Cinnamon Cutouts

or otherwise titled, "control freak mom loses it while trying to use glitter with preschoolers".

i was feeling pretty convicted from my last post about not letting my kids help me make ornaments for the tree last year. so i went ahead and started the 3 day craft of cinnamon cutouts. we had to first make the dough, which made my house smell ridiculously good, but also made all of our boogers (we're sick) cinnamon tinged. gross.

it took about 3 days for the cutouts to dry, and 27 sweepings of cinnamon piles from my floors, before we could add glitter.

so let me just start by reiterating how OCD i am:

1) i am not good at delegating. i figure, i can probably do it better, faster, and more perfect so i will just to it myself. not very humble... but i'm being honest. 2) messes really bother me. 3) i like to have "contained" crafts, ie: in one area, where it doesn't get messy. 4) when people don't follow instructions i get really frustrated and say i will do it myself. 5) i don't like cleaning.

so once the cutouts were dry i devised a "plan" on how it should go. each of my children would get a bowl of glue and a paintbrush to "paint" the design on. each color of glitter was separated by individual bowls. they were to apply the glue, shake on glitter, and pour glitter back into specified bowl so as not to mix the colors. sounds good, right? wrong. need i remind you that my children are 2 and 4!!! they totally mixed all the glitter, used the paint brush full of glue to smear glitter-glue all over the table, paper and ornament, and managed to get at least half the glue on their face, in their hair, and all over the floor.

ok, so now that i'm done complaining, i can tell you how much fun my kids had. they hand picked out each shape to compliment each recipient. made precious gifts that they are excited to give away. and i'm sure, they will remember this is a good memory and not my rantings of how they weren't following instructions, i hope.

i love them and i don't care if the person who gets them doesn't love them until their adults and can appreciate the hard work my kids put into them, or ever...

i just don't think i will be allowing my kids to use glitter as a craft until they're teenagers. or maybe we'll just stick to sequins.

anyway. here's a picture of our tree.