Craft Project with Katie and Kayden

Katie spent a couple nights with us the other day and her and Kayden were bored, so I had a few craft supplies on hand and had the kids get to it.

I picked up colored 12x12 canvases for super cheap, so I let the kids pick their color, then their desired shape.  Cut the shape out of vinyl with my Silhouette and adhered it to the canvases.  Then sent the kids out to the back deck with paint, giant marshmallows and their canvases.  I didn't have any paint brushes....and I remembered seeing on Pinterest how you could use marshmallows....so, I tried it out.  And it worked pretty well, only advise would be to switch out the marshmallows often.  The paint makes them softy and eventually the ooey, gooey marshmallow transfers to the canvas. 

Once the kids were done we let the canvases dry, then the next morning we removed the vinyl sticker and voilà, super cute canvases that they kids made themselves!

 

Kayden wouldn't let me get a picture of him with his canvas, and then he decided to give it to Papa Larry, so I have no finished picture of it.  That's ok though, he told me he wants to make another one.  When I asked why he gave it away to Papa if he wanted one for himself he said, "Uh, because Papa Larry didn't have one and he needed it".  Ok, fair enough.

Another First

It has happened, sooner than I thought and sooner than I would have liked, but it happened.  Another first in the Bryant house, and more proof being thrown in my face that Kayden is, indeed, getting older...sadly, we weren't given much notice, Kayden wasn't ready for it either.  As a matter of fact, he cried when we realized it.  Then he balled on Friday when we were sitting outside eating dinner and his tooth fell out, and it bled...bad.  But once we got the bleeding stopped and we got him distracted, he was happy and excited for the Tooth Fairy to come and was thrilled Nini made him a special monster tooth fairy pillow.

 

He was super happy with what the Tooth Fairy brought him, money and a sucker!  Oh, and she left his tooth, just like he asked.  He didn't want her to keep the tooth, so we wrote her a note asking her to kindly leave it.  So, she did.  Always such a nice Tooth Fairy!

Camp Out

Kayden has never been camping, and well, it's been probably close to a decade since I have gone camping.  It is NOT my cup of tea.  I prefer to have a toilet, running warm water for a shower in the morning, my bed and all the other amenities a home has.  Kyle, however, enjoys camping and wishes to take Kayden some day, and I'll consider the idea, but there are no guarantees! 

Because we have had such warm weather lately, Kyle thought it would be fun to pitch the tent in the backyard and set up camp.  He went all out and pumped up the air mattress, grabbed all the sleeping bags for added padding and to keep warm when the temperatures dip to under 70 degrees and called it camping.  Kayden was super excited and had so much fun helping set up the tent and the air mattress.  I love seeing his excitement show.

 

The golf club was for the bugs, if they came in the tent Kayden was going to get them!

The boys have really enjoyed the tent.  They spent a couple work nights out there, and I've gotten up to switch spots with Kyle.  It is actually a pretty comfortable set up, and I love that all the amenities of home are just ten feet away!  I imagine they will spend many more summer nights out there throughout the rest of the summer and many more summers to come.

AND on a unrelated matter, I discovered this week Kayden has a loose tooth!  :(  When did he get old enough for a loose tooth?  And actually, he has three loose teeth, one very loose, and two others that are still pretty tight, but loose nonetheless.  My little guy is growing too fast.

Arlington Carnival

Who doesn't love a carnival?  Kayden sure does and we were so happy to take him when we got the invitation from some friends of ours.  It was a perfect size carnival for the littles and for us.  It wasn't very big, but there was plenty to do with the kids.  Our friends daughter is almost four, and they have one year old also, and we were pleasantly happy to see just how many activities there were for our kids. 

First up:  The Goliath Slide.  I wish I captured a similar picture to this with Kayden going down the slide with his arms in the air, fist pumping.

Kayden would have been happy setting up tent at the fishing pond and throwing five dollars at the worker for another chance to fish, but we had to move on and find things that accepted his ride bracelet instead.  We got the opportunity to fish twice, the first time he didn't want to catch a fish too soon because he knew it meant putting the pole down and finding something else to do.

 Ellie was happy to fish also.  She was quick on the trigger and caught one quickly.

 

It was a catch and release pond and in exchange they got to pick out a stuffed animal.  Ellie quickly picked out the blue frog, while Kayden got a zebra fish.

 I just might print and frame the picture above.  It is one of my favorites from the day.

 Kayden is a roller coaster junkie and would be happy if they only had this one ride.  Ellie is a little more on the cautious side, but didn't want to fall in the shadows of Kayden, so she did almost everything he did, given enough time to warm up to the idea.

She was happy to ride the carousel, while he, on the other hand wanted to be back on the roller coaster.  But when he got off he had a smile on his face, so the pouting was over.

 Ellie was an accurate water gun shooter, the kids played three games and she won two out of the three times.

 Meet handsome, Brody, his favorite of the night...eating graham crackers.

Ellie was happy to stand back and watch all the kids slide down Goliath, but she was talked into going down with dad, then we couldn't keep her off.

We had a nice time at the carnival and the size of it was perfect for our kids ages.  Enough of a variety of rides, while not being too overwhelming for them.  It's these kinds of days that makes me love being his mama.