Bart and Becca Blog: Father's Day

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Father's Day

A few weeks ago Bart & I went to Kneaders. When I saw the sandwich box I remembered that one of our neighbors when we were first married told us that those boxes could be used to make shrinky dinks. I instantly thought of a Father's day project for Addison. A Father's Day key chain.

Here are the supplies: A plastic sandwich box (it HAS to be #6 plastic...look for the recycle signs with a 6 in the middle of them), tin foil, scissors, permanent markers, a ruler, sand paper, and a hole punch (I forgot to put it in the picture). I also used paper towels in an attempt to keep permanent markers from getting all over Addison's high chair.

Addison drew on the sandwich box which I had cut in the shape of a key chain. The plastic shrinks to about a third of the size it starts out at. When I was done coloring, I added a special little Father's day message and punched a hole in the corner. The hole punched by a regular hole punch is a little small after the plastic has shrunk so if you want to use it as a key chain, you need to make the hole a little bigger.

We heated the oven to 350 degrees and popped the plastic into the oven on the tin foil for 2-3 min. The first time I ever did this we did it on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil, but I think it heats more evenly on just the tin foil. (Shortly after the picture above, the shirt came off because I could rapidly see it covered in permanent marker).

A word of warning if you decide to do this...it will curl...BIG time. You will be certain that it has curled beyond repair, but have patience. It will flatten itself out. AT one point I even grabbed a wooden spoon to try and flatten it out, but on my way back to the oven with the spoon, it fixed itself. Have faith, it will flatten.

And here is the finished project. To the right is the key chain. To the left is a little thing he can hang up in his window. Addison was pretty proud of them.

For Father's day I told Bart I'd make him anything he wanted for dinner. He chose this steak and spicy shrimp rice with "guacamole stacks." It was really good...the rice was a bit spicy though...I like spicy, but I think next time I'll only add one teaspoon of hot sauce instead of two. We also had raspberry limeade, but I didn't get a picture of it. It was a yummy meal.

This was Bart's favorite part of the meal though. It was a cherry, peach, apricot pie. I was a little skeptical at first, but it turned out REALLY well. Bart said it's the best pie he's ever had! :)

The cherries were from our cherry tree. This is the first time then tree has EVER produced...well, more than 4 cherries...I thought the tree was barren, then a few weeks ago we went outside and saw this: