PayDay, the Board Game

When you were growing up, was there a board game that you liked to play?  I'm assuming you are older and are of the board game generation (as opposed to the video game generation).

Maybe it was Monopoly?  The game of Life?  (the original, not the Spongebob version)  Backgammon?  Sorry?  Trouble?

I had a game called Pay Day.  It was a gift from my friend, Patti.  (you remember Pay Day, don't you Patti?)  I loved playing Pay Day!  Patti and I could play for hours.  It never got old re-enacting the TV commercial lines. 

"My long lost aunt. (pause)  She left me 500 bucks!"

Here's a link to the original commercial.

You're probably wondering why I'm writing about this game.  I don't know what happened to my original Pay Day game.  It probably got ruined when our basement flooded (which happened with every rain fall).  Well, after a long search, I finally found this game!  I was so excited!

I found it at a resale shop called "Savers."  For $3 (not a bad price, and all of the pieces are inside) I couldn't wait to get home and play.

The first time, I set up the game and RT, Bella and I played.  It didn't last long.  Bella was not in the mood to play a game she did not know and, well, she was really crabby.  I was really disappointed and said that I was going to take my game and drive to Tennessee to play with Patti.  I know she would enjoy it (and not be crabby) (I might still do that)

 

The second time we played, it was Alex, Bella and myself.  This time things went a lot better.  Alex and Bella liked the game.  They were getting into the "Deal" cards.  Alex thinks the woman that is the "Buyer" is not pretty.  I said you shouldn't complain about her looks, she's the one buying your stuff.

Our Pay Day game

Still not too thrilled

Alex landed on "Inheritance" 

He was the first one to do this, and I had to say the line from the commercial 

 

We had a lot of fun playing Pay Day.  Alex ended up winning (I don't know how many months we played). 

Alex said he liked the game and can't wait to play it again.

Me too!

Halloween Craft Witch's Hat

Time for our witch craft.

I had to say it.  It's been awhile since I last said it.

This is another easy halloween craft.  We had fun making this one.  I think we will make a bigger one next time.

The "we" is me along with my sidekick, Bella.  Sometimes she approves of the crafts and likes doing them, then there are those times where, well, things just don't work out.

Everything worked out for our witch's hat today.  It's pretty easy.

For this hat, you can use any of the following:
black construction paper
black foam
black felt

I chose black foam.

To decorate the hat you can use glitter, glitter glue, foam (yellow to make a buckle), stickers, pom poms, etc.  Use your imagination.

I drew a ........go ahead, say it with me, .... a template of a witch's hat.  I tried to make my hat fancy.  Making little curly q's on the top and sides.

Trace your hat out onto your black construction paper (black foam for me) and cut it out.

Since my hat is so small (yea, I'm not sure why I made it so small), I just added a buckle to my hat using some glue and gold glitter.  Like I said, you can get fancy and decorate the hat.  Little stars would be cute.

a little bigger, add some fancy clothes to go with it and I'm all set for Halloween!

Fall colors at the Morton Arboretum

I love watching the leaves change color on the trees.  I like walking through leaves that have fallen on the ground.  Makes a pretty, crunchy path to walk on.  Orange, red and yellows all mixed together.

We made another trip to the Morton Arboretum so we can see some of the lovely colors. 

We took a walk around the lake

The colors are just amazing

sunlight peeking through the trees

We also got to see the scarecrows they had on display from local Girl Scout troops.  The troop with the winning scarecrow (you get to vote for your favorite) gets an overnight at the Arboretum.  (no, our troop did not have one)  Thought I would share some of them with you.

I am one of those shadows, RT is the other

scarecrow dressed like a brownie

daisy scarecrow

silverlicious scarecrow

I thought this one was pretty clever

the dorothy scarecrow was rockin' these ruby shoes

I want them!

100 year scarecrow

for the 100 years of girl scouts

this scarecrow is from the second grade troop at our school

this is the scarecrow that we all voted for

thought this was a clever scarecrow face

good use of wood (and paint)

 

I did find a sign for RT to use for our lawn while we were there

our lawn and landscape is always a work in progress

I won't frighten you with a picture of our landscaping

I'll leave you with this picture (from the arboretum)

Halloween Mosaic Pumpkin

Yes.  Another mosaic.  This time a pumpkin. 

I love pumpkins and I love mosaics.  Why not combine the two?

I had fun working on this one.  I used Glidden paint chip samples (again) in oranges, a dark green and black.  I decided to mix up the oranges.  The people at the store probably thought that was a weird color combination for a room (or house).

I took a piece of cardboard and measured out 1" squares.  I have seven 1" squares across by eight 1" squares down.  I did not plan such an odd number.  I was going for 8" x 8 " but I guess I didn't quite make it.  :)

I drew a pumpkin.  Well, I made a pumpkin template first, of course, then traced the template onto my cardboard.

I cut my paint chips into 1" squares and got to work.

The "interesting" part was trying to cut the paint chips to form the pumpkin.

I had fun working on my mosaic pumpkin and am trying to figure out what I should mosaic next?  Any suggestions?

Happiness is....

a dirty puppy

Another Spider Halloween Craft - Under a dollar!

Well, almost free for me.  I had the items on hand.  You might, too.

I know.  I don't like spiders and here I am making a third spider halloween craft!  Crazy, huh?

I was staring at the empty egg carton thinking I can probably make something fun out of it.  This is what I came up with....a spider!

Just in time for Halloween!  You can never have too many scary spiders around the house.

Supplies needed:
empty egg carton (free with purchase of eggs)
black paint (on hand or can use a black marker)
google eyes (I found some in the attic)
black pipe cleaner (on hand or $.77 for a package at Walmart)
scissors (on hand)
pin/paper clip (on hand)

Cut one of the egg holders out from the egg carton.  Trim the bottom to make it even all the way around.  The sides will be open, but that's ok (that is where we will put the legs). 

Use a paper clip to punch holes in the side for the legs.  4 on each side.  Unless you are Bella and insist that they should only have 3.  I did this before painting to make it easier to assemble.  If you are using a paper type egg carton, be careful.  It's really easy to rip it.  (not that I would know from experience or anything) 

Paint the outside black and let dry.

Cut your pipe cleaner into 8 pieces and stick into the holes that you punched out.

Add some googly eyes and

(hanging out at my desk)

AHHHH! SPIDERS!!!!!

These would be great to add to some spider webs (real or pretend) (ha ha)

Let me know if you make the craft.  I would love to see your spider.  Leave a comment with a link to your blog or email me a photo.

Catch me if you can!

Pippen's new favorite game.

Pippen is still a puppy and stays in his crate (what we call his bed) at night or when we are not home. 

Pippen likes to make a game of "going to bed."  When you tell him to go to bed, he will either a) not move or b) get up slowly, walk towards the cage, then run the other way.  (his favorite hiding spot is under the air hockey table)  I would have to say the majority of the time it's a) not move.  I think he's been hanging around Newton a little too much.

The chase to get him in the cage can go on for a long time, if you let it.  If you have to be somewhere and have to get Pippen in his cage, it's best to add an extra 10 minutes onto your time.

No Bike Shorts, please!

As you know from earlier posts I walk around the neighborhood.  I do this right after Bella gets on the bus.  I figure I'm awake and outside.  It's a great way to start the day.

This morning I was walking and I was almost home.  I walk for about an hour.  As I'm nearing the end of my walk, I find myself behind another fellow excerciser.  There was a good distance between us.  This guy, who was pretty tall, was wearing bike shorts.  Bike shorts are real tight, spandex shorts that bicycle riders wear.  This guy was not the perfect candidate to wear bike shorts in public.  In fact, very few people are bike short candidates.  And, with the way he was jogging (slowly and sticking his rear out).  Well, lets just say it wasn't pretty.  Especially since second glance, as I got closer to him, I look up and see sweat in the derriere region.  (I didn't look there on purpose, it was in my line of vision and was not hard to miss).

I was happy when he turned and went a different way.  I breezed past and walked a little faster.  I wanted to make it home before I got sick on the path.

I told RT that if he ever buys and wears bike shorts...it's over.

After hearing this story, he understood.

Alarm Clock - WAKE UP!

Alarm clocks are great to have when you need to wake up at a specific time.  I don't use one myself because I'm usually awake when I have to be or I am woken up by others moving around the house.

You know there's a story on why I'm writing about alarm clocks.  It's not like I was just randomly given a topic to write about and I picked alarm clocks.  I don't know what else I would write about them?  Maybe that the sound they make to wake you up is ABSOLUTELY ANNOYING?  Sometimes downright frightening?   I mean, who wants to wake up to some loud, obnoxious sound anyway?  Something a little more peaceful would be nice.  I could see being really crabby after waking up to that noise.  I did use an alarm clock when I worked outside of the house.  I used to turn it off before it went off just to avoid the sound.

The real reason I am writing on alarm clocks.

Last night, both boys had sleepovers.  They slept over at their friend's house(s). (different families)  I was pretty tired last night and went to bed early.  I slept real good until "my time" (4 am) but, fell back asleep.  I woke to some LOUD,  OBNOXIOUS sound coming from upstairs.  It was 5:30 am and it was Nick's alarm clock that went off.  I turned it off and went back to bed.

Luckily I fell asleep.  I woke again to another even more LOUD, OBNOXIOUS sound.  I thought  a huge truck was backing up into our bedroom!  This time the sound was coming from Alex's room.  That was 6:30 am.

I was pretty much up for the day since Pippen decided to cry to be let out.

Since the alarm clocks have been turned off, I will have to remind the boys to turn them back on so they aren't late for school tomorrow. 

I hope I sleep tonight.

Scary-Journey - Halloween Crispy Rice Treats

Found these Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows at Aldi and thought they would be cool to try. 

They taste pretty good.  I wanted to try to make something using these marshmallows and see what happens.

I have never made Rice Krispy Treats in my life.  Hard to believe, I know.  The recipe is all over the place.  They even sell these rice treats in stores (already made).  I'm a little behind in the times, I guess.  They are not the healthiest of snacks.  I thought it would be something fun and festive to make for this time of year.

There was a recipe on the back of this marshmallow package.  I tossed in some ground flax seed to try and make it somewhat healthy.  Don't tell my kids.  Why not try to make it a tiny bit healthier than just a bunch of sugar.  Good thing they don't read this blog.  (of course as I type this, Nick is in the room, staring at the rice krispy treat). 

This is a very easy recipe, just melt the butter and the marshmallows in a pan

Add the puffed rice cereal (and flax)

press into a pan

Pretty easy!

If you want, add a few raisins (to make you feel better about the healthy factor).  Maybe some chocolate chips?  Or, just go all out and throw some candy corn (or candy pumpkins) on top! 

Here is the recipe found on the package (with my addition of ground flax seed)

Pumpkin Crispy Rice Treats

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1  10oz package of marshmallows (pumpkin spice)
5 1/2 cups of crisp rice cereal (can use the crisp brown rice version)
ground flax seed (I think I used about 1/4 of a cup)*

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat.  Add marshmallows and cook, stirring until marshmallows are melted and mixture is syrupy.  Remove from heat, add ground flax and crisp rice cereal and stir until coated.  Press warm mixture into buttered 13x9 pan.  Cool and cut into bars.

*it was the end of my bag of ground flax, so I just threw it all in.  Good measuring, huh?

You could add chocolate chips, raisins or candy corn to the mix.  Raisins might be a healthier choice.  :)

Halloween Crafts - Extra crafts

Bella had a blast doing these halloween crafts this week.  She did a little crafting on her own throughout the week.  Halloween is an exciting time of year.  The decorations.  The Pumpkins.  And, for my kids, it's the candy that excites them.  Lots and lots of candy.

Here's a sample of some of the halloween crafts that didn't quite make it to the big time (a post of their own):

the scary version of our paper owl

(using orange and black construction paper)

sequined owl

another owl that we made by adding a little bling to our owl craft

Bella and I felt the need to do a witch craft (no, not witchcraft)

Using construction paper, once again

the pieces of black were left over from the bat craft we did on Monday

We added a few more pieces to make it scarier

a suggestion would be to put a full moon in the background

Construction paper ghost

Bella used the funky scissors to cut out a ghost and added some eyes

I still think it looks like the ghosts from Pac-Man, don't you?

Owl made from a toilet paper roll and cupcake liners

This craft is from Family Fun Magazine's October issue

could not find a link to it online

Halloween crafts we made at our Daisy meeting

Does the foam pumpkin magnet look familiar?

The other two are scary monsters made from foam shapes found here

Bella made a monster and the purple one is a spider (with 4 legs)

I know, they are supposed to have 8, but, she insists on only putting 4 legs on her spiders

an unfinished halloween scene

 

We still have to make a witch.  (I was going to say witch craft, but, I already used that joke)  Maybe we will do something with leaves. 
If you have any ideas, let me know!

Scary-Journey's Halloween Craft - Owl

This craft isn't scary.  I'm sure you can make it scary.

Supplies needed:
Brown construction paper (we used two shades)
yellow construction paper
google eyes
(or if you don't have any, white paper and black marker)
scissors
glue

Using a template....You knew I would say that, didn't you?  I like to draw templates before I start cutting out the real thing.  Saves me from making mistakes. 

This template is in the shape of a "U"  Just make sure to close the top of the U, then cut it out.

This picture gives you an idea of the "U"  This has a piece cut out, that will come later.

Trace this template onto brown paper (or color of your choice) and cut out.  To make the wings that will sit on the front, use the above picture as a guideline.  I just cut it out from my template.  I made the wings a lighter brown.   I also cut some brown circles for eyes.  I didn't have googly eyes (I'm goign to have to put that on a list since the last couple of projects I did needed eyes).  I don't mind improvising.  I used yellow for the beak.  Put everything in place.

looking good

glue it all down 

Drew some eyes for Mr. Owl

Another halloween craft project - done!

 

WHOO!

Scary-Journey Halloween Spider Craft

SPIDER!

Like I said before, just the word is scary for some of us! 

For this scary halloween craft I am continuing with my SPIDER theme.  Again, you can make it as scary as you can handle.  Or, you can make it real scary and scare other people!  :)

Today I'm lucky to have a guest post from Anthony.  He made a real cool spider for his art homework and I asked if he could share it with me. 

Supplies needed:
Black construction paper (I'm getting scared already!)
pipe cleaners (8, and going to be covered by black paper)
red yarn
google eyes
scissors
glue/stapler

Cut 16 lengths from black construction paper for the legs (wide enough to glue/staple around pipe cleaners.
Cut a circle from black construction paper for the head
Glue or staple pipe cleaners between two lengths of paper
Bend pipe cleaners to look like legs (or hair if you want to be like Anthony)
Color or put googly eyes on head
Glue length of red yarn or color mouth
Cut length of black construction paper to fit around head (you might have to staple two pieces together)
Staple or glue head to the strip to go around your head
Staple four legs on each side of spider's head
And, you're done!

Thanks, Anthony for sharing your SCARY spider craft!

Love it!