They're Back!

This year for Tyler's birthday we decided that we wouldn't give him any material presents but instead he and my husband would take a trip up to Busch Gardens in Virginia to see Brandon Heath, Mandisa, and TobyMac in concert at the Glory in the Gardens.  Christian and I did not go as we had decided it would be too much for Christian.  It was nice for Tyler to have a special vacation with his dad also.  They left on Saturday morning and got back this afternoon.  They had a great time and so I thought I would share some of their pictures. 

Just entering Virginia.

All the above pictures are of the Williamsburg Visitors Center.  I really would have liked to have seen that.  They did not have time to see much of colonial Williamsburg but they did do some shopping at the Visitors Center.  I will show you the fantastic gifts they bought me in a little bit also.  Below are a couple of pictures of the impressive map of Williamsburg found outside the visitor center.

I am in awe of the skill that must go into making something like that.  Here are a couple more pictures they took at a store by where they went to dinner.

I am just loving the colonial drumers!  The next pictures are of Busch Gardens.  I think they have captured the definition of fun there!

They had a lot more pictures than that but that seems like enough for now.  After playing around in the park they went to the big reason for their trip.  Here are some pictures of the Glory in the Gardens.

The first pictures are of Brandon Heath who though both weren't sure how much they would like but they ended up really enjoying his performance.

Next was Mandisa whom Tyler has a bit of a crush on.  Suprisingly he was not overly impressed with her performance as she didn't sing as much of her own songs as he would have liked.  She sang some Arethea Franklin, Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson songs which he is unfamiliar with.  My hubby thought she did great though.

Then came TobyMac.  Tim and Tyler are two of the biggest TobyMac fans around so they were so thrilled to be able to see him perform. They both got Toby t-shirts and Tyler got a cap so they can live the moment forever!

Nice purple shoes Toby!

They had a lot of fun together and now they are both worn out.  They did remember dear old mom though.  Tyler got me these two cuties.

Because we are moving soon he says they are my "housewarming" gifts.  He really cracks me up with the things he says sometimes.  He is too cute!

My darling husband got me this cute little wood replica of The Wren Building at the College of William and Mary founded in 1693.  I have two other replicas already of other historic buildings we have visited so this is a beautiful addition to my collection.

I have saved the best for last.  One of the things I associate with Colonial America is the beautiful laterns they used so I am now overjoyed to have my own.  The fact that they came from Williamsburg makes them even more special.

Aren't they amazing?  The candles in them are battery operated but they flicker and look just like real candles.  They didn't have one at the store in Williamsburg for the small lantern but rest assured I have already ordered one.  I can't wait to find these a special spot in our new house.  I feel really blessed with my beautiful gifts.  I wish I could have went with but Christian and I had fun hanging out at home too.  Maybe next time we can all visit Williamsburg together!

 

Fireworks Hat

 

 

This weeks meme is supposed to be about a patriotic activity so I was thinking it over and remembered something really cute we did last year.  My husband was deployed to Afghanistan at the time so we wanted to make something we could send a picture of.  We got our idea out of the book Little Hands Celebrate America which is full of lots of great patriotic ideas.

We chose to make what the book calls a "Fireworks Party Hat".  Here is the picture of  ours.He is squinting because it is really sunny in North Carolina in July! 

To make this very festive hat you will need:

tape

2 sheets of white construction paper

a piece of blue construction paper

red construction paper

scissors

red marker

glue red tempra paint

paintbrush

pencil

First you need to tape the short edges of the white paper together to make one long sheet.  Next, you need to wrap it around your childs head and tape it together so it is the right size.  Then you cut a band of blue paper to fit across the front of the hat and write "Happy Birthday USA" in big letters across the band.  Glue the band to the hat.  Paint red stripes frome the top of the hat to the blue band and let it dry.  Cut strips of red, white, and blue paper and roll them around a pencil to curl.  Tape them to the top edge of the hat.  We chose also to put white paper stars on ours and since the goal is to look like a firecracker you could embellish yours in different ways too.  Have fun with it!

Scratch Art

A couple of weeks ago I had purchased some small scratch art pictures from our local Dollar General to put into Tyler's workboxes.  I thought he might enjoy something different and he could work a little on his fine motor skills.  Here is what they looked like.

He enjoyed them so much!  My husband and I were talking about how we both had done scratch art in school so I started looking around for directions how to make our own.  I found instructions in a book I just love.  It is called How to Teach Art to Children and is published by Evan-Moor.  I highly recommend it. 

The first thing we did was to color a piece of white construction paper.  You need to cover the entire paper leaving no empty spots and the darker you color the better.  Ours looked like this: And:

The next thing you do is to mix a little bit of dishwashing detergent with black tempera paint.

Then you paint over your entire picture.

When your picture dries completely (our took about two hours) you can take something sharp (we used a bamboo skewer) and scratch your picture.

I made one for Christian thinking he might enjoy the scratching part also but he didn't.  I used his paper to make one for him.  Try to ignore my lack of artistic ability on this one.  Thanks!

It was a lot of fun and super easy.  I am sure we will be doing this again.