January 21: A Thomas Tunnel

Carefully painting.

Waiting for it to dry.

This project has been their FAVORITE project to date!!!  The boys receive the Thomas and Friends magazine (courtesy of Uncle Justin, Auntie Lindsey, and Isaac), and the most recent issue had the directions to make a tunnel for Thomas!  When Ty saw that in the magazine he immediately said, "Let's make a project!"  We didn't have all the materials (nor was it our designated "project day"), but I promised Ty we would make it after we got all the materials.  For us, finding a shoe box was the toughest part of the whole project!    



Carefully placing the tissue paper
 on the roof of the tunnel.



Project day is on Friday which is a school day for Koen, but I knew he'd want to be involved with this particular project.  Ty and I started it earlier in the day by cutting the tunnel out and painting the top and sides green, and painting bricks on the front and back as directed (though we did use different colors than the magazine suggested just because our shoe box was so dark).  The paint was dry within a few hours, so after supper we drew the cobblestones and added the "foliage" by gluing crumpled up green tissue paper to the top.  The magazine instructed us to add them to the sides as well, but the boys agreed they just wanted it on top. 



Crumpling the tissue paper with gusto.



Another difficult part of the project was waiting for it to dry -- first the paint and then the glue!  The boys could hardly wait to play with it, but since they've gotten the OK that it was dry, they've made it the center of their train stories.  I must admit that it did turn out pretty well and it really wasn't difficult to make. 





They are so proud of the finished tunnel!