Fruity Loops Sunday

Our kids are slowly... oh so slowly...catching on that Sundays are supposed to be a day of rest.

For mom and dad.

Without fail, Jeff and I fall asleep. Sometimes the kids are lucky and we alternate our napping. But other days, they pretty much fend for themselves while we snooze away.

Not that we ever hit that nice, deep REM sleep. Heavens no! Just when I can feel my body start to sink into sleep - real sleep - a little pipsqueak voice says, "I'm huuungry!" or "Me watch a movie, Mom?" or "What can we do?" or "COOOOOLE!!!! Stop it!!!!"

When the kids brought over a bag of Fruit Loops and asked if they could have a snack I told them yep but I'm not getting any milk out, just eat it out of the bag. A few minutes later, having given up on having a restful nap, I overheard Pearl telling Cole she was going to make a rainbow. 

Curious I got up and went to investigate. 

Those two pipsqueaks had sorted out all the colors of the "Fruity Loops" as Cole calls them, into piles of each color. Pearl had lined them all up while singing the rainbow song:

Red, orange, yellow

Then green followed by blue.

Indigo and violet,

That's a rainbow song for you!

{Thank you Cat in the Hat on PBS Kids}

 Pearl is really creative. I was quite impressed so I got out my camera to try and get some pictures of her at work.

When Cole figured out my attention was on his sister, he decided he wanted to help too. As you can see in the picture, Pearl wasn't too keen on his help. I can hear her now, "COOOOOOOLE!!!!!!!!!"

That picture makes me giggle. And feel her pain... I totally remember screaming at Kimmy when she would come in my room and destroy my Legos. Little siblings can be a pain in the you-know-what sometimes. 

 Who says you can't sneak a few Fruit Loops while you work?

Trying to stop Cole from further destroying all of Pearl's hard work, I tossed him some marshmallows to make fluffy, white clouds out of. I think it was the perfect touch to our Fruity Loops rainbow.

Ta-daaaaaaa!

  

Such a simple thing to wake up to but I honestly wanted to frame that Fruity Loops rainbow and keep it forever.

It seems such a fitting image of the magic and innocence of childhood. 

Totally worth the nap. 

What in the "craft" did we get ourselves into?

I am not a crafter.

Nor do I come from a line of crafters.

I think there is some unspoken expectation that being a Mormon woman means you are magically gifted with this incredibly ability to take a piece of scrap wood, some wire, paint, and that leftover scrapbook paper from scrap-booking every day of your 12 children's lives and turn it into this incredibly easy, simple, fast, and adorable holiday decoration. And post it on your blog.

Well, it's not happening people.

So when "Mormon Craft Saturday" as I call it {Super Saturday is the official name} rolls around, I typically avoid signing up to make anything. My first try at crafting all day with a bunch of women from my church didn't go so smoothly. In fact, I didn't even sign up for it. Jeff signed me up. He kept teasing me that I needed to go to Super Saturday because that's what all the women did. I insisted on "no thank you" but a few days before the event, he confessed he had signed me up for a craft and already paid for the supplies. He sent me on my merry way the day of the craft extravaganza and I took the entire six hours to make one thing {while other pro-crafters were cranking out dozens of Christmas gifts for family and friends}. This little wooden flag that I hang up by the front door and pretty much leave it up year round. I was pretty proud of myself... until I dropped it. Jeff laughed {and then glued it back together} and then broke the news to me that not only had I broke it, I'd made it backwards too. It was and still is pretty funny. 

Flash forward to now. I've learned that I can't make anything too complicated. It must take minimal supplies, preferably just paint. It must be able to be completed in the time allotted... none of this finish at home thing. And it can't be "old lady" looking. I mean, I'm old but not that old yet. Oh, and I have to have someone to go with in case I need morale support staring down a table of craft supplies.

Pumpkins, witches hats, and a sister and daughter fit all the criteria!

Kimmy, Pearl, and I decided to be adventurous and make two sets of pumpkins and witches hats {happy birthday Mom!} and a set of owls.The only one not panicking when we picked up all the supplies was Pearl. She was so excited to make stuff and wasn't the least bit intimidated by all the paints, papers, wires, glues, and ribbons. 

We visited and crafted until we had to leave for Cole's soccer game. We figured it wouldn't take that long or be too hard to finish everything at home afterwards. What we hadn't planned on though was some extra pairs of little hands who wanted to paint and glue and ribbon too. it was a mess! Buttons, paper, hot glue, ribbons, spilled paint, Mtn. Dews {it was stressful, ok!}, stickers, tape, fuzzy wires, and Nerd candies everywhere!!! Everywhere!!! With a husband in the other room trying desperately to listen to the Aggie football game. 

I may have lost my patience once or twice. 

But we persevered and finished all of our projects. Jeff even told me he was proud and said these were my best Mormon crafts yet! But only because I hadn't dropped them yet....

It was a lot of fun. I almost had the crazy thought run through my mind that I should have signed up for MORE crafts!

That's crazy with a "Kay" as Jeff will tell you!