Muy chido

I just thought that this was muy chido (very cool). Diego used his shape blocks to make this casa for his spiders.

Geography Placemats

I have mentioned these before but I just love the travel magazines that I still receive since I took a group of high school students abroad to Mexico several years ago. Diego loves to flip through the pages and ask me questions about the places that he would like to visit. This day Diego decided to make placemats using the pictures from the magazine.

Pulpo

We have been reading a ton of books about the ocean lately so I gave Diego free range of the craft closet when he wanted to make a "proyecto." He chose to make a pulpo (octopus.)

So much for not mixing colors...

When I bought the last batch of Play-doh, I decided to only give the boys one color so that they would not mix them all together and it would last longer. The boys played happily for awhile but Diego insisted that he needed ALL of the colors. I finally gave up and Diego made the creation below.

Me: What is the world is it?

Diego: A chameleon

Me: Why did you need all of the colors?

Diego: Because chameleons change colors.

I should have figured that one out for myself.

Finally Painting..... or not!

I sometimes feel guilty because I avoid some projects because it is so hard to do somethings while juggling two kids. Especially if one of those kids is Mateo, who is always going 90 miles per hour. One day while Mateo was napping I pulled out the paints since we haven't painted in a long time. Here is Diego concentrating very hard...... for about two minutes.

He decided that he didn't want to paint and asked for his markers instead. He drew a great picture of a pirate ship and, to my surprise, wanted to pose for a picture with it. I guess I didn't need to feel guily after all.

Move over Eric Carle

We have checked out and read the book "Oso polar, oso polar" (Polar Bear, Polar Bear) many times from the library and it is one of the boys' favorites. Recently we found a copy of "Oso pardo, Oso pardo" (Brown Bear, Brown Bear) and it was equally popular with the boys. The following project, I am very proud to say, was completely Diego's idea. He wanted to make his own book with a Black Bear (Oso Negro). I provided him with a stack of paper and helped him with the cover paper. This was a great opportunity to talk about cover pages, authors, and illustrators. Besides that, Diego grabbed his crayon and started illustrating "Oso Negro, Oso negro, Que hueles allí?" (Black Bear, Black Bear, What do you smell?) I wrote down his words and we stapled it together like a book. He told me that he would like to take it to the library so that Mema and Papa (my parents) can check it out to learn more Spanish. :)

Another use for Legos

To my surprise, Diego hasn't been into playing with Legos for the last couple of weeks. A couple of days ago, however, I caught him doing this. I never would have thought of using Legos to make letters and write words. He is such a creative little guy.

Choo-Choo

Mateo loves trains (or as he calls them "Choo-choos"). Lately he has been lining everything (coins, toys, cards) up and calling it a train. This day he lined up some boxes and took his animals for a ride.

If you give Diego a heart to weave...

Do you ever feel like you live in a Laura Numeroff book? The plan this day was to weave with a heart like we saw here at the Adventures of Bear. Things went as planned for a couple of minutes......

until Diego decided that the strips of paper would make great letters so he ask for tape.

When he taped the letters together, he remember that we were going to decorate for Valentines day and he asked to tape the letters to the cabinets......

then to the fridge. You can image how my kitchen and bedroom AND living room looked after this.

Spiderman Puzzle

I have a VERY hard time throwing any of Diego's masterpieces away. I also can not save them all so about a year ago I started taking pictures of my favorites with his name and date written on them. This day Diego drew a picture of Spiderman. I love to see how his "people" drawings have changed over time.

Good thing I took the picture because when I came back in the room he was cutting it into pieces and making a "puzzle" for me.

Art Box -Puppets

Diego dug through the craft closet and created these puppets out of craft sticks, pom-poms, stickers, scrap construction paper, sequins, and feathers. I though that they turned out pretty cute and they kept him busy for quite a while! Check out more creative kids at Tired, Need Sleep.

Just like big brother!!

Since Legos are too small for Mateo's little fingers, we bought him Duplos for Christmas. I was busy cleaning the living room but I had to stop check on Mateo since he was TOO quiet. I found him proudly displaying his very own block tower. He looks up at me and say "Ta-da!" He and Diego are going to have SO much fun building together!

Early Christmas Present

My husband finally finished the Lego Table that he built for the boys. I am very pleased with him because instead of the spending $100+ dollars to buy one like we had planned to, he made this one for under $30. Diego already knew about the table so we decided to make it an early Christmas present and distract him from his constant "Is it Christmas yet?" questions. It has already provided HOURS of fun. Thank you, Papi!

These are a couple of cars that Diego built that day.

Plate Making Kits

At one of our playgroups a few weeks ago, one of the mothers brought this plate making kit for the kids to do as Christmas presents. She bought her kit at Hobby Lobby but this looks like the same product. Basically the box contains pieces of paper that your children draw on or decorate. You mail the papers off to the company mentioned in the packet and for $7.00 they turn your child's drawing into a plastic plate. We just got our's back and I love them! I plan to do it again when Mateo is old enough to draw. Since they are gifts for Mami and Papi, we have not yet used them. I will update this post after we use them if there is any news to report about their condition.

Diego drew a Triceratops sleeping.

On this plate Diego drew a picture of his family. My favorite part is that our dog "Nacho" looks a lot like Mateo. :)

The Art Box- Rocket

Like I said like last week, I do not have a specific art "box" that I let D create out of. I have recently remodeled my craft closet to make it more kid-friendly so that D can select his material without totally destroying everything. In the craft closet, I also keep my "I-am-saving-that-because-I-am-sure-that-I-will-use-it-for-something-box", hence the empty Dora yogurt cup. This day D created a rocket out of construction paper, LOTS of tape, aluminum foil, and yogurt cup.

The Art Box

Nicole at Tired, Need Sleep has started a weekly blog carnival called The Art Box. (Sorry I forgot to mention it in my Great MckLinkys post yesterday!) Anyway, this is a very easy post for me to join in on because this is pretty much what D wants to do EVERYDAY. The idea is that you give your child a bunch of material and let them make whatever their little heart desires. D has been very resistant to doing the crafts that I have planned for him lately. He only wants to make robots or Transformers out of anything and everything. This project started off as a paper plate turkey but D had different plans. I do not give D a certain box from which to create but this day he was so into it that I pretty much gave him free reign of the art closet. My favorite parts of the ROBOT are the 3-D glasses, markers for arms, and the old Cable bill invoice. I am very proud that he is such a creative little boy.