New Year! 2017!

Happy New Year!

We were up at the cottage again this new Years and did some crafts to celebrate!

Of course I looked at Pintrest to get lots of ideas to do

We made our own hats, and New Years crowns

We all answered questions and put it in a time capsule to open next year

We had our treasure hunt for pictures from the year.

But as usual I had lots and pictures. We were going to divide into teams and find specific pictures. But the kids were excited at the beginning and then got bored. But they liked finding all of the pictures over the weekend that they didn't find during the game.

Everyone was excited to start celebrating once it got dark

And we got a Happy New Year picture!

Excited for 2017!

Christmas Crafts and Ugly Sweaters

We decided to do do some crafts for teachers gifts this year.

I had seen some pictures on facebook about these tea-light snowmen and thought it would be a great idea!

So I bought lots of supplies, and tea lights and ribbons and let Katheryn do whatever she wanted!

We did use white glue, but I reinforced everything with a glue gun.

We had some sparkly candles and beads and ribbons. Katheryn made one for her teacher, her choir teacher and her science/gym teacher. And kept one for herself.

Nick thought this was a great idea too. But I got to thinking that it would be easy to make some Avenger/Star Wars snowmen!

Nick helped paint them, and put them together. He picked which one each of his EAs, teacher, gym/science teacher and bus driver, and kept a Captain America for himself as well.

Because I was in the crafty mood, and the glue gun was already out, we had a lot of fun when it was Ugly Sweater Day!

Visiting the Value Village and the Dollar Store and ta da!

The kids were so excited with how it turned out!

Nick's was a little heavy, and the nose was supposed to glow, but he was happy with it!

Minion Tires

So if you have a bunch on old tires hanging around your cottage, and want to make something crafty this summer, hmmm what should you do?

Well, my mother in law and I had an idea! (Facebook/Pintrest may have helped too)

So we collected the 7 best tires and cleaned them 

We got some special primer that would stick to tires, and be good for outside.
We put a strip of tape around the middle of two of them (covered one of the centre treads)

We stacked them up so see how they would sit

The kids took some time out to watch us

Then we painted them and let them dry. They needed 2 coats to cover them, and we had to paint-brush paint. No spray paint.
We used regular house paint that would be used outside. We painted them separately, and then stacked them up to get all the middle parts. Only the tops needed to be painted fully, the middle ones didn't need everything done.

Then we stacked them up so we could get a good view
And you could see what we were making

The little one had 1 blue and 2 yellow, the larger one had 2 blue and 3 yellow. The bottom yellow is painted with blue for the overalls.
The tape is removed to show the black underneath. And we taped on some eyes (to practice) and a mouth for the big one.

The next day we did some touch-up and finished the eyes (and the pupil is actually a bolt holding it in place).

It was a lot of fun making our minion tires. The kids had fun watching us (but they didn't help, this was a grandma-mommy project). Now they we have done some of them (and have more tires left over) we might make it a project for the kids the next time.

Cousins and Cottaging

This summer has started off with a lot of fun and crafts! And time at the cottage.

I think we are spending almost all of our time off up at the cottage (the house is a bit of a mess, but the kids are happy)

The kids got together with their cousins to make some art!

This was the finished product.

The idea of it was to cover it with varathane and keep it by the campfire. Good idea in theory, but the varathane wasn't enough protection and a lot of the paint washed away. But everyone still had fun. And we will have fun the next time we try too

I think that the kids are enjoying their summer vacation!

It was raining, so we had lots of crafts to do as a back-up

And we made some cone-smores in the oven (instead of the promised campfire)

Great idea (thanks facebook/pintrest)
Fill a waffle cone with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows

Wrap it all with foil

Then you put it in the over for about 20 minutes o that everything melts (at about 300)
(I did find out that if you put it into the fire, put it on the outside and let it melt slowly, instead of putting it directly into a burning flame and opening up a mass of black sooty mess)

It was a huge sugary success and the kids loved it!

Finally the sun came out and we were able to have fun in the water!

The lake is shallow, so Nick can actually walk around using a tube as a water-walker

We had some beautiful sunsets

And then some campfires

With sparklers

And a couple of mommy-selfies

The kids didn't want to go in. They said that they weren't tired... until they fell asleep

As long as the sun was out everyone spent the time at the lake

The kids were playing super-hero'

And we made up a water game of hockey-golf-soccer

Or was it basketball?

In between all of the fun we still got Nick to do some work and try out his crutches.
He is slowly starting to get more comfortable with them

This is only the beginning of the summer! We are expecting lots more fun for the kids over the next 2 months!