Boredom Busters: How We Survived Spring Break

It was spring break at the StyleBurb house last week.  Mr. StyleBurb had to work, so the rest of the family used the week of vacation to adjust to the time change.

The only thing I like about "spring forward" is that the clock in my van is now accurate.  For six months of the year the van's clock is an hour fast.  I could correct the time myself, but that would require me to find the owner's manual, and some things are just not worth the effort.

Anyway, here's a round-up of some crafts my kids made - just to prove that we did not sleep in and lollygag around the house until noon every day watching Ellen and The View.

Not that there's anything wrong with that ;)

These creatures (miniature foam shapes that expand in water) have been growing in a dish on my counter all week.  It looks like the dinosaur is about to attack the Easter Bunny, who is smiling bravely despite impending doom!

My youngest daughter tried her hand at soap carving.  This was fun until the dog ate the soap shavings that fell on the floor.  I called the vet to make sure Ivory soap wouldn't harm him.  Harry was fine, except he drank a lot of water and then blew bubbles when he opened his mouth.

Here is the soap representation of the Easter bunny.

The kids finally got to paint the paper machéd Easter eggs to replace the ones I used in my apothecary jar.

Even though Easter is still a month away, we also made Easter bunny chocolates using plastic molds and melting chocolate wafers.

 

We also made some heart-shaped chocolate lollipops...because there's always room for love!

The bunnies were wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbons to give as gifts... if they last that long!

Of course we didn't forget about St. Patrick's Day and we made mini cupcakes to celebrate.  My youngest daughter decorated these ones all by herself!

She used the 1M tip on the Wilton Dessert Decorator Pro piping tool - it's amazing how easy it is to get professional looking results.

 

It's back to school tomorrow. Meanwhile it looks like a bomb went off in my house.  Cleaning when the house is full of children is an uphill battle, to say the least.  

Comedian Phyllis Dillar had it right when she said: "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing."

The Seven Dwarfs sang: "Just whistle while you work".  That's one approach to housework I think I'll try.

Thankfully it's still too chilly here to leave the windows open, so no one will hear me!

I'm linking up to http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/ for her newbie party.

Eggs-tra, Eggs-tra...Read All About It

I "stole" my kids' craft project. I know that sounds bad, especially since we're just getting to know each other!  Hopefully you'll understand once I explain.

Also, keep in mind this delightful display as you read!

My three kids are enjoying spring break this week and I planned a few crafts to help keep them occupied.  I bought some of those dollar store plastic Easter eggs for them to paper maché and then paint with polka dots, zig-zags and swirls.

Everything started out innocently enough.

I watered down white glue, and tore up strips of newspaper. We dipped the newspaper strips into the gluey water and layered them on the plastic eggs.

See how my daughter used her sweet little hands to squeeze out the excess water from the eggs.

The Easter eggs were left to dry overnight.  When I checked them in the morning I was surprised.  They looked good - really good!

The eggs reminded me of something I might see in Pottery Barn.  They were faded and somewhat vintage looking.  They were perfect...  perfect for my giant apothecary jar (which my husband refers to as my 'hypothetical' jar....he's such a smart alec).

"Those pine cones have been in the apothecary jar since January....too long...not spring-like at all...is that sap leaking onto the glass....", I thought to myself.

That was the moment I decided that the paper maché eggs should be mine.  I tried whitewashing some of the eggs as an 'eggsperament'.

whitewashed eggs

The whitewashed eggs looked good, but not good enough to do the whole batch, so the rest were left as is.  I filled the base of my apothecary jar with shredded wood bark from Michael's and layered the newsprint Easter eggs on top.

It all looked so good, and so 'cheep' (24 eggs for 4 dollars) - which is why I had no choice but to "re-purpose" my kids' craft project!

 

Don't worry about my kids; I made it up to them.  We paper machéd more Easter eggs the next day and I've got more crafts for them to do.

As long as our St. Patrick's Day cupcakes can't be used for decoration, everything will be fine.

Actually, I just realized that the cake stand on my counter is empty.  It always looks better when it's filled...




I'm linking up to The Shabby Nest and Amanda at Serenity Now.