A weekend with the kids...

I can't believe its been almost 2 weeks since I last posted.  But fear not, for I am back.  The last 2 weeks were filled with packing, moving and then unpacking.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, Faustino and I decided to take our little family of 3 (that's right I consider Faustino, our cat Bootsie and I to be a family ;D) to Oakland.  After a strenuous move, and the past week of putting our things away, the place is finally starting to look like someone actually lives in it.  I'll post pictures when its done. :)

But now back to the weekend with the kids.  My brother had a couple tai chi performances this weekend, so we watched my niece and nephew for a couple hours on Saturday and Sunday.  Instead of watching movies and/or playing the Wii, I wanted us to do something creative.  And that's exactly what we did.  Saturday we completed an arts & crafts project and on Sunday we baked.

Saturday

On Saturday before the kids were dropped of we headed to Michael's to pick up a few items for the Handy Wardrobe Planner craft that I found on their website a couple days earlier.  Instead of purchasing everything on the materials list I decided to improvise.  I had paint at home so all I decided that all I needed was cardboard paper, foam paint brushes, stickers and clothespins.  After eating lunch at the Buttercup Grill, we cleaned off the table, laid down newspaper and the craft time began.  We were on a mission to create a wardrobe planner for each weekday. 

I cut each cardboard paper in half (perfect, 5 pieces of paper divided by 2 and I got 10 sheets...enough for the weekdays) and gave each child one of each color.  We painted their hands whichever colors they wanted and pressed them onto the paper.

Serena looking at her yellow paper while I paint Diego's hand yellow

Showing us their painted hands

 After the kids finished pressing their painted hands to each sheet of paper, we laid them out to dry for a bit. 

Waiting for the paint to dry

I then cut each hand out and used my scrapbooking circle cutter to cut perfect sized holes so they could hang the hands easily onto their wardrobe hangers (the Michael's website says to use velcro to secure the hands to the hangers but after some thinking and a good idea from Faustino, I decided this was easier and made more sense).


The kids choosing their stickers for the days of the week

The kids then decided which hand would be for each day of the week and then they deliberated on which alphabet sticker they would use to spell out each day.  Just for fun (and because I had bought these cool little clothespins) they chose a different color mini clothespin to attach to each hand.  Then of course I wrote their names and dates on the back of each hand just for future reference.  And voila, the final product. 

Final Product

Diego's hands

Serena's hands

I'm so proud of the kids.  We had a great time on this project and we were really able to spend some quality time together.

Sunday

On Sunday we made lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting.  Unfortunately, I do not have the pictures of the final product, however I do have an adorable photo of my kids in the aprons that I have.  Serena is wearing the apron my grandmother made me when I was about her age or a couple years older (still have it and will still wear it though its a little too small... yellow has always been my favorite color and my grandmother made it especially for me with my name stitched on it and I absolutely treasure it) and Diego is wearing an apron that I had in a mini bake ware set I bought to use with the kids.


Serena & Diego

Unfortunately baking was not as successful a project as the Handy Wardrobe Planner was on Saturday because it didn't take up as much time and there is more waiting time while the cupcakes actually baked.  Their minds started wandering after the initial mixing and filling of the pans thus I finished the rest of the project.  But all in all, I'd still say it was a success because the kids enjoyed the cupcakes and stayed away from the tv. ;)

And because I have the day off today (thank you Presidents' Day) I was able to write, reflect and enjoy the photos of the weekend.