Getting our craft on

Last weekend (I think ... days are fuzzy now and I couldn't swear to that), I offered the boys a chance to craft with me. I'd been inspired by an idea I'd seen at Make and Takes, and although ours didn't turn out anywhere near as cute as the originals did, it was still fun!

We started with plain paper plates that I pre-cut the fins, faces and tails for just to save a little time.

I also squeezed out different colors of paint on paper plates for each of the boys so that there wouldn't be any fighting over it.

A few of the colors were from our fingerpaint collection, and I'll go ahead and warn you that the fingerpaints didn't do as well as the regular Crayola paints.

Jake started mixing his paints right away, which actually made beautiful patterns on his "mixing plate," but didn't look so hot on his fish.

But I wanted him to do whatever he wanted to, so I let him mix to his heart's content.

Nathaniel wasn't originally all that into it (this is a new third-grade attitude, I've learned), but once he saw how much fun the rest of us were having, he decided to join us. (And I don't know what Jake was saying here, but his facial expression cracks me up.)

Nicholas, our most crafty one, was the most excited about this project.

Here's Jake showing off some of the lovely grey paint that all of his mix-mastering resulted in:

Handsome stuff.

And our finished masterpieces ... Jake's:

Mine:

And Nick's:

(Nathaniel had already carted his off somewhere by the time I took the final pictures.)

As crafty projects go, I recommend this one. Everyone can work at his or her own pace, and the setup/cleanup time wasn't bad at all. Try it!