Build Day – Rebuilding Rounds

Posted on by
Reply

It took over two years to raise the money, but on May 18 a whole lot of volunteers came together and rebuilt AP Rounds, a Stoneham neighborhood playground.

Tania, Lindsay and I are so happy with how everything turned out. So many people contributed to make this a true community event, that I am still slightly teary eyed. At times the last two-plus years have felt lonely and like drudgery, but our first Build Day made it all worth it. And then when my daughter rode up in the Crazy Coupe and declared the playground “Beautiful”, I don’t think anyone had a bigger grin than me.

We had 100-plus volunteers come on the day, and here are some of the organisations and people who came together. Intrepid leaders were:

  • Organizers: Angelika P., Tania W., Lindsay B.
  • Construction: Dan D. (Town Engineer), Mike S. (Team Leader),
  • Food: Tania W.
  • Childcare: Lindsay B.
  • Safety: Robert C.

We had food donations from ZuZu’s Cafe, Honey Dew Donuts, Sal’s Pizza, Subway, Stop & Shop, and a whole lot of neighbors who baked and brought water. We had paint and brushes donated byRound’s Hardware, play sand by Reading Home Depot.

St Patrick’s members of the National Honors Society and the 4th Grade Girl Scout Troup came and helped with childcare and made a documentary for Stoneham TV, and the Stoneham High School Band came and performed. On Sunday, a whole baseball team showed up from Stoneham Baseballto help spread some mulch.

We have a long list of sponsors and donors on our website (http://RebuildingRounds.org), and we ask you to support these local businesses as a sign of your appreciation of their contribution to Stoneham children. They made it possible for us to buy the structures and amenities on the playground.

Next: Big Kid Play Structure

So now that we have put in the monkey bars and the climbing structure for the 2-5 year olds, it’s time to raise the remaining $15,000 or so, to purchase the climbing structure for 5-12 year olds. We have two big grants out and have our fingers crossed that one of them will come through.

If we get a grant, we will then have our second build day at the end of summer 2013. At this second Build Day we would like to install the big kid structure, memorial benches and planters, flower beds, art, a donor sign. So get your thinking caps on what you would like to do.

We have heard that most of the people from the first Build Day enjoyed it so much that they would like to come back, but we are already collecting names of others who would like to come to our second Build Day, or at least stay informed of progress. Please sign up to our email list athttp://eepurl.com/moRMr and tell Angelika (angelika@playgroundhunt.com) you would like to come

We will be looking for sponsors, food and drink donors, building material donors, landscapers (bobcats are good), landscaping materials, musical entertainment, art installations, gardeners, plant donations, … So we will be looking for folks who can help us find all that during the build up. It takes a bunch of people to get ready, so we want to encourage everyone to get in touch and volunteer an hour to make phone calls.

This press release has also been posted at http://stoneham.patch.com/blog_posts/completed-build-day-rebuilding-rounds

Endicott Park

Posted on by
Reply

We joined a Meetup.com meetup at Endicott Park in Danvers. We’d never been, but it is only 15 minutes from our home in Stoneham, and it was great fun. It’s run by the town of Danvers: http://www.endicottpark.com/

Located in northeast Massachusetts, in the Town of Danvers, Endicott Park encompasses 165 acres, and is home to some of the most unique and varied recreational land on the North Shore.

The park’s varied landscape includes pastoral views, historic farm buildings, orchards, woodlands, and marshes, with a network of trails and gravel roads for stress free and stroller friendly exploration of the park.

Entrance fee to the park is $1 for residents and $3 for non-residents during the weekend. Free during the week, but they are looking for donations to purchase a new climbing rock for the playground. And I always support people who want to improve a playground ;-) (For my playground project see http://RebuildingRounds.org)

Anyway, the playground area is fully fenced, has lots of benches, lots of shade trees, and lots of space with grass. There are two areas, one for the 2-5 year old set, one for the 5-12 year old set. Both are well designed, usable, and FUN! There are lots of swings, thought the ones with the infant seats and the big kid seats are at opposite sides of the playground. There are NO TRASH BARRELS since this is a carry in – carry out facility. Bring a plastic bag.

There are restrooms, some farm animals, some strolling trails, and lots of meadows and trees for frolicking.

Eggs Everywhere – what to do with all those colored eggs

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve dyed about two dozen eggs. On average we will eat about 0.25 boiled eggs each per week, or 4 a month for the whole family. So here is my desperate attempt to use up the other 20 eggs by posting a list of randomly chosen recipes for 1) Deviled Eggs, 2) Potato Salad, 3) Scotch Eggs, 4) Pickled Eggs. The Deviled Eggs recipe wins for needing 12 eggs!!!

Deviled Eggs

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bacon-Cheddar-Deviled-Eggs/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS:

12 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 slices bacon
2 tablespoons finely shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon mustard
DIRECTIONS:
1. Place eggs in a saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, and cool. To cool more quickly, rinse eggs under cold running water.
2. Meanwhile, place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Alternatively, wrap bacon in paper towels and cook in the microwave for about 1 minute per slice. Crumble and set aside.
3. Peel the hard-cooked eggs, and cut in half lengthwise. Remove yolks to a small bowl. Mash egg yolks with mayonnaise, crumbled bacon and cheese. Stir in mustard. Fill egg white halves with the yolk mixture and refrigerate until serving.

Potato Salad

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Red-Skinned-Potato-Salad/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS:

2 pounds clean, scrubbed new red potatoes
6 eggs
1 pound bacon
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
2 cups mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS:
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain and set in the refrigerator to cool.
2. Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel and chop.
3. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside.
4. Chop the cooled potatoes, leaving skin on. Add to a large bowl, along with the eggs, bacon, onion and celery. Add mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste. Chill for an hour before serving.

Scotch Eggs

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Scotch-Eggs/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS:

1 quart oil for frying
4 eggs
2 pounds pork sausage
4 cups dried bread crumbs, seasoned
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs, beaten
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Heat oil in deep-fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Place eggs in saucepan and cover with water. Bring to boil. Cover, remove from heat, and let eggs sit in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool and peel.
3. Flatten the sausage and make a patty to surround each egg. Very lightly flour the sausage and coat with beaten egg. Roll in bread crumbs to cover evenly.
4. Deep fry until golden brown, or pan fry while making sure each side is well cooked. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
5. Cut in half and serve over a bed of lettuce and sliced tomatoes for garnish. If mustard is desired it looks beautiful over this.

Pickled Eggs

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pickled-Eggs/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS:

1 (15 ounce) can red beets
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 whole cloves
1 small cinnamon stick
6 hard-cooked eggs
DIRECTIONS:
1. Pour the beet juice into a medium-size pot. Stir in the brown sugar, vinegar, water, salt, cloves, and the cinnamon stick. Place the pot over a medium heat for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Place the beets into the liquid mixture and let it cook for an additional 2 minutes to allow the beets to heat.
3. Place the hard cooked eggs (with the shells removed) in a container with a tight-fitting lid. Pour the liquid and beets into the container with the eggs. Store the container in the refrigerator for approximately 5 days before eating.

Making a Weaving Loom

Posted on by
Reply
Weaving Loom

The kind of loom I had as a child

After the success of our visit to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, I thought we’d take the weaving-thing a bit farther. When I was little I had one of those wooden framed weaving looms. I remember it surprisingly fondly.

I made two cheap weaving looms from cardboard boxes:

  • cut down sides so the shuttle can fit
  • cut some notches into the ends – I had six – with one cut deeper to hold onto the yarn
  • made a shuttle with curved end pieces and a notch to trap the yarn

Alex has done surprisingly well keeping the tension even – he made all these rugs for Elmo’s house without any help!!! I strung up the loom, but apparently a 5 year old is quite capable of weaving.

Alex Weaving

Alex Weaving

Jen at 3.5 years old has also done well, though she gets frustrated more quickly and I have had to finish a couple of the rugs for her.

Jen Weaving

Jen Weaving

If anyone has forgotten how to weave from their youth, I can offer the following hints:

  • to finish, tie double knots in all the strings
  • it’s called a shuttle!!!
  • notches for hooking on the yarn are great for keeping everything in place
  • leave enough of a tail in the yarn for those knots

Next up I have to remember how to weave with two or more colors within one row to make patterns – I remember there was some twisting or tying involved…

Weaving

Posted on by
Reply
Coffee at an art museum

Coffee at an art museum – sooo civilized!

Last Friday we went to our first class at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It was part of the home schooling series they put on, and well worth checking out for any children over three years old. The topic was “Textiles” and we spent the time wandering around the museum with our instructor looking at four different textiles: rug, traditional Peruvian weaving, a New England quilt, and a Peruvian hanging with European concepts. After the tour everyone did a weaving craft: colored wires and beads through burlap.

It was VERY cute :-) And then we got to sit in the museum cafe drinking coffee and eating cupcakes, which was extremely civilized.

Alex’ weaving

Weaving

Jen’s weaving:

Jen's weaving

 

Flying Kites

Posted on by
Reply

Alex and Jen are pretty average kids, and I try to get them outside running around as much as possible. Otherwise things go pear-shaped pretty quickly with excess energy. Thankfully both are now old enough to run and do activities independently.

So here are some random pictures of them flying their kites. Running for a whole hour. Woot!

IMG_7123 IMG_7116 IMG_7114 IMG_7113 IMG_7126 IMG_7118

Natural Egg Dye Recipes

Posted on by
Reply

from Lakewinds.com:

Natural Egg Dye Recipes

 

This Easter try coloring eggs the natural way. Use hard cooked brown or white eggs. After eggs are cooked, quickly cool the water or rinse in cold water. This helps to prevent “greening” of the yolk. Natural dyes take a bit longer to color the egg, so plan on extra time, or leave the eggs in the refrigerator overnight.

 

Natural Colorant Egg Color Directions Hints
turmeric powder bright yellow to deep gold Put -1-2 tsp. ground turmeric powder in heat proof cup. Fill 2/3 full with boiling water. Add 1 tsp. white vinegar. Works quickly.
Turmeric stains so be careful.
Wipe dusty spice residue from eggs.
chopped red cabbage blue/teal Put 2-3 tbsps. chopped red cabbage in heat safe cup. Add boiling water. Add 1 tsp. white vinegar. Let sit overnight.
Avoid excess handling.
onion skins, yellow light peach to gold/orange Use 1 large handful of onion skin for each cup of water. Simmer 20 minutes then add 1 tsp. of white vinegar. A perennial favorite.
Easy.
grape juice blue to purple Add 1 cup frozen juice concentrate to 1 tsp. vinegar. Eggs may be simmered right in the juice to cook.
grated red beets magenta red Put 2-4 tbsps. freshly grated beets in heat safe cup. Fill 2/3 with boiling water. Add 1 tsp. white vinegar. Speckled design.
Dye may be strained before use.
Orange beets may be used to obtain saffron color.
red cabbage & turmeric green Pour scant tsp. of turmeric and 2-3 tbsps. of chopped red cabbage in a heat safe cup then add boiling water. Speckled design.
Wipe vegetable off with damp cloth.
red cabbage & beet purple Put 2 tbsps. grated beet and 2 tbsps. red cabbage in heat safe cup. Add boiling water. Striking and intense.
onion skins, red pale celadron green See directions for yellow onion skins. Allow long steeping time.

 

An average egg contains 65 calories, 6 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat and 6 grams of protein. They are also a good source for riboflavin, iron, and vitamins A and D. Even though eggs contain 212 grams of dietary cholesterol, new studies have found that an average egg raises the blood cholesterol level by only 3 mg. in most people.

Back at it

Posted on by
Reply

So it has been a super long time since I wrote a blog post.

A number of things have changed for me recently: it’s become cold and I have been sick with some random kidney thing.What that has really meant is that in between the cold and chronic fatigue I have, we have been spending some time inside. Not much time at the playground.
We have also been thinking about home schooling. Turns out that with all the running around, checking out local museums, classes and at Mass Audubon, going to art classes, going to swim class, going to gym classes, going to library story time and crafts, and last but not least playing with a vast amount of Lego we acquired over Christmas, I am homeschooling.

Who would’ve thought it!!! Anyway some of my friends on Facebook have been getting excited about the stuff that we’ve been doing. It seems to makes sense to use the PlaygroundHunt blog to chronicle some of our adventures now.

So here is what Jen is doing RIGHT NOW: vinegar with food coloring, baking soda on a baking tray, combining the two with some transfer pipettes. This was a repeat request :-)

20130126-161357.jpg

20130126-161425.jpg

20130126-161457.jpg

Inserts for Advent Calendar: Signs and Logos

Posted on by
Reply

I started making this collection of Boston Area attractions a couple of years ago in the hope of printing it and putting little slips of paper into my children’s advent calendar. Finally got back to it and will ACTUALLY do it this year (rather than just putting in some badly hand-drawn pictures)

The printable pdf version of this is here: Boston Area Logos and Signs (220)

And here are the logos I have included so far… Hope it helps with making an excellent adventure-filled month of December.

Top 5 Playgrounds from Summer 2012

Posted on by
2

We went to a lot of playgrounds this summer, and here is a short list of our five most favorite ones.

Spaulding Playground (Wakefield) is a beautiful playground right on the shore of Lake Quannapowit in Wakefield. It has a large structure for 5-12yo, a separate structure for under-5yo, a very large number of swings, plenty of benches, a water fountain, a beach (no swimming though). We can spend hours and hours here and then go across the road to get a bite to eat.

PlaygroundHunt at Spaulding Playground

 

Greenwood Park Playground (Stoneham) is a large, shady playground in the north of the Middlesex Fells, just opposite the Stone Zoo. There is a huge sandbox, liberally stocked with donated trucks and shovels, a very fun big-kid structure with our favorite slide ever: THE Tunnel Slide. This playground also has a structure with slide for toddlers, several picnic tables, a circle of six sit-on wobbly toys, and my favorite: a large stone wall, full of possibilities. It is easy to go for a short hike through the Fells and explore the forest and marsh.

Playground Hunt at Greenwood Park

 

Paulina Street Playground (Somerville) is right in the middle of Davis Square in Somerville.  This is a very friendly playground, where we have had many great experiences with other parents supervising and encouraging their kids to share and be kind. We call this the Yellow Playground because both the under-5yo and the older kid structures are bright yellow. There is also a nice club-house with a several (!) donated play kitchens, a beautifully designed, shaded sand river, some swings, and a water-pump play feature. Alex and Jen mostly run around in circles here…

Paulina Street Playground

Springs Brook Park (Bedford) is a pay-for-use facility operated by the Town of Bedford. It is a man-made lake with lots of lifeguards and zero-depth entry from the sandy beach all around. The sprinkler park is our favorite in the Boston North area. There is also a playground, but the surfaces are usually boiling hot, so we just spent our time going between sprinkler park, lake, and the very reasonably priced concession stand.

Spring Brooks Park

North Point Park (Cambridge) is near the Museum of Science, beautiful, huge, and rarely visited, perhaps due to the two-hour parking limit nearby. There is a separately fenced toddler playground with water feature, several slides, several innovative structures, and a shaded picnic area. Outside the toddler area are three other huge big-kid play structures and a sprinkler park. From this playground you can also see trains and boats on the harbor. We always leave here happy.

Playground Hunt at North Point Park in Cambridge