Ever so Clever:: November 2010

Platteville Children's Choir Fall Concert::Annika's First Choir Concert!

After months and months of choir practice on Monday nights (not to mention the audition late last spring) Annika's

FIRST EVER CHOIR CONCERT

is here!

Annika sings in with the Apprentice singers in the Platteville Children's Choir.

(there are three levels in the Children's Choir: Apprentice, Choristers and Cantabile)

Here she is ...excited & ready to perform!

The program this evening had all three choirs singing (individually) followed by a performance by the Platteville Chorale (the adult choir). At the very end all the children's choirs joined the adults on stage to perform Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" (okay, I don't think it was written by Louis Armstrong but everyone knows him for this song). Can you spot Annika in the front?

Here she is:

The children were quite pleased with themselves- and they had every right to be proud! They performed beautifully! Each group performed at least one piece of music that was more challenging than the other pieces. Annika's group (the Apprentice singers) performed: "The Singing Bird", "Tue, Tue", "That's What We'd Do" and, Annika's favorite, "Swingin' on a Star".

I didn't get a photo of just her group singing (felt too self conscious about taking a photo during her performance). So these photos show all the children. Normally, Mark would have been singing with the Chorale but since he's started his MBA program that has cut into fun evening activities. School will do that! Sigh....

And here's another AWESOME thing that happened...Grandma and Grandpa were able to attend Annika's first ever concert! Woo hoo! Thanks for coming!

We're so proud of you, Annika!

A few fall crafty projects....

>> Wednesday, November 10, 2010 – craft, kid craft

I've been working on a few craft-y projects. Yes indeed-y....I've been crafty! (insert maniacal little laugh)

Remember- you should be able to enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Here are my (former) Halloween stair mice available from Martha Stewart.

I've turned the lovely little mice into Thanksgiving mice.

Complete with pilgrim hats and pieces of pie and a turkey leg for them to munch on.

Here's how I made the hats, pie and turkey leg:

First I Googled "Thanksgiving" and searched through the Clip Art Images listed (you can search specifically for clip art...didn't know that until I made these). Then I drew the clip art images on a piece of paper- keeping in mind that I would be cutting out the pieces from foam (and by drawing it out I could get the proper scale to fit the mice). I cut the pieces out of foam and glued them using the low heat temperature hot glue gun. I kept asking Mark after I'd finished a piece if he could tell me what the item looked like. If it looked like the item I was trying to make- I kept it as is...otherwise it was back to the drawing board!

The piece of pie is actually made out of five pieces of foam.

And yes, we have a few tiles and grout that need fixing.

My fall front entry way arrangement...love pumpkins! (plus I love the Winged Creature Annika made for me ... with eyes made of washers...that is nestled in my planter)

Fall hanging basket....

......filled with small pumpkins and fabric oak leaves. What do you think of this? Does it need more leaves? I spent too long Googling fall outdoor hanging basket ideas and I came up with very little....so I had to get creative and come up with my own! I really hate having hooks that have nothing hanging on them. I think that when it gets really cold out I'll make bird seed ornaments to hang on the branches.

My fun chalkboard in the kitchen. Annika has helped to embellish it! (it used to just say, "Smile")

My fall front door wreath. It's a mish mash of things I found at home. The frame says, "Welcome".

I saw painted acorns in one of the recent Better Homes and Gardens magazine -and it looked easy enough for me to try! (I just painted the bottom of the acorns and glued twine to the caps of them in order to hang them. Oh...I should add that I did bake the acorns beforehand in order to attempt killing any worms inside them. I also glued the caps to the bottoms of the acorns before hanging them)

Now here's a fun piece of artwork...can you tell what it says?

This isn't my original idea but I think it's super clever. I got the idea from Hodge: Podge. I thought it was super fun so I had to give it a try. Especially since I had a canvas laying around. I painted the canvas black with acrylic paint. Then I cut out the letters using my handy dandy Cricut machine. I glued the letters in place (using several extra-large rulers as guides) and then coated the entire thing with Mod Podge (to seal the letters).

The girls also got a Case of the Crafties and made these cute little ghosts using pieces of white fabric, googly eyes and cotton fluff for the head (wrapped with cotton twine).

My creative Annika!

I find that my creative juices flow in fits and spurts. Do you find that your Creativity flows evenly or comes in fits and spurts like mine does? I sure wish there was something I could do to keep it around longer....

I'm sharing these crafts on Just a Girl's Share and Show Day. Go check out the other fun projects that are linked up on her blog!

Thanks for visiting!

Mini Car Project

>> – kid craft

So here's a fun Daddy-Daughter project:

Making a mini car out of a bag of miscellaneous parts....

And it even works!

All it takes is a motor, a body, a propeller and a battery to power it up! (am I missing anything?) OH! And lots of creativity!

Woo Hoo!

Watch it ZOOOOOOOOOOM!

Job well done!

So, what are you guys going to make next?

Ava's First Field Trip::To the Pumpkin Patch!

Yipppeeeeee!!!!

We're going on a field trip to the pumpkin patch! On a SCHOOL BUS! With our best friends!

Can you think of anything more fun?

(Ava doesn't get to ride the bus to and from school so getting to ride on a school bus is FUN, FUN, FUN!)

Getting ready to depart the school with some of her best friends: Wynne & Sydney

The pumpkin patch has a small petting zoo. Ava kept feeding this sweet & hungry pony.

Two cuties going through the Mini Corn Maze together.

Ringing the bell. (the bell is at the end of the Big, Grown-up Corn Maze...you ring it as you leave. That is IF you manage to get out of the maze!!!!!)

Preschoolers with lots of bright pumpkins.

Ava's preschool class!

The hayride to the pumpkin patch....

Ava found her pumpkin! (actually, they had the pumpkins of uniform size already picked and sitting in a clearing in the pumpkin patch so that the little kids didn't trip and fall over pumpkin vines.)

Classmates with their pumpkins!

Corn shucker...or whatever this old fashioned machine is called. You put a dry corn on the cob into the machine, twirl the wheel and out comes the corn kernels.

And those dry corn kernel turned into fun play time material!

Snack Break! Of course all the kids chose chocolate milk. And graham crackers. Yum!

Watching the pumpkin patch owner's Pumpkin Trebuchet fling a pumpkin up, up and away!

And then watching his new addition- the Pumpkin Air Gun. Which do you think blasted the pumpkin further?

And rolling down the mini hill. Gotta get out those wiggles and giggles before heading back to school.

Best Friends.

What a fun field trip! Hoping there are many more of those (that I can tag along on). And hoping the girls will want me to tag along .....
They're growing up too fast!

Kites a la Little Girls

The girls decided last month to make some kites. On their own. Without any help or instructions.

What did they come up with?

Sheets of paper taped to long pieces of ribbon.

Physics, schmizics. They decided to stick their noses up at kite aerodynamics and give these so-called kites a whirl on a super windy day in October.

Here's Annika's kite.

Up, up, up and away?

Up kite, I said UP!

Come on, you're supposed to be a kite, right? Aren't you supposed to be up in the air?

Ava's kite.

Annika trying SO HARD to get her kite in the air.

Maybe a bunch of running will help....

Never mind.

However, the girls are determined that their kites will still work. Sigh. So much for teaching them about kite aerodynamics.

I do admire their dedication though!

Do you know what a Boppacorn is?

Safe & Spooky Halloween @ Stonefield Village

Last year we discovered the Halloween party at Stonefield Village in Cassville, WI. The kids get to go from building to building all of which were decorated for Halloween, trick-or-treating.

What a great discovery indeed!

This year Annika went as Mad Scientist, Dr. B and Ava was a Cute Little Witch. Mommy and Daddy had amazing costumes too- quite realistic too- as Mommy and Daddy.