Tie Dye or how I made myself have smurf hands

Yesterday the Adventure Van Crew did tie dye.  Both Mrs Epi and I were able to obtain very cheap tie dye kits so we decided to be the cool Mom's for the afternoon and Tie Dye with our kids.  It was actually pretty fun.  The kids got really into it. The Baker's Dozen has a wonderful tutorial on her blog on tie dying.

Queen of Quite A Lot and Bones working on their shirts

BUT  after the creating is a lot of work - lots and lots and lots of rinsing.  I should of used gloves for the wringing and rinsing.  Now I have smurf hands.  It reminds me of the blue guy Mrs Epi and I saw out and about in Bellingham.

Here are my boys final results.

Chuckles

# 1 Son

Heart String Art

I have been working on putting together a love inspired gallery wall in my upstairs hallway. This was part of my 2012 Home Goals. I was missing a large art piece for it.  I stumbled across a string heart from More Design Please on pinterest.  You know string art that we did at camp. I knew it was just what I needed to pull the whole thing together. This was an inexpensive project.  The piece of wood was free and I already had the spray paint.  I did purchase nails and the crochet string/yarn.  It was under $5 for the nails and crochet string. I did get a little over zealous pounding the nails in so I have a few nails sticking out the back.  I am going to glue some felt on the back.

Now the wall that I am going to hang all my wonderful heart/love stuff on really could use a paint job. I am all about the baby steps. 

Lego Show and Tell

Chuck partcipated in the Lego Show and Tell at the library.  Chuck made a scene complete with a skeleton borrowed from his brother.

This is a much looked forward to event.  This is part of the Public Library's Summer Reading Program.  This has evolved from a competition to a show and tell.  I love listening to the kids descriptions of their projects. There was a vote for best in show plus a drawing for book bucks redeemable at the Friends of the Library Book Store.  There was a tie this year. 

Viking Ship with dragon on front

Star Wars Scene with many many mini figs

Because this was held much earlier in the day there were less partcipants than previous years. The creativity was amazing.

Travel Bug Race / Launch Day

I mentioned in our Summer Manifesto  and summer list I would like to do a travel bug race.  A travel bug race is part of geocaching.  Everyone places a trackable in a geocache.  The trackable(travel bug) is moved from cache to cache  People log it.  We are racing for the most miles.  The racer that has the most miles at the end of the summer will get a blizzard.  That is high stakes at our house. 

We attached shrinky dinks of our drivers to trackable tags.  I had never used shrinky dinks before.  I got shiny white.  I should of got the frosted ruff and ready because you can use colored pencils on it - live and learn.

my travel racer

Our racers are Shrek, Mrs Honeypot, Ace, and Crazy (with a backwards z)

I even made a leader board in our office.

leaderboard

There was a lot of discussion what cache each person would launch their travel bug from.  I don't know what the science is about this but my theory is I needed mine to be in a well trafficked cache.  It is little sad I have invested in so much time in thinking about this. We ended up placing two travel racers in the cache THEM at a I-5 rest area North bound and 2 travel racers in The Witness Protection Program at a I-5 Rest Area South Bound.  We got up early after a failed attempt last night.

Placed the plastic ant from the THEM on the ant hill.
The cache is named after the sci fi thriller "Them"

Chuck couldn't resist carrying around
the frog found at the cache location.



Summer Rules/ Summer Lists

School is FINALLY out for the summer.  I participated in Ali Edwards Summer Manifesto check that out here. I listed what I thought would be on our summer list.

This morning I sat down with the wrecking crew and discussed what they would like to do for the summer.  This is our decorative list.  Here is what on it:
1. See cousins
2. Beach
3. Play with friends
4. Travel Bug Race
5. Splash Park
6. Lite Fireworks
7. Dipped Ice Cream Cone
8. Bike Ride
9. Swimming
10. Hot tub
11. Adventure Van
12. Go on an Adventure
13 Library Reading Program
14. VBS

We also discussed the rules.  I think it is really important for them to come up with them in general especially in regards to electronics.  I especially like saying," You came up with that rule not me." I have done this the past couple of years especially since I have older kids.

end of 8th grade

Today is my son's last day of 8th grade.  Middle School has been rocky.  There were a few bright spots.  I received this email last year from my son's teacher.  I need to hold on to the positive.When you have a child who is different or has issues, you don't really receive much positive feedback. I had  one year that the only feedback I received was a behavior notebook with negative behaviors. Talk about feeling like a horrible parent and asking yourself every day why do I bother to send him. I have to say that at middle school and all the various behavior programs my son has been in, I consider these teachers awesome and amazing. I just wanted to share this positive email I received. Here is a portion of the email:

Heather,

C had such a great math class today.  He brought me to tears. After some math bingo with integers, Mr F started on his " number 9" speech. He tells them that no one is a perfect 10, but they are all a 9. He then moved into talking about his childhood, suffering from severe skin disease, and being put down by kids, picked last for baseball, etc. Some students wrote positive messages on the whiteboard/chalkboard, and C asked if he could erase a portion of the board and write a positive message. C wrote this, " Strength is not judged by your weight but by your heart." I don't know if he made that up or it was a quote that he's heard before. Additionally, he noticed he'd spelled weight incorrectly and corrected it. Mr F was in awe at the heartfelt message. The next part is what is so awesome: C then asked if he could move up front, sit in Mr F's stool, and tell everyone something. It was such "C" moment. I'll paraphrase what he said as I don't remember all the exact words. He said that none of us knows what we'll be in the future, but we are important and someone special. He explained that when he was at a certain school, he was made fun of, called names, and felt bad about himself but that it's improved since then. All the kids were in awe, as were Mr F and I.  .........Then Cody sat down and asked to sharpen his pencil. All in a day's work for C.

I don't know what the future holds for this child.  We just keep plugging along. We are about better living through adversity.

Blessed

Big E, Chuckles, The Diva, and #1 Son

When I attended MOPS, Mother of  Preschoolers, I heard this," I am blessed," constantly. I felt the term was over used. However as this school year comes to an end, so does my little job and I really feel blessed by that job. I have done some sort of before school care for going on 6 years. I feel so privileged to have been able to do this. I have often said I have the best co-workers EVER. My co-workers LOVE donuts.  They don't care if you have morning hair. They appreciate messy activities and are always up for a crazy photo op or adventure. I have loved playing with the Diva and later Big E too. I was constantly reminded that kids have the best ideas. I appreciate their morning energy and enthusiasm. Thank you for blessing me.

Light Graffiti

On Organized Chaos there was a tutorial for Light Graffiti.  The kids and I gave it a shot.  My camera isn't sophisticated enough to have manual settings but I did have a fireworks setting. I used a tripod in the darkest room in my house which incidentally is our downstairs bathroom. They turned out really neat.

We tried again yesterday in a darkened bedroom.  It gave us a little bigger space to work in. We were trying to make a scene.

The white looks like a cloud

The blue light almost looks like a person.

Booking It June Update

Check out what others are reading at Life as Mom.

Mindblind by Jennifer Roy I checked out from the library. It can be found in the Young Adult section.  It is about a 14 year old Asperger's Boy and how he is navigating his adolescents.  He is involved in a rock band.  He believes he is not quite a genius because he hasn't contributed anything meaningful to the world.  I thought it was a good book.  It reminded me in some parts of my oldest son and his very black and white thinking.  I loved that the main character was in love with the Amazing Race TV show because my kid is too.

I also read Unquenchable Thirst - Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life by Mary Johnson.  This was an autobiography.  Mary Johnson left Missionaries of Charity after being a nun for 20 years.  She goes into great deal about convent life and her spiritual journey.  There are a few graphic scenes in regards to sexuality.  It was interesting and gave me some insight into what it would be working for Mother Teresa.  She really delves into the inner workings of the convent and the politics of religion.  I would of liked to have know more how she navigated her life after she left the convent especially since she was a nun for 20 years.

I finally got my hands on the much touted book, Wild by Cheryl Strayed.  Yes, I know another book about the Pacific Crest Trail. This about a woman who did much of the trail- 1,100 miles as a solo hiker with no experience as a long distance hiker. I totally consumed this book in 2 days. Cheryl reeling after the lost of her mother to cancer. She trashes her marriage. She cheats and does drugs.  There are some very raw parts in this book.  (There are some very adult themes in this book so if this makes you uncomfortable this book isn't for you.) She makes a rather impulsive decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.  She embarks on what becomes somewhat a spiritual pilgrimage of self discovery. She talks about her need to walk alone. I don't know why I am so drawn to these books. Maybe I need to go on my own pilgrimage. I really like this quote

There's no way to know what makes one thing happen and not another. What leads to what. What destroys what. What causes what to flourish or or take another course.

Cheryl need the trail to be the catalyst to change her life. One thing is for sure when we are in pain, abandoned, and an emotional wreck, we trash even the good things or more to the point, we can't even recognize the good things. As a side note, this has been chosen for Oprah's book club. I have now read 3 books or memoirs about those who walked the Pacific Crest Trail - The Cactus Eaters, A Blistered Kind of Love, and Wild.  They were all good.  My review of Cactus Eaters and A Blistered Kind of love can be found in my April Booking It Post.

Nonna's Art

This is what Nonna's do at 11pm at night.  My kids were like that is almost midnight. I guess Nonna was playing with the program Paint and this what she came up with.  Nonna has mad art skills. We were all impressed.

Oh Hail!

Patio covered in hail

We had a wicked hail storm last night.  It seemed to last forever.  It was probably 20 to 30 minutes. It put holes in the leaf of my rhubarb plant. We had so much hail it piled up at the end of our slide.

Of course, once it stopped we had a rainbow. We had sun, too.

Shrinky Dink Adventure

#1 Son's racer called ACE a teddy bear

The Giant Man Child and I made shrinky dinks the other night.  It was so romantic. This is where you laugh. I don't believe either of us had done this before.  We had a little trouble as I didn't get the child friendly shrinky dink material.  We were making tags with a picture of our drivers to attach to our travel racers. 

What a travel tracer looks like

We just received our trackable geocache tags in the mail.  This is our results.

Chuckles racer - Crazy with backwards z holding 2 bombs

My racer - Mrs Honeypot

Giant Man Child's Racer - Shrek

I thought the sharpie worked better than the ball point pen. Not entirely satisfied with the results. But I think these will work. More details to follow about the travel bug race.

Heather's Sweet Taters

OK, I know this is a little out there.  Sometimes I get this wild crazy ideas, just ask my hubby. But I saw this really cool pin on pinterest on Sweet Potatoes at Outlaw Garden.  Then I read an article in Mother Earth June/July 2011 that it is possible to grow sweet potatoes this far north.  I am little late to start this but for a few dollars I thought I would try to grow my own sweet potato slips.  Here is my set up. 

Fred Meyer Organic Sweet Potato(left)   Trader Joe's Sweet Potato (Right)

One sweet potato is from Trader Joes (no idea if organic) the other is from Fred Meyer's (said organic).  I am using the method found at Outlaw Garden. Yes, I have entirely too much time on my hands.  I know that I probably won't have a sweet potato harvest this year but I wanted to see if I could even get slips.  I am all about the research. Maybe I will even generate some interest from the Wrecking Crew.

National Donut Day

Here at the Honeypot we are BIG supporters of National Donut Day.   Hey, we support donuts period.

Happy National Donut Day