art. and stuff.

I try to do art projects with Havalah and Henry about 2-3 times a week. As a homeschooling family, it's easy to fall into the rut of regular school work without mixing things up with a few art projects. I've noticed that when I make a point to include art into our day, H & H are much more likely to be creative during their own play time. Since Henry is still little, it's easy to incorporate crafts, but with Havalah, I'm having to get a little bit more creative. Over the years, I've forced myself to "allow" for the tactile experience that painting brings and not worry myself silly over a mess! This makes the whole project much more fun for all of us! ;)

Hand Print Animal Art has been a really handy (ha ha) resource. I love pulling it out when we have been learning about a certain animal or region. Most of the directions are pictures, so it's easy for non-readers to do the projects with minimal supervision. I'm hoping to track down some flour sack kitchen towels, because I'd like to have the kids do some of these animals with fabric paint to create some extra special kitchen towels.

Henry loves detailed art projects, so he always picks the most complicated animals in this book.
by Henry

We decided to try some new things for Easter crafts this year, including blowing out the yolk and whites of eggs before decorating them. For this project we first melted crayon wax...

...in glass containers over the stove (in water). This only took 2-3 minutes.

This went surprisingly well! There were no burned fingers and melted wax is a pleasure to work with. The worst part really was peeling those darn crayons!

Here is a used thrift store canvas that Havalah primed and is ready to work on. She has been learning about the art techniques of Lois Ehlert and has a special piece of art in progress. Stay tuned for that. : )


And here are a few things that Henry has made as we have been learning about St. Patrick's Day. Today we talked about the Blarney Stone. There is a lot of history in that stone. He's hopeful that kissing his homemade Blarney stone will bring him the gift of eloquent speech, along with about 300,000 other hopeful people this year! Of course that would mean that he'd have to quit saying things like: "Hoonkey Doonkey, I'm made of sugar!"


Muyahhhh!

On another note, I asked Havalah if she would like to help me plan for our St Paddy's day meals. We've got corned beef and cabbage planned for dinner, but I thought we'd go the green egg, green yogurt or green milk route for breakfast. These simple (and easy) things were quickly dismissed. " Oh no," she told me, "we need something special. You should just get up really early and make homemade GREEN cinnamon rolls!" Lucky me! It's my own fault you know. I asked her for her opinion.

So if you're like me and are finding yourself currently making a shopping list for cinnamon rolls, and want to try a new recipe, here is our family favorite. So good. I think it's the vanilla pudding that's in the dough. ♥ If the green part turns out, I'll post a picture.

Cinnamon Rolls

In bread machine:

1/4 c warm water

1/2 c melted butter

1 3.4 package vanilla pudding

1 c warm milk

1 room temp. egg

1 T sugar

1/2 t salt

4 c flour

1 pk yeast

Run on dough cycle in bread machine

2) Take out of machine and beat down

3) roll out into a large rectangle

4) spread these things on the rectangle:

1/2 c butter

1 c brown sugar

2 T cinnamon

5) roll up the dough and slice into rolls. Let rise, covered, until double in size. I love to warm my oven and then turn it off and let the dough rise inside.

6) bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. Don't over bake.

For frosting, mix:

4 oz. cream cheese

1/4 c butter

1 c powdered sugar

1/2 t vanilla

1 1/2 t milk

Spread frosting over the rolls while they are still warm.