Melting Crayons

I borrowed this idea from Patricia. There are variations here.

Essentially, you round up all your crayon pieces and if they aren't already peeled, you peel them. You decide if you want basic muffin cup shapes or something fancier. Muffins cups can be lined with paper. Put in an ample amount of crayons because they melt to less than what you think. 250 degrees for 15-25 minutes works great.

If you want to do a little more work, melt individual colors on the stove top or microwave (did not try this) and pour them into candy molds or some other mold.

Let the crayons cool off pretty good before peeling.

Let the kids color! They will be fascinated about how the crayons melt, about the colors that mixing makes, about rainbows and tie dye, and about the texture they produce when they use them to color, etc.

All my pics are here.

The Amazing...

We opened up the costume bin yesterday for some super hero action. This is so much fun for them (and me!). I had gotten Johnny The Incredibles costume for his b'day but hadn't given it to him yet. He tried it on early on then many other than put it back on and fell asleep for a long nap in it. He didn't take it off until bedtime. Too cute. I love Joey's tough Superman pose:-)

All the pics from today are here.

Other noteworthy news is Joey losing his 4th tooth in the top middle. Pic is at end of album.

Lots Going On

The day started out with me finding a box turtle on my morning walk with Blaze. I brought him inside for the boys to see and then let him go near my front door pond.

We went to Lake Wheeler where we fed the ducks and geese. The boys made a new friend named Quinn. The ducks looked differenet today. I think they were Gadwell Ducks. Typically, we've seen mallards, but not today.

Yates Mill Pond is so close to Lake Wheeler, that we headed there too. We were happy to see that the mill was running (3rd weekend). I talked to a few photographers trying to capture a winning shot of the water spilling out and set out to take my own picture. Since then, I've read up on how to change the shutter speed and want to go back and see what I can do. The boys had fun diverting the water with rocks and playing on the big rocks while I was busy with the camera.

We took the Odyssey to Auto Bell. It was filthy and just in desparate need of some attention. The boys love watching the cars get washed by the big spinning equipment.

Late afternoon, we ended up at Daniel's community pool where we swam for several hours and ate pizza. Thanks to Wendy and Daniel for the invite!

All of today's pics are here.

There You Are

I was on my to Y camp to pick up Johnny today at lunchtime when I saw these two fawns out of the corner of my eye. So, I did what I would do and turned around to go back and try to take a pic. I got one from the car window then moved closer. I shot several then tried to move to a better angle. At that point, they ran with their little white tails bobbing. I enjoyed the show. Pics would be better minus the greenery clutter.

Nature at the Museum

The kids and I were back at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham again today:-) Aunt Debbie was with us today, and I headed us out back so that we could see some of the exhibits that we didn't get to last time. We still managed to miss the bears because of the abundance of cool wildlife in the wetland area and mom's desire to take pictures. At one time, there was a Great Blue Heron, a hawk, and a Green Heron not to mention a zillion dragonflys (including red ones) and lots of turtles. I just can't say enough about how nice a job the museum has done to build the wetland area and to attract a nice variety of wildlife for everyone to enjoy.

I think the butterfly is a Viceroy. That's the first picture of one of those that I've taken.

The kids had fun today too. The water exhibit continues to be a thrill. Even Aunt Debbie got in on the act. I always have to coax the kids to move on! Sometimes the 'dirt' pile near the animal exhibits seems to be the kids' favorite thing. Ya know, kids love dirt! Joey sailed a sailboat again while Johnny played nearby with the other boats 'in the wind'. At both the wolf and lemur exhibits, Joey had fun moving the camera to track the animals. Johnny also had a great butterfly experience in the butterfly house today too!

All the pics are here.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens

Debbie hooked up with me and the boys today to go to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens . It was a really nice experience; even the boys enjoyed the walk and sights. It was hot in the sun, and there weren't very many butterflies in the butterfly garden, but I really enjoyed the flowers and the Great Blue Heron that I got to take pics of near the end of our visit. We saw wedding photographs being taken, some very odd water lily leaves, and a wide variety of just plan great flowers and shrubs.

All the pics are here.

Another Lost Tooth

Joey's top two middle teeth have been loose for over 6 weeks. This past week, they seemed to get really loose, and I was able to pull one of them out tonight. Unfortunately, he swallowed it...oops. I assured him the tooth fairy would come anyway and proceeded to give him a tiny robot Lego kit for his bravery.