Preschool Art Group

Today's art group was rather uneventful.  I didn't do my normal planning since I had a super-splitting headache Tuesday night and went to bed at 8pm.  Last week, we didn't "do-art" for various reasons.  Instead we went to the Children's Museum; so this week's art was planned last week so I could participate in the Unplug Your Kids' theme- wax.

The children grated crayons with my mircoplane onto wax paper to make these stunning leaf shaped "sun catchers." They were quite enthused that the iron would cause the wax paper to stick to itself. Note to parents: make sure to

 cover the wax paper with newspaper so as not to ruin your iron. 

They also used oil pastels and watercolors since Lucas and Destany weren't with us the day we initially used them.

And, since Lucas didn't get to use the stencils two weeks ago, I pulled them out today.  It surprised me that Destany and John Isaac wanted to use them, too.  They all really enjoyed the oil pastels.

Sticky Buns

If you want to keep a girlish figure, don't subscribe to King Arthur's blog. When I saw the tutorial for these cinnamon rolls (the comments are helpful,too), we went straight to the grocery store to get our ingredients.

Not only were these yummy, they were super easy to make. I'm serious. I've tried several recipes and this one is now my favorite. The dough was easy enough for a 3.5 year old boy to roll out, and that's usually the part I dread - fighting with the dough.

Mr. Intensity loves to bake. Most of all, he loves to operate the KitchenAid mixer - and wear his HomeDepot apron. Look at the excitement in his eyes (or is that sarcasm?)

Below, he's concentrating on buttering the bottom of the pan.

Rollin' out the dough. Easy as pie.

He also enjoyed spreading the milk on the dough.

Shakin' cinnamon sugar was good fun.

Roll 'em up (we sang Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Baker's Man). The tutorial used a serrated knife to cut apart the rolls. I tried using my knife but it's not a very good one, so I resorted to my old standby - dental floss.

<--Before

After ->




The very best part: adding the icing!!

While I was pouring milk, he did the sweetest thing. I had to photo document it. (He isn't sweet very often.) He cleared his little table, pulled it out from the staircase and said, "Momma, I made a special table, just for us!" It melted my heart.

While we were eating, he said, "What's today? Friday? Let's do something fun today...like go to the zoo!"

Um, we just spent 4 hours in the kitchen making cookies, cheescake and cinnamon rolls. Wasn't that fun?

To see what other moms have done for this week's challenge of sticky - go to Unplug Your Kids.

Freeze Frame

With the temps in the 90's and only getting hotter - we're staying cool with frozen paint.

For this project I used about 1:1 ratio of washable tempera paint diluted with water. And also experimented with water + food coloring. Both worked great. If you choose to use the food coloring, make sure to paint in a place where stains don't matter.

Cover your diluted paint with foil, poke nifty toothpicks into each compartment and freeze. I froze a couple of "just water" to play with on the patio.

You can use either a fancy-schmancy ice cube tray or plain Jane. You'll have better results if you fill'er up. You don't want a skimpy paint cube to melt off your toothpick. No big deal if you're skimpy - just means you'll eventually paint with your paws instead of the pick.

Below you'll see where I didn't mix the green very well and the paint settled to the bottom. It didn't affect the performance. She still painted with a happy heart.

Look - they're all friends, playing so well together. Wanna know why Mr. Blue is so blue? I broke him when trying to dislodge him from his frozen home. Mr. Purple is such a good friend to console and embrace Mr. Blue, doncha think?

You know it's a great project when Mr. Intensity sticks out his tongue.

The food coloring and water painted like... a lot like...well, water... colors.  Some friends joined us - they had a blast together. This paint project is perfect for all ages.

After painting we ate popcicles. See what other Unplugged Moms did with paint this week here.

All Boy Weekend Part 2 - Emphasis: Metal

As you might have read the previous post, we spent Memorial Day camping. I love camping because I don't have to plan for fun; it just happens.

This post's theme is metal to comply with this week's Unplugged Project. Without Mr. Intensity's spontaneity, I'm not sure we could have participated. Then again, if you read Mom Unplugged's entry you'll see that artistic freedom is allowed.

In this first picture, Mr. Intensity is wielding an iron bar. He was pretending it was a spear. Doesn't he look like a savage?
Please accept my apologies that he's in his skivvies. His pants got wet in the pond...he put his shoes on a board and they floated too far. He went in after the shoes.

Later, he used it as a shovel.
Below he has two bars. I'm not sure what's going on in his mind.

As we prepared to leave our campsite, the men made certain the fire was out. Smokey the Bear would be proud! Using his metal shovel was a highlight of the trip.

On the way home we stopped to see this very fun tourist attraction in Miami, AZ (locals pronounce it MY-am-I). The huge truck inside the other truck's bed are both used for mining copper.

Since would take another 1.5 hours to get home, hubby ran out some wiggles with Mr. Intensity. In the upper left you can see the copper mines.

While we were gawking, a guy who lived across the street walked over and asked if we wanted to get closer. He had a key to open the gate so Mr. Intensity could climb on and in the big truck. Below you'll see me in the bed of the mining truck - and more mines in the distance above my right shoulder.

The friendly neighbor told us a few fun facts

• copper is now sold for $3/pound
• drivers of these trucks are currently paid $25/hr and work 12 hr shifts
• the mining companies can't find enough workers (despite the poverty-stricken town) because most can't pass the drug test. Meth has plagued Miami.

To see what others have done with metal, make sure to visit Unplug Your Kids.

Scissors and Herbs

In honor of N-week, we used our nose for this project and some scissors. We were smelling mint, cilantro, parsley, rosemary and onions. The goal was to snip the herbs in small pieces then try to distinguish the scents...blindfolded!

First we talked about the names of each. Except for the mint, he was familiar with all of them. When I asked what he thought each smelled like, he would only say the parsley smelled like celery.
Once he started snipping the onion, he realized it was hollow. Look mom, they're glasses!

Below he's cutting the onion, but his favorite was the mint. Never found out why he was drawn to the mint - was it easier to cut? smelled better than the rest? Lips were locked. Loose lips sink ships, ya know.

Confession: when I'm concentrating I also do weird things with my tongue.

Even though I tried to get tender rosemary clippings there were a few woody ones that were more difficult to cut.

We've done a few games where he's blindfolded and it hasn't gone so well. I really wasn't sure if he would participate with the final part but he did - though he tried his darnedest to peek.

After he properly identified all five herbs with his smeller, he insisted that I don the blindfold and label them correctly. A bit leery, I did it. I have to admit I wanted to peek because I was fearful of what Mr Intensity would do with scissors while I was blindfolded!

Crazy enough, all these herbs were in my fridge or on my patio. If you don't use herbs, use other things to snip and identify like grass, flowers, leaves, pine cones, apple peels...whatever fits your fancy.

To see what others did with this week's Unplugged project, go here.