Happy Columbus Day!

We've been reading about Christopher Columbus this week, in honor of it being his day next week.  I also found a fun project to do on Pinterest.

I actually found a few different projects, but we only did one.  

One of my basic tenets of life is to be simple.  To be willing to let go.  

Just so you know, the reason it has to be a tenet is that I'm not very good at it and I need constant reminders.  But, when I remember, I am so much happier (and so are my children).

So, our one project that we did (and had fun doing), I found inspiration for here. 

Do you still call it inspiration when you basically did what someone else did?  Yeah, probably not.  I mostly just copied it.  And it turned out great.

In the picture above, our Columbuses are sitting waiting for the glue to dry.  Using the Pinterest picture, I made my own pattern for my kids to trace.  They traced, cut and glued everything together on their own.

We usually use glue sticks around here, but the spy glass (half a toilet paper tube) definitely needs real, liquid Elmer's.  You have to let it dry all the way before you try and glue the hands to it.  And then, unless you have a glue gun, you're going to have to tape the hands along with the glue or they won't stay.

After everything was set to dry (we did this over 3 days, just so you don't think I spent all day: 1 to trace and cut, 1 to put together and 1 to do the writing), my kids filled out these really cute FREE printables from Teachers Pay Teachers (you do need an account to download, but that's free also).

The printables are full sized (I changed mine in Photoshop) and would still look really great hanging off the bottom of the page.

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Josh wanted to be involved in the picture taking, and he's so cute I couldn't help myself.

And Makenna just looked so serious.  This girl is way too much like her mother.  And she's growing up way too fast.  It's sort of awesome and terrifying at the very same time.  Not that this has anything to do with Columbus Day, I just thought I'd share.

I love this smile, I feel like James goof-ball ness is coming out a little. 

It was a fun and simple project, my very favorite kind.  Hope you have a fantastic Columbus Day!

Leah