RJ & Logan Get a New Art Area

I am constantly trying to maximize the usability of the kids' environments, whether it is rearranging furniture and toys in the living room, moving toys back and forth between the living room and family room, or simply reorganizing where the toys go.  After Christmas and Logan's Birthday (i.e., after RJ & Logan got a few new toys), we got a toy shelf for RJ's room, moved some of his more advanced toys up there (although I had some reservations since I originally wanted to keep the kids' rooms relatively toy free so that the temptation to play instead of sleep wouldn't be there), and resorted the toys downstairs. I also added picture/word labels to the bins and boxes so that it was clear what went where.  So far, this reorganization worked pretty well, but my biggest issue wasn't solved because my biggest issue was the case of the exploding art supplies.

Lance thought that I needed to just put all the art supplies somewhere else, like in a closet or the laundry room or something, but I argued that I wanted them accessible so that we could do art at a moment's notice, when inspiration hit.  We settled on an annex for some of the art supplies and recycling materials that I was saving "just in case".  So, now there is an exploding shelving unit in the laundry room, which still isn't ideal, but did help with the living room clutter.  There was also the issue that our common art supplies (markers, crayons, scissors, etc.) were in assorted containers on top of my sewing cabinet and they needed to be moved every time I wanted to sew, and of course this would mean that the art supplies were displaced for a week or so when I was working on a sewing project.

Then it dawned on me that since we started eating in the dining room rather than the kitchen, we weren't using the kitchen table for anything (except a catchall for random crap).  And the kids' easel was attached to our learning tower (which lived in the kitchen), and there was the sliding glass door for another painting/window crayon area.  Another bonus was that I just moved the kid's play kitchen set into the kitchen behind the island (where the kitchen table is), so if Logan got bored with a project, he could play there until RJ was finished.

So after finding some inspiration from various preschool settings and the Play At Home Mom website, I bought some inexpensive planters and a paper sorter from Target and attached them to the wall next to the kitchen bookshelf and cart, cleared a spot for the art basket in the bookshelf, and pooled all the crayons and sorted by color in baby food jars, which I put in a shoebox for easy moving.  I also moved the coca-cola cooler that housed art supplies into the area.

 So, now the kids have easy access to their markers, crayons, and paper, AND the paintbrushes and paint are now near the easel.

So far, they love being able to grab their own paper and draw whenever they want.

However, the one drawback is that paint is more accessible, which leads to more mess...but it IS a ton of fun.

For a quick rundown of what we have available:
Left planter - paintbrushes of all shapes and sizes
Right planter - markers
Paper holder - paper of various colors, stencils
Animal Crackers container on floor - washable paint (there is another animal crackers container in the laundry room with acrylic paints)
Basket on Shelf - tape dispenser, scissors, dinosaur stamp set, box of window crayons and markers, pencils, glue bottles, colored sand in baby food jars, roll of easel paper
Coke Cooler in front of kitchen cart - various supplies such as feathers, yarn pieces, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, magnet strips, newspaper
Easel - paint pots, container of chalk
Table - shoe box of crayons sorted by color in baby food jars, some separate type crayons
Shelves in laundry room - boxes, baby food jars, yogurt cups (great for holding glue or paint), acrylic paints, paper plates, art flour, art salt, art cornstarch, sand, bulk glue for refills, etc.

Halloween 2011: The Year of the Dinosaur

We started our Halloween festivities over the weekend by going to Dell Osso Farms.  While we had always gone through the corn maze in past years, this year we skipped it because the kids really just wanted to do the (lame) kids area with the pumpkin bounce house.  It WAS cheaper than the corn maze, so they won and were happy.  Plus, they had already done a corn maze at Zach's birthday party.  They also picked out their pumpkins when we were there and we checked out how tall they were!

Sunday Evening (Beggars Night for our Cheektowaga, NY Readers), we carved the pumpkins.  RJ drew a T-Rex and we helped him cut it out (if you can see what looks like a dashed line, that's where RJ cut it), and Lance made Logan's a silly pumpkin, just like him.

Then for Halloween Day, we were all set to go to DreamWorks for their annual Halloween Party, but we got a call just before leaving from Lance, who explained that when he got to work, the power was out, people were scurrying away from the building, one guy was huddled under his desk, and the only ones roaming the halls were the zombies.  So due to their power outage zombie infestation, the party was off : (.  The silver lining is that Logan was well rested for Trick or Treating because he got his normal nap.

But you really want to know what we all were for Halloween (well, except for Lance who has been the same boring thing for the last 5 years - Silent Bob)...

I finally made the kids Halloween costumes!!  I've always wanted to do this, but never really had the time when I was working and even last year, Logan was still a baby and I just didn't pull it off.  But while sewing means that Logan throws my knitting needles and thread spools all over the floor (the sewing cabinet needs to be open when I'm sewing so I can get at the pedal - otherwise he wouldn't have access to these things), it is becoming something I can do to a certain degree even when the kids are awake now.

RJ wanted to be a (duh!) T-Rex that looked like his toy T-rex "Stripey" and since Logan had not expressed his opinion about his Halloween Costume, RJ decided that Logan should be Buddy T-Rex (from Dinosaur Train).  I took them both to JoAnn to pick out the fabric, and RJ picked out all the colors.  I found a free pattern online to make Buddy (thank you pbs.org!).  The pattern was a hassle to lay out because I had to put the pieces together from 8.5 x 11 printer paper, but they're also sturdier than most patterns and it's a basic costume body that I could probably modify to be other things if/when the time comes, so...not too bad for a free pattern.

I figured that it was time for me to go full out Gleek this year and channel my inner Rachel Berry...although most people missed all my subtle details and just thought I was a Catholic School Girl.  Tell me though - wouldn't the brown wig be a clue that I was trying to be something other than JUST a Catholic School Girl?  I could be that with my own hair!  And Catholic School Girls don't typically wear sweaters with things like hearts on them (I would've knitted an animal but that was just too damned hard to pull off with my very slooooow knitting skills - the heart was actually a huge accomplishment!)  Anyway...I guess there aren't that many Gleeks in my neighborhood - even though RJ recognized who I was right away.

We did the usual trick or treating thing.  I took both kids up and down our street, then dropped off Logan with Lance so he could help hand out candy (he was slowing RJ down), and then went back out with RJ.

RJ and I stopped at a few houses in our neighborhood before heading over to meet his friend Zach in his much busier neighborhood.  You can tell that both RJ and Zach were wiped by the end of the night.  This is them "being extinct" (RJ) and "recharging" (Zach).

More Halloween pictures.

DeLancey's Disney Dress-Up

RJ's friend Maddie celebrated her 4th Birthday with an adorable Princess Birthday Party, which invited its guests to come as their favorite characters.  While I could've gone the easy route and let the boys wear one of their animal costumes (we seem to have been animals for Halloween nearly every year - Dronkey (okay fine, it's not a REAL animal), Po the Panda, RJ the Racoon and Private the Penguin, and Simba the Lion/Lion Keeper), but I was looking to expand their dress up options and I happen to enjoy sewing.  So...some reconnaissance at Hannah's Birthday Party revealed that Maddie's favorite princess was Aurora (Hannah is Maddie's little sister and yes, reconnaissance is a stretch - I just asked Maddie and she readily informed me.)  After a google images search and our Sleeping Beauty DVD cover helped me discover who Princess Aurora's prince was and that his costume (which had to be the one he was wearing when she was in the preschool-girl-favorite pink dress) wouldn't be too tricky, RJ agreed to be Prince Phillip.

Logan was a no-brainer.  He was going as MY favorite Disney prince, Aladdin.  There was no way I could resist putting his little belly in that belly-baring little vest.

You have NO idea how difficult it is to find patterns for these particular costumes.  There are multiple authentic and non-authentic versions of the princesses, but princes?  None.  So, I bought this pattern for a knight and when making the tunic, added my own pattern for the striped poof sleeves and the collar.  I made the cape pattern myself (that wasn't hard - it's a trapezoid that's almost a rectangle with straps).  The pants are just basic pants but since I didn't have a real pants pattern in his size I actually just modified the pattern that I used for Logan's pants to not be poofy.  Add the Velvet belt with the fake pillow buckle and voila!  RJ is Prince Phillip.

Add the crown and sword that were favors from the party and he was even more "authentic".  He even tried to slay batman (before he had a sword) for Princess Aurora.







Logan's costume was easier.  I made the vest pattern myself and bought a girl's genie costume pattern for the pants and made the waistband straight rather than V-shaped.

The only problem was that this kept happening:
Silly baby kept taking his vest off!

Too bad Princess Jasmine was not in attendance at the party.


We had a great time at the party and the costumes keep making return appearances in the kid's play, so it was definitely worth the work!

Here, a month after the party is RJ reprising his role as Prince Phillip with his buddy Ashlan playing the part of Princess Aurora.

See more pictures from the party here.