This project is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and probably many of you have done it because I have seen it all over the internet world. But this was a first for us, and I am so glad we did it.
We used broken up pieces of crayons to make "new" crayons by melting the crayons in a mini-muffin tin to make little crayon "cakes".
The hardest part of this activity was peeling off the paper from the crayons. It was very time consuming and I had little and big kids helping to speed along the process. As we peeled and broke the crayons, we seperated them by colors. This helped when we were all deciding what color combinations to make our "new" crayons.
Everyone chose colors to make the new crayons. Some kids stuck to single hues and others wanted to mix it all up. You can see in the picture above, our muffin tins were quite full, but when they melted there was plenty of room. When we do this again, I will put more crayons into each section so the final product will be thicker.
Pop it into the oven at 225 degrees. It took our crayons about 12 minutes to completely melt. We used Crayola crayons because I read somewhere that these work the best.
After the first batch we made more using .10 cent boxes of bargain crayons from Walmart and these work just as well.
The colors melted together beautifully!
Look at those colors. Mark is trying to cool them off quickly, but we found 10 minutes in the freezer did the trick.
Looking at these lovely colors, I thought that these would make a great little birthday gift for a child to take to a party. A bag of these and a notebook would make a great gift.
They slipped right out of the tin.
The kids were amazed by how pretty they were (and so was their mother).
They got busy creating masterpieces using these little cake crayons.
Kim and Luke didn't only use them to color with. They both began building with them. Kim said she was making a flower above.
Mark broke one in half, and the color inside was just an nice as on the outside.
Laura was kind enough to make another batch with the "cheap" crayons. After watching the littles build things with the crayons, I knew we would need more.
Kimberly coloring. These crayons are great for crayon rubbings.
Luke's pyramid.
This is Open Ended Art all on its own.
The color and design are wonderful, with no help from mom!
The next Open Ended Art is mosaics using pebbles.
of this lovely child's prayer stool. We won by entering a giveaway hosted by CatholicMom.com.
This is a wonderful product---it is very sturdy and just lovely. It is the perfect size for 3 year old Kimberly.
Thank you, CatholicMom.com for giving us this opportunity to win such a lovely product,
but she
just couldn't do it!!
"The tiger ate you Mark, you shouldn't be smiling!!"
We spent a beautiful day at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse yesterday. It was a cool, sunny day, and the first day of the New York State fair so the crowds were very light at the zoo.
The kids loved Nemo and his dad.
We though this poor bird had his beak stuck, but we did see him adjust his grip once, so I guess he is just sharpening his beak.
I hope this lions aren't looking at any of my family.
Mark the monkey
Kimmy moves the world
Kim and Becky
Look at my primates
Who belongs to our family and who is just a picture?
Waiting for lunch. The only missing family members were Matt and Pat--we missed you guys.
Mark giving Luke pointers on how to milk a wooden cow.
Kimmy did a good job milking the goat
A wild visitor to the zoo
everyone had to squish a penny in the squishing a penny machine
Hi, big guy!
An andean condor showing off his wingspan
He was quite scary, and big!!
"I've got my eye on you, yeah, you, with the camera"
A family tradition photo
snoozin' in the sun
Another family tradition. Kimmy kept crying she wanted to see the penguins.
a reindeer
"pretty bird"
I wish they had a wagon for tired mothers at the end of a fun day at the zoo!!
Today we spent a glorious day at the zoo under a beautiful blue sky. Becky got this photo of the sky through the pine trees.
Earlier in the week we were blessed with this beautiful sight. The sun dipping below dark clouds as it headed toward sunset.
Make sure to check out all the sky photos at CrazyWorkingMom.
This weeks Open Ended Art is crayons. 
The hardest part of this activity was peeling off the paper from the crayons. It was very time consuming and I had little and big kids helping to speed along the process. As we peeled and broke the crayons, we seperated them by colors. This helped when we were all deciding what color combinations to make our "new" crayons.
Everyone chose colors to make the new crayons. Some kids stuck to single hues and others wanted to mix it all up. You can see in the picture above, our muffin tins were quite full, but when they melted there was plenty of room. When we do this again, I will put more crayons into each section so the final product will be thicker.
Pop it into the oven at 225 degrees. It took our crayons about 12 minutes to completely melt. We used Crayola crayons because I read somewhere that these work the best. 
Look at those colors. Mark is trying to cool them off quickly, but we found 10 minutes in the freezer did the trick.
They slipped right out of the tin.
The kids were amazed by how pretty they were (and so was their mother).
They got busy creating masterpieces using these little cake crayons.
Kim and Luke didn't only use them to color with. They both began building with them. Kim said she was making a flower above.
Mark broke one in half, and the color inside was just an nice as on the outside.
Laura was kind enough to make another batch with the "cheap" crayons. After watching the littles build things with the crayons, I knew we would need more.
Kimberly coloring. These crayons are great for crayon rubbings.
Luke's pyramid. 
