Attack of the Killer Butterflies

Somewhere there is a man (I know it's a man--or at least an aunt who doesn't have any children of her own) who is very proud of himself for inventing a fun activity for children involving clay, teeny-tiny butterfly templates, rhinestones, wire and an oven. He probably has a nice piece of paper detailing the patent on this thing. But I think somewhere in the contengencies it should have said that he would have to be at my house this afternoon to take part in the fun.

So, Ruth got this fun butterfly-making activity for a gift, and she has been begging me for a month to let her open it up. Finally, today, I ran out of excuses and caved. Right away I realized this was no toy for a child. First step: unwrap each piece of clay from hard-to-open celaphane. Ruth was able to open a couple but I had to do the majority. Next step: soften the clay by kneading it in your hand. Unfortunately, the clay was so hard, Ruth couldn't even squeeze it. It was certainly not for a lack of trying, though. Ruth diligently picked up every piece, saying, "I'll do this one," only to pass to me in a few seconds saying, "This one is too hard. Could you do it?" Step three: Roll clay out flat. Ruth diligently rolled the clay but made very little progress, and I ended up rolling out all the clay. Next step: place teeny-tiny butterfly template onto flattened clay and cut out the shape. Ha!! First of all, no cutting utensil was even included in the kit. Secondly, it was almost impossible to cut around these itty-bitty butterflies so that you could actually tell what the shape was. Ruth, undaunted, tried cutting, became frustrated, and passed the clay off for me to cut. This became so tiring that I finally convinced Ruth that we needed to make some cocoons and some caterpillars using lots of clay, and this was an activity she was able to perform on her own. (Finally)! She was also able to make the bodies for the butterflies and glue the rhinstones in place. Finally, I popped all "our" creations in the oven, burning my finger in the process, and 15 minutes later we had solidified the creatures and the fact that "Ruth" will not be doing another of these projects any time soon.