One of the fun parts of home schooling is getting to do science experiments. Of course my curiosity is peaked when ever we use food for our experimentation. So I hopped right on board when we decided to experiment with ice cream. We wanted to see if we could make our own using every day household items. I teamed up with my home school partner Tanya. Her daughter is the same age as mine and we do a lot of school activities together. Gathering our supplies, we combined everything and put it into the cans. The girls shook their cans (literally!) for 10 minutes straight, as hard as they could. After much anticipation to see if it actually worked, we opened the lids and sure enough - real, frozen ice cream inside! It was so easy and a lot of fun. It would be a great project for families to do over the summer time and get the whole family involved.

So...we followed a very simple recipe. It was designed for a classroom of 10 kids, so we decreased the ingredient amounts down to 2 kids.

They learned about hypothesis - and decided that they didn't think ice cream would be formed by shaking the ingredients inside the cans.

They documented every step of the process.

Simple ingredients! And...the fun part is adding the flavorings. The girls crunched up mints and put a couple drops of green food coloring to transform their ice cream into minty goodness!

Our good ol faithful Chock Full of Nuts coffee cans (bet they never thought they'd be used for ice cream making purposes!)

Pour the liquid into the cans.

About 2 inches of ice covering the bottom.

And shake those cans! Come on...put some stank into it! They got a real good work out and had a lot of fun doing it.

Voila! Mint ice cream. It tasted so much better than store bought because we made it ourselves! We will definitely do this again soon.

It's Trash to Treasure Tuesday over at Kimm's ! I thought I'd give you an update and share about a true trash to treasure - my rescued old, chippy white windows. And, don't forget to enter my "Jungle Queen" July giveaway! Click here for details.

Here's a peek at what I'm doing with two of them.

I'm making one of the 4 ft. size windows into a bulletin board. I just love the chippy paint, so I am not going to repaint it. (sorry about the glare!) I might play with some neat patterned scrapbook paper behind the glass to give it some color. It doesn't have a permanent home yet, but for now sits propped up against the wall next to my desk.

This one has two big handles on the frame, which I strung fine gauge wire across and attached to the other side. I found some tiny old clothes pins to clip on to the wire.

These little lovelies I screwed into the opposite side - they came off of my old entertainment center. Painted them white and distressed them for some character.

I found a sparkly crystal magnet that my friend made to use on the glass. I plan on making and adding more to hold all my school notes.

And here's one of the six-paned windows I made into a chalkboard. (I sprayed on 5 coats of chalkboard paint)

Below are all 22 windows after I brought them home. Also, the story of how I was blessed with them!

I have a bad habit of asking people if I can have their trash. It's become an obsession of mine lately. Not literal "trash" like an old McDonald's happy meal box...but real good trash like old furniture or in the case of today's post - old windows. I happened to be visiting our dear friends last week who were having their house painted. I love their old house. It's a block away from the beach. Kim has decorated it adorably with all kinds of coolness from the past. She has several different collections in every room of things that make her happy. Okay, so...I pulled up in front and noticed right away their cool old windows weren't being taped off and the painting was almost done. Could that mean...are they going to replace them for new ones? Upon investigation, yes indeed they were replacing the old ones with brand spanking new ones. And guess what? The husband said I could have ALL of the old windows (husbands are always giving everything away)! He said they were "planning on just putting them all out in the alley" - WHAT? That was an unacceptable option to me. Really, I would have been overjoyed to acquire just one of the windows, but of course I had to rescue the others too! I pictured them being smashed to smitherenes by some hoodlum kids riding by on their bicycles. Or snatched up by someone who wouldn't appreciate them as much as I do. I rounded the backyard and oh my there she was - our eyes met - the grandmother of all old windows - the coolest window of the bunch. Six feet wide with 12 panes. Chippy old white paint. Oh the plans I have for her! When I told hubby about my new rescue mission, he rolled his eyes (lovingly) and even though the question of "WHY do you want all of them and do I have to load them all up in the car?" was burning in his mind, he instead said "okay honey. what exactly do you have in mind for them?" I tried so hard to come up with a great idea for every single one, but I couldn't. I just knew I couldn't let them be thrown away.

Here she is...in our dining room. She's very heavy of course, so I don't know yet how we'll hang her on the wall behind the dining room table - she would definitely break someone's arm if she fell off. But I'm thinking about blowing up a cool black & white picture of an old city scape into a poster size to fit behind the window. What do you think?

And here are her little ones. 22 to be exact. Rescued from their alleyway demise. I cleaned them up with a brush on my front lawn - had some neighbors drive by, slow down as they passed to see what in the heck crazy lady was up to now. (Sometimes I have old frames hanging on bungee cords from the branches being spray painted.) What do I do with them? Do you all think I'm out of my mind for bringing them home? Don't answer that. I think they would make awesome wall art of some kind. But I've done some net surfing and all I've come up with so far are the cheesiest looking crafty things with dried flowers and stencils. Like from the 80's. Well, they will be sitting in my garage ready to go to good homes for anyone who would appreciate them.

The girls and I were coming home from some errands when making the turn around the corner from our house I passed by two very curious men sitting on a couple of hideous blue bar stools by the curb. I kinda chuckled as we passed them. Nearing our driveway it hit me - "what if they are selling them? I could paint those babies!" I went back.

There they were probably thinking to themselves "here comes that crazy lady again."

I pulled up, rolled down my window and asked "are those chairs for sale?" I then realized they were cleaning out their garage - it wasn't a sale. (Epic fail, according to my teenage son.) One of the men stood up and said "do you want them?" Yes! He even loaded them up in my car. The other guy is our neighborhood magician. He puts on shows at schools. Who knows what he used those poor ugly blue chairs for, but I didn't care. I just wanted to rescue them and take them home.

I was a little nervous to show hubby as I wasn't sure if he'd see the finished chairs in his mind like I had. We had been wanting a bar stool for the kitchen counter (we only have room for one in our tiny kitchen). Hubby looked at the color and said "what the heck?"

I said "I know, you see why I had to rescue them and the best part was that they were FREE!" Out came the spray paint. Rustoleum Black satin. We brought those babies back to life. We have one at the counter - looks so cute. His twin sits in the living room. I love that they have backs on them with the little cut-out. And the raffia seats are in perfect condition!

I'm not quite sure what to call the blue (the picture doesn't do the ugliness justice), except hideous. I use that word when I'm at a loss to describe something ugly. Poor chairs. They couldn't help themselves from the previous owner.

I bet the little guys feel so much better with new black suits! Aaaaahhhh the wonders of black spray paint.

A very heart-felt Thank You to all the men & women who serve in the armed forces. Those who put their lives on the line so that we can enjoy our freedom. Words cannot express our appreciation. But we know that our Prayers are heard in the Heavens as we pray for their safety.

I think it's safe to say that I am truly in love with my family. I mean it! We have so much fun together laughing, playing, and just plain old hanging out! It doesn't take much to entertain us. We make stuff up - use our imaginations. We play games like Apples to Apples, laughing at the silliest words. Birthdays are always a big celebration around here. From the time we wake up in the morning - coming out into the dining room where our trusty old "Happy Birthday" sign is proudly hanging - and all throughout the day looking forward to a special dinner on the green plate (our red plate is missing, so the green one is the temporary plate of honor). Of course the day is not done yet until we've had cake & ice cream and sing an embarrassingly hideous rendition of the Happy Birthday song. We never can get through the whole thing without laughing. It's tradition! Sometimes I wish I could just freeze our family fun in time. To really savor the moment and let it all soak in. I know it won't be long, a blink of an eye, when our kids are grown. When hubby and I enter into the golden years (that sounds funny). Of course then the fun will continue on with Grandkids. Oh the joys yet to come.

So I really can't believe I'm posting this picture below. I'm sure Brandon would have rather had dancing girls at his party who were a bit younger...but Mom dancing around with the shaker was the best we could do. I often times embarrass my kids. Sometimes without intent, but on occasion like below I take my opportunity.