craftin' lately

I am a great homeschooling mom for young kids. I love me some paint, crayons and anything crafty. If it makes a big mess, I am on board. I know my husband worries about my older boys because they aren't getting a lot of "strict" schooling because we craft-it-up most of the day. But they can read and write and know how to multiply, so why can't we play? That's what I say to the principal when he gets home from work, anyway.

I don't usually take pictures of our messes because, well, they're messy. But when we painted the big box, I decided to document it. It's going to get thrown away soon, so I thought it would be best to take pictures to remember it.

First we spray painted a black base color. The little boys had to stay on the trampoline. Zack's job was to keep Simon away from the wet paint. Simon's job was to distract Zack... because he would major in graffiti if he got his grubby hands on a bottle of spray paint. The plan worked wonderfully. It took about 10 minutes to spray and several hours to dry...
Next we brought out the colors. Luke painted the door, Ben did the trimming and Zack was busy putting in the garden.
He grew grass and sunflowers.. they are my favorite part of the project! I wish he could paint some in my front yard!
After the flowers were done, he had extra yellow paint to wanted to write everyone's name. Ben and Luke agreed as long as it was inside the house...
In case a big bad wolf ever came by, Luke insisted it was a house of bricks. He's such a smart little piggy.
Simon spent the majority of the time eating a paintbrush in his high chair.
We got him out after it was dry and he went straight to work.
Ben wore his bandanna while working on the roof. (I was trying to get dinner on the table while this was happening... I made a yummy potato soup!)
No one could agree on the shingles, so we went with a rainbow. This is the only picture I took of the final project. Ignore the face of the child in the shot. He's got issues.

Other things that have been keeping us busy... ORIGAMI. Luke has become an expert and can do several animals without looking at directions. This is totally his kind of thing.
Zack will do just about anything if the reward is getting out the play dough tub. He rarely cleans it up after he's finished, though.
All of the boys have been into making wooden models (bought in a kit at the craft store).
They aren't easy to do, so I've had to help. In fact, Luke and I stayed up WAY past our bedtime one night finishing this ship. We still have to put on the sails...
To be continued.... the baby needs some attention and a nose wiping. This is what he looks like when I blog. I can't ignore those puppy-dog eyes. and no, he's not having a bad hair day. This is as good as it gets.