Cactus Party

Cactus Party!

If you keep up with teen trends, you probably know that succulents are super 'in' right now.

I have no idea why. I have no idea how.

But I totally approve.

So our teen group had a cactus party!

Our room decor used a lot of free printables I found online.
Alo(v)e you Vera much
Cactus America
Cactus painting
Hello Cactus
Geometric Cactus
Get to the point
Be Kind

Credit for all of these pictures goes to their creators!

I also made two of my own, and these are available for your use as well.

The first step to our cactus party was sampling some cactus snacks.

We had San Pellegrino Prickly Pear and Orange drink, and a box of cactus candy. This was my first time trying cactus candy, and the flavor was alright, but that jell-o texture? Oh boy... that was gross.

The teens were divided on the candy as well, with half of them hiding their snacks in paper towels, and half of them asking for seconds and thirds.

After snacking, we used this page for a coloring contest. 

Here are four of our contenders. The top right (with the yellow tack) won.

The teens were also able to make some paper succulents.

This template worked well for us. We just used it to trace around on card stock, but it was very easy to cut and assemble. We also used this one.

We rounded off the program with some Prickly Pear Sorbet that we made with this recipe. It was super easy, and pretty good (though... the coconut milk was SUPER strong in it)!

I'm not sure how long the succulent trend will last, but I'm going to enjoy every moment of it while I can.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Wallace the desktop (Easter Bunny?) pygmy puff hopes you get all the candy you can eat.

Fantastic Beasts Movie Night

This week, our teens got to watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. 

We pulled out the popcorn machine, bought a couple boxes of paczkis (theme appropriate), and had a crafting opportunity in the back corner for our more restless movie-goers.

We kept it nice and simple so the craft could be completed while they watched the film.

Anyone who's seen FBAWTFT knows that Mr. Scamander's case of magical creatures is crucial to the film. We created our own cases, using plain plastic containers. Ours were left over from an old program where they were used for mini first aid kits. Any rectangular container should work. 

I spray painted these brown ahead of time, and promptly ran out of brown spray paint (if you see white spots... that's why).

To decorate the case, our teens cut circles of gold duct tape to wrap around the corners. Simply trim off whatever duct tape hangs over when it covers all three sides.

Of course, what good is a magical creature case without any magical creatures?

To go inside, we created a Swooping Evil.

In the film, the Swooping Evil is a charmingly terrifying creature with a skull-like face, and a habit of eating brains.

Newt flings the creature out of his hand like a yo-yo when he needs its assistance. 

For our super simplified Swooping Evils, we started with making basic origami butterflies, like the ones shown here. 

We cut out images of skulls that I found online (I very much liked this one. It looks fairly similar to the face of Newt's SE). 

Not my photo! This image is credited to SeaWolf_1 on photobucket

With a dab of glue, we were able to attach the skulls to our butterflies. 

Then came the fun part.

We used sticky bugs (like the hands you get at bowling alleys or kids' vending... something to the effect of these).

By sticking the bug part to the back of our Swooping Evils, the teens were able to fling them out from their hands the way Newt does... with 'creature' returning.