Iphone Photo Phun - short and sweet

As I am a little late in jumping on the Iphone Photo Phun bandwagon this week (don't look at me like that - I am thirty weeks preggo and a bit busy!), I'll try to keep the captions for this week's photos short and sweet.

Little Miss 5 1/2 finished her first reading book yesterday - all 126 pages of it! She must have a pretty awesome teacher.

While these two did break a lamp and my favorite Coca Cola drinking glass today, there are moments of sweetness and love. They may be few, but they do exist.

I discovered this week that I have two chicken lovers in my house. As in, "Please Mom can I have another drumstick? I promise to eat all my vegetables too" while stuffing face with broccoli and corn.

Cutest dinner dates ever!

The kids got to spend some time at their great-grandparents this weekend. :)

Time to get some dinner on! Sorry kiddos, we've had chicken enough this week - looks like it's going to be savory sausage soup.

Recess

Blogging during recess. Now there's a new one for me. But it's either that or trying to fit in some blogging in the evening. And although the evening does give me some "free time"(time to fold laundry, clean the kitchen, work on children's church curriculum, work on baby stuff, work on lesson plans, clip coupons, etc), it is fairly safe to say that at this point in the pregnancy, my brain has completely checked out at that time. Completely. So much so that I am not remembering conversations with the Nerd during this time. Unless of course he is making it all up just to torment me.

Anyway. Where has life been leading us lately?

1. The Nerd went away to nerd heaven (aka computer conference) all weekend. He had a fantastic time. I counted the minutes until he returned.

2. There was a big rat on our deck last night. It came right up to the sliding glass door and stared at us. I may or may not have freaked out. The Nerd was an idiot and opened the door. Thankfully the rat had enough sense not to come in. Thanks for all the crazy dreams, rat! (and Nerd!)

3. It is finally fall here in Oregon. The temperatures dropped from 85 to 60 in one day, and the rain has been making us all sleepy.

4. Speaking of sleepy, all three of my children slept in until 8:30 am today. I did find evidence in the kitchen that the Spud had been up earlier for a little cereal snack, but apparently he went back to bed and they all slept soundly until I had to wake them up. Did you hear that people? I HAD TO WAKE THEM UP. Unheard of around here!

5. I am contemplating going to the "no-poo" method for washing my hair. I have read a lot about it and am considering it, not to save money necessarily but to help my hair get a lot healthier. Have any of you tried it? It is supposed to be really great for people with curly frizzy hair (aka me) and people with dandruff issues (aka Nerd).

oh here come the kids. I have to hide the candy corn before they see it. til next recess!

Art Project #2 - Dyed Rice Flag

Project Title: Dyed Rice Flag

Materials Needed: white poster board, crayons (red and blue), ruler, pencil, 4-5 cups rice, food coloring (red and blue), rubbing alcohol, school glue, mini marshmallows

Purpose: To teach students to explore different textures in art.

(I chose to do an American flag with this project since we studied it in history class and also since this art class closely followed the tenth anniversary of September 11th. The technique in this project however would be perfectly suited to any design or shape.)

First, gather your materials. You will also need two bowls and spatulas for the dying of each color of rice.

Then, dye your rice. For the red rice, we put two cups of rice into a large bowl. We added two teaspoons of rubbing alcohol and stirred it until all the rice looked wet. Then we added several drops of red food coloring and stirred until we were happy with the red color we achieved. For the blue rice, we used one cup of rice, one teaspoon of rubbing alcohol, and considerably less food coloring.

Spread each color of rice on a cookie sheet or pan with edges to dry. I put our trays on top of the stove and turned the oven to low to speed the drying process. The color on the rice dried very quickly.

While the rice was drying, I had the Drama Queen color the red stripes and blue field on the poster board flag I had drawn up the night before. The flag I made measured 13 inches by 22 inches. Each stripe was one inch wide, and the blue field measured 7 inches by 9 inches.

Now, it was time to add the rice. I squirted some school glue onto the blue field first and spread it into an even layer with a paint brush. Then we took handfuls of the blue rice and pressed them into the glue, covering as much of the area as possible.

We did the same thing with each red stripe. We found it was important to press the rice in firmly and put more rice on than you would think was necessary.

As the blue and red areas dried, I used another clean paint brush to carefully sweep away any rice that had fallen into the white stripes.

Finally, we added the white rice in between the red stripes. Don't stress if some white or blue rice makes it into the red stripes - you can remove those later with tweezers or just let it be. :)

When the project was completely dry, I tilted it up on one end and let all the loose rice fall off. ( I saved it all in a container for my autistic son to use in his sensory activities.) The Drama Queen helped me arrange the marshmallows on the blue field before I hot glued them in place. Before I could get the camera to take this last picture, however, the Spud managed to swipe a few marshmallows from the flag.

I haven't decided yet how we will display our flag - I probably will spray it with some sort of adhesive to make it more durable and then hang it in an area where a few grains of fallen rice here and there don't really matter.

The Drama Queen's favorite part was dying the rice*; so we plan on dying more colors of rice and making a big sensory box for the kids to dig and play in.

*You can also use this dying technique with any kind of pasta. Just be aware that the pasta takes much longer to dry than the rice does.

Twenty-Nine Weeks

(me and my current favorite ice cream flavor - Breyers Heath Bar Explosion)

The Baby: So Little Sprout is getting a bigger head now to make room for all those brains that run in the family. :) Her vegetable or fruit comparison of the week is a butternut squash, completely fitting for the season. I am supposed to be upping my intake of calcium to help baby's skeleton get stronger and harder. As you can see, I work hard on that every day with a big bowl of ice cream.

Me: I'm fine - just tired as usual and not inclined to do much of anything outside the realm of necessity. I have been happily eating my fair share of food these days, taking full advantage of the fact that I am pregnant and can eat whatever I want. Well, of course that's a myth but no one is going to argue with a preggo lady or try to take her food away. That would be extremely foolish.

The Siblings: I think the Spud is definitely getting more of a sense of what is happening. He is extra-snuggly and asks, "hold me like a baby, momma." It is certainly going to be a time of upheaval for him. I probably should try to wean him a little from this baby-like behavior, but selfish me eats it up and relishes it as much as possible because I know it won't be the same once Little Sprout arrives. The Beast has also made it quite clear that he does not appreciate having to sit next to Momma to read instead of on her lap due to my burgeoning belly.

The Plans: Nothing new this week. I am starting to realize how quickly December is coming and how busy the fall months will be for us; so a sense of urgency is beginning to develop. I still have to make a space for baby in our bedroom. I need to get our infant car seat back from a friend and have it ready to go. I have to fill out a lot of hospital paperwork. I need to figure out items I still need before baby arrives.

And just typing that list of things to do is exhausting. :) I would go take a nap, but three littles are not showing any signs of slowing down today. . .

Iphone Photo Phun - In Which I Show Favoritism

So I missed out on participating in Iphone Photo Phun last week. You would think that was due to the insanely busy schedule we are now keeping, with homeschooling and an ever-exhausting pregnancy. Nope. I couldn't find the cord that hooks my Iphone up to my laptop to get the photos off. I didn't find said cord until this morning. I take it as a good thing though. I mean, I could have lost one of the kids. Although I probably would have tried harder to find them if I did. Lose them, I mean.

Anyway, here's the past two weeks in all Iphoto glory (and no I don't love the youngest more than the others - he's just a lot more willing to pose for photos without shutting his eyes or making ridiculously cheesy grins. Also, he is pretty cute, I must say.)

We showed our patriotism on the tenth anniversary of the tragic events of September 11th.

Screams of delight always greet my announcement of "breakfast for dinner." Apparently pancakes, french toast, sausage, and eggs are in high demand around here. This particular evening, even the eggs seemed excited about it.

I took a quick photo here of the little scholar busy doing her Letters and Sounds page.

The Spud had his three-year-old well-child visit to the doctor. He was pleased to find out he was old enough to wear the little hospital gown and up-to-date on his shots.

The little man is getting more independent every day. Putting his own shoes on is his newest accomplishment, a feat that couldn't have come soon enough for his poor preggo mommy.

I bravely took the kids to a library story time last week. The theme of the day was "Getting Dressed." The Beast paid no attention to any of it until underwear was mentioned. Then he felt the need to announce to the whole class that he had special underwear, underwear with a "door" in it. The Spud chose a book about underwear to take home and has been giggling hysterically at it every night at bedtime.

We managed to get a bike ride in while the weather was cooler. By bike ride, I mean only the Beast rode his bike the whole time. I spent most of my time steadying the Drama Queen's bike and assuring her that she would not fall. the Spud mostly pushed his bike around and pedaled it only occasionally.

And with that, this preggo lady is going to bed. :)

Vintage Curls

Has anyone else tried getting vintage-look curls in their hair using a headband? I've seen several versions wandering around on Pinterest and decided to try it a few weeks ago. I must admit, I was skeptical that anything that did not require heat or hair product would actually hold. I followed the instructions on this video and found that the headband was surprisingly comfortable to sleep in.

And they turned out great! That Sunday morning, all I had to do was take out the headband, fluff out the curls a little, add a flower, and I was ready to go. I've done it several times since then and liked the results every time.

Just wondering if anyone else had tried it. I am tempted to try it on the Drama Queen's hair, but her hair is fine and thin, the opposite of mine. I wonder if it would hold on her hair too.

Art Project #1 - Fingerprint Art

The whole homeschooling thing is in full swing now. The Drama Queen takes her basic classes like Reading, Arithmetic, Spelling, Language, and Writing every day, and we have sprinkled in some extra classes as well. Mondays and Wednesdays we learn about American history; Tuesdays and Thursdays we explore science. Fridays are reserved for Health class and Art class.

I love art and believe that not only should the student create something wonderful that she is proud of, but also it should teach some basic principles of creating art. I hope to keep record of each art project we do this year, not only for memories' sake but also for ideas for others looking for simple, fun projects to do. Keep in mind that I am creating each of these projects with a five-year-old in mind, but many of them can be easily adapted to other age groups.

Here is our first project.

Project Title: Fingerprint Art

Materials Needed: white paper, ink pad (for stamping), black ink pen or fine tip Sharpie

Purpose: To teach students to take basic shapes and create more with them; to inspire students to take something ordinary and make it interesting.

(I also chose this project for our first because we had been learning in science class how every person in the world is unique. We examined fingerprints of all the members of our household and found that no two were alike.)

This is a very simple project. I made up this idea sheet the night before to help the Drama Queen with the creativity process. Then, when art time came, I gave her several sheets of white paper folded into greeting cards for her to decorate with fingerprint masterpieces. We experimented with different ways to make fingerprints - lots of pressure, roll the finger, use the pinky for little creatures, etc. and enjoyed making our own designs.

The Drama Queen made this card for her grandma. For the dog, she did two thumbprints, one vertical and one horizontal, before adding details like ears, snout, and legs with an ink pen. The long-eared owl (her words, not mine) was made with one vertical index fingerprint and decorated with ears, eyes, beak, and feet.

I only had a few dollar-store ink pads in blues and blacks - these would be a lot of fun to do in different colors, especially the frog made from a green fingerprint, the pig made from a pink fingerprint, and so on.

For more ideas on fingerprint art, you may want to try Ed Emberley's book Complete Funprint Drawing Book. I remember having an Ed Emberley drawing book as a kid and probably some of my little doodles are from those memories.

Twenty-Eight Weeks

The Baby: Little Sprout has been supremely active lately. Last night the Nerd was watching in amazement as my belly suddenly sprouted mini-mountains due to the little ninja's fists or feet or elbows or who knows what. "What does that feel like?" he wanted to know. I don't know - like a crazy little alien inside of you is punching your guts out? Maybe like that. Anyway, since she is a walloping 2 1/4 pounds now and measuring up to a Chinese cabbage in weight, she certainly is bulking up for her journey outside the womb in just a couple of months. Her mother is also bulking up, due to the advent of candy corn and pumpkin spice lattes.

Me: I now claim a kinship to one of the seven dwarves - Sleepy! I feel as if everything I do these days wears me out. Yesterday I needed a nap so desperately that I bribed the kids with candy corn and some Tom and Jerry with instructions to keep it down and don't get into anything while Momma naps for a few minutes. It didn't work - the Drama Queen and the Beast kept filing in and out of my room to tell me what the Spud was doing. Today I managed to get a twenty-minute-nap in during "recess" which helped tremendously later in the whole haul-the-crew-to-the-library-for-story-time event. I am relieved that the weather has cooled down significantly, enough that I am not turning our bedroom into an ice cube trying to stay comfortable. The Nerd is thankful as well - I have noted that he has not had to pull out the extra quilts in the past few nights.

The Siblings: The Drama Queen loves to point out to each and every person we meet that "Momma is having a baby soon - that's why she's so fat and tired." It seems that the boys don't think about it that much - except at prayer time, when they all clamor to be the one to pray for the baby.

The Plans: Last week I purchased what we enjoy referring to as "amazing grace." (pacifiers) I also did some research on breast pumps and checked out some local stores for their pricing on these. We took advantage of the Babys R Us Great Trade-In Event, in which you can trade in any used car seat, stroller, crib, or other baby equipment and get 25% off your purchase of a new one. The only stroller we had was this old, dirty, cheap umbrella stroller that we had been using to corral the Spud when we went on day trips like the zoo or the mall. I'm pretty sure we only paid $12 for that thing brand-new. By trading it in however (sippy cup stains and all!) we were able to save $20 on the purchase of the Graco LiteRider Stroller in Pippin. It is by far the nicest stroller we have ever owned - all our other children rode around in Craigslist finds that worked well for us then. However, this one has cupholders. Awesomeness. And it folds and unfolds literally with one flick of the wrist. Also awesomeness. It has a large basket underneath for everything that can drop down so the baby won't be disturbed when you're getting out the diaper bag or purse. The Nerd likes that it rides on a suspension system, and I am pleased that our infant car seat can snap right into it, if we need to do so. And it doesn't hurt that the stroller is done up in an adorable green and brown elephant theme. :)

I finally remembered to take pictures of the bibs I made for Little Sprout using scraps of material from Great-Grandma:

Aren't they cute? I adore oversized ric rac! I used a soft fuzzy pink fabric that I found on clearance on the back of the bibs - they are reversible. The pattern was super easy to follow and you can find the tutorial right here.

And it's on to the third trimester!

Time for

well. It's going to be fun working the blogging in along with the homeschooling thing. I used to blog first thing in the mornings, and now that school occupies that time space, I will have to figure out when I'm going to get me some bloggin' time.

Until then, here's some tidbits and pieces of what's been going on around here.:

1. I won my first fantasy football game of the season, 106 to 64. And that was with Peyton Manning as my main quarterback, who of course is injured for pretty much the whole season. I had to play my back-up QB, who basically just held down the questionable title of quarterback with a lousy seven points. Thankfully the rest of my team carried me through. Go Fightin' Frogs!

2. I just spent my evening reorganizing my coupon notebook and planning a couple of grocery store trips for tomorrow. Yes, I have a coupon notebook. Go ahead - call me a grocery geek, if you will. I am NOTHING like those extreme couponers on TV but let's just say I keep our food budget pretty low. :)

3. Yesterday (September 11th)'s significance provided me the opportunity to have some very deep conversations with the Drama Queen. Today our history lesson just happened to be on the significance and meaning of the American flag. I was able to link the two things together and really start teaching our daughter the meaning of being patriotic. The Drama Queen changes her mind daily about what she wants to be when she grows up, and it was very sweet of her to tell me, "When I'm bigger, I want to be a missionary to New York and help all those hurting people."

4. We found out at the Spud's doctor appointment today that he may have allergies which cause his heavy breathing and constant stuffed sinuses. I am hoping this is the case - if it is, he will just need to take some allergy meds to keep his breathing clearer. However, if he does not have allergies, it looks like his tonsils/adenoids will possibly need to be removed through surgery. Ick. Both the doctor and I are definitely hoping to avoid any surgery for the little guy if possible.

The lesson plans are waiting to be set out for tomorrow. I guess that's it for now. Happy Tuesday everyone!

Twenty-Seven Weeks

The Baby: So Little Sprout (I am dying to use her name we chose for her but I promised the Nerd to keep it a secret!) is almost two pounds now, the same as a head of cauliflower. According to BabyCenter, she is taking turns sleeping and being wide awake now, practicing for her sleep patterns when she joins us. Whatever. I am pretty convinced that child never sleeps, given the amount of time she uses my ribs as a trampoline.

Me: I am finding the need to sit down a lot more lately, as these poor legs and ankles get tired and swollen rather quickly. Thankfully that works out well with the whole homeschooling thing. Chasing little boys, however, is not helping. Also, although I am grateful that both boys seem to really be hitting their stride with the whole potty training thing, I do wish they would be able to hit the toilet more often. Getting down to scrub up all their "misses" off the floor is not on this preggo lady's list of fun things to do.

The Siblings: The Beast asked me to lift him up at the playground the other day so he could reach the zipline. I reminded him that Mommy was not able to lift that kind of weight right now. He said, "Oh yeah, I forgot. You can't pick me up cuz you're too fat!" (This said in a very loud voice - the Beast has only two volumes: loud and very very loud!) Sighing, I contended that it was not that Mommy was too fat, but that Mommy was carrying a baby in her tummy and didn't want to do anything to hurt the baby. "No, mom." he insisted. "It's cuz you're way too fat." Thanks kiddo. Self-esteem is now just soaring through the roof.

The Plans: I got nothin. Well, actually, if you count switching three rooms around in the house and doing way too much manual labor to give ourselves a bedroom with more room for baby, then I guess the plans have been going on as usual. I wonder if she would like sleeping in a dresser drawer?

I am just about ready to head on in to that third trimester. To all those who have made the kind remark of "Haven't you had that baby yet?", no and I am pretty sure you will know when I have. What? Do I look that big?

People. . .

Homeschool - First Day

Well, we took the plunge and started our year of homeschooling the Drama Queen on Tuesday. This decision to homeschool our daughter did not come without its share of inner turmoil, fears, anxieties, and general "What-if?"s. Still, I know it is the absolute best thing for our family this year, and I looked forward to the first day almost as eagerly as our little scholar. I was nervous about time management and little-boy-wrangling on the side, though.

The Drama Queen started the day off by posing for a bunch of first-day photos and exploring the writing instruments and shiny new textbooks in her desk. Although she is technically in kindergarten, her academic skills are far beyond that of a kindergartener; so I purchased first grade curriculum to teach to her this year.

I wrote out some rough lesson plans for our first day for each of her subjects, not knowing how much time it was going to take to teach one child each of these things. I am used to planning out lessons for classes of 15 or more students! During our first day, I recorded how much time it took for each subject to use for future lesson planning. Disregarding sibling interruptions and other distractions, actual class time was about 2 1/2 hours - much faster than I anticipated. We made time for a "recess" break and a snack as well. The Drama Queen soaked it all in, especially science class, which is her favorite by far.

We set up a large white board in the dining room for the teaching times. I have always enjoyed "board work" as a teacher and would take hours in the evenings to set up my boards for the next day of school. now I get to do that again - on a much smaller scale of course, but it is so fun to see the Drama Queen's reaction when she comes out for breakfast in the morning and sees the exciting things we will be learning that day.

Of course, we don't want to leave the Beast out of all of this. As I mentioned before, he has been approved for a blended class at the local community school this semester (a mixed class of both "normal" kids and kids with autism or attention deficit disorder.) He started his first class with his new teacher, Miss Alison, today. He went right into the classroom but then the shyness and nerves took over. He headed straight for a chair in the reading corner and hid behind it. When I picked him up two hours later, he kept hugging and kissing me and asking me to hold him. I tried to talk to him about what he actually did in school that day, but as usual the vague little man left me hanging. All I know is that there is a class pet turtle.

In the meantime, the Spud tries to horn in whenever he can. I caught him singing today, "A,E,I,O,U, I can sing my vowels to you." I do try to include him in Bible time as well as art time and other activities as much as possible.

Of course, we are in the midst of first-week-of-school-euphoria. I am fully expecting a stubborn Drama Queen to melt down at some point in the future, crying that she can't do it, and also anticipating that this growing-ever-more-tired-by-the-day preggo momma will have a day or two when I just don't want to do it. Welcome to real life, peeps!

And with that, I had better get some rest. We are facing basic addition in arithmetic tomorrow!

Iphone Photo Phun - Food (And Other Stuff)

Amidst all the busyness of the past week or so, I must have managed to pull out my Iphone a time or two to snap a quick photo. Here are the few photos that somehow try to convince you that all we did was watch movies and eat. A lot. I assure you that it's not so, but who takes pictures of all the hard work? I don't - I'm too busy eating to regain my strength for the next endeavor.

The kids decided to set up a "movie theater" one day as they watched Tangled twice in a row. Kindly disregard the pantlessness of the boys. It is the norm these days as we continue our potty training endeavors. I do not regret all the popcorn I had to vacuum up after this episode, but I am sorely wishing that that "At Last I See the Light" song from the movie would leave my head. Permanently.

More TV watching - this time at Grandma's house. Tom and Jerry never fail to amuse and fascinate my offspring.

So my Beast is obsessed with having things on his hands and arms. When gloves are not available, socks will do. When Grandma purchases new socks for everyone, they become even more enticing, especially the ones with pink heels. And did I mention it was 90 degrees out that day?!

One year at Christmas, the Nerd and I had this brilliant idea to buy each other restaurant gift cards at a discount (read: Costco) to ensure some fun date nights in the future. Recently we discovered one of these cards, which had somehow fallen behind our memo board. It was an occasion to celebrate; so we dumped the kids at their grandparents and went to McCormicks and Schmicks. The food was AH-MAZING. Naturally I had to get pictures of the yumminess. The Nerd calmly kept eating his Kobe beef burger and pretending that he had no idea why the crazy lady with him kept whipping our her phone to take pictures of their food. Above is my order of Parmesan-encrusted calamari with marinara dipping sauce.

My entree was Dungeness crab bisque - divine! We ended up sharing a fantastic creme brulee for dessert, but I had no time to take pictures as we were sharing and I certainly didn't want him to get more than me.

And if you were to whip out your phone right now and take a photo of me, um I guess it would be all about the food again. Candy corn and pumpkin lattes, to be specific. I'm just trying to will fall to get here a little faster, that's all. . .

Hyperdrive

Hyperdrive. That's what life was been like lately.

Due to a number of reasons, the main ones being the impending arrival of another little one and the fact that the boys are now able to escape their room at any time of the day or night, we decided on Sunday afternoon that some major room switches needed to be made. As in, we were going to move all our stuff from our bedroom downstairs to the boys' room. The boys' beds were going to be moved into the Drama Queen's room while her newly-painted bed was constructed in the same room. All their belongings and toys were to be moved downstairs to our old room for a playroom. Oh, and since we only came up with this solution on Sunday afternoon, we had a day and a half basically to get the majority of the work done. Thankfully my father-in-law came over and pitched in with all the heavy lifting and carrying, which I myself could not do due to the giant belly jutting out in front of me. My mother-in-law took the kids all day yesterday to get them out of the way and give us the focus we needed to get it all done. I'll tell you one thing - I have not been this sore or this tired in a very long time!

And today was the first day of school for the Drama Queen. We made the decision to homeschool her this year. The dining room is decorated with educational Busytown posters, a big white board, and various other schoolish things. I think our first day went amazingly well, and despite my exhaustion, I had a great time teaching her today. I'll share more about our homeschooling in the next post, accompanied of course by "first day" pictures and all the hoopla. Tomorrow, the Beast begins his fall semester in the blended class at ESD.

Oh yeah and the Nerd is going out of town with his dad this weekend for a Men's Conference. Life is not showing any signs of slowing down! And although this preggo lady is craving naps more and more often, I still wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Melty Crayon Awesomeness

Last week I pinned a melting crayon art project on my Pinterest boards with plans to use it sometime this year as an art project for home school. It looked so fun and easy, and I knew I had all the materials to do it. Eager to try it, I gathered all the kiddies at the kitchen table for a science/art lesson. First, we discussed rainbows - how they form, when you see them, etc. Then we learned ROYGBIV - the order of the colors of the rainbow. Using this new knowledge, I set the kids to organizing our crayons in rainbow order. We used two boxes of Crayola 24 crayons, and I took away the black, gray, brown, and white crayons since those colors do not appear in rainbows.

When the kids (mostly the girls) had carefully selected where each crayon should go, I hot-glued them in place at the top of our canvas. (Our canvas was 16" by 20", because that's what I had). We decided to keep the color name of each crayon facing outward so that they would all look uniform. Then the fun part started.

We propped up the canvas on a chair that I had liberally covered with newspaper. Using a hairdryer turned on high heat, I aimed it slightly downward at the purple/blue section of our crayon rainbow. The kids were delighted that immediately it began to melt and spray all over the place.

Each of the kids took turns making their own crayon wax splatters and using the "paint gun." (the Spud's words)>

We had a lot of splattering going on - I forgot to cover the side of our kitchen table with newspaper and soon it was speckled with various colors. In all the links I've seen, the artist managed to get their crayon wax flowing downward in straight lines. I think perhaps that's because they used a lower hair dryer setting or a different angle on their canvas.

Also, they probably didn't allow three-year-olds to man the hair dryer. :) I personally love the splattered look.

We then turned our hair dryer to low for a short while to blend our colors just a bit.

Here's a close-up of the colors all blended together. I'm not gonna lie - I was probably as excited or even more than the kids at this development. We still had quite a bit of blank canvas, and the girls suggested that we sign our artwork. I got the idea to trace each person's hand with their favorite color (with crayons from another box) and write their name with black sharpie in the center.

The kiddos posed proudly with their work (by the way, the crayon wax dries super fast so you don't have to wait forever like you do with paint.)

And then this pleased momma found a place in the dining room to hang it on the wall. The kids love to look at it, touch its interesting textures, and talk about ROYGBIV. Me? I'm planning our next masterpiece, perhaps in greens, grays, browns, and blacks for a camouflage effect for the boys' room.