Kid craft: Fridgerpillars!

I have really resisted making this a mommy blog because I'll be damned if these things take over my entire life.

The fact is though, I spend approximately every single waking second with these children, feeding, clothing, wiping their various orifices, building block towers, applying popsicle lipstick, teaching them, learning from them, separating them in a Little People Plane fight, and sometimes yelling and then feeling guilty.  And on the rare occasion I'm not with them, I'm hoping they're ok and that Joe has remembered to feed them.  I'm a mombie, whether I like it or not.

They're pretty cool kids anyway, so to deny myself and my blog of them anymore (not that I was really doing that great a job) is just plain bogusness.  And maybe I'll start updating more often again this way.  So with that!  Begin the Lamefest!

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Today I came up with my own little craft that I'm pretty proud of!  It's not really that great or clever or anything and probably not even an original idea, but I didn't follow any How-To for it, so uh, booyah.

We have an abundance of sticky button magnets and fridge art and a shortage on cute fridge magnets.  I went through all of our craft drawer today and the end result was this guy...

I'm not going to insult your intelligence and give you a step by step instruction list on how to do this, because I'm not a dick like that.  I will, however, give you a pre-written shopping list in case you don't have all these things on hand already.  I'm a Dollar Store whore, so you can make like 25 caterpillars for maybe $6 if you're so inclined.  Or you could make some fancier ones with craft store supplies for not much more money (but I'm poor folks).

You need:

• Construction paper
• Googly eyes
• Fuzzy balls
• Craft sticks
• Self-adhesive button magnets
• Pipe cleaners
• Glue
• Marker
• Scissors

For those of you with a photographic memory.

I made the faces first.  I cut the circles out and let Violet draw all over them, and I drew a few too obviously. The cool thing about it is even if your kid's no genius like mine and doesn't know how to draw a smiley face yet, the second you plop those googly eyes on there suddenly it's an identifiable face.  You'll be looking at the squiggles like "OMG, is that a nose she drew right there?!  With a booger in it even!  Such attention to detail!  And look at the smile she drew - that caterpillar must be smiling because she loves her mommy!  Hey check out that mole!"  Once you guys are done scribbling and drawing faces, put two little dots on there and let your kiddo place the googly eyes on.  I don't know why, but it just about made Violet's life getting to put the eyeballs on herself.  Then apply antennaes and sit aside to dry while you work on the body!

What's funny about this picture is you can't see Violet doesn't have any pants on.

I threw some craft sticks down and shot some glue in their general direction and told Violet to apply fuzzy balls.  I was actually impressed that she managed to put them all on the sticks in an actual caterpillar-body-fashion, but I'm sure they would have looked just as adorable with holes too.  Note: two mistakes I made -  It's easier to stick the magnets on the back BEFORE the front is covered in fuzzy balls, and leave a little space of unglued craft stick to apply the head.  I managed to fit my heads on there, but I expect them to be decapitated by the end of the week.  Also note:  If you're feeling ambitious, go ahead and add some legs.  I would have done so with my extra pipe cleaners, but caterpillars have like 40 legs, and I wanted my fridgerpillars to be life-like (like-like amputee caterpillars).  And I'm lazy.  An easy solution might be to use a strip of construction paper along the bottom and cut every quarter inch or so, to create "fringe" legs?  Mine are done and I'm not editing this anymore, so if any of you over achievers go for it, post a picture (and thanks for showing me up, a-hole).

Then, parade those little fridgerpillar fellas up on your fridge surrounding only the prettiest artwork.  You're welcome!