KaLeiDoSCopE

Ok, so I am having some technical difficulties today. Can't quite figure out why everything is being underlined. Pictures are not wanting to upload and I am going through caffeine withdrawl. All good things to have happen on a Monday! Well, even with these problems, I hope you enjoy our pics from our trip to Kaleidoscope. We had a lot of fun.

Nephew 2...(now the underlining comes off, better late than never) coloring with melted crayons in the blacklight room. They get to make eyeglasses.

Too bad my camera didn't cooperate and let you get the full effect of the blacklight.
Nephew 1 making a puzzle of Spongebob. Great artist don't you think?
Little man trying his hand a designing a puzzle.
Sissy says that we went to France in her puzzle.

Making some stationery.




Just a really cool painting on the wall in Kaleidoscope. It is a really fun place to go and it is FREE!

3 Tabors: Mickey Mouse sings the Dukes

I just had to repost this. It is still one of my favorite moments. If you haven't seen the kids singing their version of the Dukes of Hazzard theme song, it's pretty cute.

3 Tabors: Mickey Mouse sings the Dukes

Kids Are Funny

Ok, so I haven't dusted the the tv in the bedroom for quite a while..."someone" with an A in their name just pointed it out. Hmmmm wonder who that could be? He told me, "Mom, look there's an A on the tv." He tried to tell me it could have been someone who's name ends in A that wrote it. Or get this...he said it could have been the Lorax.

I was going to add some new pictures today but unfortunately I can't find my camera. Why is it that when one tries to get organized and catch up on projects, it usually turns out that you end up with a bigger mess? I like the fact that I have had some long over due quiet time with school being back in session. It's actually been about 6 years since I have had more than one day at a time to run errands at leisure. I went on a Mom's retreat about 4 years ago with some really great friends and was only responsible for getting myself ready for 2 whole days. Don't get me wrong, I love my family but, a mom does need to have some time to unwind, too. I have been busy filling out applications for jobs so that I can contribute in some monetary way to the household. We will have to see how that all pans out but, for right now, I think that I will go and do a little more creating in the craft room until the kiddos get home from school. Now, where did I put that camera.

Mural for Little Man

Little Man wanted something to do with Tony Hawk. I found some neat skyline pictures with skater silhouettes when I searched online for ideas. Here is what we came up with...
He liked one of the skaters and a different skyline...so I asked him about having the Kansas City skyline...he liked that idea!

Shutterstock images...


So sketched it out as best I could and projected it onto the wall.

More Murals

So, these pics are a little behind the times but, I have them for you to see. About the only creative, crafty adventure the kids and I seemed to do this summer break was to paint a couple of murals in their rooms. Sissy wanted to have an American Girl Doll room. Well, the first thing I thought was that could be expensive. When running the idea by my sister and sister-in-law, the idea of trying to make the box somewhere in her room seemed to be something we could play around with. Thought about painting her door as the box...may still do that, not sure that Dad would like that idea though. Then the other idea was to make her bed look like the box and Sissy would be the doll. Well, Sissy and I went surfing the web because I didn't save the box her doll came in. OOPS! We actually found one on ebay to look at. Wow, did we luck out because her wall are already lilac like the box so we needed to find some red paint in our stash to make the banner.

We had a lot of fun painting on the wall!
We cut out posters from the catalogue and glued them to posterboard.

We are recycling...pictures from the catalogues glued onto pizza boxes = mini books.
Can you see some of the posters we made? On top of the green shelf is her pink locker that she decorated inside for her American Girl doll. It has pictures of her friends from the catalogues and the "mini books" on the shelf inside.



We added the doodles that are on the sides of the American Girl Doll box. She just loves her room!

Getting Creative Again

So the kids are back to school now and I have been surfing the web, updating pictures on Etsy, trying to "clean-up" the computer, completing mending jobs, trying to dig out my desk from all of the piles of endless towers of paper...so I can create again. So far there is enough space for my sketch book and the book I am reading, "Drawing With Children", by Mona Brookes. It is a wonderful book. I bought it quite a while ago so that I could brush up on my drawing skills and be more confident in drawing my own originals. I find that I feel more confident right now when I have something to look at to try to replicate. I want to be able to be confident in my own skills and talent. So I am reading and doodling. In the process, a thought came to mind that I should take the kids to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum and over to Kaleidoscope. When I went to look up their hours I ran across a few neat websites having to do with kaleidoscopes... Kaleidescope Painter, Zefrank, and PBS parents.