Thursday, June 13, 2013

Need an idea for Father's Day?

So it's that time again when that age old question pops up as it does every June:  What should I get Dad for Father's Day?

Sean is easy to shop for because he doesn't ever buy anything for himself and he enjoys getting almost anything.   I bought him a hose reel because he always mentions that he hates how our hose is always laid out on the deck, and then I picked up a $10 Made By Me Stepping Stone kit at Walmart so that the kids could give him a homemade gift.

We attempted to make our stepping stones this morning.

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Note to self: don't try to mix concrete in the kitchen with a toddler.

The box says that the kit makes 4 stones, but it only comes with one plastic mold so I went scrambling trying to find some sort of plastic tin that I could use to make a second stepping stone. I found the large plastic cover to a cake that we bought at a fair last weekend. Perfect! I figured Dylan could make an extra large stepping stone and Kate could use the included mold. So I mixed three out of the four packages of concrete in that large tin for Dylan to decorate, but it hardened as I stirred it so that plan went out the window quickly. I landed a giant-size circular brick of concrete and had one bag of mix left to make two stepping stones for Sean.

So I sat Dylan down in front of the included mold and told him that we'd better do this fast.

The kit comes with a few plastic jewels and a handful of ceramic squares and we picked up some colored stones to use so that we'd have some more variation. Once we did Dylan's hand print I let him go to town artistically.

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But then I felt bad that Katie didn't get to do a hand print so I used the concrete mix that had spilled and placed it in an empty butter container to make her a tiny stepping stone for Daddy.

Here are our finished products!

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(Notice Dylan's has chocolate on his hand print because he sneaked some of that cake before designing his masterpiece)

These stones take 24 hours to dry so I'd recommend starting them tomorrow or Saturday to be ready for Sunday morning. And fingers crossed that I don't crack them when I take them out of their tins! I'm giving this a 'C' because of the solo plastic mold dilemma and because this would've been much nicer if they used actual stones instead of plastic knock offs. Oh! Also! It comes with paint. You can paint them after they dry. We probably won't be using that feature but it's pretty fun to have more options.

Rated-C

I was not indorsed in any way to write this post. All opinions are my own. Feel free to try it on for size!