Leap Into Art

Our neighborhood has an annual gold hunt for the kids. It is easy to put together, very low cost, and can even be done in the park if you’re so inclined. Let me assure you that it is a huge kid pleaser for a wide variety of ages. So call up some friends and get your green on! Here’s what to do:

materials:

several rocks, at least 3 per hunter (more is certainly good)

gold spray paint

invitations (or phone calls)

bags to place candy in (party favor bags)

*optional prize for the winner of the hunt

*1 bag of candy from each child

directions:

1. Invite friends. Our hunters were asked to be between the ages of 3 and 11 and to bring a bag of candy per child to share.

2. Spray paint rocks in a variety of sizes to create the “gold.”

3. Hide rocks around your yard. Our hosts last year put the little kids in the front yard (8 and under); while the older kids searched the back yard.

4. Have the hunt: This takes about 20 minutes start to finish. (Excluding the playtime while parents chatted.)

5. Collect the candy as kids arrive and then divide it into bags while they are occupied with the hunt for the children to take home. If you have older hunters, you may want to distribute based on the number of rocks collected.

5. After it seems all of the gold has been found, ask the children to count their rocks; then bring them to a “collector” to trade for candy. You may want to add a good story about restoring it to a leprechaun to add drama. : D

6. If desired, award a prize to the person who collects the most “gold.”

The families in our neighborhood take turns hosting each year, but this could certainly be a family activity too. The rocks are saved for use the next year. Have fun and happy hunting!

One of my favorite blogs, the butcher block is giving away a meat thermometer. We already have one (it really is a staple in my book.) If you don’t you should enter here!

*Please note that I have been working on this post for over a week. No, it’s not a finely honed jewel. I just can’t find time for-well-anything that doesn’t cry or pat my hips saying “Mommomomomom” to get attention.*

It seems like every twelve hours I find my self saying What? How can it possibly be 11:00 already??? Which inevitably leads to the sick stomach feeling of Well, now it’s 12:00. Great. Now I am in bed late (or for the am:) Now the morning is over and what did I accomplish? Oh well. I will keep on hating 11:00 until I am either asleep or have actually accomplished something at that time. So, for the next 20 years or so.

Enough complaining. Allow me to share a bit of what I’ve been doing instead of blogging. Amanda is growing REALLY quickly. I don’t remember this going quite so fast with Meg or Emily. She wants to sit up and watch the action. (Which she thinks is all directed at her. With reason, I admit we are all quick to try and entertain her.) I love that she will light up and smile and squeal at me when I am talking on the phone or to one of the other girls. This usually leads to me finishing the conversation in a syrupy baby voice. My apologies if this has happened while I’m talking to you.

After a massive (and painful) cleanup effort, Michael got out his old Star Wars toys. The girls have played Star Wars nonstop. It cracks us both up to listen to the excellent dialogue. Just imagine if George Lucas had also been an avid Fancy Nancy fan. They wanted me to assemble the Death Star yesterday. I told them that I didn’t know how it went together. (This is my first time playing with them too.) Emily looked at me and said in her little exasperated tone “Mom, you’ve seen the movie.” Ha! She also insists that Han be called Captain Solo. At least she knows who the real man in Star Wars is.

I can’t tell you how many recipes I’ve tried for play dough; but I think I’ve finally settled on a favorite. This one is quick and cheap, with common pantry ingredients. It also has a fantastic texture–just like “Playdoh”.

materials

• 3 1/2-4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tarter (found with the spices on the baking isle)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons oil
• 2 cups of water
• food coloring (optional)
• cherry, strawberry, vanilla, or lemon extract (optional)

directions

1. Heat water to boiling in a medium saucepan. If you want one color of dough, add the food coloring now. This makes it very easy to color. If you want multiple colors, you can work the food coloring into the finished dough.

2. Measure a generous 3 1/2 cups flour into a medium-large mixing bowl (one that holds at least 8 cups.) Reserve extra to add if the dough is too sticky. Mix in the salt and cream of tartar. I have to admit that I love the way this feels, so I always use my hands. Salt and flour just have an interesting texture together. Is that weird?

3. Once the water is boiling, whisk in the oil. Remove from heat and add extract. I like this because it makes the playdough-and your hands-smell good. It can smell too good and be tempting for your child to eat, but this dough is fully edible–just not tasty. I prefer lemon because it smells clean. My girls haven’t ever been interested in eating it, but leave it out if you are concerned at all.

4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the water mixture in. Stir with a spoon until flour is incorporated, then turn it onto the counter or a cutting board and knead until smooth.

5. Now play!

I may not have been blogging lately, but I have been cooking. We have especially been eating a lot of paninis and grilled wraps since one of my favorite friends, Juli, gave us a panini press for Christmas. Mike has been very grateful! I’m loving how quickly I can turn out a crowd-pleasing meal. Somehow those little grill marks make sandwiches very dinner worthy. This one is gooey, warm, and comforting (and not partiularly low-fat, so not to be had too, too often–but hey! You’ve got to live, right?)

ingredients:

2 (smaller sized) chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1/2 c. mayonaise

1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

~3 Tbs. minced onion (I keep a bag of the frozen chopped onion in the freezer for recipes like this.)

Dash of salt

Dash of Herbs de Provence (or other preferred herb blend)

Ciabatta rolls (or French bread or whatever)

directions:

1. Cook and shred chicken then blend in small mixing bowl with other ingredients.

2. Heap onto bread and grill in panini press. You could also lightly butter french bread and grill in a skillet (`a la grilled cheese) or broil open-faced.

3. Serve with salad and fruit.

Here’s my good excuse for being such a bad blogger:

We are all smitten with this cute little puddin’.

Our girl is already a week old–how is that possible? We are home and trying to figure out our new routine. (Ha!) Actually, things are going well. The girls love her and Megan is a great helper. She is a pretty content baby who loves to eat. At her one week appointment, we learned that she has gained 10oz. already. When the doc asked, I told him that she is solely nursed and he circled her weight and put a big exclamation point next to it.

Here we are after the birth…so happy to finally have her here!

stats: 7lbs. 7oz. and 21 inches long

Megan can’t get enough of her. I love how sweet and attentive she is.

Emily is happy with her (sigh of relief) but not super interested.

If you know Emily, she kind of tends to do her own thing in general.

The other thing that got an exclamation point at her check up was how many infants their office has sent to the hospital with pneumonia. He said that cold and flu turn into it very easily for little ones. So, we are loving having healthy visitors, but asking that your cute kids stay away for a few more weeks. I am looking forward to joining the living soon (although probably not too soon, based on my paranoia of taking her into crowds); as well as possibly keeping my house clean for more than 30 minutes. Okay, I guess that was just wishful thinking before she was born too…we’ll see. Someday maybe.

I am going in tomorrow morning to have this crazy little girl. Can’t wait to see her. I’ll have pictures soon.

This year Halloween was for the birds. (Yes, I know that was bad.) Both of the girls ended up being birdies and Michael and I enjoyed a little less princess in our lives for a minute. Okay, I guess it isn’t exactly out of the the realm of princess, but at least they weren’t both Disney characters this year. Megan absolutely reveled in the attention she got with her fancy flamingo costume and Emily was so excited when Grandma Banana brought over this peacock dress. We had a great time trick or treating and eating chili with Grandma Lu and the cousins on Saturday evening.

It was also Michael’s birthday this week. We took the girls bowling for the first time. Megan loved it, I think Emily is still a little young. It didn’t take too long before she was ready to move on to something else. We also celebrated with some really excellent steaks and pumpkin pie. Mmmmm. Happy Birthday, honey!