Fun with Hermie Elfis

With the approach of Fall, I start to get excited about the upcoming holiday season.  I have been meaning for the last 9-ish months to get all of these pictures loaded onto my blog, per a request or two.  So here it is!

Along with eleventy billion other families in the world, we had an addition to our family a couple of years ago; our Elf on a Shelf.  The kids named him Hermie Elfis. 



He's so cheeky.

 
Hermie shows up while we are on our annual beach and NC Thanksgiving vacation.  He usually is hanging from the kids' chalkboard with a "Welcome Home" message.  Then the fun begins...

The first couple of years, he mainly just hid in different places in the house; dining room chandelier, bookshelf, peeking from behind the sofa...  But last year, he stepped it up a bit.

He made a marshmallow snowman...



Edible markers...you can find them at craft stores



Graffiti-ed up a couple of the boys' pictures...



That's a fifty dollar fine, pal.



Had a poker night with some buddies...



Leonardo needs to work on perfecting his "poker face".



Roasted some marshmallows...



Kumbaya, my Lord....kumbaya...



Had some fun ziplining...



Yeehaw.



Made himself a dandy bed from a Kleenex box...

Guess he actually did get a hippopatamus for Christmas.



Borrowed Mom's readers and made himself a cup of tea...



Guess he's over 40, too.



Had a "snowball" fight with the Puffin...



Booyah, Puffin.  In yo face.  (Or on your head...)



Suited up in his bomber jacket and goggles for a little ride...



Flight ELF to control tower...over...



Made some paper snowflakes...



Bet he consulted a tutorial online.  Just a guess.



Made himself some chocolate milk, sans milk...



His brother, Buddy, prefers straight syrup.



Went on a skiing holiday...





The Bounty slopes ain't for sissies.



Got into his engineer uniform and hopped aboard the Christmas train...



Don't all engineers wear this to work?



Made a TP banner with a countdown to Christmas Day...



Lovely penmanship for an elf.





Spent an evening playing dragon-slayer...



 

Tefchnically, that's no noble steed.  Nice ass, Hermie.

And he wrapped up his busy season of shenanigans with a well-deserved bubble bath...



Ahhhhhh....





So, now the pressure is ON.  What will he do this year?  I am excited to find out!

Making a lucky clover globe

Fun activity for you and your crumb-snatchers for St. Patty's Day!

Bear in mind, these pics were taken with a crappy cell phone camera, but if you are like me, directions are clearer along with text. :)

I got this idea from Family Fun magazine and tweaked it a smidge.

First, you will need clear glass ornaments. Since it is late February and Christmas decorations are hard to find, I dug out some old glass balls that were red. I remember stripping color from glass balls when I was younger, so I went the route I knew. Submerge in bleach and water (making sure the solution gets inside the balls as well. Let 'em soak.






I discovered after the red paint was gone that the balls were also coated in silver on the inside, and instead of leaving them clear, they had a gray cast. I braced the balls on top of Mason jars and filled them halfway with ammonia. You want to swish it around a bit and then fill to the top with ammonia. Let them sit.

Now that the balls are clear, you will need the following for your mini-terrarium:

• 1 Tbs Green fishtank gravel
• Activated carbon (for fishtanks)
• damp soil
• clover (or seeds...but I wasn't patient enough for that!) You can dig up clover patches in your yard.
• Chopsticks
• Ribbon
  

You might also want to recruit a couple of cute little Leprechauns.

Layer one: Carbon. Leprechaun #1 and I made a little paper funnel to get the carbon in the ball with limited mess. Straighten out the layer with your chopstick.

Next, layer in some fishtank gravel. Try to keep the layers separate. We just dropped these in one or two at a time.

The next layer is pretty messy, but that is part of the fun! We put it in in clumps at the top, and pushed it into the ball with a chopstick. When the dirt is in (1 or 1 Tbs), poke a hole in the center of the dirt with your chopstick. This is where you will place the clover.

The clover went in the same way, gently through the top, guided into the hole in the soil with the chopstick. A ribbon through the ornament holder completed the project. Voila!

You may want to glue the top on as the ball could be a little heavy, depending on how much soil, gravel, etc. you put in it.

Bain sult!

Thrift Store Thursday....the Vinyl Edition.

How I managed to miss the treasure trove that is vinyl is beyond me. Once you wade through the Tennessee Ernie Ford and Jim Neighbor albums (and yes, albumS is what I said...really? He was popular enough to warrant more than one? Ok...) you find such lovelies as these:

I am pretty sure I had this album... and it makes me wish I still had a turntable.

I am positive I did not have this album. And it makes me thankful that I do not have a turntable. However, my cousin did have a mad crush on Shaun (along with Leif Garrett) and "Da Doo Ron Ron" is pretty much burned into my cortex.

Thanks to shows like Mad Men and Pan Am, you might think the 60's were full of fabulosity such as this. (And I love this album cover...I am crazy drawn to all things retro these days!)

In reality, I would bet the 60's were more like this:

(I love this album cover so hard. Look at the smug expression on the husband's face. Got the little lady a fancy new sewing machine for Christmas. The wife looks like she is smiling to hold back the tears, and the boy is all "HAAAAAA! You got a shitty sewing machine for Christmas! What a load of suck!!!)

Polka time!!! And what kind of polka? Why, pleasant ones of course. Yinz don't want any death metal polkas here, doyanow?

(Note that both the woman on the left and the drummer, barely seen under the accordion player's armpit look bored out of their skulls.)

David Soul....Don't Give up On Us, Baby...

Check out the title of his album: "An Audience of One". Pretty sure it summed up his concert experience.

...that I sell you some life insurance?

(This one just made me laugh because the Captain's expression is the very one that Dave has ever single time I take his picture.)

And finally...

So much is wrong in this picture. From the hair to the lumberjack facial hair. Just so, so wrong.

And an album is just no place to feature chest hair and man nips.

Ah, the days of vinyl. No chance for kids 20 or 30 years from now to make fun of album art. Then again, who needs album photos when there is always Justin Bieber's hair?