Geocaching Attempt 1

"Geo" -  earth and; "caching" - hiding a way for future use, are the root words that describe the new game sweeping my technologically trendy friends.  Its basically a treasure hunt where you use your phone (with the help of your phone GPS and and a 9 dollar app) you locate your treasure box and trade your old treasure for a new one. 

5 minute easy find

I bought the app, registered, stocked the kids with tiny backpacks full of toys that can fit in your pocket and off we went! I noticed that there was a location marked 'easy' in the park right by our house and only took 5 minutes to walk from our home. On the geocaching site it was labeled '5 Minute Easy Find.' They even give you hints on where you can find your cache. Unfortunately, we spent 15 minutes looking for our "5 minute easy find" and still couldn't find it. 

My husband insisted that it MUST have been moved, so we decided to hop in our car and go off to location number 2 which was also rated as an easy find. 

Nope. 

At this point the natives were getting restless. And the complaints started rolling in.

Second easy find

"I'm bored."
"This is too hard."
"My shoes are muddy."
And that was just my husband.

I insisted that we go to location 3 because mom ain't no quitter. We drive there, I'm ready to hop out of the car and my husband yells at me "ITS POSTED!!! You CAN'T go on that property, you are gonna get shot."

"But on the map it says it IS a township park." At this point I don't care if I am trespassing, I'm gonna find me some treasure and we are having a fun day dammit. 

"GET BACK IN THE CAR! If you are shot, who is taking care of the children?" My husband snorted.

"FINE."

Off to location 4. And the complaints are rolling in again about how the terrain is rough with sticker bushes and muddy. Seriously people, its outdoors. I'm not sure what my family expects outdoors to look like, but this is it. 

The hint from the geocashing app was great, so I was sure that I was standing in the exact location of where the treasure should be located, sticker bushes and all, but still no little container.  AGAIN NO TREASURE. 

Finally we gave up, I couldn't take the complaining anymore. Next time I'm leaving all the whiners at home and taking my girlfriend Cheri, she is good at finding things, and doesn't complain like men and children.


Family Ratings
Dad: D
Girl: B (my eternal optimist)
Boy: Whats a Rating?
Mom: C (because of the complaints)

The Science Fair - 4th Grade

DON'T MISS OUR CUTE VIDEO AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

Last year's science project on the nervous system

I hear a lot of parents complain about the science fair, and I have to be honest with you, I don't get it. Maybe I have a different perspective because I've been working in medical research for 20 years so I look at it as a great way to get my children exposed to my profession. 

The way the student sets up the station for the project is a replica of engineering trade shows, science meetings and medical meetings. I would say that this project is more like a real life adult profession than anything you ever learn in elementary school.

Having fun with a crystal kit from the craft store.

We do science projects all the time at our home. Crafts stores are a great resource for science kits. If all else flails, buy a kit. No one will ever know.

I think the hardest thing about the science fair is finding your objective. What people don't realize is science is all around you. You can turn almost any interest into a science project. For example, this year my daughter was fascinated with the new addition to the family. My 9-year old daughter couldn't get enough time holding and playing with her new cousin. I showed her a few of the primitive infant reflexes and she decided Nathan would be her science project.

We looked online at the primitive reflexes and infant vision experiments then we chose time intervals to do our assessments on our subject. I helped my daughter map out a plan to her project and videotaped my daughter perform the assessments. Then we edited the video together using Windows Movie Maker. We will load the video on her Ipad and bring it to the fair. Project finished! Easy Peezy!

We hope you enjoy our 6 minute educational video!

We are still working on the spelling errors. Please excuse.

Up Cycling Clementine Crate

Winter brings clementines. These yummy treats come in a cute wood container. I had a contest with the kids that who ever ate the most clementines could have the box and pick the color it was painted. Of course the girl won, she loves fruit. The boy? Not so much.

This will show you how one simple idea will keep me up all night because I always have to take everything to the next level.

Paint

I painted the box pink with some acrylic paints (from the craft store) that I keep in the basement. The clementine crate needs 2 coats of

paint to cover up the design that is already on the box.  I was going to do 2 different color pinks, one on the inside and one on the out then leave it as is, HOWEVER, I didn't like the fact that there were holes and gaps in the bottom. I decided to get out the Modgepodge  and some craft paper and give decoupaging a try. I bought the Modgepoge for a different project and had a little left over.

I can't resist the scrap book isle at the local craft stores. If something is on sale, I buy it for later. Who knows when you need pretty paper at 9:32 at night? The most difficult part of this entire project was finding the place where I saved that paper. If you can't find your pretty paper, wrapping paper will do nicely, or you can always print something from your computer.

Measure

One thing I've learned from wood working is measure twice and cut once.  If you want to create stuff, you have to become master of the ruler. To master something you need to practice, practice, practice!! 

My ruler experience has shown me that I always measure short.  To compensate, I always cut a little long and re-measure, I can always re-cut a little to get it perfect. I thought it was just me, but apparently its a thing for left handers. IT IS!! DON'T LAUGH AT ME!

Cut

I don't bother using scissors for straight cuts any more ever since, I received a portable rotary trimmer two Christmases ago.  I am a menace with scissors. I can never find good left-handed scissors so I force myself to go right. 

When you are in elementary school and the only left handed scissors that are provided to you are mangled and dull, you learn to use the rightie scissors but never to the mastery and finesse that a rightie can handle them.  

Glue

I poured Elmers on the bottom and spread it around with a paint brush.

Fix

There were some very large gaps in the bottom of that Clementine crate, so I cut and added thick cardboard and glue to re-enforce the parts that had no backing. I don't know if this is necessary,  but I can picture my kid driving a pencil right through it so I am better safe than sorry.

Add Detail.

This is the type of thing that keeps me up all night. I didn't like the fact that the ugly staples that held together the box showed so I decided to cover them. Cutting these all these little papers and gluing them over each staple wasn't the most efficient idea. Did I mention, I hate scissors? 

I ran out of flowers so I could not cover all the staples, If I had planned this project a little better I could have made sure I had enough paper to finish the job. I still had some staples showing.

Decoupage. 

Decoupage is the easiest thing going. You MUST give it a try.  No matter how you slop this goop on, it still looks good. The only thing you have to worry about is little hairs coming out of your brush and sticking on your project, that is why it is better to do it with a paint sponge.

The more coats the better.

Since it was 11:00 by this time, I had to get this deal finished so I stopped at 3 coats. You should let it dry completely before you add the next coat, but I don't, and it still looks good. Also the more coats you add, the better it looks.

Uses

This makes a great little tray to keep your tools in, an open shadow box, keep it on a book shelf for small toys, or stack them and make them into its own book shelf. The best idea came from my daughter, the doll bed.

Grade: B 

Skill Level: Low

Difficulty Level: Easy

Frustration Level: Low

Price: $ 

 My second attempt at doing this turned out great using the little paper birds I created. You can click right here to get paper bird instructions and printables too! Make sure you check out all the different Paper Crafts so that you can decorate your clementine creates.

Minecraft Creeper Valentines Day Card - My Heart Explodes for You

Are your kids obsessed with Minecraft? Mine too. This year I made a printable Minecraft Valentines Day Creeper Card that either can be printed out with white paper on a color printer or green paper on a black and white printer. My daughter helped me cut these out. Where is my son? Playing Minecraft. 

See the printable below!

Print Me

Print Me on Back

Valentines Day Kids Spa

Sometimes I am tempted to just pick up candy hearts and give them to my kid's for Valentines Day but I want them to learn that gift giving is not what you can buy in a store, its what you give of yourself. Also, when you give of yourself you are also getting something in return.

Every year I give my kids a spa day on Valentines day. They absolutely love it and so do I. A spa is really easy to recreate because it is basically an event for your 5 senses. 
Taste: spa water drinks and teas.
Sound: soothing tunes.
Smell: soothing scents.
Touch: warm back, arm and hand rubs
Sight: decorated environment. I do this by lighting the room with mini lights. Kids are easy to please.

First I hand them their spa menu for the evening as soon as they walk into the door from school. However, this all starts after homework is completed. Who ever gets the homework done first, gets to be the first spa customer. 

1) There is nothing like a hot Mr. Bubble, bubble bath with soothing tunes playing from the radio and a cool refreshing cucumber/mint water to start off your relaxing spa day. 

2)Spa's always have cucumber water available because its easy to make, slice up some cucumbers, put them in a  pitcher with ice, mint leaves (or fresh lavender and lemon) and water and VIOLA a refreshing drink!  


3) Coconut suntan oil always remind me of the beach, its safe to use on skin and it is a great olfactory experience for relaxation. Though I'd never use an SPF 4 for sun protection! That's Crazy!

4) I have rose hips in a jar, so I boil water and make a rosehip tea, let it cool until it is warm and put it in a spray bottle. It is really nice after a refreshing massage. Different smells is what really gives this the true spa experience. After a day, you are going to have to toss out the rose water and wash out the mister bottle because it gets bacteria if it sits out and goes bad. I found this out the hard way.

5) After the massage I load the kids up with hot towels. I have this towel warmer that my friend gave me one Christmas (I'm not sure how I ever survived the winter without it), but you can just put the towels in the dryer to get the same effect.

6) Hot teas are also a spa favorite. My kids love mint. Celestial Seasonings has a nice selection of herbal teas that your kids may really enjoy.

7) Paraffin wax warmer I received at my wedding shower 10+ years ago. Since the kids turned 2, I think I have used it on them more than myself.

8) My kid's favorite dinner is swordfish and broccoli. Strange and expensive, I know, but at least it is healthy.

9) Nothing says I love you like Carvell icecream cake.

10)Whats more fun than snuggling with your parents and watching tv in their big king size bed decorated with pink heart lights?

11)...Unless you are reading your favorite book and getting kisses.

Paper Birds

 I'm finding paper crafts to be addicting and even my kids can participate.  I've created a printable so that you can make the same birds!
I printed the above printable on brown card stock and cut the birds out given at the bottom of this page. I created 3 different style birds using different mediums. 

1) The blue birds were colored with a little rub of a blue oil pastel and I gave some birds a little red Faber Castell Gelato on their bellies. The beak was colored with an orange Faber Castell Gelato and the bird was sprayed with Bahama Blue Fireworks to give it that nice shiny Bahama blue color.

2) The red/white birds were colored with red Faber Castello Gelato on the belly and wings with orange on the beak and a spritz of Perfect Pearls Mists that created a "dazzling pearlescent shimmer" according to the bottle. HA! I love this stuff!! Its as good as its product description. 

3)I decided to leave some birds plain brown without a shine using striped scrapbook paper as the wings.

The wings of the birds were glued on with Elmer's glue. I always outline everything with Sharpie Marker, this time I used the color brown. The eyes were made with 

white and black Tulip Slick Paint. Remember to put the white on first and allow it to dry before putting on a dab of black. All of the materials can be found online or at your local craft store.

Give it a try and tell me how yours came out!!! 

Grade: A

Skill Level: Moderate
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Frustration Level: Low
Cost: $0 (I used the materials from the snowman project)

Print Me

Mock Stained Glass using Crayon Shavings

We started out with broken paperless crayons and tried to shave them manually in a sharper. It was taking to long for my impatient kids, so my daughter though she would help the process out by using the electric sharpener. What a mess that was, I had pencil shavings mixed in my crayon shavings and my sharpener got suck on the soft crayons. My next idea was to put the crayons in a plastic bag and pound it gently with a rubber mallet, only I couldn't find it, so I got out the hammer and a pile of rags so the kids wouldn't break my counter top. I only had to scream 'BE GENTLE' a few times, they were pretty good about it.  

I set out all the crayon bits on paper plates and put a piece of wax paper in front of each kid and told them to decorate the paper with the shavings. Why do kids always have to wipe their gritty hands full of crushed crayon on their clothes. I mean REALLY? This is when I realized this should have been an outside project. There were bits of crayon on my kitchen floor, my counter, their clothes, my clothes. UGH!!! What a mess!! 

Before ironing you have to make a crayon wax paper sandwich with 2 pieces of rag. In other words, have your project layered this way rag wax paper crayon bits wax paper rag


I set my iron on cotton and ironed the top of the rag. Good thing I had the rags on there because the crayon squirted out the side of the wax paper even thought the crayon was an inch from the edge.

I am not impressed by this process. It was a huge mess and the product turned out to resemble a muddy looking Rorschach Test. I didn't like the bubbles that got stuck in with the crayon and it didn't look like stained glass at all. I would not recommend this craft at all because of the high mess to outcome ratio.

GRADE: F
Skill Level: Easy 
Difficulty Level: Low to Moderate (for kids)
Frustration Level: High (for mom)

Cost:  <$ (almost free)