Making Gifts

Austen and I decided to use up our old crayons by making molded crayons for his little cousins this Christmas.  Here is the mold we used.  It's a Wilson mold in the shape of snowflakes.

 

We unwrapped and broke up the crayons.

We sprayed the mold with a candle release spray that we got at Micheal's Craft Store. Then we filled the mold with the broken pieces and popped the tray in the oven. We left the crayons in the 180 degree oven for 15 to 18 minutes.

AH with the mold before it went into the oven.

After cooling for a short time, we just flipped the pan over and out they popped!

Here's our finished product.  I think they look great!

 AH and I packaged the crayons in cellophane bags and tied them with ribbon

 It was a fun, quick and easy project to do on a dreary day!

Christmas at the Swedish Institute

The Friday before Christmas we went on a very Christmas-y field trip to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. We stopped for coffee and hot chocolate to sip on the 45 minute drive from home and listened to Christmas music and talked about all sorts of things.

The first part of our tour was an informational session about Christmas in Sweden. We learned about St. Lucia's Day, Star Boys and traditional Christmas decorations and foods. We then got to try our hand at making heart ornaments with construction paper. I thought AH would hate this, but he liked this so much he made three!

Our group learns about Christmas in Sweden

AH concentrates on weaving the basket

After the craft we were brought upstairs to the mansion proper. We learned that the Turnblad mansion is in fact classified as a castle because it has turrets and battlements. AH was so proud that he knew what architectural features were required to classify a building as a castle! We learned about the family that built this fabulous home, the Turnblads. During the Holidays, the Swedish Institute has 5 of the rooms decorated especially to represent each of the 5 Nordic nations: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

After the tour, we stopped in to the Kaffestuga, the coffee shop on site. We had lingonberry juice with Swedish cardamom pastries. Yum!

It was a great way to spend a morning before Christmas. It really got us in the Christmas spirit!

AH with one of his finished heart baskets

Not Back To School Camp: Day 3

Castle Mania Day!

AH told me he wanted to do a diorama of a castle. Since our original plans for day 3 fell through, I thought we could easily do a mini study of castles for the day. Our day started bright and early with AH speeding through his breakfast to start on his castle diorama.

He has an idea in his mind of what he wants to build and he started right in! His goal is to finish by Thanksgiving. After an hour or so he needed a break, so he headed outside for some movement time. When he came in we sat in the living room and read several books about castles, including David Macaulay's Castle, Mrs. Frizzle's Adventures: A medieval castle, and several others.

At lunch we ate sandwiches and watched a PBS video based on the David Macaulay book above. It was a pretty good video, a little slow by today's standards, but AH seemed to enjoy it, too.

I'll keep you updated on the progress of his castle.

A Fun Giveaway!

The Crafty Crow, one of my favorite sites, is holding a giveaway of Barefoot Books. Go on over and check it out. While you're there look through all the fun craft ideas she has gathered!

February in Pictures

February got away from me. We've been busy...

AH's last day as a Webelo...
Boy Scouts, here we come!

The Works Technology Museum:

Homeschool Day

Building a hovercraft:

It works!
Friends forever...

Rock Collecting:
Growing Sprouts...

Racing Soap Boats
Another boat:
Crystal Growing Day 1

Our Halloween

What with election day and homeschooling, I've been remiss in posting about our little Halloween party. Of course, it wouldn't be Halloween without carving and pumpkin seeds! But this year was tough for us. This was the first year AH and I were the only ones carving. AD, our 17 year old, didn't join us for the first time ever. I think it was a little sad for AH, but he seemed to go with the flow. Our finished products:

Notice the bat? We got this idea from the recent issue of FamilyFun magazine.

Every Halloween we put the firepit in our front yard and welcome anyone and everyone to sit with us for a spell. Inside the house we have mulled cider, some kind of stew or soup, and munchies.

We play halloween themed music and give out candy and talk with our neighbors. Oct. 31st is my father's birthday, so my mom and dad join us later for a birthday celebration. This year our daughter, AN, and her significant other, MB and two of her high school friends joined us. MB's birthday is November 1st, so we had a double celebration. Here are the birthday boys:

Of course you can't have Halloween without costumes!

AH before he went trick or treating with a neighbor:

AD was off to a party in this costume:

It is interesting to note that my husband is a high school football ref. Hmmm, is this a dig at his dad?!

Crafting

I must confess that I am crazy about crafting with my kids. Of course the only one left to craft with is 10 year old AH. Lucky for me, he also enjoys crafting. We like to take walks in our local parks, so when I saw this idea for walking sticks, or as they call them, wilding sticks, at Full Circle, I knew AH would have a blast creating one for himself. AH had a great stick ready in our back yard (he collects them, I guess!!) Here he is beginning his project.

Here he is with his fantastic finished wilding stick!