Monday, May 3, 2010

Non Bloggers: A Series

My favorite part of English class was when we finally got around to reading the work of the people who were less likely to share it. Not that it was any better or worse, it was just mysterious, I guess because some people ::wait for it:: DON'T COMPULSIVELY OVERSHARE.

Not a bit.

I know, right? But it is just as often that these people have just as much if not more to say.

When I first met Matt, he contacted me through my first blog on myspace. I if I remember correctly, it was a strange kind of serendipitous thing, a story too long for me to tell right now. My point is, the people you meet on the internet sometimes become actual real breathing people who you one day look back and say WOW DUDE, we've known each other for 5 years now.

His kid has aged from 3 to 8, so the Family Sized Fun they are having is a little something something we have to look forward to.

And now, for Matt. (I can't TELL you how much I love to share my friends with each other!)

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Creativity and Cardboard

I'm divorced, and I am fortunate that I get to see my son every weekend. A lot of divorced dads are not so lucky. And on our weekends, I try to stay busy. I get to be the "fun dad". We seldom have homework, though a couple of weeks ago, I helped him with a school project - we made a 3D model of the Pantheon for his multicultural fair at school. And while helping him with that education, I also educated him on knife skills by showing him the wrong way to use a utility knife to cut cardboard. We both learned a lesson!

Last Saturday was also a fun-packed day. It started too early as Alexander woke me before 7am. On my day off. *evil glare of love* I slowly drug myself through the paces of getting myself ready to face the world. We started by watching an episode of Doctor Who, brought to us via carrier pigeon from England. Quality stuff, that. Recommended. This episode was a bit scary, which is why we watched it in the morning, instead of an hour where nightmares would be induced.

After that we headed to Home Depot for their Kid's Workshop. They give the kids fun little wood and nail kits to build, and ours gives Chick-N-Minis from Chick-Fil-A. Today's project was a picket fence planter. Here's info: Kids Workshops at The Home Depot. Lowe's has a similar Build and Grow program: lowesbuildandgrow.com/


After that, we headed to Coliseum of Comics in the Fashion Square Mall for http://freecomicbookday.com. It's a day where comic book stores give out free comics to get new readers. We were able to pick up comic books for Fraggle Rock, Shrek, Toy Story, Superman, The Avengers, and the Green Hornet, all for free!

And then we gathered friends and went to Whole Foods where they were celebrating 12 years of business in Winter Park. They had a cook-out of awesome food - grouper and salmon sandwiches, shrimp kabobs, beef sliders, portobello mushroom burgers, and more for $3 a plate and $1 drafts of Orange Blossom Pilsner and Toasted Coconut Porter. (I free-sampled the porter - not bad at all - a slight coconut aftertaste). And best they had a kids area of arts and crafts, featuring cardboardasauruses and paper bag mushrooms to decorate from the Spore Project (http://dougrhodehamel.wordpress.com/) and some dry bean art (on real canvas boards). These are all awesome arts and crafts - way better than the face painting you usually find at such a place.

Like this.
Carboardasauruses are the brainchild of an artist who invented them for a dinosaurs and cavemen themed party and then began making them for kids at Misty Forest, and enrichment center in Orlando. http://www.mistyforest.org/ They're easy to make using recycled cardboard, and look wicked cool.


Best of all, unlike the Pantheon, this kept me from losing blood.


We came home and had barbecued tofu and homemade french fries and watched Star Wars Episode III, Alexander's favorite. It was a good day, full of geekiness and creativity!


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Gosh, Matt. Imma hafta get me some fridge boxes now, I AM SO INSPIRED!

Do you have some fun cardboard crafts to share? TELL US! Would you like to join our Family Sized Fun Community as a Guest Non-Blogger?

contact Karmen at onomoriah@yahoo.com

You can follow Matt on twitter! @BrerMatt
And of course you know you can follow us on twitter: @FamilySizedFun

18 comments:

Jerseygyrl said...

Great post! I love the cardboardasaurus, too cute!

BrerMatt said...

Thanks for reading, Jerseygyrl! The cardboardasaurus was a ton of fun. I foresee many more of them in our future, especially since we'll be moving in a couple of months. Boxes will abound!

Can you imagine a kid's birthday party with these? It would be so much fun!

Anonymous said...

New follower to the blog and the first one I read is from Matt.

The cardboardasauruses are fantastic. I don't even have kids, but am having an epiphany of what to do with all the leftover moving boxes we still have in our garage.

Great post. ~ The Mongoose

LittleBoyGreen said...

I second the "cardboardasauruses are fantastic." I love making kids' craft projects!

I'm also going to have to keep my eye out for coconut porter!

pthsmonkey said...

AWESOME! Matt are you sure you don't want to be a blogger? You are really good! I am going to check out these projects at Home Depot and Lowe's, and when my daughter comes to visit us at College Station we will have something creative to do! Thanks!!

meagan, the petend writer said...

i love the cardboardasorus. rraarrr! what a great daddy u are!

BrerMatt said...

Thank you all so much for your comments! I'm happy that I have great readers!

Family Sized Fun said...

uh, yah Matt.
it took me years to this many comments!

thanksomuch for sharing your buddy and your fun ideas with us!

and thanksomuch for sharing all your fabulous readers with ME!

Anonymous said...

You set the bar pretty high for all the dads out here.

Thanks Matt

BB

Leah said...

I'm not even a parent and I loved it! The two of you sound like you have the best weekends ever and I'm sure your son looks forward to spending weekends with you. I know I would if they involved Dr. Who and building cool things!
Thanks for sharing!

BrerMatt said...

We love Doctor Who!

Not last Halloween, but the one before, I made Alexander a Doctor Who costume a la David Tennant. And if you have seen Doctor Who, you'd know this is a suit and overcoat. I looked to see if I could find a suit to fit him for the costume, but no one makes suits like that for 6 year olds. So I hand sewed him a brown pin striped suit! The pants came unraveled after being worn a few times by a rambunctious 6 year old, but altogether, successful.

Before that, when he was 5, I made him a Han Solo costume.

#crafty

Thanks for the comments!

Kris said...

Great post! Great dad! Nicely done.

But . . . that is not a picket fence planter. That is clearly a garden-themed potty seat.

Just saying.

Family Sized Fun said...

i got 5 on the potty seat!

BrerMatt said...

I wonder... if Home Depot advertised it as a potty seat, would they get more or less people for it?

Jerseygyrl said...

I vote YES for your own blog, I'd totally read it!

Lauren said...

Great post. I love to read daddy blog posts. I find it endearing hearing them talk about their kids. And I think we live each others weekends cause I totally took my niece to Lowes to make a birdhouse and then to the comic book store to get a free comic book.

BrerMatt said...

Thanks!

If you want to mirror my weekend again, this Saturday, we are volunteering at A Gift for Teaching (http://agiftforteaching.org) and then going to the Orange County Regional History Center (http://www.thehistorycenter.org/) for Galactic Encounter Day.

berenichi said...

Wow, I loved this. Cardboardasauruses would make an awesome birthday party idea.

And it touches my heart to see dads (and mums) write about doing such great creative things with their kids. Well done ))

 
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