Beach Blankets

I tend to get stuck at the beach either when it's cold and I'm wearing something for warmer weather because it was hot at my house OR when I think it's going to be cold and I don't have a towel, but it turns out to be nice and I end up in the water. So... I need a beach blanket that would serve both purposes. This is what I came up with.

That's L on it with her little 4th of July dress. The blankets go perfect! Anyway, on the top, I have fleece and the bottom is terry cloth. The fleece is super warm and the terry cloth absorbs the water if I decide to go in.

I love it! It stays in my car and is perfect for a pic-nic, ball game or the beach. When I made my blanket, my sister-in-law got one for Christmas, and my father-in-law got one for his boat in yellow because his boat is yellow and white.

These blankets have gotten a ton of use. There is just one small problem with my blanket. When I went on that hike with all the poison oak, I used my blanket that night at dinner when I was freezing before I went home to shower. Well, the oil from the poison oak transferred to the blanket. Every time I use it, I get mild poison oak where I hold the blanket under my arm. I used the darn blanket Friday, Saturday I got a few spots on my arm, used it again yesterday at the beach and more spots appeared this morning. So, last night I washed the blanket for the 4th time since the poison oak incident. Today, I used the blanket again at the beach. I'm praying it's all washed out.

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Totally Creative

Sometimes little C amazes me with his creativity. This may sound silly, but I really don't think of myself as creative. I have to get my ideas from somewhere. I love sewing so much because I like to figure out how to make a pattern and fit the pieces together to make clothes. I love looking at clothes from the store and figuring out how I can make my own. So, you see, my type of sewing is more mechanical then creative. I've always had a mechanical mind and I have always wished I was more creative. When I had kids I wanted to make sure they had to use their brains to come up with ideas on their own, something I was horrible at. One of the ways I try to do that is by not allowing more then 1.5 hours of TV per week and no TV before 2 years old. The other thing we do is read books like crazy. Even chapter books. I'm not sure if this helps or if for some people it's just natural to be creative. Mr. C is pretty creative, maybe that's just where little C gets it. Anyhow, whatever the reason C seems to be pretty creative.

Here is why I'm writing about C's creativity. C got home from school to find a box lying on the ground. Immediately he went to get some toilet paper roles and other "supplies" then set out to make a race car. He spend most of his quiet time almost 2 hours on this little race car.

Here is the back with 2 exhaust pipes. Notice all the tape? We go through a LOT of tape around here. I am always finding it things taped together. Rope or string is something else I find a lot of. Right now we have pulleys all over the work out bench holding bears up. It looks pretty morbid, but C doesn't get why that would be.

Here is the side, you can see the wheels at the bottom.

The front with the yellow lines as the lights.

Now the inside, see the green bench seat?

Little C was very proud of this race car. It sat in the house for days just for him to look at, not play with.

Resurrection Eggs

I have not been doing any Easter crafts yet this year. Then today when I realized Spring Break is next week for C's preschool and Easter is in a little over a week, I decided I had to get the kids prepared for Easter. So, tonight when my meatloaf was in the oven, I had some time to kill. That's when I decided to make Resurrection Eggs with the kids.

This is C's cover to our eggs. He is learning to sound things out and writing his letters. The first letter is a backwards J. The top of the J is folder over so you can't see it.

Resurrection Eggs are basically plastic eggs filled with items to remind you of the story of Easter. You can open the eggs in order and tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. We had a list of items we needed to collect for our eggs so I sent the kids around the house and outside looking for those items.

Here is our list:

1. Bread (we used a real piece of bread) - Jesus had the passover meal with his disciples. He took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks to God and shared the bread with his disciples saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of Me."

2. Coin - One of the disciples, Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus by telling the chief of priests where he was in exchange for 30 silver coins.

3. Purple Cloth (I cut a piece from my fabric stash) - Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified. They dressed him in purple.

4. Thorns (we broke a piece of the roses) - They made a crown of thorns and put it on his head mocking him.

5. Rope, leather strip or twine (all we had was pink rope) - Then they whipped him.

6. Cross (we got a little stick broke it and used thread to hold it together) - the soldiers gave him his cross to carry up the hill.

7. Nails: The soldiers nailed him to the cross to die. (C is looking for a nail in his work bench.)

8. Sign - (we wrote a little sign and put tape over it to kind-of laminate it): Then they mocked him by putting up a sign that said, "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS"

9. Sponge - (I only have dobies, no sponge in the entire house. So, I sewed a square of white terry cloth): One of them soaked a sponge in vinegar and tried to make him drink it.

10. Spear - (C drew one, but I think I'm going to have to get Mr. C to carve one out of a stick with his knife): One of the soldiers stuck his spear into Jesus' side and just then blood and water poured out.

11. Rock: After Jesus died, Joseph took his body, wrapped it in new linen sheet and placed it in his own new tomb he dug out of solid rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.

12. Nothing: This is the best part! Jesus isn't there anymore. He is risen! Now we are saved, we are forgiven.

I have been wanting to make one of these each year and just never got to it. I am so glad we did it tonight. I hope it will hold up and last for years to come. 

My little tradition I do every Easter is buy the kids a new bible if they have outgrown the one they have if not, a book about God. We didn't buy a new bible last year, so I'm going to look for one with more detail then what we have this year. I do love the one we have though, it's, "The Lion Read & Know Bible." The stories have much more detail then the smaller ones like "The Beginners Bible." There are also more stories in it.

What are some of your traditions for Easter? How do you share the story with your children?

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Handmade gift

Ok, so I was totally inspired by Ladybug Blessings to do a completely handmade gift. I had a ton of fun doing it and there was no waist. That was all cool, but the best part was, on the way to the party, C said, "Mommy, this is the best present we've ever given somebody."

So, here is what I did...

There is some fake makeup inspired by Playing House. No toxic chemicals on any kids face with this and it was super easy to make. My 5 year old did one of them.

The little unicorn thing is what I call "Art on the go." I have seen many different versions of these things, but this is my version. It has vinyl in it for a chalk board, chalk, crayons, a pencil and paper.

Then I made a little dance skirt. My little model wasn't into modeling today.

Last was this little Hobo Sac. Yes, it was made from the tutorial by Made.

I used the Hobo Sac as the gift bag to hold the present.

I don't have a picture of it, but the only part that was not Homemade was the card that actually wasn't a card at all. I always buy a book and use that as the card. I just tape a little index card to it with the happy birthday message to it. That way, a card isn't just tossed out in the trash to fill up the land fills.

Well, I hope you are inspired as I was to give homemade. It's quite a lot of fun.

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Science, fire, fresh squeezed orange juice and fun...

Sundays are our only family day. Our church has 2 services Saturday nights which works great so we have Sunday's all day to do whatever we want. The kids usually stay in their jammies if we don't have plans. I also love being able to keep the kids engaged in activities that they can learn from. Today was one of those days. The house did get so messy though that my husband couldn't stand it anymore so he got the kids to help him clean while I showered. Nice!


Today, it's so cold here in Southern California that we started a fire last night. Really, it was 47 degrees farenheit, that's cold. Anyway, that fire we started last night was still making a little noise this morning. Yes, there are glass doors on the fireplace. Then about an hour after we got up we saw flames, it re-lit. That same fire has been burning all day as we are adding wood to it. I love having enough wood to keep the fire going this long.

The kids were getting a little restless not wanting us to relax anymore so I decided to look for some kitchen science experiments for kids. There are some good ones out there but we only had the stuff for a couple experiments. Tomorrow morning I have a few extra items added to my grocery list.

This is supposed to be a homemade lava lamp. It didn't quite work. One set of instructions said you needed oil, water and food coloring. Another one had antacids on the list. We will be picking up antacids.

This little experiment is pretty cool, stalactites and stalagmites are supposed to grow on the yarn. The camera didn't pick it up, but it is starting already. They are supposed to start to appear in about 3 days.

L's attention span isn't quite as good as C's for this kind of stuff yet. She just wants to get her hands in everything. Maybe next time I'll just give her a bowl of cornstarch and water. That's when my husband decided to clean and take the kids out to pick some oranges. They cut 1/2 the oranges before I could take a picture, you can't see any of the blood oranges.

Here is one left on the counter. YUMMY! They smell even better then they look.

C and L love to squeeze the orange juice.

Time to relax before nap. C has to make sure there is enough heat coming out of the fireplace.

 A little more play for L.

Enjoy the moments!

Playdough

Playdough is such fun. There is something relaxing about smashing it in your hands. Today, I felt like I needed to do something for L, since we always seem to be running around so I decided we could make some playdough. L got to pick the color, add all the ingredients and mix them. I just measured and cooked.


Here is the recipe I use, I got back when I taught preschool in college over 10 years ago.

I don't know why I haven't recopied it or put it in my book. But it never seems to get lost. I opened up my cook book cabinet and there it was sticking out at me.

I like to add the food coloring to the water, it makes it blend easier. I also use warm-hot water. L wanted pink so I added about 6 drops of red food coloring.

After L stired all the ingredients, I secretly stirred it better then added it to my only non-stick pan, my wok. Playdough is a pain unless you use a non-stick. I know they are really unhealthy, but it is the only one I have and I only use it for things that I can't seem to get off my other pans.

Stir constantly while cooking your playdough and eventually it will go from that to this...

When it looks like that, put it onto the counter and kneed it until it is smooth. Then let the little hands dig in.

Aren't they cute little hands?


So, why is this playdough green? Well, here are my reasons:
1. There is no waste in packaging
2. There are no preservatives
3. Since it's all natural, it's biodegradable
4. It's non-toxic, salty, but edible


Now, I know there are a ton of playdough recipes out there, but this one works great for me. You are welcome to share your playdough recipes that you love, especially edible ones.


Here is my recipe:
2 c flour
1 c salt
4 t cream of tartar (4 t =1 T, 1 t)
1/4 c oil
2 c water
food coloring


optional for sent:
1 pkg of unsweetened koolaid