Fubber!!

Actually, in our house we say (in our loudest, monster-voice, FLUBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!) For this summer, and now that I have a handle on things what with Ian being mobile and more independent, I'm back to doing cool stuff with Oliver. At least he thinks it's cool :)  So, while hanging out on Pinterest one night, I found an interesting "project" to do with kids where they drop food coloring into a pan of corn starch. We did that, and it wasn't nearly as cool as Pinterest claimed it was...but Oliver had a good time for about 45 minutes. I decided to search online for other things to do with these two materials, I came across a recipe for "Flubber," a rubbery, oozy, solid-y, weird substance that looks and acts just like the movie of this same name. Except not alive. Thankfully.

MIXTURE 1
2 bottles of 8 oz Elmer's school glue
1 1/2 cups water
any food coloring

MIXTURE 2 (in separate bowl)
1/2 cup warm water
3 tsp Borax

Mix 1 with 2

It's cool! It's cheap! It stores well in the fridge in an airtight container! It's also toxic so no eating and wash hands after using it...

We made red flubber a few weeks ago (actually more pink) and this time we made blue. A weird property about flubber...you can break it into a million pieces, stick it back in the container, and like the bad metallic Terminator from the movie, it all congeals back together, like a liquid, yet it's like a solid. It's fun and Oliver got to learn words like "liquid," "solid," "congeal," "viscosity," and "weird."

Apparently pictures taken on my phone won't turn around. I don't get it and I don't like it. But it is what it is.

I guess just turn your computer on its side :)

Once Upon a Time...

I recently read a funny post of a woman who created her family as a cast of actors who she felt most resembled them. In homage to that post, I thought I'd do something similar.

Have you ever been asked which Disney princess you think is the hottest/looks the most like you/you'd want to be? Yeah, those are kind of annoying questions, so I took it upon myself to cast my family as Disney characters. They no longer have to wonder who they are anymore. Because, if I know my family, and I think I do, that is a question that has been tormenting them all for decades now.

Now before I get started, the wonderful (and obnoxious), thing about these characters is how very one-dimensional they are. While it makes for ease of story-telling to children, it makes it more difficult to typecast actual people into. Well, unless you're me and kind of one-dimensional naturally. Yep, I'm a one-trick pony.

Anyhoo, I tried to only pick one character that fits best in MY eyes.

My Parents:

My Dad. King Triton!
Not only is the giant beard a "gimme," but this king is pretty powerful and appears scary to a lot of people. He is very respected but once you get to know him, you find what a softie he really is and how much he treasures his family. Plus, I'm pretty sure both their favorite movie is "Sleepless in Seattle."

My Mom: Belle!
Lover of books and in love with a hairy man (ha ha ha!) A quiet introvert who'd rather have her nose in the modern version of a book (computer...) but with some fun, loyal, and sometimes flamboyant friends.











Big Brother: Tarzan!
 Do you know how hard it is to find non-boring-Disney-prince-male characters? While he now has a short, business-y cut, my big bro once sported the long jungle hair back in his rock star days. And see the big gap between Tarzan's big toe and the others? Yep, he's got a similar one with the added talent of being able to pick up all kinds of things with them. Oh yeah, and they're both clever and intelligent...one to survive the jungle, the other to survive the software jungle.

Aussie Sister: Cinderella!
She's thinking, HUH?? But hear me out. I was originally going to go with Belle, but she's taken. While Belle loves books and my sweet sister reads a book a week, Cinderella has a "thing" with animals and can communicate with them, not unsimilar to her, but is stuck living with filthy slobs who she acts maid to. In one of her awesome houses, my sister got stuck cleaning dishes, showers, and even toilets after her awesome housemates. Not to worry, she's no longer the maid with her new awesome job and better house, and now she's planning the perfect place to leave her glass slipper.

Za: Jasmine!
This one was so obvious after I had a second to think about it...These two are peas in a pod - they like to show off their rockin' mid-sections, both have feline-favorite-companions (I'm pretty sure Q has the ferociousness of a tiger, and Bubo the cuddliness Disney would have you believe tigers possess), and both end up falling for the "riff-raff." Ha ha!

 Me: Ariel!
I know I know, no one saw that coming with the red hair and all. In my teaching days my students often told me I looked like the little mermaid. Anyway, I thought this picture said it all - she's shocked she's got legs...I have this moment several times a day. The huh? Why did I walk in this room? Is it 6AM or 6PM? I've got legs??*

 Nich: Peter Pan was my attempt at obvious humor...so ha ha! (Peter Pan Syndrome?) Ok, I was deciding between Prince Charming (yeah yeah) and Aladdin's Genie. Well, it's definitely Genie! Here's a guy who is the ultimate optimist, goofball, comic relief, and has the giant arms I love to fall into every night, or, day, or whenever it is I see him between shifts. He seriously makes all my dreams come true, but is thankfully a little easier on the eyes than this genie and definitely my Prince Charming!

*So Nich read this and said I should be Snow White...maid and caretaker to a house full of boys. Yep, maybe so. Or Jasmine...I ended up marrying the riff-raff, ha!