Sunday afternoon at the airport

When you think about spending time at the airport, I doubt anything comes to mind like the afternoon we had today. There were no restaurants, bars, or duty free shops. No security, no metal detectors, no Hare Krishnas. This is a small, one trick operation, which also proved to be a fantastic way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

It all started this morning when Jacks started saying that he wanted to go to the airport. What? The airport? Where did he get this idea? He claimed that all of his friends (he managed to list 3 of them) had been to the airport, and, "Everyone goes to the airport, Mommy." This last comment was complete with an obligatory eye roll.

Ok, you all know that we live in Auburn. If we want to go anywhere by air, we have to drive to Atlanta. Our airport is simply a formality. A series of tiny airplane hangars and a few landing strips to accommodate private and courier planes. Any jets that might go in and out of our airport are very small, like fit in a two car garage small. So, the thought of spending time at our airport never once crossed my mind. We have only been there once - for a birthday party in a hangar.

I quickly sent a text to a dear friend of mine whose husband has a plane at that airport (this plane is so small it has its own parachute - not like a parachute for the passengers, a parachute for the whole plane). She said it is fine to go on over there and hang out - have fun! Ok....here we go.

Remember that old TV show "Wings"? That airport is HUGE compared to the Robert G. Pitts Airport. We walked in to a sitting area that reminded me of the DMV, only with better snack machines. We walked past a receptionist who was very busy on her cell phone, and she waved us off when we asked if it would be okay if we just....... Apparently, she wasn't worried. So we walked right out on to the nearest air strip, where there was a small group of college aged boys playing football.

There was a small fleet of little planes, all of which were emblazoned with an orange and blue AU on the tail. I am thinking that those might be the learning planes - surely you can take flying lessons there. There isn't much else going on. In the distance we watched a little plane circling the area, then it would touch down on a far off runway, only to take off again - we guessed it was someone getting in their flying hours.
While we were there, a few of the private planes took off or were about to. One couple was loading up their plane while it was carefully inspected by someone who looked very important with a clipboard. Their send off crew was apparently the football players on the runway. Another couple climbed right into their tiny, single engine propeller plane, and after 3 or 4 attempts to get it cranked, they taxied off into the distance before taking off. At that point, I commented to Joe that I would get in one of those planes over my dead, cold body, and the hissy fit I would pitch prior to being forced into one would be epic and unforgettable by all.

A nice girl who was about to get on a teeny, tiny plane (and she didn't appear to be medicated) was nice enough to take a family picture of us.

My airport story isn't all that interesting, and there doesn't seem to be a point to it, but it was a great day. We had so much fun, and there was lots of room for a little guy to run and run and run and scream. I will also add that they are currently building a much larger (but still not large) and modern facility on the other side of the property which will accommodate a lot more air travel. I anticipate many more trips to the airport in our future.

Mommy and babies

Nealy and I helped host a baby shower last weekend, and Joe attempted to get some pictures of me with my babies before we left.

It appears we had a few problems.....

I guest blogged!

My cousin Robin runs this super awesome blog called The Business Women's Finishing School & Social Club. After much poking and prodding, I managed to produce a piece for BWFS&SC at her request.
I am a terrible guest blogger, by the way. I had to be reminded constantly, and my first attempt was a little too much about poop. Well, okay, it was totally about poop. But she wanted me to write about being a mother, a working mother, or something like that, and in my life, poop is a huge presence in my motherly duties. I'll be honest, I'm not all that great at reading and following assignments. Ironic, isn't it?
Anyway, hop on over to have a looksee at my first guest blog appearance. Robin promised to stop bothering me for a new post for a while, but I want to write more for her. I really do! But I'm terribly busy updating my TIVO and melting crayons. You know, important shit like that.
http://businessfinishingschool.blogspot.com/2010/02/working-mothers-rant.html

Class Valentines

Thank you all for bearing with me through the heart shaped crayons tutorial. Now, to see what the kids will actually be giving their friends for Valentine's Day (their parties are not until tomorrow on account of the snow day on Friday)

Jacks is giving each friend 8 crayons with a coloring card of a Chinese dragon (Happy Chinese New Year!). Joe printed off the dragons on card stock, then I folded each dragon in thirds accordion style, and there is a Happy Valentine's Day sticker on the outside of each dragon.

Nealy is giving each of her friends a card with her picture on it, a pair of Valentine socks, and a rattle. I ended up making rattles out of the plastic heart shaped boxes that I picked up at the dollar tree by filling each box with about a teaspoon of dried rice and hot gluing the boxes shut with a ribbon loop sticking out. They're okay - not the best, but pretty cute.


As for Nealy Bug, she's really loving her new doll she got for Valentine's Day! She keeps it tucked under her arm as she goes about her regular business.
I hope each of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I would love to be totally subversive and act like I hate Valentine's Day, but I really love it. I love heartfelt gifts, I love heart shaped things, and I love special dinners. We've had a wonderful family Valentine's Day over here.

Snow Day!!!

As many of you know, the entire southeast was blanketed with a thick coat of freak snow on Friday. I only call it freak snow because of the circumstances surrounding said snow. First, it never snows down here, this is the freakin' south. Second, it has been really cold this week, but not that kind of consistently freezing cold that you expect when it snows. We had 13 straight days of freezing temps a few weeks ago, and nary a flake. Third, it was totally clear as of 8 a.m. Friday morning, the morning that we were supposed to be covered in snow, guaranteed, no question about it. In fact, our school system closed schools for the day, and our school system NEVER closes school for weather related issues. If school was closed, it better dang snow or else some heads will roll! So, when we all woke up Friday morning to no snow, we were starting to worry.

Then, all of a sudden, I checked outside, and I saw a flake. "I see a flake!!!!" I screamed. Then, within the next few minutes, one flake turned into many turned into tons turned into gigantic, fat, amazing snow that proceeded to coat everything around. By 9:45, we were all of a sudden living in the middle of a winter wonderland - the stuff that Christmas movies are made of. And it is for all of these reasons that I refer to our snow storm as freak snow.

But of course, fun was had by all. Jacks loved every second of it. Even after we came inside, Jacks longed for "his snow." The next day, as it melted, he periodically would point outside to the melting snow and wail, "Ahhhhh, my snow!!!" Nealy did not like it so much. She was cold and the snow flakes hit her in the face. She was overall uncomfortable and not happy about any of it. You can tell when you noticed that our happy, always smiling baby is giving the camera the stink eye.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures......

And of course, Joe and Jacks built the obligatory snowman.

And he lasted long enough to take one picture. Then, Jacks kicked him over and ate his carrot nose. We reminded him that a carrot was a vegetable, not "SEE" food.

Bathing Beauty

Valentine's Crayons

So, we made heart shaped crayons for Jacks's class last year for Valentine's Day, which were a huge hit. I agonized over good gift ideas to make for this year, but I didn't come up with much. But as I was picking up spilled crayons the other night from the corners and crevices of the living room, it occurred to me that making heart shaped crayons every year isn't such a bad idea. It helps us clean up and clean out all the old crayons without throwing them away.

Since last year's night of crayon creation, several of my friends have asked for directions on how to make these heart shaped gems. Although I stole the idea from my friend Holly, I will gladly share my own tips and ideas for how to complete this project.

First, gather old crayons and group according to color. I tend to group them by reds/pinks, blues/purples, yellows/oranges, greens, and neutrals (black, gray, metallic, white). A big part of the fun is combining the different shades of colors to create new colors.

Then begins the worst part of the project, stripping the paper labels. This can be hell on your nails, so I do not recommend doing this the night after a manicure. I used a little paring knife to zip up the sides of the labels, but for two years running I have managed to poke myself in the pad of my thumb.
Someone told me that Hobby Lobby sells naked crayons. That is really great and sounds like a fingernail saver, but it defeats the purpose of this being a reduce/reuse/recycle project. Plus buying new crayons just to melt them down seems a little silly to me. I'd rather use my old free ones, then buy a new 64 Crayola pack to enjoy for later!

I melt the crayons down in aluminum, disposable muffin pans. And I don't mean tin muffin cup liners, but the entire pans. I managed to find these at Winn Dixie for a little less than $5 for three 6 muffin pans, but they were buy one get one free, so I have another set for another day.


Notice that I cut up the pans. I wanted to have stiff, individual trays for each color that I can pick up and easily pour from. If the pan stayed in tact, I would have to scoop out the melted wax, which would make a hella mess.

Then break your crayons down and fill your individual tin trays about half full by color.
Do you see my sore spot I developed under my thumbnail from stripping crayon labels? At one point I couldn't tell if it was red crayon wax or blood. No one said crafting was painless!!

Lay out your tins on a foil lined sheet pan. The wax WILL drip, so you want to be sure to protect your pan. The trays are overfilled in the picture below, but it made for a much cooler picture to see all the colors spread out like that.

Then place your pan in the oven set to 250. I found that 200 is too low, and 300 is a little too high. So split the difference and be patient. The crayons will melt in about 10 minutes or less. You will want to stir around your melted wax to make the colors smoother. I used toothpicks, but then resorted to plastic knives after a while. The wax will harden quickly, so you'll want to act fast. Of course, if the wax hardens too quickly, no big deal - just melt it again!

Once melted, you pour the wax into heart shaped molds, and that rubbery material works the best so you can efficiently poke out your finished product when done. I found ice cube trays at the Dollar Tree, of which I got 4. I also saw some sort of a pan at Target in the Valentine aisle that would work. I don't think they were ice cube trays, possibly candy molds. But they were 9.99 each. My Dollar Tree molds worked into my budget much better.

At this point, you will find that they will harden very quickly on the counter top. But, I started to pop them out, and found that they were still a little soft. So, if you place your trays in the freezer for about 3 or 4 minutes, they'll get hard enough to pop out without leaving an indention anywhere. You don't want to leave them in the freezer for too long, or else they will crack.

Then you'll just continue melting and pouring until you're out of wax. Toward the end, I would pop out the residue at the bottom of the trays and combine them with another tray, and I started to get creative with colors - mixing reds and oranges, browns and greens, blues and purples, etc...

Look at how precious these are all laid out!Also, residue is left behind in the ice cube trays with each batch of crayons. So, if you don't want to have color mixing going on, you'll want to keep certain colors in certain spots in the molds. But, I kind of liked the marbling effect that would be created from pouring green wax into a spot where I had previously made yellow or pink.

Honestly, this project is not all that deep. You're basically melting crayons and pouring them into molds. But, the logistics can get a little tricky. And you'll end up doing several rounds in order to get everything completely melted and pourable.

Basically.....

• Don't use your own double boiler or ramekin dishes or anything you want to use for food later. You can probably get it clean eventually, but that crayon wax sticks around for a while.

• Also, your house will smell like crayon wax for a while. It's okay, it goes away.

• Protect your sheet pan - I can't enforce that enough!!!

• Don't forget that you're dealing with hot wax - be careful. The temp is relatively low, but those muffin tins can get hot. They can be hard to handle with a hot pad or dishrag, so if you have a pair of heavy duty dish gloves, they can prove to be helpful when handling the hot pans.

• If you have a white crayon that won't melt after going back in the oven 3 or 4 times, it is probably a piece of chalk that got mixed up with the crayons!
  

Let's have one more look at our new Valentine's creations.....

To give these as gifts, I have some small gift boxes that I found at the Dollar Tree. Each child will get about 8 crayons plus a color sheet. My bright idea is to print out something (maybe a Chinese dragon?) on a half sheet of card stock (length-wise), then fold it up accordion style to place down inside the box. I will post pictures of how it all turns out.

I had a little more difficulty with Nealy's class, and I'm still working on it. I found some small plastic heart shaped boxes at the Dollar Tree that resemble largish pill boxes (I tend to gravitate to pill boxes because I love them so. Which says a lot about me.). I didn't really know what I planned to do with them once I got them, but I really liked the looks of them so I bought a few packs of 8 (when everything costs a dollar, I tend to feel that I can buy A LOT - and I wonder why I have a clutter problem). Now I'm thinking of putting a few dried beans inside, hot gluing them shut, and giving them as rattles. I'll keep you posted on that one....

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. It's still like a week away, right? Wait, what day is today?

Oh yeah, and as always, Joe was my perfect assistant and photographer in this project. Did y'all know I rarely complete a crafting project without his help? He's awesome.