Nephews' Christmas

I am an aunt of some pretty awesome nephews.  I was browsing etsy and found some great gifts I think they'd like.  Check them out!

Here

Here

Here

Here

Happy Easter

Easter is really fun around my parent's house.  The neighborhood puts on an egg hunt and this is the second year in a row I got to go with my nephews.  They have some snacks and games set up for the kids.

They just toss out a lot of eggs and let the kids go for it.  The nephews were prepared this year.  Isaac remembered that he didn't get a lot of eggs last year and this year he wanted to get more.  He did a great job too.  It was a crowded age group.  My parents were determined to have a real egg hunt later today.  My mom thinks tossing them on the grass is lame.  I think it is hilarious to watch kids scramble to get the eggs as fast as they can.

Oh yeah...and I won the raffle...$5 target gift card. I win everything, I'm a lucky girl!

Christmas Project #2: Homemade Crayons

Today is Monday October 12, 2009.

Today I made homemade crayons for part of my nephew's Christmas gifts. I first went to my favorite place... leftovers etc. and got a bunch of used crayons. While I was there I spotted some Christmas Candy molds. I was already borrowing candy molds from my sister, but when I spotted the Christmas ones at leftovers etc. it was pure coincidental magic.

STEP 1:
I started off by peeling all of those darn crayons. I only used crayola, because I think they're the best.

STEP 2:
I then went through the recycling bin and found a few soda cans. I cut the cans in half with a pair of scissors.

STEP 3:
I broke up the peeled crayons and placed them into the cans by color.
All the colors will be melted together to make one color, so choose your crayons wisely.

STEP 4:
I put them in the oven at 350 degrees. It took mine about 10 minutes to melt completely. I used 4-5 crayons in each can. You can use 2-3 crayons and it should only take about 5 minutes in the oven.

STEP 5:
When I pulled them out of the oven I gave the cans a gentle shake to mix the colors properly. Then I poured the mixture into the candy molds. Some of them I poured a little too much and I have those long drip sections. That's okay because when it cools and you take them out of the mold those parts break off easily.
**When pouring I made a few layered crayons. I poured a little bit of one color, let cool, then poured more of another color to make layered crayons.

STEP 6:
When the crayons have cooled completely. Turn the candy molds over and the crayons pop out!

Now I have fun festive crayons for my nephew's Christmas!

Here is a website I used to help me.

I'm home

My family vacation was pretty great.

I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. Even though I was a little drugged out on Dramamine I still enjoyed it.

We hung out in Arizona seeing stuff that Frank Lloyd Wright built and more.

Then we headed back to San Diego and did all the tourist stuff we could including the world famous San Diego zoo.

We got back to St. Louis and about 36 hours later I went to Branson, MO with my BFF and my sister and her family. We laughed a lot and had a good time. I especially enjoyed hanging out with these kids.