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I love it when an activity devised for Rylan (1) ends up being a crowd pleaser for the big kids too. Kenzie kept asking me to paint on this day, so I finally obliged her with this craft activity I'd "earmarked" as a Rylan-pleaser.


Homemade sidewalk chalk paint recipe:
2 tbs. water
2 tbs. cornstarch
4 drops food coloring


Mix different colors in a muffin tin. & Be on the ready with refill ingredients. This was a big hit.



By: Stacy, Kenzie (5) & Rylan (1)
Mama's Doodles

These pictures are of something new we tried with the girl while camping last weekend. I try to plan entertaining activities for camping trips, so as to avoid those whiney "I'm boooooooooooooored" statements. Fortunately, this was a great trip and the lizards kept her well entertained. :) But, I knew she'd love this so I broke out the paints anyway.

I felt bad about "messing with nature" for about 2.5 seconds. She had such a great time with it, even narrating her art for the video camera at the conclusion.. that it was worth the guilt.



And, heck, it was washable paint. It'll come off in a good rain storm.



All you need is a kid, some paint, and a tree.

By: Stacy & Kenzie (age 4)
Mama's Doodles

I've found a new way to buy some moments of peace & Kenzie enjoys it too. I write "secret messages" on a paper, Kenzie matches each letter with another letter found within a magazine and pastes them all down. When she's completed the collage, we decipher the message. Sometimes, she also adds pictures that go along with the message after we decipher it.

She knows all her letters and appropriate sounds now. And, this also is aiding in beginning reading skills.

By: stacy & kenzie, age 4
Mama's Doodles

Following each holiday, we enjoy turning the cards into collage art. It ends up being a joint massacre of our card collection, but it's a nice way to condense, reuse & recycle the stash. Here's our Valentine "work of art."

By: Stacy & Kenzie (almost 4 yrs. old)
Mama's Doodles

With my due date looming near(er), we're trying to include Kenzie in preparatory projects for the babe. She's helped paint the room, picked out our gender neutral clothing ensembles, and we made these little gifts for the baby.

This is a super easy project for kids:
1. Cut fine grit sandpaper into small portions (3x3's would work well). **I didn't do this and learned the hard way!!

2. Color an image on a fine grit sandpaper with your everyday Crayolas. Make sure and get a healthy wax build up on the sandpaper (Press Hard).



3. Lay the sandpaper, image side down on your fabric choice. (or directly on the onesie if you'd like to be done a few steps sooner!!) Iron the image well to insure the color is transferring.

4. Machine stitch around your image edges to give it extra whimsy, or perhaps, ahem...make sense of the scribbles? This here little guy is a FROG, by the way. :)



5. Attach to a onesie, t-shirt, pants leg, whatever. & Voila. It's an easy Big Sister gift to the new baby...


6. Set the color by tossing into the dryer for 20 minutes. Launder as usual.



We've another version of a darling but LARGE image of big sister holding the baby's hand. We also have an alien. (Yeah....don't know what we're going to do with that one.) But, we're going to frame the large sentimental image and turn it into wall art. I'll post a picture as it's completed.

By: Stacy & Kenzie (age 3.5)
Mama's Doodles

To close up my little family's advent season , we drew the following activity: make a snowman out of paper or snow. At the time, we didn't have any snow. We decided to junkadoodle one instead.



Merry Holidays!!!

By: stacy & kenzie, age 3
Mama's Doodles

This is for Holli's contest. We (or, rather, I) had envisioned a dragon theme to match my gals dragon costume, however things soon got out of hand (as they typically will with a 3 year old wielding paint brushes). I quickly ditched the "planned" part of the project and just aimed to survive...

Kenzie painted. I arranged the junk. She whined while I arranged the junk. (she had other ideas).
But, I think we like the outcome:



It was fun, albeit, er, ahem...a wee bit stressful for those of us who aren't so patient. Honestly, I don't know who made the biggest mess - her or me?

By: stacy & kenzie
Mama's Doodles

You know, that last entry ("If Damon and I Lived In Springfield") about the Simpsons and unofficial Cooleyville tagline ("If the Simpsons were Asian and lived in South Park, you'd have Cooleyville") got me thinking. Suddenly I remembered:

Damon and I have been drawn as South Park characters before, too!

I totally forgot! Tony W did it for our wedding cartoon!

Character designs by Tony Wang in 2002. He modeled the heads after our kid pictures. Then, after getting feedback that they reminded people of South Park, he took the resemblance all the way and designed the bodies and cartoon to suit. It turned out great!

Drat you, Julie. I saw your avatars on Flickr and before I knew it, I was at the Simpsons Movie Web site, too, making my own! Not only did I do one of me, I made one of Damon. Then I made one of Damon from before our South America trip last fall.

Me,
Damon after spending three months in South America,
Damon for the first 31 years of his life.
Go to www.simpsonsmovie.com to make your own!

The Web site is up at Cooleyville.tv. Maybe someday the show will get picked up again!