Just a little ..... Jet pack!!!!

  I thought that I would share one of the new projects that I made for the boys.  A really cool Jet Pack!  What little boy does not want their own jet pack.  I have to admit this is not completely my idea.  While looking through the many amazing and wonderful craft blogs out there I came across this.  My only dilemma is that she made it out of recyclables (Gabe would destroy that in a heart beat),  So I designed it out of fabric so that it could last longer. 

I had problems attaching the two tubes together so I ended up hand stitching a panel in between.  This worked out, because it fit him better and now fits Sam.

To change it up a little I made wings for it too.  They are completely removable in case he does not want to have them on.  Which is a good thing because he does not like them on much, I think that I made them a little to small (oops!)

He had so much fun blasting around the park. 

So it turns out to be a great gift for the active kid in your life.  It would make a great present under the tree don't you think?

Ted the Turkey....

O.k so I do not do much decorating for Thanksgiving.  Basically all I have is some decorative pumpkins in the window.  Well I wanted something for the door.  I saw Ted here at Joanns one day (half off, woohoo, only 2.50) so he came home with us.  He was unfinished so I painted him up.  Then I put a coat of outdoor Mod Podge on him incase of rain, I did not want him to wash off.

I think that he came out really cute.  I love the how bold the colors on his tail look. 

Halloween...

I hope that everyone had a great halloween.  We had a really nice one here.  We meet up with our friends and trick or treated with them.  It was alot of fun because their son is younger and just starting to learn what it means to knock on the doors and get a treat.  He had a good time with that. :0)  As for our place we left out candy, unfortunetly we did not get many trick or treaters.  LOTS of candy left over. 

See this is what we had leftover plus what the boys got for trick or treating.  It is a 4ft table so I could not even get the ends in, there was alot of candy.  I did god narrowing it down though. (at least I think so :))  After throwing things out and freezing some, this is what I got it down to.  And after a week or two, what is left will probably get tossed.

Now on to the costumes... we actually made two for each of the boys this year.  As most of you know the boys take dance classes.  Well they were allowed to wear costumes in this week as long as it did not bother there ability to dance.  So the boys went as ballerinas since there actual costumes would be a problem to dance in.  I made them each a tutu (in their favorite colors of course).  Please no laughing at the tutus, not a whole lot of experience making them since I have Boys. LOL.

Look at those cute little tushies.  I love the big bows on them.  (yup so saving these for when they have girlfriends, what are moms for LOL).  I just love the picture below of them together. 

Now on to the actual costumes.  I made Gabes costume this year.  He was King Arthur this year.  This year I wanted to let them have more say in the costumes so they got to pick out the fabric and colors that every thing was going to be.

Isn't he a fearsome ruler. :0)  His cape is reversable so he can pretend to be something else if he wants.  When he has the stars on the outside he is SUPER MONKEY KING.  That is my boy, LOL.  His chest plate is actually a slip cover over a superman chest plate.  (all about the multiple uses)  I did not want to get him one of the plastic sword from the store, because honestly I thought he would hit with it.  King  Arthur needs a sword though, so I made him one that is stuffed (so it does not hurt if hit with).  Then of course he has to have a shield to protect himself with.  We just cut a shape out of foam board and painted it up, very easy to do.  Then of course we topped it off with a crown.

Sam's turn... since Gabe was King Arthur Sam of course was Merlin..  Rob made Sam's costume for him, and he did a great job on it.  To start with he needed a staff so he took a wooden dowel and attached a stryofoam egg shape to the top.  Then he spray painted the whole thing gold.  Once that dried he attached little gems around the sphere and topped it of with a big blue gem on top.  Then he made the cape with a hood.  Sam got a lot of compliments on this because of the cool sparkly material on the inside.  Then the final piece was the Merlin mask.  We found it at Joanns for half off. 

The boys of course had to do some role playing in the costumes of course.  :0)

Of course we could not forget our little buddy, I mean ducky that we went trick or treating with.  How cute is he!

Look at his cute little ducky feet .  He was so cute chasing after the boys.  The little duck tail wagging away.

Here is the trick or treaters (plus the ducks mom, :0)) ready for some fun.

Even though we had a great time, I am glad halloween is over.  Now that the holiday season is underway, there is so much that I need to get done.  So over the next few weeks I will be in and out.  I will try and post some projects as I get them done.

More Halloween Crafts

Today I thought that I would share some of the projects that my husband and I have been working on.  I tried to make some decorations for his office.  To start with he has really high doors to his office so he wanted me to paint him this pumpkin to hang from it.  I thought that it turned out pretty good.  Although people in his office thought the kids painted it, LOL.

So Rob has been working on projects for around here.  He decided to make a sign for our front door.  Looks pretty good.  He put a layer of Glow in the Dark paint on it, but then we remembered there is always a light on it, OOPS. :)

I made him this coffin to keep on his desk filled with candy.  I am so happy with how the bat on the outside turned out.  For the dots I just used a Q-tip on it.  Then the inside I Mod podged the really cool fabric of bats on it.  I think hubs was really pleased with it.

On a personal note I wanted to share that our cousin had a premature delivery last week.  She is need of a blood donations for the baby.  If any of my readers live near Hackensack Hospital and have O- negative blood please consider donating in her name, Jaelyn Camphausen .  Hackensack Hospital M. - F.  201.996.4819  Thank you.

Halloween Garland

With Halloween getting so close I thought that I would start to share some of my projects that we have done this year.  So today I thought that I would show you my Garland.  It has the things on it that make me think most of Halloween, candy corn, witches hats, and of course pumpkins. 

I made three of each one and then sewed them to a nice "spooky halloween" ribbon.

I think the candy corn was my favorite one of all of them.

I loved how the pumpkin has lines to show the roundness of it.

I thought that the witches hat came out cute.  I was not really sure what to do with it because it such a basic shape.  So to give it some dimension I sewed a line across close to the bottom to give a little brim to the hat.

When it was finished we hung it up in our front window.  I just love how she glows!  What things have you made for halloween this year?  I would love to see, let me know!

Our halloween swap...

My friend Mamagames over at mind games set up a Halloween Swap this year.  It was alot of fun.  We got a really sweet family up in Ohio for our swap.  Here are some of the pictures of the great stuff that they sent to the boys.

The sent a package of Twix (yes we could not wait to get into them, yummy).  A pumpkin Spice granola,
some cool orange bowls.  Then a really fun ice cube tray, skull heads.

They also sent along a few things to play with.  A pirate play set, and a kitty mask (as I am typing this I realize that I forgot the Knights shield,oops)  Some glow in the dark braclets that Gabe is very excited to try.  Finally they sent a book to Sam.

A really great package as you can see.  Thanks so much to our swap family in Ohio.  What is everyone else doing for fun this halloween.

Pure Cuteness!!!

Sick

Sorry about the lack of posting lately.  All my guys came down with a nasty cold last week.  So it has put me behind a bit.   Gabe was put back with his breathing treatments.  He gets so bored sitting there that he starts to get a little silly.  Thankfully he is back as well as my other two guys.  I am trying to work on a few new post to share with you.  Until then just wanted to say hi and let you know that we are still here.  Have a good one.

Ducks!!!!

Look at our new little friends.. The Duck Family!  The other morning I noticed a duck laying in the bushes right below our apartment.  I thought that I saw something moving below it but I was unsure.  Later when I was outside I saw this by the pool.  She did have babies, Yeah!  They are so cute.

She lead them over to the bushes below our apartment again.  I was able to get pretty close to them too.  Here are a couple other shots.  I took a bunch but I thought I better limit how much I put on here.  Enjoy!

Don't you just want to snuggle them?

I LOVE that we live in the middle of the city and the boys get to experience baby ducks.  They are loving checking on them every day.  Homeschooling at its finest!

A Halloween Craft

Ok so I am super excited for Halloween this year.  I have already started putting together some crafts for it.  I wanted to share some of them with you as I finished them.  I found some little coffins at Micheal's the other day and I thought that they would be really cute all decorated up and filled with candy.  Here are some shots of the finished project.

I painted the outside black and and the inside silver.  There is a sound box on the inside that sets off an evil laugh every time you open it.  I painted a cross on one and the other I put circles like it was nails in the coffin.  Also to give it something a little more I Mod Podged the outside edge with some cobweb and spider ribbon.  I love how these turned out.  I can not wait for Halloween.  I would love to see what everyones else is doing for Halloween. 

Make sure you head over to Mind Games and sign up for the Halloween swap.

To make a snake...

One of the lessons that I do with the boys is have them sew as a life skills lessons.  They actually have their own sewing machine that they got for christmas last year.  Sam is becoming really good with it.  Gabe is good as long as he realizes that it is not a race car.  Well I am always trying to have some fun projects with them to sew.  Recently Gabe started to become really interested in Snakes (he watches alot of Jeff Corwin).  I saw this project and I thought how perfect it would be for them to do as a joint project.  I was actually sewing something on my machine at the same time, more on that at another time.
Being the smart momma that I am (hehehe) I actually thought to document their process in photos for you.  Hope you enjoy, I know that I did. 

First step.  Pick out the material and cut out your pieces. Side note, The helmet is on because he recently started learning to ride his bike.  He has gotten obsessed with the helmet, wears it all the time.

Step two.  Get pins in so you can start sewing.

Then big brother realizes that you are big enough to start sewing on your own.

After you get it all sewn together, it is time for stuffing it.  Phew that sure is a tiring job, LOL!

Once you get all of the stuffing in that you want, it is time to sew it closed.  Look at that concentration, he is just to cute sometimes ;)

There you have a super easy and cuddly soft snake made by two brothers.

the full snake