Thursday, May 3, 2012

May the 4th be with you!

          Back in March the husband and I decided the boys were finally old enough to enjoy their very first Star Wars movie. Truthfully once they got a taste of it from the Lego version they were begging for more Droids and Jedi almost daily. Eric and I did have a minor squabble about which movie to start with... The Phantom Menace or A New Hope... but not to worry I set him straight and we started off right with Episode 4. At the end of the movie, and after Romyn asked why everyone was getting married, I congratulated him and Baelin on officially becoming big boys. (It certainly seemed like a major life event at the time.) Since then we have slowly worked our way to Revenge of the Sith, which we plan on watching on May the 4th...Star Wars Day!
       For the grand conclusion of our epic Star Wars journey I promised the boys popcorn, light-up lightsaber lollipops, Star Wars library books, and new Star Wars t-shirts. Of course, Baelin made it hard on me and begged for a R2D2 one. 
        ".....or C3P0, because they are my favorites.... if they don't have those we can get the silver C3P0, or the red Droid, or the black Droid. I love them all. I love Droids."
         Awww. Except, none of the Star Wars shirts at Target had ANY Droids on them. While mentally making a list of other stores I could search in, and moaning about  just how long that would take me, I spotted the multi packs of white Fruit of the Loom tees and decided painting my own would be a better waste of my evening. (I am gonna crack these out at warp speed!)
        Well two nights, some blue dye, leaky freezer paper, silver paint, the Force, and a Sharpie later the boys are thrilled to have exactly what they wanted. Mostly, Romyn was a little critical I did not fit all of R2 on the shirt. "I can't see any of his gadgets!" (Grumble.) At least they haven't watched the films enough  to lecture me about every detail I got wrong... yet.
                    May the 4th be with you and Happy Star Wars Day! -Kendra

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Saw and tried... frozen water balloons.

             Hot summer days are coming and the boys and I are always in the market for new front yard adventures. When I spotted this frozen water balloon activity on Pinterest I thought it could be the perfect way to celebrate the first day of sprinkler weather! It's very easy, all you have to do is pop a few tiny toys into a balloon, fill with water and tuck it into the freezer for a perfect sunny day.
             I handed the boys some buckets and told them they could try and melt free the GoGo's inside. (I originally thought of freezing dinosaurs and handing them little hammers, but decided against it.)  "Oh no! Mr. Freeze is causing havoc with his freeze ray again! He's frozen all these tiny critters!"
(Murrrmmmffffpphhhttt!) "Can you hear them? They're asking you to heeeeeeelp them!"
               Smarty pants Romyn figured he would just smash his on the sidewalk. "NOW THEY'RE FREEEEE!" He did still enjoyed melting away all his new "mini icebergs", which was good because I only had room in my freezer for two balloons that day.
              We did suffer one little mishap. Or at least I suffered it. I made the mistake of handing Baelin his balloon before I had cut the ice free. For some reason he seemed to think it was just a very cold water balloon (despite my warnings it was frozen.) and tried to burst it against a tree which sent it bouncing onto my foot. (Pretty painful.) Luckily I grabbed it up before he could chuck it at his brother! I will be sure to only hand him balloons filled with air or water in the future. He made it up to me however by blissfully playing with chunks of ice for hours while I read in the sunshine. Frozen balloons are a winner! Next time I'll be making more, and probably adding some food coloring. I'm thinking a pool full of dangerous icebergs will make an excellent front yard summer adventure don't you?
Happy May Day everyone!- Kendra