You Still Color My World

So I thought I was done making Valentines after that 2nd batch for Elisabeth.

I lied, okay?

Besides, Sydney needs Valentines to share too...

You Color My World

Alternately titled: Reduce Reuse Recycle. I couldn't decide, so you get both. You're welcome.

Elisabeth and I worked hard to make her Valentines by hand this year. We made 23 of them, and we didn't purchase a single item! We have world's largest bag of crayons in our house -- it's where all of our crayons go when they enter our house because I could no longer stand having 13 opened boxes laying around. It works well and it shows us what a ridiculous number of crayons we own so that I don't get tempted to buy any. 

So, we decided to Go Green for Valentine's day and Reduce those crayons, Reusing them by turning them into wonderfully unique pieces of art that could be shared with Elisabeth's friends.  And although there was none involved in this project, we Recycle every day!

I think they turned out pretty darn cute, don't you? Of course I can't take the credit for the project, it came from Disney's Family Fun magazine.

Here's how we did it.

Peel the wrappers off your broken (or not) crayons. FYI, the cheapies that you get at the restaurants are MUCH easier to peel.  Less glue.

If they aren't already, break up the crayons into little pieces. A meat mallet works wonders and gets a good deal of frustration out!

Put the pieces into tiny heart shaped muffin tins. Ours is a silicone Wilton 24ct pan.  Fill it up, because they're going to melt down more than you think they will.

Bake at 250 for 10 to 15 minutes. We needed the full 15 but that's because of the silicone pan. I think.

When they are melted take 'em out of the oven and let cool. Then pop them out! If you have a hard time getting them out, place the pan in the freezer for a few minutes and they will slide right out. This is a good tip for candles, too.

Write out your favorite punny saying on circles of paper - we chose You Color My World - in fun colors. We discovered as we went along that the ones written in multiple colors were the coolest. Make sure to leave room in the center for the heart.  Have your child sign their name on the back. Make sure you do this before the next step!

Attach some thick foam tape to the back of the heart and place in the center of your circle.

Voila!

It took us more time than it would take to buy, say, Pixy Stix Valentines and sign them, but I think these are super cute. And it was a good lesson about saving our planet, too. Oh -- and best of all, it was a great bonding experience!

I just found out tonight that Elisabeth needs another 25 Valentines for her daycare party as well. YIKES! So excuse me, I'm going to go peel some more crayons.

Fun Fair: Microphones and Moxy

We went to Elisabeth's school's Fun Fair today. Have you ever heard of that? I hadn't. It's basically an indoor fair at school that's fun. Shocking, I know!

(It's also a haven for lice -- we hung onto our coats and hats and hugged nobody.)

We had so much fun at the fair. Elisabeth had fun playing the games and we had fun watching Elisabeth in her element. Of course many of her classmates were also at the fun fair, and even some neighbors!

We played lots of games that payed out big. We're stocked now in green rubber witchy fingers, marbles, tiny plastic airplanes that don't fly, tic-tac-toe boards and rubber bouncy balls. Oh and four inflatable microphones. That's right, four. All paid out at the same time. The same time. They gave us 4 inflatable microphones. For losing the game. Four. At the same time. I wonder what we would have received had we won?

Elisabeth ran into Addy, who she used to be good friends with at daycare and now shares a locker with but never sees because Addy is in AM Kindergarten and Elisabeth is in PM. The fun fair was like a reunion for them, and it was obvious that their feelings for each other hadn't changed a bit. 

(Notice inflatable microphone number 1 in the photo above.)

Elisabeth and Addy didn't waste any time and jumped straight into the Karaoke line.  

Holy cuteness. 

When Elisabeth and Addy were up, they chose a classic Karaoke tune: B-I-N-G-O.  

They had the whole cafeteria clapping along! Mostly because they didn't realize they were supposed to clap for the silent letters, I suppose, but that's such a minutely small detail -- I mean, these kids have way more moxy than I'll ever have.

They even had groupies!

Seriously, 6 year olds and karaoke are quite possibly the best mix. They have no inhibitions. And as a parent, watching from the tiny cafeteria tables where you once sat 30 years ago, you can almost fast-forward 10 years and see who your child will be.  It's moments like this when they just seem so grown up and the pride flows from you.

Until you try and take a picture of your child watching her crush sing and she gets embarrassed. Then you're brought back to reality. 

=)

It's all about the chase, people.

Did you catch the wolf moon last weekend? We did -- it was AMAZING! We were driving through the country, and there was this ginormous red ball of fire set behind a farm. It took me a while to figure out what it was until we got closer to the barn and the red ball moved and suddenly had a familiar face.

WOW!


So I made Mark pull over so I could take a picture and capture the moment.


FYI, the picture above is NOT mine. It came from someone much more prepared than me at flickr. I have no idea who they are but their picture is amazing, and pretty much captures what we saw.

THIS my friends, this little beauty is what I captured via my fancy Crackberry phone:

(Really? Can they really call it a camera if that's what it captures?)  

I'm telling you, that moon was huge - why does it look like a speck of dust - or maybe even a louse if you look carefully - more than it does the giant moon that stood right in front of us?

I was bummed that I didn't have a better camera with me because I'm suuuuuure I'd be able to capture the same beauty* that my flickr friend did so beautifully. Sigh. If only I had brought my equipment, the picture would have been as breathtaking as the actual moment was.

*totally joking. there is no way I could replicate that kind of picture - it's awesome!

The next night after dinner we bundled up and headed out the door in hopes of finding the same beautiful blazing red wolf moon again, except it was cloudy and snowy.  We tried. We tried hard.  We drove and drove and drove.  And somehow our car and my fantastic full-moon-finding-inner-gps-skills led us straight to another beautiful spot.

And it was SO worth the chase!

What have you been up to?

What have I been up to? Well thanks for asking! I'll tell you what I've been up to.

I've been researching mental institutions, because that's where I should be.

Those are head lice.

O. M. freaking G.

I have never considered myself to be a germophobe. I mean, I wash my hands and try to make sure the kids aren't licking the glass (emphasis on "try") but for the most part germs don't bother me. But apparently uninvited bugs that feed on our scalps and lay eggs in our hair leaving us with fresh new itchy friends is a completely different story. Completely. Different. Story.  For the past 3 weeks I have been consumed in a world of lice, both real and imaginary.

**I should preface this next part by saying that it's not so much about the workload that these bugs caused me, but more about the insanity that took over my brain.**

We took some guests home with us one day a few weeks ago and I became a neurotic mess. A total basket case. Washing every article of clothing that was touched, including the clothes that I wore when I put a load of laundry in the washing machine. I must have changed clothes 5 times each day. I washed each towel that was touched, I washed the bedding daily and we only slept with one blanket to keep the laundry down to a "bare"minimum. HA!

I combed through and inspected each individual strand of Elisabeth's hair nightly. We all washed our hair with Rid and combed with fancy metal combs. (By the way, if you're looking for the next up and coming stock to purchase, might I recommend Rid.  We dumped enough money into that stinky brand that their stock probably skyrocketed!) Along with that, poor Elisabeth had to endure crazy hair treatments like Listerine and Vinegar. We all washed our hair with tea tree oil shampoo and coconut conditioner, neither of which I can stand the smell of anymore. Sydney had mysterious jumping dandruff that made me inspect her like she was my monkey baby. Only difference is I didn't eat the bugs. :)

All stuffed animals and dollies went into garbage bags and froze outside in the sub-zero temps on our porch for two weeks. (I still feel guilty about freezing them to stuffed animal/dolly death!)  Hats, coats and mittens went straight into the dryer for an hour every time we came home.

We didn't hug each other or snuggle for weeks. I wouldn't let my kids lay down on anything but their own beds for fear of transferring unknown new intruders. They weren't allowed to do summersaults on the carpeting until a random date that I set. And when that date came I pushed it back because I wasn't mentally ready to let go of my fear. 

When one of us scratches our scalps I immediately assume that it's the Invasion of the Lice Part II.  I inspect everything. Every speck of dirt that I see, I assume it's a louse.  Every person who scratches their head has an "obvious" case of head lice in my mind.  Last week while travelling for work (which is going fabulously, thankyouverymuch) a very nice and good looking man offered me his coat while we waited in the cold for our luggage, and while I thought that was amazingly and shockingly chivalrous, I declined for fear that I would catch lice from him.

I have never been this way about anything! When we lived in NJ our bedrooms were in the basement and we had a lot of centipedes living with us. It was quite disgusting, but somehow even that didn't bother me as much as this did.  This has completely consumed me. Some kids see dead people, I see bugs. I haven't been doing much else besides working and thinking about lice for the past 3 weeks.

Oddly enough being away from home for a couple of days last week was enough to calm me down and now that the laundry is caught up and I'm feeling slightly less looney, I'm even hugging my children, which feels so so so nice. The verdict of course, is out on when I will allow summersaulting on the carpet again. Maybe next week. Or the week after that.

So, Hi My Name Is Erin and I'm officially a recovering louse-o-phobic crazy lady.

What have you been up to?