Yard Spiders

We like to decorate for the holiday's, but Mr. JCrew and I differ on how far to go. He likes to go all out! I like to keep things simple. Part of this is because I know the work that goes into those elaborate scenes.

Mr. JCrew has always wanted to decorate for Halloween. I never celebrated Halloween growing up so it was never a big to-do I was experienced with. But Mr. JCrew got excited when I said I was ready to decorate for Halloween this year. I immediately said we had to have a theme. Our theme... SPIDERS!

We plan to put up cobwebs around our porch and relatively "small" spiders hanging from the porch vine, but the big effort was going to be from our huge spiders in the yard. I found a tutorial and made three! We are on a corner lot, so the main spider is on the corner to grab your attention. Then a second spider is right in front of the house, and a third spider is at the driveway on the side of the house for those that turn the corner, down our street.

No escaping!!

I appreciated the tutorial I found because he laid out exactly what to buy. I am going to change a couple things for my list.

Supplies for 1 Spider:

• 6 – 10’ lengths of ¾ inch PVC pipe
• 8 - ¾ inch PVC caps
• 16 – ¾ inch PVC 45 degree elbows
• 8 – ¾ inch PVC 90 degree elbows
• 2 – ¾ inch PVC 4 way T connectors
• 2 – ¾ inch PVC T connectors
• PVC cement
• Black spray paint
• Bouncy Ball (head)
• Pillow (body)
• Black yard trash bag (body)
• Black duct tape (body)
• Black Zip Ties (body)

He used different parts for the body, but I didn't like how it turned out in his pictures. So, I changed it on the cuff. While in Walmart, I saw pillows and grabbed three. They would be the body. Then I grabbed bouncy balls. They would be the head. I would stick those in a yard trash bag and I'd have my spider body.


I stuck the ball in the center end of the trash bag and tied it off with a zip tie.

I then left the pillow in its protective wrap it was bought in and placed it in the trash bag and tied it off with another zip tie.

This left a tail that I taped flat onto the body.

Mr. JCrew said we could use this technique to make "bodies." :/

The tutorial I found also told you how to cut the PVC pipe into the lengths you need. Having this already planned out made things go much faster. Longest part of a project is the planning!

I cut the PVC pipe and assembled the legs and 'backbone."

 

I glued the legs together and the backbone together. NOT TO EACH OTHER! I want to be able to reuse these, so I can hang the legs and it take up less space. The legs will stay assembled and the backbone assembled while in storage.

TIP! **** I glued the 45 degree elbows to the backbone and if I could change that, I would glue the 45 degree elbows to the legs instead. Gluing the 45 degree elbows to the backbone restricts the movement of the legs. When putting the legs on, you may have to adjust positioning to find balance for the spider and the 45 degree elbow is what helps you.

I used Mister Pfitzer's tricycle to hold the backbone as I attached the legs. You definitely need something to lift the backbone up as you insert the legs.

Now, my list says 2 4-way connectors and 2 T-connectors, but that is not what is shown in the pictures or what was on the tutorial I followed. I bought the materials as the list stated, but those 4-way connectors are expensive and I really only needed 2. The T-connectors can be the ones on the end.

At first, the weight of the pillow would make the legs crumble. I had to make sure the pipes were fully inserted. The boys helped with assembly, and they said it was frustrating. You'd get one leg in and another would fall out.

Once together, I spray painted. Spray paint was much faster than exterior paint I'd have to roll on. I made sure to get the kind with Primer built in. And I didn't sand the PVC pipe before painting. The paint I got said it would adhere to plastic.

With the spider bodies, I also taped the head "up" on the body. I used the black duct tape to make a "collar" that assisted in holding the head up closer to the body. Otherwise, the head would kind of fall down.

The boys then said the spiders were missing eyes, so I took their advice on four red eyes for the spiders. Scary!

This only took one morning to do and the spiders were on display by lunch time. I was so tickled with the results! Come Halloween night, the spiders will move to be closer to the walkways so that the trick-or-treaters have to be brave!

Christmas Day 2017

This year, I planned so well, that I know I was on top of my game and I wouldn’t be able to repeat it. I had all my shopping done before Christmas! And then Thanksgiving was spent wrapping it all! All the presents hung out in my closet and I can now reclaim my closet space!

We had the cousins over for dinner and exchanging gifts on Saturday. That was a lot of fun with good food.

I bought a tablecloth for the kiddos that you can color. We had fun all throughout December filling it in. It was at the kiddo table, so when they were done eating, they had something to do while the adults finished their meal.

We had my sister come visit us from Florida, and we really enjoyed her visit!

It’s never long enough, but we soaked it in. She helped the boys decorate cookies.

And drew a picture for them before she left.

Aunt Logan gifted the boys Star Wars backpacks and action figures. They also got thermos that they love. Mister Pfitzer got some much-needed pajamas that turn him into a Star Wars pilot. We love it on him!

On Christmas Eve, we have our traditions. We bake a birthday cake for Jesus.

And we attend the candlelight service at church. Little JCrew’s choir sang in the service.

The birthday cake procedure was fun this year. All three boys were involved. Mister Pfitzer kept trying to steal ingredients off the counter, and Little JCrew read the instructions and kind of lead the process.

After the church service, we go home and get ready for bed. But at 7PM, our local fire department drives the big red truck with Santa on it!! They go by really slow and they drive right in front of our house.

It is then, that we set out the goodies for Santa, and race into bed! Santa gets a slice of birthday cake and his reindeer get carrot sticks.

We went to bed early on Christmas Eve, but I did not want to wake up the next morning! Little JCrew and Mr. Brigglesworth were up around 6:30. They saw that Santa had eaten his cake and drank almost all of his milk.

Santa gives one present at our house. The rest come from Mom and Dad. This year was a magical year for the boys. I had to make sure my game was perfect. I never knew if I would go along with the Santa thing when I had kids, and we didn’t have Santa until the boys started school. They came home one day and told me about this Santa guy and I asked him what they had heard about him. We had to be on the same page. We don’t talk about Santa at our house. I’m sure he is talked about elsewhere, but I don’t bring him up. And if the boys bring him up, I acknowledge, but shift the conversation. We do talk about St. Nick, though.

At a church event this year in October, the boys got to sit with Santa.

They were in disbelief. We have never sat on Santa’s lap before. I made sure that I paid close attention. Little JCrew asked for a smaller x-wing than he currently has and Mr. Brigglesworth asked for a toy elf version of Santa’s elves.

Later in the month, while shopping at Walmart, they had a booth set up with some toys to try out, their toy circular and a lined piece of paper to make your wishlist on. When the boys got home, they made a long list! They struggled to fill all the lines up, as they thought they were supposed to. I then shared that they did not have to fill all the lines. But, they managed to!

Little JCrew

Mr. Brigglesworth

The boys were so tickled that Santa got them just what they asked for. I then heard Little JCrew talking to Mr. Brigglesworth about how the Santa at church must have been the real one and not a fake Santa, because he only told the church Santa about the x-wing and that’s what he got!

Santa also wrote notes to the boys. They can recognize my handwriting, so we went with the magazine cutouts.

We made Mister Pfitzer’s note pretty funny for enjoyment from the boys. Mr. Pfitzer has entered his terrible two’s early and yells at his brothers. He also throws in a hit when he’s mad. His brothers are only trying to help him get out of trouble, but he’s not appreciative. We are working on this behavior and he’s getting better, but the boys now tell us when Mr. Pfitzer yells at them.

The boys also noticed their stockings were full and got excited. There were pencils, candy, ornaments and toys in the stockings.

The theme of this years toys were Ghostbusters! Playmobil made some cute toys for the Ghostbuster film and I had to get them.

My dollhouse is Playmobil Victorian and it is still going strong!

I made the good decision to open these boxes and put them together before wrapping them so that it could be pulled out of the box and played with immediately. If you know Playmobil, you know their attention to detail. No detail is left out, therefore there is a lot to put together. I didn’t put together the large firestation ahead of time because I was getting tired, but if that was the only thing I had to put together on Christmas Day, that was a good thing.

Poor Mr. Pfitzer wants to be big like his big brothers, and he wanted that Ecto car so bad!

We let him play with it heavily supervised. He loves cars so much!

Mr. JCrew got a popcorn maker! He loved it. It was in his favorite color, orange.

He also received other presents early; one of them being his car completely detailed. He was so excited about that!

Mister Pfitzer received a few things from my mom that were just for him! He now has his own rainboots.

And he has his own SpiderMan costume! He was always wanting to wear his brothers.

The boys also got art supplies from our neighbor. The boys have a sweet relationship with our neighbors. They always want to make things and take them to “Jack.” They think of him often and want to do things for him. The neighbors mentioned they wanted to do something for the boys and I mentioned "Something small, like colored pencils and paper. They love to craft." Well, that turned into an easel with paint, markers, paper, playdough tools, etc. It was fun to open and the boys went to town with creating artwork. It was a great present to occupy them while school is out.

We already had one easel, but it doesn't have a paper roll. We just cut pieces from the roll and clip them to the easel and it works. Thank goodness we have two! The boys team up. They both start out by copying each other, but then it moves into different directions.

Both boys are very artsy. I love seeing what they come up with.

We are so thankful for the time together. This Christmas has been so much fun and enjoyable. May all your Christmases be bright!