Totally Tubular #2

This one is actually older, as we made it at some point during the summer.

A more portable version of the paper towel tube ramp/maze from yesterday.

The background is a foam-core presentation/poster board. The tubes are glued onto the background (I believe we used wood glue...but hot glue would also be effective, and probably more appropriate).

The kids had an excellent time rolling marbles on this - for literally hours. I was quite amazed by the level of amusement.

It looks completely lame in the picture - but it was fun, I swear. You could make it look fun by decorating the background and painting the tubes. But seriously, unnecessary.

Totally Tubular

So, we've been collecting paper towel tubes for a while. Like, a long long while. And we had a BIG pile of them.

Yesterday, when Tater looked at me and said "What are we going to DO today?", we decided that something with tubes was the way to go.

There are many options with tubes - an excellent recyclable craft supply. In the past, we have built castles from them, and pilgrims for Thanksgiving. Mike has also built a very impressive device (dubbed "the McGuyver Tool") which incorporates several tubes and a pasta fork, and is quite useful for fetching things that get stuck on the roof.

This time, we found a picture in a book of a marble ramp made with paper towel tubes. So we went for it.

Materials: Big pile of paper towel tubes, duct tape, scissors and stuff to prop the ramps up on. We used a shelf, a puppet theater, a picnic basket on a chair and a table. I think the more interesting things you can use, the more entertaining this whole project could be.

The tubes are taped together with the duct tape (duh). To make some angles and turns, we cut a bit off of the ends to sort of make mitered corners (but much less precise). At the end of the ramp, the balls and marbles fall into a toy kettle. We had it dumping directly in, but you could make it a little less direct and then there would be more challenge to the whole thing.

I know it is difficult to fully appreciate the full glory of the ramp in the midst of the playroom wreckage. But it is cool. And the kids played with it for quite a while yesterday.

And, since they were down in the basement and reminded that there are toys down there...the wreckage increased (yes, these pictures are before the true wreckage ensued)...

Scrappy Don't

(Did you get the Scooby Doo reference there?)

I am hesitant to admit this. I am pretty crafty. I have quilted. I have embroidered. I have even decoupaged. However, scrapbooking scares the daylights out of me.

Not old school scrapbooks. My parents did what was, at the time, quite creative scrapbooking. Little corners on the pictures, captions, hand-drawn decorations. I love those old scrapbooks. Love them.

Back in the day I even made a scrapbook of the beginning of my relationship with Mike - with captions and hand-drawn decorations. Granted, it ends with the ultrasound photo of Sprout. But I did it.

But scrapbooking as a full-fledged, capital C, C-R-A-F-T...scary stuff. The aisles of stickers, and papers, and cutting devices. The shows devoted to "techniques". The home parties. The planning. The execution. Heeby jeebies...

Don't get me wrong - the finished products are quite impressive. But the idea of making any kind of dent in the accumulated history of my family with that kind of attention to detail and artistry...would make me want to stop doing things worthy of being photographed!

We have 16 photo books. The ones with the little plastic sleeves for the photos. I have all of the photos in these books (except for the past few months...which are piled up on my desk). They are in chronological order (at least mostly) and there are Post-its in there marking the date and some brief explanation of where we are/what we are doing.

This is all I can pull off.

This is partially because I can't bring myself to weed through the photos to edit down to just the best ones. I love them all. Every goofy face and blurry action shot. Every picture where my #$%^&* digital camera took a shot 4 seconds AFTER something good happened. Love them.

The other part of the issue is the performance anxiety I would have working my way through all of the options now available for how to present the pictures. Tags and ribbons and die-cuts and papers and buttons and stickers and rub-ons and....whew...I am getting light headed.

I did put together an excellent book of our trip to Italy last summer. I used the software from MyPublisher.com and the result was completely awesome. I gathered the photos from my parents and my brother and my husband and mixed in my own. Dragged and dropped and cropped and zoomed until the pictures were telling the whole story. Picked templates that fit the pictures (plain black and white). Added captions. And had the whole thing printed in a hard-backed book. It was actually fun and not at all intimidating.

I don't think I would do it for all of our pictures - that might be a little daunting. But for a special trip or occasion, I would absolutely do it again.

No stickers required.

This is a really bad idea...

If you are at all concerned with consuming healthy food.

This is a REALLY good idea if you want to eat (a little) of something HUGELY delicious and addictive.

Hard for kids to help make - messy, hot, sticky. Very easy for them to help eat!

Cracker Toffee

Ingredients:
Rectangular butter-flavored crackers (Club Crackers)
2 Sticks of unsalted butter
1 Cup of packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups (I just used a bag full) of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped pecans (I left these off and it was still amazingly wonderful)

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Line a cookie tray (with edges) or a jelly roll pan with heavy-duty foil and spray generously with non-stick cooking spray.

Arrange the crackers (it took one sleeve of them when I did it) lined up with edges touching to cover the bottom of the pan.

Combine the butter, brown sugar and salt in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until the butter melts, stirring frequently. Increase the heat to high and boil for 3 minutes without stirring.

Pour this mixture evenly over the crackers and spread gently to cover them, without moving them around.

Bake for 5 minutes. Immediately sprinkle the chocolate chips over the crackers, let them sit for a few seconds until they start to melt and then spread them gently to cover the crackers.

If you are using them, sprinkle the nuts on the top and press into the chocolate.

Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for 2 hours.

Break into chunks to serve.

This says that it makes 24 servings...but it would be hard to stop with a little piece!

(This is from a book called "Incredibly Easy Silly Snacks" - although I am not seeing the silliness...just the incredibleness.)

Activity Overload

I am yearning for the "simple" days of the summer...when we spent our days lazing around and working through lists of crafts and trips.

Did I just say that? Me?
The one who breathed a sigh of relief when the kids went back to school?

Yep.

Now we have karate, and music lessons, and orthodontist appointments, and intramurals, and chorus (at 8AM...are you kidding me??) and soon basketball...and homework...arrrgggghhhh...

I am definitely entering the phase of my life where I am the chauffeur. Lots of taking small people places and waiting for them. And I am (possibly) a little (maybe) too me-centric (a tad) to enjoy this.

Except for the 30 minutes where the kids are at music lessons right next door to the Ulta.

That part is cool.

At the car wash...yeah!

For some reason, my kids LOVE to clean. This is not something that they inherited from me. While I enjoy living in a place that is clean, getting it that way is not something that interests me in the least.

Today, our neighbor was washing her car outside and Sprout and Tater jumped RIGHT in there to help. Tater ran to get our big sponge, Sprout was desperate to wield the hose nozzle. They were so very happy out there soaping and rinsing...even started to wash bikes...scooters...the driveway...

This made me think that I should wash my car and let them help. My car hasn't been washed in many months, and since it is (was?) white, it definitely shows. Unfortunately, the impulse passed (maybe fortunately?). But, the next nice day when we have no plans, I am getting out a bucket and some sponges and letting them go for it!

Happy kids + Clean Car = Win-Win!!

ARRRGHHHH!!! Part II

We are going to go to see the Real Pirates exhibit at the Frankin Institute in Philadelphia on October 4th. I know I usually report on activities AFTER we do them, but this seems very cool and you have to get tickets in advance...and it ends November 2nd.

Since the last pirate-themed adventure that I reported on was over the next day (oops) it seemed best to give you a heads up in case you hadn't heard about this one.

From the official website:
"The exhibition displays over 200 artifacts recovered from the ocean floor including treasure chests of jewelry, coins, and gold. Step on board a recreation of the ship’s stern, walk into the Captain’s quarters, and go below deck to discover what life was like aboard a real pirate ship! “Real Pirates” is the first exhibition of authenticated pirate treasure ever displayed."

I am hoping that Tater doesn't group pirates in with "dressed up things", or this could be a short visit.

I'll let you know more after we go...but it sounds cool!