Texas Treats

A lone star sandwich!

Blue corn chips (this plate of chips became nachos!).  According to The United States Cookbook by Joan D'Amico and Karen Eich Drummond, Texas grows more blue corn than any other state.

We also learned that chili is the state food of Texas, and we will be happy to enjoy some chili this weekend! 

Cactus Painting

I enjoyed cactus painting more than my children did.  I found the painting to be very relaxing and I loved the texture of the dry paint.  C and R enjoyed it too, just not as much as I did. 

First, I drew a huge cactus on a large roll of paper.

To make the cactus paint, I mixed together 1/4 cup liquid laundry starch, 1/4 cup water, 2 TBSP green paint, and 1 cup salt. 

Then we painted the cactus and left the paper on the floor to dry.  When dry, the paint has a rough texture.

We did this project as part of our Texas studies for our Fifty States Project.

The Gingerbread Cowboy

The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires is a wild western version of the classic tale.  A rancher's wife is tired of baking biscuits and decides to make a gingerbread cowboy instead.  When the rancher peeks in the oven, the gingerbread cowboy takes off running.  Instead of the usual cast of characters, he encounters a horned lizard, a roadrunner, a band of javelinas (not sure what these are??, I have to google them), long-horned cattle, and a coyote.  The book is a fun read.  I love all the different versions of The Gingerbread Man.

I thought about making cowboys out of real gingerbread, but we opted for the paper version instead.  I drew the outline of the gingerbread cowboys, and C and R filled in the details.

Here is C's gingerbread cowboy.  He didn't want to cut it out because he drew some details around the cowboy.  His details are all things that the rancher's wife used to make the cowboy.

R wanted her gingerbread cowboy cut out, and here it is:

We made some silly cowboy hats too!  The hats are just card stock cut in the shape of a cowboy hat with a paper bag band stapled around the back.

These silly hats made us laugh for quite a while!  Some cowboy fun is a great way to begin learning about the state of Texas.

Camping in the Living Room

C and R have been asking to have a camp out in the living room for a few weeks now and we finally did it last night.   This was our first camp out in our new home so I had to post some pictures.

We enjoyed some s'mores. 

T recently got braces so s'mores are probably not a good idea for him, but I hated to exclude him from the fun so I made him one or two.  No damage done.  Phew!

After our special treat, C, R, and I snuggled up in sleeping bags and watched An American Tale 2, Fievel Goes West.  T watched a few minutes and then decided he had things to do.  I thought the movie was funny and cute, and it ties in nicely to our Texas studies. 

This is a picture of C and R laughing really hard at one part of the movie.  They didn't even notice me taking the picture.

It was a fun night and hopefully the first of many living room camp outs in our new home.  (When is it no longer our "new" home?)

Our Snowman

This is all that is left of our snowman.  I wish I could say that he melted because it is getting warm.  I have a serious case of spring fever and it is still January. 

Texas

Our next state for the Fifty States Project is Texas!  Here are the books we are reading:

• The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires

• The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola 

• The Inside-Outside Book of Texas by Roxie Munro

• Armadillo Rodeo by Jan Brett

If you have any other book recommendations, please share them in the comments section.  We are looking forward to some great Texas projects. 

Penguins Playing in the Snow

We have created so many snowmen over the last few weeks that we had to move on to something different.  I thought penguins would be fun, and C has been learning about penguins in school so they seemed like the perfect craft subject.

C and R made snowy backgrounds by painting bubble wrap with white paint and then pressing the bubble wrap down onto the paper.

Once the paint dried, they made penguins out of hearts and sent them out to play in the snow!

For directions on how to make your own heart shaped penguins click here.

To get that messy hair, wake up and begin crafting immediately.