paint cut paste

summer officially begins today, the summer solstice. what better way to ring in the season than to brainstorm with your little one(s) about all of the fun things you can do together in these beautiful, expansive months ahead?

when i saw this idea for summer fun cards on teach mama, i knew that novi would be really into it. she used index cards, but i thought i’d check our stash of scrap papers to make these. then i realized i had a pack of blank index cards in our stash already, so it was kismet. white cardstock is good for illustrating, though you could do this with any papers you have around (think: brown paper grocery bags, used gift wrap, etc.)

novi and i thought of all of the fun summery things we’d like to do together when the weather is warm and the days are long and there’s no preschool in session. i wrote these things on the cards in marker. then i passed them to novi to illustrate any way she’d like, with some dry media: markers, crayons, and colored pencils.

here are a few of the finished ones that novi drew. i drew on a few of the cards (not pictured below), as well… we had TONS! novi loved learning about what illustration means by doing this project.

then i used a hole punch to make holes in the cards, and we strung our cards on colorful yarn. we hung them in novi’s playroom….

…where we can be reminded of all of the potential…

that these long summer days hold.

happy summer! have a blessed solstice!

we’ve been having fun preparing for father’s day over here…

novi made some papa portrait cards for her dad and grandfathers.

here are her portraits. (yep, she essentially has 4 grandfathers. modern families.)

we also turned a really cool magnadoodle image of hers…

into a great travel coffee mug for her dad on cafepress.com! (i love this idea of using your child’s art on everyday products. sure beats logos and advertising for other companies!)

novi painted a wooden picture frame for her dad at preschool a couple of weeks ago, complete with a photo taken by her teacher.

we added the frame and the mug to a gift basket with lots of his favorite goodies.

one of novi’s traditions is to make mom’s day and dad’s day signs… last year in 2009, her sign looked like this:

mom's writing, novi's scribbles

but this year, she was able to write and illustrate her own sign – hooray!

happy father’s day to all the dads, granddads, godfathers, uncles, and all of the amazing men who love & support our children!

we are anxiously awaiting WARM WEATHER over here in the sf bay area, and all of the fun things it entails… but i just could not wait any longer to make fresh squeezed lemonade with my little lady. i must forewarn you that this is a photo-heavy entry… lemons just provide so much eye-candy (and other senses, too!)

it was super-easy and fun to do! here’s whatcha need:

• 2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice (we did this with 12 lemons)
• whatever tools you wanna use to squeeze lemons dry
• 1.5 cups raw sugar  (we used organic raw turbinado sugar, so ours looked more like tea)
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 gallon cold water
• one sliced lemon & fresh springs of mint leaves for garnish

let your little one take sticker off of and wash each lemon.

have fun squeezing all of the lemons to get the juice out any way you can!

enjoy all of the sensory experiences that come along with lemons!

smell

taste

and pretending to pick lemons from a tree

in a 1 gallon container or pitcher, place the sugar and hot water and stir until sugar dissolves. add the fresh lemon juice and cold water to fill the remainder of the container or pitcher.

we cut some peppermint sprigs for garnish. (note the cute plant tag!)

chill the lemonade and serve over ice (uh, but we don’t make ice in our house, so we just had to chill it longer.)

nope, it's not tea. that's the color of the raw sugar.

i had a hard time parting with the lemon rinds, so i put them in some water with cinnamon sticks and cloves and simmered it on the stove to make the house smell awesome for the day.

then novi was inspired to make lemonade art…

i think we’re all set for a lemonade stand… if the weather would ever get outta the 60s and the sun would come out around here… come on memorial day weekend, bring it!

this one began as a simple request by my little artist in residence: “last night i was thinking about drawing a ballerina using white and peach crayons, but those colors never show up!” so i suggested that we get out different colors of paper and she could draw with any and all of the drawing tools she has.

i brought out many colors and sizes of paper i have stashed. some construction paper, some were those little packs of card stock scraps you can buy cheaply. i put her crayons, colored pencils, and oil pastels out on the table.

then she got to draw the ballerina she had imagined… and said, ”you know, if i think hard enough, i can see what i want to draw in the air before i draw it.”

another dancer came after that (which she said is an image of herself)

then she changed themes and drew a very cool picture on black paper that she titled, “night surfing”

and made an image of a chocolate ice cream cone as a gift for our friends.

so as simple as this blog entry is, it is merely a reminder that it’s fun to switch it up sometimes and bust out all sorts of papers to draw on… it inspires kids’ imaginations in different ways and new images arise. try it out and see what emerges…

novi got her art on today…

to wish you all…

a happy mother’s day weekend!

thank you for everything that you do.

mommas, grandmothers, aunts, godmothers, and all of the special women who make up your tribe…

enjoy your weekend!

happy earth week! i saw this sweet idea on the mackville road blog, and found it to be pretty ideal for my little gatherer and crayon lover. novi and i are no strangers to picking some leaves and flowers nor to melting some crayons between wax paper… this combined both!

once again, we spent the afternoon in the yard and novi gathered all sorts of leaves, petals, and flowers… even if that meant picking them from our flowerbed.

we collected them in the bottom tray from a flower pot. (it was handy.)

we gathered up some supplies, which include old crayons, a veggie peeler (to shave the crayons with,) some wax paper, an iron, and a towel.

after i shaved some of the crayons, novi arranged the flowers and other findings on the wax paper and sprinkled on the crayon shavings.

when we were finished arranging, it looked like this:

we put another piece of wax paper on top, then a dishtowel. i ironed it on the maximum setting, but nothing seemed to be happening. i’d recommend using a very thin towel or cloth napkin — or you can do what i did and risk ironing directly onto the top sheet of wax paper. (somehow this worked out okay…??!?) then voila — our spring collection preserved in a sun catching way!