Crafts for Boys

First Communion

(posted by Cara)

In France, making your first communion is a huge deal!  People celebrate with elaborate parties and gifts.  Since we had such a large guest list, 16 adults and 20 children, a restaurant was out of the question and a hall too impersonal.  We had it here and I was in charge of everything.  With a lot of help from my cousin, Mary, and a crafty session (complete with lots of tea) with Helen, everything turned out perfect!

I chose green since it's Anthony's favourite colour and accented it with lots of white (for that communion feel ;) ) and a bit of orange, because well, I love orange.  I also wanted to feel masculine and child like.

The tables were a bit more colourful because finding just the right green was tough.  The place settings were just a simple rolled napkin, with a photo clipped on and they just made the rooms look fun and happy!  

The 'dragées' were in little jars with labels tied on with jute.  

They reminded me of what little boys would use to capture insects and such.  I wasn't far off, as the next day, my boys emptied their jars of the candy and dug out Jacques' chemistry set and had a blast making potions and turning my bathroom red.  I thought someone had had a nosebleed!  Then, yesterday, Helen sent me this:  

So, yeah, the jars were perfect!

I had the flowers done at the florist down the street, but I chose the flowers and I think they turned out perfectly!  

Mary and Helen and I made these pinwheels one morning and they looked great spread around the rooms and they were a big hit with the younger kids.

Tommy and Sharky

Tom's new cuddly friend

What can I do Mum?

posted by Helen

It's a phrase often heard round here and my reply is often a list of crafty things in the hope that I might inspire Tom to leave the computer or my phone for half an hour atleast. Today, after running through all the usual options which were greated with slience, I tried a different tack and suggested sewing and knitting, which to my great surprise resulted in an enthusiastic, "oh yes, we could knit a shark for me to cuddle in bed!!!!!!!!!"

I'm not sure the words cuddly and shark appear together very often, but it is very Tom, so we set off on a hunt for some grey wool. Now I like a challenge but i did think this time we'd bitten off more than we could chew. But after scratching my head and sketching for 5 minutes I came up with a basic pattern and with varying amounts of help from Tom (it did take a little longer than half an hour) we succeeded. Apparently it's not as big as Tom had hoped, but there was only a little bit of grey wool (actually left over from a tea cosy I made for Cara ) so that was my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Rather than two identical halves, I just made the body to be stuffed, leaving the tail and fin as single pieces. I incorporated a red section for the mouth, then crotcheted some teeth on afterwards. So here he is, Tom's new friend, Sharky, a smily and cuddly knitted shark!

(Please scroll down for the photos!)

May 4th - blast off for our third year.

photo from moarpowah.com

Well we couldn't choose any other date to relaunch ourselves and our boys into the blog-osphere, could we?! So hop into your x-wing and join us for a quick reconnaissance mission to find our where we're at nearly twelve months older if not wiser...

Helen and boys

Well Joe is currently eating peas without grace, having been dragged in from making mud pies in the garden, so I guess he's well and truly attained little boy status ;-) his current obsessions are hay balers, puddles and octonauts.

Tom is nearly six and can now ride his bike and tie his shoelaces, although not at the same time! Life revolves around computers, c'est pas sorcier and tintin. But there's still time to make stuff :-)

Cara and boys

Jacques is in his element when he's outside. Just yesterday, I heard him yell 'I love nature' when we were walking in the forest. He loves science, computer games, reading fantasy and sci-fi novels and talking non-stop about any of the above ;)

Anthony is a huge Sidney Crosby fan and is happiest when on the ice (or in front of a computer screen). He has improved his hockey skills so much in the last few months, you'd never know he only started in September.

Philippe, like most younger brothers, loves doing whatever the big boys are doing. If they aren't around, he still has an incredible passion for all things horses and rides every week and loves to do anything artsy.

Hector, our group's littlest boy at almost 2, is our little clown, he loves to make his brothers laugh with such boyish antics as sticking his finger up his nose. Other interests include climbing (the higher the better) and stomping in puddles.

Just a note about our only non-boy... Juliet, has become much more girly this year with all her little friends at school, but that didn't stop her from watching Star Wars 3 times in as many days, completely glued to it! That's my girl :D