More Fun With the Afternoon Class

I don't really have to do anything in particular with the afternoon class, which makes it really fun, but also challenging since I led high with the space rovers!! I don't want to let them down with something lame!

 Week 2 I bought a bag of dry-ice (check your local supermarkets- our Harris Teeters sell blocks by the pound.  Buy a little more than you think you'll need and wrap it in a kitchen towel to keep it cool.  You CANNOT put it in  your fridge or freezer, it'll freak out your thermostat and break it.  If you have a cooler, you can use that, but keep it slightly propped open so that it doesn't pop off.  Since Dry Ice is literally solid carbon dioxide gas, when it "melts" it lets off gas.

 We did several fun experiments.  First, we put a piece of regular ice on paper towel, and a piece of dry ice.  This was to prove that when Dry Ice "melts" it is changing from a solid to a gas.  We talked about how things typically have to change phases from a solid to a liquid to a gas and that skipping from a solid to a gas is called sublimation.  Then, we needed to prove that the gas being released was carbon dioxide.  We talked about how carbon dioxide smothers fire (which is really just rapid oxidation) and then lit a candle inside a flower vase.  When you put a chunk of dry ice next to it, the flame is smothered.  Then we did some fun stuff- dry ice in hot water (which makes lots of steam!) to show that the gas is leaving (mark the water level on the cup before adding the dry ice) and nothing is added to the water.  We also showed the difference between a mixture and a solution.  By adding food coloring and dish soap to water and then adding the dry ice, you can make regular bubbles because the food coloring is not changing or reacting with the bubble solution.  You will make lots of bubbles.

Finally, we made ice cream.  You need to use a bowl fully 3 times as large as the amount of liquid you have.  We used a pint of heavy cream, an individual serving of strawberry milk, 1/2 a cup of sugar, and 1t of vanilla (mainly so I'd have more jobs for kids).  Before you start your experiments, place a 2-3 inch square of dry ice inside 2 heat duty Ziplock bags.  DO NOT SEAL ALL THE WAY (remember that gas? they'll pop!).  Then beat the dry ice until you have a very fine powder.  Be diligent! You don't want a child biting down on a piece of dry ice! You'll make instant ice cream when you add the powder and stir.  You'll notice I used too small of a bowl! The ice cream tastes a lot like an ice cream float because of the carbonation you're adding to it.  The kids loved having a taste.  I don't let them eat more than a spoonful each, but they enjoy the whole process!

 This week, I decided that we'd do tie-dying.  There was no real point to this.  We even made tie-dyed snack by spreading colored frosting dots with toothpicks.  I used canned frosting.  It was gross, but the sugar addicts seemed to enjoy ;)

 Decorating graham crackers.  It's intense work!!

To make these shirts, you insert a dixie cup under the top layer with the open side of the cup facing up.  Place a rubber band around the cup, and then draw a design with sharpie markers.  Designs with LESS area covered, like dots, stars, or small dashes, do the best.  After you're done drawing, drop rubbing alcohol over the area (the cup catches the excess) using eye droppers or straws (put the straw in the cup, put your finger over the top opening of the straw, release over the shirt).  

Here's thing 1 in a shirt he made at cub scouts the same way.  We first tried this technique at the Children's Museum near the Outer Banks, and it's really really fun and a fairly clean way to tie-dye!!

Savannah Lynn's Birthday

I am a huge sap for birthdays.  I figure that our kids will only really want 10 or 12 birthday parties, if I'm lucky, and I want to do them up right.

I seriously would  love it if there were random rich people out there that would pay me to decorate and prep crafts for their children's birthdays.  It makes me so happy to think of all the fun memories!!

For Savannah Lynn this year, we did a Princess Party at home.  There are about 2,000 pictures in this post, I apologize.

Tea party-style foods are cuter :) I use my stackable serving platters.  There are storebought lemon cookies, butter cookies with frosting and pink and red sprinkles, sliced cheese I cut using a flower cutter, and butterfly crackers.   I went super simple for the cake, just a pearl S.  One of
the best investments I ever made was in pink fabric when there was a yardage sale with a coupon at JoAnn Fabrics.  I got tulle, beautiful organza, and even prints, and I reuse them each year to decorate.  I used my mom's cricut with baby pinks and greens to make the birthday banner, and then I fill in with balloons and streamers.  I like that I'm saving money by reusing and also being a little bit greener :) I got these crowns at Tar-jay for a very decent price, and put out one for each little girl.  For crafts, I found plain boxes at Michael's for $1 each and painted them (the blue ones are for brothers) and then put in edging, stickers, and self-adhesive jewels for each girl to make a treasure box.  When they were done, we filled them up with necklaces and pink candy (gum, truffles, and kisses) and then wrapped a pink balloon around them.  Each girl took that and her crown home instead of doing a goody bag.


Savannah borrowed a pageant dress from her friend Katie-Marie (who is now a size 8 and didn't need it for the party!) and looked adorable. 

Grandma came, which always makes a party more fun :) Even mommy got some time to cheese for what are, unfortunately, really bad cellphone pictures, but we had a great time :)

Riley and Logan dressed up in their suits for the party, although Riley quickly retreated downstairs to play Legos.  I love this picture of him and Savannah.  He loves his little sister something fierce.  She loves her bubbas both tremendously.  

Riley was retreating from our special surprise- a REAL PRINCESS!!  Princess Genevieve from the Kingdom of Azuria came and spent some time with the girls.

She started off telling stories about her kingdom and showing off her treasures.  The girls were so excited they couldn't move or speak!  Logan, however, had a blast and even went to get his treasure box and tell her all about Vava Land (where Vavas and Vivos live)

After, the girls and Princess Genevieve enjoyed some singing, dancing, and twirling, and the girls got much more comfortable.  When it was time for snacks and lemonade, Genevieve made herself right at home on the floor with the little princesses, who enjoyed her company greatly.

We had a fantastic time, and I very much enjoyed our very girly party :)

In Which We Have Tea (but sadly, no crumpets)

I am such a dork about birthday parties for my kids.  I love them.  I love creating things and making treats and I love making their birthdays as magical as I can.  Savannah had her first "big" party at home this year. Last year we did Gymboree and had a combined party with a little friend of hers.  This year, I had a pink princess tea for 16 of her friends (and brothers!).

So, the evolution of a party.  It started off at JoAnne Fabrics.  With a coupon, and a sale :)  I love using fabric to decorate, though, because I can use it again.  So, even if it's more expensive than paper from the dollar store, over time I'll use it again and can craft it when I'm done :)

So this is some of my haul from Joanne.  The pink swirley fabric that I wanted to use for tablecloths is called "Pink Tea Party", which I thought was perfect! I also picked up pink tulle, necklaces, jordan almonds (at Savannah's request), several trims, pink shimmer with dots of silver sparkles, pearls, cookie cutters, individual paper cups, and pink and purple sprinkles.  It was a good time.  I also had some wonderful friends loan me kid-sized tables and chairs, and then I made my loving hubby move our sofa and dining room set to the basement :) I also picked up numerous hats from the thrift store, because our craft was going to be making tea hats.  The boas in the Joanne's picture above were cut in half- they're too long for preschoolers!

 In the kitchen (if you've never seen my kitchen it's not *THAT* yellow, for some reason the picture just turned out that way!) I cleared off my bakers rack and started laying out the goodies for the girls to decorate.  I put rings and necklaces, boas and hats, stickers and jewels, silk flowers, and some very cute candy bracelet watches that we actually bought for Valentine's day, but decided to use for this instead.  This picture doesn't have everything on it- but by the end of the party it was empty, anyway! My mom and my brother's girlfriend Miss Lauren came to help the girls hot glue gun on any fancy schmancy details they needed to their hats!

With the dining room cleared out, 1/2 the sectional in the basement, and 1/2 the sectional in the dining room, we were able to fit in 3 kids tables set with some pearls, sparkles, and a dish of caramel kisses, which incidentally come wrapped in pink.  I'm not sure if this party would have been able to be as pink as it was if Savannah's birthday wasn't the day before Valentine's day!!



The kids really loved picking their seats and that the room was so obviously set just for them.  Also, above the seats, I used that pink tulle to swag the ceiling instead of doing streamers.  I'm very eco-friendly.  ;)

      


So then there were the details.  I wrapped napkins and forks in pink feather trim, and made all kinds of yummy treats! I did pink marshmallows, pinkalicious cupcakes, glitter cookies, butterfly crackers and cheese flowers, ham and cheese tea sammies cut to be flowers, strawberries on "princess" skewers and all kinds of pink candies.  We also served pink lemonade with frozen raspberries floating in it.  Everything was a big hit

For the glitter cookies, I used Martha's recipe, but I just did the one ball without filling.  They're HUGE with the filling.  I also rolled mine in Wilton Pearl Dust instead of regular sprinkles because 1) It stuck better to the warm cookies and 2) It made them sparkle! You can't see it in the picture very well, but these were beautiful! I used Pink and Lilac, but they've got a million colors to choose from and they'd be awesome in Gold and Silver, I think :)

For the cupcakes, I used Strawberry cupcakes and then frosted them with a fluffy, but not too sweet icing since I was mounding them so high! My frosting recipe is:
1 8-ounce cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups of heavy whipping cream
1 t vanilla extract
Beat the cream cheese and the sugar.  Add the vanilla and scrape the bowl.  Switch to your whisk attachment and stream in the whipping cream, scraping occasionally, until stiff peaks form.  Add coloring of your choice.

The nice part about this whipped cream frosting is that it's stable at room temperature (some of them melt), and again, it's not too sweet.  It's very very slightly tangy from the cream cheese, but I thought that was lovely with the strawberry flavor of the cupcakes.

For the cherries, be sure to dry them for at least an hour on paper towels so they don't make your frosting run.  I used Wilton (again) Pink Sugar Pearls and was just going to pipe on the pink swagging in buttercream, but Savannah decided she loved the cupcakes as they were and wouldn't hear of it, so no swags :)

I think all the girls had a great time, and I know that I did!!

In Which We Purge Christmas....And Also Elf Away.

I seriously backed off of Christmas this year.  In the past I've let it way over stress me, mainly because I've tried to make Christmas the major production that my mother (who I love, please don't get me wrong) makes it.  She did such a great job of stressing, decorating, baking, polishing, tweaking, wrapping and making magic for us.  With my kids, though, I've never really wanted Christmas to be quite the way it was when I grew up, even though it was perfectly magical. I really want our Christmas to be about family and tradition and most of all about Jesus.  Over the past few years I've really frustrated myself trying to make Christmas what I want it to be, and "competing" with my mom, who will buy 3,000 presents by the time it's all said and done :)

This year, mainly because I'm totally burned out on other areas of life, I really let it go.  I let go of competing with her on the number of presents we buy, because honestly, our kids play with 3 or 4 of them and then forget about them.  I let go of freaking out about stringing 4,000,000 strands of lights in the front of our house because it's always frustrating to me that Austin doesn't "man up and hang the lights" so I did wreaths with bows and called it a day.  I think next year I'll buy pre-lit wreaths and be perfectly happy.  I let go of going to as many events and parties as we could cram in, and instead I filled our days with family projects.  I kept our advent devotions.  I kept the tree.  I kept secret shopping trips and the nativity scenes and ice skating. Also, the homemade thank you cards, but only because we really like painting things.

I let go of individually made cards and got free ones from Shutterfly for writing about them on my PWC Moms blog. And you know, somewhere in the purging, I found the joy of Christmas again.  My kids and I have enjoyed the snow, and the reading, and the making treats for other people.  We haven't stressed or run all over the place any more than we normally do, and I've actually worked to cut that down, too, so that we can savor the season.

I still think that Christmas has been great so far for us.  By not deciding that I have to do the nine million things I've made myself in the past, we've allowed ourselves to do what is special for us this year.  For example, my kids apparently love gingerbread houses.  This is the 5th one we've done.  It's got chocolate rocks on the sides.  How awesome is that!

 I've also tried not to freak out so much about the baking.  I bake with our kids all the time, but during Christmas I want things to be perfect, so I tend to micromanage or do it myself.  So this year, since I know it's really fun and special for them, I've picked things they can do.  We did chocolate dipped pretzels tonight, which ended up with around 6 different non-matching toppings on them but are still cute, and we also did gingerbread man cookies (I told you they love the gingerbread!!) I also decided that I'd chill out on the monstrous cookie platters we end up doing for our neighbors and share some of our home-canned goodies instead, so I've started getting some salsa and peach butter ready to go out.  We're caroling tomorrow (keeper!!) so we'll hand out goodies to our neighbors on Saturday.

 I think that for next year there are a few more things I'll bring back, but for this year, this minimalist Christmas has really helped me figure out what I really want to have in our family's holiday, and what I, and our kids, don't need to be happy and joyful during the holidays.

More Crafty Goodness

This time just for Logan! First and foremost, someone has a birthday coming up!! I can't believe that my snuggly bunny is going to be FOUR!! I love all of my children, but they are all so different, and if I could have my way, Savannah and Riley would grow up, but Logan would stay 3 forever. He's such a sweet and happy little guy!! I hope he keeps his temperament forever!

So. Logan wants a pirate party. Riley has always wanted to have 9000 people at his parties, and we've had them out and about at different venues that can accommodate that. Plus, our townhouse is pretty cozy (not that we don't have our annual 30 kid Halloween party in it, but that's REALLY a squeeze!) Logan, however, has a spring birthday, which means we can have a fun outside party that momma can actually plan and have fun with!! Here's part one- the invitations. I used scrapbook paper that was designed for a family album. It was antique colored with lines, and then I cut shapes, antiqued it more with a brown ink pad, stamped on the piratey shapes, and wrote everything on. Then I scrunched them, unfolded, and rolled them up and tied them with twine. They were a pretty big hit at preschool!! I love doing little kid birthdays and I'm so excited that I get to have fun with this one!!

The invitations look a little weird on here, but that's because I blurred out the information on them, because I don't really want the whole interwebz showing up for the party. :)

Next, Logan had crazy hat day at preschool. Which I forgot about until, oh, 12am the night before. Go Mommy!! So, I took one of my Holy Cross hats, painted it with green sparkle paint, added paper ears and embellishments, and I think it turned out really cute!! Here's Logie in his hat:

I enjoy that his preschool has this little tradition of Easter Hats. I think it's really cute and so different from anything anyone else does! I also got to stay and be room helper today for the class Easter Party. It was so neat to watch his teachers in action, but boy do they have more than a saint's helping of patience!! I can't stand it when my children talk over me, but Logan's teacher was so calm and happy even with 16 kids talking over her at times!! I could definitely learn from that, although she does have a few years of practice on me- she's definitely a great model of how to interact with munchkins :) They actually both are.

Here's Logan's class. I love how different most of the hats are, although 2 of the boys come together (mom of one is babysitter of the other) so theirs were the same. Such individual creations :) It was also very sweet that the other classes came out to watch their little parade. Since they're only 2 day a week students, they didn't get to be there for the BIG parade tomorrow, but everyone came out to watch them today! Very sweet, especially the older kids who clapped and waved and made their day :)

The St. Patty's Party That Wasn't.

(Did you know that you can dye your rice krispies treats any color you want by adding food coloring to the melted marshmallow goo? You can. You can also cut them and frost them to look like clovers. With decorator sugar. FYI.)

We had planned for a St. Patrick's Day Playdate with Logan and Savannah's friends at our house, but Savannah is now sick with a tummy bug. Last night at around 11:20 she was crying for me and when I went up she told me that she had a booboo and I asked her where. She put my hand to her mouth, threw up in it, and, when I said, "Oh, clearly you have a booboo in your tummy" she responded "No, booboo in mama's hand". Obviously this is my daughter :) Never missing a beat.

Love that.

So, anyway, we had planned this playdate and I had a few simple crafts that I thought I'd share, plus we made teacher appreciation presents (I'm in charge of that for PTA so it's on my mind)

Our first craft for the party was going to be simple foam hats with shamrock decorations. One of the reasons that I like waiting until the last minute is that I get things on clearance! I bought these things yesterday at our local Michaels for $.33 each (including the bags of foam adhesive shamrocks!!) Not very complicated, but our target audience was between 1 and 3, so simple is good. I wrote Savannah's name on hers and then let her stick on the shamrocks.
The next craft I planned was decorating little cloth bags. We were supposed to go on a hunt for gold coins so I had these small bags ($.50 each) and my fabric markers ready to go to make rainbow bags. I had a story from the library about the gold at the end of the rainbow, so the plan was to read that, decorate the bags with rainbows, and then hunt for our gold chocolate coins. Savannah wasn't much interested in this one, so I did it for her. Forgive my ugly attempt at a leprechaun.
Finally we have the teacher appreciation gifts. These are a little more involved, but we did them over two days. So, here goes. First the supplies. You will need to assemble some glue, glitter, a terra cotta pot, your green scrapbooking paper scraps, scissors, bamboo skewers, a green crayon, tape, floral foam, small brads and ribbon.
No, it's not sideways at our house, I just have no clue how to rotate pictures on here :) So, first things first, paint a line of glue around the top edge or rim of your pot and roll it in glitter. We put our floral foam inside first. Also, if you've never tried Martha Stewart's glitter- you totally should.
So, next, paint a little glue on your floral foam (or sqeeze it out, whatever floats your boat) and let your baby cut up a ton of ribbon to be grass. We also added some confetti. That's optional :)
So now we have a glittery pot of grass! Hooray! Next, cut up your scrap papers into hearts. You'll need 4 as far as I'm concerned, per 4 leaf clover. Savannah preferred 3 and Logan enjoyed 5. But I say 4. Either way, it was a good way to practice counting to whatever number. Line them up in circular formation, and attach them one at a time with the brad. We also had a little circle plastic embellishment that came in our brads. I had run out of green by the time I decided to take this picture, so there's an orange one. True story, the flag of Ireland is Green, Orange, and White. I'm an unintentional GENIUS ;)
Fabulous! Now, peel your crayon a little so that you can use it on the side and color the skewers green. I'll wait. Done? Excellent. So, now you'll want to either glue or tape them to the back of your shamrock. I'm not very patient, so we prefer tape. Once you've assembled them, stick them into your floral foam. At the end, we add a square piece of paper to a skewer and write "I'm so lucky you're my teacher" and the child's name. Or, in Savannah's case, Coach, since she has a swim coach, but no teachers yet. :) Although this would be cute for a Sunday School teacher, too, no? People tend to forget them, and they need love, too!
So, that's our party that wasn't, and our St. Patrick's Appreciation gifts. Hope you enjoyed! We're going to be around sipping gingerale and eating crackers for awhile, so maybe I'll come up with something else cute, too! We have a shamrock shaped cookie cutter- maybe some potato stamps!! With Green Paint! That'd be fun on a t-shirt!