BEST game to play around the campfire or fire pit!!!!!!
Here's how it goes: Burn the end of a long stick in the fire until you have a small glowing ember on the tip. Pass the stick around from person to person. Each person blows on the ember-if the ember is still lit, the person blowing says,"Jack's alive!" before passing it to the next person. NO LYING!!!! If a person receives the stick and the ember suddenly goes out or they blow it out, they get to have their face drawn on by another player with the soot from the stick! Beards, mustaches, lamb chops, the more ridiculous, the more fun!
*TEST TO MAKE SURE TIP OF STICK IS NOT TOO HOT!!!*
Here's the Jack's Alive pic's from Dylan's Birthday party!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEW! It's pastel HELL time again!!!! I shant go into anotherEaster Rantagain this year.....I promise. This weekend is our Spring celebration here in Still Under 2 Feet of Snow, Alaska. Always a weird thing trying to honor Spring when the world outside is covered in cold white and MUD.....bare trees and grey skies. We're in that yearly bummer of a phase where the snow is both melty and icy hard, depending on the time of day, so you can't really ski, snowshoe or sled anymore (as evidenced in this video of me trying to ski on hard icy snow):
.....but you can't hike on the trails and enjoy the ridges yet, either. For the past few weeks I have perused blogs teaming with burgeoning spring! Sunny photos of kids, sans coat and hat, outside soaking up the freshness! Things have been quiet here in that respect....still, but with a stirring below that will eventually enfold in all it's fecund GLORY!!!! Oh, YEAH it will!!! But it will be awhile...~sigh....
In the meantime we've engaged in our usual Bring IN the Spring activities.....forcing willow branches inside, starting some seeds for the butterfly garden, making a gourd birdhouse, etc. And now, we are on to the eggs. Lo will be playing hooky from school today so we can do our eggs and other Springy things. I've tried to keep Lo out of the Easter Schmunsky isles at the grocery store so that she won't catch a glimpse off all those cheesy PAAS coloring kits! Glitter, Disney characters....and that nasty "tie-dye" one. Ever notice how STICKY the PAAS "tie-dye" eggs come out?! INSTANT pet fur and lint magnets....
Since my head has been in such a PAINTING space lately-I've been gettin' CRUNK on canvas for 2 months now!!!!- I thought it would be fun to incorporate a little of that in this year's Just Say NO to PAAS egg decorating.
This year, we decided to decorate eggs that would last for future Spring decor and celebration. We created our own mini egg canvases......on which to embellish in many ways. I bought some cheap fake decorative eggs from Micheal's (you can also use plastic Easter basket eggs), and gessoed them white just like you would prime a canvas for painting. From here we experimented with both acrylic paint and fibers- silk, wool and cheese cloth.
Here's what you'll need:
plastic eggs
sand paper
white gesso
paintbrush
various types of fibers
glossy Mod Podge
Here is our process:
1. Use sandpaper to lightly sand the surface of your egg-just enough to cover the egg in sandpaper scratches. This will provide "tooth" for your gesso to adhere to.
2. Apply 2 coats of gesso to your egg. Let the first coat dry before adding the next.
3. Take your wool or silk fibers(for mine I used wool roving and silk pulled from hand spun silk yarn) and gently pull the fibers away from each other.
4. Cover you egg with a coat of Mod Podge and place pulled fibers on the egg.
5. Gently paint on more Mod Podge and use your brush to manipulate the fibers where you would like them to be placed.
6. You can also keep your egg canvas white and paint it in what ever style you like with acrylic or watercolor paint.
7. Let dry...and display!!!
And what's THIS?!?!? A poor lost dinosaur egg! HOW did it get there with the other Spring eggs?!??!
A quick and easy tutorial on how to make Dino eggs will have to wait until next week! Plus, I have a bit to say about this 2 yr blogiversary....
Before I get started, I want to mention the funky new comment threading thang I found on my blog journeys. It's called IntenseDebate and it's a commenting system that enhances and encourages conversation (among other things) on your blog or website. Leave a comment and check it out! Fun or superfluous?
OMG. Remember that movie!?!?! That box office phantasm of roller rink lovin'?!! That excellent hijacking of 93 minutes of your life ?!!? XANADU!!!! ??????? Remember? Oliva Newton John and her AWESOME ribbon barrettes?!?!? Back.In.Style!!!!!!!!!! Made some for Lo recently. She LOVES 'em!
I lost the tutorial I set up :( and tis the season to have NO time to go back and do it over. So here is an instructional vid I found:
Who could forget Chinese jax! Move aside Rubix cube! HUGE in 5th grade! I spent much allowance money at the Ben Franklin store by my Grama's house buying up those bags of little plastic circle thingys! My friends and I had so much fun making cool color combos and playing-mostly at school. Portable fun!
And I just couldn't leave out the once-ubiquitous PET ROCK. Never had one, but...
I've been scrambling this past weekend to get this year's Holiday Season events organized and scheduled! Making lists, checking them twice, and thrice in most cases... I thought I would post some of our favorite crafts from last year to share. I know I've really enjoyed the abundant creativity I've found through everyone's blogs the past few years. For all of that, I am grateful!
Here's a game the kids love to break out around Thanksgiving, right about the time that we're watching "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving".
This Native American game of dice fits well with the Thanksgiving themes that work for our family's yearly tradition. A really great tactile experience as well as a lesson in history, economics and counting! A simple but engaging game. Check out the tutorial HERE.
Dea made these cute angels with her 6th grade class a few years ago and re-created them last year for her grandmothers. Simple materials and process resulting in a surprisingly beautiful gift! HERE's the tutorial.
A couple years ago, Huz made a set of kindergarten wood unit blocks for Lo. It was so simple! Just a matter of buying 2x4s of pine, following a spec chart, doing the math, ripping the wood and sanding with a belt sander. Lo was amazed with this gift handmade by Daddy and has been incorporating them into her play almost on a daily basis since.
Dea made these beautiful eco-friendly Japanese style hangings with handmade specialty papers from around the world. Click HEREfor the tutorial.
The possibilities of silkiesare only limited by the imagination! One of the cleverest ideas that Lo has had with her silkies was to make a basic doll with a hooded cape over it's head! More HERE.
Magic crystals abound in our wonderland! A fun activity for the kids...or, perhaps the "gnomes" can surprise them with a bunch of these treasures when they next go outside to play!
