My Favorite Day--Smells so Sweet

We've been candle making. A while back, a friend and I went to visit a beekeeper. My friend bought a case of honey to give as Christmas gifts. I came home with a grocery bag full of beeswax bricks, candle wicking, and a mold.

Our boys love to hand dip candles and I bought a taper mold for the extra wax. What a sweet scent the wax makes. I can hardly bear to melt the bricks, but it must be done. They're so beautiful.

We melted the bricks on the stove in an old pot put on top of simmering water and then placed them in a tall can for dipping. We placed the can in a rice cooker filled one quarter of the way with hot water and kept the cooker on. We used a Hunt's spaghetti sauce can for the wax and it worked great. Early in the dipping, we realized that the wax on the wicks was melting off when it was re-dipped, so the boys came up with the idea of dipping it in cool water between wax dips. (The alternative is to wait a bit before re-dipping, but they were too impatient for that!) That worked great, but distorted the candles from neat, layered tapers to grotesque lumps. In other words, the boys LOVED them!

I wish I had pictures, but I had forgotten my camera that day. I'll see if one of my friends got some. The boys were so proud and they actually burned very nicely despite being a bit hideous to look at. No, I don't mean that in a negative way. It's the way they WANTED them to look. "Mine looks like a monster zombie dude." "Mine looks like a mutant turkey leg." "Mine is melted vomit." "No, MINE is melted vomit after eating school lunch!" Eleven year old boys. Gotta love 'em.

We used the excess wax to make tapers in a silicone mold. The mold is basically a silicone tube that you run wicking through from the bottom. Pour in wax, allow it to cool for 30 minutes or so. We found using the frigid outdoor air speeded up the process. Then you have to tug harder than you think you should (it actually feels like you're going to pull the wick right out). And out, pops a beautiful, golden taper candle.

We have a little extra beeswax left. I think we'll make ornaments or something out of it. Any excuse to smell that sweet scent again!

My Favorite Day: Eleven Ten Year Old Boys--the aftermath

I think this was the last big group birthday party. Well at least until there's a milestone celebration, like 16. Perhaps I've said this in years past. When the aftermath of the birthday party is still surrounding me, it's hard to want to host another one. I think there are at least 7,000 little pieces of plastic masquerading as presents floating around our first floor. I just spoke in tongues when I stepped, barefoot, on a Lego on the way to the kitchen.

Here I sit in our family room, blogging and catching up on the happenings on Wisteria Lane. The party was Saturday, but I was too wiped out to write then, plus we had family guests that night too. Young One spiked a 102 fever the night of his party and then again Sunday night. So, I've been pretty busy and pretty tired being up all night. According to the doctor, he has a sinus infection and she's pretty sure he has strep, although he didn't test positive for it the first time around. He has a horrible sore throat and is talking like he has marbles in it. That, and the fever, are pretty sure signs for him. Oh well, regardless of what he has, he's being treated. He's home again today and seems a little better, despite not eating.

What is it about kids not eating that gets us moms all worried? It's not like he's wasting away, it's just a couple days of bomb pops and white grape juice. He'll survive. But, I digress.

Back to the party. The original guest list had about 25 kids, but we had to pare it down. This was such a great group. Of course, there was a clinker or two (but only briefly), and for the most part, they were really well behaved.

Here are some highlights:

• The Red Team demolished the Green Team at laser tag. However, I was informed that there were several malfunctioning guns on the Green Team, so there had to be a rematch. I believe all the subsequent games were ties. I may have the colors wrong, so if I discuss this later with Young One, I'll just play along. I have no idea what team was the supreme ruler of the universe, but I do know, they were sweaty, giggling, and grinning after every game.



• The Darth Vader cake did semi-permanently stain their mouths black. They loved it! Mission accomplished. Thank you Magic Byerly's Cake Ladies



• If you pull hard enough on the ticket dispensers in the arcade, more come out, but to use the word of the week, it's totally "random".



• The automatic climbing wall thingie was driven by body weight. Most could make it go, but of course we had one that couldn't get it to move and one who's body weight kept it at warp speed.



• If you pull on the controls of the bumper cars a certain way, it makes an extremely horrendous sound. If you all do it at once, the odd dude running the ride will call you all Asswipes. Well, not so the kids can hear it, but I heard it enough to find it extremely funny. Poor guy. That job must be hell.



• Eleven boys and not even one armpit fart noise the entire time. I think this is a record.



• Eleven boys and only one slight injury--a couple of skinned knees.



• Eleven boys can go through an 18 whole miniature golf game in less than 10 minutes. I think I owe the poor little girl and her awestruck parents that were ahead of us a pony and a couple of t-bone steaks. They were relatively good sports and were seriously stunned by the force and speed with which our group played.



• Eleven boys with marshmallow guns will make your front yard look like a snow storm passed through. I bought the guns wholesale on ebay. Cost was about a buck a piece, so much cheaper than making them.



• Birds don't like marshmallows. Bummer. I think the squirrels do though!



• My van smells like feet, I can't get the song I Like to Move It out of my head (it's required birthday party cd play), and I'm still smiling at the kid who told me he hasn't had this much fun since Christmas.

Apparently, according to some of the other moms, I've been voted the cool mom. I've never felt more honored. I do enjoy them all and have always loved to hang with the kids. They're so honest and kind and don't carry all that stuff that adults do.

Young One has awesome friends. They're a great mix and his best friends are just amazing. These kids! I can see them several years from now as big guys, wearing Axe cologne and going to the prom. I actually can envision them driving (shudder) and going through teen angst together. I can see the men they're going to be. What a great bunch. Polite, fun and funny, cute, and kind. I hope they never change.

I'm off to Google "how to get feet smell out of your van". Oy.

Back to School

Last night was meet your teacher night. And, once again, I fell in love with my son's school. Hard to believe that this is our last year there as next year, he heads to middle school. This is a crazy busy time for us. For the first time since kindergarten, Young One is thrilled to get back to school. He's ready to see his gang of friends every day again. Not that he hasn't this summer, he's been with friends almost every day, but he's ready for more time with the whole gang.

Somehow, in the silliness of being young boys of this particular age, they all have adapted meat nicknames. But, all are spelled uniquely, like Turky, Hamm, Bbeeff, Bakon, etc. Many parents only know Young One as Hamm. It's pretty funny. This young gang of overachieving, really smart, nice kids in a gang of carnivores. It's been a really fun chuckle to see what new friends will be added to the gang, although it already makes up most of the meat department of the market. I've suggested they branch out into poultry products.

This year already feels like a success. Young One hit the lottery with his teacher. She's actually a high school classmate of my husband and she's amazing. She's the teacher who stays late and is always trying new things. This year, she's one of a few teachers in the state with a Smart Board, which is basically an electronic chalkboard. It's so cool. Touch the screen and you can move text and pictures around, it links to her laptop, so she can add and control from her desk, you can write on it with electronic "markers"--it's like a Jetson's classroom. She's also the pioneer of having kids sit on Exerballs and has been doing that for years--was featured in national press for doing so. It helps them stay focused and gets the wiggles out (plus, I can imagine they're all going to have six packs by the end of their time in the district!). The Exerballs have spread through the school, so it's not Young One's first year with them, but nice to be with the teacher who's a trend setter, not just marking time until retirement!

We moved to this neighborhood just to attend these schools. This district tests consistently in the highest national rankings. I know , it sounds like I'm bragging, but we've sacrificed a lot so our son can get a great education. We love our neighborhood, but perhaps would have chosen somewhere a little less beige than the burb to live in. Maybe something with a little more of the cool factor built in--you know, great shopping and eating within walking distance, along with more mass transit. Anyway, I've had family members teach in this district and my mom's best high school friend was curriculum director for years. It has all day long high performance classes which are great for Young One, but also the support that those high performance kids need to thrive, which is rare.

I thank God every day for the schools we have, but mostly, I'm thankful for the teachers we have in this district. They truly are educators, which is rare. Imagine actually having English teachers that can write and spell! Math teachers that have Pi day and serve pie. Reading teachers that host book clubs OUTSIDE of school hours just for fun. Music teachers that pursue grants for African Drums and for Sowah Mensah (ethnomusicologist, composer and a "Master Drummer" from Ghana, West Africa) to teach it. A PTA that raises money for children's authors to come and teach. A supportive community of helping hands. The list is endless and we are so thankful.

I hope that if you have children in school you are just as lucky as we are. I go through this falling in love phase every year at this time. I realize that our district is not the only one in the country that provides such things and I realize that a child's education should be as unique as that child. We have it so very easy here just to be able to send our child to public school. I wish that it was that simple for everyone.