Making Do with Ugly

A few years ago, Mr. Dude & I built a deck off the house to replace some of the yard and have a fun party spot. My dad helped draw out the fairly basic plans but we really needed his engineering help for the slight slope to our yard. After the supports were in place, Mr Dude and I completed the deck together. I'm really happy with our deck and we spend lots of time out there watching the boys play.
But we added another boy after that deck and we all want lots of things like food and heat, so we don't have much left to buy fancy outdoor sofas and coffee tables. We also built this lovely thing in the background of the before picture. The boys love it and I get to sit on my large deck and watch them play.
Since I can't afford something like this:

I decided to make do with what we have. And what we have is old ugly hand--me-down wicker chairs:
I spent an hour getting busy with a can of Rustoleum 2 coat spray-paint in Satin "Espresso"

and look at this lovely chair now:


Tomorrow I'll seal the chairs with a clear coat of sealant.

I'm linking up to Trendy Tree House

Beat the heat with sprinkler fun!

With the temps in the mid to high 90s this last week, we beat the heat by playing in our own walk-through sprinkler.Mr Dude made this fun water toy with some PVC pipe and irrigation misters. I found the inspiration at PB&Joy. The entire project was less than $12 but the boys all love it like it's priceless. Of course, they don't know about the water bill, but it was so fun to walk through and get gently soaked.

If you're interested in building your own walk-through sprinkler, you can visit this instructables site with all the instructions.

Have fun!

(the photos have my craft bog address on them...come visit me there if you're interested in crafty things!)

Making Flubber! my first tutorial

One of the few things my boys can agree on: FLUBBER

We make flubber on a regular basis for both the Pre-K and Kindy classrooms at school and have done this for 4 years. We have a recycling bin in our garage of half used white glue bottles, saved for making the school's supply of flubber.
What is flubber? It is simply put, a silicon polymer formed by the chemical interaction of Borax, water, and white glue. A rubbery, slippery mess to squish between your fingers. You can rip it and tear it but it will all melt back together and meld into a pool of semi-liquid slime.

Oh, and it doesn't come out of your clothes with water. Isn't that just the greatest? (insert eye roll here.) You need to use vinegar as a solvent to break down the compound, but it works instantly. You just smell like an Easter egg.
But the boys think it is the best for squishing into plastic cups and making fart noises with it. Hahaha. Farts are funny.

Here is our step-by-step process of making flubber:Recipe for Flubber
part 1:
1 large container with lid (that you will store the flubber in. We use a large margarine container)
1 1/2 cups very warm water
2 cups white glue
food coloring
&
part 2:
a second smaller container (can be any kitchen bowl)
1 1/3 cups very warm water
2 level tsp 20 Mule team Borax

Pour 1 1/2 c. water into your storage container. Measure glue into plastic measuring cup.As you can see, we mixed both white and gel glue together and it turned out just fine. Mix glue and water together until well combined and smooth.
Add food coloring and mix until desired color is reached (or you run out of color.) Set aside.In bowl 2, mix warm water and Borax and mix well until Borax is dissolved.Now grab that first bowl and take out the spoon. Trust me, you can't mix this with a spoon. Pour in the Borax mix and look at what happens.Cool.Now stick your hand in and squish and mix for a few minutes until it's fully combined. If there is any water left, just dump it out.Mr Dude says to let the flubber stand in the container with the lid off for a little while (or play with it) which will prevent the lid from gathering condensation (which shortens the life of the flubber.)
This will be good for as long as it stays clean...so for our family of 3 boys and a dad, it lasts about 3 weeks. They all cover toys with it, create action packed situations where the action figures are being consumed by the evil blob of flubber... so we have to dig for lost toys before we throw out the old stuff. It's like digging for buried treasure. Yeah, just like it.

I'm linking to:

Darth Vader's day job

This video is so HI-flippin'-larious! I can watch it over and over and I usually have to because the boys love to watch, it too.

I also made my nephew a birthday count-down calendar. My sister requested a Star Wars Theme, so that's what I made. You can read my craft blog here to see how these calendars came into being. The calendar starts a week before the birthday boy or girl's actual day and they get a mini gift to open each day (6 days total before their birthday.) What kid doesn't want to celebrate their birthday for an entire week?!

Summer's coming, and that means mud!

Just some random photos of mud play a few summers ago. We are having enough rain to make these mud puddles, I swear! No sun in sight...sigh.

Aren't my two oldest just so sweet. They played in the mud for hours! Then a quick hose off and a warm shower inside, out to dry off on the deck with a Popsicle. Can't wait for summer!

I'm linking to Trendy Tree House.

Middle Monkey and Wee one

I caught the two youngest clamoring for their picture to be taken, as I walked by with the camera in hand...

Absurd Bird

There I was... driving down my street heading home. Ahead of me I see a large bird in the street and I think, "oh those people's rooster got out and is in the middle of the street." I think this because I can see the red comb on it's head. As I drive closer, I realize it's not a rooster, but this: I borrowed this image (I didn't have my camera handy.)

Now, some of you may not be impressed but I have only seen a turkey vulture in this city a few times and I really didn't expect to see one on my street! And I don't live in the rural 'burbs. I live 7 miles from down town Portland. I'm one mile from a MALL. I am CIVILIZED and URBAN. I was totally in awe from that ugly bird ripping away at the insides of a dead squirrel. Poor squirrelie. It was still cool.

Mantis Babes

Boys love bugs and rocks and slime and dirt. Yes, it may be a sweeping generalization, but there are reasons people stereotype. Hello, truth! We had a little brown poo-like egg sack sitting in a paper bag in my kitchen window, for about 8 weeks. Every day I was supposed to open the bag and see if the creepies hatched. Luckily, I has some warning and my parents' mantis hatched first and they gave me a head's up. Sure enough, when I opened up the bag there were 2 little mantids looking to escape. I let them go and the next day, look what was waiting for me.
Those are about 150 praying mantis babes. Wee little creepy-crawlies hatched in a paper bag in my kitchen. Mmmmm. That big brown thing is the egg. The boys thought they were awesome and my oldest let one crawl all over him before letting it go free in the roses.
Even though I've called my kids "bug" since the dawning of their existence, I'm not too keen on bugs. Or hatching them in my kitchen.

linking this to:

awkward 1st entry

New Blogs. Like the world needs another blog on the precious things their kids did. Well, you need to know about my kids. They do weird things and funny things and creepy things.
Yeah, there's really no easy way to slip into a new blog with grace, so I'm just going to trounce in, like an elephant in high-heels, smiling and hoping I find one or two people to follow or even comment.
So, let's wrap up this awkward entry and move on to the good stuff, yo.


OK. I had trouble writing that "yo". it was for my kid and it was totally uncomfortable for me. Let's just pretend it didn't happen.