Every year I have the child care kiddos make Christmas gifts for their parents, usually something “big” and a photo ornament. One year the photo ornaments were based on blank wood cut-outs but this time I went even simpler and started with a craft foam kit.
True confession: I don’t always try projects out ahead of time to make sure they work. Sometimes that’s OK, sometimes it’s a train wreck. This time I did make a sample one, and I’m VERY glad I did!
The kit came with precut foam pieces and “peel off glue dots” which sound super-easy, but are a nightmare with toddlers who don’t have enough small muscle control to peel the dots off, much less get them off their fingers. When I can’t peel the paper off a glue dot it’s a pretty good indication that the kiddos won’t be able to either.
Regular glue doesn’t stick on craft foam so I pulled out the trusty bottle of Aileen’s Tacky Glue. The bows came in two pieces so I assembled them ahead of time, then I let the children decorate their wreaths with the sequins and put the bow wherever they wanted. I glued the photos to the back of the wreaths and wrote each child’s name and the year on the back, then threaded the cord in the holes and tied it. Hint: You can save time by gluing on both sides then laying items on a wire rack to dry rather than gluing just one side at a time.
I think they turned out really cute!
This may sound silly too, but these boxes are fabulous on their own! Not only are they pretty, but they’re sturdy too. I put them out in the playroom for the kiddos to build with or fill/dump, and they last for months! They also work great for Christmas presents that need a box but are too small for a normal sized box.
I think this edition’s design is classy, with the metallic gold and black. Let’s see what’s inside!
Oooh, I likey!
La Bella 
Village Naturals Therapy Aches & Pains 
The guys made quick work of taking the last of the siding off. Says the lady who doesn’t go up and down the ladder… Our bedroom is on the other side of this wall so I wonder if we’ll notice any difference in sound or temperature now the siding is off, or later when the insulation is on. 
There was one minor mishap when Jo-Bear’s crowbar slipped, but the important thing is that he wasn’t hurt. We’d already planned to replace that storm window because it didn’t have a screen so it wasn’t a big deal. And cleaning up the broken glass was right in my wheelhouse – I’m good at cleaning things up. I’m so good at it that sometimes I clean things up before people are done with them. I can’t tell you how much Teacher loves that – NOT!
Now that all the old siding is off it’s time to start putting up the insulation – hooray for progress! I was a little worried about the guys carrying those giant pieces of insulation up the ladders, but they’re super-light so I was worried about nothing. As usual. The guys decided to start at the bottom and work their way up because there would be less cutting and they could balance each row on the row beneath. 
Three generations working together – it makes my heart melt. Teacher and Jo-Bear have been doing ladder work while Grandpa’s job has been to cut the insulation, but somehow he snuck onto a ladder. Don’t tell Grandma! 
Just a little tired, Z-Man? The boys and I have been busy with the old siding. First we carried it to the driveway, sorted it by length, and stacked against the fence. Then we made piles that weighed no more than 45 lbs and were no more than 4 feet long trash pick-up rules and duct taped them together. Finally we carried about one-third of them to the curb for this week’s pick up and stacked the rest against the fence until the next large item pick up day in two weeks. It doesn’t sound hard, but that siding is heavy!
The insulation has a plastic coating on it so we don’t need to “wrap” the house, all we need to do is tape the seams. That saves some time and money! 
Teacher is finishing the last piece for today while Jo-Bear and Grandpa discuss plans for tomorrow. Residing a house is all uncharted territory for us so there’s just as much “brain work” going into it as physical labor – if not more!
It arrived a couple of days ago – Oh Happy HAPPY Day!
Do you want to see what’s inside? 
See – it’s chock full of goodies! Can you guess which ones Princess picked and which ones I picked? You might be surprised…
There’s Teacher up on the ladder again. 
And there goes Jo-Bear too. He climbs up and down like he was born on a ladder. I can verify that he wasn’t!
Grandpa is teaching the boys how to take nails out of the wood. I love this photo because I remember my grandpa teaching my brothers and I how to do stuff like that. Z-Man and iMatt ended up being really good nail-removers.
College Boy vs Nail. I know who’s going to win, and it ain’t the nail!
The family that works together… gets the work done more quickly so we can enjoy the Fourth of July sooner. 
This shows how easily the siding breaks. I’m no She-Ra, but I still did this with my bare hands. 
iMatt would rather be pulling siding off the house than picking it up from the ground.
College Boy inherited my dislike for heights so he did the bottom part and now Teacher’s starting on the top part. It’s a lot more work than you’d expect – just climbing up the ladder, not falling off, and climbing back down again wears them out.
Apparently our house has been at least 5 different colors. The white and yellow were before our time, but it was pink when we bought it. Yes, we bought a pink house, a la John Cougar Mellancamp style. We first painted it grey, then most recently green. I’m going to miss the green, but I like what’s replacing it too.
It looks like they’re about ready to start packing it up for the day. I’d better get inside and start cleaning up – we’re hosting Fourth of July supper and fireworks!