Sidewalk painting

The kids woke up today asking to paint again. I started out by taking them to the picnic table with the washable paints and some fun sponge stamps that I picked up on clearance.  The excitement quickly faded.  So I remembered seeing an easy and cheap way to make sidewalk paint on Frugal Family Fun Blog just recently.  And what do you know, I had everything in the house.  I had noticed sidewalk paint before on other blogs, but they called for liquid watercolor and stuff that I didn't have on hand.  And with all the craft stuff I do have, I think Adam would have finally put his foot down.  So I headed in and grabbed the supplies.  I didn't tell the kids exactly what we were doing, so they were a little cautious at first.  But once I mixed up the paint, they were really into it!  The colors were surprisingly bright for food coloring.  I figured they would be more of a pastel.  We started out with brushes, moved to the plastic spoons used to mix, to just flat out dripping it out of the cups.

Paint all mixed up and ready to go!

 look how neat

 The supplies:

2 tbsp. corn starch per color

2 tbsp. water per color

4-5 drops of food coloring

I also just used disposable spoons and cups to make it easier.

Thanks Valerie for the idea!  We had tons of fun!

Bird Watching Day

A little while back I had signed my moms group up to participate in a country wide study of urban birds for The Cornall Lab of Ornithology. They sent us great packets for all the kids.  We just had to go watch the birds for 10 min.  And when I saw a few of my favorite blogs making binoculars, I just had to include that in our fun bird watching day!

To make the binoculars:
2 toilet paper tubes
construction paper
hole puncher
yarn
stickers
glue stick
masking tape

First you are going to cover each tube with colorful paper.  Then cut a narrow stripe of paper to secure the two tubes together.  We had the kids glue it all together, but found out that a little masking tape did a much better job! After you have the whole thing put together, punch a hole on each side and tie the yarn through the hole.  Then let the kids go wild decorating the binoculars with stickers or markers!

 The kids had fun making these, but sometimes got frustrated with the glue.

 Working very hard!

We did spend our 10 min. looking for birds, but only saw 1.  We could hear a ton, just didn't see them.

Books that we read:
Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert
Bird Talk by Ann Jonas

summer crafts

We had been on a "homework"/craft slump.  After I was sick for basically a month, and then our short little vacation, I had no energy for crafts.  Now that things are back to normal, we are jumping right in again.  Today was the most fantastic weather we have had for a long time.  Not too hot or cold, not too sunny or rainy, just perfect.  I figured we would grab some paint and head out to the picnic table. 

We started with a coloring page of a boy at the beach, I had the kids color his skin with a white crayon (sunscreen) and then color the rest of the page.  When they were all done, we washed over his skin with red watercolor.  We pretended he was out in the sun way too long.  My favorite saying overheard while doing this.  L, "That poor kid!"


Next up was a booklet about the seasons.  The first page we dipped our pinkies in green paint for the buds on the tree, for summer we crushed up tissue paper for the flowers, fall was our thumb dipped in yellow paint for pears, and winter was a bare branch. 

We gathered the finger-painting paper and paints.  I mixed up some orange and yellow, and we went at it making fun swirls.  We let this dry and then in the afternoon cut suns out of them.

And lastly we made pink flamingos!  First we painted a paper plate pink (mixed white and red paint to get the right color). Let those dry all morning.  After naps we glued the pieces I had pre-cut for the kids to the plate.  I think they are super cute!

All these ideas and print outs came from themailbox.com, a teacher's magazine and website!

Our work drying on the line all morning

 Working really hard on coloring

 Look at all that pretty work!

 L traced and cut his sun out all by himself.  He was very proud!

 The seasons booklet before stapling.

 Making some cute flamingos!

 

 Our living room is starting to look like summer!

 

Summer time fun

These last two days finally have been nice, warm days.  And looking at the weather forcast, it looks like it may be the only nice days for awhile again.  So yesterday morning, the kids and I headed outside for some fun.  Our backyard has been a mess this year.  Other then the rain constantly this season, we had a giant tree, and 4 mulberry trees taken down.  So now the yard is clean of trees, but has mulch and ruts in the yard.  Oh well, better then nothing.  The kids wanted to play with the sand and water table we bought last year.  Then on to the chalk.  They drew a trail of hearts leading me to 2 rainbows, one drawn by each child, just for me. 


Then today we spent the morning at the park with friends, headed to Target and picked up a new sprinkler.  So as soon as we got home, they insisted that we HAD to get the new sprinkler out.  After a little while out with that, we came in and got cleaned up.  The last part of the day we headed over to our local library to make pinwheels.  What a fantastic few days!  We can't wait to see what the rest of the summer has to offer.

Proud of the sand castle they made

 I planted flowers by the play house so the D could have her very own flower garden.  She has taken it very seriously!

 The path of hearts!

 A rainbow over water, some hearts, a sun, and MOM

 New sprinkler!

Family Vacation

 This past weekend we took our first ever family vacation.  Yes, it was just a weekend, and yes it was only 2 hours away from home.  But we drove a distance, and stayed in a hotel.  I think that counts ;-) We headed to Ft. Wayne for a 2 day get away.  We have wanted to visit the zoo there for a few years now.  We have a local zoo membership that allows us to get in for half price, which for us would be like buy 1 get 1 free.  Not bad!  Here are some fun things that either happened or were observed over the weekend trip:

While passing a large fake bull, D yells, "Um, that is a fake one!"

2 back country road potty stops, thankfully we have this handy little helper!

When telling the kids that we get free breakfast in the hotel we are staying in, D gets excited about the hot tea.

L and D are both happy about the pull out sofa to sleep on.

I taught D how to do the Hand Jive in the car on our way there.

While eating at a nice Mexican restaurant the first night, L looks around and says, "why does this place look so Mexican?"

We took the kids to see the movie Rio.

We spent the entire second day at the zoo.  We got to see a cute baby Gibbon learn how to hang onto the trees.

In the African Adventure, L says, "Wow this place has soooo many habitats!"

During the Sky Safari ride, the kids were more excited to see a deflated blue balloon and someones dropped cell phone on the ground.

D stood by and corrected kids and adults at the zoo on some of the animals:
         sea lion was not a seal
         kangaroo and wallaby are different
         the difference between the peacock and a peahen
         the difference between a lion and a lioness
         and that the sitatunga was NOT a deer!

We stopped and found Johnny Appleseed's grave site.  While his actual grave is unmarked and still not found, there is a very nice memorial.  Adam had us all eat apples in honor, he left the core behind, and took a cutting from the apple tree there.

Coming home we drove through a very bad thunderstorm, but we had fun watching the lightening.

And on our way home we had to drive through Amish country.  I was surprised to see how many buggies were out in the storm.  Want to guess how many I counted? Well it was.....26!

The entrance to the zoo. L was doing his best Spider man pose!

Up close with the animals!

One very happy little girl!

L had heard that we could feed the giraffes.  He was looking forward to this all day.  By the time we got to them, none were near the platform to feed them at.  I told L that they must not be hungry right now.  He was so upset, "You mean I have waited for this ALL DAY and now they aren't even hungry!!!" Just broke my heart.  And just then one of the babies walked up to where we were standing and tried to lick his hand.  Needless to say, that made up for it!

Johnny Appleseed Adam!

The soundtrack to our trip:
I took the kids to the library to pick out music for our trip.  This is what they came up with!
Rock & Roll Playground-Putumayo Kids
Sunny Days-Elizabeth Mitchell
World Playground-Putumayo Kids
Reggae for Kids- Universal Music Family
Reggae Playground-Putumayo Kids

Mommy and Me tea party

I started a tradition with D the year she turned 1, that around Mother's day we would have a tea party.  Now that first year, she wasn't 1 yet, just 1 short month away from that first year milestone.  I normally just take her to a local coffee shop and get her an iced tea and a baked good treat.  Well, every year it goes down in flames.  I think because I am a stay at home mom, and the kids never really get a break from me, D has been a Daddy's girl.  And every year when her and I leave to do our thing, it results in a crying, screaming, meltdown.  It makes me feel horrible, and I question why I do it every year.  Well this year, all those bad years finally paid off.  Adam and I enjoy going to a local pub every once in awhile, and a few months ago I noticed that they do an afternoon tea for adults and kids.  The place is a very family friendly place, so I just knew we would have to try it.  I put it on the calendar for the moms group that I organize and figured even if no one else could make it, D and I would try it out! I am so glad that we did!  I think it helps that she is almost 4 (I still can't believe that!), and that we have been drinking tea and having "tea parties" all winter.  I booked a table for the group, 3 moms, and 4 girls.  The girls ages were 1, 2, 3, and 4, and this was so much fun!  Each person, children included, had their own pot of tea.  There were 5-6 teas to choose from most of which were decaf.  They then brought out all the yummy food.  A giant bowl of fresh fruit, a platter with lemon pound cake and cream puffs, a dish a fresh scones complete with 3 types of jam and clotted cream, and then sandwiches.  There were the girl's sandwiches, cheddar cheese, and nutella with strawberries, and then there were the mommy sandwiches, turkey and cucumber.  Everything was so tasty, the wait staff was fantastic and totally on top of things, and there was more than enough food. For D and I before the tip, it was only $13!  That is a steal!  You spend more than that for 2 cups of tea and some pastries at a local coffee shop, and this was so much more.  I can't wait to do this with her again next year!  And after we got home and told the boys all about it, I think they want to go now too!

Mommy and D ready to go.  I love that she HAD to wear her rain boots.

 That is one excited girl!

 The table was all ready, now to just wait for our friends.

 All the girls and one of the moms.  We all wore pretty dresses!

 So much fun!

 Barely any food left at the end.

Rainbow day!

 Sorry that I have not been around lately, but I ended up getting very sick the week before Easter.  Needless to say, we didn't get to most of the fun Easter crafts I had planned.  So yesterday was the first day I felt better, and we were suppose to have rainbow day with the moms group.  Well, everyone but one mom canceled and she had a 6 month old, so I just let the kids play at the park at that time.  So we did our own rainbow day at home after nap time.  I had the kids do a fun easy craft. And I must say that one pet peeve that I found while looking up books and crafts that talk about rainbows, is that many leave indigo out.  If I am going to teach my children the correct info, I wish they would include all the correct info in the books, and crafts out there. 

Supplies needed:
paper plate cut in half
tissue paper cut in strips in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet
crayons in those same colors
glue stick

I went ahead and drew in the lines for the kids, then have them color in the colors of the rainbow in the correct order.  You know, ROY G BIV.  Remember that from grade school?

 Next have the kids glue the strips of tissue paper (I found a large package with most of the colors at Meijer in the card section for $5), onto the back of the paper plate.  We did the colors on both ends of the rainbow.

 We did go ahead and punch a hole at the top and strung some yarn through.  The kids were very excited to hang them in the windows to make the house more colorful!

I also went ahead and made some rainbow cookies.  I saw these on this blog back around St. Pat's day and had it bookmarked.  I couldn't wait to try them!  They turned out so cute, and very yummy!

Books we read:
Minnie's Rainbow by Sheila Sweeny-Higginson
Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry