Blaze's Best Friend

It was a bittersweet day for Blaze today. He got to spend most of today playing with his best friend, who had been away for the past 8 weeks visiting her grandparents, but she is moving away tomorrow. Her father has graduated with his PHD in mathematics and is going on to a very nice teaching job in another state. Blaze is very sad that she's leaving, but her parents and I are trying to come up with some creative ideas to help the children stay in-touch.



I'm really glad that they had this one last day to play together before she moved.



They always say that they are like brother and sister and they really do act like it, complete with the sibling squabbling. They even look a bit alike, especially the hair.

If I had a hammer...

Last night was "Build and Grow" for the Noah's Endeavor kids. Build and Grow projects are children's construction projects made by Lowe's and usually only offered for children who come into the Lowe's stores for special workshops, but Coach Will has developed a really good relationship with our local Lowe's store and they donate some of their left-over projects to Noah's Endeavor ( they have also offered to help fix up the baseball field we play in, so that it will be more handicap accessible).





There were two project to choose from this time. Blaze made a little puppet theater,



while one of his good friends built a little box that looked like an old fashion schoolhouse.



When the building projects were complete, there was plenty of time to play.

The Last Day of Aquabilities

Today was the last day of the morning swim lessons, although training for Special Olympics will continue a couple times a week.
It's been so much fun all summer, for me to socialize with the other parents and nannies at the pool, and for Blaze to make new friends and get lots of exercise. He has gained so much confidence this summer, along with a wicked tan ( he didn't get that from me, I only burn, never tan).

Here are some scenes from the past two days:



The lifeguard at Mickle Pool had a clever way to get Blaze to practice diving under water. He had a set of water-proof cards that they used to play "Go Fish". He set the deck on the floor of the pool, so that if you had to "go fish", you had to dive to the bottom to draw a card.



This morning, channel 20 news sent out a reporter to learn about the program and film the children.



There is safety in numbers. Blaze said he was scared to talk to the reporter, but once his friends volunteered to stand next to him, all of his shyness disappeared.







At the end of the swimming session, all the children received certificates of completion.



Blaze was also given the trophy he was supposed to have received at the end of the baseball season ( we had missed the end of the season picnic).



Here is a link to the Channel 20 News story:

http://www.wcjb.com/news/7332/father-honors-sons-memory-by-helping-kids-swim

Back to School Clothes

I have done absolutely NOTHING to get ready for the coming school year, although it is fast approaching. I will also not be doing this project, because most of my friends with children are having to buy uniforms this year, since our local school district is starting to require uniform as of Aug. 23. I do think this back to school clothing swap idea sounds like a lot of fun, as well as being practical in this uncertain economy, so I wanted to pass on this link just incase someone else could use it.

http://futurecraftcollective.com/tutorials/how-to-clothes-swap

The Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum

Yesterday, we went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum in St. Augustine for the first time. Even though we had driven past and walked past it a few hundred times, we had never gone in before. DH had been very unenthusiastic about going there, but my pesterage (I know there is really no such word, but it is the word he used to describe it) finally paid off.



This is in the parking lot, before you even enter the museum:










Once inside the museum, I was a bit disappointed by the number of fortune telling machines trying to separate patrons from their money. It had not been cheap to get into the museum, so I didn't think they needed so many other ways to make money. I would have liked to see more oddness and less vending.

This really looks like the kind of project I would do if I had more time. The clock cabinet is made completely out of clothes pins.


These are the kinds of things I expected when going to Ripley's.














The only part of the museum that Blaze had trouble with, was the walkway at the end. It is like a bridge through a spinning barrel of flashing colored lights. He was panicky about stepping onto the walkway and said the lights hurt his eyes. Even after explaining that the walkway was not actually moving, that it was an optical illusion, the only way to get him across was to have him close his eyes and be led across.

Gear Wall Decorations

This has been an on-going project for about a week. It didn't have to take that long, but I decided to make only one "gear" each day.

For less than $2, I purchased one of each size of cardboard circles sold in the cake decorating section of our local party store. This was just a short cut, to make sure that I started out with perfect circles, but there is no real reason that tracing around cups, bowls, or plates onto any cardboard wouldn't work just as well. It would just mean a little more cutting.



I used a combination of scissors and an X-acto knife to cut the cardboard circles into gear shapes. Then, used spray paint that was left-over from other projects to paint the gears.

Chai Cupcakes

My little parade of experimental cupcake recipes continues. Our favorite new flavor, so far, is the chai cupcakes. They were actually made as a way of turning a plain white cake mix into something more exciting.

It uses powdered, instant chai tea mix (found at Fresh Market).



Chai Cupcakes

Follow the directions on a box of white cake mix, except substitute milk for the water and into the milk, stir 1/4 Cup powdered chai mix. Follow the cupcake baking directions on the box.

For the frosting, make standard cream cheese frosting , but stir 1/4 Cup of chai tea powder into the melted butter, before adding anything else.