Making Memories: Christmas Elves

We've been invaded. Maybe infested.

It started on the first of December. We woke up to see this on our table.

The little green ribbons each had a line of a silly elf song. When Sweetling had put the ribbons in the correct order, they sang...

We are Christmas elves,
And our jolly selves...
The days we'll count down
Till Christmas comes round,
O, We are Christmas elves.

Behind the elves was a folder with the following transcript....

The Great Assembly convened at half-past Cookie o'clock on Counting Eve. Four hoondred and twizzenty elves are in attendance. Insufficient sprinkles and party hats led to procedural delays, but emergency pixie stick rations have been distributed and the Czar has taken the podium.

The Czar of Twinkling Toes (CoTT): All rise and dance. The Assembly recognizes the Right and Mischievous Count Von Marshmallow (CVM) in today's proceedings.

CVM:
Sales, commercials and waaaaay too dry fruitcake,
Do not a holiday make.
Where's all the MAGIC? The LOVE, the FUN?!
We're talking CHRISTMAS, for heaven's sake!

We need JOLLY, and SPARKLES and...
All elves lean in
ANTICIPATION! To grace just one family's dwelling.
Once we do our part, the cheer will do its...
Joy will spread far beyond quelling!

CoTT: Let the record show that the Right and Mischievous Count Von Marshmallow has not made a motion. Count, Assembly Law requires that you either put forth a motion at this time or cede your rhyme.

CVM does the electric slide.

CoTT: Thank you, Count. Please continue.

CVM: My jabber is just, and my solution is simple,
I've even found the right family's home!
I've searched the Earth over--you can trust this dimple--
Their imaginations are like fertile loam.

We'll send a contingent, we have 25 days,
to inspire and scheme and make messes!
We'll travel tonight; there will be no more delays,
We'll return with tales and successes!

CoTT: Do we have a second for the Count's proposition?
Dr. Peppermint jingles her bell.
CoTT: Thank you, Dr. Peppermint. The Assembly will now vote. All in favor, jingle.
The room erupts in jingle bells.
All opposed, cough out snide remarks.
The hall is silent.

CoTT: Let the record show the proposition has been approved unanimously! Operation Countdown will be implemented immediately. Wee elves are on the cake!
Dr. Peppermint: Please let the record show that the Czar meant 'case.'
CoTT: What? Why would we want a case? Is there a cake _inside_ the case?
Dr. Peppermint: ...No?
CoTT: What? There's no cake? You mean the case is filled with solid...frosting?! My fellow fae, this is--
Inaudible. Inaudible. The crowd is too raucous. The Assembly is dismissed and a search ensues for the case of frosting.

We weren't quite sure what to make of the elves at first. And perhaps, the elves weren't quite sure what to make of us, or perhaps they were a little shy. At any rate, they just sat on the table all day on Sunday. Other than having to brush off a few sparkly sequins that they had spread all over the table, no one in our family took much note of the elves.

The next morning, we woke up to find that the elves had left this on our bathroom mirror.

Sweetling brought me the report. She also told me that the elves had, fortunately, used the vis-a-vis markers. Otherwise, said she, the elves might be in big trouble.

The next morning, Toa of Boy woke up and immediately asked where the elves were. I told him that he should eat his breakfast before he looked for them. He would have, except that there were no plates in the cupboard. Instead there were these three signs.

I began to worry that perhaps our elves had a bit of Nac Mac Feegle in their ancestry.

Fortunately, the elves were found not too far away in the pantry, where they had assembled a sweet surprise.

We had powdered sugar donuts for our morning snack at 10.

The next night, the elves pulled the penguins into their fun.

Toa of Boy had a few comments to make about the elves' spelling skills.

The next morning, we learned their understanding of printed game rules didn't seem to be much better. Said Sweetling, "I don't think the elves know what game they are playing."

You can just glimpse the Uno cards marking 20 more days in the background. The 2 is upside down.

They can nail a candy cane trapeze though.

Chess and flux might be beyond the elves, but they proved proficient with the Wii. They left an 18 in the case with the Wii disc. Sweetling discovered it when she and Toa very kindly put the Wii-motes away and cleaned up after the elves.

It isn't all overnight tricks either. If you don't watch these little guys like a hawk, they sneak off during the day for more play.

And sometimes, we think they might sneak off for black-ops missions.

Making Memories: Homemade Whoknew?

Cranium has a great game (one of their manys) called Whoonu. But, truth to be told, we prefer our homebrewed version of the game. Here's how it works.

Materials needed:

• creativity
• index cards
• pencils
• scrap paper for score keeping

First, you need to cut a bunch of 3x5 index cards into halves or fourths or something. Basically you need several small cards for each person to write on. (Say 8-15 cards per person depending on how many players you have and how many rounds you want to play).

Second, you distribute an equal number of cards to each person. Each person also needs a pencil.

Third, each person writes one specific thing that people might like on each card. (If your index cards are lined on one side, write on the lined side). The more specific the better, so as to avoid duplicates. So, "Graeter's double chocolate chip ice cream" is a better bet than "ice cream". These can be nouns, activities, whatever. Players need to complete this step without discussing or comparing what they write on their cards. Print neatly so that others can read your card easily.

Fourth, all the cards are placed face down on the table and shuffled. (Given the nature of the card quality, just put them in a pile and mix them up a bit. Think back to your "Go Fish" days when your five year old hands were too clumsy to shuffle cards correctly.) After they are shuffled, the cards can be neatly stacked.

Fifth, each player is dealt four cards. It's perfectly all right to get some of the cards you wrote. That won't matter during game play.

Now....actual game play progresses as follows.

One player is chosen to go first. You can go with the youngest or the oldest or the player whose birthday is next or roll a dice or whatever. That player is the first "judge".

All other players pick ONE card from their hands that they think the judge will really like. They lay their cards face down in front of the judge. The judge mixes up the cards and then turns them face up and reads them all aloud.

The judge then puts them in order from the card they like best to the card they like least. This can be a difficult process and the judge is encouraged to think it through out loud. Other players can contribute suggestions and try to sway the judge's opinions as long as they do not reveal which card they laid down.

Once the judge has ranked the cards, the cards are scored. For a game with 6 players you score 10 points for the favorite, 7 for the second favorite, 5 for the next one, 3 points, and then 1 point for the least favorite. (You can adjust the scale for more or fewer players as needed. Make the favorite worth 12 points or take off the 1 point score or whatever. But each player should be able to get a score each round.)

Once the cards have been scored, the players claim the cards they laid down, and their scores are recorded on the score sheet. REMEMBER, the players get the scores of the cards they played, regardless of who the author of the card was!

All players draw another card to have four cards in their hands. The player to the judge's left becomes the new judge.

Play continues until all the cards are gone or until the majority of the players vote the game over. We've never run into that as a problem. In fact, we sometimes play till all the cards are gone....then go cut up another bunch of index cards.

Sweetling and Toa of Boy played the homebrewed Whoknew? with their cousins the day after Thanksgiving. I found the stack of cards they made and have to share them.

• Being the all powerful super sugary epic insanity merican of taco incorperations EVERYWHERE
• DoctorWho
• Slippery Ducks
• ALPACAA
• Nyan Cat
• The M.r fluffy friend.
• Minecraft PVP
• Pecawn PIEE
• orange
• Jumpropes
• Hobbits
• Hungers Deens
• Girfar Jiggle Stand
• DerpDerp Day
• being a ninja
• Phineas and Ferb
• one direction
• freddy
• Charades
• dry ice & soap
• Gravity Falls
• bubble gum
• Cookie Clicker
• hump day
• Smokey the Bear
• singing
• children
• otters
• Pokemon
• creepers
• Beagles
• PoP music

Butter Pecan Ice Cream

We've been making our own ice cream for some time now, maybe a year or more. We rarely buy store made any more. And we consume a gallon a week. Yum.

And when I say "we", I mostly mean the Jedi. He is the Ice Cream Master.

The rest of us just kick back and enjoy the deliciousness.

Until now. dun-dun-DUN!

I wanted some butter pecan to go with my tub of Heggy's hot fudge. (Best hot fudge on the planet, by the way!) So, I looked up a recipe for butter pecan....and then I changed it drastically. The recipe below makes a gallon of ice cream. Go big or go home.

Here's what I did...

Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 qts heavy cream
• 4 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 Tbs butter
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Melt butter in small frying pan. Add pecans and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until just beginning to brown. DON'T BURN THEM! Remove from heat.
2. Whisk 4 eggs in a mixing bowl and set aside.
3. Measure brown sugar into large pot. Slowly add cream and stir till sugar is smoothly blended. Heat over medium high burner while stirring till cream just begins to simmer. Again, don't you let that yummy cream scorch. Remove from heat.
4. Now you need to temper your eggs. Here's how. You need to grab a ladle full of your cream and slowly pour it into your eggs while whisking them. Repeat. The goal here is to slowly bring your eggs up to the temperature of your cream. If you do add the hot cream mixture too quickly, your eggs will cook. Gross. You don't want bite sized chunks of eggs in your ice cream. Again, gross.
5. When you have a hot mixture of eggs and cream, slowly stir it back into the pot with the rest of the cream. Turn the heat back on and bring it close to, but not to, a simmer. (The original recipe said test for doneness by inserting a spoon. Mixture is done when it coast the back of a spoon and you can wipe a clean stripe off with your finger. I have no idea what that's talking about. All I can say is, you are dealing with raw eggs. Make sure you get them to a germ killing temp and keep them there for a couple minutes.)
6. Remove from heat.
7. Stir in vanilla.
8. Transfer your pecans to a small container and put them in the freezer. Transfer your cream mixture to a large container and put it in your fridge. It needs to cool down and get chilled before you can make ice cream.
9.  When the cream is honest to goodness refrigerator cold, then make ice cream in your ice cream machine. When the cream is thick and done being processed in the machine, then stir in the pecans, transfer it all back into a large container, and put it in the freezer to harden off. 

Minecraft Fever

This post could also be titled...

Why our family just spent a four day weekend playing Minecraft for hours on end.

or....

Why my sink is full of dirty dishes.

or....

Why even the ten year old got to stay up past 2 am two nights in a row.

Some background.

We are continually looking for fun family activities, especially games that we can play together. Over the years we've played MarioParty on the Wii and MarioKart on the Wii. We've played Munchkin, and own several versions and expansion packs of the Munchkin game. We've played Fluxx in the original and in variations. We've tried a family Pathfinder game, but that wasn't a favorite of the kids.

Within the past couple of months, Toa of Boy has developed a real interest in Minecraft. So, when he came to me and said, "You know, some families play Minecraft together," I knew we should look into it.

My impression of Minecraft, prior to playing it was that you dug around under a mountain to find certain blocks that you carried to the surface and put together to make other things with. Not really my idea of a good time.

But, we have a rule in our family that it isn't always about you. We have to take turns in choosing activities, movies, vacation destinations, field trips, etc. Even if the activity wasn't the one you wanted, we all try it and we all try to enjoy it...and in this way we support each others interests.

So, the Jedi found a tutorial video for him and I to watch, and we each played through the free demo version.

From that I learned that my initial understanding of Minecraft was way over-simplified.

In Minecraft, you start out in a wilderness setting with no tools and no supplies. You have a certain amount of daylight (10 minutes real time) to gather some basic supplies, find shelter, find coal for a fire, and hole up for the night. Because at night, unless you are playing on 'peaceful' mode, monsters come out. The first few days are all about simply surviving. You have both a health meter and a hunger meter. You need to stay safe, find food, and work towards improving your circumstance. Its a tricky process at first.

The Jedi and I watched the tutorials and played the demo version on Wednesday, July 3rd. Sweetling was away all week on a youth mission trip/service project, so it seemed that this was the perfect time to participate in an activity that Toa wanted us to try.

On the morning of the 4th I woke up and the Jedi was carrying a large case through the bedroom into the "server room". I asked what it was and he said it was going to be a new server for a family Minecraft world. (Just so the reader knows, one does NOT need a separate computer or a dedicated server to play the game. We are just, um, crazy in some ways.)

The Jedi found and loaded up this amazing, immense world.

Mostly to humor me, we agreed to set the world to 'peaceful', until we had a decent shelter built and had a steady food source.

We were far to busy to take 'before' screenshots of the little valley we found to start our camp in. We were so busy, in fact, that we were playing from around ten in the morning till 2:30 a.m.

Friday we woke up, walked the dog, got breakfast, and got busy. We turned off the 'peaceful' setting that day.

I can't tell you how cool this game is. From a homeschooling mom standpoint...the game promotes teamwork and co-operation, strategy and planning, creativity and perseverance. But most importantly, its just out and out great fun.

From nothing, and in the face of adversity, here's what we've built....

The front of our stronghold. Toa of Boy found the materials and figured out how to make a moat of fire. Inside there is a staircase that leads to the top crenelation so that you can stand there and look around. The front door is now an iron door that has a button to push to open it from the outside, and presser plate that you step on inside to automatically open it. Again, Toa of Boy made them.

This is from the rooftop looking down at the monster who is so sad that he can't reach me. Tee hee.

Here are some of the inside shots of our house. Currently, we have three levels, plus a basement, and mining tunnels underneath, AND two different rooftop levels. Most of the interior was designed and built by Toa.

Living area...

Restaurant (behind the counter is a chest with stored food supplies and a crafting table for making recipes)...

Disco floor, because every home needs a disco floor...

Indoor floor garden, which Toa made just for me :)

There are several others, but those are my favorites.

Meanwhile, my major undertaking was a wheat farm. Each square of wheat yields one bundle of wheat. Three bundles of wheat yield one loaf of bread. At first, I just planted the wheat next to a nearby pond and dug some irrigation trenches to keep it well watered. But harvesting and replanting the wheat one square at a time was taking up all my daylight, just to keep us fed. I told the Jedi that this wasn't a game, this was a job! I thought there had to be a better way to do this. So I searched online, and I found some youtube videos on automatic wheat harvesters. One in particular had a nice step by step guide on how to build one.

I got to work, and I built three.

I built the fence around them to keep the cows and pigs from wandering in and trampling the wheat. It also helps to keep monsters out at night. (Also, the base of each harvester is a trench filled with water. The soil that the wheat is planted in is immediately above the water filled trench, so the water underneath keeps the wheat irrigated so that it will grow.)

At the top of each terraced row of wheat is a water reservoir. When it's time to harvest the wheat Toa of Boy goes up and breaks the dirt block which act like a plug for the water. The water flows down and sweeps the ripe wheat and the wheat seeds into a trench at the bottom of the row. I stand there and collect the wheat and seeds. Then its a quick mater to replant.

Pretty sweet, right?

The Jedi devoted a great deal of his time to mining and crafting tools, weapons, and armor for us each. When he had us equipped with the best armor and weapons possible, he turned his attention to exploring the world. (He and Toa of Boy walked to the seacoast, built boats, and sailed down the coast to see what else they could find. When they came back home, they came back stocked with all sorts of rare and valuable minerals and supplies.)

The also built a set of stairs up the mountain behind our stronghold.

The stairs are connected to the top level of our roof and lead to a watchtower which the Jedi built on the top of the mountain.

Check out the view from the mountain stairs.

There are some materials you can only get from killing monsters. String (to make bows) can only be gotten from killing a spider. Carrots and potatoes are dropped by zombies (don't ask me why). Once you get one carrot or one potato, you can plant it and grow seeds to make more. Anyway, at night sometimes Toa and the Jedi go out monster hunting for certain supplies. I watch from the castle roof and yell helpful things like, "Behind you!"

During the daylight hours I'm working on making a giant waterslide down the face of the mountain. When it's finished, I'll post screenshots of that. I know you all can't wait for that.

For those of you who had read my recent Facebook updates and wondered what in the world I was talking about, I hope this answers some of your questions.

Now, if we can just talk Sweetling into joining us in this insanity constructive bonding time.

Work in Progress

You have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet;

And you have to, um, well....rip a few papers, pop a few balloons, cut up a couple cereal boxes, and make a mess all over the table (and floor) to make a pinata (or two). 

Summer Bucket List 2012

It's that time again. Time to go out and GRAB US SOME SUMMER!!

At the beginning of each summer, the kids and I sit down and brainstorm a summer bucket list.  

The rules for the brainstorming sessions usually are that we take turns, each of us writing down an idea of something to do, to see, to visit, to make over the summer. No one is allowed to nay-say, whine, grumble, or otherwise complain about anyone else's idea. Plus, anything goes when we are making the list. One year we had "visit China" on the list. (We went to a Chinese restaurant, did a Chinese art project, and, completely unplanned and unexpected, one of the Jedi's co-workers gave us a souvenir from China.)

Now, we usually aren't able to do everything on the list, but it's there, and we try to do at least one thing each week.

This summer, we broke our own rules a little bit. We made the list in the car on the way home from an outing with Tia Smurf. Tia Smurf was writing things down, and I was driving, and we failed to take turns like we usually do. The result is a list that's pretty art heavy, cause Smurf and I were sitting in the front seat. But, we had the list hanging on the fridge for at least a couple of weeks, and items were added on as kids thought of them, so I'm hopeful that everyone still got their share of wishes on the bucket list.

• Wednesdays on the Green @ CCAC---Free concerts and other fun activities. The kickoff is June 6th at 7pm featuring the Comet Bluegrass Allstars. My children need to hear Bluegrass :)

• Choir Game Pigs---That's right, baby! The pigs are back! We're totally going to take a day to go see them!

•  World Choir Games--Maybe as volunteers, maybe as buying tickets. But this is awesome and epic, and we need to see some of it!

• Art for All-- To celebrate it's 80th anniversary, the Taft Museum is displaying its works in 80 locations across Cincinnati. That's like a giant art scavenger hunt

• Artworks Murals--There's a huge list of Artworks Murals, a huge list! We aren't going to have the stamina to see them all, but I'd like to take camera and sketchbook and go see some of them. And maybe then paint our own on the back of the garage!

• Cincinnati Roller Girls Game--I've never seen a roller derby game, but I'm super impressed and in awe of the women and girls who compete in this sport. I think Sweetling and Toa will be as well!

•  Cincinnati Zoo-- This one is always a winner! The trick is to hit the zoo when they aren't too crowded and it isn't too hot! I wish I could say I have a perfect solution to that connundrum, but I don't. I think we'll try for a week day on the second week of June and just cross our fingers and hope for the best. On the other hand, if we go the last week of May, we'll be in time for Zoo Babies!

• Frisbee Golf-- ok, ok, technically the sport is not officially called 'frisbee golf'. But whatever you call it, there are several great courses around Cincinnati.

• Human Hamster Balls @ Newport on the Levee--  This is a bucket list item from last summer that never quite got realized (I'm blaming the busted ATM machine on the levee and a ridiculous cash only attraction. Really, who carries cash?) At any rate, it's a must-do item for this year.

• Rubber Duck Regatta -- In September, Cincinnati hosts the biggest rubber duck race ever. Check out these quick facts about the race. Toa of Boy really wants to sponsor a duck in the race!

Ok, click here and pretend these words are actually a very cool embedded video of last year's duck race.

• Cardboard Boat Regatta -- Because why confine ourselves to ducks only? Of course, we'll probably just spectate the race in the park....and then build and launch our own boats in some other location. Oh yes, yes we will!

• Sebastian's -- My children do not know what a gyro is. This must be rectified.

• Tour of Hamilton County Parks -- We hit the ones near us over and over and over again through the year. This summer, I want to visit one NEW park each week. We'll post about what we find.

• Miniature Golf-- It's not just golf in miniature. It's miniature golf. (Though, I'm not sure if Toa of Boy wanted to go play miniature golf somewhere or make his own miniature golf course. I shall have to seek clarification.)

• Red Bag Sale at the Main Library-- $10 for a big red bag stuffed full of books? Oh yeah, we're there. (And if you'd like to be there too...this year's Red Bag Sale is on Friday, June 8th from 9am to 5pm. We park in the two hour spots on Court Street.)

• Nature Art-- I told you this year's list was art heavy. But check out this beautiful gallery of nature inspired art. We are totally going out and making some of our own designs.  

Ferb, I know what we're going to do today....

Dear sweet, zombie-loving cousin' Charlie is absolutely to blame for derailing my morning.

She posted a link on Facebook to a site called Pinterest. It's highly addictive. It should never have been allowed anywhere near me. Putting that up on Facebook was nearly akin to leaving a loaded gun laying around the house where young children live. I should counter by sending Charlie a free copy of plants vs zombies or something. That's the loving thing to do, right?

What is this evil she fostered upon my day? A HUGE online collection of craft and gift ideas, that's what.

Valentine's Day for Toa.












And Sweetling too. 











Now I need to make a separate, never to be seen by others, post for Christmas gift ideas.

Making Memories: Gift Exchange

I know the holidays are over BUT that's part of the point of posting this now.

Each year, we get together with a small group of friends sometime in January, well after the holiday season is over. During the holidays, we're usually pretty swamped, and its difficult to squeeze another activity onto the calendar. After the holidays, we can get together and spend the better part of an afternoon and evening sharing a pot-luck meal, playing games, and exchanging gifts.

Yep, that's right. Exchanging gifts.

Now, before you groan, thinking that we just got finished with trying to get gifts assembled for everyone on a big long list....let me tell you that this gift exchange is no ordinary gift exchange. (We originally called our gift exchange a Christmas Consortium.....but we no longer hold this at Christmas, half of the participants are Muslim, and Gift Consortium just doesn't have the right ring to it.)

Here are the rules to our gift exchange:

1. You may not buy anyone a present.
2. You should try to give something to each person.
3. You may make a gift, re-gift something of your own, or gift another item you previously owned. (Baked goods and other consumable items are welcome.)
4. You may buy some materials to make a gift with, but we set a limit on how much money you can spend on supplies (we've usually gone with around $2-$5 per present on total supplies).

That's it!

We've had, through the years, many fun and memorable gifts following this system. When we were in college (yes, that's how long we've been doing this), gifts ranged from ziplock baggies full of Arby's sauce packets to large sheets of bubble wrap to painted coffee mugs. One year the Jedi made a favorite dessert for everyone in the Consortium. I was eating triple chocolate cake for a week. Now that we are older, the adults exchange presents, and the kids exchange presents.

This year, I totally took advantage of the fact that we are homeschoolers, and encorporated making our gifts into our school curriculum. Did you know that tie-dye is a fabric art form that flourishes in West Africa from Cameroon to Nigeria to Liberta? We were, co-incidentally, just finishing up our unit on Africa so.....

Sweetling made hajibs for the two girls in the Consortium.

Toa of Boy made t-shirts for the two boys.

We had also just read Galimoto and discussed the art of making things out of found objects. It wasn't a galimoto, but we made duct tape wallets for the other kids as well. (I sent out an email to the other mother and asked for her kids' favorite colors. We used that information to plan the colors for the both the tie-dye and the  duct tape wallets.)

In return, Sweetling and Toa received books picked from some of the other childrens' favorites (Toa of Boy got "The Activity Handbook" which he is already picking activities from. Sweetling got a larger collection of favorite novels, which I'm sure she'll devour.) They also got some fun items, like a watermelon-scented pencil made from 100% recycled newspaper, a squishy monkey, and a plush monkey as "bigger than Peach Boy!"

Books were a theme amoung the adults too, since I gave out some books from my bookshelf, along with bookmarks for each person done in chalk pastels. (I realized on the way to the party that I hadn't photographed them yet, so the following photos were taken with the bookmarks on my hat, on my lap, in a moving car, with a flash that reflected off the plastic laminate I used to try to protect the chalk pastels. I made 5 beautiful bookmarks, but only 2 of the photos are any good.)

The Gentle Giant gave out artwork as well...here is the recipient of that art.

Other adult gifts included pocket knifes, still in their original boxes, given from the collection of a father who had passed away several years ago. The Jedi made "Absolutely Deep Dark" Chocolate Cookies from the Death by Chocolate cookbook.  I received a lovely angel statue for my collection and a beautiful warm wrap that I am snuggled in right now.

So how about you? Do you have a group of friend that you just didn't have the time, or the money, to get together with over the holidays? It's not too late for a Winter Gift Consortium! (And, it might be just the thing to chase away the dreary, cold days of winter.)

Fall Break

We're considering starting our two week fall break next week. Here's our list of things we might like to do during our Fall School Break:

--go to Pig Island
--visit the outdoor area of the Creation Museum
--go to Serpentine Mound
--make fairy houses
--decorate the house for fall
--carve our own letterbox stamps and use them :)
--helium balloon launch (with an email address for responses to track how far they travel)

And, because we are us and all, this has developed into another list for October activities:

--burry the Oooka in leaves
--collect and laminate pretty fall leaves to hang in the windows
--set up our own haunted house

And now this has become a discussion of what we want to be for Halloween. Just so you know, here are some of the options that have been tossed out (for our family, these are remarkably mainstream).

1. Toy story characters. The kids could be the three eyed aliens. Mommy could be Jessie. This plan falls apart because we don't think we can talk the Jedi into being Buzz Lightyear.
2. The cast of Curious George. Toa gets to be the monkey, of course. Sweetling gets type-cast as Professor Wiseman. And Mommy getst to be the Mommy in the Yellow Hat. The bonus of this plan is that Mommy gets a yellow hat.
3. The cast of Pacman game. Someone would have to be Pacman and the rest of us get colored sheets and become Inky, Blinky, and Pinky.
4. The cast of Penguins of Madagaskar was tossed out by Toa of Boy, who immediately volunteered to be Mort. Sweetling says this would wind up looking like three penguins and a little brown thing. Unless Mommy was King Julien, which Sweetling says would look like two penguins, a little brown thing, and Mommy wearing a grey suit with a crazy hat.

Making Memories: Letterboxing

What is letterboxing?

I can't tell you how many times I've been meaning to answer that question. I've had it posed to me multiple times on Facebook, over the phone, and in person.....  which just goes to show how much I've been talking about letterboxing this summer.

Letterboxing is like a treasure hunt. Letterboxing is like a scavenger hunt. Letterboxing is like solving a mystery. Letterboxing can be like an interactive nature hike. Letterboxing is sometimes like a mini-history lesson. But most importantly, letterboxing is fun and intriguing and a little bit addicting.

Plus, letterboxes are hidden all over North America, so no matter which state you live in or are visiting, you can probably find a letterbox hunt not too far away.

Here's how it works....one family or individual is inspired to hide a letterbox. Some letterboxes tell a personal story of a favorite vacation, are a memorial to a loved one, or relate to an unusual bit of local history.  In my area, I've found one letterbox hunt that relates to the underground railroad, one that is in honor of a late family pet, and one that was inspired by Ohio's state symbols.   

The hidden letterbox is a waterproof container of some kind and contains a handcarved rubber stamp and a log book. The hider then posts, or otherwise distributes clues about where the letter box is hidden. Sometimes the clues have very clear starting points, sometimes one must do some research about local history to find the starting point. (We haven't attempted the latter yet.)

From the starting point, the clues will give directions on how to follow a path to find the letterbox. (Such as, 'look to the east and you will see...." or "take the north branch of the path".) Letterboxes don't use GPS coordinates (that's geocaching). Sometimes the clues are pretty obvious....sometimes not so much.

(Thankfully, this was NOT a snake.  Since I was standing right under the thing, no one was happier than me to discover that it wasn't a snake.)

The letterbox itself will be hidden in some out of the way spot, mostly or completely obscured from view. When found, the finder is supposed to carefully remove the letterbox, without being seen by passerby, and carry it away from its hiding place....so as not to draw attention to its location.

The finder carries his or her own stamp, a stamp pad, a waterproof pen, and a log book of their own. (Yeah, I mixed singular and plural pronouns. Neener neener.) They use the stamp that was in the letterbox to stamp their own log book. They use their own stamp to stamp the log book that was in the letterbox. In both log books, they record the date it was found.

In the letterbox log, they write where they are from as well as their "trail" name, and any other notes they'd like to record for the hider of the letterbox as well us other finders who will read the log book later. In their own personal log book, they record the name of the letterbox, where they found it, and any other notes about the hunt.

When both log books are stamped and annotated, everything is placed back inside resealable plastic bags and put back in the letterbox, which is sealed and closed.  Then carefully place the letterbox in its original hidden location, being careful not to be observed, and being careful to leave the area looking undisturbed.



The morning of our first letterbox hunt, we were looking over our summer bucket list, trying to decide what to do that day. "Let's go letterboxing!" I declared. The kids weren't sure what letterboxing was, but I used my awesome power of persuasion to convince them to give it a try. (No, I didn't bribe or threaten them; thanks for the vote of confidence there.)

Just a few minutes later, Insight called. She had been trying to decide what to do that day, and was looking over our bucket list for ideas, and thought she and her boy might try letterboxing. A joint outing was quickly agreed upon.

If you'd like to try letterboxing on your own, here's what you need:

1. A waterproof stamp pad
2. A rubber stamp (you can buy supplies to carve your own at a craft store, or used a premade rubber stamp.) This stamp stands for you or your family. I've also seen families carve a small stamp for each person. 
3. A permanent or scrapbooking marker
4. A small log book
5. A camera. I forgot mine, but Insight remembered hers....thus the lovely pictures.
6. Shoes for walking/hiking.
7. Insect repellent. (It just makes any walk through the woods more pleasant.) Sun screen if your walk isn't through a shady forest.
8. A sense of adventure, a little patience, a dose of perseverance, and a smidgen of luck.

Read more about letterboxing, and find some clues for a letterbox hunt near you at letterboxing.org  This site has clues for letterbox hunts across North America. 

If you decide to try out letterboxing, please drop back in and let me know how it goes!


Check out more Field Trip ideas! (Plus, I'm so proud of myself for figuring out how to include a clickable graphic link!)