Sponge Bombs

Sweet Pea had a birthday last week and since we celebrate "Birthday Week" in our family, her party is this Saturday rather than last week. The plan, should the monsoons finally slow, is to have lots of water play in the back yard.

I saw sponge bombs all over Pinterest and read several different blogs to figure out how I wanted to make them.

I started with these supplies:

Several packs of sponges - the bigger utility sized ones
A package of tie wraps - you will have plenty left over
A knife
A pair of pliers
An old pair of nail clippers

Cut each sponge in half on the short sides. This gives you squares roughly 4 inches x 4 inches.

Cut each square sponge into 4 strips. I cut straight side to straight side so that the ends were square.

 

Next we stacked 8 strips together and squeezed them so that a tie wrap would fit around them. (You will get a total of eight strips out of each sponge.)

You'll need two people for this part. Sweet Pea helped by threading the tie wrap for me and pulling it as tight as she could.

 
Then I cinched them down with a pair of pliers so I could be sure they were good and tight.

Trim off the excess tie wrap with the nail clippers.

Fluff the bombs so that they are rounded out and the plastic part of the tie wrap is covered with sponge.

Just add water and kids and you're sure to see smiles like this!

Happy Sponge Bombing!!!!

Melted Bead Suncatchers

I have haunted Pinterest for over a year now. I've no idea how many ideas, quotes, crafts, and recipes I've saved for "future reference" or "when I have a spare moment". (We Mom's all know how rare those are!)

A few weeks ago I stumbled across the melted bead suncatcher idea.  I love suncatchers. Most people do. I needed end of the year teacher gifts and I immediately thought, "I can do this one."

Here's my tutorial for making them. Hopefully including some of the details I had to search several tutorials to find.

The list of items you need is short.

1. Transparent plastic beads.  Pony beads work best, but other shapes can add some interest to your designs.
2. Metal baking pans.  Muffin Tins are about the smallest size, 8 inch cake pans the largest size.
3. OPTIONAL - Gas grill or toaster oven.  I did mine in my oven, but had to open the windows and run a large fan. The smell wasn't too overpowering until I got to the third "baking"...by then I was ready to be finished.

STEP 1
Buy your beads. I had solid colored ones and needed transparent. I found the best deal here. You'll probably want to buy in bulk...particularly the clear beads. My local craft stores wanted roughly $5 for 700 beads, so finding 3000 for $11 was great.

 

STEP 2
Chart out your pattern. This was particularly helpful with the large pans.

 

STEP 3
Sort your beads. (You can skip this step, but it kept my girls busy while I got beads in the pans and allowed me to see which colors I might need more of.)

STEP 4
Give the kids a muffin pan and a chop stick (for moving the beads in the cup) and let them get creative!

Here are some of our designs before we "cooked" them.  As you can see, some are patterned and some are random placement. Both ways work really well. The large ones are representations of the school emblems for the girls' teachers.

STEP 5
Conventional Oven:  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I moved my oven rack slightly lower than the middle of the oven.
Gas Grill:  Roughly 10 Minutes
Toaster Oven:  Bake at 380 degrees for 7-10 minutes.

Do not leave unattended while baking.

Some beads/colors melt better/faster than others. I think it adds to the character of the pieces when they aren't completely smooth. You can adjust the baking times if you want more texture in your art work.

STEP 6
Allow to cool for 20 minutes. The pieces will shrink slightly and pop out of the pans with ease.

 

Some of our projects after cooling.

STEP 7
Drill a small hole near the edge for hanging. I used a 3/32 drill bit.

Drill the hole at least 1/2 a bead width from the edge. I only had a slight problem with one that was drilled too close to the edge.

Our finished designs before hanging.

STEP 8
Thread a length of mono filament through the hole and hang on a suction cup or loop over a curtain rod and ENJOY!!!

The girls are already asking to make more! (Miss Bee actually has part of a muffin pan already filled.)

A New Beginning

I've been AWOL for awhile.
A little more than 4 years to be exact.

I didn't really want to go. It was necessary at the time. I needed to be very careful of what I said and who had access to my words. My emotions were pretty raw and most of what I probably would have posted didn't need to be aired such a public place. There have been more than a few times when I almost came back. Then something would go sideways and I'd again take cover again.

Soooo.......While I was away I've been busy.

I purchased a home. New construction. A clean slate. That means that I had lots of little projects to complete. Rooms to be decorated from the baseboards up. (I'm still not finished.) A yard that needed attention. (It still does and quite regularly.) It's a lot of work.

What's really kept me busy? My babies!

They aren't so little anymore.

Miss Bee is 7! She's finishing 1st grade in 14 days, she's 50.25 inches tall, and loves to MOVE!

Sweet Pea is almost 6! She will graduate 5K next Friday, she's still 4 inches behind her sister in height, but keeping up with her in almost every other area!

I'm still very active at church, unofficial room mother of Miss Bee's class, dedicated play-doh maker for Sweet Pea's class, and HOA treasurer. I spend lots of time with my best friends A & J. Between the three families we have EIGHT kiddos ranging from 10 years old to 5 years old. It's a special kind of controlled chaos when we're all together. It's quite frankly AWESOME!

I decided that today would be a good day to come back, dust off the blog, and start over. 10 years ago today I woke up to the first day of what I thought would be my fairy tale.  The last 10 years didn't turn out at all how I thought they would. 

I want to try and journal a bit more in the decade going forward. I want to stay away from the negative as much as possible.  I want to document our adventures and experiments with more than a few sentences in a Facebook status update or a caption on a picture. I want share our fun with you!

Expect silly stories about the girls.
Expect updates about trips we take.
Expect pictures of Pinterest ideas that I attempt.
Don't expect to see a post every day. Too much pressure!

I'm hoping that coming back is the right thing to do...I'm pretty sure it is.

I'll see you again really soon!

Ewww....Miss Bee has a Tummy Bug

The Cop's birthday was yesterday. He had the girls for the evening hours so that they could all celebrate together. Sadly in the middle of dinner (out in a restaurant of course) Miss Bee decided to empty her tummy....all over Daddy and herself. Poor thing. Being sick stinks, being sick in public is even worse.

When the got home she was all bouncy. You'd never have known she'd been sick if you didn't know that she was wearing different clothes when she left that morning. She went to bed and I thought the worst was over.

Boy was I wrong.

When I went in to get her up this morning I encountered a smell I can only describe as "dead guy". It was horrible. I can only describe it as runny, muddy poo. It was all over her from her ribs to her knees. I wound up bathing her, stripping the bed and doing a load of laundry all before 8 am. I toyed with the idea of simply throwing it all away, but these days we must watch all our pennies. I had to rewash the clothes when I got home tonight. They didn't get quite clean the first time.

This mess tops the list of all time horrible, awful messes I've encountered EVER. No drunk college buddy, no pet, no other child has ever made a mess that even comes close to what I dealt with today.


Miss Bee had a good day regardless. She got to spend some time this morning with Grandma and then the rest of her day with Pa-Pa. Daddy has her for a little while longer tonight. He told me when he checked in that she seemed to be doing much better.

I pray she is. I also pray Sweet Pea escapes the bugs wrath. I don't want to encounter another mess like that anytime soon.

Swapping Kids Sucks...My House Is So Empty

After nearly 3 years of having constant companions every.single.waking.moment. (Well except for when I was at work.) I now have huge chunks of time to myself. This full time working mom, who used to only get an hour or so to herself now has entire days alone. I'm beginning to think I hate it.

It has it's plusses for sure...
I can shower at my leisure with no interruptions.
I can actually start and finish some projects on the same day.
Parts of my house have been cleaned that haven't seen soap and water in years.
Shopping is a snap. I'm in and out of the car in a fraction of the time it usually takes.
No begging for cookies in the grocery store.

But there are definitely things I miss...
There's no noise in my house unless I make it. It feels very empty.
The running commentary and questions on absolutely EVERYTHING is missing.
No giggles or squeals.
No demands for raisins or juice.
No sticky fingers helping me type this blog post.

I'm sure that one day I'll get used to the time and perhaps even look forward to it. I'll have all sorts of activities lined up and sprint out of the house the second his truck leaves the driveway. Today isn't that day. Today it's supposed to be nearly 80 degrees and I want to be the one playing in the yard or the park with them.

I missed so much of the outdoors the spring Miss Bee was 1 because Sweet Pea was on the way. Miss Bee was way too quick for me to keep up with her in wide open public areas.

The year after Sweet Pea was born I was sick. Nearly the whole year. My sinus' were trashed and the weight just wouldn't drop off. I probably was suffering a touch of PPD, but didn't realize it at the time. I was way too busy with the girls to stop and acknowledge I might be depressed.

Finally summer came I felt like me again. A good portion of the baby weight was gone and the girls were getting big enough to really be fun together. That's when the defecation hit the rotary oscillator. My world blew up. I've been dealing with a my crumbling marriage since around Father's day of last year.

Hopefully soon I can put the sad stinky times behind me. I'm looking forward to a fresh start. I want a new house. I want it in a neighborhood not on acerage across from the gun, bomb and tank ranges at the fort. I've found some new friends and I've hooked back up with some "old" ones. I'm reaching out, hoping to find some wonderful people who can help me fill my new found quiet spaces with love, laughter and friendship.

I know it will happen and I can't wait.