Indoor & Outdoor Fun!

Towards the end of June the boys decided to get out some of the water balloons we had and have themselves a water balloon fight. They did everything themselves. They didn't ask me for a thing. It was so nice to see them taking ownership and having fun together. 

They each had their own container filled with their water balloons. 

I think there might have been some thievery going on at one point. 

 

It was so fun hearing excited screams and shouts! 

What did we do without Bunch O Balloons. They make water balloon fights so easy now! 

The boys were even good about going around and picking up all the balloon bits out of the yard when they were finished. 

I love these kids! 

While there was fun happening outside there was also fun happening inside. Earlier in the day Zeke had done some ice dying with tie dye powder. It was one of his KiwiCo crates. After his stuff was dyed we washed and dried it. 

He was able to make 2 pairs of socks and 1 hat. 

I love that he's wearing a pair of socks on his hands! 

Even though each sock was sitting right next to it's mate they both turned out so different! 

His hat turned out really cool. I don't know if he'll actually ever wear these, but it was fun getting to make them! 

Ella was also working on her KiwiCo crate. She was learning all about plaster. She was able to make 3 plater planters using molds. This project took her a few days from start to finish because of the setting and drying times. She also was learning about paint dipping where you thin the paint with water and are able to dip whatever you want to paint into it. 

Here's her first planter. The kit came with the stickers that look like plants. She painted this one specifically with this leaf in mind. She decided to dip the planters at an angle. 

The yellow one was a surprise....we both weren't sure if we'd like it, but it turned out really nice! 

This one is super cool too. It's hard to tell because of the lighting, but she just wanted to dip the very bottom with this purple color. 

Here she is with her creations. Honestly KiwiCo is amazing!!! 

 

Macramé & Closet "Doors"!

Back in March, Ella's KiwiCo crate for the month was all about learning to make macramé, but another aspect of it was learning to make clay pots as well. 

Her crates are super fun because they are a little more intense so instead of having an instructional booklet she has to watch videos to learn how to do her projects. Usually her and I sit down together, watch the video and I'll help her along the way if she needs it. We always like to lay out all the material just like they show in the video. 

Here she is working her clay to soften it in order to mold it around the container that will become the pot. After this step she had to let each container dry and then she was able to paint them the color of her choice. 

 

After that step we moved onto learning about macramé. For her first time she just made a small keychain. 

 

We had everything set up on the desk in the office. We had to keep track of how many knots we made and which type of knot to use. In all she learned how to make a lark’s head knot, a square knot, a half knot, and a wrap knot.

Here were her cute little pots after she painted them. 

They give you a hook that suction cups to the decks....we still had to tape it which they said was normal. Then she moved the cotton cord around making the knots. The paper is where we kept a tally mark of how many knots we'd made so we didn't lose track. 

Here's her pot all nestled into its macramé hanger! 

 

After she finished both hangers, we went to the Dollar Tree & Hobby Lobby in search of fake succulents to put in her planters. We found the florist Styrofoam at the Dollar Tree and a couple of smaller succulents, but she really wanted some succulents that would drape down out of the pot so we found those at Hobby Lobby! 

Look at how cute that is. The best part is she doesn't have to remember to water them! 

Here was her other hanger and pot....see how the knots are different? 

She made this one for Logan and gave it to her a couple months later when she came to stay with us. 

We technically finished Ella's room remodel months ago, but there was still one tiny detail that we needed to take care of. She had white bi-fold closet doors and she wanted them to be stained. They were not stain grade doors and it was definitely going to be hard to make them look like they were stained doors. Plus those silly bi-fold doors are always coming off the track. I told Ella that we could just go to the fabric store and I'd buy her material and I'd sew her curtains for her closet. She did not like that idea at all! 

Awhile later I mentioned it again and she said that she would only be okay with that if we could find shower curtains that actually looked like doors. So I sat on her bed with her and we brought up shower curtains that look like doors on Amazon. Lo and behold that is a thing! 

Ta Da!!! 

Barn door shower curtain closet doors! Who knew! 

The only thing is they are still shower curtains so they only open on the sides....enter my sewing skills! 

One afternoon I cut the shower curtain right down the middle, folded over the seams and stitched them up. 

It's crazy hot good they look. The shower curtain was not super cheap...it was $26, but the curtain rod I got at Walmart for $9 so that was nice. Seriously they look amazing though! 

Now she can access her clothes from right in the middle and she's one happy camper! 

KiwiCo Crates!

When I took the Kuch Kids home in December, Christina was telling me about the KiwiCo crates that Caleb had done. I thought they looked amazing so I decided to check them out. Since it was Christmas time they had a great sale going on. I talked with Michael and we decided it would be fun to get the kids a 1 year membership. Their first crates came before Christmas, but I held them back until January after all the craziness of Christmas wore off. 

I will say the first crate was kind of a disaster! The older boys had really poor attitudes and I was thinking I'd made a mistake. But I set them down and talked about how these are supposed to be fun. It's not a race to get them done either. If it takes a few hours, days or weeks who cares. The whole point is to have fun, learn new skills and make something that's useable. Thankfully that little pep talk helped a bit. 

I got Owen and Jack both the Eureka Crate which is the highest level crate. Their first project was to make a safe with a key. I love that each booklet has some very interesting learning materials...in this case they were learning about locks and keys and how they have evolved over time. Very cool stuff! 

I got Ella the Maker Crate. Her first project was a punch needle pillow. Her crates don't usually come with a complete booklet because they are more detailed so she gets her instructions from the website in the form of a few step by step videos and she loves it! 

Hard at work! 

Zeke's gets the Doodle Crate. He's such a creative boy I thought that one would fit him well. His first project was to make a leather pouch to hold a sketch book they gave him. His crates are definitely less intensive so there's more instant gratification which for his age is really nice. He has checked out the other crates they have and he's asked me that if we do this next year he'd like to move up to the Tinker crate!  

Ella watching her video! 

Zeke had to sew the leather together and then he got to decorate the pouch with different colored eyelets. It's hard to tell, but he made it have a Z on it! 

The older boys with their finished safes. Once they got it through their heads that it was okay to mess up, redo it and troubleshoot they did great. The other thing they were learning about was gears. The round portion is actually the opening of the safe. You stick the key in the smaller gear on the right and then turn and it opens the bigger gear. It's really an amazing design. Plus I love that it's actually usable. Yes, the keys will work for both, but the boys know not to go into each other safes. 

Ella's punch needle pillow was a lot of work. She LOVED it though. She worked on it everyday! The first thing she had to do after building the frame that would hold the pillow cover was pick a design. Then transfer that design to the cover using this special marker that fades overtime. Then it was like coloring the in the lines with yard. 

We did have to take out a little bit of her work since we didn't pay attention to how much room we needed on the ends in order to be able to sew it together, but that was an easy as just tugging the yarn out. She was so proud and it's such a cute pillow! 

The second KiwiCo crate Zeke got to make homemade soap and a cute little soap dish. He loved this one and did it almost completely by himself! Again such a fun and useful thing to make! 

The quality of the material they send for the kids to use has been top notch and so many of the items they send can be used over and over again. For example Zeke got a plastic molds for the homemade soap...that can be used to make more later. Ella has a really nice punch needle and a fabric marker. Even the boys have gotten cute little tools that they've used to put things together like small screwdrivers or wrenches. 

Ella's second project was this magazine / book holder. She got to put it together, but the main thing she was learning about was stenciling. This was so much fun! She even wanted to make the leaves have an hombre look so they go from lighter green to darker green. My only problem with this one was they should have included horizontal supports in the middle on the two sides. It's only held together by the wood pieces sliding into each other and glue and it's not a tight fit! Michael is going to have to add the supports so it won't keep collapsing on itself when she puts a heavy book in it. Still stenciling is such a fun useful skill to have. In fact she spent her own money and bought 5 canvas tote bags in order to use her skills for something else. 

With her stencil kit she got an Exact-O knife, a cutting mat, a stencil brush, paints and a paint tray all of which can be used time and time again on other projects! 

Back in December we went and saw the Kuch kids perform with their Homeschool Choir. I enjoyed it so much and Christina had nothing but wonderful things to say about it so I decided to sign up Jack & Ella. Ella has two choir books she needs to bring so she decided to make herself a specific choir bag and use the stenciling skills she learned make it special. 

I had the alphabet stencils for her name, but she had to draw and cut out the music notes on the stencil sheet. It turned out so cute! 

For Jack's second project he got to make a flashlight / lantern. Jackson really LOVES KiwiCo. He loves it so much he tends to jump in and usually ends up jumping ahead and having to take something apart and redo it. Thankful the projects so far haven't contained anything that we couldn't undo and make right. They also are great about included extras of things so even if you mess up a couple of times you'll still have enough. 

Here's his finish lantern! 

Hit the red button to turn it on and then pull up and the voila a lantern! 

Or he can unclasp the handle and reattach it on the other side and use it as a flashlight. Seriously amazing designs! He can't wait to take this camp with us this summer! 

This time Owen and Jack had different projects, but I like that they both got to make some sort of light source. Since Jack already has a light for his bed that meant that Owen got to make this articulating desk lamp. I didn't even have to help him at all. It's so crazy how this pulley system works to he can move it up and out. with the handles at the base of the lamp. So fun! 

Like I said I've been super impressed with KiwiCo. They are a bit pricey, but you get useful, great quality projects that your kids will love! If you do sign up for a longer plan such as a year you will pay less. I also have a code that will save your $10 on your first purchase if you'd like to check it out. 

https://www.kiwico.com/Refer?i=LyndsayM33