Productive weekend

The weekend turned out to be much more productive then I had figured.

On Saturday, dad went to an afternoon Caps hockey game and being a single parent usually means a lot of work caring and entertaining and not a lot of crafting or cleaning.

I decided we would try and make these. Shortly after dad headed out, I put on "The Jungle Book" while I got everything together. I had given the kids a few hints so they were getting pretty excited. I had all the necessary supplies on hand . . .
Yarn - for the shmoo, we used blue, green, cream, and burgundy; little hugs got a pastel variegated yarn with blue, pink, green, and some yellow.

Glue

Balloons

And a nice cup of coffee for the mom.

Next, add willing participants . . .
And get to work . . .

Both kids took the project very seriously and each with their own style. Little hugs concentrated hard and spent the time to very neatly lay out each piece of yarn.
The shmoo was just as focused, but his method was much more haphazard, which really contradicts his personality.
He is generally exact, particularly when building or creating, and things must be just right. He had started the morning with many tears - the castle he was trying to draw was not as he had pictured and did not match the one daddy had drawn. This is when I decided today was the day to try the baskets and as I announced my plans to the family, I stated I had a craft project that would be messy and fun and impossible to "get wrong". I didn't explain any more since dad was getting ready to go and I wanted to add some suspense.

When you run out of yarn, wait for the glue to dry.
I don't have high expectations, I used an entire bottle of glue on what I feel was not a lot of yarn, but the whole thing was not as sticky as I would have thought. I just hope they hold together.

This was a low cost project so if they end up getting thrown away, I won't feel too bad. The yarn has been in my craft stash for over 10 years - I had tried my hand at crochet and envisioned a variety of afghans, scarves, and hats but failed. A friend has promised to teach me to knit so maybe the rest of my yarn will get used some day. As for the glue, I picked up 2 or 3 bottles last fall when Staples was running their back to school sale and they were free with an instant rebate. Now I'm regretting that I only picked up a few, instead of max-ing out the store limit, which I believe was 5 or so. I will definitely remember this later this year, when the back to school sales start again.

Saturday evening, after dad got home, we headed to the mall for kid haircuts and dinner. Nothing exciting but nice to get some things taken care of. The shmoo's cut is great - clean and short but not shaved and bare with the cold weather. Little hugs bangs are a little too short for my liking so we've been calling her pixie. Its amazing how a little trim makes her curls come back and her hair bouncy.

We hit Costco on Sunday to stock up and I spent the afternoon doing laundry. For those of you keeping score at home: 5 loads washed, 4 folded and put away, whites are in the dryer (still).

Potty training (PT) update: Little hugs went the entire day wearing pull-ups and did not try the potty, not even once.

Editor's Note: The yarn baskets are dry (its Tuesday already) but we haven't popped the balloons and check the them out - I put them out of the way to give them plenty of time to dry and I think the kids have actually forgotten. Hopefully, I'll remember tomorrow to get them to pop the balloons and then I'll post new pictures.