Chaos Comes In 3's

Monday, October 11, 2010

Put the kids to work

As much as I try to teach my kids to be respectful and nice to their toys, things inevitably break, and those things of course involve crayons. I can remember as a child that I hated when the papers would come off, the tips would get worn down, or the colors would get mixed up in some other order than the original way they came. I love opening a box of fresh crayons and wish that they could stay like that forever.

When the crayons break I take them and keep them in a ziploc bag until I can think of a way to use them. Since Halloween is approaching I took one look at all of the bits of orange crayons and remember a craft I did in elementary school involving wax paper, crayons, and an iron. So on Saturday while daddy was at work we made some pumpkins. Before you get started though all those pesky crayon papers have to come off. Since my kids like ruining things so much I though this would be a perfect project for them - peel off all the papers...

This lasted about as long as it took me to take the picture. Apparently when it is okay to do this sort of thing all of the fun is lost...

I shaved the crayons with a pair of scissors (I'm not joking, this took FOREVER). Sprinkle the crayon shavings on a piece of wax paper and sandwich them between another sheet of equal size. I then slid the whole thing on top of an old towel since we were doing this on the kitchen table and then put a paper towel on top of that. The paper towel is crucial otherwise the bottom of your iron will be a big wax papery, crayony mess! Iron just enough for the crayon to melt. Once it cooled we cut out jack o'lanterns and taped them to our front door.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Shiver

I wasn't aware that Halloween came so early this year. Just as I was getting up the gumption to start trimming some of the bushes in my front yard I surveyed the situation first. Thank God I did otherwise I wouldn't be writing this post because I would be in the hospital recovering from a heart attack.

See my lovely little bush?

I could see some spider web strand glinting in the sun and if there's one thing I am absolutely terrified of it is spiders. Yuck. So I went to get my gloves. I am NOT tackling this without something between my hands and this bush I thought to myself. If I had a choice I would probably do stuff like this with a full hazmat suit on just to protect myself from all the creepy crawlies out there. I bent in a little closer and then I saw it. OH MY GOODNESS. (That is not by the way what I actually said!)

Can you see that thing??? It was about a foot in diameter. Okay not really a foot but pretty darn close. I can barely even look at these pictures because they scare me so much. Ridiculous, I know. And just for good measure here's the side view...

Can you see those fangs??

Needless to say I am not trimming this bush or getting within a 10 foot radius of it until this thing is gone! And when it is gone what does 'gone' really mean? Does it go into hiding? Does it just die? Does something else come to eat it? Don't answer that. I'm better off not knowing!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Jello Popsicles

My kids are known for eating all the orange popsicles out of the box and are then stuck with the not so desirable flavors. I totally agree with them that someone should come up with an all orange box of popsicles since that truly is the best flavor in the box.

So the other day my son pulls out a box of orange Jello and I had an idea. We made the Jello with only 1 cup of water and then substituted the remaining amount of water with apple juice. It was the only juice on hand that I thought had the mildest flavor and wouldn't clash too much with the orange. A few plastic cups and a few sticks and we stuck them in the freezer and waited to enjoy after dinner.

Except...

They took FOREVER to freeze! A whole day in fact. The kids were super disappointed and I felt terrible but the next day we tried them out. Not quite what I expected as some of them had actual bits of Jello on the bottom but they weren't bad for a crazy idea. And the best thing was that they didn't melt at all. Perfect for a summer day!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

And she's off...

The first day of first grade. I really can't believe the time has come. I'm not sad, but I'm not exactly thrilled either. Last year was kindergarten - a half day - and she was only gone for about 3 and a half hours in the morning. We took her to school and picked her up when it was time to come home. She loved it and was equally excited to start 1st grade this year which I AM happy about! So far she loves her teacher, has some friends from last year's class in her new class, and likes the fact that she can eat lunch with them. I guess what I really don't like about this new year is that for most of our time together now during the week she isn't being influenced by me for the majority of the day. And that kind of scares me. The influence of friends and other students, mmmmm, not liking so much. I guess I can only pray that her dad and I can help keep her morally strong while she's growing up and that she makes friendships with girls and boys of similar upbringings. Cell phones now? No. TV in her room now? No. Believe me, she's asked! And what I found unbelievable is that kids her age have "yeses" to those questions. Nope, sorry, not for this girl! When can I, when can I she asks? Hmmm, I'm not sure I tell her. Maybe when your 25...

There she goes getting on the bus on the first day of school. The first time she ever rode a bus anywhere and she wasn't the least bit hesitant or nervous. She can get along with just about anyone and is not the least bit shy. Just two of the reasons I love ya M!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Sticky Gobs of Heaven

Last Christmas my kiddos got a bubble gum making kit from Santa. My oldest is a big fan of anything that needs stirring, mixing, adding, subtracting, and overall messiness so this was a big hit for her. My boy isn't far behind on enthusiasm for this type of thing either. Enter the big blue box that promises gobs of yummy gooey gum that you can whip up with all sorts of colors and flavors...

The box claims it's for 8+ years but my kids (now 6 and 3) have just as much fun although I definitely need to help them. I mean they could very well do it on their own if I wanted to spend the next 12 hours cleaning my kitchen and assuming they didn't burn the house down and I still had a kitchen left to clean. It just takes a little microwaving, mixing, and kneading and voila! bubblegum is born. The company is called Scientific Explorer and they have much more than bubblegum available. I already know that this Christmas M will be hounding Santa about the Spa Kit but for now we're satisfied with this...

Monday, July 26, 2010

Tooth Fairy Pillow

I finally finished M's tooth fairy pillow and she couldn't be happier. We had been using the generic dentist tooth fairy box but I wanted her to have something much cuter that she could stuff a tooth into. Luckily she's only lost 4 so far and has 4 loose at the moment so we can still get some good use out of this one! Her order was a ballerina. I wasn't quite sure how to go about making a ballerina tooth but I gave it a shot and it was fairly easy and not very time consuming. Now for what to use.... Hmmm....

The Front:

I was going to go for felt but then found some fleece felt which was so soft and cuddly so I traced my pattern onto that and hand stitched it together and stuffed it with some poly-fil. I embroidered the eyes and eyelashes and mouth with some leftover embroidery thread that I have. The 'tutu' and 'shoes' were made out of a onsie that she wore as a baby. This is waaay more sentimental to me than it will ever be for her!

The Back:

I cut the pocket out of felt as well and stitched a tooth on it so she could place her tooth in there at night and get her loot out in the morning. So we'll be waiting for a visit from the tooth fairy soon. Since we can't actually pull any teeth out without having her freak out (she is definitely my child!) we usually wait for a very looong time before the tooth fairy can make her appearance.

I asked my 3 year old what kind he wants. His answer - a monster truck. Oh boy! How to make a tooth into a monster truck??

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

We're hunting for 'wabbits'

Today it was so stinkin' hot outside but we ventured out for a little while anyway. I had forgotten that I had stashed away a few crafty pages out of a calendar my mom gave me and when I found them the other day I decided that this would be the perfect season for the "Bunny Feeder" project. It was quick and easy and fun for the kids to string it together and then decide where we would like to watch the bunnies eat their breakfast. I'm sure you already have all the ingredients to make one too!

All you need is a wire hanger and some cheerios. The instructions said to clip the hook off of the hanger but I couldn't find my husband's wire clippers so I just unwound it and left it at that. Then bend one end up to make a curve and (try) bending the whole thing to resemble an arc and start threading on the cheerios until you get something that looks like this...

Once you have the cheerios on the length of the hanger find a good spot in the yard and push it into the ground. Luckily we've had a bit of rain the past couple of days so this part was fairly easy. Now the hard part is waiting for some critters to visit!