Spray Painting Space!

Sally Sundin, a retired Elm Ed teacher who loves to teach kids about reaching beyond themselves, came to the library to share a project with us. She had done this with many different ages and was excited to bring it to our town. What is it, you ask? Spray painting shapes on a canvas. Simple and stunning! 

 Prep work was the hardest part. We made sure all the cars were moved away, put down tarps and made sure we had garbage cans available. We had many different colors and choices for paint and we were excited to see what the kids would create.

 First, Sally suggested the kids choose a shape. There were several round containers and some space shapes. Once the shape was chosen, the kids sprayed one color on their canvas which was about the same size as the shape. Then, they added another color and for planets, it was suggested to put white on top. It looked like a goopy mess of color until the kids got a wadded paper towel to daub in the goo. After it was daubed to their satisfaction, the artist put their shape on TOP of the mess. Then, they sprayed black spray paint around their shape. It was magical what was revealed when the shape was removed!

 Some of the kids got a little too much paint on their canvas, but the best part of art is there are NO mistakes! After the initial project was dry, the kids then got to add comets of various color by putting the can tip down on the board and pushing on the can's bottom. A spritz of color makes a super comet shape!

This was an incredible project and you don't need to use a fancy canvas like we did. Sally used whatever paper she had around and one of her demonstration sheets was on the back of a huge out dated calendar!

Caledonian Weekend

The second weekend in July is set aside for Caledonian Days. This year our parade went a different route, but it started with a color guard and one of the Athena fire trucks. 

Pipe and Drum bands are very popular during this weekend and our Tiger-Scots play, too.

Pendleton Round-Up ALWAYS brings a crew over to advertise the up and coming Round-Up. I am always impressed by the tiny ones riding in the parades. 

 This young lady is AMAZING. She is a dancer and I've been fortunate to see  her every year. I love to watch her dance and her smile just makes you want to smile back!

 This chain mailed gentleman is actually someone we know! He is the man who helps facilitate Eagle Scout applications in our district. However, we didn't recognize Dale til Sunday when we saw him sitting in a booth before church. It appears this particular clan, and I don't recall what name it had, saved a king. They are always a draw since they have the best weaponry and costuming!

 Jonathan was in the last truck. He didn't even get to toss any candy!

Sunday morning, the churches get together and have a service in the park. They introduce any clans who may be in attendance and it is a fun gathering.

July Birthdays!

Tony's birthday was first and his cake was NOT what I envisioned. I had this idea of a chocolate poke cake with fudge frosting. Unfortunately, that didn't work like I'd planned. It was incredibly tasty, though! We missed him very much and had Tillamook ice cream-Udderly Choclate. 

Steve's birthday was on Friday the 13th. I saw this cake on a FB post which was also from someone's Piniterest page. At any rate, the thing I saw was a bowl made from Kit Kats and filled with M&Ms. I didn't have any round cake pans (I found out later where I could get some!), but made do with square. I didn't want to just have candies, so made the cake. It didn't quite fill the Kit Kat 'bowl' up, so I had to add a few cuppy cakes before adding the M&Ms. It had 12 Kit Kat bars (or  4 giant ones) and 14 oz of M&Ms. There was a LOT of chocolate. 

 

Steve was suitably impressed and Jonathan suggested it resembled a fort and needed plastic civil war soldiers. The cupcakes on top were added only to  hold candles. The red ones are 10's and the blue and green candles are ones. You can do the math!

 I was pretty impressed. I had several not so sweet alternatives to this birthday cake for our visitors, but NO ONE chose a less caloric dessert! And, except for Steve's mom, everyone either ate the whole thing or took some home. (actually, Cyndi and I did have something else, but we are watching what we eat)

All in all, it was a pretty messy cake to make for a summer dessert. Most of the Kit Kats have my fingerprints on them! (clean, of course!) It was a triple chocolate fudge cake with chocolate frosting and mini chocolate chips in between the layers. Major carb overload! Lots of fun, though, and I'd like to try it with other flavors of candies. (If you google Kit Kats, Japan has some very unusual tastes!)