Hobby Lobby Haul

Saturday we made the 30 mile trip to check out a Hobby Lobby.  It was big and they had a lot of stuff but most of it was stuff I am not interested in.  The seasonal sections and craft sections were great to explore but the home decor stuff is not for me.  My cousin got a lot of stuff for her daughter's room there and I can see why.  It was just not my style for the most part and I don't have a lot of room left to put that kind of stuff anyway.  I did find the few things I had on my list and then a few other things too! 

In the seasonal section I found white Easter eggs.  How cool are they?  And I found tiny eggs because the Easter Bunny needs more to fill and hide right?

Some Easter foam stickers because they are just fun and were 30% off. 

More bath fizzie colors and scents.  I like the coconut and lilac out the choices they had.  And primary colors work best for what we need them for.  Also 30% off!

I need pom poms and black bead eyes for a project I have in mind that I found on Pinterest.  Baylor choose the chenille stems and the Easter pom poms. 

They had these tongs and other kitchenalia in all different colors and Baylor picked the red, his favorite color right now.  He is always using/taking my tongs so these are a good thing for him. 

We made four batches of fizzies and I think I finally figured out the water to powder ratio.  The first batch were too damp and fizzed a bit. 

But the other three were perfect and did not fizz over the molds. 

And here is what happens when one's son takes over the camera while watching TV.  I have about 100 photos of the TV, aquarium, and his walk through the kitchen. 

He would check the back of the camera and tell me when he caught them on the picture.  Thank heaven for digital cameras and the ability to delete photos.  His donor listed filmmaker as his career choice.  Hmmm

Watercolors

I showed Baylor the fun of watercoloring, finally.  One would think an art major would be immersing her offspring in art from day one but I can barely manage getting everything done in the evenings and on the weekends and really have to make time to sit down with him long enough to craft.  We painted some cheap wooden frames again and some wooden shapes to put on the frames and he was ready for more painting.  So we went down in the craft room and dug up some of the craft supplies I have been storing for him. 

He really enjoyed finding the colors he wanted and was really good with not knocking down the water cup and not flinging paint everywhere.  I want to get a better paper to paint on that does not ripple but that is the artist in me and not the mom who should be fine with the cheap stuff because we cannot keep everything he marks on.  Which I have not, although it is really hard to get rid of anything. 

Nothing Says Loven; Like Loven from the Oven

So you can find the recipe plenty of places online but I found this one on Pinterest and finally made it at Christmas. It rocked! Crusty crust, chewy interior!  I have since given the recipe to several people and compelled them to try it.  So far, no one has.  Their loss!  It was a soup weekend here and that calls for bread.  This time made with Greek olives and roasted garlic. 

Shut the over door and get in my mouth.

  Lori heard me crunching and between the two of us only the center cube on the left was remaining by the time we were full.  She LOVES crust so she was cutting off all the edges and wanted to slice off the top and bottom of the remaining piece leaving me with the chewy middle, which if I was still hungry was a deal I would have entered in to! 

Baylor did not nap today and fell asleep in the car on the way back from visiting Meme so he did not share in the warm bread goodness. I had forgotten to take my camera and missed some really sweet moments of the two of them together again like peas and carrots.  Meme shared her supper of chicken, rice, salad, mixed veggies, pineapple, and white milk with him. Is it crazy that three year old loves dark lettuces and begs for more rice and green beans?    Crazy good!

Bath Fizzies

Friday night was started on our first batch of bath fizzies.  Baylor spied me at the table and tore himself away from the Octonauts to help me stir.  As a big boy, I often hear I can do it myself as he shoos away my helping hand  

He watched me fill up the first silicone ice cube tray and had to do the other one by himself.  And sang a bit while he was doing so.  Funny how cameras catch these faces the eye would pass over so quickly! But they make me smile! 

So here is our first go at it.  Pale blue and lavender scents fish and starfish.  Those Ocotonauts have us all thinking about the sea a lot around here.

After drying overnight they were a bit overgrown in the molds but dried and hard.  He took several to the bath right away and loved them.  They are small so the fizz away pretty quickly but then he likes to scrunch them up in his hands to hurry it along. 

We had a few spoonfuls left over and I used some heart molds.  I know all these Ikea ice molds would come in handy some day!

The second batch was a red with vanilla scent and some orange that were lavender and vanilla.  There is fine line between damp enough to hold together and damp enough to start fizzing.  These looked fine at first and we set them to dry overnight.

By morning it looked like I had made pink muffins and Lori admitted to eyeing them up as a tasty treat but realized they were not food in time. 

The orange came out OK but the pink are very much like meringue; firm looking but like dried foam, yielding to pressure.  The still fizz so Baylor is none too concerned about that. 

We have enough citric acid to make several more batches but I want to get other scents before we do.  Maybe a trip to finally check out a Hobby Lobby is in our future next weekend! 

Muddy Baylor

After a bit of running around we came home to play in the dirt/mud that used to by my flower beds and grass.

  Maybe a few tiny tomato seeds will survive until spring.  I think I will need to find a new home for them.  He was in the middle of saying monkey cheese and not complaining like it looks like. 

Over a quarter inch of mud on the bottom of his shoes.  But he had a great time. 

Fun with Borax

I am really glad I found Pinterest as it has motivated me to get busy and 'craft' with my son.  Some times he helps me and some times I work on things while he is off doing something else.  Working with boiling water made this a work on my own craft but he will still take credit for making these.  The ratio is 3 Tbs borax to 1 cup boiling water.  I made snowflakes with white pipe cleaners and blue water.  The hearts are red pipe cleaners and clear water.  Here is the process I used. 

After about an hour sitting on the counter the crystals were already forming.

By morning I had these beautiful items.

For our next craft, I think we are going to tackle bath fizzies! 

Meme Update

The plan on Sunday was for Lori to get off work at noon and take Baylor to finally see Meme.  He has not been able to see here and she has been down here for two weeks now.  Since she is in rehab he was able to visit.  Baylor and I worked on two crafts for Meme to make her feel better.  Baylor is an excellent nurse and is really concerned about Meme feeling better.  First it was her knees and now her chest.  I picked up a wood frame for a dollar and some heart foam stickers.  This was his second experience painting with real paint. He is a pro with the bathroom paint and did really well with covering it.  He really liked driving the brush around and around and around so the paint became a bit dry and streaky but it is all good. 

I did not take a photo of it finished but I wrote Meme and Baylor along the bottom and he put the stickers on it.  We also made a little boy angel. I traced his feet for the gown and his hands for the wings. 

We picked Meme up in the rehab room and Baylor helped her finish her lap around the room.  The nurse was a bit concerned, not knowing him of course, that he would trip her up or something but he was a perfect walk make for her.  Back at her room he was all about giving her the crafts. 

She loved them of course. We found a photo of them at Christmas and put it in the frame.  It is sitting on this shelf in the wall unit and when they went in today, everyone knew who Baylor was.  Meme tells everyone about him!

Meme is like me and likes a lot of photos.  Lori is like her dad and they do not like photos.  Can you tell?

Baylor was overdue for a nap and was getting a bit crazy running into the hall and back into the room. 

I know it did Meme good to see Baylor.  Dave goes in to see her also so she is well visited by most of her grandsons.  Jason lives pretty far away, does not know the area and is not likely to drive down here by himself.   Yesterday she was finally able to wash her hair and feels a lot better.  She has lost 9 lbs which is really good and if she keeps it up it will help her get off some of her meds.   She is doing really well and we could not be more pleased with her progress.