AFO (Braces) Are Here!!

This is how Superstar's feet where back in June when this whole process started:

He was NOT able to put his heels to the ground! No matter how hard he tried! It has been a trying summer and long fall with MRI and other testings. We finally after a delay due to illness were able to have surgery done. Surgery result in Superstar wearing casts for the last 6 weeks. However it was all worth it after seeing him today! This is below is him standing today!!!

Can I just say that I'm thrilled and overjoyed to see him stand flat footed! He has NEVER done that his whole life!! It's really amazing thing to see. In the picture above he IS wearing his new AFO (braces) and long with his NEW shoes. Can I just also say I was shock and taken back when we were were told we could get him a 5 mens! We were told a 5 Kids is the same as a 5 mens. We got from the kids department because Superstar liked the choice better. PRIOR to surgery he wore a 2 1/2. So I was shock to know his feet grew so much. If it wasn't for the brace he would have been in a 4 1/2. So 2 size in the last 6 weeks is A LOT!!!

Just so you can have a better look at Superstar's AFO! We love the turtle on the back with the rocket attached to its back. It reminds me of the looney toons cartoons I grew up watching with the coyote always trying to get the roadrunner! LOL Superstar will have to wear braces now for the next 2-3 years.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Paper Mache Masks

First I wished I took pictures of the whole process. We over the course of the last two weeks have made Paper Mache Masks. The over all process is simple but it is MESSY! So you have to have a bit of patience with this and you need a good place for storage while you wait for things to dry out.

You'll Need:

• A balloon (1 for each child)
• strips of paper, newspaper is most likely the best, but I didn't have any so I used some left over Christmas wrap (see picture below)

This is the side of the paper that was touching the balloon.

• flour
• water
• salt
• Paint (we used washable poster paint)
• and Paint Brushes

The Process:

First blow up the balloon to as big as you want your mask to be. I told the kids to blow them up to be slightly bigger then your head. Once it's blown up tie a not in the bottom.

You'll also want to make your paper strips at this time if you haven't done so already. I did mine about 1-2 inches thick and about 5-6 inches long. Honestly I didn't measure them. You'll want them to be a thickness and length that is easy to handle for the kids, but also makes covering the balloon easy.

Then make the Paper Mache Paste. The Paste is made with the flour, water, and salt. It's about 1 part flour to 2 parts water and some salt added to help avoid mold. (Of course there are more detail instructions on how to make the paste.)

The process is really simple from there: Dip the paper into the paste, let it drip off some (although  the kids didn't really follow that rule), and lay it on the balloon and smooth it out. Repeat the process until about 1/2 of the balloon is covered. When laying the strips be sure they overlapping some. Seeing we were using Christmas wrap I told the kids to lay the Christmas Print towards the balloon so the underside of the wrapping paper was on top.

After this is done you need to find a space to keep them stored for about a week. Waiting a week allows them to completely dry out and allows the balloon to naturally deflate some which makes removing the paper mache from the balloon easier.

After about a week has past it's time to remove the mask from the balloon. This step is easy, but a bit messy. I found I had what looked like potato flakes everywhere when handling the mask. I have the feeling it was just the extra flour flaking off. Superstar's balloon deflated nicely and his mask just came off with no issues. Web-princess's balloon did deflate but not as much so I had to aid the process of removing the balloon by carefully puncturing it with a push pin. I did NOT want it to "pop" I just wanted more air out. As soon as the balloon deflated more I was able to remove the paper mashe easily.

We then put a base coat of white poster paint on the masks and allowed them to dry over night. We did this to help stop the flaking of the flour, which it did help greatly. We also did it to help cover the Christmas print that did bleed through and to cover those pieces that did get laid the "wrong" way. (Print side up). If you use newspaper the white coat would also cover up the newsprint.

Then today we finished up the mask by painting faces on them! Again we used washable poster paint and as I type they are sitting on the table drying.

This is web-princess's mask

This is Superstar's mask

I MIGHT cut out actual holes in them for eyes and mouths and add some srting so they can be worn as a "real" mask. I'll just have to wait and see how they are after all the paint has dried. I'm not sure if they will hold up for that or not.

Either way they enjoyed the process. The reason it took two weeks was giving it time to dry out. Laying the paper on that took the kids only about 20 minutes and the paint took them about 30 minutes. This easily could be a 2 weekend project. One weekend to do the paper the following weekend to do paint.

Out With The Old-In With The New

I enjoy Christmas at my relatives because I don't have the stress of making room in my small but modest house. Although the toys are enough to drive me bonkers. I would be so much happier if my relatives would each just do one nice gift vs. many gifts. Mainly because we have a small house and the kids are left with twice a year deciding what MUST go and what CAN stay!

You see each child has a toy (bin) shelf in their room. The only toys they are allowed to have are the ones that can "fit" in their bins.

I insist that the toys be grouped by like things. So they just can't have a mess of stuff. Now there might be a few things that are naturally too big for these bins and that is okay. I do make allowances for some things like that, but even then there is a limit.

This is the reason we don't allow them to open things while at our relatives' houses. You see in order to get the item the kids have to make room for it in their room's by getting rid of OTHER stuff. If they don't want to get rid of anything then they can't get anything "new". 

My son as gotten rid of one 13 gallon garbage bag of stuff and has only "earn" 1 new toy.  My daughter has gotten rid of half of 13 gallon garbage bag of stuff and has only "earn" 1 toy. They have a TONS more toys and will have to get rid of a lot more things to make room.  I have a feeling that when they are done they both would have gotten rid of 3-4 garbage bag EACH!!

We do a similar thing in the summer. In the summer they will get rid 1-2 garbage bags EACH. The main difference between Christmas and summer in the summer time there is less stuff and it's POST birthdays. So kid's do have a bit of an overflow of toys for a few months.

What's sad about the whole process is the only time my kids get new toys is on their birthdays and at Christmas.  So often the stuff they got at their birthdays are gone by Christmas and the stuff they got at Christmas are gone by the summer.

In other words the toys here will only stay for 6 months!! This is because often the kids rather keep the newer stuff then the older stuff. This is really the reason we only get them 1 toy each (and often wish other would do the same), because in 6 months we know it's going o be gone because it broke or because the kids got rid of it to make room for their new stuff.

So what do you do? Do you make your kids get rid of their old stuff regularly?

It's almost a cast off party!

One of the things we told superstar is when his cast come off we will have a cast off party! He is so looking forward to going to chuck e cheese!

Well we are almost there! As you can see from these photos superstar had his casts cut and they are ready to be removed.

However he STILL has to wear them until his braces (AFO) come! He was fitted for braces yesterday and it will take about 1 1/2 weeks for them to be made and ready for use. So we get to pick up the braces (AFO) on New Years' Eve!! We are so excited! (Normally this would only take a week, but with it being Christmas Week....)

In the mean time STILL no baths/showers and he has to wear his cast 24/7 until the braces come. The casts are being held on his feet with an ace bandage wrapped tightly around the cast. I did remove the top half on the one for the picture. :) However he didn't walk on it and as soon as I was done snapping the picture I put the top half back on and re wrapped it.

I'm sure that it was fine for a a quick snap shot like that! :) We just wanted to be able to show you how we are almost done with these casts! So next week we get to celebrate the new year with a cast off party!!!

Merry Christmas
Nikki (aka SAHMinIL)

Making And Capturing Carbon Dioxide

Recently in science we have been discussing gas, along with other things like solids and liquids. We have been discussing how gas has a volume; how it takes up space. One easy way of showing this to the kids is to make and capture carbon dioxide.

To make and capture carbon dioxide you will need:

• some narrow neck bottles (we used some beer bottles, but any narrow neck bottle will work)
• Vinegar
• Baking Soda
• Balloons

I'm sure most of my dear readers are aware of the bubbling, explosive reaction that baking soda and vinegar have together. That same bubbling, explosive reaction makes a carbon dioxide and you can capture that gas by placing a balloon over the bottle as soon as you mix the vinegar and baking soda.

Web-Princess after doing the vinegar and baking soda several times wanted to see what happened if we mixed the baking soda with other liquids: Water, Milk, and Apple Juice. She chose these other liquids because it was what we had here at the house.

To our surprise we had a reaction, a gas produced, when we mixed the apple juice and baking soda. The picture ABOVE shows that. The bottle in the middle is milk and baking soda, the bottle at the end (left side) is the water and baking soda. The bottle at the other end, with the green balloon, is 100% apple juice and baking soda. So when you mix baking soda and apple juice you get a gas too.

However baking soda and vinegar produces more gas as seen in this picture BELOW:

The bottle with the  blown-up yellow balloon is vinegar and baking soda. The bottle with the green balloon is vinegar and apple juice.

Of course we wonder now if would get a gas with baking soda and other juices like grape, cranberry, orange. However we don't have any more juices in the house. So we would have to wait until we get one of those juices at our next shopping trip. OR you could try this at your house and let us know the results!!!

FYI: We had to shake the juice and baking soda really well after we put the balloon on to get the result we got. If you decided to do this please blog about it and share your results with us! It will be fun to see what others did or what they observed!

Another Side Note: It was great that we decided to do this today when Daddy was home. It was great because often Daddy doesn't see how they react to the hands on activities such as this. It was also great because Daddy got to see our daughter get excited about the reaction of apple juice and baking soda. She went on and on how she discovered it. (After all it was her idea to mix the two items.)

I'm sure they would have had the chance to mix baking soda and vinegar in brick and mortar school. However I don't think they would have had the chance to say okay now lets see what happens when we mix the baking soda with other liquids. Homeschooling allowed us to take this to the next step and start mixing the baking soda with other liquids to see what happens!

Of course you could just blow up a balloon the "normal" way to show how gas has volume, but frankly it's more fun to mix vinegar and baking soda and capture the carbon dioxide!