Recent Projects

With Christmas just around the corner, 46 days, 7 hours and 44 mins to be exact, I have been working on various Christmas presents. Two of them I didn't take pictures of :( though. I had ordered a Vera Bradley wristlet for my mom, but as soon as I saw it, I knew it wouldn't fit her cell phone. I took on the challenge of making something that was similar but would work for her phone. Boy, was it a challenge! Now that I know what I am doing, it would probably be somewhat easier, but I don't think I am up to that right now. Here are some pictures of what I came up with.


Other gifts that I recently made were some hurricane vases. A friend showed me this blog post and I thought they would be great gifts. I forgot to take pictures of the ones I gave as gifts so here is a picture of some I am making for myself. I haven't glued the big one, as I am not sure which candle holder to use as the base.

This past weekend was a baby shower for my sister-in-law. K and M1 wanted to do something special for the baby so I suggested making hats for her. I got some soft nubby yarn and they went to work on their round looms.

K's hat for baby

M1's Hat for baby

Craft Night

So I have been given the task of coming up with a Christmas craft for our home school group. The group ranges from K4-7th grades so coming up with an activity for every one is somewhat challenging. I have been blog hopping and have come across a few good ideas. There are so many GREAT blogs that focus on crafts that it’s mind boggling! Anyway, I saw these cute felted wool ornaments and figured that most kids would be able to make them. I have learned that I need to test the projects first, so I headed to Joann Fabric’s to pick up some wool roving. Today I had all the kids try their hand at making them. This is the first time I have worked with wool roving so I am learning as I go.

The process is fairly easy, you just pull off small bunches of the roving and stuff into cookie cutters. Once the cookie cutter is full, drop a small amount of soap onto the roving and wet with warm/hot water.

Use fingers or other utensil to poke the roving until it is all matted - this takes a couple minutes.

When the roving is all matted, rinse with hot water, then rinse with cold water. Pat with towel to get out excess water and allow to dry. When the ornament is dry, embellish however you wish.

One thing I have learned, the wool roving from Joann Fabric’s doesn’t seem to wet felt very well. After looking at all the wool on Etsy, I am thinking that buying there is the way to go. I can’t wait to get my hands of some good Merino wool and see how that works.

For the last 3 weeks, M2 has been reviewing colors in school. On Tuesday, he was supposed to paint a coffee filter and make a butterfly, but I put it off due to the fact of MESS and various other reasons. Tonight seemed like a good night, so we go out the water colors and aprons. All of them wanted to try their hand at it so now we have 4 water colored coffee filters ready to be made into butterflies. The girls are very colorful, and the boys, well, I guess they like camo colored butterflies.

School Daze -- Week 3 Complete

Wow, I can’t believe we are done with our 3rd week of the 2010/2011 school year. The kids got into the groove pretty quickly and have been doing well keeping up with what we have set for them to do. K is in 6th, M1 is in 3rd, M2 is in 1st and J is just into trouble. Ha, not really, he has been doing pretty well playing and keeping himself occupied. We have gotten out the Legos a couple times this week and I helped him build a small house, dog and truck. That kept him busy throughout the mornings. Today he asked me if I would play with him. I asked what he would like to play and he answered “Star Wars!” Hmmm, I don’t think mommy plays Star Wars very well.
First Day of School

Camden & Philly through K's eyes

This weekend we took a field trip to Camden and Philly. On Friday we went to the Adventure Aquarium then on Saturday we rode the train into Philly to see the historic sites. The kids loved evey moment, with the exception of walking all over the place. Over the two days K took 398 pictures. Here are a few from her point of view.

^Adventure Aquarium Camden, NJ^

^View from the train^

^Philadelphia^

Not very good at Blogging

Well as you can see I am not very good at this blogging thing, it has almost been 2 weeks and I am finally getting another post done.

The kids and I were at my parents house this past week. We left Sunday after church and went as far as my grandparents house. Mom and Dad were there and we went home with them. This is the first time they got to see J. We had a good visit.

Since I was at Mom and Dad's I wasn't able to upload any pics. Here are some from Easter.

I'm Back

It has been a while since I posted. We have had a round of colds that started right after I posted last. Between chasing noses around the house and quieting coughs, we really haven't gotten tons done. We were hoping to keep it away from J, but he ended up with it anyway. I ended up sleeping on the couch a couple nights because he woke up with a stuffy nose and couldn't breathe. Hopefully this will be the last for a while. The kids still have lingering coughs but they are getting quieter everyday.

Hopefully I can keep up with this a little better than I have this past week. Here is a picture of M taken while he was sick, he was watching Fomas (Thomas the train) and fell asleep.

Learning to Ride

Yesterday K was riding her bike on the porch when she said "Daddy I did it, I rode by myself." Sean then took her down to the road to practice her new skill. She really hasn't ridden since last fall, when we were trying to teach her how to ride without training wheels, so this is quite an accomplishment.

New Carpet Dance

On Friday we got our new area rug for the livingroom. As you can see the kids are enjoying having something comfortable to play on. J has even gotten his share of "floor time"

Up close and personal with PA wildlife

Yesterday we took the kids to the Pennsylvania Outdoor Life Expo. The kids had a good time looking at all the different types of wildlife, indian artifacts and displays. K wanted to try her hand at shooting a compound bow but the lines were long. It was very crowded and hard to get around. Also, the people were quite rude, we would be standing in line or waiting patiently to get a look at something, and they would be pushing in front of us. It is sometimes understandable with children but these were adults pushing in front of kids. Oh well, the girls said they liked going, so that is what's important.

Note to self -- re: Photo Shoot

As much as you would like to take posed pictures of your kids, have someone else home to help you or leave it to the experts and take them to a studio.

Little Bit 'O Snow

What a week this has been, '70 and beautiful on Wednesday and today there is 10 in. snow. The kids loved it, they were out for a while this morning while Sean shoveled the walks and road. They wanted to make a snowman but the snow didn't hold together very well.

This morning when we came down for breakfast M1 announced that she wanted a cake for St. Patricks Day. She said it needed to be green and shaped like a shamrock. I am still wondering how she knew it was St. Patricks Day, we haven't talked about it at all. We did have the TV on alot yesterday watching the weather and news so I guess that is where she heard about it. I did have a cake mix and store bought frosting so I humored her, even tinting it green. I didn't shape it like a shamrock but we did put M&M's on it and tried to make a shamrock with those.

Beautiful Day in NEPA

The last few days have been beautiful. Today topped out at about 71 degrees on the back porch. With the ability to take time off school, I took the kids down to the church and let them play with the Thomas kids. After they got home, the kids went outside and played after naptime until 8:00 pm. They were having a blast jumping on the trampoline, swinging on the swing set, setting up a "rock store," and generally kicking up their heals. Tomorrow, the temperature is supposed to top out a little higher, but, as usual for March, weather prediction is just that, prediction. The temps are supposed to drop like a rock with the potential for snow showers. Welcome to the PA end of winter season.

Welcome to our Blog

Chaos and Cuddles definatly describes our life to a "T" right now. Somedays I think that M2's mission in toddlerhood is to create all of that chaos. He is the main reason I decided to start this blog, that way I can record all the funny, mischevious, and naughty things he and the others have done and show them when they have kids and are asking "why are my kids acting this way".


J is getting bigger everyday. He had his 2mo. check-up last week, he is now 10 lbs. and 22 in. long. I can't believe he is two months already. He is starting to "talk" and his smiles melt Mommy and Daddy. He is also discovering toys on the toy bar and if he hits at them they move and make noise.

As you can see by the pictures M2 has been keeping me on my toes, from powder to Desitin, he likes to get into trouble. He thinks that if he can't see Mommy and Daddy they can't see him. He likes to "hide" under the table, baby swing, laundry baskets or any place else he thinks he can't be seen. He will even cover his eyes so no one will see him. He does like to be cuddled and is very excited when Daddy gets to be home from work so Daddy can play with him. Trips to the store are a special time since Daddy has been doing quite a bit of grocery shopping and M2 gets to go along most of the time.

M1 has been enjoying K4, she had learned alot so far this year. She had been asking to cut her hair so last week we finally did it. Although it is cute, mommy had a hard time cutting off 3" and seeing the curls fall off.

K is 3/4 of the way done with 2nd grade. She is doing well, but somedays it is like pulling teeth to get her school work done. I guess we all have days like that though. Friday, both K and M1 went for a sleep over at a friends house. They were up 'til 2 in the morning. They came home around noon and were down for a nap by 12:30. K got a camera for Christmas and has been learning how to use it. Here is her self-portrait.

Since this is the first post I have elaborated more than I will in the future. I am going to try to write a couple times a week so check back often for more installments.