Make It Monday: Popcorn Cherry Blossoms

One of the things I love about spring is seeing the trees start to bud. That new life and splash of green and is refreshing after the gloom of winter. My favorites though are the flowering trees. The pinks, the purples, the whites - all so pretty. We used to have a beautiful flowering tree in the front of our house. Pretty, that is, as long as the flowers were still on the trees. Once they started falling - and got glued to the exterior of our van - it wasn't so pretty anymore.  Even after we'd clean off the dead flowers, there would still be gunky residue left on the van. Yuck. 

Leighton cut down the tree and filled the space with concrete to expand our driveway. While I don't miss the dried flower gunk or having to walk through the mud to get from the van into the house, I do miss the pretty flowers.

Not to worry, we now have our very own cherry blossoms . . . inside the house.

To make the tree trunks, we traced each child's hand and arm.

Then, they colored them.

You'll need popcorn and pink/red/purple JELL-O for the blossoms.

Pour both the popcorn and the JELL-O powder into a bag.

Make sure the bag has no holes. One way to check is to pour them in and shake. If the powder spills out all over the table, there is a hole. 

Ask me how I know.

Once you pour the popcorn and powder into a new bag - one with no holes - shake, shake, shake it up!

Squeeze dots of glue all around the tree and place popcorn in each one.

Our blossoms were more purple-y than the pink I had originally envisioned. That's what I get for letting Jake, Mr. I-love-everything-cherry, choose the JELL-O. The color did change to pink once they touched the glue though. Also, I sprayed them with hair spray to ensure that the powder stuck and to turn them pinker.

I could have spritzed them with water to bring out the pink, but I remembered what would happen!

Of course, there was plenty of popcorn eating as well. And messy, sticky fingers. And dirty faces. And a powdery table. All the very best things about crafting.

Jake liked the popcorn so much that he asked if we could make it for Tasty Tuesday. It's no wonder he liked it; it tasted just like the fruit-flavored pancake syrup we made.

Aren't they pretty! There's really no wrong way to place the blossoms. The ones off the tree look like flowers that the wind blew away. (Good thing there's no van next to it!)

We got 3 beautiful cherry blossom trees (without the hassle of the clean-up!) and a tasty snack to boot? Sounds like a great springtime craft to me!


Hope you have fun making your own flowering trees!

Theory Thursday: Popcorn

Since National Nothing Day on Monday, Jake and Alyssa have asked every day, "What national day is today?" They've also told me over and over again just how much fun they had. They were so excited when I told them that January 19 is National Popcorn Day. And what do yo do on National Popcorn Day? Eat popcorn, of course! The more butter, the better! I didn't always have that opinion though. For years, I loved the smell of popcorn; and the smell made me love the thought of eating the popcorn; but I didn't love the actual eating of said popcorn. It always upset my stomach. Always. It was a quick, convenient, and cheap snack to toss a bag in the microwave. It wasn't worth it for me afterwards though. Usually, if Leighton wanted popcorn, I'd just eat something else.

Then one day, we bought something that would change my popcorn eating days forever. While perusing Target, we found a microwave popcorn bowl. You simply pour the unpopped kernels in the bowl, put the lid on, and microwave. We decided to try it since it would produce much healthier popcorn than that which comes in the convenient little bags. Little did we know, that it would solve all my popcorn-induced tummy problems. I can eat it now and enjoy it! We do season ours with a buttery oil and butter-flavored sprinkle, but really, there are so many options for how to prepare it. Half the fun is trying to figure out which one best suits your taste buds! The popcorn is actually cheaper and healthier and just as convenient. Needless to say, we've never reverted back to those unthinkable bags.

Now that my impromptu commercial is over, on to the experiment!

Wednesday night I prepared our materials. I counted out 3 sets of 25 kernels. One set was left on the counter, one was placed in the refrigerator, and the last one was put in the freezer for nearly 24 hours. I asked the kiddos what they thought was going to happen when we popped them. Would the varying temperatures effect the final product? Jake said, "I think the ones in the fridge are going to be light blue when they pop cause it's just a little bit cold. And the ones in the freezer are going to be dark blue cause they're really cold!" Now wouldn't that be cool??? Let's see if he was right . . . 

Each set of kernels was prepared the same way. We poured them in the bowl and placed the lid on top.

Then we microwaved it for exactly 1 minute.

 And watched intently each time.

When one batch was done, we poured the popped corn into a separate bowl. Then we started the process over again.

Once all 3 sets were popped, Jake and Alyssa found the unpopped kernels in each bowl and placed them in other bowls.

Unfortunately, we got no blue popcorn. Bummer! We did discover that the room-temperature kernels had 2 unpopped; the refrigerator ones had 1 unpopped; and the freezer ones had 7 unpopped kernels.

I expected the refrigerator ones to have more unpopped than the room-temp, but it might not have happened for many different reasons. Some kernels are just duds. I suppose to be a true test, we could try the experiment again or use a larger number of kernels for each group. 

Either way, we discussed the results by relating it to being cold ourselves. I explained that when they're playing in the house, they're already warm, so it doesn't take much to get even warmer. But when they're walking from the warm van, through the cold outside, and back into the warm house, it takes a few minutes to get warm again. But, when they're outside playing in the nonexistent snow bitter cold, it takes a long time for them to get warm! It's just like the popcorn. The room-temperature kernels had a greater chance of popping than the ones that had been frozen since they started out warmer before being placed in the hot microwave.

But when all was said and done, all they really wanted to get to the most fun part about the whole process . . .

Eating the popcorn!

Happy National Popcorn Day!

Wordless Wednesday 11/9/11

Things That Make Me Smile 9/30/11

1. We went to an outdoor art festival with games and crafts for the kids, various vendors, and multiple shows. After the magic show, the elderly lady who sat next to us said,  "What lovely and well-behaved children you have. It was a pleasure to sit with you."

2. While at the festival, we bought hot, freshly-made kettle corn. Jake said, "We shouldn't call it popcorn; we should call it hotcorn."

3. Alyssa told me, "I can say 'thank you' in Spanish." She scrunched up her face and said in a  high-pitched silly voice, "Thank you!" 

4. Listening to Jake sing "Bringing in the Sheets." (sheaves)

5. Alyssa: "Whenever I see flowers that are ripe, I pick them for you."

6. We had just made cherry Kool-Aid, and Jake asked, "Is it wild cherry? 'Cause it tastes wild."

7. Alyssa put on her dress for church backwards. When I told her to turn it around, that the bow went in the back, she was very distraught. After she turned it around, she said with her head down and barely a whisper, "Mommy . . . I'm heartbroken."

8. The kids were eating breakfast at the table. Leighton opened the pantry door, took out what he needed and left the door open. Zac looked at the door, looked at him, and said, "Daddy, no. Uh-uh. Uh-uh." He then climbed down out of his seat, walked over to the pantry, closed the door, and went back to his breakfast. That's my boy! 

Make It Monday: Ears of Corn

The kids were very excited to make this craft. After all, it did involve some of their favorite things: painting, gluing, and . . . popcorn!

I drew a cob on a piece of paper. (Actually, I printed a cob off the computer, cut it out, and traced it onto the paper. My drawing skills are greatly lacking.) Then Alyssa and Jacob painted the ovals yellow.

Once the paint was dry, we squirted some Elmer's glue on the cob and covered it with popcorn. 

The kids thought this part was so silly and fun! Alyssa told me it was her "favorite thing ever!"

 Of course, they ate their fair share of the popcorn, too. 

Once the glue was dry the and the popcorn was securely in place, they painted the popcorn yellow. Many references of mustard popcorn soon followed. And then lots of giggling.

Can you see how the glue made the popcorn shrink? Where once there were full kernels on the cobs, there now are empty spaces.

Uh oh! We realized the paint had made it even worse. It didn't even cross my mind that the poor popped corn wouldn't like getting wet. Oh well, I guess this was a craft and a science lesson in one. Bonus!

After we discussed the shrunken popcorn, they squeezed strands of glue around the cob.

Then, they added strips of crumbled tissue paper for the husks.


If at any point you're feeling stressed or that the work is too strenuous . . .

. . . please take a break and make your own stache. You'll feel better if you do. 

Then proceed with your craft.

Aren't they cute? We hung the ears of corn in the kitchen in place of our tissue paper butterflies. Such stylish decor we have . .. so unique . . . so earthy . . . so fun!

Not only did we get new art for our wall, we also learned something in the process. And that's what homeschooling is all about.