Crafting and Decorating

I had a bit of a rough week health wise, but I don’t want to bore you with too many details.  Long story short, my acid reflux has been out of control causing sinus, coughing, and throat problems.  Luckily, before it all started, at the beginning of the week, the kids and I got some craft time in.

As you know, if you’ve seen any of my birthday blog posts, I love to do arts and crafts.  I don’t always do everything well, but it’s a nice stress reliever.  Since I love doing it so much, I wonder why I don’t it more often with the kids.  Then we try a “project” and I remember.

1.  Someone always eats part of the crafts, whether it be crayons, paint, chalk, or even paper.

2.  Someone always wants the scissors, and no one, except mommy, is allowed to use them.

3.  Crying, screaming, and tantrums occur when said craft or scissors is removed forcibly from the child’s mouth or hand.

However, we tried a Thanksgiving themed project, and it was mostly fun!

My oldest traced my hand, then I cut out the “Turkey” and some feathers.  We used sticky, foam paper for the feathers and our names, so the kids got to stick them right on the birds.  They also stuck them other places:

We made a huge mess, two crayons were eaten, and I was constantly on scissor watch, but we had a lot of fun.  The sticky paper was really nice to use instead of glue or tape.  It allowed everyone to “help,” with the Turkey project.

At the end of the week, we decided to start putting up Christmas decorations.  My husband protested a little bit (too early!) but since it was yucky weather, and mommy was still feeling icky, it seemed like the perfect distraction.

Now, we don’t get a real tree, and we don’t just have one artificial tree.  We don’t just have 2 artificial trees either.  We have a whole Christmas Forest.

It all started with my one regular artificial tree and my husband’s aluminum tree, and each year our forest gets bigger and bigger.  Christmas clearance plays a big role in this.  In fact, we have a brand new addition to the family thanks to Toys ‘R Us clearance last year.

She’s 3 feet tall of complete cuteness.  Of course, she’s supposed to stay outside, but I make my husband move her in every night.  She’s just too cute to be out in the cold all night.

As for the decorating, with 2-year-old twins, we didn’t get too much done until after they went to sleep.  They were in awe of the lights at first, but then wanted to touch and pull and push.  So, the gate went up.  And the breakable stuff stayed packed, where it has stayed since we’ve had kids.  Someday, I’ll get to put up all my cool decorations.  Maybe in ten years?