Homemade Recycled Crayons

As I was going through our crayon stash, I realized that I needed to do something with the broken ones, so that they didn’t go to waste. I found a quick and easy way to get them recycled into pretty new crayons, in a size that my toddler can appreciate and have fun with. Little kids will love these too, and it can be a fun project for children and parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, babysitters, etc. to enjoy doing together. Feel free to mix similar colors, or if you’re feeling bold, mix very different colors. I mixed similar colors, so that they would come out more uniform.

From top left, going clockwise. – Grey & white, yellow & green, oranges, brown & red, pinks & purple, blues.

 

What You’ll Need:

Old and broken crayons.

 

What You’ll Do:

Peel off all labels on all crayons. Break crayons into smaller pieces. Set aside in dish. Get a muffin tin (or any fun shaped mold that is made to withstand the heat of an oven) and spray with cooking spray or oil. Place crayons in muffin tin according to the color schemes you prefer. Place in pre-heated 250 F degree oven for approximately 10 minutes. Remove from oven once melted, and allow to cool completely. Once cooled, remove from muffin tin and have fun!

Our Family Hike (Photo Heavy)

Last night our family took a hike in 2 different locations, and we snapped oodles of pictures in the process. I thought that I’d share them with all of you, since exercise is such a crucial part of living healthy. I don’t typically like exercise, unless I’m doing a family hike, jumping on a huge trampoline, doing kung fu, or something truly fun. Being out in nature is such a fantastic way to teach children about the earth and how nature works. Not only that, it cleanses the soul and rejuvenates the body.

Enjoy!

I was so thankful that this hill was at the beginning of our hike, and not the end (though I’ve definitely climbed higher)!

Here are a few pictures of the lake.

 

Here’s a picture of some of the wild raspberries that we found on the first trail that we hiked. They were so delicious!

 

Here’s a close up of the wild raspberries. The kids really liked them.

Here’s a picture of some pretty orange flowers that we found all over the place on our first trail.

I love it when the trails wind around. It’s always a surprise what you’ll find around the corner!

This was a meadow that we came across.

This was a little swampy area we encountered.

There was one lonely little Black Eyed Susan in this spot.

We were greeted by these pretty orange flowers at the beginning of our second trail.

Here’s a large swampy area that we had to hike over a bridge to get through. Gross!

The trail was laid out before us. Where would it take us to?

We found these wild blueberries all over the place on our 2nd trail. The kids ate their fill of them. They tasted so much better than anything you can buy at a store!

These pretty little daisies smiled at us as we passed them by.

These reed looking plants greeted us at the end of our hike. They were so strange looking, that I knew I needed to snap a picture of them.

At the tail end of our hike, we found these wild blackberries. Again, the kids ate their fill of them, and we had so much fun foraging in the woods!

 

Now it’s your turn to get out and enjoy nature!  🙂