Pony Bead School Spirit

Welcome to September!

Kids back to school, cooler days, crackly leaves, and College Football!

This house cheers for the Nebraska Huskers! Go Big Red!!!

So today I'm going to share our crafty project from yesterday and I'll be linking it up with Sara over at Mom Endeavors. Sara hosts a College Football Tailgate party...a great place to check out lots of fun & footbally (totally a word) ideas!

(and I forgot to mention...Sara cheers for the Huskers, too!)
On to our project!  The Sun Catchers from I'm Feeling Crafty caught my eye and I've been wanting to try it for a long time.Yesterday the kids were all antsy and needing to focus on something and I thought, "Carpe Pony Beadium!" (that is Latin for Seize the Pony Beads)

We got to work picking out Husker colors from our bead stash. It was about this time that I realized I only had a handful of clear pony beads. But we were in GO mode...so we kept going!

I let my little Pony Bead Artists have free creative license with arranging the beads in their muffin tins.

All Right! So you take your beads and arrange them in the design you want in a metal pan or muffin tin. 

Single layer would have been better...but this was a Fly By the Seat of Our pants sort of project.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees and bake your beads for 20ish minutes. 

And you will get awesome melted bead mosaics!

Then my Hubby drilled some holes for me. Feel free to leave a comment about how he needs to stop chewing on his nails...he won't listen to me!

And string them up!

Since ours didn't turn out to be transparent...I went for wind chimes instead!

This is something we will do again with clear beads. I have Visions of Christmas Presents swimming in my head! Taking a little more time to make sure the beads are all flat and in a single layer would make the finished project smooth. But I kind of like our Funky Bumpy Clacky Wind Chimes!

FYI...this did make our house smell pretty bad. I'm not sure if it was the opaque beads or maybe my oven just really needs to be cleaned (blush!). We opened all the windows and let the house air out for about an hour. I see that these are doable on the grill...and I think we'll experiment with that next time!

Thanksgiving Sharing

I hope you all had a Wonderfully Warm & Blessing Filled Thanksgiving!

We sure did!

We spent the day with my parents and grandmother. My mom made the traditional turkey, stuffing, potatoes...and I was in charge of cranberry salad and pies!

Why can't we all just get along?!?! lol

I whipped up a cute little hair clippie for Kat. You can find the instructions with great photos HERE at Happy Hour Projects!

The little Gobbler was eyeing my Pecan Pie!

LOVE how the ribbon looks like a crown from the front! Kat was our Turkey Fairy Princess!

This was such a cute and easy project!

Then it was time to eat! John & Louie entertained us with a song John learned at pre-school. 

(sung to the tune of Are You Sleeping)

Mr. Turkey (Mr. Turkey)

Big and Fat (Big and Fat)

I am going to eat you (I am going to eat you)

Just like THAT! (Just like THAT!)

After we were all properly stuffed, James helped my dad set up their ginormous Christmas tree. Then we headed home.

Now. We live in Nebraska. And it was November 24th. In NEBRASKA. And our thermometer on our van was reading 70 degrees! In November. In Nebraska! That only means one thing...

LET'S GO OUTSIDE!!!

Louie was invited to spend the night with my parents and Kat zonked out on the ride home, but John whipped out the sidewalk chalk while we put up the outdoor lights. Here is his portrait of moi!

Kid made me look 50 pounds lighter!!!

These lines are his rendition of my plaid shoes! John is all about the details!

He's also all about Self Expression!

I'm in full Christmas Mode now! How about you?

I still have a few Fall-ish things to share that I'm going to try and squeeze on here.

But, Advent starts this Sunday and this year we're doing a Jesse Tree! I'm excited to share it with the kids and with you. I'm also in the process of putting together our Countdown to Christmas Activity Advent Calendar. Not to mention the presents I need to make. Hmmm...I'm getting tired...time for a nap!!!

And! Be watching...I'll be doing an Ornament a Day like last year!

Last week was just one of those weeks that make you crazy. We had somewhere to be every single night! By Sat. afternoon we were down to no clean plates, one clean fork rattling around in the drawer and we were out of underwear! But it was SO incredibly beautiful here and we have SO much yard work to get done...we headed outside!

The first project was to remove the remaining clothes line pole from our back yard. My marvelous hubby (who isn't a natural Handyman...but he's learning!) removed the first one two years ago. After digging a hole to the center of the Earth, busting up a TON of concrete and finally sawing through the metal pole. This time we were prepared for a long drawn out ordeal. James popped it out after just a few hours of elbow grease! But he DID have two Super-Helpers this time around. Here are some shots of J. & Louie in the hole.

Our next project involved the iron railing along the front patio of our house. It has been slowly chipping and rusting away. Last year James spent an insane amount of time sanding, priming and spray painting (with that special No Rust paint) the goofy thing. This year...it was back to chipping and rusting full time. Solution...cut the thing down! Here are the before and after shots.

We've got lots more to do, but we're off to a good start. We dug up a bed to transplant our Iris bulbs and we got some annuals potted. Next is setting up a small (I'm wary since I tend to kill plants) vegetable garden and clear out some brush from the yard.

Cabin Fever

Cabin Fever showed up at our door step and moved in about one week after Christmas! Luckily the warm sun, fresh breeze and baby-blue sky shooed it away this week. Here are the Wee Ones enjoying it all...

J. thinking about his chalk drawing.

Louie & J. drawing their battleships.

Kat LOVED...hair-blowing, belly-giggling LOVED the swing!

And that's how we passed the afternoon and evening! I have big plans for tomorrow. We'll be making bunnies out of white wash cloths. Easter is upon us...