The Monster Me!

This week is short week for me, I had Monday off for my cabin adventure, and then I had Friday off for a camping trip that got canceled so now it's just a personal day.

I decided that the kids and I should still have a theme and since Monster's University is coming out this weekend I decided the theme would be Monsters. The kids mom is going to take them to see this movie, and I plan on going and seeing it by myself or with a few willing friends!

Anyways, with the Monsters theme I looked up plenty of crafts on Pinterest.(Funny thing, every week with each new theme my pinterest board blows up with me pinning activities that go with that, it cracks me up, you can follow me here) Well I found a lot of stuff I liked but then something came to my mind and I decided it would be the best craft ever!

I call it Monster Me!

Do you remember when you were a kid and you went outside with chalk and you traced yourself and then spent the entire afternoon coloring it in? No? Well I did. Every single day I was allowed to play with chalk and it was my favorite thing ever.

So off to JoAnns we went to get the supplies, which wasn't much since we had a lot at home.

Supplies Needed:

*Large Roll of White Paper (You are fitting entire children on them)

*Scissors

*Tape

*Pencils

*Crayons

*Markers

*Squiggly Eyes

*Glue

*Other Odds and Ends (Tissue Paper, Feathers, Stickers, etc.)

*Imaginative Children

*Veggie Tale Pandora Radio Station

 

Ok, the last two are optional, but it makes the project way more fun!

 

First things first, lay that white paper roll out and have a child lay their whole body on the paper.

 

Then taking the pencil trace around the child's entire body. It doesn't have to be perfect and I included dresses and Einstein hair (as I call it).

 

After everyone has been traced cut out each piece of paper with the body on it. (You are not actually cutting the shape of the body quite yet!)

 

Find some open place on a floor somewhere and tape down the corners and any unruly sides that attempt to thwart your plan.

 

After the papers are taped down give the kids, pencils, crayons, or markers (or all 3!) and have them decorate their body if they were a Monster!

 

 

 

At this point there are so many giggles and "Hey look at what I'm doing" going on that it's a lot of fun. I gave my kids free range and told them that they could take their time and make their Monster Me however they wanted to.

 

After the kids have colored everything give them squiggly eyes and all the other odds and ends and some glue and let them accessories their Monster Me.

 

After everything has sat and dried have the kids cut out their Monster Me and display them anywhere in the house for all to see!

 

Then I had the kids lay next their Monster Me and take a picture, they came out sooo good.

I introduce to you Mr. Scare Bear, Charlotte, and Dob from top to bottom!

 

 

 

I have created this Pin so you can add to your board and share with others!

 

Jenny  

Here We Grow!!!

I am tired.

I forgot what it is like to be with the kids for 10 hours a day. I went to bed around 11 but probably could have went to sleep at 9. And I slept all the way till 6:45 giving me 15 minutes to get ready and be out the door.

Well as you know this week we are doing our Plants and Flowers theme. I have a few things up my sleeve to keep the kiddos busy and not just in front of an Ipad or TV all day long. Today we made some flower leis and flower collages.

While searching through Pinterest I find that I just keep clicking until eventually I get to some random post which is exactly what I am looking for! Finally I came to this Pin about construction paper flower leis and decided that would be the perfect first thing for our theme this week.

Original Pin

 



This project took about an hour and a half, we did it right after our handwriting books. (Rant: I am an education major and I appreciate some good handwriting, most of these days teachers don't have the resources or time to do handwriting because they have to focus on testing skills. So the kids I nanny will do handwriting every day this summer because it is important, that their writing doesn't look like chicken scratch. End Rant.) We pop on some Pandora Veggietales Radio station and get to work. After I explained that they needed to cut out 15 leaves, circles, and flowers I let them be, while I put away groceries.

 

After they cut everything out I gave them a pattern to follow to string all of their items onto the yarn. I helped with the cutting and the hole punching but let them put all of the stuff on their yarn themselves. They all work at different paces so they finished at different times and let me take adorable pictures of them with their new creations.

 

 

 

Including this cool guy above, with only one Scooby Croc because he's cool like that.

I then sent them off to read and do piano and workbooks while I finished up the leis I made for myself. We all put them on and then headed outside to take some pictures.

 

 

 

We also made Flower Sun catchers with a bouquet of flowers we got at Trader Joes. I found this pin while perusing on Sunday and decided it would look cute. The kids seem to just love contact paper, which is actually probably an understatement. We use it for everything but I am ok with that. They turned out pretty good and we put them in the window and the kids enjoy sitting and looking at them
and I do to.

Original Pin

 



 

Today is going to bring just as much fun.

Jenny

Please link up with Stephanie over at BEAUtiful Mess for this fantastic link up. So many neat projects to be found!

   

 



Big Fish!

My weekend started very quietly with a trip over to Kirsten's house where I ate dinner and watched The Davinci Code. Then I fell asleep on the couch. (Story of my life) We were going to go attempt to see the Purge with some people but didn't and that's ok because deep down I am soooo terrified of scary movies. I always have the best intentions in wanting to go see them but I am a chicken. Oh well.

I stayed the night and got up super early on Saturday like I always do, so I headed home because I needed to work on my budget and do a few things. I ended up getting my posts up from the week and launched the tab on my blog called The Summer Nanny Series. Then after getting everything in order I got in contact with Kirsten's sister Megan to go have lunch. We went to Chipotle and then headed to the mall because she needed new jeans. We had a great time and then I headed back to my house to get ready to head to the Aquarium for the evening.

You know Instagram right? Ok good. Well anyways every weekend they do a Weekend Hashtag Project and this past weekends was aquariums. Well my good friend Hunter texted me when he saw them post about it and we decided that we needed to get on down there. I am always game for some aquarium and since I have a pass I can always go. It can get a little expensive though but after some research we found that if you go Monday through Saturday from 6-9pm you can get in for $20, woohoo! So I ended up being there with 4 guys and me. I loved it. I am use to having guy friends and hanging out with just guys, they are so uncomplicated. We took a lot of pictures and I took a lot of pictures of the guys taking a lot of pictures. We spent pretty much the whole 3 hours there and most of it at the Ocean Voyager tank with the Whale Sharks and Manta Rays.

 

After the aquarium we went to dinner at Johnny Rockets and then called it a night.

 

Sunday brought Generosity Sunday at my church and I was so excited for what was going to happen in the House. I decided to serve in both morning gatherings and then attend the evening gathering. After the morning gatherings we went to eat at a new place called Eats. It is so hole in the wall it's not even funny, you would pass it if you didn't know what to look for. Boy was it delicious though. I had the Jerk Chicken with black beans and rice and cornbread, how much did I pay for all that food, only 7.25...oh yes just take a look.

 

After Eats we stopped at Krispy Kreme for some doughnuts for dessert. They happen to be on the same road and on the way back to church. They were super yummy as usual. Probably my last ones for a while though.

Then we headed back and attended the 5pm gathering. It was so amazing that words cannot even describe the way God moved. Go ahead and do yourself a favor and go to PassionCityChurch.com and listen to this past week's message. What made it even better was that Kirsten came as well. I love when all my friends are in the same place.

 

This Sunday was also my friend Taylor's last Sunday here in Atlanta. He is moving back to Minnesota to work at the church he came from. He is going to be truly missed but I am so excited that he is going to a place where he will be able to grow and be around his fam and friends again. This also means I have a new place to visit, woot woot!! We went to Chilis for dinner and then on the way back to the cars snapped this shot. We will miss you Taylor.