Penguin Friend

Pretty much as soon as we finished making these adorable snowmen from 2x4s, I knew that I had to make penguins from 2x4s as well.  We started weeks ago, and got this far

before events conspired to make us set them aside.  First we had Camp Scarlet, then Pal's mom's school was canceled, so Pal stayed home with mom, then our school district had an inservice day so Pal's dad stayed home with Pal and her sisters, and now today Bubby is sick, so Pal went over to her aunt's house instead of hanging out with us.

Once again, the best Hubby in the world cut 7" lengths of 2x4 for us, and I painted them white, then applied masking tape in sort of a T pattern.  The kids painted them black, leaving the masked neck and belly areas white.

This morning I got tired of waiting for Pal (have I mentioned that I hate clutter?  These 2x4s have been sitting on our fire place for weeks), so I started gathering supplies to finish one of the penguins, at least.  I was surprised and pleased when Bubby told me that he wanted to help.  We got smart this time, and put the hat and scarf on first.  They're both made out of an orphan sock--I think I need to start buying brighter socks so that when I lose one of them, the remaining one makes a fun hat or scarf or whatever it is we need, but this blue one is cute enough, right?

We decided googly eyes would look best, after considering other materials like buttons, sequins, and pom poms, and we used a fun foam triangle for the beak.

Bubby got a little glue happy...have I mentioned how wonderful tacky glue is for kid's craft projects?  It's thicker and stickier than regular school glue.  We use Aleene's Original Tacky Glue.

He's ready for his close-up

The snowflake confetti was Bubby's artistic decision, I think because he wanted an excuse to use more glue after all of the other parts were in place.

And here's our penguin hanging out with his friend the snowman.  As you can see, the glue isn't even dry yet, but I was too excited to show this to you to wait.

After I pried the glue bottle out of Bubby's hands, we read a couple of books about penguins, including Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester (speaking of tacky...), a cute book about being yourself, even if your self is different, and Animal Safari - Penguins.  And that's the story of our moring creating our new penguin friend.

If I've inspired you to make your own 2x4 friends, leave a comment to let me know :-)

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