Our Kids Blog

Fun in the snow.

One of my favorite traditions is your yearly picture in your great grandmothers clothes. Each year we take your picture in Great – Grandma Howard’s swimsuit and Great – Grandma Miller’s wedding dress.  You can check out the past years here.

Jan. 24, 2015 – age 9

Last year we didn’t take the pictures until May!

May 2014 – age 8

great – grandma miller’s wedding dress

May 2014 – age 8

great grandma howard’s swimsuit

Saturday afternoon playdate.

More ice fishing fun with Papa.

Your 9 year old check up at the doctor.

I may or may not have drove around the lake for half an hour trying to find you guys just for my picture of the day:-)

Today we got to come to school for “Mystery Readers” and listen to the book, “The Rabbit With Epilepsy.”  A very nice lady from the Epilepsy Foundation came and read it to your class.

I love you so much my little valentine!

~You both helped write our grocery list.~

After church we headed to grandma and grandpa’s house in Red Wing.  With some unseasonably warmer weather you both enjoyed more great snowboarding.  This time dad groomed a path with grandpa’s snowmobile.

This is one way to get back up the hill.

Here is a step by step of how we made the Eiffel Tower Canvas.

Materials Needed:

Canvas

Scrapbooking Paper

Paint (We used acrylic)

Paintbrushes

Mastic (Tile Grout)

Mod Podge or Matte Medium

First, I found a picture of the Eiffel Tower that I liked.  After I printed it out I traced the outline on the canvas.  You could use any shape or object that you like.

Next I started applying Mastic (tile grout) that I got from our local home improvement store to add texture.

My idea was to have the kids decorate the inside of the Eiffel Tower with scrapbook paper so I just textured the outside which will later be painted.

To frame the tower I traced the outline with the grout using a cake decorating bag.

You need at least 24 hours for the grout to harden.

Before the birthday party I pre-ripped little strips of scrapbooking paper for the girls to pick from.  To apply the paper to the canvas you first need to do a layer of mod podge directly to the canvas.  After arranging the paper strips where you want them on the canvas you should apply another coat of mod podge as a top layer.

Finally, the last step is to paint the textured canvas.

Ooh la la!

I love how they all turned out!

Your birthday week celebrations finally came to an end with your friend party at our house. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the Paris theme and making the Eiffel Tower canvas.

You truly have such a great group of friends.

I love how everyone’s turned out!

We enjoyed the day off at Christie Mountain with your schools “ski day”.

You started with some snowboarding lessons and finished the day tubing with your friends.

I can remember as a kid my dad loved to wrap presents with extra items to disguise the actual present.  I vaguely remember him wrapping a brick once with something small just to surprise my mom.

But this present disguise that Grandma Swany did for you was pretty awesome.  She secretly slipped an American Girl Gift Card into the kleenex box so at first you thought it was just kleenex! Ha!

It didn’t take you long to get Grace and all her accessories all moved in downstairs.

 I love all your attention to the little details.