I miss the girls. Yes, they drive me nuts, but I love them so much. It’s so different not having them here.
I am sure you wonder, “Do the Cakies kids really like doing those crafty things or does their mom make them for the sake of the blog because my kids can’t sit still and just “craft” for hours on end?!” The answer is… yes, my kids really like making stuff all day long. We do plenty of projects together and they do plenty on their own just because they like making stuff. It’s just their thing.
True can last longer when it comes to making stuff, Brave will stop way before True does. Soul doesn’t really care too much about making things just yet. She kind of just walks around the house. That’s her thing. When we’re at my mom’s house, Soul just walks around. If we’re at my MIL’s, she just walks around. She is really funny that way.
Ben and I are always amazed at the things True and Brave come up with. We wonder if more nurture or nature comes into play. When I was a kid, I loved drawing. I would draw for hours on end and my mom would put me in drawing classes and buy me tons of drawing books. Ben was a maker too. He remembers making random things from oatmeal boxes for his parents and buying beads to make necklaces and bracelets (this was even in high school).
I surround my kids with opportunities to make things because it feels natural because that’s what I like to do. They do take dance classes and will soon take music classes, but we have yet to try our hand at any sports. Ben grew up playing sports and I hear he was quite the soccer player. Oh man. If my teenage self saw his teenage self playing soccer, which would be impossible seeing how I am seven years younger, I would definitely have been sending him secret admirer notes all the time. I’ve seen his soccer and football pictures, he was one really hot dude in high school and he just got even hotter as he got older! Anyhow, we try to encourage whatever it is we see our kids show interest in without overloading our already full schedule.
So yes, my kids really do like making things! It’s just a part of our family personality. Tell me a bit about your family personality… is it camping? Outdoor sports? Trying new places to eat together? I would love to hear what kinds of things your family really loves doing.
My two kids disappeared for about an hour the other day into my son’s room. They made a haunted house then invited their dad me to come through it. It was so creative. Mine love to make things too! I just make sure they have access to lots of paper, pencils, and crayons. This summer watercoloring has been a favorite too.
oh! I love your question!
. . . I think that a key part of our family personality is getting to know and caring for our local community – so we spend time in it! – – we go to the parks and pet people’s dogs, we drink coffee down the street and talk to everyone who comes in, we get to know the lady who sells tamales, we throw parties and invite whoever will come, we pray that God will help us see what needs our community has, and help us genuinely care for those needs . . .
( I’m so, totally going to be checking the comments all day long . . . I can’t wait to see what everyone writes!)
i love this! we so need to be more about community. believe it or not, as a family, we are quite introverted (and busy), so we don’t do what we should to get to know others and to bless others. i love your family personality! that is something we need to work on!
I’m like you for the crafting. But we also really like to dress up around here. When I was kid I was often making plays, puppet plays for my familly. Now I do it with my kid. So every occasion I have, I sew then new costume. I know that they are gonna use it a lot, so it is worth the work ! I think I need a new closet just for it.
I loved to draw when I was young but my daughter is just not into it — I’d have to say that we’re big game players — we have a ton and this holiday season we’ll probably be getting a ton more b/c now that my kiddo is getting nearer to 7, I think we gotta step up the level of difficulty in our board games.
My husband loves to play them with us (he makes video games for a living) and it really is the best way for us to have family time all together 🙂
games! that is so cool! we aren’t into games really. we have some and we play it, but it doesn’t really play a big role in how we interact. i remember playing lots of games growing up though… monopoly gave me lots of fun family memories!
My grandma is a crafter in our family. I remember when I was little she would take out an old suit case from underneath her bed and it was full of scraps of fabric amd we would make things. It is one of the best childhood memmories I have! I’ve heard somwhere that that is what kids remember the most – making something togeather. I lost interest in crafting during my teen years, but now it is my favorite thing! My grandmas taught me to crochet and my mom told me how to knit and I was taught at school how to hand sew and I do it all! I think it is amazing that you do it with your girls! I’m sure they will take after their mama and daddy and become very creative and artistic! 🙂
Looks like a version of my house-my boys are really into arts and crafts which I LOVE. Your floors are so pretty and your house looks so bright and fresh-love it! I dream about owning a home (we live in Silicon Valley-pricey!!) so I can tweak the floors. Our rental house is nice and spacious but the floors are 4 different types of linoleum-ick!
I love this. And I get the feeling that some people may feel people do things just for the blog, but they really are like that in real life. When I have my nieces over, we always do crafts and they LOVE it. We make crowns, doodle, and dance. I would never force them to do something they don’t want to.
We’re readers, through and through, in this family!
So fun!!!
First, I love your floors! I know you have posted pictures of them before, but they are just so b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!
As for what type of family we are, we are an adventure family. You generally will find us having gone somewhere on the weekends – for a hike, to a museum, etc. We also enjoy walking a lot and live right next to a walking path that we utilize almost every day.
Hi!
I am writing to you for the 1 time, but read very long)
I would like to tell you only that I like absolutely all slices of your life!))
and wish you good luck!
I love your blog! I have never commented before, but what a great question! My daughter loves to draw and play games, and it’s something we can all do together — except for my one year old…he likes to walk too. He and Soul would get along wonderfully. 😉 Anyway, my husband and I like to get out for some Starbucks, so we load up the kids and some games or paper and crayons, and all sit at the coffee shop to play or color. It’s great bonding time, but we also get our coffee fix, and make it an outting! So, I just have to ask, do you have a tutorial I may have missed on the cute headdress in the photo?? My daughter is having an indian princess party this year, and your photo inspired me. Thanks!
i love happy messes my little ones tend to make! and coming from a mom who’s a tad OCD that’s saying something! you’ve captured yours so well! i must try this.
After moving to another country, we started to do day trips in the weekends. During the summer to walk in the woods, hunt for wild blueberries, or just to take a hike. During the winter it’s cross country skiing, which is great fun, and as I’m such a poor skier, the kids laugh their heads of their mummy:-)And the kids a SO good at skiing! This is something we can do with both kids, ’cause their so far apart age wise (7 and 14). We do a lot of craft too, mostly with my youngest (a girl) – we LOVE using glitter- and someone always has glitter in their face. With my oldest (a boy), I started running, which is a great way to do things together with him.
Thanks for a lovely blog!
We love making things too. My daughter is 2 years old so we are mostly drawing, a lot. I was a total crafter all growing up. I’m trying to get back into it. My husband played sports as a kid now he is an engineer. I was in dance. So we play with crayons, robots and dance. And we’ve been trying out music classes. I totally believe nurturing is SO important. Kids love to see their parents valuing and encouraging what they love. 🙂
Your floors look beautiful, and I am amazed that even the messes in your house look beautiful!! I love this room it looks so friendly and fun and calming. My kiddos love doing crafts as well, and would do them for hours every day if they could.
So nice reading this, at our house it’s the same. The girls really love to draw and craft and i love doing it with them. Of course they are surounded by craft materials and sewing machine that helps a lot. My husband is also a maker, great with woodwork but also loves drawing comic like drawings with the girls 😉 This morning we spend more that to hourse making bookmarks and worked so hard that we forgot to eat breakfast!!
How fun! We are art-loving /crafty parents and somehow that’s what my 4-yr old is too so far. She can draw for hours and it’s about the only activity she likes to do independently. I’m glad she loves making things! I tend to want to clean up a lot & get unnerved by big messes. I’d like to be better about just letting the mess be! We live in a really small place, so it gets messy fast! But the small size means it’s quick to clean up too.
someone was in shock when finding out that my boys adore coloring and drawing all day long and painting and such. Apparently most little boys don’t like sitting still and having to do art when young to these people. . . .
Good for your girls enjoying themselves with their work!
Hey I wanted to pass along something that I kind of stole from a few teachers and homeschoolers, but your girls are so young that it would be an awesome thing to keep going for a long time and see progression. At the beginning of the school year have them do a self portrait. Make sure you date them on the back or front. I have my kids write their names and age on them, so you can see the handwriting progression too. I have mine framed for the year in our homeschool area (Ikea has those super cheap 8 1/2 x 11 frames ) Over the years you can amass quite the collection of self portraits. Its fun to see progression and how they view themselves!
We don’t have children yet, but my little family (just me and my husband), we like to go camping. Camping doesn’t always turn out how you plan so there’s always a story when you come home. I’m looking forward to doing that with our kids someday. When they come over, my nieces and nephews all enjoy helping me with necessary tasks like weeding, doing the dishes, folding laundry, and organizing. It’s like a new thing when they’re doing those tasks at someone else’s house other than their own. hahaa, silly kids. 😀