Gillian's Art Show

Tonight was Gillian's art show. The boys stayed home to work on John's book report, so it was just the girls. Gillian was so excited! We ran into her art teacher and she told me all about the projects they have worked on this year. 

Here are some of Gillian's pieces. 

Fashion by Gillian

Friday afternoon, I found Gillian glueing construction paper together in the laundry room. 

 

I asked "Gilly, whatcha doing?" She looked up and said "I'm making a dress!" Don't know why I didn't think of that. I left her alone. Later I asked "What made you decide to make a dress out of paper?" She said "Remember when we were doing crafts this morning? That's where I got the idea!" Earlier in the day the kids spent time in Monmouth Museum's art studio creating. She glued all her paper together on Friday and left it to dry. 

She continued working on her dress on Saturday. 

I helped cut a whole for the head. But she added ribbon and made the straps all by herself. 

She made a beautiful dress!

I can't wait to see her next creation.  

Cupcakes

Two weeks ago after Religion Class, Gillian said to me "Mom, we are having a spring party next time.  Can we make those chick cupcakes?"  I am constantly surprised by Gillian's memory.  My mom bought me a decorating set where you can make cupcakes look like baby chicks.  She bought it last year.  I had intentions of making cupcakes for school or something but never did.  I was going to just use the pieces for my cookies.  Gillian had other plans.  I told her "Yes.  We can make some cupcakes for your class." 

This past Saturday, I made the cupcakes and I had Gillian decorate them.  I think they looked great.

Since the set only made 12 cupcakes and I baked 24 cupcakes, I let Gillian decorate the remaining cupcakes however she wanted.  Let me just note that I have moved most of my sugars, sprinkles and assorted cookie decorations to a lower cabinet and Gillian used this to her advantage.

Painting

We received a bag of hand-me-downs on Friday. The bag had books, Monopoly Junior, a Melissa and Doug paint by number and a Spiderman wallet. John claimed the wallet and Gillian declared the paint by number hers. 

Gillian desperately wanted to paint her project. But with her recital this weekend she didn't get to work on it until Sunday. The paint by number was actually a 3D display with dolphins. Gillian spent Sunday afternoon painting and following the instructions to a tee. She surprised me. I thought she would have done her own thing. 

She worked very hard and after everything dried she helped me glue it together. 

Yesterday morning I found her in the kitchen with her paint brush out again. She said "I missed a spot. But I fixed it!" 

No TV

We have a no TV during the week rule for the kids. We don't have a lot of time with the kids at night and no TV just makes it easier to do homework, eat dinner, and get everyone to be in a timely manner. Most nights TV isn't missed. Tonight was one of those nights. We got all of John's homework done, read books, took baths and got ready for bed with no arguments. After reading John wanted to make a rainbow loom bracelet and Gillian played with her Monster High dolls. Who needs TV when we can use our imagination and be creative?

Trick Shot

Daddy caught John demonstrating his trick shots with his Nerf Gun on Sunday.  I love this little video.  He is so confident and creative at the same time. 

The cake

When GillIan heard that it was Aunt Betty's birthday last week, the first thing she said to me was "When do we get cake?" She was a little distraught to find out that we weren't going to have any cake. I suggested that maybe we invite Aunt Betty over this weekend and make her a cake. GillIan loved that idea. "Yes, ask her!" I asked her "What kind of cake should we make?" GillIan said "A pretty one. Maybe pink. Or blue or her favorite color!" We brainstormed for a while about what to put in the cake and how to decorate it. Gillian loves cake so it is easy to keep her talking. So I asked Gillian why she liked cake so much. She said "I just want to eat it forever!" 

This morning, Gillian and I made Aunt Betty's cake while John was at karate. Gillian was very excited to help. She insisted on wearing her "Olaf" apron. 

We made a simple box cake. But Gillian was in charge of mixing. "Mama, you do the eggs. I mix!" She was an excellent assistant. She was patient and helpful. And waited until I was ready with the next ingredient. She mixed with a spatula. 

 

And she got to use the hand mixer too. It was her first time using one. She did tell me, "I get to lick them when I done!"

And yes, she got to lick the beaters. 

After we mixed the batter, we added orange sprinkles to make the cake confetti but with only orange. Cause orange is Aunt Betty's favorite color. Gillian helped me pour the batter in the pans and I put them in the oven. Gillian constantly checked the oven to see their progress. While the cakes were baking, Gillian made Aunt Betty a card. 

The cakes cooled and I frosted the cake with orange icing. I asked Gillian to decorate the top with sprinkles. She used orange and mixed sprinkles. She actually took handfuls of sprinkles and put them on top. But she was pleased with the finished product and that's all that matters. 

Aunt Betty came to visit today and Gillian was so happy to show her the cake. 

The cake was delicious and Aunt Betty was so happy. I'm glad I got to spend the morning with my little lady and Gillian was happy to get some cake! And surprise Aunt Betty too!

Making Cookies

On Christmas Eve, I decided to make cookies with the kids.  I made them each their own batch of sugar cookies.  They got to pick their cookie cutters.  John chose two different dinosaurs, a big circle, a baseball bat and the swamp fox.  Gillian chose a flower, a big Mickey Mouse head, a small Mickey Mouse head, a Mickey Mouse glove and a rabbit in an Easter egg.  I let them roll the dough all by themselves and cut their own cookies.  Gillian loved cutting her cookies.  If I didn't immediately pull them off the table, she would actually re-cut new cookies on top of the old cookies.  John had fun too.  He was much better with the rolling pin and actually did a really good job cutting out his cookies.

 

Today, Aunt Betty came to visit.  The kids ran around the house showing Aunt Betty all their new toys they got from Santa.  After they showed her all the toys, they were unsure of what to do next.  So we decided to decorate their cookies.  There wasn't many cookies leftover.  The kids have been eating them plain as snacks over the past couple of days.  I pulled all kinds of sprinkles out for the kids to decorate with.  John and Gillian started decorating.  Gillian kept calling the icing "glue."  "I need the glue first!"  She would ice the cookies and then cover them in sprinkles.  She grabbed sprinkles by the handful and covered her cookies.  She had three cookies done before John finished his first cookie.  John was a little more methodical.  He tried to cover every inch of his cookie with icing before putting any sprinkles on the cookie. 

The finished cookies:

The kids had so much fun today.  Aunt Betty and I got a ton of laughs too.  It was totally worth the mess!

giggles

Today Daddy and I were upstairs watching football and decorating cookies.  We could hear the kids in the basement playing and giggling.  They sounded like they were having a good time, but we couldn't see what they were doing.  Gillian's giggles could be heard upstairs and it sounded like she was having a good time.  Daddy went downstairs to investigate.  The video below is what he found:

Witch Hat Cookies

I picked the kids up from school on Friday, and John had two witch hat cookies on a plate.  He was so proud of these cookies.  He told me "They are for you and Daddy.  We got to make three today, and I had one at snack."  As soon as Gillian saw the cookie she had to have it.  I told John she could have my cookie.  He said, "But I made them for you.  I know how to make them.  We just need the ingredients.  We need icing and a chocolate cookie and a big chocolate chip."  We went out to dinner and on our way home, John and Gillian ate the two witch hat cookies.  We stopped at the food store and got the "ingredients."  We found the Hershey kisses, and green icing very quickly, but had a hard time in the cookie aisle finding a big chocolate cookie.  While I was looking at every option of cookie, John started to do the pee-pee dance.  We threw our stuff on a shelf and ran to the bathroom.  On our way back, I said to John, ok now we need to find a big chocolate cookie.  He says "Yup with a hole in it."  Thank goodness he said that, because I saw those cookies.  We bought our ingredients and went home.  John immediately went to work and showed Daddy, Gilly and I how to make the witch hat cookies. 

Finger-painting

It was a raining cold day today. I wanted to keep the kids entertained so I broke out the finger-paints. I thought it was something different and the kids would enjoy it. Gillian was so excited as I got the paints ready. She didn't hesitate and put her hands right into the paint. John, on the other hand, only put his fingertips in the paint. Once John go his whole hand covered in paint he said "Mom, can you get me a wipe?" While John was worried about a little paint on his hand, Gillian had both hands covered. Every time she put her hands in the paint she said "It tickles." They are so different and wonderful at the same time.