Dot-to-dot Sharpie t-shirts

Fun and easy to do, it's a t-shirt (which means it's functional!), and I won't be embarrassed by them wearing them out in public.  It's fun making crafts that are cute and all, but after awhile it gets frustrating having all of their works of art and wondering, now what?  So a craft that isn't junk is the best kind of craft.  This definitely requires your help as it does require a permanent marker and rubbing alcohol.

You will need:
Plain white shirt, we used t-shirts
Permanent markers (Sharpies or other brand) in many different colors
Rubbing alcohol
Liquid dropper
Cup, empty jar, empty can
Piece of cardboard, I used the cardboard from the back of the Sharpie container
Rubberband (optional)

To create your masterpiece:
1.  Place the cardboard in between the top and bottom of the shirt, this will keep the colors from bleeding through.
2.  Place the cup under the shirt, on top of the cardboard.  This will allow for the rubbing alcohol to spread properly and not soak up into the cardboard.
3.  Make dots, lines, or squiggles in a small area on the t-shirt.
4.  With the dropper, drop rubbing alcohol onto the design, drop by drop.  Be careful not to oversaturate.  The rubbing alcohol will spread and dilute the marker as it moves.
5.  Stop adding when you get the dot size that you want.

Sometimes you just need to be happy with sitting still.

How sad, this was the best picture I got out of 10!  He's such a wiggle worm.  His are more oblong because I didn't have it stretched evenly over the cup.  It's still cute and gives it a unique look.

Monkey calls it his pretty shirt, I'd have to agree!

Wait for it to completely dry before you wear it.  Every shirt will be different and fun.  If you choose a thin shirt, the colors will be darker, thicker shirts will require more marker or moving the marker slower.  These were the thin Fruit of a Loom shirts that you get in a package.  I think I prefer the thinner shirt, it's cooler for summer and it's brighter.

Vicky

Enjoy our Vacation! Monday

Monday:

Conference day.  We get up, take Daddy to his conference, and head back for breakfast ourselves.  We managed to get him there on time and not be too rushed either.  I managed to get all 3 of them fed and eat my own breakfast while it was still hot - bonus!

I  took the kids to do gem mining today.  Hubby said that yes it sounded like it would be fun to take the kids there but he definitely didn't need to do it.  It was a perfect idea too.

If you've never taken your kids gem mining, you should!  It wasn't super expensive, the place where we went had a coupon at the hotel.  The 2 older kids each got their own little bucket (probably a 3 gal. bucket) and it cost me $16.  I was figuring they'd get kind of small junky gems or maybe none at all.  Nope.  These were the size of Sunshine's palm and were every color of the rainbow.  They had so much fun.  It was well worth the 45 minute drive (and listening to that CD... again).

Shaking/sifting the sand out of her box.

A couple of her gems.

Bug, not exactly enjoying the mining process, he did however claim a few pieces of gravel as his own.

One of Bug's.

After eating a huge sno-cone.  Everyone is happier when they've had flavored ice!

We got back to the hotel, relaxed a bit and were able to pick up Hubby on time.  After being in the sun and the humidity all day, the kids konked out about 8:00 (7:00 our time) and had to be woken up in the morning.


Vicky

Enjoy our Vacation! Sunday

Sunday:
We decided to make the most out of Sunday since Hubby was going to be in the conference for the next 3 days.
First stop: Linville Caverns
I had done a bunch of research trying to find things that looked kid friendly that we could do as a family as well as things that the kids and I could do without Hubby.  Linville Caverns looked like a nice starting spot for our vacation.  It is the only, or one of the only, public caves, or maybe one of the few caves that have a certain type of formation, in North Carolina, either way, it sounded like they were limited in the state.  I love caves, I think they are absolutely beautiful and the process in which they were and are continuing to form still amazes me.  The kids seemed pumped to go visit a cave and I thought it would be nice to have all 5 of us there.

It was a good hour to get there down a bunch of country roads.  We went through a few small towns and saw about a bazillion churches.  I pointed out that I didn't see much of any livestock, including horses and wondered if it had to do with the hilly ground.  Even in the valley area though, there weren't that many.  It's funny, as we were driving I saw all these homes and yards and I found myself saying "Oh, that's pretty." to the houses that had a yard that was fairly clear of trees and had wide open spaces.  I wasn't expecting to have that kind of reaction and was surprised when I noticed it.

We get there and as soon as we get out of the car Sunshine says two things: 1. Are there poisonous snakes in the woods? and 2. I don't want to go in the cave, what if there are bats?  Now I find the second statement quite humorous, she is the one that always wants to go to the bat house at the zoo.  The bats at the zoo are in an free flight enclosure meaning if they wanted to, they could land on your head.  So I tell her this and she obviously doesn't care because she breaks down in tears.  I decide that this is going to toughen her up and we go and purchase tickets for the family, including Sunshine.  Apparently you can drag a child into a cave, but that doesn't mean she will stop crying or stop asking to leave.  She didn't until about halfway through and even then she wasn't happy about being in there.  Monkey on the other hand was scared at first and then decided that it was fun and he asked the tour guide about a million questions.

This is before we go into the cave.  You can tell because Sunshine is still smiling.

For some reason the tour guide didn't mention the obvious elephant/mammoth looking thing on the wall.  I don't know how you could miss it, it was about 2 feet by 2 feet and right behind you when the tour guide was telling you about some other abstract formation.

Stumps were fun.  All stumps needed to be climbed on.

Sunshine is going through the making goofy faces at the camera stage.  She can be such a ham sometimes.  I like how she's using Bug for balance.

She's taught Monkey to pose as well.  Taken at the bottom of Linville Falls.

Second stop: Linville Falls
A sign at the caverns said to visit the Falls and so we did!  A short drive there and we were there.  It was just in time for lunch so we had our picnic.  Our second PB&J picnic, the first being at a rest stop on the way to NC.  Then Monkey decides he has to go to the bathroom.  But where?  We were told there was a restroom 2 minutes up the road and there was.  A pit toilet.  This is the child that doesn't want to go to the bathroom half the time so sitting on a pit toilet is not pleasant.  Long story short, I realize after the second trip that I hadn't packed a pair of underwear and my 4 1/2 year old was going to have to wear f his brother's diaper.

A nice 1/2 mile walk down to the falls, they were small but it was still fun, Bug was hanging out on Hubby's back, enjoying the view.  The walk was short enough that the kids were able to do it without any problems but long enough to feel like a real hike.  There was also a ton of different fauna and foliage to look at.  They both enjoy looking at them and were willing to stop and look.  Sunshine was told one too many times about poison ivy so we had absolutely no worries about her walking off the very large trail.

Some funky mushroom.  It's so pretty, it makes you want to bend down and eat it...

Climbing on the rocks.  A little slippery, very uneven, makes for a fun climb.

We look around and decide to head back.  Then we get to the fork in the road, do we d
ecide to go to the other lookout or head back?  Monkey decides that this time he really has to go so we decide to leave.  Someone told us when we got to the next fork that there were flush toilets at the visitor's center.  Visitor's center?  Apparently there was another parking area, a non-gravel, visitor center entrance.  Complete with flush toilets.  So which way do we go?  Back to the car and drive over there or straight there?  It was about .6 miles to the visitor's center and .4 miles to our car.  We decide to go to the visitor center.  He doesn't go there either by the way.  While at the center it starts to rain and we're forced to choose to stay or leave, we decide to leave since it was just a light drizzle... that turned into a downpour.  Halfway up the path to our car, it stopped, just in time for us to be wet and the trail to have puddles and little rivers running across it.

The rain was starting to come down, I figured I could carry Monkey for a while.  It didn't last long.

All in all, a great day.  We ate dinner and Hubby drove over to the conference for a "get to know you" thing.  When he came back, the older two were asleep, only Bug needed help getting to bed.  Daddy is definitely better at getting him to fall asleep.  It took me 1 hour to get him to not fall asleep but 15 minutes for Hubby to get him sleeping soundly in his pack and play.



Vicky

School days

So it's a little out of order, but I realized I never posted about Sunshine's first day of school. 

I decided to set the alarm clock that has always been in her room.  It was a wonderful idea.  She's been waking up on her own and doesn't complain to me that she wants to stay in bed. I haven't told her about the snooze button yet, I'm sure she'll figure that out soon enough.  The first day of school she woke up before her alarm clock went off though.  I felt bad, she couldn't fall asleep and she woke up once during the middle of the night.

I had a bad mommy moment in the morning as well.  I had received an email saying that the school day was all day.  I received a phone call from the mass phone call the school does about it being a full day but it just didn't register that it wouldn't be a half day.  In the morning I started questioning what I had read and heard and decided to check my email.  I still thought that maybe I was misreading it so I decided the best thing to do was to bother the school secretary during the chaos of the first day and ask her to clarify what I had already read and been told.  It was indeed a full day of school.

Since I hadn't realized it was a full day, I hadn't made her a lunch.  I was happy, and a little proud, of myself for being prepared and on top of things by already doing my grocery shopping.  I was able to not just make her a lunch, but make her a healthy and yummy lunch.  My neighbor had told me that first graders get a snack, again, I may have heard or read it somewhere but hearing it again a couple days before was a nice reminder, so she even had a nice healthy snack.

She had her bath the night before so she was all clean (whoo-hoo), she wanted her hair down, not always a good idea because of recess, but it stayed down and looked beautiful.  She was a bit surprised about the full day but handled it well.

For some reason, she didn't want to take the bus, I'm not sure why.  She took the bus to and from school last year and would be at the bus stop with the same kids she was with last year.  I told her that I would drive her that morning but that was it.  The idea of driving her the first day of school with every other parent sounded like absolute chaos, but I love her and wanted her to start the year off happy.  Well, we were getting into the car and she saw all of her friends down at the bus stop.  She gets out of her seat, jumps out of the car, and yells, "Come one Mommy!  We're going to be late, we can't miss the bus!"

Off to the bus stop we went and she's not talked about being driven to or from school since.

 Sunshine and Monkey in front of the ornamental pear we planted this summer.  I look forward to see how quickly they all grow over the year.  Unfortunately, Bug wasn't holding still for any kind of pictures.

The look of a very excited 6 year old starting her first day of first grade.

Vicky

Enjoy our vacation! Saturday

We weren't going to go on vacation this year.  All year we've been telling Sunshine that we weren't going on vacation so stop asking.  In May Hubby got wind of a conference seminar that was going on in Asheville, NC and we decided to make a week out of it.  So much for not going on vacation.

Lucky for us, Asheville, altough a very nice place to visit, is not a hot spot and we were able to get a hotel room for a week without too much trouble.  We opted for a Days Inn, it was cheap and it was pretty much what you should expect when you don't pay a lot.  We were able to have an awesome hot breakfast buffet every morning which was fabulous.  I'd drop Hubby off every morning and drive back to our hotel and the kids and I would gorge ourselves.  The room was "eh", I didn't let them take their shoes off and I chose to wear my flip-flops in the shower.  The ceiling in the toilet/shower part was so low that I could touch it when on my toes, seeing that I'm 5'0" tall, this is a nightmare for anyone who is claustrophobic.  It was nice though, we were on the first floor and since it was a motel style hotel, we didn't have to worry about people running down the hall waking the kids up.  It also had a pool and did I mention the awesome hot breakfast?

Saturday:
We leave on Saturday with the idea that we'll eat and be in the car by 6:30 - 7:00.  Hubby and I are not known for being on time to places so for us to plan on leaving somewhere in such a small timeframe with all 3 kids and pack the car up is asking for somewhat of a miracle.

Well, apparently miracles do happen.  We got out of the house at 6:50.  Hubby hadn't filled up with gas though, so that added on about 5 minutes.  Then when he gets in the car again he announces that he forgot to put the backpack carrier in the car (it WAS on the list).  Back to the house.  We get the carrier and leave again.  This time for real.  It is now 7:20.

So much for leaving on time.

About 45 minutes from  home Bug decides he's done with being in the car and begins his very loud, very obnoxious screechy-screaming thing that he does.  It's supposed to be a 12 hour drive with 2-3 stops.  Making that noise so early in is not a good sign.  Around this time, the kids have asked when we were going to start playing the games and could they listen to their kid's songs.  Kid's songs are great for long drives.  If you know how long the CD is, you can tell them that you will stop or be somewhere when the CD is over.  We don't own or watch TV in the car and Sunshine gets carsick when she reads so CDs are a nice alternative.  So to quiet Bug, I make my hands into little hand mouth guys and have them lip sync to the music and try and chomp on the other hand.  It worked for quite a while until my back began to ache from twisting my arms around.

We figured out they're hungry and we start the give-them-food-to-shut-them-up process.  You know, here's some food, now be quiet.  It worked and I do think it was part of the problem.

We managed to get to our hotel in roughly 12 hours with no blow-out diapers, no puking, not getting lost, and all 3 children were still with  us (you never know!).

Our first glimpse of hills.  Pretty impressive when you come from flat lands.

 This is after they ate.  Notice they are fairly happy.

Ooh, I'd say those are considered the Smokeys.  Only 4 more hours!

Vicky

I can't believe she's getting married!

Sunshine has been going to school now for 3 days.  She loves it, she has asked, or should I say complained, about the fact that she has not gotten any of the promised homework.  She was a little bummed about not having a couple of her close friends in class but she seems to be getting over it, especially since she is able to play with many grades on the playground during recess.  This is a definite bonus.  The other thing that she has always liked is riding the bus.

For some reason she didn't want to ride the bus to school on the first day and had wanted me to drive her.  I'm not really sure why, she rode the bus all year last year and never had any issues but I think the idea of riding with the older kids made her nervous.  Again, not really sure why since she rode home with the bigger kids last year as well.  Regardless, as we were getting into the car, she saw her friends standing at the bus stop, she jumped out and yelled at me to hurry up so we didn't miss the bus.

Later that night I asked how the bus ride was and she said it was fine, she rode with Joshua.  In fact, she's been riding the bus every day with Joshua.  To school and home from school.  He even saves a seat for her.

This is how our conversations have been going about school lately:  Joshua wears a hat to school and he sees if I can get it on his head.  Sometimes I sit with Joshua and his friend, but Joshua always saves a seat for me.  Sometimes Joshua and I will show each other what we're having for lunch.  Sometimes we play during recess together.  Joshua and I will sometimes play tag or swing.

Me:  Is Joshua in the same class?

Sunshine:  No, he's in third grade. 

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what?  Third grade?

Sunshine:  And Joshua goes to the park by himself.  And Joshua says that he thinks that I love him and want to marry him.

She has also taken to blushing a lot when she talks about him and giggling.  Yes, my 6 year old blushes and giggles about boys.

So this was the conversation we had, or rather how often she talks about him, I just sit and listen, and I found myself in the car thinking about this Joshua.  Before I knew it, I had visions of her getting married.  Me taking her to go wedding dress shopping, giving a speech and finally welcoming Joshua to the family after how many years of them being friends.  I couldn't believe it, she has her first crush and is only in first grade and I already have her married.  What's worse, I was getting all teary eyed.

Maybe parents act like this so that the emotions around a child getting married are slightly lessened, either way, it's going to be a long road ahead of us.

Vicky

Finder's Keepers

Sunshine keeps begging me for a horse or a pony.  I keep telling her no, where would we keep it (in the backyard), what would we feed it then (grass and apples), where would we ride it (in the backyard and in the woods behind our house), where would it go in the winter, (in our house).  All good or interesting ideas but nevertheless, we aren't getting a horse anytime soon.  As much as I would love to purchase one (for myself that is) we're not in the horse buying market right now.

So while we were on vacation we were watching Call of the Wildman. I had never seen it before, it was interesting to say the least.  In the one episode, the guy gets a "wild" pony off of some farmer's land.  Really it was someone's pony that had either gotten loose or had been let loose but whatever, Sunshine heard 'wild' and that was enough to start the next conversation.

Sunshine:  Mommy, can I get a horse?
Me: No. (I'm really not mean, I've just had this question asked many times.)
Sunshine:  I really, really want a horse though.
Me:  We're not going to be getting a horse. 
Sunshine:  What about a pony?
Me:  No, please stop asking.  (I'd like to add that we were in the car and I had no way to escape.)
Sunshine:  Well what if I find a wild horse or pony, can I keep it then?
Me:  Sunshine, if you find a wild horse or pony, you may keep it.
Sunshine:  Really?!  So if there's a pony loose and maybe in our backyard or maybe it's lost, I can keep it then?
Me:  Yes.
Sunshine:  I'm going to start looking for them.  I wonder where I'll find it?  If it has an owner though, I'll have to return it because then the owner might be sad and say, 'Oh no, I can't find my pony!'.  But if it doesn't have a home, I'll keep it and take care of it and if it's hurt, I'll bring it to the vet and feed it and water it every day.
Me:  Ok.
There's a slight pause and I assume (foolishly assume) that the conversation has ended.
Sunshine: Mommy?
Me: Yes?
Sunshine:  When I find my horse, what should I call it?  (She continues without waiting for me to answer...) I think I'll name my horse if it's brown, I'll name her Brownie, because it will be brown and if it's silver I'll name her Silver because she'll be all shiny like silver and if it's black I'm going to name her Elaine.  Her middle name will be Grace.
Me:  Elaine Grace?
Sunshine:  Yes, either that or Rose.  Do you like those names?
Me:  I think they're perfect sweetheart.

Vicky