At home with the Harpers: June 2012

This year for Father's Day, I decided to try to be creative. Not too sure if it paid off but here is what I decided to do.
Since my husband LOVES popcorn, I decided to make him a special popcorn bowl. I initially planned to use a ceramic bowl for the project and was going to visit our local pottery decorating place with the children. But... I decided I was better off completing the project at home since I couldn't think of a way to occupy my two little ones while I concentrated on putting the finishing decorating touches on the bowl. So ... I looked everywhere for a plain white ceramic bowl. I found a square one at Target but then stumbled upon a glass bowl that was just the perfect size!!
So I found some non-toxic paint, picked three colors and went for it! Maddy was so helpful! Here is how it turned out...

I did not pay attention to the hump in the middle of the bowl until I was trying to paint it!

My initial idea for the hand prints was to use Maddy's right hand and Ethan's left, so that the thumbs would come together to form a heart. HOWEVER.... I could not get Ethan to let go of the toys in his left hand for ANYTHING so... we went with the right hand. Hey, the print didn't turn out too bad for an almost 9 month old!!

We also used Maddy's little fingers to make the "popcorn" pieces around the bowl. She had so much fun doing this!

The finished product.

For the grandfathers this year we decided to go with a "Grandpa/Granddad Rocks!" theme this year. I got the idea from Pinterest, (of course!) which lead me to this blog.
I did not think that either grandfather would like the cookies and cream fudge so I went with different recipes. I used a regular fudge (adding crushed almonds on top for Grandpa Harper, and no almonds for Granddad Locke) as well as Peanut Butter Balls.
I did not use mini chips as a topping, as I was trying to go with a "rock-like" theme. I decided to add some plain cocoa powder to the top of some of the PB balls to make it look more like dirt. :)
Hopefully the grandfathers enjoyed them. My husband definitely loved them!!
So... for Grandpa Harper... since they play in the sand at the lake house all of the time, I used a little bucket to place his "rocks" in and placed a picture of the kids on silly cartoons. Here is how it turned out...

For Granddad Locke... we took the "rock" theme in a different direction. Since Granddad plays the drums... yeah you see where I'm going with this.... I tried to make a drum out of a tin. I found silly cartoons and used fun pictures for the "band members."
Here is how this one turned out...