"Painting" Rocks

One of the things on our Summer Bucket list was painting rocks. I wasn't sure if I was going to have the kids actually paint the rocks, or if we were going to do something different. Then I remembered seeing somewhere last year this fun idea!


Things you need:
a handful of rocks, cleaned
paper plates/bowls or parchment paper
crayons
oven or very hot day
baking sheet

I prepped these rocks in the oven while I was preheating it for a chicken nugget lunch. I placed my rocks on a baking sheet and popped them in the oven to warm them up. You want to get these nice and toasty. If setting outside, make sure you place them in a spot that is sunny all day. Once they were nice and toasty,  I put one on each plate or bowl. I let the kids pick out whatever color they liked, and warned them that the rocks were hot and not to touch. Once you touch the rocks with the crayon it starts to melt and get nice and liquid. Draw pictures, or like D, just "paint" it all one color! Once we were done with the color, we set them aside while we ate lunch. Once the rocks are cooled, they will be coated in wax, colorful, and neat to feel.

Pony Express day/Wild West play date

It was our 2nd Pony express day/Wild West play date. Both years we had a cowboy cookout of hot dogs, cornbread muffins, and baked beans.  Last year we colored western themed bookmarks picked up at Hobby Lobby on clearance, and had a pony express race. We divided the kids in two teams, little kids and big kids, and each group had a hobby horse to ride along with a stack of "mail" to deliver. I made mail pouches out of large grocery paper bags (just scrunch it up and roll down the top), and the mail was just large colorful envelopes I had in my stash with city names written on them along with stickers used as stamps. The kids had to ride the hobby horse and deliver the mail as quickly as they could. The older ones had a great time, but the littler kids had a hard time holding onto the horse and mail.

This year, we still had the cowboy cookout, and colored any of the leftover bookmarks, but we also made cowboy vests out of large paper grocery bags. To make these I just cut a thin block off the front going all the way up the bag, and cut a hole in the bottom of the bag to make a neck hole. I then cut 2 smaller holes in the sides for the arms, and cut the front into corners. The kids got to decorate these however they wished with markers. After we were done making out vests we painted horse tracks. I picked up a package of 10 sponges from Dollar Tree, and cut those into a horse shoe shape. I then mixed brown and black paint in paper bowls for easier clean up. Because we had this at a park, and you always need to factor in wind, I taped a piece of drawing paper in front of each kid. They then dipped the sponge in the paint and pressed it on the paper, leaving tracks all over. They all had a good time. The day was topped off with a run through the splash pad to wash and cool off!

Some of our cowboys and cowgirl!

 Horse shoe prints, the website I found these on also suggested sprinkling sand over the paint while still wet.

 Coloring the bookmarks last year

Last years pony express races

Way to deliver that mail kids!!!

Books we read:

Banana Blueberry Muffins

I was busy moving things from the old freezer to the new freezer and realized that we had tons of frozen overly ripe bananas. I remembered this cookbook that my mom had gotten me for mother's day and thought to take a look. Lo and behold there was a recipe for Banana Blueberry Muffins, and I had everything I needed already in the house! The blueberries were the last ones left from blueberry picking a few weeks ago. The cookbook is The Top 100 recipes for a Healthy Lunchbox by Nicola Graimes. Some of the recipes are fantastic, but most of them are things that would either cost way too much to make on my little budget or are things that my kids would not touch with a ten foot pole. But i figured this was a nice safe one to try.

2 cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup superfine sugar (I just used powdered sugar this time)
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs
5oz. unsalted butter, melted (this is about 10 tbsp.)
2 bananas, mashed
1 cup blueberries (Next time I make this I plan on using frozen ones.)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place muffin liners in a muffin pan.

Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl, stir in the sugar, and mix together. Make a well in the center.

Put the milk, eggs, and butter in a pitcher and whisk until combined. Add to the bowl with the bananas, stir just to combine, then fold in the blueberries. Spoon into pan.

Bake 20 min until risen. Cool on a wire rack.

I had one shortly after they came out of the oven and they were fantastic! And then we all had them for breakfast this morning with a big glass of milk, or ice coffee depending on age ;-)

City Bus Ride Adventure

We have recently moved into a new apartment in the last week, and are still figuring out how to get around to all the places that we normally would go. Well, Adam needed the car today for work, and the kids and I normally go to story time. Lucky for us, the city bus has a stop near our new apartment, and right in front of the library. Added plus, a bus ride was on our summer bucket list. Added plus plus, Notre Dame id holders and children under 4 ride for free! So Adam and I sat down last night to plan the trip I was going to take with the kids. We were going to have a transfer in the middle of the ride. No problem! This morning, I got the kids up and fed, dressed and backpacks packed with snacks, drinks, and our returning library books. And off we went! When we arrived, there was a bus leaving. No worries, the next one is suppose to be here at 9:26, just 20 min from now. While we were waiting, we ate snacks and read some of the stories we were bringing back. 9:35 rolls around and still no bus. Call Adam, and then called the company. The next bus is at 9:55. We should still be able to make it to story time on time. We did get there and made it just as story time was starting. After story time, we had just enough time to find our books and movies for the next week, walk outside and catch the bus going home! I didn't think to take any pictures while on the bus until we were almost home, hence the strange pic of L. I did bring ring pops for the kids and it was a good thing. It kept the whiny talking down on the way home. Plus it was special! I plan on trying this again next week, and now that I know what to expect, it should go smoother.

Things learned today:
-there is no 9:26 bus
-the bus comes to our apartment at the top of the hour
-the bus drivers and most passengers are friendly and helpful
-they all think L is 4 and under, so free!
-D can't sit next to the window, she pulled the stop cord as soon as we sat down. After I told them both repeatedly not to on the inbound trip. Thankfully we had not left the station yet.
-the bus route maps are confusing to read
-my kids will act up as soon as we sit on the bus
-we always have to sit all the way in the back

Overall, an interesting and cheap adventure, and I am willing to try it again!

Blueberry Picking

One of the things we really wanted to do this year was go blueberry picking. We went 2 years ago, and wanted to go last year but the car broke down right at blueberry season. This time Adam was able to come with. We also opted to go later in the day, around 5, and that worked so much better. The weather had cooled a bit, and we got to pick in the shade. Now normally we would pick tons of fruit, but we were moving the next week and wouldn't have the freezer space that we use to have.  So this time around we only picked about 5 1/2 lbs. We have been eating them like crazy! A few times in blueberry pancakes, but mostly straight up fresh blueberries. I wanted to make some muffins, but we will have to wait and see. There is always next year, right?

D dumping her bucket into the bigger one

Summer bucket list

I was inspired by the many summer bucket lists floating out there in the blogosphere, too many to name really. And there were so many fun ways to display them. I found summery scrapbooking paper in my stash, and punched out a bunch of circles. I wrote all the fun things that I either thought of myself or saw somewhere else on them, and then tapped them around the kid's bedroom door. As we do an activity, we take it down and tape it to their bedroom door.

Our list is:
Put on a puppet show
Paint rocks
Hunt for fossils
Flash light tag
Mini golf
Have a bon fire
Camp out
Go see Cars 2
Play on slip n' slide
Have friends over for pancakes
Make ice cream
Make root beer floats
Go to a fair
Make brownies
Visit science museum
Make sun prints
Write to a pen pal
See a parade
Surprise daddy with a picnic lunch
See a drive-in movie
Visit an art museum and try a new media
Play hopscotch
Go see a baseball game
Superhero day
Discover a new park
Make a colorful rice box
Make s'mores
Pick strawberries
Pretend outdoor laundry
Take a bus ride
Make care packages
Make homemade pickles
Field day with friends
Visit the local greenhouse

Things we did already:
Melt ice cubes
Go letterboxing
Build sandcastles
Have a lemonade stand
Go see fireworks
Go to the beach
Make and play with play-doh
Catch fireflies
Pick blueberries
Water balloon fight
Go to a splash pad
Make plant rubbings
Feed the ducks
See an outdoor concert
Do the Mentos/coke experiment
Visit the Farmer's market

Most of these are free or very cheap! I know that we won't be able to do all these things, especially since we are moving next week. But we hope to do many of them, and I am giving us until the middle of September to get it done by. What is your list?

Color Nature Hunt

Yesterday we celebrated the June birthdays in the moms group with a fun color hunt! I totally stole this idea from Frugal Family Fun Blog!!! She has so many fun ideas, that when I saw this one, I knew we needed to do it. So simple too! You just gather paint chips from a home improvement store, and punch holes in them. (We found the large ones at Home Depot!) I happen to have a nice size flower punch that a friend gave me, and figured that would look pretty. And as an added plus, I now have 240 pretty little flowers to use for another project!!! I also found the ring clips to put them together with at Hobby Lobby for very cheap. Look in the office supply area.

When we do the month birthdays with the group, we typically do cupcakes. Well I saw this cake, I think originally on craftgossip.com, but then re-found here at Whisk Kid. She made her cake and frosting from scratch, but I didn't have time for that when I made it. I used 1 cake mix box, and divided that into 6 bowls. It came out to one scoop of 1/2 cup, and then 1 scoop of 1/3 cup per bowl. I'm no good at fractions to tell you total what that may be.  The layers were a bit on the thin side, which for a bunch of kids, was just fine. If you want the layers thicker, I say use 2 boxes. I also used canned frosting, I know, gasp! I used 2 cans, put them in the mixer, added a tablespoon of meringue powder and 3 tsp. lemon extract. It was very yummy and refreshing to go with all that cake. My picture is a little too blurry, but you get the idea!

Table ready to go!

 The kids off on the hunt. We started with the colors we were wearing.

 Then headed over to the play ground.

 We checked the dirt, grass, trees, leaves, and whatever else we could find.

hmmm, which color is it?

 A bit on the blurry side, but you get the idea. In a perfect setting, I probably should have wiped the knife off after each slice. But there were excited kids!

Books we read: