Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows...for Toddlers?

This morning I brought the boys upstairs to get dressed so we could go to Target for some Christmas shopping. Aidan immediately told me he needed to go to bed and jumped in on my side of the bed, and got under the covers. 

I decided to get Mason ready first since Aidan was otherwise "occupied", and when I came back into my room Aidan was sitting up "reading" my Harry Potter book.

I ran and grabbed the camera, so when I snuck back in with it, this was the shot I got, haha.

He proceeded to tell me he was reading, and that it was his favorite book.

Yup. That's my boy.

A favorite handmade gift for kiddos-molded crayons

Ok, so I I'll admit I got my inspiration for this project about 2 years ago from Martha Stewart's website.

http://www.marthastewart.com/267304/crazy-crayons

I made a few molded crayon gifts Aidan's 1st Christmas for some of our buddies who were a bit older than him.

This year I thought I would try them again, especially since reading on a Mommy blog about how Crayolas were best for melting. Last time I bought a few big boxes of RoseArt because they were cheaper, but they didn't melt all that well and I decided not to do this project again. 

Until I read the tip about Crayola.

Over the summer and fall I collected little 24 packs of Crayolas when I found them for like 44 cents. 

I also had bought a cookie/cupcake pan that has snowmen and mittens to use as my mold the first time around which makes cute Chistmas themed crayons.

Ok so I sat here early yesterday morning while the kids were asleep and started peeling crayons. And after about 10 crayons I was cursing and almost gave up.

Have you ever tried peeling like a million effing Crayolas? Their paper is glued on like crazy and peels off in tiny little shreds. I was soooo aggravated!

Then I had my "aha!" moment.

I ran to the kitchen drawer, pulled out the scalpel we keep for pumpkin carving and sliced the paper down the middle.

It popped right off! Yay now I could continue with my project!!

I broke them up, organized them into similar color groups, put them in a low temp oven (250-300*) for 15 mins, and voila!

I did learn the trick for getting them out of a metal pan is once they've cooled a bit put the tray in the freezer for a few minutes...the crayons pull away from the sides and then you can tip the tray over and they fall right out.

Once Aidan woke up I let him put all the crayon pieces into the molds so the color combos got a bit crazy and disorganized, but he had fun so who cares??

The first Batch

I hope his friends enjoy their little treat from us!

ps you don't want to use a pan or tin that you plan on using for food because there is lots of crayon left in the pan that you jut can't get out. My Christmas tin is exclusively for melted crayons.

O Christmas Tree

This is the first year we have ever gotten a real tree. I have always been against them because they're expensive, they shed and you have to worry about things like watering it and then disposing of it after Christmas.

But Ryan talked me into it.

We really wanted to go to a tree farm and cut one down ourselves, but the weekend we got it it was 60* and sunny. Not what either of us had imagined cutting down a tree weather would be like. We were thinking snow on the ground, pulling the kiddos in a sled.

Not in PA...what are we, insane? I don't think we've had a white Christmas yet since moving here. 

SO we went to Lowe's to pick up some faux hardwood flooring for me to use for my photography stuff and while we were there we saw they had trees, and yes, we grabbed one.

My tree is from Lowe's. And it was under $30.

Yup.

Oh well, it's real, it's pretty, and it smells yummy too.  I really only had to vacuum up after we decorated it because we knocked the needles all over, and Ryan has been watering it so I guess it's really no that much work after all.

Aidan got to help us decorate it, and he started by putting all the candy canes on it.

All on the same branch. 

Every time I turned to look he was adding another one to the same spot.

We gave him a few ornaments to put on as well, but he had a hard time hooking them on the branches so he got frustrated and just stuck to the candy canes.

So far I've only caught him messing with it once. He had pulled his ride-on dump truck up to it and I walked into the living room to find him standing on top of it grabbing ornaments off. 

He still brings me Candy Canes from it though asking me to open them for him, but they're so old I'm pretty sure they're inedible. They've been in the box with all the ornaments for like 5 years or so, so I took pity on him and bought him a box of candy canes that he could eat the next time I was shopping.

The helmet....camo style

Well, it finally arrived. 

The Helmet.

We went to pick it up and Mason's head got measured a bit more and the ear cutouts got personalized for him but once it was all set we plopped it on his head and out the door we went! well, after Aidan played around with my sunglasses while waiting, and got some new stickers from the Orthotist for his truck.

Oh and when he put the helmet on Mason at the office for the first time Aidan stated that "now Mason can ride a bike outside!" Yup, I can't make this stuff up!

You have to gradually increase the time you wear it each day to let the scalp and skin adjust to it properly, and to make sure the fit is alright.

Mason has excema and super sensitive skin so they told me I could go slower than the written out plan, so that's what I did.

By the time we got to him wearing it the full 23 hours a day and to bed for 2 nights in a row he had developed something akin to a blister across the side of his forehead that has the bulge that the helmet is supposed to fix.

I slightly freaked yesterday after work when I took it off to let his head air out for a bit (it can get pretty sweaty and gross under there, poor buddy) and saw the giant red mark, and it felt squishy, like a giant blister! I left it off right then and there and then this am I called and we got in in the afternoon to have them do some more adjustments.

Unfortunately now though because of the texture that was created by grinding out some of the inside to make it push less against his forehead, he put some smooth tape across the spots where he had to grind it inside so it does;t rub on his skin. The tape extends out over the front outside of the helmet and boy does it look GHETTO.

White tape against brown and green camo? Extremely obvious.

The he also did some sort of heat treatment on one side too because it was pushing and causing a bad red mark in one spot, and we were afraid he was going to develop a pressure ulcer there. So now the pattern looks all scratched off on one side too.

The orthotist joked that now it looks like a battle helmet.

As if he didn't look weird enough with it on, right? ARGH!

Although I did make a Christmas card with this picture on it (taken before the helmet was altered to look terrible)  for the orthotist and brought it to him today, and he thought it was great. Asked if he could hang it up at the office, haha!

Dishes

Isn't this how you do the dishes at your house too?

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year my dad and brother joined us since we couldn't go anywhere due to Ryan's work schedule.

The festivities began the night before with Aidan helping me make the pumpkin pie. I get out all my spices only to discover I only have enough nutmeg left for one pie. I planned on making an Apple pie later as well.

SO I leave Aidan standing at the island with the bowl of dry ingredients (sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, etc) already measured, and head into the living room to get my phone to call Michele to see if she has any nutmeg I can have for the next pie.

I walked back into the kitchen mere seconds later to find Aidan standing over the bowl pouring salt in.

AAAAAAAHHH!

Ok, so in reality since the bowl was mostly sugar I guess it's a good thing I caught him doing it because otherwise I never would have noticed. Can you imagine what that pie would have tasted like? eew.


Mason passed out in a snuggly blankie while the pie was in the oven...because watching Mom and Aidan bake sure is tiring!

Grandpa and Uncle Larry arrived shortly before dinner was ready, and Aidan fell out of his chair while playing at the table with them and bonked his forehead, started to cry and insisted he needed a band-aid for it.

Then he insisted he needed another one to match on the other side.
What is it with kids and bandaids?

Uncle Larry even had a video of Santa talking to Aidan from the portable north pole, which Aidan found amazing.
Santa knew his name, had his picture and even knew he lived in Pennsylvania. He was certainly amazed.

We had a great time together, stuffed our faces, and even the dog passed out that night...with his reindeer ears askew (courtesy of Aidan of course)