy to know that bug and his friends play on that playground several times each week, and that we were able to contribute to giving the kids a safe, clean place to run and play.

with this craving for volunteerism still pulling at me, and with the season of thankfulness and giving quickly approaching, i share with you our most recent project... bug and lulu had friends over this weekend to participate in a holiday giving project. our dear friend ml found an organization that delivers holiday presents to children in need in foreign lands. they asked that we select a gender and age for our gift, and requested that the toys and toiletries be placed inside of a shoe box. in preparation, we all took our children shopping to let them pick the gifts they wanted to give. and on sunday morning, we (mommies) wrapped shoeboxes in brown paper and asked the kids to decorate and fill them. they loved it.

our little artists hard at work...

audrey's finished artwork...

and a sample of the goodies inside...

bug has asked me numerous times over the past week who the little boy is that will receive our gift. and while it is complicated to explain to him that we don't know that child, i have no doubt that bug will be reminding me about this project for years to come.

volunteering comes in so many shapes and sizes, and my agenda certainly isn't to push any particular cause or organization. it's simply to hope to inspire just a few more families to do what feels right to them. we're all pressed for time, no doubt. and in these economic times, the dollars are short. but there will always be others who have less than we do, and there will always be a way that we can help in our own small ways.

holiday giving project

1. find a non-profit, or other charitable organization, whose mission and goals resonate with you

2. give, part one. your time. your dollars. your effort. in whatever capacity you are best able

3. give, part two. give thanks for what you have

4. bask in the spirit of the season

how does your family give back?

extra mileage

after battling headcolds, swine flu and even croup, my family is finally (very happily) back to the land of the living. here's hoping that our time served will earn us some small amount of immunity against the seasonal flu that's expected to hit later this winter. thanks for bearing with luluandbug while we took our sick leave... and now, without further delay... our new post follows.

election day is fast approaching. and if your town is anything like ours, that means you mommies out there are staring down two teacher workdays to start off your week. so, how do you plan to keep those kiddies entertained now that the sugar rush from halloween is finally beginning to wear off?

well, now that your pumpkins have dutifully served their primary purpose... lighting the path for trick-or-treaters, and adding that extra spooky glow to your front stoop on halloween night. why not get a little extra mileage from them before they begin to decompose and hit the trash bin later in the week?

our favorite post-halloween pumpkin activity? painting. guaranteed to keep the kids sitting in one place and busy for at least thirty minutes (which is particularly helpful on those neverending teacher workdays), and might even bring out your inner picasso or van gogh.

since bug is still too young to wield a knife and carve his pumpkin each year, he particularly enjoys the painting process. but the project will work just as well with a carved jack-o-lantern too. here is a photo of bug's masterpiece this year. okay, you're right, it's mostly a blackish mess, but who cares? he had a ball layering on the paints, and we had fun watching his artistic side take over.

pumpkin painting

what you'll need: tempura paints, painting brushes, plastic cups, pumpkins, and newspaper.

1. spread newspaper on an open workspace. your driveway, sidewalk or porch is ideal given the messy paint factor, but your mudroom floor or kitchen table will work in a pinch

2. set pumpkin(s) on newspaper

3. pour tempura paints into plastic cups

4. hand over the paint brushes and let the kiddies go to town painting up their pumpkins. if you're feeling the election spirit, let inspiration be your guide and paint up a donkey, elephant or patriotic american flag

5. set pumpkin in a safe place to dry

6. enjoy the creative masterpiece for a few more days!

pretty as a picture

many of the projects i undertake are fundamentally founded in my overwhelming need for structure, order and organization. i crave it. while i'm sure this is mostly a result of my hyper type a personality, i'm also certain that it has been exacerbated by the fact that i have so little control of so much that happens during my typical day. i adore my sweet little kids, but they can always be counted on to wreck my plans for an entire day in three minutes flat. those of you with kids understand.

and speaking of a lack of control, even cleaning my house has new meaning now that both of my children are mobile. bug and lulu are pros at making quick work of undoing just as many things as i accomplish while straightening. it was during one of these vain attempts to "clean" lulu's bedroom that i recognized a prime candidate for my type a fix. lulu's hair bows. sugar and spice and everything nice - sure, yes, of course. but hair accessories galore is really what little girls are made of. and hers were strewn everyplace, making it impossible for me to quickly find that adorable felt ladybug clip when i really wanted it.

and so the picture frame as art and hair clip keeper was born. i had purchased a dozen white frames from my local arts & crafts shop during bug's first year of life (to hold his monthly snapshots). and since that baby theme no longer fits with his new "big boy" room, my frames had been languishing in the basement storage area without purpose for quite some time. it didn't take me long to finish my first effort. 15 minutes (tops) and it was on the wall. and it has been a big hit ever since. filling both my everything-in-its-place craving, and also covering that small wall in lulu's bedroom that i couldn't quite figure out what to do with.

this is clearly a for-the-blog photo... on any given day our project holds upwards of twenty clippies.

hair clip keeper project

what you'll need: a picture frame (mine is an 8x10 in white), ribbon (i chose 1.5" width), measuring tape, scissors, glue gun, nails and hammer.

1. remove backing and glass from frame

2. place frame on an open work surface, backside up

3. use measuring tape to measure length from top frame edge to bottom frame edge

4. add 1/2" to your measurement and cut ribbon(s) to this length

5. using heated glue gun, glue the top of each ribbon to inside top edge of frame. i find it works best to first lay each ribbon in its approximate spot, and then start by gluing the center ribbon and working out. once glued, press ribbon into frame edge using the blunt side of scissors



6. once glue has dried (which will only take a few moments), glue the bottom of each ribbon into the bottom inside edge of frame



7. clean the glass from your frame

8. place glass into frame and use your glue gun to glue all corners. this prevents the glass from falling out of the frame when it is hung since (in my version of this project) the backing to the frame is never re-inserted. i preferred to let lulu's wall color filter through the glass rather than look at the black frame backing



9. once all glue is dry, use hammer and nails to hang your frame (at a height that will keep it out of the reach of little hands)

10. add hair bows and clips. tada!

tell us what you think... nice solution?

smitten's back... with a vengeance

our little lulu doesn't use very many words yet. she's got 'mama' and 'dada' down pat, and 'woof' for doggie. followed closely by... 'batman'? yes, our sweet 19 month old baby girl knows who batman is... and robin, and mr. freeze, and all manner of other superheroes. why? well, let's just say she's been heavily influenced by her big brother...

just like thousands of little boys before him, bug is completely hooked on superheroes. it started innocently enough with a few spiderman and friends books, and (as is the way things usually go with the kids) has now evolved into a consuming need for all things superhero. he even chose a come-as-your-favorite-superhero theme for his birthday party earlier this year.

bug's superhero obsession overflowed into his closet before i even realized it had happened. a superman tee here, a lulu-sized batman shirt there, a pair of wolverine underoos, a batman cap (and gloves) from an adored auntie... we now have what i think is the entire justice league represented in his wardrobe. the flash and robin mingle with the avengers and superman with ease (no doubt planning their next adventure).

bug wears his crime-fighting tees every day. really, i shouldn't have bothered buying anything else this fall. here he's wearing the shirt that he chose for the first day of school... thor, naturally.

bug asks to use our digital camera frequently. this is one of his more creative shots... we call it "bug and captain america: a self-portrait"

for better or worse, we now completely understand just how highly effective advertising is (especially on impressionable four year olds). i'm actually hoping this phase lasts for a while... the kids are Super cute chasing each other around the house in their robin and wonder woman costumes.

curious to know where we found these, or want to share other Super cute kiddie clothing? send us a note or a photo, we'd love to see it!