Scarecrows in the Park 2013: Little Bo Peep

Four years ago,

the Knox County Parks and Recreation department

began a Scarecrow Festival.

Our family and another from the 'hood

entered a scarecrow called

"Little Miss Muffet,"

which you can see by clicking HERE.

Well,

we finally got our act together and were able

to get a scarecrow entry

pulled together for this year's festival.

Presenting...

As you can see,

this entry was completed with the help of another family

from our 'hood.

Their family made the scarecrow form

out of PVC pipes and wires,

and we decorated it.

We used...

...Baby Girl as our model,

making it easy to actually the form

with her old clothes.

La La Loopsey dolls served as the inspiration

for the appearance of Miss Peep...

...as well as her sheep.

The kiddos from both families

crafted up the sheep

using the following:

*Fake carvable craft pumpkins from The Dollar Tree

*White spray paint

*Black and white craft foam

*Black and white pipe cleaners

*Black and white buttons

*E6000 glue

To create the sheep,

the pumpkins were first spray painted with

the white paint.

When they were dry...

...the kiddos curled up the pipe cleaners

and poked them into the pumpkins

to create the sheeps' wool.

After gluing on the foam faces

and button eyes...

...the sheep were ready to "hide" from their mistress.

While I set the scarecrow up in the park,

the kiddos enjoyed playing...

It was a lovely, lovely afternoon...

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Speaking of scarecrows...

...look at what our neighbor has designed

for his Halloween yard extravaganza!

I LOVE the look of the creepy scarecrow...

...and he looks even more sinister

under the light of the moon!

Man,

I can't WAIT for Halloween!!!

Despicable Me 2 Week: Mad Science, Part II

After having fun 

with

fake snow and our Blizzard Maker

(click HERE for the Mad Science 1 post),

the kiddos and I decided to delve into the world of...

...bubbles.

I set up a mini "Bubble Lab" for the kiddos,

using bubbles and wands and such we already had,

plus a couple of new bubble sets from

The Dollar Tree.

(Baby Girl made the sign for our lab,

so do not get all excited and think that

Michael Buble

came and snag for us during our Mad Science fun.

He did not-

this was just a misspelling...)  ;0)

For our first bubble experiment,

we really work with color mixing more than the

actual properties of the bubbles themselves.

This experiment used one of the bubble sets

I found at The Dollar Tree...

This set contained three different

test tubes filled with either

yellow, blue, or red bubble solution.

It also had a a bigger test tube you could use

to combine the different colored solutions...

...to create different colors of bubble solution.

WAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

(Sorry-

thought I need to insert that on behalf of

Little Wild Man's

mad science pose...)

***********************************************

After playing around for color a bit,

we moves on to...

...some extra-strength bubble solution,

also purchased at

The Dollar Tree.

(I swear, I do NOT get paid or receive anything 

to promote their products,

but I go there

ALL THE TIME

for homeschool stuff.

I Would really love to have them as a sponsor-

FOR REALS...)  ;0)

Anyways...

These bubbles took longer to pop...

...making them easier to stick together.

The younger kiddos also had an excellent time

chasing these bubbles,

since they hung around longer,

making them easier to pop.

I believe the reason these bubbles are "stronger"

is perhaps they contain more glycerin than "normal" bubbles.

****************************************

While continuing our quest for all things

bubbly,

we checked in on 

an experiment Little Wild Man

had had in the freezer for over a week.

About three weeks ago,

over on Vine,

I had posted a video about...

...Little Wild Man's frozen slime experiment.

(Who doesn't like to see what "stuff" freezes

and how it "behaves" when it is frozen, right?)

One of my Vine followers 

("Be Seeing You")

made the comment that 

Little Wild Man

should blow a bubble with bubble gum

and see what happens to it in the freezer.

We both thought that was an AWESOME idea,

so...

...we both grabbed some chewing gum,

blew bubbles...

...and placed them in the freezer on parchment paper,

and waited.

We decided to do two kinds of gum,

one with sugar

(on the left)

and one with artificial sweetener

(on the right).

Since we were working with bubbles on this day,

we thought that it would be an appropriate time

to see the results of the

Frozen Bubble Gum experiment...

There ya have it.

Cold.

What a pontificater he is...

Seriously though,
after we discussed it the results,
both Little Wild Man and Baby Girl
(my bubble tasters)
said that the gum without sugar was harder to chew,
but kept its flavor.

The pink sugary gum was easier to chew,
but had no taste.

****************************************

Ok, Ok,
hang with me here people,
this was our last bubble experiment of the day-
I promise!

After checking in on the chewing gum,
the kiddos wondered how the
"stronger" bubbles
would fair in the freezer.

So I let them blow some bubbles

into our standing freezer in the garage.

Side note:

Please do not judge me on the 

Arctic-like condition of the freezer.

I KNOW we need to defrost it-

soon.

I checked back in my pictures and it has now been

over a year sine it was last defrosted.

See?

Here are the kiddos in June 2012,

"helping" along the defrosting process... 

OK,

back to the bubbles...

They latched on nicely...

...so we had high hopes that the bubbles

would actually freeze.

But they didn't.

I don't have any pics of it,

but the bubbles did leave marks where they had been

in the freezer,

which makes me wonder if they DID freeze for a bit,

but then shattered before we checked back in on them.

That will perhaps be a project to work on later.

For now,

we have retired our Mad Scientist goggles

and hope that our experiments during

Despicable Me 2 week

left Professor Nefario...

...with a smile on his face!

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Linking up

with

Science Sunday...

Despicable Me 2 Week: Evil Minion Target Practice

After seeing

Despicable Me 2,

I KNEW we had to somehow include the...

...the Evil Purple Minions in our week of

learning fun.

So,

I was inspired to create a game

based on the idea of air pressure when I found...

...these air rocket launchers at Wal-Mart

in the clearance section.

I then bought some purple cups at

(where else)

The Dollar Tree...

...and purchased

THESE Minion goggles printouts

to create...

...a cup tower of

Evil Minions.

(I had to color the inside of the goggles

purple since the originals are yellow,

as well as added parts of a fluffy purple pipe cleaner

to the back of the cups.)

The kiddos then practiced the power of air pressure

by firing their launchers at the tower,

trying to knock down as many minions

as they could in the process.

Now,

if I had been on top of my game,

I also would have made the kiddos watch

The Magic School Bus Goes on Air

so we could have deepened our knowledge 

about air pressure.

But alas,

I was not thinking far enough ahead

to secure a couple of this 

Magic School Bus episode.

Hopefully, though, I will soon be able

to purchase...

...The Magic School Bus:

The Complete Series

soon, so I will never find myself missing out

on furthering the kiddos' education.

(In fact, it is on sale right now over on Amazon-

Woo-hoo!)

Since the kiddos did not knock down many minions

with the air rocket launches,

I let them get out the balls

and use their own force to knock down to tower-

just like we did during out

Monsters University Monster Game Day.

In fact,

Little Wild Man found the 

Mike Wazowski cups

we used during that week

and created...

...a gigantic Mike/Minion tower to knock over!

Tomorrow,

I am gonna show ya what rubber gloves

had to do with our

Despicable Me 2 Week,

so please come back and visit!

Despicable Me 2 Week: Mad Science, Part I

Part of our

Despicable Me 2 week of learning

included some

"Mad Science" experiments,

honoring...

...the brilliant but aged 

Dr. Nefario.

Here are my little mad scientists,

ready to get their hands dirty...

Before we got started,

I read...

...Science Verse

by

Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.

The first couple of science experiments

we did were kits I have had stored

for some time we needed a bit of educational fun.

 One day we played with these

fake snow kits from

The Dollar Tree.

You can read all about the Science

behind these kits

by reading THIS blog post.

We have done this experiment in the past,

and greatly enjoy it!

**************************************

Another day

(after I got the Half and Half we needed for the experiment)

we broke open the

Blizzard Maker...

...and Piggy made certain 

to wear his safety goggles during the process!

 After 10 minutes of "tortuous" stirring

the ice cream mix in the machine...

 ...the kiddos enjoyed eating...

...the fruits of their labor.

 The "mad science" behind this tasty treat

relates to the endothermic process,

which you can read all about 

HERE,

since this experiment is similar to making

"Ice Cream in a Bag."

Come back next week

to Science Sunday to see

the rest of our Mad Science fun...