Sam came home from preschool today with the Adventure Bag. We LOVE having the adventure bag, especially when we get to have it over a weekend. This adventure bag had Eric Carle's TODAY IS MONDAY, a matching game, journal to record our experiences with the book/activities, and a few other enrichment activities that went along with the book. The other item that came with the bag, was a large blue and green stuffed snake, that didn't make it's appearance until we were seconds from sitting down to dinner.
"Mom, he has to eat with us!"
I'll spare you the details of the entire dinner conversation, but let's just say that Sam really wanted to feed the snake SOMETHING (nothing imaginary), and so we started talking about what snakes eat ... shrimp and noodles weren't on the list (which was good, cause we didn't have any left overs!). I first suggested an egg ... but then remembered the mouse/rat we got in a Wendy's kids meal ages ago, I think it might have been one of the Charlotte's Webb characters? Sam and I quickly found our prey ... perfect!
A while back, Heather made "new" crayons for her kids using the old, broken, ruddy ones that seem to multiply ten fold in the craft box when on one is looking. A few months later Family Fun Magazine had these cute valentines in their February issue, finding a fantastic new use for the hundreds of crayons our kids have.
At our house, we have two school boxes of crayons. One box has the nice unbroken crayons, and the other has all the pieces. I thought making some new upcycled crayons with my kids might be a fun after school project and something they could give their cousins as a birthday gifts this year.
I purchased a silicon star mold, hoping the silicon would make getting the new crayons out easier and the kids and I spent many afternoons pealing and sorting crayons (only to have Alex come behind us undo all our sorting). Finally today we were able to melt our first batch of crayons.
We used an odd assortment of crayons ... Crayola, RoseArt, freebie crayons from restaurants, fat, skinny, washable, glow in the dark, princess, you name it they all got thrown into the mix. Each has their own unique melting qualities, and that made for some fun added dimensions when looking at the end product. But we are all really pleased with the results.
I baked ours at 350 for about 15 minutes and then let them cool for a couple of hours. Family Fun says to melt them at 250 for 15 minutes, and Heather melted hers at 350 for 10 minutes. I think it all depends on the kinds of crayons you are using, how big your molds are (FF's was no bigger than 2", and mine 2.75"), the brand of crayon you are using, and possibly the pan (silicon vs. metal?). Anyway, our school box of crayons yielded 12 beautiful upcycled crayons ready for gifting and crafting!
