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The big thing this summer has been duct tape bracelets. Don't ask my why...I don't get it...kinda like the silly bands from last summer. They make duct tape in all different colors and even decorative patterns now. We have had duct tape with a leopard pattern, zebra pattern, camo pattern, flames pattern, and more. At one time Jayke was wearing 7 different duct tape bracelets on both his wrists and ankles. Between the bracelets and all the bandaids he barely had any skin showing at all!

Monsters and Animals

Jayke and I have been busy coloring Easter eggs. After they were colored we decided to get a little creative. Above is my piggy egg I made. Jayke had a hard time helping with this part of the decorating since he is not allowed to use the hot glue gun. He was more like my assistant but he did manage to make a couple of Monster eggs...



All of this crafting was made very difficult by the fact the cat was trying to lay right in the middle of all our supplies and also periodically would take off with a pile of pipe cleaners or ribbons. She was also particularly found of the "Monster hair". I'm surprised those monsters weren't swiped bald!



I think Jayke is a lil confused about the Easter eggs. He thinks they are FOR the Easter Bunny. Kinda like the cookies you put out for Santa. He keeps wanting to make a special basket and a card for the bunny to go with them. I keep trying to explain that they are just Easter decorations. He acts like this is the first time we have colored eggs or the first Easter we have celebrated. Maybe its because we did a lot more with the eggs this year. I usually don't get into the coloring of the eggs too much. Seems pointless when you can just go out and buy the plastic ones and actually get something inside of those. I'm glad we did it this year though, who knows if this will be the last year he believes in the bunny or not and he enjoyed creating our little critters...

Do I Hear Ten Dollars?

Here is the cake that Jayke and my mom made for his Cub Scout cake auction tomorrow night. The Boy doesn't want to part with it, of course. We have to make the starting bid of $5 so we may end up with it anyway. I'm not saying it's not worth $5 but everyone will have to bid on their own so I doubt there will be any other bids. Kinda a weird system if you ask me. My mom has spent at least $25 dollars already making the crazy thing! She has declared that she will now make a cake of some sort with the mold for every holiday. All of this was said after a near nervous breakdown and while still wearing green icing on her face.

I'm just glad that Opa takes him to scouts and not me. He will get to deal with the fit that will ensue if that cake doesn't come home with them tomorrow! Sitting quietly, chuckling to myself.

Please Use Your Little Voice...PLEASE!

We made ornaments today. I saw them online somewhere and thought I should make some. Then I figured since I already had the glue out and all we would go ahead and make garland like I used to make when I was a kid. Why is making that garland so much fun? It's just paper glued together but when you get finished you have this cool chain of brightly colored paper. Of course now I have to make another one because the first one wasn't enough. I just like to cause myself to stress out over stupid things...like I don't have enough on my plate already to stress over. Paper garland shouldn't even make the list right now but somehow it does. Paper garland and my party guests. They are starting to stress me out too. I'm about to break down and have two parties so everyone can come on their preferred night!

Since I was already stressed out over my insufficient amount of paper garlands I decided it would be a good idea to take my very loud child to meet Angi, Maci, and Matthew at Target this evening. Nothing calms the nerves more than two wild kids racing through Target on Heelys. No wait, scratch that...two kids yelling, throwing a ball, and climbing over the seats to retrieve that ball while I'm driving is even more relaxing. For some reason all of us also felt that we needed to shout everything at each other. Angi and I eventually just gave up and broke down into hysterics at our stressfree living. Next week we may kick it up a notch and actually take the hellians inside the mall instead of just cruising the parking lot. They should make Christmas shopping with children an extreme sport. Moms could compete against each other to see who lasts the longest without screaming or throwing something. I swear I would tune in!

Finger Paint Recipe

If you saw my post earlier this week about our Messy Craft Day and were thinking of doing something crazy like whipping up a batch of homemade finger paint and inviting a gaggle (how many is a gaggle, anyway?)of children over to play in it, you may want to print off this recipe. This is the original recipe our host used to make her paints although afterwards she mentioned a few minor changes she would incorporate for next time. I will tell you what they are after the recipe, which I took from this The Family Fun website.

With a batch of this quick and easy finger paint (which keeps for at least a week in airtight containers), your child can finger paint to her heart's content for just pennies. It's perfect for using on paper or in the bathtub.

• Mix together 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/3 cup of cornstarch in a small pan, then slowly add 2 cups of cold water.

• Cook over low heat, stirring until the mixture becomes a smooth, almost clear gel (about 5 minutes).

• When it's cool, stir in 1/4 cup clear dish washing liquid.

• Scoop equal amounts of the mixture into containers and stir in food coloring (or, for even more vibrant colors, use food coloring paste).

Another fun painting option for little kids is to cover a tray or cookie sheet with waxed paper and have your child spoon tempera paint over it in different colors. Cover with another sheet of waxed paper. Your child can press down on the colors and watch them blend and move.

Because of the way in which we used the finger paints it would be better to use tear free baby shampoo instead of dish washing liquid. We had a little one get it in her eyes and it stung, of course. Fun, fun activity! I am going to make some and just dump it in the bath tub for The Boy one of these days. I should also mention that the food coloring did NOT stain The Boy's shorts or underwear he was wearing. I was a little worried about that at first. You can also freeze the fingerpaint and when it is thawed it returns to it's original consistency.

So there you have it...a recipe for a day of good clean fun!

Thank You Oma and Opa

Jayke is a sad boy today. His Oma and Opa left to go back home to Indiana. For a minute he said he was going to go with them until he realized I wasn't going too. Now he is in the bedroom watching cartoons. Something he didn't do the entire time they were here.
I haven't taken any more pictures of the finished landscaping project yet because it isn't totally finished. Mike and I still have to get the mulch and put it down ourselves. Probably this weekend. It looks great though and will look even better when the mulch is down. Mike and Opa finished that up yesterday while my mom, Jayke, and I went shopping. You know we have to get a day of shopping in no matter what! It was a VERY successful trip too!
After shopping we decided to find a new restaurant. That isn't too hard to do since we have only been here a year and there are TONS of restaurants down here that we have never heard of. We decided on one in the little historical town of Pendleton. Opa was craving some fresh seafood and this place had a great menu loaded with seafood, steaks, and other goodies. The restaurant was in this really old old building. Not big on atmosphere but the food was great! Mike even said he'd go back and anyone who knows his eating habits knows that is really saying something. We took a spin around the town square after dinner to see all the old historical buildings and read about the history. Interesting stuff. I've been meaning to go explore up there a little bit so I was glad we went.
We had a busy tiring visit with my parents but it was a good visit. I will be glad when they move down here in a few years and we will be able to do more of this stuff. Jayke will be glad too!
Mike is off today but we aren't doing anything. Just cleaning up from our company and long weekend. Jayke and I did have a little art project this morning though. He got Floam from the Easter bunny so we made these this morning...



A bee and a mosquito in case you couldn't tell. I think I like the Floam better than the Clay Babies we did a few weeks ago. It was easier to work with and you don't have to bake it. Jayke loved it for about 20 minutes and then he was on to something else while I finished making his bugs. Typical.

Fluffy Sugar-coated Fun!

TKW has inspired me today with her creativity with Peeps so I went looking for what else I could do with them.

Every Easter we end up with tons of peeps. My husband likes them so everyone sends them to him. He doesn't like them THAT much though so we always have lots of them that don't end up getting eaten. I saw this and thought it was a great recipe to try to use up some of those peeps AND it would make a great teacher gift.
Edit: The Peeps Jar can be found Here



Here is the "recipe":
In the jar: 1 sleeve of graham crackers, crushed
8 peeps
1/3 C. brown sugar (pressed into the center of the peeps)
1 1/2 cup Easter M&M's

Peep Bars
Empty contents of the jar into a bowl Snip the bunnies into bits with kitchen shears or cut up with a knife. Return the bunny bits to the mixture and mix well. Add 1/2 cup softened butter and 1 tsp. vanilla and mix well. Pat into a greased 8x8 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.
Option: leave the bunnies whole; combine remaining ingredients and place the bunnies on top. Bake as directed.


And this recipe was also with them:

Peep Ice Cream Topping
Same as above, but omit the vanilla.
Pat into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 350 just until peeps melt. Cool. Break up with a knife. Sprinkle over vanilla ice cream.

Then I saw this picture some where and thought it was really cute and a good use of peeps as well...


What child wouldn't love a peep in their hot chocolate?!? The picture makes me want a cup even though it is quite warm here today.

Making a Peep topiary...I didn't get a picture of the finished project but you can use your imagination and get a pretty good idea of what it could look like from the picture of the topiary in the making.

So, bring on the Peeps, peeps! I won't have to throw them all away anymore now that I have some ideas of what to do with the little critters.

Wild Card "Work" Wednesday

I'm really having trouble with the "W" theme today for Wild Card Wednesday. I think I have "blogger's block". So here is what I came up with...

The Boy, "Doing his work" as he puts it. I tell him all the time I am working when I am on the computer, whether I am actually working or just reading blogs. It seems to get him to give me the couple of minutes I need to get whatever I'm doing done and then go see what he needs. Now when I ask him to do something like pick up the 1 million plastic Easter eggs he has scattered about. He tells me he can't, he is "doing his work". His work is whatever he is doing at the moment causing him, or rather giving him an excuse NOT to do whatever it is I have asked of him. Here Jaykeb is "working" on his play dough. Very important business it turns out. Can't be bothered with picking up those eggs right now. Okay he can have a minute to do his work because that is what I expect him to give me but he is picking up those eggs as soon as his work is done.

Something else for Wild Card Wednesday...
I discovered this game at Rocks In My Dryer that I thought had some interesting tips. I didn't play, but I wanted to incoporate into today's post, 'case anyone is interested. I couldn't come up with any thing to add to it because NOTHING works for me right now with The Boy!

After reading TKW's post and seeing her spectacular "chics on the beach" she made with peeps, I decided to post this cute idea to do with the kids for either Easter or Earth Day whichever you prefer.
Egg Head


This is a fun project for Earth Day, Easter, or just about any spring day you can think of! No fancy materials are needed. With just an eggshell, a little soil and some seeds, you can grow your own egghead.

Age
5 and up(The Boy is only 3 but I'm sure he would enjoy this...I will just have to do most of the work)
This project is rated EASY to do.

What You Need

Clean egg shell with just the top broken off
Half a cup of potting soil
Teaspoon of grass, wheat or rye seed
5-6" strip of card stock
Scissors
Glue or tape
Black marker (optional)
What You Do

If you wish, decorate your strip of card stock. We flecked some yellow and blue paint onto ours with an old toothbrush.
Tape or glue the card stock into a ring to hold the egg.
Fill the egg almost to the top with potting soil.
Sprinkle the soil with seed. (try different seeds to get different kinds of hair)
Add a thin layer of potting soil on the top.
Carefully water so as not to overflow or soak it.
Keep in a sunny location.
Your seeds will begin to sprout in a day or two and your egghead will grow "hair" in about a week!
If you like, you can decorate the outside of the egg with a black marker by drawing a face on your egghead
I think we may try this. It looks like it could be cute and The Boy is really into the gardening thing right now.

So, there you have it. Wild Card "Work" Wednesday which really turned out to sort-of have an "E" theme, eggs, Easter, Earth Day, etc. Oops! Did you play?