Week 3 - Paper Mache Mt. Olympus

I knew that paper mache with a 4 and 2 year-old was probably going to be insane, and sure enough, it was. Ha! But, we had fun, and now the girls are enjoying playing with their own Mount Olympus and Hercules toys (thanks to ebay). Here's how we did it:

Mary helped me tape a piece of poster board into a cone shape.

Then we tore some paper into long strips and made our paste (2 parts flour, 1 part water, or vice-versa, I can't remember). I did put a splat mat down in the kitchen, and I'm so glad that I did! The girls enjoyed taking turns mixing the ingredients. Yikes, Anna!

Anna really got into this, but Mary was pretty much done after she got her hands wet (see picture below!). Mary is very girly and does NOT like getting dirty or sticky. Anna, however, was in the zone!

I love that look!

After Anna (and Mama, not Mary) had paper mache'd most of the mountain, we let it dry in the garage overnight. The next day, we brought it into the school room and painted it purple (Mary's idea).

I found this big piece of cardboard in the garage and thought that our new Mount Olympus needed a grassy area around it. So, they rolled on some 'grass' and then let it all dry overnight.

It's ready! This morning we put it all together - Mount Olympus, the grassy area, the Hercules toys, and some of the Greek god and goddess paper dolls. 

It was awesome! The girls had a blast playing with it, and I breathed a nice sigh of relief. All the mess and time invested in this project was worth it! :)

Hades and Hercules battle at the top of Mt. Olympus!

Then it just got silly. ;)

I do want to take minute to let you know that I'm not some super-crafty mom who's just looking for fun, artsy stuff to do everyday with my girls; although, I wish I naturally were. The story is, Anna's been seeing a specialist for some medical issues, and it looks like she may have a rare genetic disorder that predisposes her to lots of skin cancer, among other things. Her blood is being tested to confirm the diagnosis, but we won't know anything for sure until the end of next month. There's no cure, only prevention, which is staying out of the sun from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and then covering up and wearing sun screen the other hours of the day. Sounds fun, huh? I'm not a fan of the chemicals in sun screens (although I do know there are 'all-natural' ones out there), so we've just been staying indoors almost ALL THE TIME as a matter of precaution (the trip to the Parthenon was an exception, but we did cover her up then). Again, the diagnosis is not confirmed yet, but we're just erring on the side of caution. So, I said all that to let you know that's why you've been seeing lots of art projects and things of that nature on here lately. We simply can't play outside, and I have to fill our day somehow. If you think about it, please pray for us. The hardest part is the waiting. Will the results come back normal and we can go play outside again and enjoy the Fall weather? Or will the diagnosis be correct and then we can start adjusting our life accordingly? Either way is fine with us, God certainly knows what He's doing. But we're just ready to know one way or the other; we've been looking for answers for over a year now. Anyway, I hope this wasn't too much information, but we're friends, right? So I feel like I can share this with you. I'll keep you updated, and thanks in advance for any prayers you send up for our family.