50 Dangerous Things: #48 Explode a glass bottle in the freezer.

The book told us that this would be a great project to do while we were doing something else - and it was! We decided to pop a bottle in the freezer just before dinnertime.



Aesop was in charge of filling the bottle. We used a sweet chilli sauce bottle, and we filled it right to the top.

Otto placed it, carefully, into a plastic container (which would catch all of the pieces, when it did explode!) ready to go into the freezer.

We popped it in, covered with a tea towel for extra safety, and we waited.
We checked it after dinner, nothing.
We checked it before bed, still nothing.

We checked it in the morning...

Smashed!

We talked about why the bottle had broken, about how careful we needed to be around the broken glass and also noted things we could do differently next time. We noted that there was ice all around the bottle, so it must not have been completely frozen when the bottle broke, and that the top had also popped right off. We thought we might try different sized bottles, and maybe starting with different temperatures of water?

Have you ever tried this one?

50 Dangerous Things : #2 Lick a 9-volt Battery.

Number two - Lick a 9-volt battery! Eeep. This one got some of us feeling very nervous, indeed.
On the face of it, it seems pretty simple. Tongue plus battery, done. Right? But trying to get your brain to allow your hand to physically put that battery onto something as sensitive as your tongue is a a big hurdle!

As I expected, Otto (aged 4) took upon the task with gusto. He was very keen to go first, he stuck his tongue out and did it without much of a reaction at all. He wasn't keen to do it again, but he did it. He described the feeling as 'yuck'.
Abraham had a bit of a struggle to get his brain to cooperate, but did it pretty quickly. He described the feeling more like a bitter taste than an actual buzz.

Aesop, our nearly-nine year old, is a bright spark. He also struggles to do things that he is not 100% certain about. His brain works overtime and he struggles to overcome it. In a lot of ways, he is the main driving force behind us doing this 50 Dangerous Things challenge.
It took about 20 minutes of talking him into it,  but he felt so much better once he had done it. I knew the feeling of not being included in the challenge, and not having his picture in the book would be far worse than any discomfort from the battery!

I found this surprisingly easy. I had the initial panic and then decided that I needed to tough it out if there was any chance of Aesop having a turn. It was a really strange feeling, a buzzing, almost pinching sensation and a bitter metallic after taste.
Strange, but not truly shocking ; )

That makes 2/50 complete! Whoop!

50 Dangerous Things - Intro and thing #1!

Inspired by one of my favourite friends (who happens to be a super great blogger) and her sweet family, our family has purchased this book and set ourselves a challenge for this year : to get brave, and complete these 50 Dangerous Things. We're calling it a team building exercise.

If I'm really honest, it's a much-needed reminder, for Abraham and I, to let our kids experience the simple-yet-memorable things that we all did as kids.
Things like licking batteries, making slingshots, burning things with a magnifying glass, sleeping in the wild, building campfires and sticking your arm out of a moving car.
I mean, we did those things and survived, right? We probably didn't even do them with supervision and instruction from adults.. we had a blast, and we still survived to tell the tale. 
It's really easy to bubble wrap our kids. Society encourages it! We're forever hearing of schools banning playground games, toys being deemed 'unsafe', our favourite fireworks going off the market, children getting hurt doing things that would have been everyday activities a decade ago. I find myself discouraging all sorts of things, without realising it.
It's really hard for kids to learn about danger, without experiencing any. And really hard for parents to remember how important that learning is. We're hoping that, by encouraging our kids to try these things, that they'll learn about the boundaries of danger and learn when it's okay to give things a go, and when it's best to give it a miss. (And we'll learn not to be so afraid to let them be kids!)

We've had a flick through the book, trying to decide where to start - and then, yesterday, the weather decided for us! The clouds darkened, the temperature dropped, and it started hailing!
Number 2 in the book is - Play in a hailstorm! Perfect!

The book suggested putting a metal bowl on your head (for the sound effects!), donning a coat, long pants and gloves and heading out to play. We compromised a little - figured maybe going out in a lightening storm with a metal bowl wasn't super smart - and used plastic bowls. We also skipped the warm, protective clothing, it wasn't hailing really hard and wasn't too cold. We had a warm-up bath afterwards, instead.
The kids loved it. They didn't stay out long, due to the very loud thunder freaking them out a bit, but they managed to eat some hail that had collected on the tramp and run around a bit.

They were mostly just excited to have made a start on the project! They're busy deciding right now which activities we might be able to do this weekend.

(As the storm continued, we decided that a pizza and movie night was also in order. So nice to snug up on the couch on a rainy evening.)

May Themed Dinner #5 - Minecraft! (With terrible photos..)

(Disclaimer: It is very hard to photograph things in UV light - please forgive the terrible photos! Next time, I promise, I'll google how to do it properly. Hah.)

Our fifth, and final, themed dinner for May was one the boys chose - Minecraft.

It's certainly not a theme I would choose, and this one proved pretty difficult to plan for. I have never played Minecraft, making it hard to know what it's all about, and all the parties I found with this theme online really only had sweet, party foods. I didn't want to serve my kids just candy and watermelon for dinner!

We decided, as always, not to stress too much about sticking to the theme.

We splashed out and bought a UV light at Bunnings, that was to be the main feature of the decor. We picked up some cheap, plastic plates at The Warehouse, and broke out the highlighter pens.

Abraham wrote 'Don't mine at night' on pieces of white paper - so that the message was only really visible once the blacklight was turned on.

(We also ended up drawing all over our hands and arms with the pens - so much fun, to have day-glo tattoos!)

Abraham also made a wee diorama with the Lego, and Aesop drew some of the characters from the game and popped them on skewers. The animal puzzle pieces were a last minute addition by the boys.
We listened to Aesop's collection of Minecraft songs, on his Ipod. Did you know that there are Minecraft versions of lots of popular songs? It's a strange phenomenon.

(That's a square apple on that there pie. Or, at least, it was meant to be.. hmm.)

For the actual meal, I cut up salad into squares (lettuce, carrot, beetroot and cheese - kid salad!) and we had minute steaks and coated chicken drumsticks. We at with our hands - Aesop tells me there is definitely no cutlery in Minecraft!

For dessert I decided not to just serve up whole apples, or other fruit. I decided to make Talia's apple pie. It was DIVINE. (Only thing I'll say, is that if you don't make her pastry.. if you're lazy like me.. then buy flaky pastry, rather than short sweet. It was pretty darn sweet!).

After dinner we played the guessing game, with the little bits of paper stuck on foreheads. The UV light made it a bit fun, and we had a few giggles.
I think perhaps the game would be easier with kids even older than ours, though. Heh. Otto was pretty confused and his questions were 'Is my sister still Mollie?' and 'Is Dad still my Dad?'. Cute.

We've decided on our themes for next month. We hmmed and uhhed about taking a break, but I'm really loving not buying takeout, and also loving the idea that we might be inspiring a few other people to have themed dinners of their own.
Have you dined in theme, lately?

May Themed Dinner #3 - Fast Food!

Our third theme for this month was 'Fast Food'.

My boys are big McDonalds fans. Aren't all kids?

I have no idea what the attraction is - well, I have an idea.. but I, personally, can't stand the stuff. The food tastes like nothing, and I always still feel hungry after eating something so... fake.

Aesop inhales a quarter-pounder, a shake and fries, and Abraham is a big fan, while Otto enjoys the thought of it far more than the actual food - he rarely even eats half of a happy meal (and then asks for different food!). I guess the toy might be the winning point for him.

Seemed a great plan to see if we could recreate a (slightly healthier and much tastier) Maccas meal.

   Since fast food is mostly of the takeaway variety (for us, anyway.. our kids have never 'eaten in', I don't think!) I didn't feel like we needed to do much in the way of decorating. I popped a red table cloth on the table, popped all of our 'American' style sauces (mustard, mayo, ketchup and bbq sauce) in the centre, chucked on a Beastie Boys album (with a take out menu on the front..) and voila!

The food speaks for itself, really.

Abraham whipped up some boxes for our fries and chicken nuggets (if I did this again I would make chicken tenders myself, rather than serve ones from a bag!) and I used a few sewn, recycled book, bags I had around the studio to put everything in (stamped with an 'L' for Larsen Burger, naturally! Heh). I wrapped the burgers in greaseproof paper, and we used the leftover cups and straws from Pop Roc Parties for our soy choc shakes.

My burger had a touch of greenery, but the boys had Quarter-pounder knock-offs. Meat, plastic cheese, onions, pickles, sauces.. all on a sesame seed bun. It got the seal of approval, too. Phew.

Mollie discovered a new love for chicken nuggets and Aesop inhaled the meal as if it were the real McCoy. Otto, well, he wasn't anymore enthused than he usually it. Guess it's just not his type of food (he is more of an antipasto type guy. I kid you not!), fair play.

 The biggest hit, of course, was the toy.
You didn't think I could make homemade Happy Meals without a toy, did you?
I hmmed and uhhed about what sort of toy to put in. I wanted something quality, that would not just get played with one day and then forgotten about, or broken. I also didn't want to spend more than $5. A difficult combination.
The choice was obvious in the end, though - Lego minifigures.
I was lucky enough to find them half price at Kmart, making them just $3 each.
(We even got 4 we didn't already have! Always a bonus!)

LOVING these nights. Already so excited for next weeks. Pretty sure we will be doing it all again next month. Are you tempted to join us?

Aesop's Movie Night Party.

Aesop turned 8 the day we moved into our new house - not the greatest timing, but these things are not always within our control. Being the sweet boy that he is, Aesop didn't complain at all - rather, he said that a new house was a perfect birthday present.
(Don't worry, we also got him Ipod acessories and sugary treats!)

We decided we would still have a party to celebrate, just that it would need to be delayed until things settled down. Settling in have taken a wee while.. but now, two months later, things are calm enough - so we had a wee 'Movie Night' party in the weekend.

Setting up for this party was all pretty straight forward. We decided this year, in keeping with our 'low-stress-party' theme, that we'd opt for more kids and less fuss.
Initially we planned for around 4 friends to come, but we ditched a few details and allowed Aesop to invite 8 kids ( a bit of a compromise to make up for the super late party..)
I ordered some sweet chevron bags, plastic takeout cups and popcorn boxes from Pop Roc Parties, dug out from red streamers and went to briscoes for a red sheet/table cloth.
We put lollies in the bags, and we filled some clear bags with jaffas. I topped those bags off with some card from an old Lone Ranger annual, for a bit of fun.

Food was good ole pizza (from Dominos! Shock horror!), mini spring rolls and sausage rolls. Eight-year-old boy food. The kids downed Lift and banana milk for refreshments.

Dessert was fun - ice cream sundaes. Easy, and super well- received.

The boys chose 'Wreck-it Ralph' as the main feature. It's a bit of a fave in our household.
I couldn't convince Aesop to take a risk on a movie he hadn't seen - but none of the other kids seemed to mind (they had all seen it, too!).
The highlight of the evening, for me, was the short stop-motion film that Abraham made to play at the beginning. It was a Larsen version of 'The Three Billy Goats', with a cheeky ending and got a great chuckle from the kids.
We're so lucky to have such a clever Dad in this house!
(I might see if he will let me share it with you..)

Only one more kiddo party left this year - phew..

May Themed Dinners #2 - Dinosaurs!

Yesterday was our second 'themed dinner' for May (you can read about the first HERE..)
This was one I was quite excited about - Dinosaurs!

I really enjoyed the planning and brainstorming for these dinners, and I love the fact we decided to go with ideas that we all loved. But also, we chose to go with ideas that didn't involve anyone getting too stressed out from all the effort. I didn't want to go all out and over the to - it would completely ruin the treat factor if one of us didn't have fun preparing for it!

The first step in our Dino-dinner was a wee snack, as this was a meal that took a little longer to prepare.
The boys (big one included) snacked on a dinosaur egg, while they drew some decorations for the table.
Otto was especially amazed by this, he wondered how on earth I snuck into the nest to take the eggs.
(I went through the back door, and nabbed them while the dino was on his Ipod, of course..)
I think there is a better way to colour eggs, rather than the basic foodcolouring and vinegar I used, but this was a last minute addition so no time for research!

We decorated with plastic dinosaurs, cacti and the beautiful drawings (attached to kebab sticks..). I found some animal print fabric in the cupboard and we chose out a record with a prehistoric scene on the cover. (Though we ended up listening to Jurassic5. A little abstract, but sort of in theme!)

Dinner was a hearty feast of baby T-rex bones, trees and roasted potatoes. We ate with our hands, of course, which the boys really relished. Otto proclaimed part-way through the meal that dinos also probably ate with their mouths open - we chose to risk authenticity and try to eat with ours closed. Hah.

Even Mol got into the spirit of things, gnawing down on a bone. We had a good roaring session, too. Turns out our baby dino can roar along with the best of them!

Dessert was heaps of fun to prepare.
I had this fabulous idea to make a prehistoric swamp cake so, with a little help from google search, the $2 shop, some green jelly and a tonne of icing.. a super dooper dino-dinner-dessert was born!
I love the 90's feel - it would be right at home in the Australian Womans Weekly cake book.
The boys thought I was pretty awesome, and even Abraham was impressed. Quite proud.

All in all, a roaring sucess!
(Get it? Roaring? Oh ho ho!)