Projects projects

First, the dining room chalkboard wall. We had a lot of fun with this project. We're almost done!!
I've wanted a chalkboard wall since forever and now that we have our own home, this is the sort of thing we finally get to do! We tackled most of the project last week (not this weekend, but the weekend before). It's a tall wall so we do have a bit more space that needs work (up high above the door frame) but we'll get around to it this week, espero! jeje!

Mr E and Daddy woke up early and started smoothing out the wall. It's a skim coat of whatever putty like stuff goes on walls. We had to do this because our walls are all textured, so we had to even out the surface so that writing on the wall would be easier (and honestly, because it wouldn't look right with the texture). We decided it wasn't difficult to do, once we figured out how to fix the issue. It was kinda fun working with the stuff because of its texture, and kind of a very easy, immediate satisfaction sort of project.

 Miss E woke up later that Saturday and joined in. Then we did a little painting the next day.

Our victory picture haha!

We've been using the wall a whole lot already. Miss E has been drawing all kinds of cute stuff. Tonight there's music info on it (Quijote), letter practice (Mami and Miss E) and shape and line practice (Mr E). Last week, Quijote left a series of math problems for Miss E, which she happily solved each morning the moment she realized they were there. Usually it's counting, sorting, basic geometry- stuff like that. This one (below) ended up being a three parter. She had to draw a number of circles in each box (boxes A and B) and then she had to tell him how many circles there were total in both boxes. It's been so fun to have something like this. There's something different about doing school work on a larger scale!

I have also been sewing here and there. I haven't been posting all my projects because I always say I'll wait till people are wearing their stuff on a "cute" day and then we end up staying home because.. well, we like home a whole lot these days I guess (read: Mr E is having trouble going anywhere.. and I don't have it in me to fight it). We do go to ballet class and to church most Sundays but have been rather lax on our other activities...
Anyway, this is our latest day of fun. We had a great time making dolls out of leftover fabric and string. It was fun to see  what each kid wanted (I do have lots of little bits of fabric so there was space for lots of choice making). Mr E wanted a boy superhero with black long hair (I kept telling him that week that he needed a haircut, so I guess this was about making the boy look like him). And he should have a thunder symbol on his shirt. The cape was my idea, but he decided on orange. Miss E wanted a doll with long black hair and a pink princess dress. She was upset at first that the doll didn't sit upright, so we put a skewer in it. The head holds up now. She also painted gold shoes and gloves on her doll and the boots on his doll.

I suspect Miss E will want us to make more clothing for the dolls. We've been making hats and dresses and everything in the world for the bunnies. We definitely go on a bunny week here and there, and the bunnies end up going on all kinds of adventures. There's been camping, hiking, dancing, driving roadtrips in a pink car that happens to be the perfect size. We've put together a classroom so the bunnies can go to school. And of course a bakery. Everything turns into playing bakery these days. For Mr E there's only cars and dinosaurs right now. His dinosaurs join the bunnies on their adventures, and while his imagination doesn't go as far as making up complex situations yet, he does put together short stories or simple situations (the dinosaurs are good or bad, are attacking or saving the bunnies) or sometimes he just goes along with whatever convoluted story Miss E has started up.

There's been a couple posts about things the kids say, so I should also blog about that later this week. Next weekend we'll be picking up the puppy (from the litter my mom's dog just had a few months ago) so we're super excited for the upcoming adventures. Yesterday Quijote and I switched the doors that connect the back porch with the house so that the one that has the doggy door will lead into our breakfast room. All kinds of prep work has been done- reading up, buying stuff, trying to figure out the puppy's name.... The poor doggy's name keeps changing. It's gone from "Floda" which is either a mispronunciation of "Flora" or something related to "Flo the ball" to "Boo" and it even occurred to me that we could call it "Chip" as in chocolate chip, since puppy is small and dark and sweet. We'll see how it all goes. It's completely new territory for me (I was always the kid who just played with the dog, now it will actually be my responsibility for the first time) so wish us all luck!

PS Just in case I haven't posted it here- a pic of the kids playing with puppy on our last trip to Juarez.

and a puppy closeup. I have another one in my camera pictures (these are all phone pics) but I can't access those until we buy a new computer...sigh.. I think my parents sent me this one.