This Post is Long…But You Won't Dye if You Read it All!

Hi-Ho, Emily-The-Mom here!

A nod to the great Kermit the Frog. I like him, even if my youngest refuses to see his newest flick.

“I don’t want to see it! It’s just a creepy version of the Muppets!”

“That’s the point, though…a bad guy is impersonating Kermit and they have this huge case of mistaken identity, and the last Muppet movie just had a bunch of creepy Muppet-wannabes in a band that were trying to dethrone the real Muppets and you never complained about that movie and…oh, sorry, you quit listening.”

So instead, we forced the three darlings to watch Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Ha! Take that, defiant kid!

Sorry, HUGE left turn from where my blog was planning to go today. I really wanted to share the fun pre-Easter-dying-party we held at our casa this week.

The kidlets had two days off of school and we burned one going to see the Texas Rangers play a day game. They won. The Rangers and the kids. I am shocked by how much ice cream, cotton candy and hot chocolate they can put away in such a short time. That's right-ice cream and hot chocolate. Texas weather!

So, on the second day off of school we held our dying party with some friends, while the dads went to golf. 

I know! Golf instead of tie-dying shirts and dip-dying eggs? Ludicrous!

On the docket for the day was also Peeps-Jousting. Please see this for the breakdown of this lesser-known, non-UIL-sanctioned sport. Bad luck that our microwave broke and we the new one isn't in until next week. No microwave, no Peeps-Jousting. A travesty!

I told the kids we'll Peeps-Joust next week. Trust me, I may have helped the Peeps peeps (see what I did there) make their yearly quota. We have plenty of Peeps!

On another in a seemingly never-ending stream of side notes, here is a great article I found that really delves deep into the world of the Peep. Enjoy!

The basic ingredients of our dying party are as follows: one day off of school, three moms, seven kids, pizza, eggs, dye, shirts.

I will not get into the minutiae of the tie-dying process today. If you click this link, you can go to a more detailed tie-dying post. What is important is that the kids and moms enjoyed being together, we may be replacing our carpet so there was a certain lackadaisical approach to reigning in the dye…

The younger kids scampered upstairs to rainbow-loom their fingers off as soon as they finished eating because the older kids had fully locked down the X-Box. Wasn't the X-Box one of the earlier-mentioned ingredients? No?

We, the stalwart mothers, cleaned up the food and started soaking t-shirts in soda-ash. 42 eggs boiled merrily on the sink as we soaked the shirts and contemplated life.

After the requisite 10 minutes had elapsed, we called the older kids to come do their shirts. They were very eager. We noticed that their color choices have started trending toward their sports team affiliations.

Example shirts to show styles and colors-cuz Lisa is da bomb!

My oldest child decided to go with Seattle Seahawks colors while dripping some extra black around the shirt just because “It will probably look cooler this way.”

They made quick work of their shirts, precisely pointing and shooting dye (you’d think they had done this before) and we figured out that they had yet another dye-free agenda. This time they wanted to go shoot baskets at the school. Aghast! Leave the dying-party to go have fun playing sports with your friends on a beautiful day???

Obviously we said yes. We aren’t monsters. Caveat: they had to take their siblings. Wha-wahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The younger set came downstairs and gloved up. They were mostly fascinated with the link between doctors and rubber gloves.  And how if you were a doctor you would be rich enough to buy so many rubber gloves that you wouldn’t have to reuse them as we were reusing them. And how if you were a doctor someone else would put the gloves on for you.

The youngest child and one of the boys decided to fill a glove with water and freeze it to see what would happen. The odds were seriously in favor of them ending up with a hand-shaped icicle, but the “experiment” proceeded anyway.

We were prepared for the probability that the younger kids would need a lot of help. We were wrong. Except for their exuberant attempts to start dying before paper towels were put down, they pretty much had a handle on the process. They quickly dyed their way through the shirts and immediately asked when they could rinse them out and see the patterns.

“Tomorrow afternoon.”

“Tomorrow afternoon? Awwwww, man! That’s so far away.”

“Indeed.”

And, dyed and bagged, the shirts went off to mellow and the kids went off to shoot baskets and run amok. Ahhhhh, how refreshing to be able to send them out as a herd and not to have to go too! Freedom!

The eggs had finished by this point and only seven had cracked. Seriously! Seven cracked! What a beating! What a crisis! What a first-world problem!

We dyed them anyway.

We, the moms, readied the egg dying. I bought mini egg cartons on a cute little website called Shop Sweet Lulu. Adorable! Each kid could have their own. (I am not being paid by these people, I just like their site).

When they returned all sweaty from the trek, we got them settled for egg dying. This took more time than the t-shirt dying. Seriously. A few of the kids were not that concerned with the way their eggs looked. A few kids became Monet in an instant. Or egg-Nazis. Woe to the one who touched their eggs in the bowls. One child, who shall remain nameless (but not photo-less) glittered her egg completely.

After the 42 eggs were summarily dyed, collected and boxed, the party had to come to an end. Parting is such sweet sorrow. All good things must come to an end. Any other cliches?

We had a great time, got stained fingers and ended up with a lot of masterpieces. And next year, Peeps Jousting!

Spring Break Project: Suet Seed Balls for Frozen Feathered and Furry Friends

I sort of feel like Anna in Frozen. After the glorious experience of finally being released into the freedom of the great, sunny, warm outdoors, she is relegated to shivering in the bitter cold and ice as her world is plunged below freezing.

Last week we were treated to temps up to 80 degrees. Shorts! Short-sleeves! Bare feet! Fabulous vitamin D for everyone (which is nice considering a drop in vitamin D is yet another in a stellar list of “getting older” replacement pills. Seriously???)!

“The Window is open, so’s that door.

I didn’t know they did that anymore…”

We were in the yard, the kids rode bikes and played basketball outside. The car got washed, plants were planted. Not tomatoes though. Nice try tomatoes. Not this time.

I knew everyone felt that irresistible pull outside, to open up the house and feel the spring-like air. Unfortunately the kittens, too, felt the pull outside and we couldn’t leave doors open.

Behind it all, though was the uneasiness that came from the forecast. The cold was “coming”. Foreboding and serious they spoke of arctic chills and a rapid cold front reminiscent of the polar vortex. A plunge from 81 degrees to 17 degrees in 24 hours.

So, even though the veggies we had in the ground were winter ones, 17 degrees with a wind chill below zero wasn’t doing them any favors. Time to cocoon the farm. 

Or residential lot…whatever!

The raised garden was covered with a double layer of plastic sheeting, stretched over low hoops made of PVC pipe. The onions were covered with wooden crates and then wrapped in burlap.

The blueberries would have been fine in the ground where the heat from the earth would have protected them, but in containers the roots were too close to the freezing air. Layers of burlap and towels went around the pots.

Our new apple trees went into the garage. I decided not to risk it. With good reason, we got our sleet and snow and sub-zero wind chills. Our school garden was a 100% loss, despite the double-burlap cover.

We have done this yo-yo weather dance for weeks now and we're over it. The oldest child and a friend camped out in the backyard this weekend in short sleeves but the next morning a near-freezing drizzle fell for a few hours!

A great project/craft we whip up occasionally to help our furry and feathered friends make it until spring is Peanut Butter Suet Balls.

Nuke 1 C. peanut butter and 1C. shortening in a microwave-safe bowl until soft enough to blend thoroughly together.

Stir in 1 C. sugar, 1 C. cornmeal, I C. birdseed and 1 C. oats. Add raisins if you feel like it.

Stir until blended or ditch the spoon and mix well with your hands.

Roll 1-2” balls and set on a plate.

Take them outside and put on a feeder, on the forks of trees, on fences. Wherever your cold little friends will find them and high enough that they won’t get eaten while trying.

These provide a lot of fat, protein and nutrients the birds lose in the winter. Some people render suet but the vegetable shortening will work. We have made them a few times over the winter. Every time the weather turns icy.

Because spring break is this week and the eldest is on a mission trip (yea, kids! being the hands and feet of God this week!) we decided to whip up a batch of these before our next freeze.

Here's how this went with the younger two:

"These are like irresistible peanut butter cookies for birds."

"Tell Daddy we're making peanut butter cookies. Hee hee, hee hee!"

"Let's guesstimate, shall we."

"Oooh, this shortening looks like ice cream. Eat some!"

"What's shortening."

I then had to delve into the nuances of rendering lard, replacing animal fats with vegetable ones and frying chicken....maybe not the best example since we were making treats to help birds...

And, for the melting of the peanut butter and shortening, a song.

"We're nuking it, we're nuking it, we're nuking it in the microwave!"

"It looks like white whipped peanut butter."

After adding in the yummy "stir-ins" they were a little surprised. I guess they missed the sugar when we made these before.

"Wait we're sugaring the birds up?"

I told them the sugar is added to winter suet to help the birds stay nice and fat and active until spring, but we don't add it in spring-fall suet balls.

"I've always wanted to see birds on a sugar high!"

Me too.

I used a cookie dough/ice cream scoop to give them the right potions to roll up in their hot little hands. 

"The birdies are going to love these."

"And the squirrels!"

Right.

"They feel really gritty from the cornmeal and sugar."

Wait for it...

"Oh! When were done we can rub this all over our hands for a sugar scrub!"

You knew the middle child would work a beauty treatment in here somewhere!

"Making all of these balls reminds me of our seed balls we made with the clay."

I told them we could go toss a few of those around over spring break. Help the world wake up a little prettier once the freezes were over. We may even lapse back into an older project and whip up a few blessing rocks to leave around. Nothing brightens a dreary day like a sweet heart painted on a random stone!

Hopefully these treats help. We have a family of woodpeckers nesting in a branch of our oak. The poor tree is in it's final days but we cant bear to pull the trigger yet.

Once we soak the last tiny bit of warmth from the next few days, we are resigned to another  cold imprisonment inside.

At least we have each other, firewood and yummy  (fattening) winter food to keep us cozy. And the birds do too...well, not the firewood.

I guess Olaf said it best:

“Winter’s a good time to sit close and cuddle…”

He was right!

Huge Presidents Day Sale on....Oh Wait, It's Just a Craft!

I had the chance to do craft last night at our church kids’ program. This particular group of kids is all third and fourth graders who are hilarious, creative and silly.

We have only a short time to do our craft before they rotate to the next activity so the craft has to be easy, quick, age-appropriate and following the theme of the badge they are trying to earn. Even loosely.

Okay, the scene is set.

I started the night with a question.

“Who is out of school tomorrow?”

Most said they were. We paused to consider the sad kids from a neighboring ISD who didn’t have the day off. However, since they had an earlier snow day we didn’t have, resulting in their having to attend school the next day, I assured them that they weren’t being robbed.

So the holiday is just for fun, right?

I asked the kids why they are out of school and the responses varied.

“I dunno.”

“Valentine’s Day?”

“Just ‘cause.”

Then the bright shining example of childhood genius who said, “Presidents Day?”

Yes!!!!!

I asked them if they knew what presidents or why we honored them in February.

“Their birthdays!”

Excellent job teachers, they are listening to you! So we made president magnets to honor the day. I mean, these guys are being immortalized with fabric and mattress sales and $1.00 foot-long hot dogs. The least we could do is craft them. Right?

Right.

At that point we started laying out the pieces of our presidents. The craft consisted of the following “ingredients”.

Pretty standard really.

(Sorry, a little Dr. Evil there)

I had to pre-paint the clothespins due to time restrictions. Each kid got a blue and a black clothespin.

To be honest, for the rest of the pieces I had no template. I made this thing up as I went along. I freehanded some roundish shapes from cream-colored felt. Feel free to trace and precisely cut out your shapes if that’s how you roll. I consider each of these to be one-of-a-kind artistic gems! Ha!

I made a pile of white bell-shapes, a pile of vaguely anvil-shaped blue “hats” and then cut rounded “u” shapes out of white that I later “hollowed” out to be puffy powdered wigs for George.

For Honest Abe, I cut more of the cream-colored head shapes, black rectangles for the stovepipe hats, skinny rectangles from black for the hat brims and white triangles for his shirt pieces.

I made some thinner “u” shapes from black that got hollowed out to make his beard/burns combos.

See photo progression here:

The kids immediately had questions.

“Why do we have to do the blue clothespins for George Washington? Did Lincoln never wear blue?”

“Did Lincoln have hair? Should we make him hair?”

“So Lincoln only had a beard and Washington only had hair?”

“Does the white shirt thing have to face down? Why aren’t they the same?”

You will notice that Washington gets more of a cravat-looking piece of white felt to mimic the ruffles, or “puffy shirt” as our friend Seinfeld would call it. I explained that, due to there being decades between their presidencies, the fashion had changed.

I further explained that we just have more pictures of the two presidents in those particular colors and it helps us differentiate between the two. I told them they were welcome to vary the wardrobe.

Also, Lincoln probably had hair, some photos show it thinning. He has hair on the penny. Washington may have grown a beard at times. Maybe over long weekends when he didn’t have to hit the office. Or on game day.

They seemed satisfied.

We wrapped the whole thing up with drawing on faces and attaching the magnets and they went along their merry ways-a little wiser about former presidential facial hair.

 

Hopefully this will give you a little inspiration the next time you feel like buying a new mattress doesn’t quite get the “Thanks for being born, founding fathers,” message across!

one of my very creative friends, Bella, made these guys!