Have a colorful day!

With less than one week left before school starts, the munchkins and I are looking for some last minute (cheapy) things to do. For Christmas, my mom gave me the cutest little book: The "Mama's Little Book of Tricks".

This book has the cutest, most *clever* ideas for entertaining your little ones while making you look like a rock-star mama (which is something we all want, right!?) I cannot tell you how many times I have dug into this nifty little book for ideas on: how to make grocery shopping easier, how to get your kids to eat veggies, how to put a cup of water upside down on your head without spilling a drop, how to whistle with an acorn top, identify nine different kinds of bugs....the list goes on and on. And I look super cool to my kiddos :)
I just had to buy a load of school supplies for Jack and was trying to organize a drawer for them when came across this random, misfit pile of unwanted crayons. I remembered a project from the book that I actually used to make with my best friend when I was a youngster. Perfect! Currently, two of Owen's favorite things are: 1.) coloring and 2.) breaking things. So I gave him a big, fat bowl of naked crayons and he sat there & broke them up for me (which kept him occupied for a good 15 minutes). Here are step-by-step instructions (with pics, natch) for making recycled crayon cookies (and NO, you don't eat them!)

Step 1.) Gather together all your gnarly, broken crayons. Step 2.)Strip Em Down, Get Em Naked....

Step 3.) Gather together supplies: muffin tin (I used a mini muffin tin and a regular one to make 2 different sizes), Pam cooking spray and tin foil.

Step 4: Heat the oven to 300 degrees...

Step 5.) Break (or cut) the crayons into little bits and niblets. Line the muffin tins with foil, spray them with Pam and fill with crayon bits.

Step 6.) Heat them for 10-20 minutes in the oven or until the crayons have completely liquified.

Step 7.) Let them cool completely (about 10 minutes), pull foil out of muffin tins and unwrap. Voila...... pyschadelic, cool looking recycled crayon cookes :)

These are especially fun to color with because of all the different colors! These may be making their way into the gift bags at a very special 2-year old's birthday party this week :)