Ice Marbles

Have you seen that pin where you can make big ice marbles? You are to fill balloons up w/water and let them sit out in the cold. After they freeze you break the balloon and have big round ice marbles for your kids to play w/in the snow. I thought this sounded like a perfect project for my two boys this winter.
I snagged some balloons and began to fill them w/water. I had forgotten how hard it was to fill balloons with water under the faucet. Water water everywhere! I wanted to have different color marbles so I filled a few of my balloons w/food coloring. I put the food coloring in first then the water.
The first thing I realized was that the balloons were not round once filled w/water. They were more like ovals. Hmmm?

Frozen Water Balloons

We were having below freezing temps so I put the water balloons out in the snow. I left them out for two days. We were having another snow storm and I was excited to break these out for the boys.
To my surprise two of the five balloons were not frozen. The smaller ones I had done were still completely liquid. I brought in the other three balloons and started to get to work.
I cut the first balloon only to realize I was having liquid spill out. (Thank goodness I was doing it over a bowl.) It was obviously not completely frozen. I kept going to see what I had...
The whole balloon did not freeze. I figured after two days in 10 degree weather they would have frozen! Luckily, there was still enough frozen water to keep going.
I was unhappy w/the shape. The pin made it look like you could have these beautiful circular glass looking marbles. But even if they weren't circular they also had a flat bottom from resting on the ground.

"Ice marbles" sitting in all their unfrozen liquid.

I ended up cutting all three balloons open and having so much liquid spill out into the bowl. I was nervous the whole project would be a bust. 
Once I cleaned up the mess of the colored water I put the now "ice marbles" in a clear bowl to deliver to my boys playing outside.
In the long run these did not turn out anything like I expected, but the boys still thought they were cool. In fact, they buried them in the snow and played a treasure hunting game w/them. I was happy to see them still get played w/even though they were far from perfect. I'd like to try again but I'm not sure what to do differently. I could try it w/different shaped balloons and maybe just put them in my freezer for a few days instead of outside?
Either way, it turned out to be a fun experience for the boys and a messy project for me! Seems like that is usually the way it goes though. ;)

Final product

The boys burying the "ice marbles"

House Deodorizer

I have been intrigued by different pins that have homemade deodorizers to make on your stove.  I think it sounds lovely but have never done it until today. I found an easy one that didn't take too many ingredients and the ingredients were common.
Williams Sonoma House Deodorizer
I substituted lemons for limes because that is what was in my fridge. In fact, I used a lime that I had already squeezed from preparing this meal I found on Pinterest.
Honey Lime Chicken
What in the world did we do before the beloved Pinterest??
I boiled my concoction and then have let it simmer all day.
A lady dropped by my house for a pick up (whole other kind of board addiction). As she stood outside my house she said, "Wow, have you been cleaning all morning? Your house smells great!" The deodorizer had only been on the stove for about 45 minutes and it was that strong of  a scent! WAY easier than cleaning all morning!!
I'm super happy w/how it turned out! 

Crayon Art

I know we are about a year late to the party but the boys did some crayon art during their day off yesterday. They absolutely loved it!
I was thrilled to see that white canvases were buy one get one free at Michaels this week - Bonus!
I made a special trip to the hardware store to buy some blue painters tape. Only to find out that they were out blue painters tape. Really? So I purchased some green painters tap. I wanted to have their initials on the canvas. I taped their canvases up and had the boys choose what colors they wanted to use.

Not yet glued to the canvas

 They took longer choosing their colors than I expected. They took it very seriously. :) Once the colors were chosen we hot glued them to the top of the canvas. I made sure that they all were facing the right way (tips down/the word crayola showing). I had the boys help put them on once I glued them so they were not exactly in a straight line but still looked good.

The boys were most excited about revving up the heating tool and melting the wax.
We were surprised how quickly the wax started to melt and drip. It took just a few seconds. It didn't take long to realize that the tape, that I made a special trip for, was not working. You could see the wax under the tape. Bummer. Ezra decided to abandon his "E" and just enjoy the process of melting. He loved watching the colors "race" to the bottom.

Aidan decided to still try out his green tape. We pushed it own extra hard to make the best seal possible. Nope, green painters tape sucks -- at least when it's put up to the task of keeping out hot wax. We quickly just ripped the "A" off and went on w/our business.
It was really fun an the boys were thrilled to make their own art for their walls.
 Aidan decided he still wanted an "A" on his canvas so I painted a small black "A" on the corner. I think it looks pretty cute.

A few tips:

1. Obviously, number one, no not use green painters tape. ;)
2. I used two canvases, once box of 64 crayons and one box of 16 crayons. There were only about 6 crayons left. 
3. I have seen that you can use a hair dryer but if you have a heating tool from the old stamping days I would suggest digging that out. Mine worked perfect.
4. The wax does splatter! So make sure you do the melting in a box and in a UN-carpeted area.

 FINAL PRODUCTS: