The Wish List

Lately, my girls have been slightly obsessed with these particular plastic figurines. There are farm animals, wild animals, mythical creatures, dinosaurs, people, etc. Schleich is one company that is well known for their detail in reproducing these amazing hand-painted miniatures.

Hopers collects the wild animals for her "zoo."
Noodle is really into farming these days (sooo like her mama).

They both also have horse-riding fairies that seem to fit in either scene. Ahh, the imagination. It's brewing and bubbling around here lately.

So when I asked Hopers the other day what she wanted for her birthday, she replied, "A dolphin. And some trees." A dolphin, of course, for the aquatic section of her zoo. I raised my eyebrow a little at the second part of her sentence.

"What kind of trees?" I asked.

"For my animals. Toy trees to play with."

It struck me as a little funny that my child wanted toy trees for her birthday, but then again, if you know me, it's not really that strange. She wants trees? Sure. Why not. That night, I got online, ready to order some plastic trees, knowing I'd never seen any in the stores around town. A couple of search engines, amazon.com pages, and ebay inquiries later, I realized the tree situation was not going to happen like I planned.

Oh, I found trees. Schleich makes some really cool ones. Like this beech tree.

Um, yeah. Really cool. Except that it costs about $35.00 plus shipping. For one tree. And it doesn't even do laundry. Or wash dishes.

For the next several days, I brought up the birthday list again with Hopers, and again, always the same. Dang. She still wants trees. What was I going to do? I didn't want to disappoint my sweet, almost-four-year-old, but I just couldn't see myself spending that much on one little tree.

I was at Michaels today when inspiration hit me. I could make trees! I was surrounded by aisles and aisles of fake plant parts. And not only could Hopers have more than one, it wouldn't cause me physical pain if one was broken because they would be pretty inexpensive to make.

I found some small greenery that looked tree-ish. They're about 7 - 8 inches tall and cost about $2 apiece. I also bought wooden spools to use as stands (99 cents each).

I already had a glue gun and glue sticks. I think every household should have a glue gun. They're incredibly useful and can be purchased for a dollar or two. They're amazing. Really. I'm telling you, go buy one right now.

I fluffed up the foliage and bent the branches to make them look more tree-like. (I realize this is a completely useless act considering it's a toy that will soon be in the hands of a four-year-old, but, what the hay. I had to.)

This one kind of looks like a palm tree.

The next step was to fill the center of the spool with hot glue. These spools had a sticker on the bottom of each, covering the hole. I left the stickers there so that the glue wouldn't pour out of the other end, but I could have accomplished this with a piece of tape, also.

I also dribbled hot glue all over my counter-top. This is an unnecessary step. (Don't worry though, it pops off after it dries!)

Next, I stuffed the tree into the hot glue, held it in place for a few moments, and then set it down to harden. This happens pretty quickly though. Hot glue is the darling of the impatient.

And, lastly, I painted the spools brown.

Yes. I had to try them out.

(Shhh! The kids are asleep.)