Trevor at 10

Every year, I create a birthday layout for Trevor using adjectives to describe him. When I made Trevor at 9, I thought it would be fun to use a word cloud for his 10th birthday that incorporated all the words I'd used to describe him each year. So that's what I did!

Trevor at 10 (affiliate link)

I made the word cloud using wordart.com/. I typed in my list of words from each layout, then chose the font and balloon shape. The words that appear the largest are the ones that I repeated the most over the years. Once I was happy with the design, I printed it and cut it out. It was so easy and I'm really happy with the layout. 

And yes, Trevor is 11 years old. This has been sitting on my desk 3/4 done for a very, very long time. In fact, I finished up the Trevor at 11 layout right after this one. I'll share that tomorrow. 

Trevor's New Blog!

Trevor has been a guest blogger here at My Creative Life quite a few times over the years, but now he has his own blog! He started it as a way to showcase his creative homework assignments, and has plans to include "traveling, rabbits, and fun" as well. He plans to add to it at least twice a week.

Check out Trevor's blog by clicking on the image above or by visiting http://trevoradventures.blogspot.com/.

Disneyland 2015

I've mentioned many times that I put off scrapping vacations in favor of easier layouts that involve fewer pictures. In the spirit of going back and trying to get caught up, here is the layout from our family trip to Disneyland in 2015.

Disneyland 2015 (affiliate link)

I know exactly why I put off vacation layouts, but the question is what to do about it. I wonder if I should jump ahead and take care of our most recent trip first and work back. On the other hand, it is extremely satisfying to fill a gap in an older album and remove a post-it note. What do you do? Any hints or tricks?

Exploring Nevada Through Little Passports

Our family had a fantastic time visiting Carson City, Nevada recently, so it was particularly neat to take a virtual trip to Nevada through Little Passports! Trevor and I started out with a word search and dot-to-dot that taught us all about Nevada's state reptile, the desert tortoise. Did you know it's the largest reptile in the Southwest, can live for more than 70 years, and eats shrubs, flowers, and berries? 

Nevada has two deserts, the Great Basin and the Mojave, so the science activity was all about quicksand. Cornstarch and water combine to make a material that mimics quicksand. When you press on it or squeeze it together, the mixture behaves like a solid. Slow movement keeps it in a liquid state. Fun!

 

The next activity was a puzzle about four of Nevada's largest cities. Then we learned about Hoover Dam and how it makes electricity. We read about all the activities that people do along the Colorado River and studied the timeline of Nevada's most important events. 

We enjoyed reading about the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering held each year in Elko, Nevada. We first learned about cowboy poetry awhile back when Steve's parents started attending the event in Elko, so it was fun to see it appear in Little Passports. Trevor and I worked together to write our own cowboy poem.

Picture the Mountains

by Trevor and Cindy deRosier

         Picture the mountains, tall and steep. They reach for the sky without making a peep.
         Riveting, red, rocky, and rough, for centuries long, they have stood tough. 

         Beautiful mountains, graceful and strong, housing the animals all the day long.
         I love the mountains because they are there, reaching their way from the sand to the air. 

Next we learned about Naval Air Station Fallon and the many ghost towns in Nevada. We did an unscrambling activity to reveal the name of Nevada's state rock, sandstone. We saw a lot of sandstone buildings during our time in Carson City. Then we followed the directions to draw mustangs. About half of the wild horses in the United States live in Nevada.

The Nevada recipe was for Basque Chicken. It was delicious!

  

We had a great time learning more about the Silver State. Thanks, Little Passports!

Bat Crafts and Recipes

I've been having so much fun with bat crafts and wondered if anyone had done a good job with a cardboard tube bat. A Google search revealed quite a few, but this was my favorite. Aren't they cute?!

Unfortunately, the photo is a dead end, so I can't credit the artist or see a tutorial. I tried an image search, but it just brings me to a bunch of Pinterest boards, which in turn lead to a site that is sharing it without a link. So frustrating! I can't tell how the bats are made or what materials the artist used. If you can find the original source or have ideas about how they're made, please let me know. 

In the process of searching, I did find a bunch of other adorable bats crafts. All were properly pinned and/or credited. You'll find the links to the tutorials below each.   

Oreo Bat Truffles

Bite-Sized Bat Treats

Bat Energy Bites

Bat Oreo Pops

Wonton Bats

Bat Bites

By happy coincidence, I'm putting together a round-up of bat projects for Fun Family Crafts, so expect to see these and more the next time I share a batch of round-ups!