Goodbye to Summer & A New Series

School is officially in full swing for all of us around here (except for Will, of course). And, although, I'm loving my new school and teaching first grade; I am missing summer already. Things are always so much simpler in the summertime. Bedtimes can be later, meals less planned, and life less scheduled. There is also a lot more time for writing posts in the summer, so expect things to be a little quieter on the blog from time to time. I hope that you'll still stop by now and then because I'm not ready to make Inspired Adventures a thing of the past, just yet.

 

I have decided to launch a series of posts about all the fun places that we explore around town. It's been a goal of mine to get to know our area a little bit more. We are such creatures of habit so, although we have lived here our entire lives, there are so many places that we haven't been. I am always intrigued when I see friends "checking-in" to places on Facebook or mentioning places that they've been that are new to me. So, whether we are visiting a new shop, restaurant, or place for the kids it is my hope to branch out and get to know the world beyond our front door just a little bit better.

 

One such place was a playground that the kids and I visited the day before Audrey started school. We, all three of us, fell in love!!! I can't believe this place is so close to us and we have never been before. For all my local peeps this is at Rentschler Park. So, let's go exploring together, shall we. Be warned that I went a little picture crazy.   

 

 



 

Audrey loved the Nature Hunt. All of these animals are hidden somewhere on the play set. 

 

 

 

She was beyond excited to look for each one and it kept her occupied for a long time. She even enlisted the help of some of the other kids playing. Always my social butterfly!

 

 

Here's a picture of one of the "hidden" animals. Fun, huh? 

 

Audrey was also into the little jumping platform.

 

Check out Will playing these fantabulous drums! Unlike a lot of playgrounds that we've been to, this place has a lot of things for Will-sized people. Love that!

He also loved climbing on the little butterflies. Isn't that rock wall tent to the left adorable? Are you loving this place as much as we are, yet?

On top of the play set was this fun little racing game. You would have thought that Will would be all about it but he was too busy heading for the slide about a thousand times.

 

There he goes...

 

 

...good thing big sis is waiting at the bottom to catch him. She is such a great sister!

 

Underneath the play set there was a little playhouse. Those round things to the right are bells and the little horn-looking thing was like a telephone. You talked into one end and the sound came out through another one on the other end of the playground.

 

 

Okay, just a few more pictures. There were swings, which are always one of Audrey's favorite things to do at the park.

 

And, there was a tunnel that looked like a log.

There is even this beautiful view just steps away from the playground. I think we have found a new favorite spot. We can't wait to come back and bring Daddy.

 

We had an amazing day soaking up the end of summer. I hope to keep these fun times going as we enter into the autumn months. So, stay tuned for our next installment of Beyond Our Front Door.

Patricia and Jake's Winter Wedding

Patricia and Jake's Winter Wedding by farrisej featuring dresses

DIY Photo Art

Have you ever had DIY deja vu? Well, that is exactly what happened to me when I decided to fake a giant photo canvas of my kids for the playroom. If you remember my post about putting song lyrics on a canvas, you know that I ran into a few snags. Needless to say, it was far from perfect and neither is our photo canvas but I have resolved not to point out every flaw because sometimes I am the only one that notices them.With that said, allow me to explain how I made this piece.

I have recently fallen in love with Jenny's blog, Little Green Notebook. She recently mentioned her $4.00 photo trick that I decided to duplicate. To begin, I had a 36x48 inch engineering print of the photo made at staples. I also picked up a foam board similar in size. I actually had to use a trifold board because it was all that I could find that was the right size. I found mine at Michaels but I'm sure you can get them at any craft store. I could have used a canvas but the foam board is much less expensive and I'm all about that.  I trimmed the photo and the foam board so that they were the same size.

Cutting the foam board was a little tricky. An exacto knife would have been the tool of choice but I couldn't find mine (in a box somewhere I'm sure) so I just used a kitchen knife.

As you can see, the edges were a mess so I put masking top over them to make for a smoother surface.

I loved Jenny's idea of painting the edge so I did the same. I wanted a nice reddish-orange color so I just did a little color mixing until I got a shade I was happy with. Painting past the edge was a major fail, by the way.

Once the paint dried, I attached the photo to the board with mod podge. I didn't get pictures of this step but I just started with the print rolled up and glued it down as I unrolled it onto the foam board. This is where things got extremely hairy for me. I realized that the orange paint could be seen through the print and there were a ton of air bubbles underneath where I didn't apply enough mod podge. It was completely unsalvagable. So, I scrapped it and did the entire process all over again. The second round went much better. Like I mentioned before, however, the end result isn't perfect but I'll let you be the judge of that. I do love the surprise of orange around the edges.

So, back to school is looming for me. I am excited to be in a new school and a new grade level this year but that also means that I have a lot of work to do between now and August 19th when twenty-some new first graders will walk into my classroom for the first time. I will try to update you throughout the process. Goodbye summer and hello to my crazy, busy, rewarding, and amazing life as a teacher!

A Happy Little Corner

 

 

This little corner of our playroom is rockin' some pretty cool pieces of artwork. I may be a little partial, though, because they were created by my little budding artists. I already shared how I made the colored pencil art and in a second I will get to that mirror. First, I want to show you how Audrey and Will put their creative touches on this room.

 

Audrey made this Kandinsky-inspired canvas using oil pastels. I divided the canvas into four squares and she drew the circles and colored them in, like so.

 

 

She decided to create a square to represent each member of her family.. The top left is my square, top right is hers, bottom left is Aaron's, and the bottom right is Will's. I did lend her a little hand just by going over each circle to fill in all of the white space. Then, I sprayed it with Mod Podge sealer so that the oil pastel wouldn't be able to rub off. 

 

I also decided to frame a couple of things that Audrey and Will made. Audrey got crafty by cutting a gluing some paint chips. 

 

And,Will did a little finger-painting...

 



 

 

 

I've had this mirror stored away for months. It was one of my treasures from the Thrift Shop Challenge. I just gave it a couple of quick coats of spray paint. It was the same color that I used on our bookshelf drawers.

 



 

With just a few fun and creative DIY projects the walls of our playroom are looking super happy. Exactly how a playroom should look. Am I right?