fourth of july shirts

I hope everyone has been having a great summer!  Ours has been very busy and full of excitement, as you have probably gathered from our last post.  This month we have been enjoying the warm weather, pool time, and relaxing a bit.  We have really enjoyed not having a full schedule but that will soon pick back up in August!

This year for Independence Day, Bryce and Zoey made their own shirts (and I made one for Oliver)!  They loved every second of being able to make something they would wear.  We started with this tutorial from pinterest: http://cutesycrafts.com/2014/06/diy-eraser-stamped-4th-july-shirt.html  and white shirts/bodysuit, freezer paper, fabric paint, and our hands!

Like in the tutorial, I cut the freezer paper into stars and ironed it onto the shirts shiny side down (I got a simple star image from google images).  The freezer paper is very easy to peal off later but stays on very well to make the negative space of the star.  I also placed cardboard in the shirt so the paint didn't bleed through but it also made it easier for the kids to "dot" on.

The tutorial recommended using pencil erasers, however we didn't have any and we like a little mess with our projects.  To get the dots, the kids used their pinky fingers!  They enjoyed dotting around the front of the shirts and around the star.  It was just messy enough for them to have a lot of fun!

We let the shirts dry for the time recommended on the paint (ours said three hours) then pealed the freezer paper off.  

After taking the paper off, we left them to dry overnight to ensure all the paint was completely dry before wearing them.

The last step was to wear them and look adorable.

These were such an easy and fun project to do with the kids, they took less than thirty minutes and were quick to clean up.  These could easily be done with any shape and colors for a fun project.  Bryce and Zoey loved wearing the shirts and showing them off at the party we went to!

Enjoy making shirts with your little ones!!!
.katherine.

mardi gras

Mardi Gras, in case you somehow weren't aware, is a pretty big deal here in Louisiana.  We have parades almost every weekend for four weeks and people come from across the nation to see them.  We had our own visitors for the festivities this year...Gaga and Grandpa!

This year we went to the Krewe of Gemini parade on Valentine's Day!  It was so much fun to see how excited the kids were about the parade and all the festivities.  They remembered the fun from the year before and were so excited to be able to watch the parade again.

We set up a spot along the parade route with our neighbors and work friends.  Then we hung out and tailgated all afternoon until the parade came by!

We were further down the route this year which meant we got to see the parade at night.  The kids loved waving at the people on the floats, dancing to all the music, and catching beads!  While we had a blast, the kids were SO tired by the time it finished!

If you want to see the parades next year come visit!!!
.katherine.

making valentines

A holiday in our house is really just an excuse to make more projects and the kids had a blast making their valentines.  While they usually have some direction for projects, this year I just gave them a big pile of supplies and let them choose how to do their hearts.  They had paper hearts, heart doilies, stickers, foam heart stickers, twine, crayons, and glue sticks!

They had so much fun deciding what would go on each heart and how to decorate them.  While they worked on the hearts we talked about who we would send them to and what valentines were for...they were adorable telling me who we needed to send the valentines to!

They had so much fun and I think the hearts turned out wonderful!

.katherine.

new years

This year we welcomed in the new year with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend!  We had so much fun spending time with them!  While we didn't do anything too exciting we still had a wonderful trip.  We played a lot of cards, made cookies, and hung out around the house.  The kids loved having more people to play with and get attention from!

While Lauren and Matt were in town the weather was pretty rainy so we took them to the SciPort!  The kids really enjoy the SciPort and had a great time showing Lauren and Matt all the fun experiments, exhibits, puzzles, and animals.

Our kids LOVE bowling and Lauren had NEVER been so of course we had to fit that in...good thing they had an evening flight!

We had a blast with Lauren and Matt!  Thanks for making the trip out here and we can't wait to see you two again soon!!!
.katherine.