Monster Lab!

 

First, let me take a moment to thank all of you who bought my existing wrap bracelets, AND to those of you who inspired me to order more crosses and get to stamping all over again!  I didn't see that coming!  I bought a lot of them, though, so if you didn't get your order in, act now!  Let me know what word you want and color of metal (silver, gold or copper), and a general idea of silk wrap.  I am not custom ordering those, so I'll try to get close (as in "bright colors" or "subdued pastels" or "neutrals").  I hope to have all of them mailed out by Monday, IF my plan goes off without a hitch.  But I do have two little ones who tend to "hitch" my plans often!

Ok, so moving on... as you may or may not remember, MMPT does a booth at the Drew Fall Festival every year.  And this year, I had a particularly important reason to participate.  A bigger reason than ever before!

My little Ellie Sue is a kindergartener here now.  So, let me tell you what me and Emery came up with.  It required our sticking hundreds of googly eyes onto strips of Glue Dots. This made for easier, assembly line style when the kiddos arrived.

The kids would take a post at our table and choose a straw.  We gave them a blank piece of cardstock....

Sorry.  We interrupt this awesome and inspiring craft idea with photo opportunities occuring outside!

Ellie and madi found the scarecrow photo props.

and then, you know, Gabs wanter her turn too.

JinJin was there, so you know we had to take lots of cousin posing pictures. 

Note to self:   need to remember to move the photo props to a place next year that is not directly facing the sun!

I would say, "close your eyes, and when I say 'three', open them and smile."  It seemed to work.

Ok, back to the projects inside.  There were beads and cording.  (And look at the cute furry monster that Emery made to go with our MMPT Monster Lab)

We had some good literature on literacy and sensory integration and other interesting schoolish things.

There we go.. Warning signs of Autism, Warning signs of ADD/ADHD, Warning signs of Dyslexia, you get the picture.

And we had our place ready to rock and roll.   All we needed was a big posse' of kids.

So, back to the original story.  Once the kiddo chose their straw, Em would squirt a tiny bit of paint on their paper and they would start blowing the blob.

And however it turned out, they were then asked to add arms, legs, a mouth, shoes, hats, whatever!! 

We had a couple of heat guns set up to get the paint dry quicker and then they could proceed with the googly eyes.  Here's Ellie's friend, Isabella.

Ellie was outside playing bobbing for donuts right about now.  I am NOT kidding. Actually, they were dangling on a string, and you had to bite it while it was suspended and twirling all around without using your hands.  Apparently, Success was HERS!

We had some really happy kids coming through.  I mean, blobs of paint?  And we get to blow it?

Aha.  It's Logan again!

That's a litttttle bit close, Miss Priss.

ANd look at this cute monster.

This was one of the babies who I used to work with in PT.  ANd look at that big girl now!! 

This is one of Ellie's new favorite friends, Bailey.  Her dad and I grew up in the youth group at church together.  Anybody else remember Centrifuge Youth camp?!

Gabs won a goldfish with the pingpong ball toss.  I am not sure ANYTHING could have made her day better.  (It has since died, but Ellie's is going strong.  Or so ELLIE tells us!  I still don't know how Ellie knows it was Gabbi's who died!)

Things got crackin as the day wore on.   The crowd grew.  All of the activities were awesome and very family friendly. There was also a great silent auction that our parents and community businesses donated so willingly.  I live in a great community.

Ellie's favorite thing was the Cake Walk. The kids got "bobcat bucks" to spend at the concession stand if their mama sent baked goods to school.   Ellie didn't get any of those!

There was a pumpkin contest, and I couldn't help but show you this Willie-inspired pumpkin from Duck Dynasty.  Priceless!!

There's ol Angel Grace, Cindy's daughter.

And here she is with her first and best cousin, Hattie.  They're close in age like Ellie and Madi.

We had a drying area available for the kids ot hang their creations on as they went from booth to booth. 

So, let's recap... straws...

Paint (in hair tinting bottles from the beauty supply store) watered down with water.

Googly eyes on Glue Dots so they will stick really well.

And ta daaaaah.... you have yourself a true, live Monster Lab.

I thought the kids were very inventive and creative, and LOVED how they all turned out differently.

Here is Miss Ellie's wopsided eyed monster.

and here are Emery's and Mine. 

It was a fun project.  Now we have to figure out how to top it for next year.  Maybe you have a place/ event coming up where you could use this cute idea. 

MO