Halloween Craft Time: Paper Plate Pumpkins...

 Jo is finally to the age where she can sometimes participate in Craft Time, but now it starts to get tricky.  You see, when I find a craft that Jo is able to do, which usually involves something to enhance her hand eye coordination, it's usually not in B's age group.  B hasn't said anything, because she's too sweet, thank goodness, but I can tell she gets a little bored with some of the crafts.  We still do some "big people" crafts while Jo is napping so that helps!

This was a Jo craft, but the girls used their imagination to create their pumpkin faces which helped.

First they painted small paper plates orange.  Can you tell we go through a lot of orange paint this time of year?

 Once the paint was dry, they painted their faces however they wanted.

 Just look at how happy Jo is to finally be making crafts with her big sisters!

 I pre-cut Jo's face out of black construction paper so all she had to do was place the cut outs on top of the dot of glue.  The older girls painted their faces.  Once the paint was dry, we added a stem out of glue construction paper and glued it to the back.

Mel made a tiger..

You can see we have quite the array of faces on our pumpkins.  Can you tell which one is Jo's?

Wordless Wednesdays...

I love my days spent at home with just her.

 Even on days when she refuses to wear pants.

 And insists on having candy corn and a hot dog for breakfast.

Craft Time...Pumpkin Shovel...

 First, a little reminder: If you haven't entered my Gooseberry Patch Cookbook giveaway, you still have a little bit of time to enter!  Giveaway ends on Friday.  Click the link above to enter.  Go ahead...I'll wait!



On my list of fall crafts to complete, I have several crafts that aren't kid's crafts.  I've decided that I want to start making some crafts to enjoy myself.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching my girls be creative and decorating with their creations brightens our home, but sometimes it's nice to do something for myself...besides shopping.:)

I was at a store last year and saw a shovel with a pumpkin face torched in it.  My first thought was, "Oh!  I want that!"  But then, after I looked at the price, I thought, "Brad could make that!"  So I took a picture and texted it to him (isn't modern technology great...sometimes) and asked if he could make it for me.  He said yes as if I had any doubt that he could;)

My MIL even had a shovel lying around that she was willing to give me and it was painted black.  The shovels at the store were rusty, which was fine, but I thought I would like the look of it painted black.

Now, I will tell you, you have to use a torch to cut through the metal of the shovel.  If you don't have one, find a friend that does!

The first thing I did was draw the face on the shovel with a piece of welding chalk.  I'm sure regular chalk would work just as well,but my husband handed me the welding chalk and I didn't ask any questions because he knows more about metal than I do:)

 Then Brad went to work cutting with the torch.  I thought this step looked pretty easy and that I probably could have handled it, but then I remembered I'm pretty accident prone and I probably would have just set myself on fire!

Next, he sanded it down because the torch makes some rough edges...

 Then I spray painted the shovel black to cover up where the torch had burnt the paint...

After the paint dried, I added a canvas bow and set it outside for display...

Happy 2nd Birthday Jo...

Today Jo is 2!  What a crazy two years it has been!  I've said this on the blog before, but everyone always told me that once you have two kids, adding another is easy.  Well, going from two to three was a huge adjustment for me.  We were outnumbered, but we have learned to manage the chaos that comes with three kids....and three girls on top of that!  Couples who have more than three kids...I don't know how you do it!!

 Jo was such a good newborn (except car rides and she still hates riding in the car).  I always rolled my eyes at the parents who would tell me how their baby slept through the night as soon as they brought them home from the hospital...we were up every hour with our older two it seemed.  Jo came home from the hospital and only woke once in the night, so I guess it was my turn to be "one of those moms."  ;)  Although, I wouldn't tell any mom of a newborn this because I've been there too!

 Her Baptism...

 6 months...

The obligatory bath shot;)

 8 months!  This is the time that most babies are sleeping through the night.  Jo was the complete opposite.  She slept like a champ until now...She decided now would be a good time to start sleeping like a newborn.  Paybacks I guess!  She still isn't the best sleeper.

Yay!  We made it to one year!!! A huge accomplishment for Mom and Dad!!

 Happy 2nd Birthday Jo!  You certainly make life interesting, especially at the grocery store.  You have to do whatever your sisters are doing and you love being on the farm.  Maybe this will be the year that you decide sleep is a good thing!