Boat Making and Birthday Gifts {Tutorial}

Last weekend was our big birthday party weekend, and, oh my, did we have fun! One of the parties was a 'Birthday Boat Building Bonanza' and it was held at the beautiful Audubon Society of Portland Park. All of the children were given the supplies and tools to build their own boats. Then they went on a scavenger hunt through the woods to find things to decorate their boats with. Such a brilliant idea, wouldn't you agree?!





K had so much fun decorating hers. She even decided that her crayons needed to be glued to the boat. C had Kevin and I decorate hers (mostly because she was still enjoying her nature walk when it was time to decorate).



After they were all decorated, and everyone enjoyed birthday cake, they all set out to sail their boats in the pond a little ways into the woods.
I was too slow to get any pics of K launching her boat. I wasn't thinking when I got dressed that day. Flip flops and nature hikes do not go well together.





Then all the children decided it would be more fun to launch them in the nearby stream and get in the water themselves. They watched as their boats sailed down the stream sending them into frenzies of excitement.







Thank goodness for Daddy's strong hand to hold on to and help navigate the way back up the stream.
Such a perfect day.



I wanted to thank all of you, again, for your ideas and advice on the boys' birthday gifts. You had so many great ideas it was a really hard decision. In the end we decided to make them felted rocks (one of the boys had a rock collection so it seemed like the perfect thing) and some homemade play dough. Both of the girls were really happy that they created the gifts themselves.



I thought I would share our favorite homemade play dough recipe. It was given to us by one of K's ever resourceful teachers. We will someday try this with some natural dyes added, but honestly, I am really enjoying the simplicity of the natural colored play dough.

• 2 Tbsp cooking oil
• 2 Tbsp cream of tartar
• ½ cup salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup flour (we buy the cheapest white flour for this, as our money is tight right now but I would rather us use organic)

Mix the flour, cream of tartar, and salt in a pot. Then add water and oil to dry mixture. Cook over medium heat until thick. Knead as it cools and store in an airtight container. We like to use a canning jar.

Enjoy!

P.S. We started adding a few drop of lavender essential oil to our playdough. It helps calm my children down as well as smell nice!
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Meg's sweet baby Lachlan had another surgery yesterday (I meant to post about it then... I apologize!). If you could please stop by her blog and send them some love and well wishes, I am sure they would be greatly appreciated. Meg and I were pregnant with our little L babies (hee,hee) at the same time and gave birth the same month. I can't help but think of her and Lachlan whenever I look at my baby L. I can only imagine what she is going through with all of this as I could barely handle my baby L's MRI, but both her and Lachlan are so very strong. I am continuing to keep them in my prayers and I hope you can, as well. Thanks!

Boat Making and Birthday Gifts {Tutorial}