Muffin tin crayons

Today we made muffin tin crayons.  It's something most of us have done at some point as kids, and something I've been wanting to do with my kids for a while.  It's a lot of fun, easy, and keeps them engaged from start to finish.

1. Pick out all the misfit crayons and peel off the paper. (The kids quietly worked on this for at least 20 minutes).

2. Lightly spray muffin tin with cooking spray and fill each circle with a variety of colors. We filled them about 1/3 full.

3. Place in a preheated oven (at 275F) for 7-8 min.

4. Allow them to cool before you take them out of the tin.

 Voila! They look good enough to eat. No really, my baby ate some.

Spring has Sprung

For Bahai's, the first days of spring is also the beginning of our New Year, or Naw Ruz.

For the last few weeks, to help usher springtime into our home, we cut some long branches from our forsythia bush and put them in water.  The kids have enjoyed the day by day unfolding of the buds, until the blooms finally made their appearance...just in time for all the sunshiney warmth we have been enjoying!

Happy Spring, Albany!  It's like a whole new city out there.

Salad Spinner Art

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! I'll post our special V-day adventure soon, but in the meantime I thought I would share a little craft that's easy enough to do at home. Put some painting clothes one, because it could get a little messy.
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Step 1: The kids really love cutting, so I folded some paper in half and let them work on cutting out half hearts I drew on paper.

Step 2 + : This is the fun and messy part. You need a salad spinner. I had one that I bought from the Christmas Tree Shop for about $3. We taped the heart on the bottom of the basket and dribbled paint all over it.

Step 3: Spin it! Spin it real good.

Step 4: Admire.

These are some of the final products. To deliver them as Valentines, we folded them back in half, punched a hole in the top and tied a yarn bow through it to make it a pretty package. The kids had fun lacing the holes, too.

Here is a much better and more methodical way to doing this at home. I was kind of winging it this time, but now that I have the hang of it, it's definitely something we'll be playing around with more.

Brassy Apple: Spin Art Tutorial

Have fun!