Friday, September 5, 2008

Where The Wild Things Are...

Do you remember this book? I love it. It's one of my favorites. The little boy gets in trouble and gets sent to his room. He, like most children, decides to run away. He uses his imagination to transport him to "Where the Wild Things Are". My guess is that in his mom's wailing attempts to impress upon him the seriousness of what he did, she might have used the term, "wild thing". He is off on his adventures until the smell of food brings him back. His mom has made him dinner and he heads home. See how important family meals are?
I found this idea on "skip to my lou". {Sorry I can't recall if it's blogger or typepad} She had her little ones create their own monsters then she sewed them into pillows. How adorable!!!

I had to be just a tad more creative and use a sheet that we didn't need. Then in place of fabric paints we used watered down acrylic paints. It isn't the softest pillow {quite scratch actually} but the kids LOVE them. They like the idea of taking their monsters to bed instead of being scared by monsters. The older three also got a sewing lesson out of it. Yes, Troy made a pillow. However he disappeared when my camera came out. His pillow was a grousome football player.
My two youngest enjoyed this craft the most. I remember in kindergarten loving to paint, but we only got to paint once. Everyday I wondered if today would be the day we got to paint again. It never came. It's amazing how quiet the house was for such a sustainable amount of time with paint brushes in these guys hands.

I need to get Troy into this blog somehow.
Landon just crashed on him the other day. How adorable is this? The beginning and the end. My oldest and the youngest.
Isn't this plant the cutest little thing? It came with a pink and white striped bag {everything here in Costa Rica comes in this bag}. I bought it at the farmers market and carried it all the way home. If I blurred my vision and pretended the humidity away, I felt like I was in a Venician city carrying home my treasures from the local market.
I bought this plant to remind me of my treasures, my friends. I was so happy walking home imagining how I would nurture it and watch my "friendship" plant grow. Oh, I had such great plans.

Then I went in to take a quick shower, came out and found my plant stripped of almost all it's glory! Who would do such a thing? Who would be such a monster?

It was Paige and Aiden. They were having fun making snow with the delicate petals. Let's just say I didn't handle the situation so well. I have a friend who is having a tough time right now. I specifically thought of her as I bought it. Now it has been destroyed and mangled and I wasn't there to protect {her} it. I really didn't get mommy points on how I handled this one.

Now I am happy to say that with a little LOVE and care, my friendship plant is even better than before. She has more blooms, more leaves and is a bright green. She has weathered the "storm" of an 8 and 4 year old and is stronger because of it.

5 comments:

Christine said...

Shawna,

I love the monster pillows. I learned long ago when I had paints out all the time it was much easier to let the kids paint with me right at the beginning rather than put them off until later. They get their fill of it and then they're done for awhile. It's great to let them create!

loubige said...

Love Where the Wild Things Are....one of my kids favorites.

I hope your friend is doing okay, trials suck.

Anonymous said...

You're just so good at letting your kids have fun. I need to let loose more...

Lara said...

My license plate frame says: "Let the Wild Rumpus Start!" Need I say more? And I think I'm going to make the pillowcases with my kids. They will love that!

Heather Anderson said...

love that book and great idea:) Also love your friendship plant story something about that just makes me laugh:)