Oh The Craft Cupboard NEEDS Organized and Make Your Own Puzzle, House Picture, Highlights Fun, Jell-o Cubes

So now that you have already read my title and you still clicked into this post beware! No really, I've just not gotten to posting a few things so I crammed them all together. Are you ready?

Here is the craft cupboard. I can't believe I'm sharing my disorganization. I am used to be an organized person. Then a tornado of two under two hit and now I'm at two - three and under and it only gets busier. My excuse for the craft cupboard mess is the fact that I have to throw it in QUICK before grabby little hands start digging everything out (and it all collapses onto tiny and my mommy toes).

Exhibit A & Before:

One set of little grabby hands (In her adorable jammies may I add)

After:

NOT an Improvement

You see Oscar there? He sure is appropriate for dead center in this photo. What a horrible organizational system eh? Well, I grabbed some old bags and started neatly quickly and not so gently throwing stuff into the cupboard while the girls were getting into stuff that I just so happened to set in their path. You know, stuff they think they are getting away with playing with. Anyway, please help! Any ideas will make me a happy camper. Please share any websites or ideas. I need the kick in the pants.

Now onto some fun stuff! 

Make Your Own Puzzle

I didn't really know what else to call this, but it was fun! We grabbed some near by toys and put them in a container after tracing each object. Lorelei had a sheet to trace things and I had a sheet to trace some stuff. After tracing it goes into the box so we could find it easily. When everything was done Lorelei got to grab the objects out and find their appropriate spots. She really liked this. Mostly because she traced them herself, found the objects herself and got to finish off the puzzle all by herself. Do you see a pattern? Lorelei loves being "the boss." So any project where she gets to lead is just perfect. Plus the ownership and pride is excellent. It was way too easy for her, but the tracing was good practice. I definitely suggest this easy project/game!

House Picture

The first step was to simply cut out the shapes. I cut out different things for her and let her decide where she wanted them. She chose the colors of the stuff and what I should cut out mind you. (I'm sure she will make a good boss some day.)

We added in some people last minute and she took the project very seriously!

The end product. It's quite good if I do say so myself. Honestly though I was quite surprised with how well she lined everything up. I'm not sure why the guys were crooked, but I'm sure she didn't want it to cover her house up. Another fun and easy project kids love! I definitely suggest this as well. After all you only need a glue stick, scissors, paper and imagination! (Was that last one cheesy?)

High Five for Highlights

We have quite a few of the Highlights magazines lying around the house so we took the one from April and I let her cut out whatever she wanted. Lorelei's face lit up with joy when she heard she could actually cut into a magazine! My idea was to make a collage out of it, but she really wanted to cut out big stuff and glue the single picture onto one single piece of construction paper. She was thrilled though and that is what counts. Plus I loved watching her enjoy herself and seeing how well she is getting along with those scissors!

Above is a game we found in one of the magazines. She liked it for a bit, but it didn't last long. She was super excited about "flipping" the penny though. She didn't have a whole lot of patience for the game. Maybe when she is older?

Jell-O Cubes

So I am calling this one Jello-O Cubes out of humor. There was a tip in a tiny little book my mother gave me that if you put the powder from the jell-o into a dish or pan with an ice cube that the kiddos can swirl the ice cube around to watch it make designs in the powder. I thought it sounded wonderful because Hannah would love it too!

Lorelei dipping her fingers in after dumping the jell-o powder.

...and the joy of being able to eat part of her project!

...getting ready to drop in the ice cubes! Any guesses on what might happen to the ice cube when it gets dropped in and swirled around?

Here we go..the cubes are in and they...

turn into Jell-O cubes. Yep, that's it.Yummy Jell-O cubes for the kids to goo on and suck on and stain little fingers with. Me, I was disappointed it didn't work out. The girls were more than SUPER excited about it. They were playing in it and licking it. After a little gooey fun we took a little break from the cubes so we could wait and see what they turned into.

This is what's on my fridge right now. Lorelei traced her hands and my hand which she loved and made a lot of construction paper pages into hand traced pictures. Then I made her name and let her trace it. She really just wanted to circle them. Fun stuff eh? 

And now the moment...what does it look like after (maybe) an hour? Please enjoy the next few photos word free as you have been a champ reading through this long, LONG post.

So there it is. An unorganized cupboard, make your own puzzle, a house picture and some yummy Jell-O cubes. I hope you enjoyed my lengthy post! Truth is I'm hoping at least one person sits through it.

Thanks again! Please share comments if you'd like!