Crayons on Cooldown 12/5/11

Our weekend has been top notch.

Yesterday, we did laundry and lounged all morning then stocked up at Sam's in the afternoon. The Salvation Army bucket was there to be filled, and the bell was being rung. I emptied all the coins I had on me into Jake's hand, and he dropped them in. He loved it! (so much the bellringer let him do his job for a minute or two).

We came home and took naps and then went out once more for soup at McAllister's, a replacement jacket for Jake to take back and forth to school, and a few groceries at Target.

And today, we got crafting. A few of us weren't up to "par", so we stayed in and sang "Jesus Loves Me", read a devotion or two, and melted crayons.

Jake's crayons are mismatched, years old, and almost all of them broken.

And while we colored Rudolph and Bullseye this morning, I remembered seeing a few simple steps for upcycling crayons.

We started by peeling off the labels/wrappers (I think this part could be made easier with an Exacto knife. But I didn't have one, he wouldn't have been able to help me, and it wasn't as time-consuming as it looks (We only made six, so it didn't take a hundred and one of them to fill the cups.).

We sorted them into the cups.

Then baked them at 230 degrees for about twenty minutes.

We let them cool completely (for several hours actually), and they literally fell out of the muffin cups.

Now he has some crazy cool crayons to take Buzz Lightyear from beige to kaleidoscopic.

Sidenote: Oscar finished working the Christmas Nativity puzzle Jake's Grandma sent him in the mail (which Jake is soooo ecstatic about...that he got mail. i.e. When Parker tried to approach him putting it together, he told him, "No, Parker. That's my mail.") last night and was found this morning sitting in the box it came in. And tonight I found him sitting on the boy's bathroom counter - toothbrush in hand complete with toothpaste on it with some squeezed out on the counter. He and I may need to have a talk about cleaning up after himself.

An incredible week...and counting down to another ridiculously good weekend - here we come!