Nature Walk Placemat

My little folks and I took advantage of a break in the storms on Sunday and went for a little nature hunt.  Well, Sarah and I hunted.  

Will smacked Nature with a stick.

I got the idea from some clear plastic creation I saw involving paper flowers and glitter and stuff.  Since my sidekicks are always handing me rocks, sticks, flowers, weeds, garbage, and any other flotsam and jetsam they come across whenever we step outside, I thought they'd be naturals at collecting stuff for this little project.

Sarah's favorites were flowers and leaves, "wishing flowers" (dandelions) making the top of her list.  Will gathered gravel, sticks, and mushrooms.  

The honeysuckles are my favorite. 

Once we were done with our collecting, I cut four pieces of clear contact paper, roughly the size of a place mat.  I laid them out, sticky-side-up, and let the kids arrange their treasures on them and flatten them out. 

The next part was tricky, since I had to stick the other piece of contact paper on top of the first one, sandwiching the collected items in the middle. 

I smoothed it out as best I could, and then folded duct tape over all four edges.  

They turned out "rustic" (read: lumpy), but it was kind of cool motivation to get out and really take a look around us at all this SPRING happening right now.

Fiesta: Spanish for "Smack Your Neighbors With a Pool Noodle"

What do you do when your 4 y/o says to you, all Scarface-style, "I want to have a fiesta,"?

Well, when people around here start speaking espanol, we sit up and take notice.  I really think one of Sarah's superpowers is knowing what you need, when you need it, because getting together with the neighbors was just the thing. 

In case you didn't know, Sarah is really the idea person around here, and I'm her assistant/minion.  She had the idea of a fiesta, so therefore it was my job to come up with the rest of the "details" and make this sucker happen.  You know, like the food prep, decorating, and hiding the clutter picking up the house.

We had tacos, and it worked out so much better logistically than I thought it would.  The cuisine was great for the adults, not so much for the kids.  

Of course, I wanted to have a little something for the kiddos to do, since there would be 5 of them in attendance.  And since my neighbor Katie staged a completely awesome "egg volcano" and hunt on the Saturday before Easter. 

Seriously, my kids are STILL talking about the volcanoes.  

Anyway, maracas and pinatas came to mind as proper entertainment for a fiesta, so I got to work.  

The day of.  

And only had time for the maracas.  

They're just made out of leftover plastic eggs, rice for the inside, plastic spoons, and clear packing tape.  I got the how-to here.  

Here are the neighbor-ladies doing a little hat dance.

Working the mustaches.

Senoritas y mustaches

Mustaches and maracas are all well and good, but the real entertainment for the night came in the form the pool noodles/light sabers.

Here's our caballero riding in on his trusty steed, Noodle.

I hadn't invited our middle-school neighbors over with the intention of having them take the brunt of a pool noodle attack.  But, since they did and it worked out smashingly for all of us watching from the sidelines, I think I might ambush invite them over for Round 2.

Both factions in the Noodle Wars made peace over mustachioed cupcakes, and everybody went home sleepy and happy.  But not before Cruise Director Sarah turned off the lights on everybody and told them they had to leave when it got dark.

Baked, not burned.  Yay me.

It's a good thing, after a stressful and frustrating week, to be able to end on a high note.