"Who you gonna call..? – Ghostbusters! (Cheap as Craft)

When Tornado was 3, my husband’s teenage kids were babysitting him one afternoon, and to pass the time, they decided to watch a DVD – and chose “Ghostbusters”. Now, in the rather wide range of movies of Awesome’s collection, this was probably a wise choice in their eyes (it’s rated PG, I just checked) and I remember loving that movie when it first came out (and I was their age) but I would have known that it was WAY to scary for my boy!  At the time, he would run out of the room at the ‘scary scene’ in “Cars” when Mater takes Lightening McQueen out at night to scare the Tractor-cows – before the big Monster-mower even appears! Even today, at almost 5 and very keen on watching all kind of ‘scary’ animation (Ben10, Dragon Booster and the like), Tornado is still pretty sensitive when it comes to ‘real scary’ (+music+darkness) on the screen. And while special effects have come a long way since 1984, for him, it would have been ‘real horror’ actually.

In any case, although he never saw the movie to the end (my stepkids would have realized their mistake after the first scenes..), I heard about it for weeks. There wasn’t a real increase of nightmares, but he certainly was impressed and we talked about it A LOT. We still talk about it, and he still doesn’t want to see it (yet) but we have seen the animated series ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ at some point. Far less scary. (But why is Egon now blond??)
There are complete episodes on youtube, for aficionados.

So for some reason, this week he wanted to ‘play Ghostbusters’, so I printed out a few stickers for his shirt (and mine) and made him a very simple but very efficient “Proton Gun” that I connected to his little backpack with a rest of cable-tidy tube from Ikea.

A teddy became a ghost with an old sheet and we had lots of fun!.. and playfully tackled, any eventual residual fears that he might still have about ghosts (we know they’re just ‘pretend’ but still..) especially with all that talk about funerals and mummies lately.

And of course, more stickers had to be printed to transform some Lego guys for further play:   

On a sidenote : We also had a look at the music video, it’s delightfully 80s and Chevy Chase (who played the repairman in the recent “Hot Tub Time Machine” which was so much better than I had suspected) doing this trick with a cigarette – unthinkable today, almost criminal some would say, as it would have inspired many young boys to learn the same thing (and smoke).
My husband can still do it.

More ‘Cheap as Craft’ : “Cardboard City“

Cheap As Craft – Bow & Arrow

Today, my husband emptied out a sports bag and we recovered two perfectly new shoe laces. Perfect on the day where I had promised Tornado to built him bow and arrow without really knowing what I would use. While he was cutting out the feathers for his headband I worked on his latest weapon :

The idea was of course to spend zero money but still fabricate a reasonably functional, stable toy for him – without danger of injury for either himself or the other inhabitants of the house….

I used a peg from the irrigation system that Dogthing is systematically unearthing and forever chewing on. The plastic has just the right flexibility.
The arrow is fully out of cardboard with stabilising, rolled cardboard inside and relatively heavy. The tension of the shoelace looks strong but allows only for minimal propulsion really. After a little bit of training, the arrow flew far enough to make one little indian VERY happy! 

Cold pressed

Incontinence and the City

Are you watching commercials ? I do.
It seems to me like there is a new approach to certain aspects of female hygiene. No I don’t meant the dorky boyfriend who gets busted by his girl and her parents while playing with her not-so-invisible pads as they walk in on him wearing them as rabbit ears. Although that’s kind of funny.

Menstruation related ads are since long part of our life, and although I am not really looking forward to explain to my son some of the dreamy/funny spots for tampons and pads in a near future – like the one with the beaver (!) which he totally loves… I think it’s OK. Times have changed. My son will be a sensitive boyfriend one day. Or one with rabbit ears.

But  actually, I mean the one  with the Giggling Girls with “Light Bladder Leakage” (for non Australians, link below). Incontinence goes “Sex and the City”?