Mission: Hogwarts

     For Halloween, we decided to have a Harry Potter themed play date! Some of the kids even dressed up for Hogwarts.

     First we painted fake pumpkins and then showed the kids how to melt crayon onto the pumpkins. I cheated and had glued the crayons on the pumpkin the night before to make sure they would stay on during melting. That was a huge hit. Though I made certain I had boxes for everyone to take their new pumpkin home in, I wanted them painted first so that they had a chance to dry as much as possible before they had to go home. We used washable paint, but no reason to take any unnecessary chances.

     We then decided to learn some magical spells. I blew up a bunch of balloon and handed the kids wands. They then had to say "Leviosa" while using their wands to keep the balloons in the air. This was a huge hit and kept them busy for a while.

     After tearing them away from their magic lessons, we then decorated Bibles for the shoebox party in November. We managed to decorate all 30 of them and finished the notebooks we hadn't been able to get to last time!

     James Tiberius Cat also joined in the fun and willingly (mostly) dressed up as well. Another success!

Mission: Pirate Treasure

     What child doesn't want to dress like a pirate and then do a pirate treasure hunt? I originally wanted the kids to have to either follow a picture map or solve a puzzle of sorts at each spot on the treasure hunt, but, since the kids can't read yet, I had to go another route. I ended up creating a sort of obstacle course where the kids had to find something at each place before they could go to the next spot. I did end up having to move the treasure hunt inside since the weather turned nasty, but the kids still loved it. The kids were told to dress like a pirate and, not wanting to be left out, James also had a pirate costume.

     At each stop in the treasure hunt, I had a small ball wrapped in pirate fabric that the kids had to find before they could move to the next spot. In the dining, I mean craft, room, I turned the table into a cave of sorts. I put a sheet on top of it to enclose it and then taped streamers underneath the table that the kids had to go through to find the little ball that I had hidden in there. It didn't take long for the kids to find that one, but they did bonk their heads a few times while under there. Thankfully, no tears. The kids then had to go up the stairs through a "spider web" to get through the hallway. There was no ball for them to find this time, but they had a blast doing their ninja moves.

     After the spider web, they had to go into the garden tub which I had transformed into a ball pit. I didn't have enough balls, so I blew up a number of balloons to fill it up. The kids didn't care and the faux ball pit was their favorite part of the whole thing. It didn't take them long to find the ball I had hidden in there, but they decided to stay for a while and even went back after we had finished lunch and the crafts.

     I had created a much better cave out of the hallway using more sheets and a play tunnel that I had borrowed from a coworkers. The cat really liked this one though this was a close second for the kids. At the end of the tunnels I had put some glow in the dark rocks along with the pirate ball for them to find.

     After finding all of the balls, the kids got their pirate booty. One of the other moms did a wonderful job of making little pirate boxes of stuff for the kids. It really doesn't take much to make them excited at this age.
     After the treasure hunt was completed, we did two crafts: one for the kids and one for other children. For themselves, I cheated this month and got the pirate treasure chest craft kits from Oriental Trading. The kids had fun painting and decorating their boxes.
     For the past few years, Bea and I have been packing shoeboxes as part of the Christmas Child Shoebox program. So, for service, the kids decorated notebooks for that we would then pack into shoeboxes come November. We used stickers to make it easier and then kept telling them that these were for kids who couldn't afford notebooks or school supplies to be able to go to school.

     The kids had a blast and, again, James the cat slept well afterwards. All of the kids dragged their parents upstairs to check out the ball pit and the parents helped me find all the balls. Around 2 am, James got his revenge by playing with some balls we had missed under our bed. My husband has since banned any ball pits in our bedroom or bathroom. He didn't say anything about a ball pit in another room though.... :)

Mission: Pretend Sleepover

Our daughter is now of the age, 5, where she is ready for playdates. Being one with my nerdiness, I knew I would handle them better with a plan (and my husband out of the house) instead of the friends just coming over and doing whatever they wanted. So, I decided to host themed play dates! The have gotten a lot more detailed as the months have past, but are actually easy and fun to do.

One of my daughter's friends really wanted to have a sleep over but, not wanting to have to figure out how to put a bunch of five year olds to bed or wanting to deal with one or more of them getting upset and wanting to go home after I was ready to go to bed, I decided to go with a pretend sleepover as our first play date.

To make it more authentic, I put blankets on all of the windows to make the den dark. The girls all arrived in their pajamas and with their sleeping bags. The cat knew something was up, but is too young to figure out that he should run for the basement as soon as he hears the first girlish squeal.

They ate pizza and s'mores while watching movies in the comfort of their sleeping bags. They all had a blast playing and chasing the poor kitty around the house. I have to admit that he took it very well and, once he woke from his very long and deserved nap,  was rewarded with lots of treat.

For the craft, we tried making stained glass lanterns with crayons and wax paper. We followed the directions given by Martha Stewart, where we used an iron to try to melt them. That didn't work so I put them in the oven between two cookie pans which did work for melting. Of course, it took a while for Dave to clean the iron and we smelled crayons for about a week every time Dave turned on the oven. I did learn after this to always try out the craft before doing it with the kids so that I can find any pit falls and can make any needed changes.

Brownies

These brownies are quick and easy to make while also being a huge hit with everyone. They can be made the night before or served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Software:

• 1 box German chocolate cake mix
• 1 package caramels (Target has the caramel pieces, not chips,  for baking)
• 1 package chocolate chips
• 1 can of evaporated milk (small can)
• 1 stick of butter.

Hardware:

• 9" x 13" pan
• parchment paper
• Pyrex bowl for mixing batter
• Pyrex bowl for melting caramel
• 1/3 measure cup

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Melt the stick of butter (you don't have to, but it makes life easier) in the Pyrex bowl in the microwave. Add the cake mix and 1/3 cup of the evaporated milk. Mix together. Place the parchment paper into the pan and put in half of this mixture. Will have to flatten to pan since it is very thick. Bake for 5 minutes.

In another bowl, add the rest of the can of milk (should be about 1.3 cup) and the caramel. Microwave to melt (around 2-3 minutes depending on microwave). Mix together.

In the pan, spread the chocolate chips to cover the bottom layer. Then pour the caramel on top. May need to use spatula. Then take the second half of cake mixture in small amounts, press to flatten in your hands, and put on top till covered. Bake for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Graduation 2015: John and Mark

Another One Finishes: John McDowall

I thought that I had it bad with my dissertation laptop die the day before my pre-defense; John actually had one of his committee members die! He was able to get a waiver, so had his pre-defense and final defense will only three committee members.

 

 

Though I do not remember mine taking nearly as long as his, I could tell that at least one of his committee members was ready to leave. It made the decision process very quick. Of course he passed.

 

Now that the committee has said he has passed, it is time to get their signatures before they change their minds!

 

Then it was time for the celebratory whiskey. I brought a bottle Dave had picked out for just the occasion.

 

His wife, daughters, and mother-in-law all came. His youngest commented that he has been working on this more than half of her life.

Mark was with us in spirit.

 

 

Time for playing with fire!

I have always said that I was going to burn all of the papers I had written, notes for studying for quals and comps, all of the notes from meeting with my advisor and committee members,  and all rough drafts. Well, the day finally came. You can see the stack of papers I had.

It took a while, but we got them all burned. Nathan even brought a rough draft of his dissertation to join the fire.

 

If you look closely, you can see that these are graduation caps.