it's beginning to look a lot like christmas?

it must still be december, because lumpy is still making christmas crafts.

i know this because he wanted me to dig out cotton balls for him earlier, so he could stuff a christmas tree he made for me and turn it into a pillow of sorts. it was made out of red and orange construction paper, and had a vague pine tree shape, but i took him at his word and figured it would be the best construction paper christmas tree pillow ever. if only we actually had cotton balls that he could have stuffed it with, but unfortunately we don't. lucky for me he has decided that it will sit on the kitchen table until i get to the store and buy cotton balls for him and all his crafting needs.

then last week was my mother's birthday, and my boys made cards for her. i drew a heart for bumble to cut out, which he turned into a card by drawing a lovely cake on the inside. the flame on the stripy candle was very realistic, and i was much impressed and slightly disturbed that he remembered a good flame has blue at the center and then goes through reds and oranges and ends with yellow on the outside. though being that he was using markers on red construction paper, some of the detail might be lost on those that weren't there to witness the creation.

lumpy also made a card of sorts. he cut out two sock shapes from bright orange paper that i taped together for him to make a christmas stocking. then he took some scraps and wrote a happy birthday message on it and shoved it in the sock. thus was born the fully functional happy birthday christmas stocking. made for my mother who was born in the middle of january.

i don't really understand why he's doing these types of crafts now. maybe he just wants to prolong that happy christmas feeling. maybe he just really likes making christmas stocking because it gives him an excuse to use the scissors and the tape. maybe he just likes to make me frustrated, because when i wanted him to make christmas crafts to give to everybody along with their presents way back in december, he told me no and that it was a stupid idea. obviously the idea just had to sit with him for a bit to make it seem awesome.

i'm hoping if i pull out the white and red and pink paper, he and his brother will be inspired to make hearts to hang on the door for valentines day. i've given up on them making the snowflakes bumble promised me for january. though i think telling them to make snowflakes was a bad idea on my part. showing them how to fold the paper and make little cuts, and that when unfolded it looks like a pretty flake, that concept was lost on them. they got the folding paper part, and they got the cutting part, and that they ran with. so instead of pretty snowflakes, i get mountains of little scraps of construction paper, and a "snowflake" so cut apart i can't even hang it. though i wonder if the scraps of paper count as confetti for new years? anything to make this mess seasonal. and we can use the confetti to stuff the pink valentine's day stockings. it'll be fabulous.