Busy Busy Busy

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I'm working with a friend to update my blog and I've been working more hours. So here is another fun recipe for you and your kids. We made this when I was little to make home made Christmas ornament and its fun to play with in general.

Homemade Clay

4 Cups Flour
1 cup Salt
1 1/2 Cups Water

Mix ingredients together and Knead for 5 minutes

You can divide it into portions and add a few drops of food coloring or use it like it is and paint the finished hardened product.

Store it in an airtight container or plastic sandwich bag for future use. To make a permanent piece like Christmas ornament. Bake on a cookie sheet for 1 hour at 350 until hard.

Treasure In A Bottle

This one is easy to make and is great for when they are stuck in the car or other places they have to sit still and be quiet.

Materials needed.

Small Soda or Water Bottle or other Small See Thru Container with lid.
Sand (assorted colors available at your local craft store)
Assorted Small Treasures. Fake jewels, Buttons, toy rings that no longer fit. (anything that won't be missed that fits through the neck of your container.
Craft Glue
Pen and Paper
Yarn or string.

Put the sand in the container about 2/3 of the way. Do not fill it all they way or you wont be able to see anything.
Put small treasures into the container one at a time keeping a list of the items.
Glue the lid onto the container and let it dry overnight.
Attach the list to the container with yarn.

When kids need something to do hand out the bottles and let them find the treasures. Set a time and see how many they can find or who finds them all first.

Put different treasures into each bottle you make to help keep it interesting.

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk

Just a quick note for anyone who has been reading my Cats and Dogs Turtles and Frogs blog. It seem blogger is having some issues, They are working on them but that blog seems to be one of the affected ones. If you hit the back button it will come up.




Ok now on to the fun stuff.


My Daughter loves drawing on the sidewalk. I think she likes having such a large canvas to draw upon.

So for your budding artist here is the recipe I use to create more and more chalk for her.

Start by getting out all those Carboard TP tubes you've been saving. Come on you know you've been trying to find a use for them.

Cover one end with masking tape to prevent leaks then line with wax paper so the chalk will be easy to get out.



Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup Plaster of paris
3/4 cups water
3 TBls Powdered tempera paint color
Several Disposable container ( such as old milk cartons) and paint stir stick

In disposable container slowly mix the plaster of paris with the water. Divide into 2 or 3 containers and add different colored paint powder to each. Stir slowly to distribute color.

Set molds upright on a flat surface and fill with chalk mix. Tap the side to help release air bubbles.

Let it dry for 3 days before removing mold. It should slide right out thanks to the wax paper.

My First Award for my Vegetable Container Garden Blog

Thank you My Bargain Mom for giving me this award. You have a great site to get tips on
how to shop smart, and the best use of coupons to save money With advice to help live frugally.





Here are the RULES of this Award:
(1) Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
(2) Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
(3) Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
(4) Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
(5) Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
(6) Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
(7) Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.



To follow the rules of this award, I am choosing the following blogs to receive this award...

1. The Art and Science of Parenting

2. My Kids Are My World

3. My Crazy Life With A Toddler

4. Gohn Crazy

5. Comedy Plus

6. Jinxy Knows Best

7. Boogers, Screams, Headaches, Dreams



Seven Facts about Me...

1. I'm Married with 2 wonderful children.

2. There are more pets then people in my home.

3. I'm One of the original Video Gamers. Pong to Pac Man I've played them all.

4. My Favorite Authors are Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child When they write together. Something always seems missing when they write seperately.

5. I hate housework and it probably shows a little too much.

6. Some day I hope to own a small house on a large piece of property In the Mountains. I would rather have more room outside then inside.

7. Right now I'm Very Addicted to CafeMom's Latte Land. Cafe mom is a web site for moms to get together on and Latte Land is their new game where you run your own coffee stand :D

Container Garden.... What I've got so far

As promised (yes I know I was suppose to post these a couple days ago, sorry I got distracted) Here are the photos of my container garden.

The Broccoli is doing well.

This is a salad mix I saw on sale when I was out. I though I would give it a try.

I'm not really sure what they all are so it should be interesting.

On the right is a tomato plant and on the left is a jalapeno plant. I'm going to try making my own salsa this year.

This is an Eggplant on the left and my pepper plant that I started indoors over the winter on the right. It's still growning kind of slow.

As you can see I still haven't dug up the flower bed the landlord said I could mess with.

The sun only seems to come out when I'm working when I'm off it's raining.

I may have to just go out in the rain and do it.

Summer is Coming

In just a few more weeks, days for some and it's already happened for others, the kids are going to get out of school. For the next couple weeks I'm going to focus on things to do at home with your kids over the summer. Try one or try them all to help fill those hours when they can't go to visit friends or you can't run them to the local pool or amusement park.

Let start of the fun with a tasty recipe. I love big soft Pretzels. They are rather expensive to get when you go out. So here is a recipe I found in a cook book I got from the Library In Tucson AZ. Unfortunately I wrote the recipe down for my collection but not the title of the book I got it from so I can't give them credit. I am not claiming credit for this recipe I'm just sharing it.

Pretzels
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
2 Tbls butter melted
Coarse, Kosher or Sea Salt

In a large mixing bowl, combine yeast and warm water then stir to dissolve the yeast. Stir in the sugar and salt. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time to form a soft dough.

On a lightly floured surface, turn dough out and knead until the dough is soft and elastic (about 5 min) Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and turn once to coat. cover and let rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size. (about 1 hour)

Preheat the oven to 425F Punch down the dough and divide it into 6 equal parts. On a lightly floured surface, roll a portion into a 14 inch long rope and twist the rope into a pretzel shape. Place the dough on a lightly greased baking sheet. Do the same with the rest of the dough. Brush each pretzel with melted butter and sprinkle with salt. Bake until golden brown 15 to 20 min. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

Try some variations such as Cinnamon and Sugar, Garlic Parmesan, or Onion.

How does this keep the kids busy? Let them try make the dough into pretzels and pick their own flavor for it. It's a fun tasty way to spend an afternoon.

The Babies Are Out At The Bronx Zoo

We went to the Bronx Zoo on Sunday. It's Spring time and the Babies are out in force. Here are some cute pictures to get you through Monday. Enjoy

Baby Peacocks

Baby Gorilla

Baby Giraffe

Baby Pere David Deer

There were more babies there but these are the ones we saw. I've added this picture just because I thought it was a cool shot. I have the Emerald Toucanet Next to his information photo both looking the same way.

Hope everyone has a great Monday.

What a Waste

My family and I went to visit Old Bethpage Village. It's a New York version of Colonial Williamsburg. For those of you who don't know what that is it is the Reconstructed Colonial capital of Virginia.

Old Bethpage Village is a wonderful quite place here in Long Island with historic villages and several craftsmen and women working like they did long ago. We went to watch the sheep sheering.

Yes she did them all by hand and we learned that small farms that just have a few sheep still use those same hand sheers.

We also watch some them process the wool and do some weaving.

We also checked out the blacksmith barrel/ bucket maker and the broom maker.

Now looking at all this you might wonder why I am saying what a waste. After walking all around and talking to the people who work there you come to the realization that this place could offer so much more. But they aren't getting enough money and refuse to use anything but volunteers to work the crafts.

With some good funding and some extra craftsmen there is no reason this lovely place couldn't be self sufficient and as well done as Williamsburg. They have plenty of places to add gardens which they could sell along with the crafts at a weekend farmers market. And since farms and gardens back then didn't use pesticides they would be able to sell them as organic.

In a few years this place may be lost for lack of good management. Forgotten as its beautiful open spaces is filled up with more McMansions and strip malls that no one really needs.

Update on my Tomato Planter Experiment

Well I've got my tomatoes planted in my Experimental planter. As you can see the Cherry Tomatoes on top are growing like crazy. I've snipped the top shoot to try and keep the plant more compact. There are a few flower buds so it shouldn't be long before I see some tomatoes. The tomato plant on the bottom is growing more slowly.

Something I didn't think about but found quite interesting is the upside down plant is trying to grow up. This makes sense of course since that is what plants do. But for some reason I just didn't think that it would do that. Of course once it starts getting tomatoes it will grow down. The weight of the tomatoes will make it which is of course the idea so we don't have to stake it in place.

Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of my container garden. I've gotten 4 of them planted and growing well. I've put them next to our fence so that I can use it to secure any plants that need support as they grow.