in which The Boy gets to know his cousin, and we make some crazy fun bubble art

We’ve been waiting for a while for Brooks’ cousin, and mine consequently, to come visit. BB has been beside himself because he genuinely loves company and the idea of a playmate really thrills him. So late last night, after days and days of anticipation, we welcomed Marilyn for a visit to the Julius household. Of course, The Boy slept through it all, but as soon as he awoke he wondered how quickly they’d wake up.

So we spent the day getting to know Marilyn and enjoying the company of my cousins, who I hadn’t seen in far too long. Life has a way these days of keeping us apart, and thought it’s not the finest thing, it does make the reunions that much sweeter.

One of the first activities the kiddos did together, and later repeated in the day, was playing with the homemade playdough Brooks and I had made the other day. The kiddos pretended to be bakers and cooks at a shop, replete with imaginary customers, and afterwards cleaned up without being reminded. Sweet!

A little while ago, after finishing some much neglected homework from Penn State, I pulled out the supplies necessary for some fun bubble printing. I found this activity while browsing the internet for fun stuff to do with Brooks that involved minimal prep and ease of execution. On days like today, where my foot is all achy and I have housework to do, that’s the best way to go for sure.

Here is the link: http://whimsy-girl.blogspot.com/2010/08/summer-break-day-83.html

The kiddos began by adding a tablespoon of water to their disposable cups, 1 teaspoon of paint (they chose their colors), and a good ol’ squirt of dishwashing soap. Then they mixed it up with their straws and blew like there was no tomorrow. This is def. one of those projects where the process was absolutely embraced and enjoyed by the kiddos. Brooks was having so much fun blowing bubble mountains he kept forgetting to make bubble prints. Marilyn on the other hand, took the time to make a few pages of bubble print art.

Here are some pics of their process. Too fun:

In a bit, the kiddos will wind down from their day, take baths and get in their jammies, I’ll read them a story and they’ll watch Despicable Me while chomping on homemade popcorn. I call that a perfect ending to a perfect day!

 

an outing, some art, and the beginnings of a care package

I’ve been missing Brooks like crazy. I’m thinking it’s primarily for three reasons.

1. I’m madly in love, and can’t help it.

2. It’s been two months and reality is setting in.

3. Laying around injured gives you too much time to think.

I’d like to think point number one is the most important, but really… if you allow yourself to dwell too much on the “I’m so madly in love I can’t live without him” bit, guess what? You’ll find yourself madly in love feeling like you can’t possibly exist a minute without him. That’s not too conducive to a year long deployment. After a few weeks you might end up crazed with all the longing and missing, and pretty sad and depressed, possibly bitter and angry. It’s not a pretty sight.

So as much as I love Brooks I try not to dwell so much on it (which is really, really hard – but doable). Staying busy is key because if you’re busy chances are you’ll be too exhausted to dwell on things.

Recovering from this surgery has really thrown me for a loop. I’ve had way too much time on my hands to think, and coupled with the fact that we’re at the two month mark, the reality of the whole thing has been hitting me hard.

So I was thrilled when my friend Dalia said she’d pick The Boy and I up for lunch and then come back with us to help me clean my patio. Getting out of the house these days is such a treat, and spending time with Dalia is always fun, so I was super excited! And then, and then, afterwards, Dalia took it upon herself to clean my patio. It looked so nice by the time she was done. I was so happy because I’ve been wanting to go outside and enjoy the yard with The Boy but it’s gotten so ugly out there with pollen everywhere and leaves and these little fuzzy long things. So yay for a clean yard and amazing friends!

After Dalia left The Boy and I worked on some art projects.

I’ve been wanting to tackle some stuff with BB for a few days now but with him being sick it was out of the question.

We have his basketball photos laying around waiting to be mailed out to loved ones. I thought it would be nice to include a small art piece from Little B. I saw a neat playdough flower print activity on this blog: http://thechocolatemuffintree.blogspot.com/2011/03/modeling-clay-stamped-flowers.html

The premise is that you take playdough, make a flower on a flattened piece, and use that as a stamp to make prints. Too cute!

This is how we tackled it:

First, as I was searching for paper in the art supply closet I spied about a bazillion (alright, slightly less) white paper lunch bags. I figured I could take two and cut them to size to create small pieces of art that would fit inside an envelope.

And, since we were in dire need of playdough, we also made up a new batch. Here’s the link for that: http://tinkerlab.com/2011/03/rainbow-play-dough/

Playdough making was fun, and Little B, as usual, asked if he could taste it because it smelled so good. We’ve been down this road countless times. He always tastes it, he always says it’s good, then ten seconds later starts gagging. That whole process happened again. I just sat back and watched it unfold.

In the Chocolate Muffin Tree blog the blogger wrote that her daughter took a small ball of dough, flattened it, and drew her design with a toothpick. I decided that using a flat disk of playdough would be difficult. So we fashioned a disk but added a handle for easy printing. And instead of a toothpick? A chopstick.

The finished products are too cute. I’m kinda sad I didn’t make enough paper for me to keep one, but hey, tomorrow is another day 🙂

I have my head wrapped around mailing out another care package to Brooks. I’m so sad I’ve been unable to do that. I like sending him a little piece of home. It makes me feel better about the whole thing somehow. I like including things Brooks has done but also always try to add a personalized piece, something made specifically for the purpose of uplifting the biggest Brooks in the Julius household.

I had seen a blog post on frugalfun4boys.com about making oneself into a super hero. I thought it would be cool for Brooks to turn his Daddy into a super hero. You have to love the picture we used.  Here is our process:

And the last thing we tackled? Both Brooks like to play. They can be consumed by one activity for long stretches of time. It’s amazing, really. So we thought long and hard about making him something fun that we could then send him. We settled on silly putty, because it bounces, stretches, and is just plain fun.

Here is where we found our recipe: http://frugalfun4boys.com/2010/08/27/homemade-silly-putty/ Brooks chose the color blue for his Daddy’s silly putty, and afterwards spent a good hour testing it to make sure it would be fun enough and not defective in any way, shape, or form.

So all in all, we had a great day. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. Whatever it is, it’s bound to be good.