Cheap and Easy

Toys, that is.

Just thought I would post a couple of fun ideas that we have done lately. These are all things that I made with stuff on hand, none of them took much time or effort. So, if Thad plays with them for 3 minutes and then moves on, I don’t feel like I have wasted much time. And actually, he has played quite a bit with all of them.

1. PVC Car Ramp

This one took zero effort on my part. Justin ripped a pipe in half for something else he was working on. I asked for the remaining half, and he sanded the edges a bit to make sure they weren’t sharp. This one took a little while for him to warm up to. I had his cars set up with it when he woke up from a nap, but he had more fun rolling balls down it, even though most of his balls are too big and fell off before reaching the bottom. The most fun came when he put the ramp up on the couch on top of pillows. Because everything is more fun when you are standing on the furniture.

2. Cardboard Car

I cut the flaps off of a diaper box and covered it with inside out wrapping paper. I drew on some details, glued on painted paper-plate wheels and added a steering wheel. The steering wheel I attached to one remaining flap with a nut and bolt, so that the wheel can be turned. Downside to this one is that I have had a cardboard car sitting in the family room for the last month. Because we didn’t have enough kid stuff filling our house already.

3. Bubble Artwork

A lot of projects I like to do by myself when he is napping, so he has something new and fun to see when he gets up, but this was really fun to do together. Like most toddlers, Thad loves bubbles. And by that, I mean he likes to demand you blow bubbles for him so he can stand 3 inches from your face and pop the bubbles as soon as possible. For this project, I taped a big sheet of drawing paper onto an art board. I poured bubbles into 5 different little bowls and added liquid food coloring to each. It took a lot of food coloring to make the bubbles even as bright as this, the paste food coloring probably would have been better, but I always feel like paste food coloring makes a big mess. Dripping the liquid stuff into the bowls was easy to do as we worked, adding more drops when needed. Most definitely something that should be done outside. Thad picked each color as we went, I blew bubbles onto the paper, and he popped any that stuck. He thought it was awesome.

4. Cardboard Play Scene

Another re-used cardboard box. This time, I cut off one long flap, and then taped the rest open. I traced around each side of the box onto green felt, cut it out, then glued it to the inside to like the box. Then I let Thad decide what we should put inside the box. He wanted trees, a cave, water and a sun. Clearly, the appropriate environment for a polar bear, a white tiger, a lion, Bambi, and a large yellow snake. A yellow snake which he likes to wrap over his face and call it sunglasses.

 

He’s my special boy.

Looks like….

Looks like summer inside.

Looks like fall outside. That’s actual water on the ground. We had to cut our morning walk short because I felt like it was probably a bad idea to soak the baby. While I do love the fall, we will miss the summer and the ability to go outside any time.

The Boys of Summer

Wow. I am quickly realizing how behind I am on keeping things caught up. I didn’t think we had been doing much this summer, but as I am going through the pictures, the keepers keep piling up. I am working on doing a photo book, and the prospect of going through our thousands of pictures since Thad was born is more than a little overwhelming. So, as to not cause an emotional breakdown, I will do a short and sweet synopsis of our summer. Here we are:

Summer, 2012

We went fishing.

We went shooting.

Grandma C. had a birthday. (Note the cake: one of my best. I call it “Strawberry Shortcake Cake”. Consisting of yellow cake, fresh strawberry filling and topping, and the super delish frosting from my Oatmeal Whoopie Pie recipe, it was a good show, I have to say. Made at a moment’s notice too. Justin: “Uh, so I know it’s short notice, but I forgot it’s Mom’s birthday…do you think you could make her a cake?” She is due to arrive in an hour. Way to go, me…pulled off with style and grace…HA!).

Thatcher met Great Grandpa Frank

We went to parks. And playgrounds.

Thatcher Reid got bigger.

And started eating solid food.

We took the kids to the beach.

We played with friends while the Dads brewed beer.

We played outside. A lot.

We went to the lake.

Thad drove a boat.

We got ready for football season.

Other things to note: Amber moved back in after an extended stay in Longview to get her CNA certification. She quickly found a great job at a memory loss home, bought a car, and is working hard saving up money to move in with a girlfriend, probably around the end of the year. I started back to work. Just two days a week. Amber was able to arrange her schedule so that she takes care of the boys on her days off. Justin also switched his work schedule to 4 10’s, and starting this month will have Fridays off. We are looking forward to having long weekends together. I am enjoying the new office that I am working at, and am excited about the changes happening there, including remodeling a building in downtown Springfield and moving the practice there in the next few months. Mr. Thatcher is not sleeping through the night, but getting closer….ish. We have had some rough nights lately for an unknown reason, but seem to be heading toward a once-per-night feeding. While not the same as sleeping all night, I am grateful for any night that I am only up once. Lets just say it a LOT better than some of our nights. But, like I said, I THINK we are headed in the right direction.

We had the boys dedicated at church on Sunday, here they are in their Sunday finest:

They look like Children of God, don’t they? Ha. It was something that Justin and I have been wanting to do for a long time. We are also hosting a small group for the first time as part of a 40 days of Purpose series that our church is doing at the end of the month. A little nervous for that, but excited to get to know people at our church better.

I am looking forward to fall, and the holidays coming up. I have LOTS of ideas for holiday projects, and will soon post some fun things that I did last year.

Meet and Greet

I can’t believe I never posted anything on this! There were three new grandsons in my family this year; My sister’s son Colby (Jan 18th), Thatcher (March 20th) and my brother’s son Ezra (March 28th). In June, Mom had a giant party at their house for family and friends to meet the new babies. It was also our first time meeting Ezra since my brother and sister-in-law live in California. Needless to say, it was a giant fiasco. Super fun, but also super craziness.

Oh man, can you imagine what is going to be like when those three are 2 year olds? So much fun. Especially with good role models like Ashlyn and Thad. Ha! I can’t wait. I always love spending time with my family. In my dreams, we live in the same town and get to spend way more time together. In real life, we live a few hours a way at best, and a state away at worst. I guess you just need to enjoy the time together when you have it!

What’s New?

Not a lot. But, I feel the winds changing. I feel like I have been in a creative rut lately, or maybe just a rut in general. But a cool breeze is blowing. I am back to work, as of 2 weeks ago. It ain’t much, 6 hours on Thursdays and 5 hours on Fridays, but it’s nice. Not gone from the kids to long, but honestly, kind of nice to have a break too. It’s a good balance for me. Summer is coming to a close, Fall is on it’s way. My favorite time of year. THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING! Love it. So, let’s clear out my camera, and rid my brain of a few thoughts:

Those are carrots. Not sure if you can tell that from the photo. We did a raised bed for the first time LAST year…lettuce and carrots and radishes. I learned a few things…radishes aren’t very good. Lettuce has bugs and tiny slugs on it. Finding slugs on my lettuce grossed me out so bad, I couldn’t bring myself to eat it. I realize that Safeway’s lettuce most likely had slugs at some point too, but I could NOT get past seeing the slug on my lettuce. But carrots…they grow below the ground where slugs do not go. You pull them up, rinse them off, and look how shiny and nice they are. Carrots I can eat. So we did carrots again this year, along with green beans and peas. All were fairly bug free, and quite edible. We also did strawberries, which Thad ate individually, as each berry ripened. Last week, we replanted the bed with cauliflower and broccoli. We will see how many bugs like those, and then I will see how much I like them. Those things go hand in hand.

Thad is still not ready for the responsibility of the rice box. Gah. Maybe I should just give up and play with the rice myself. Or send the box with him when he goes to college.

Now THIS picture requires an explanation. I assure you, that is not a heart. That is a cloth bag filled with cooked blackberries. Justin is squeezing the life out of that bag in order to make seedless blackberry jelly. We spent a long weekend at the in-laws, canning tuna (a Crossland thing) and picking blackberries. The tuna we have done probably 4 or so times since Justin and I have been married. The jelly we did for the first time this year. It took us a couple of after-work evenings, more time consuming because we did jelly (which means you have to juice and strain the berries) rather than jam (chunks of fruit). But it turned out really yummy. As you can see from the picture on the right, Thad enjoys it. He asks for peanut butter and jelly at every meal. Every. Meal. Our jelly success encouraged me to also make some applesauce with apples that my sister had picked at a friends house. Turned out great too.

Speaking of fruit, we have been having smoothies at breakfast quite a bit this summer. We got into this when my sister moved in and started making ‘green smoothies’ with spinach. Sounds gross, but tastes delicious and so nutritious. You make the smoothie with spinach, yogurt, a banana, and whatever other fruit you want. We use various berries usually, but you can also use watermelon, cantaloupe, peaches, etc. Really anything will work. Also delicious is an oatmeal smoothie (pictured) using uncooked oats instead of delicious. Thad absolutely LOVES his ‘juice’ that Auntie Amber makes. He has to be monitored for fruit intake though…he would eat it all day long, and usually pays the price the next day. Or, I pay the price, depending on how you look at it.