X-Wing Fighter Craft and Wizard Cupcakes

I made a few things last week.  Then I took some pictures of the things I made.  Now, I’m posting them on my blog.  Next, I’m going to add links so you can make this stuff, too.  Later.

Click Here for DirectionsTo save money, instead of a memory chip I just cut a craft stick to fit.

Click Here for Directions

ERMAGERD and Slime

I think I need an ERMAGERD intervention.  I seriously can’t get enough of all the ERMAGERD memes.  Can’t. Get. Enough.  Allow me to put some here on my blog…or rather some more seeing how I’ve been including them in the Freaky Friday posts for quite some time.

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Another thing that dawned on my today…ironically it dawned on me while I was using dawn detergent to wash a pan, I have not featured slime in my activities for kids posts. ERMAGERD DUH.  I think it is because I have made enough slime to fill the Colosseum.  I know this because I’ve been to the Colosseum!!  I digress, slime.  Here is the easy at-home version to make with the kids.  Making slime and playing with truly never gets old,  just like the ERMAGERD memes.  

What you'll need to make slime.  Use and empty bottle to mix the borax with water.    For this 20 ounce bottle, I put in about 4 tablespoons of borax and then filled a little over half-full with water.  Shake up borax and water mixture.

Pour entire bottle of glue in your bowl.

Add a few drops of  your choice color of food coloring and stir.

Pour in just a little bit of the borax and water solution.  You don't want to add to much.  Take it slow  and only pour a little bit in and stir.  If you seem to have a lot of glue left add a bit more borax/water.

ERMAGERD  SHRIME!!

Johnsonville Sausage and Gruyere Quiche and Newspaper Flower Pots

Have I mentioned that I love Lucille Ball?  I think I have, but let me just say again…love her.

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I spent the morning dealing with a migraine.  I used to have them quite a bit from work stress and too much caffeine.  Since I used to have them a lot, I have a strategy that works decently for me.  When I feel the nausea and headache coming on I drink some water, take some ibuprofen,  lie down with a cold washcloth on my face (it has to cover my eyes) and then go to sleep for a few hours (if possible).  It seems to help.   Migraines suck and I hope I don’t have another for a very long time…meaning forever.

I’m continuing on my quest to add a few more recipes to the Johnsonville Sausage Recipe Contest.  Click here for my first entry.  I plan to submit two more recipes.  I made a Johnsonville Sausage and Gruyere Quiche yesterday. It was adapted from a Plain Chicken recipe and it was delicious.

Johnsonville Sausage and Gruyere Quiche

Ingredients

1 9-inch deep dish pie crust

6 oz Johnsonville Sausage, cooked and drained on paper towel

6 oz Gruyere cheese, grated

3 large eggs

½ cup milk

½ cup sour cream

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place Johnsonville Sausage in bottom of pie crust and top with Gruyere.  In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, sour cream, parsley, salt and pepper.  Pour over sausage and cheese.  Bake for 50 minutes, or until center is lightly brown.  Allow to cool for a few minutes and serve!

Click Here To Print Recipe!

I found this craft on pinterest (click here).  The kids and I are going to plant cherry tomato seeds today and talk about recycling.  These pots are super easy to make and perfect for growing seeds.

Plastic Easter Egg Craft and a Freaking Furby

Do you remember the Furby?  I had to draw one last night on Draw Something.  This brought back memories of my Furby.  I don’t remember the bastard’s name though.  I, along with thousands of children, got suckered into the Furby craze.  I, however, was not a child…I was 29.  I took the thing to work with me so I could properly take care of it.  It was cute for a day or so and then it was really annoying and needy.  When I ignored it enough that I thought it had died, I put it in our trunk we kept at the end of the bed and forgot about it.  Tiffany and I were asleep several months later when we heard, “Feed me.  Haha,” followed by continued gibberish.  We woke up in terror.  We whispered to each other, “What was that?”  We began planning our line of attack because clearly a robber in your house in the middle of the night is going to be laughing and speaking furbish.  As we were crawling around the floor in attack-mode, looking for weaponry, Tiffany stood up and said, “It’s that god damn Furby!”  I stood up, opened the trunk and the bastard blinked and laughed.  We gave it to Goodwill the next day.

If your kids have emptied all the candy out of their Easter eggs or you’ve run into a clearance sale on plastic Easter eggs,  here is an easy craft you can do at home with a sharpie, some felt, pipe cleaners, tiny pom poms and hot glue.

Craft Source

Girl Scout Cookie Binge and A Straw Oboe

I did really good avoiding Girl Scout Cookies, until we bought a box of Trefoils and a box of Thin Mints outside a Kroger in Louisville.  The little girl was an efficient and cute salesperson.  I decided to have a few cookies with my coffee earlier this morning.  It ended with a Hunter S. Thompson style binge.  I lost time and now find myself surrounded by empty wrappers and cookie crumbs.  I’m not proud of this.  All I can do at this point is clean my face and the living room floor, rehydrate, force down some Activia and never speak of this again.  On a positive note, I’ve saved myself from thinking about the cookies by consuming them all.  I always try to be a glass half-full type of person.

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Straw Oboe

What You Need

Drinking Straw

Scissors

What You Do

Flatten one end of the soda straw by sticking the end in your mouth, biting down with your teeth, and pulling it out.  Do this several times to make a flexible flat-ended straw.  Cut equal pieces of straw from each side of the flat region so that the straw has two lips at the end. 

Put the straw in your mouth, and bite down on it gently with your front teeth just beyond the lips of the straw.  Experiment with blowing hard and softly while biting down with different amounts of pressure until you make the straw sing.

What is Going On?

When you blow, a pulse of compressed air flows down the straw.  The pulse travels down the straw at Mach 1, the speed of sound, and bounces off the distant open end.  When the sound bounces off the open end, the compressed air changes into a low-pressure expansion.  When the expanded air reaches the lips of the straw, they are forced closed – then bounce open to admit more air.  The sound bounces back and forth inside the straw and the lips of the straw open and close to create sound.

Activity Source

Shut Up, Rush and The Chocolate Personality Test

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The Chocolate Personality Test

Today at after school, I plan do The Chocolate Personality Test with the kids.  This activity is really a lot of fun and it is a perfect activity to do with most any groups.  Adults really have fun with it, too.  People like personality tests and they like chocolate so, it is particularly difficult to not enjoy this AND it costs you no more than the price of the Hershey’s Chocolate Miniatures.  In case you are curious, I’m a Krackel.

What You Need:

A bag of Hershey’s Miniatures

List of Personality Types

What To Do:

Put chocolates in a bowl.  Ask participants to pick their favorite miniature chocolate bar.  They only get to pick one.  At this point, you’ll need to tell everyone not to eat their chocolate. Next, list the options and have participants raise their hands when you say their choice.  Read the options listed below.  (You can also have participants go to the four corners of the room based on their chocolate preference.  Give them a few minutes to talk and see what they have in common depending on amount of time you have for the activity.)

Special Dark

Patient, thoughtful, individualistic, problem solver.  Likes to see a project through from start to finish.  Good writers, works well with difficult people, insightful, reflective.  Little patience with incompetence or liars.  Sets high standards for self and others.  Dependable, resourceful and loyal.

Mr. Goodbar

You are analytical, logical.  You gather data first before giving an opinion, play the devil’s advocate at meetings, tend to see all the possibilities and drive people crazy by sharing all the “what ifs”.  Hate deadlines, put off starting things, procrastinator.  Likes to be the expert.  Can analyze things to death.  Likes there to be rules that everyone follows.  Likes structure and hates surprises.

Krackel

Creative, optimistic, always sees the cup ½ full, messy (messy desk) but organized (knows exactly where everything is in that mess).  Likes to be a hands-on person; a little off-beat, ditzy, funny, friendly and outgoing, always willing to help.  Likes the surprising things in life, the “crackle”.  Like situations that follow flexibility, change and growth.

Milk Chocolate

You are an all-American, loves baseball, Mom and apple pie.  Cheerleader for your program, level headed, good PR person, great fundraiser, and also kind, thoughtful, always remembers everyone’s birthday, playful.  Nurturing, kind, help others to “shine” dependable and loyal.  Others often turn to you for help.

Stout Stuffed Tomatoes and Glitter Bottles

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I love beer.  I love tomatoes.  I love glitter.  I love glitter more when it isn’t scattered everywhere and securely encased in liquid.  Check it out.

Stout Stuffed Tomatoes

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Ingredients

12 medium-size fresh, ripe tomatoes

Salt and pepper

12 oz whole corn, drained

1 small chopped onion

8 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese

3 cups soft bread crumbs

2 cups stout (I used Guinness)

Preparation

Cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the pulp.  Sprinkle inside with salt and pepper.  Chop up the pulp and drain.  Add corn, onion, cheese and bread crumbs to the pulp and mix well.  Spoon mixture into tomato shells.  Place tomatoes in a greased shallow baking pan.  Spoon stout over the tops of the tomatoes.  Bake at 350 degrees from 20 to 25 minutes or until tops are lightly browned.

Recipe Source

Click Here to Print Recipe!

Glitter Bottles

What You Need:

Chopped up straws, sequins, glitter, etc.

Bottle or small jar

Water

Glycerine

What To Do:

Add sequins, straws, glitter, etc to bottle or jar.  Fill the bottle or jar nearly to the top with water.  Add a couple of drops of glycerine.  Put lid on and secure with tap or hot glue.  Shake up and enjoy.

Activity Source

Launching a Bottle Rocket

How kids learn about biology today…

How we learned about biology in the seventies…

Want to do something fun?  Try launching a bottle rocket like we did yesterday.  Here is an actual video.   The cool kid doing the launching is Jake.  Clearly you’ll want to move the bicycle pump as far away from the rocket as the cord will allow and maybe throw on a pair of goggles…since you’ll notice Jake nearly lost his face. Oops.  He, however, did not lose his face, but we did lose the rocket.  After the video, you’ll find a few links on how you, too, can launch a bottle rocket.

Making Your Own - Click Here

Buying the Rocket We Used - Click Here

"3D" Star Wars Toy Pictures and An Easy-to-Make Lightsaber

Even though The Phantom Menace is my least favorite Star Wars movie, I’m still very excited about the upcoming 3D movie release.  I will close my eyes when Jar Jar Binks appears.  I am so excited, in fact, that I will be attending the midnight release.  Tiffany, however, is not so excited, but I have promised her some good food so she’ll be okay.

I decided, in honor of the 3D movie release on Friday, to make my own 3D experience for you using some of my vintage Star Wars toy collection.  You’ll need to blink hard between each picture to get the desired 3D effect.  After the “3D” pictures, check out an easy-to-make lightsaber! This lightsaber will help accessorize your kid’s movie watching experience while also bringing great annoyance to the other movie goers.

Easy Lightsaber Craft

What You Need:

A packing tube or empty gift paper roll

Duct tape

Scotch tape

Construction paper

scissors

Bartending Rolodex Discovery and Easy At Home Science Activity

Last night, I unexpectedly found my old bartending rolodex.  It was like finding a treasure map.  I was giddy and I usually don’t do giddy.  When I graduated  college a really really long time ago, I taught high school for a few years and realized I needed an additional  part-time job to be able to pay my bills and continue working on my master’s degree.  I decided bartending would work best with my schedule.  I went to bartending school…which was basically two weeks of bullshit.  I did get to make my rolodex though.  This consisted of writing out drink recipes in alphabetical order.  The school placed me in a couple of bars.  One was so completely disgusting and scary that it is a wonder a made it out alive.  In addition to making drinks, I had to answer the phone for the hookers in the bar.  A bar partron came up to me and said, “if you’d wear tighter jeans, you’d get bigger tips.”  My response was, “if you’d brush that one tooth, I bet you’d get more dates.”  I only worked there one night.  Anyway, I went on to get a good job at a hotel bar.  The money was good.  So good, in fact, I quit my job to bartend full-time.  It was a really fun and interesting two years, but ultimately I got back to working with kids.  Kids or drunks…that’s how I roll.  I’m moving the rolodex to the kitchen and will start making some of the drinks. 

Think I’ll start with this one:

Love Juice

Ingredients

1 oz Vodka
1 oz Chambord
Fill with cranberry juice

Preparation
Pour over ice, stir and serve.

And now, Monday's At Home Science Activity!

The Monster Marshmallow

What You Need?

Marshmallows

Paper plates
A Microwave

What You Do?
Put a marshmallow on a plate.  Place in microwave.  Heat for a minute.  Watch it grow!

What is Going On?

Marshmallows are mostly sugar and water wrapped around a bunch of air bubbles. When you cook marshmallows in your microwave oven, several things happen at once. The microwave makes the water molecules vibrate very quickly—which makes the water heat up. The hot water warms the sugar, which softens a little. The hot water also warms the air bubbles.

When you warm air in a closed container, the gas molecules move around faster and push harder against the walls of the container. As the air in the bubbles warms up, the air molecules bounce around faster and faster and push harder against the bubble walls. Since the sugar walls are warm and soft, the bubbles expand, and the marshmallow puffs up. If it puffs up too much, some air bubbles burst, and the marshmallow deflates like a popped balloon.

When you take the marshmallow out of the microwave and it cools off, the bubbles shrink and the sugar hardens again. When the microwave marshmallow cools, it’s dry and crunchy. We think that’s because some of the water in the marshmallow evaporates when the marshmallow is hot.

Experiment Source

Tornadoes and an Easy-to-Make Periscope

We had yet another round of tornado devastation last night.  Such sad news.  The dogs and I were up for several hours hunkering down.  It you’ve ever tried to hunker down with four dogs, you know, it is not easy.  One of them, Harpo (of course), thought barking at the walls would help.  Anyway, we got through it with no damage.  More bad weather is expected mid-week.  Great.  Today, however, is beautiful.  The temperature is 70 degrees.  This makes me think that it is time to clean up the garden and get ready for some pre-spring planting.  I haven’t decided what crops, but I’ll keep you posted.  I am also attempting to design a sort of greenhouse to keep the critters away.  I will keep you posted on that project, too.

I found this periscope design the other day.  I mostly like it so much because of the kid’s shirt in the picture.  This is one I am definitely trying out with my after school kids.  See what you think.

Click Here for Periscope Instructions

Poop Pouch and Science Activity

Several bullet points about this product:

*  If I put this on my dogs they would never move forward.  They would only move in a circle trying to remove it.

*  My dogs are already crazy enough…why would I want to add to their insanity and overall embarrassment at the dog park by strapping a bag to their ass?

*  How is putting this on your dog easier than just taking a bag and picking up the poop?  

Water Molecules on the Move

What You’ll Need:

A clear glass filled with hot water

A clear glass filled with cold water

Food coloring

An eye dropper (or use plastic food coloring bottles that allow one drop at a time)

What You Do:

Fill the glasses with the same amount of water, one cold and one hot.  Put one drop of food coloring into both glasses as quickly as possible.  Watch what happens to the food coloring.

What’s Happening?

If you watch closely you will notice that the food coloring spreads faster throughout the hot water than in the cold.  The molecules in the hot water move at a faster rate, spreading the food coloring faster than the cold water molecules which move slower.