The Second Most Expensive School Project This Year

So here it is, end of the year and Connor has a school project. He has been working on a paper about a squirrel (which Carrie Bradshaw once called a rat in a better outfit) and needed to build a habitat. I of course being of great ideas and creativity decided we could take an old 2 liter bottle and make it into a mini tree.

Step 1, cut a hole in the bottle for squirrely to look out, check.

Step 2, wrap the bottle in brown felt, check.

Step 3, glue pieces of mulch on the felt....this is where the trouble begins.

Realizing that Martha Stewart would recommend a glue gun for this project I plug her in and wait. Connor went out to the yard to get the best pieces of mulch gathered and we were ready to go. I am squeezing the glue onto the mulch and Connor is putting them on the bottle. We are going at a pretty good speed - as you know everything in my world is quick..quick..quick. I hand Connor a piece and step in to make it perfect (because we all know how important it is to have a fourth grade squirrel habitat be absolutely perfect) and the piece I just loaded up with glue pops off and lands glue side down on my wrist. I go to brush it off and it hits the thumb and ring finger on the way down. This is now a problem, in brushing it off my wrist all of the skin went with it. I instantly knew this was not something neosporin would solve. We all jumped in the car to go to the urgent care center and sure enough - 2nd degree burn. Who knew hot glue guns got that hot? I never heard Martha give that kind of warning. Like the lady who sued McDonalds for hot coffee I am wondering if I have a case against Martha - 2 counts. Count 1, the pressure to build perfect things in a 30 min time slot. Count 2, failure to warn that you should wear protective gear when working with the hot glue gun.

So total cost of this project - bottle, free - had it saved for just such an occasion. Mulch, free from the yard. Felt, $1.29 at Michaels. Urgent care, $77, prescription $8, dressing for the burn $22 - total $108.29

Sadly, this total is not even close to the most expensive project of the year. The Science Fair guitar, which while an amazing show of workmanship, was lacking the actual science to place in the science fair - this one totaled $200 but did return 100 points extra credit. Life lesson, never let two 13 year old boys run unsupervised on a science fair project. We were lucky that they did not blow up the house, the guitar was fairly tame, just loud.


So the school year is almost over, time to reflect.
Squirrel habitat, $108, creating real life guitar heroes, $200 the blessing of being AJ and Connor's mom - priceless!