mermaid treehouse

Wyoming or Bust

2011-07-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

I finished the girls' dresses for our epic trip out West.

Here is Sophia:

And Syrena:

And Naomi:

I was told after I made the dresses that they should wear long sleeves, so I guess my girls are going to be "sexy" pioneers.

The girls are very excited to be out under the big open sky for four days.

The have no idea that they will be hot, thirsty and sweaty. They will get blisters on their feet, sunburns on their noses, mosquito bites on their skins and they will have to eat food they aren't used to. Oh yes, and there will be no riding in the handcarts.

It will be good for them.

Come on, sisters, lets walk across the plains....

....or at least through this chigger-infested meadow.

They look much more pioneer-y in sepia:

See you in Wyoming.

Blossoming Ballpoints

2011-07-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have a magic drawer in my home. It is the pencil drawer of our computer desk. This is why it is magic:

I toss a couple sharpened pencils and ball point pens in the drawer. I close the drawer. I go about my normal mother-jobs. Then, when all the sudden I need to write something extremely important down--quick--I open the drawer to locate a writing utensil. And what do I find? Broken tipped pencils, yellow crayons and no ball point pen in sight. This happens all the time! Arg! Do you have a magic drawer in your home?

My kids' second grade teachers must have a magic drawer in their desks too, because they make these flower pens.
They had their students make them for Mothers Day gifts, and I can tell you right now it is the best Mothers Day school present I've ever received.

Mothers Day was back in May, now it is July. Do you realize that means I have kept track of my flower pens for FOUR MONTHS now?

Like I said, best Mothers Day gift ever.

(It turns out that we could have been even more creative with this craft--we went to REI last night and they had a pen with a big long fern frond attached to it. )

Thanks, Ms. Benton and Mrs. Cheek!

Calling All Pioneers

2011-07-18T05:20:00.000-07:00

Does anyone know where Sophie is pointing?

You are exactly right. It is the middle of nowhere.

But this spot has great significance to my family. It is the place where Scott's ancestors were stranded with their handcarts; caught in an early snowstorm on their way to Salt Lake. They were starving, dying, eating the soles of their shoes and tree bark. But it was at this spot that help finally came. They were rescued. And who rescued Scott's dying ancestors?

Why, my ancestors, of course!

This summer my mom and her husband are serving a mission there and helping to build the new visitor's center. There is also a river there called the Sweetwater, and it is there, this August, that Sophie and Syrena are going to be baptized....pioneer style.

We've been preparing all summer by reading pioneer stories, making pioneer dresses (which will be posted soon) and doing pioneer crafts to help us get into the spirit. Last week we made our own butter by pouring whipping cream and a little salt into jars. Then we went outside and rolled the jars back and forth to each other. We told stories. When that got boring we rolled the jars down grassy hills. It was hot. It was hard. It was grueling. But after about a half hour we had our own delicious butter:

Mmmm.....fat.

Afterwards Sophie proudly proclaimed, "Everything homemade is always better!"

I hope she still says that when I finish her pioneer dress...

Pizza Party, Mermaid Style

2011-07-08T10:06:00.000-07:00

I told the mermaids that we were making a pizza for our craft this week and you would have thought I had told them we were going to burn all their toys.

You see, my girls hate pizza, a fact which used to turn every birthday party they were invited to into an absolute tragedy. But as they get older, they are getting better at declining the pizza with a polite, "No thank you. I don't eat pizza."

This, however, gives the impression to the other parents at the party that Mormons don't eat pizza, which of course is not true. Unless the pizza is laced with coffee, tea leaves, alcohol or ecstasy, that is.

You can imagine the relief on my girls' faces when I told them that we were going to making fruit pizza. Ahh...the world has righted itself again. Now this was something they could handle.
I have a wonderful recipe that I discovered years ago which was instrumental in getting my husband to fall in love with me,

and, because you were so nice to stop by and read my blog, I will share it with you.

Fruit Pizza

Crust:

1 c. marg/butter

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. almond extract

2 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar

Mix butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and almond extract. Cream. Add all other ingredients. Press into the bottom of a pizza pan or cookie sheet. Bake 375 for 12 minutes.

Pizza "Sauce":

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 c. cool whip

1 1/2 powdered sugar

Blend together and spread on cooled crust. Top with fruit (berries, mandarine oranges, pineapple etc.)

PS While watching the credits after the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie I saw that the mermaid (the not-so-scary one) was named Syrena, and spelled the same way as I spell my daughter's name. I did a little research (i.e. googled) and found that there is a legend in Poland about a mermaid who wielded a sword and shield and protected the city of Warsaw. The mermaid's name was Syrena, and there is a bronze statue of her in the middle of the city. Who knew?

A Disgusting Treat

2011-07-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

This week we made "pupcicles" for our mer-dog, Jimmer, and our neighbor dogs. This is an easy, easy craft, but quite disgusting.

We used ricotta cheese and plain yogurt for the "base" of our pupcicles,

and rawhide strips for the pupcicle sticks.

Then we had a variety of nauseating mix-ins,

including mini pepperonis, dog jerky and dog food. You could also add cheese or peanut butter.

Mixed with the yogurt and cottage cheese, this craft thoroughly grossed-out everyone.

This photo just doesn't do it justice. You've got to smell it.

We invited our lovely mer-neighbor to join us.

Here she is, showing us what she thinks of this craft:

Here it is, all put together, ready to be frozen.

After mixing their pupcicles, the mermaids and mer-neighbor promptly fled.

I lined the treats up in the freezer:

The next day:

Mmmm....want some?

Let's see what Jimmer thinks.

I think he likes it!

We took the rest of the pupcicles to Jimmer's neighbors: Abby, Ollie, Finnie and Tango. None of them even hesitated scarfing the treat down.

And just in case this makes you think you really would love to have a dog that you could make pupcicles for, read this first.

Until next week!

A Marbleous Time

2011-06-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

WELCOME BACK!

It is summertime again and that means the mermaids up to their crafty ways. Every week throughout the summer I will post one of our crafts for your viewing pleasure.
Here is a photo of our first craft:

Want to know how we did this? This is called paper marbling and it doesn't take a whole lot of special skill, but it does take some special ingredients and a fair amount of preparation.

The first ingredient is alum. This is a color binder. You have to first soak your papers in this and then dry them out and press them. The paper needs to be completely flat to marble correctly.

The next ingredient you need is carrageenan which is a powder made from seaweed moss. This is tricky to find. You can't find it at normal craft stores like Michaels or A.C. Moore. You have to go to more professional art studio stores or get it on line. Unfortunately no matter where you find it it will be a little bit pricey, but marbling will not work without it. For the precise measurements to mix the carrageenan go here. After you've mixed the carrageenan with water and put it in the blender you pour it into a tray where it can set over night.

After those first two items the rest is easy:

A pan or tray for the liquid,

a stack of your alum-treated paper,

a comb like this:

(I made mine out of wood and nails) or fork to spread the paint.

You will also need acrylic paints. (I used regular craft paint, but I had to water it down so that it was the consistency of orange juice or whole milk.)

Whew! The preparation takes a lot of work, but believe me, it is worth it.

Now for the actual marbling process:

1. Drip your paint into your tray with the carrageenan/water mixture.

If you've mixed the paint to the right consistancy it will float on surface and start to spread, making what marblers call "stones."

Keep dripping paint, adding more colors until you feel like stopping.

2. At this point you could lay down the paper right on these stones and you would get a really cool design that looks something like the paper on the right:

The paper on the left was made by swirling the stones around with a stick.

Another method is using a tool to "comb" the stones.

This makes the paint move into a feather like pattern, like this:

3. How ever you decide to marble, you can't mess up. Every pattern will turn out interesting. Now that you've arranged the paint the way you want it, carefully drop your paper on the surface of the water.

This is the exciting part. Wait for the edges to curl up and then gently pull if off and be amazed at the beautiful design you created.

Isn't this awesome? It is just like magic!

4. Now hang up your paper to dry.

After it is dry press it under some heavy books until it is flat. You can use your paper as wrapping paper, book covers, cards or whatever.

This was the most successful craft I have done with my mermaids. Everyone had a great time, and we never ceased to be amazed at the colors and variety of patters we made. I think the girls spent about two hours making more and more cards. The carrageenan mixture lasted for all of these cards, and we could have made many more. All you have to do is wipe the surface of the carrageenan with a strip of newspaper and you are ready to drip new stones. I was amazed that we could make light colored marbled cards even after we had marbled with black paint. This was so easy to do, even my four year old could easily create marbled paper all by herself.

After we were done the girls gave their patterns names like "swirled chocolate" and "seaside." Once they were dried and pressed we put them all in envelopes to use as cards. Maybe one day you will get one of our papers in the mail!

Just For Fun

2011-03-01T17:25:00.000-08:00

The other day I bought this book:

It shows you how to make a skirt to fit YOUR BODY type--even "pears" like me--and has lots of examples of different styles: A-line, wraps, fitted...and how to make a skirt out of a vintage table cloth.

It has been, I must say, one of my wiser purchases.

I had some pretty fabric laying around (it had been calling out to me for weeks, pleading for me to lift it from its useless folded state into something with beauty and purpose) so I made this:

I had a little trouble with the zipper, which is why there are no photos of it...

But I though the pleats turned out well.
The only problem is that now that this skirt is finished it makes me want to go back to MY FAVORITE STORE IN THE WHOLE WORLD and start another one! (If you want to visit my least favorite store in the entire world, click here.)

All the photos were taken by the blue mermaid.

The Twelve Singing Princesses

2010-12-31T17:27:00.000-08:00

What is the best way to ring in the new year?

By having a princess party, of course!Sophie and Syrena spent three weeks planning and scheming about this party and today they pulled it off. Here is how it went:

First everyone arrived in their gowns and had tea. (Amazingly, there were 12 girls in all, which I think is great because my all time favorite fairytale is the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Coincidence? I think not.)They each had a chance to wear a "real" crown to introduce themselves and tell us what their favorite present was for Christmas.

After tea, the princesses gathered for the activity. Since I'm in the business of raising girls with depth, these princesses had to prove to me that they were worthy enough to receive their own crown. They had three tasks to complete. Each task was associated with a value, and after they completed each task they would be given a jewel for their crown.

The first value was HONESTY.

The princesses were told that an Evil Sorcerer had stolen my gold coins from my treasure box and scattered them upstairs. I needed someone to find all of my coins. But who could I trust? Of couse the princesses heartily volunteered. But could they find ALL 21 coins and put them back in my box without eating them? Could they be HONEST?

Well, of course they can. They did a fantastic job and found all 21 gold coins. On to the next task.

For the second task they had to prove to me that they were PROBLEM SOLVERS. They were each given a small bag, and in each bag there was one puzzle piece. Their task was to assemble the puzzle together. But they could only use their own puzzle piece, and they couldn't trade or take anyone else's puzzle piece. The catch: they were not allowed to speak.

I should have made them assemble a smaller puzzle because they finished it so fast I didn't have any time to snap a photo. Those smarties. From this task I learned that they were not only PROBLEM SOLVERS, but that they could use TEAMWORK, and that they were CLEVER. All very important things to know if you are going to run a kingdom, of course.

The third and final task. This one was the most terrifying. If they could accomplish this task it would prove to me that they were BRAVE.

The above mentioned Evil Sorceror had secretly kidnapped 12 of my girls' stuffed animals and taken them to a high, dark, damp, spooky place [several girls started visibly trembling at this point]. This place was the.....

......Treehouse!

The stuffed animals were all tied up in the treehouse and the princesses had to rescue them.

The girls went up in groups of three and each brought back one rescued animal.

See the happy animals? Thank you, princesses!

For each completed task the princesses received jewels for their crown. They kept the jewels in their little bags:

Now they proved to me they were worthy to wear their crowns.

We passed out the crowns and the glue,

and everyone went to work.

In the middle of the craft someone started singing, "On the First Day of Christmas..." and they all joined in and sang the whole song. This only happens at princess parties, folks.

We had lots of sparkles,

lots of dimples,

and tons of fun.

Here they are with their finished crowns.

Afterwards they watched the movie Mulan.

(Now she's got some depth.)

Thanks, parents for letting me have so much fun with your lovely girls.

They are beautiful on the inside as well as on the out.

They were kind and gracious and sweet to each other the entire time.

What wonderful girls who will some day be wonderful women.

Sew Lovely

2010-08-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

Do you remember those cute "Metta's Magnets" we made back in June?

Well this, dear friends, is Metta.

She is a good friend and an excellent crafter. This week she came in person to teach the mermaids how to embroidery.

(oooo....aaaahhh)

First she pulled out all of these wonderful fabrics for the girls to choose from. How fun is that!

Then the girls drew a shape that they wanted to embroider.

The blue mermaid chose to draw a star.

The red mermaid decided on a heart,

...and the orange mermaid decided to make an "N."

The mermaids were so excited to stitch their shape with REAL needles and REAL thread and REAL embroidery hoops. It was almost as if they were REAL colonial girls stitching samplers.

Metta helped the orange mermaid learn to stitch. She was thrilled. It was at this moment that she exclaimed, "THIS IS A FUN CRAFT!"

(Probably because the day before I told her she was too young for needles.)

Concentration in the room was so thick you could poke it with a needle.

Hahahaha.

By the way, Metta's charming mer-baby came as well.

This is her, chillin' on my bed:

After the girls finished embroidering the shapes, (and no one's eyes got poked out,) Metta and I sewed the girls' stitchings on to a larger piece of fabric.

Then we tacked them with some other pieces that Metta had cut out and made

TREASURE BAGS.

Here are the finished bags :

(Metta's example is the one with the "M".)

Sew fun. Sew cute. Sew Metta.

Thank you!

The Rest of The Story

2010-08-09T17:52:00.000-07:00

I promised to let you see the mermaids' ransom note, and here it is:

So we spent five agonizing days wondering if the V. family would meet us at the rendezvous spot. Did they know who sent the note? Did they understand our unequivical directions? Would they be there to retrieve the lip gloss or would they shrug their shoulders and say,

"ah, who needs lip gloss?"

We would soon find out.

The day came. We brought some treats.

And of course, the lip gloss.

Sure enough, they were there, hiding in the playground equipment. Slowly they came out of their hiding places and the ransomed lip gloss--

--was delivered back to its proper owner.

Look how happy she is.

Her first words were, "You gave it EYES!"

Then we enjoyed our treats

And our new friends.

A good time was had by all.

But who ended up with the lip gloss at the end of the day?

BWA-HA-HA!

Read My Lip Gloss

2010-08-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

For our Mermaid Craft today we had our first official Guest Crafter. Our guest was Nicole Empey, the very same Nicole that designed the beautiful mermaid treehouse banner above.

Nicole's craft was to teach the mermiads the art of writing Ransom Letters. I will not tell you the details on how Nicole became an expert at this, but I will say that her experience is extensive.

The first thing we needed was something of value that we could ransom. Nicole, vigilant at a recent playgroup outing at the park, pounced on an opportunity and secured the perfect object:

Lip gloss.

Little does she know, but the young, unsuspecting child who "lost" this item will soon be receiving a letter.

First, Nicole gave some examples of ransom letters:

Then it was time to make our own.

The red mermaid and blue mermaid get to work.

(Or, at least watch Nicole work, which is much more fun. )

Meanwhile, the orange mermaid added eyes and I took a photo of the lip gloss,

...in obvious distress.

Then the girls delivered the ransom note....

...INCOGNITO!

[I will not post the photos of the actual ransom letter today, since then our rendezvous might be compromised. Date/time of rendezvous is in the letter. We wounldn't want anyone to meet us there to take the lip gloss and then ransom our ransom.]

What will happen to the lip gloss? Will the owner fulfill the requirements needed to obtain her precious cosmetic item? Will she meet us at the proper location? Or will she abandon her lip gloss, leaving it in the hands of the mermaids, who might use it all up any moment?

What will happen?

TO BE CONTINUED.......

Everyone Loves Danny

2010-08-01T12:47:00.001-07:00

I asked my good friend Jill if she had some good ideas on how to handle sibling rivalries.

One way, she said, is to take photos of siblings laughing and having fun together and then display the photos around the house.

I thought that was a great idea. I was also behind on my baby book for our mer-son, so I combined the ideas.

I gave each mermaid a small pile of photos of her and her little brother together. Then pulled out my stickers, paper, scissors and glue and I had them make a scrapbook page for Dan's baby book.

At this point, everyone *loves* our little baby and the only sibling rivalry concerning him is who can be the first to wake him up, make him laugh, or pick out his clothes. (And believe me, the competition is fierce.)

But I know that will not always be the case...

I think they will always be able to look back on these pages in Dan's scrap book and remember how much he means to them. This will also mean a lot to Dan as he gets older and looks through these pages, to see how he was adored.

Here are the finished pages:

My next task is to see if they will make scrap book pages for each other...

Roses Are Red, Carnations are....

2010-07-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

For this week's craft we changed some plain, white carnations into all the colors of the rainbow. It was so easy.

First we put in the food coloring, drop by drop.

Then we put the flowers in their vases.

And then we waited...do you think if we are quiet enough we can hear the flowers drinking?

The next morning our flowers looked like this:

Now all we have to do is give them away!

A Craft Fraught with Peril

2010-07-17T10:48:00.001-07:00

This was a dangerous, exciting, super-fun craft with a tragic ending.

My goal: to make some cute garden stepping stones using shards of colorful broken plates and cement.

First I gathered the plates, soon to be hammered to smitherines:

The smitherines:Because we were working with hazardous materials I called Meredith, babysitter extraordinaire, to help. (Notice the "mer" in her name? She fits so naturally into our mer-family.)

Mixing concrete with your babysitter. How fun is that?("REALLY fun," says the blue mermaid who is looking over my shoulder as I type this.)You might say that children and broken glass and hammers and concrete are not a good mix....however, they went very well togeher. It was my concrete/water mix that was doomed.

I thought I would use some left over cement in the garage that the Mer-man used for the treehouse.

But it was old and hard to break up. Then I think we didn't add enough water, and, as the guy at Home Depot told me later, I should have tapped the sides of the trays with a hammer to settle the mixture, and then laid some chicken wire in the bottom to hold it together. I know a lot about cement now.

Here is our garden stepping stone. Bare feet beware!

This is what our beautiful garden steps looked like the next day. Crumbly, loose and fragmented. The orange mermaid's face says it all.

But lest I get hung up on the outcome of my craft, let us all remember the reason why we do crafts. Is it so we can have some fancy junk around to decorate our homes? I hope not. Watch this video and you'll see why this craft was worth it.

Metta's Magnets

2010-07-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

My friend Metta taught me how to make these pretty magnets. You take a clear marble that is flat on one side and find pictures and patterns from magazines that you like.

Then, using modge podge you glue the paper to the magnet, sealing the edges, and then glue a magnet on the back.

We found some of our best pictures from the Friend magazine.

I actually needed to make these magnets for a Relief Society activity, and the girls came to my rescue.

The girls loved this craft and came up with some pretty creative ideas.

I Lava Science

2010-07-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

Everything you need to make a volcano: Vinegar, dish soap, a small container, baking soda, food coloring and three girls.
Making the climb to the volcano mount (the sandbox).
Forming the cone.
The volcano is finished. Now for the ingredients.

Baking soda.

The dish soap is added. (The king and queen look on, unaware of their impending doom.)

The final ingredent, vinegar, was added after this to begin the reaction. (After doing this twice, it was decided that it is best to add the food coloring to the vinegar before pouring it into the volcano.)

Slowly the volcano lava--a bit bubbly and pink-- starts to flow. This was our first try--the lava was a little sluggish, but it was still exciting.
Our second try was much more exciting and bloody, as you can see.

The girls played in the carnage for a while after this, and then took the toys inside, washed them, and put them in the hospital.

Office Max Publishing House

2010-06-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Today was storytelling day. Seizing this opportunity to develope their young creative minds I told the mermaids that there are three parts of a story: the beginning--

"--the middle and the end," the older girls chimed.

Okay, so they know that. We'll move on to a higher plane.

"Every story has to have a climax," I say. "The climax is the most excititing part of the story. But before the climax you have--"

"the rising action!" says one mermaid.

"and after the climax you have--"

"the falling action!" pipes in the other mermaid.

"Okay, smarty pants, what is after that?" I ask.

"THE RESOLUTION!" the say together.

So thanks to first grade I didn't teach them anything today, but we did make some cute little books. Each put her own personality into her story and after I typed up their stories they added illustrations. The titles are delightful: The Flower and the Monster, Syrena and Tucker, and The Missing Giraffe.

At this point I could have tied the books together and stapled them, but why do that when you can go to

and get your book BOUND!

But is it worth it to drive 20 minutes to Office Max when it is 101 degrees outside and pay three dollars for each book to get spiral bound? Perhaps, I reason...they will make really cute keepsakes...

As we were driving home the orange mermaid says,

"Mom, this isn't a paper book any more. This is a REAL book."

Yup. It was worth it.

(Here is the CLIMAX in the orange mermaids book.)

Our Mer-designer

2010-06-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

I have a super talented friend named Nicole Empey who designed the spectacular mermaid treehouse header you see above.

... we are hoping to get her to come a little later in the summer to be an honorary mermaid guest crafter, and then you can meet her.

Thanks, Nicole!!

Beads+Elastic=Happiness

2010-06-17T17:58:00.001-07:00

The mermaids are out of school and back at home! To celebrate we made some bead bracelets. (It is also a fun way for the Orange Mermaid to become more acquainted with her letters.) This was a huge success. Maybe it was the beads....maybe it was just that this is the first craft of the summer. Happy day!

We made some for us...

...and some for our friends:

We've got a lot more crafts planned for the next few weeks so stay with us!

Last Craft of the Summer

2009-08-21T05:19:00.000-07:00

School starts next week, so this is our last craft of the summer. Here is a list of what we used for this craft:

Canvas

mod podge

paintbrushes

magazine clippings

First I cut out a bunch of colors from the pages of magazines. I separated them into to piles: warm colors and cool colors.

Then I drew the shape of a fish on the canvas. When it was time for the craft, the mermaids painted mod podge over the canvas and started pasting the magazine clippings to the canvas.

I told them to use the warm colors for the fish body and the cool colors for the water.

After the canvas was completely covered and there was no white showing, the they spread mod podge over the top.

The mermaids enjoyed this craft a lot, and I am going to put a black frame around these fishes and hang them in my bedroom.

Have a great school year, and we'll see you next summer!

Mer-Friends

2009-08-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

For the past few months I have been saving cereal boxes to make "giant blocks." The mermaids had some mer-friends over last week and it was finally the perfect time to bring the "blocks" out.

First they made a tower to see how high they could stack the boxes with out it falling over:

Then they made a mansion. They took their dollhouse furniture and set it all up inside to make it nice and cozy. This was fun for all five children, and they could all play at the same time. The mer-boy was especially enthusiastic about this project and kept adding new "additions" to the mansion. It was played with for quite a long time.

Cost: $0.00

Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind...

2009-08-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay....so this isn't really a craft you can do with kids from beginning to end, but the blue mermaid did help me lay out the squares, and the red mermaid helped me cut the runaway threads. This is a rag quilt that I copied from one I saw at my sister's house. It is sooooo much faster to make that your standard pieced quilt. And the there is lots of room for error since its raggedness adds to its charm.

This little quilt is for the mer-baby when he is born. If you look close you can see the Boy Scout fabrics I added. Maybe while he's wrapped up in this blanket some of those good Boy Scout qualities will seep into his personality.

One can hope.

A Gift You Give Your Friends

2009-08-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

I teach the girls that a party is a gift you give your friends. The mermaids were so excited for their birthday, and I think what made it more exciting was that they were able to be involved in so much of the planning and preparation.
Here is the red mermaid tieing up the paper flowers that she made to the treehouse stairs. Here is the tree house decked out in its party glory. Makes me wish I was turning six, too. Or it makes me wish I was a treehouse. One of the two.

In addition to the paper flowers the girls made the pinata. At first they wanted a mermaid shaped pinata, but after realizing they'd be hitting the mermaid with a bat they changed their minds to making a fish. Which made me happy because a mermaid pinata would have been a little....tricky to make.

The girls had a wonderful party. Thank you to all the kids who came. We hope you enjoyed our "gift" to you.

A Cake Without Cake

2009-08-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

The red mermaid has never been a fan of cake, so last year we discovered an easy way to make a birthday cake without it.

We got this recipe from a friend of mine who dubbed it Redneck Ice Cream Sandwich Torte. Pretty fancy, eh?

First you mix up the icing. The mermaids call this the "glue."

Then you lay ice cream bars on a pan/platter/cake stand. Or if you really want to be redneck, on some cardboard covered with tin foil.

Ah...sorry about the sideways photo. Put the "glue" on the first layer of ice cream bars. Then add more bars. You have to work fast! Mmmmm...

Cover the entire cake with cool whip and put it in the freezer until it is time to decorate for the party. This was such a big hit last year that the blue mermaid decided she wanted one this year, too. So we made two.

Here is the official recipe:

REDNECK ICE CREAM SANDWICH TORTE
from Metta Prieto
1 c. coarsely chopped creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookies (i.e. Oreos, about 10)
1/2 c. milk

1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) chocolate instant pudding

1 container (12 oz.) frozen whipped topping (i.e. cool whip), thawed

12 frozen rectangle ice cream sandwiches, unwrapped

2 T. semi-sweet chocolate morsels, grated or multi-colored sprinkles

Instructions 1. Coarsely chop cookies. Combine milk and pudding mix; whisk until mixture is smooth and begins to thicken. Immediately fold in half of the whipped topping and cookies; set filling aside.2. Working quickly, arrange six of the ice cream sandwiches side by side on a Large Platter. Spread filling evenly over sandwiches. Top with remaining ice cream sandwiches, forming a rectangle-shaped torte; smooth sides. Spread remaining whipped topping over top and sides of torte. Grate chocolate over torte or use sprinkles. Freeze at least 30 minutes, or until ready to serve.Yield: 16 servings

Peanut Butter Treats

2009-07-20T05:47:00.000-07:00

These candies are a family favorite, and the gween mermaid helped me make them. They are easy and quick and have lots of protein, carbohydrates and calcium.

Instructions: Mix equal portions of peanut butter, powdered milk, and honey (this is a great way to make good use of your food storage, as well.) Spoon the mixture out onto wax paper, cut the paper into individual candy wraps. Then put the finshed candies in the fridge or the freezer. (They are too sticky to eat at room temperature.)

This time I used two cups of each ingredient and it made about 50-60 candies.

Butterfly Thank-you Cards

2009-07-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

For this craft I bought a butterfly punch from the craft store ($9.00) and used some old blank stationery that we had in a drawer. You can get blank stationery from paperpeople.us or at xpedx paper supply. I'm pretty sure Office Max carries them, too. This was a great activity for the girls, and the cards will be perfect "thank you's" for after the party.

Message in a Bottle

2009-07-20T05:22:00.000-07:00

Here are our invitations to the mermaids' birthday party. They are turning six, so they are allowed to invite six friends. They had a great time making these and an even better time delivering them!

Cost: The bottles were about a dollar each, and the shells cost three dollars. So the invitations were under $10.00.

Pinata Fish Part 2

2009-07-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

The fish is dry and packed full of treats. Now it is time to paint!

The girls wanted to make a mermaid pinata at first. Unfortunately Mermaid Pinatas do not fall under the catagory of "simple crafts." Besides that, who would want to swing a bat at a mermaid? It didn't take me long to talk them out of that.

The fish will do.

Cost: I'm not sure how to figure in the three to four cups of flour, but the water was free, the newspaper was free, I used craft paints I already had, so the pinata was FREE. The pinatas at the store cost $15.00-$20.00.

Pinata Fish Part 1

2009-07-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

For the mermaids' birthday party we decided to have a pinata. We looked at the pinatas at the store, but we decided to try to make one ourselves. If it doesn't work out we'll go back to the store.

First the girls tore up strips of newspaper.

Then we made a mixture of flour and water.

Then the girls layed the gooey paper across a balloon.

The red mermaid was pretty grossed out by the whole process, but she was a good sport.
Tune in next time to see the exciting conclusion to our pinata fish.

Mexican Paper Flowers

2009-07-06T18:13:00.001-07:00

This was our best craft yet!

First cut tissue paper into 10 x 10 squares and make a stack (about four squares in each stack)

Then fold it into a fan.

Pinch the fan in the middle and twist the end of a pipe cleaner around it to hold it in place and to make the stem.

Gently pull apart the petals to reveal...a butterfly!

Just kidding. This blue one needs a little more fluffing.

The fruits of our labors:

The mermaids are going to use these flowers to decorate the treehouse for their birthday party.

So why was this our best craft yet? One reason might be because my five-year-olds could do this without a lot of help from me, another reason could be that the finished product is so big and beautiful, and another reason could be because it didn't take very long so they were engaged the entire time (it took us about 30 minutes). But I think the real reason why this craft was so fun and successful was because the gween mermaid was taking her nap. :)

Materials: tissue paper ($2.79) pipe cleaners ($3.00) Total: under $6.00

Homemade Blocks

2009-07-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

Ingredients for homemade blocks:

Blocks cut from untreated wood scraps (these are left over from the tree house)

Paint, mod podge, all sorts of brushes, stencils, etc.

One or more excited children

And here is the result:
That looks pretty easy, eh? Well, here is what happened behind the scenes: This project was very fun for about 45 minutes. After that the mermaids got tired of it and wanted to do something else and so I finished the rest. While I was absorbed in finishing the rest of the blocks, a gallon of orange juice was brought up the stairs, red crayon was drawn all over my kitchen cabinets and all of my jewlery was pulled out and strung around my bedroom. Then my children really got bored and started giving me "wet wilies" in my ear. So my advice to you is to let the children do three or four each and then do the rest yourself when they are sleeping.

Cost: wood-free, craft paints-about .75 cents each (but I already had a bunch), package of paintbrushes $4.00, stencils $4.00 Total: under $15.00

By the way, my children are for sale.

Lady Fingers

2009-07-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

A Scrap Craft. Yesterday we needed a quick craft and so I went through my craft drawer to see what I could come up with.

Incredible, aren't they?

The older mermaids like to sew, so they sewed the flannel all by themselves.

I turned it inside out and they hot glued the eyes.

I helped with the hair.

In the end everyone was very pleased with their little lady. For your enjoyment we

included a couple of very short and silly videos. The second one was taken by Sophie.

Cost of this craft: Free

Piano Bucks

2009-06-30T12:33:00.001-07:00

I have been teaching the red and blue mermaids piano for a little over a year now, and they've had a healthy mixture of excitement and apathy towards the ordeal. To make piano practice more interesting for the summer I decided to introduce "Piano Bucks." (I got the bucks from this website.) Everytime they practice, and for every lesson, they earn a piano buck. They also earn piano bucks for performing in front of others and babysitting the gween mermaid while the other mermaid has her lesson. With their bucks they can "purchase" items from my store (the white cans). The cans are filled with fun little things like stickers and candy and dollar-store toys. However, if they have the self control to save their bucks they can get even better prizes! For ten piano bucks they can get a whole pack of gum of their very own, rent a video, have an hour on the computer or go on a mommy or daddy-daughter date with no other mermaids. For twenty piano bucks they can get a new pair of shoes or a notepad and new markers. The grand prize is a new Cloverleaf bunny play set which costs 50 piano bucks (about $19.99).

For the first two weeks they only wanted the immediate gratification of getting things out of the cans. But after they started saving --and combining--their piano bucks they found they found they could get more quality prizes.

This is so fun for them (and consequently for me) and they are wizzing through their piano exercise book. They practice whenever they get a chance...so much that we had to put a "cap" on the number of piano bucks they earned in a day (five). What is more fun than rewarding them with prizes is seeing their piano skills improve, and seeing how delighted they are that they are learning faster. An additional plus is that they are getting a good introduction to how money works.

We've being doing piano bucks for a little over three weeks now. I'll give you a report at the end of the summer on how it went over all.

Ice Treasures

2009-06-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

I found this idea from Crumbs in My Couch. Freeze a bunch of small toys, coins, buttons, necklaces in water and then let the kids "discover" them. Freeze different layers at a time so that the heavy toys won't all be at the bottom and the light toys all at the top.
Before we started the activity, I told the mermaids a story about a beautiful land where there were princesses and animals and then along came Jack Frost who froze everything. I told them they were the good fairies and they had to sprinkle their fairy dust (salt) on the ice and free the toys with their wands (tooth brushes).

After a while the brushing got a little tedius so the mermaids used chizzles.

The hotter the afternoon, the better this works. The mermaids (pretending to be fairies) were very excited every time they "released" someone from their icy prison.

I used toys they already had but this would be really fun (and more motivational) if you bought new toys for them to discover and free from the ice.

Oh, I love happy faces!

Materials: old toothbrushes (free) ice (free) toys ($2.00 - $5.00 at dollar store) salt ($1.00) salt shakers (3 at $.89 each) Total Price: under $10.00

I Dream in Tie-Dye

2009-06-19T17:41:00.000-07:00

I wanted to get the mermaids some fresh and bright summer dresses, and I've always loved Tie-dyed clothes, so I ordered some white dresses from dharmatrading.com which specializes in clothing ready-to-dye. Then I bought a tie-dye kit from the local craft store (and used my 40% off coupon). The whole project cost under fifty bucks. For three dresses, that isn't bad at all.

Step one: tie rubber bands around the clothing. The kit tells you how to create specific designs

Step two: apply the dye. Gloves are necessary if you want to keep your hands undyed. I am doing the Gween Mermaid's dress since she was taking her nap at the time.

Blue Mermaid and Red Mermaid starting with their favorite colors. They did all the dyeing on their dresses by themselves.

By the way, we are working on top of white garbage bags I cut apart.

On the box it says this particular kit can make 8 shirts. We barely had enough for these three dresses.

Step three: Wrap the dresses tightly in plastic wrap and let set for 6-8 hours. The waiting part was very painful for the mermaids.

Step four: wash each dress individually to remove excess dye.

The finished products:

Red Mermaid's happy rainbow

Right: Blue Mermaid's exotic blue lagoon.

Below: Gween Mermaid's carribean sunbursts

I took the mermaids on an outing the next day and they got compliments in every store we entered! It was fun for them to have me say, "...and they painted the dresses themselves!"

Materials: white cotton dresses from Dharma Trading (about $30.00 for three) tie dye kit $12.00. Total price: under $50.00