Boy Camp

The Sissies had Library Camp at their school the first week of summer. I thought it would be fun for Bear to have a little "camp" of his own. We invited two friends to come and play for a couple of days and do a "camp"- really just a more structured play date with a theme. It was so fun to do for him and they all loved it. 

The first day was Pirate day.  They painted pirate chests and glued jewels on them. Then they went looking for buried treasure in the sandbox (the best activity for everyone by far- the "treasure" is still buried and unburied regularly).  Then they had a great big pirate sword fight. They were so cute. Sometimes they fought each other, and sometimes trees, the slide, and lawn chairs were "dragons" that needed fighting.

The next day was "Super Guy" day. They came dressed in their super-guy apparel. 

The boys loved the "Hulk Smash" game I made up- stack the produce boxes in a tower and run through them to smash them down. Big surprise there :)

I was going to have them finger paint their pictures this day, but it was really funny. They did NOT want to get their fingers messy :) 

The last day was Train Day.  They painted with trains (so fun! Just put a glob of paint on the page and let them drive through it with cars/trains. It makes painted "tracks"). 

Then they worked together to build and run their trains around the wood tracks. It was a simple and fun day!

Summer Fun List- Week 8- The End!

In our last week of the summer fun projects, we FINALLY pulled the "$ to spend at the Dollar Store" stick. The kids were thrilled.  The girls got $2 bucks each and were allowed to go nuts (actually, not fully nuts, I said they couldn't get another crappy mermaid or pony like the kind I just threw out...).  Birdy got Silly Putty and a fake flower bouquet.  EJ got cool colored hair accessories and silly putty.  Bear got his own dollar and got a blue dragon- RAWR!

The next day we made "squishy bags".  Basically just clear dollar-store hair gel in a baggie.  I put two colors of food coloring in each and let the kids mix them so there was a little color science mixed in to the fun.  Bear wasn't really impressed, but Birdy and EJ squished and played with these bags for a couple of hours and then picked them up off and on to play with for a couple of days!

We had friends over for the last two projects.  One was squirting a bunch of shaving cream on the table and letting them play with little cars and toys in it.  This provided SECONDS of fun y'all!  Maybe even a minute for some of the kids.  It was SOOO much clean up and SOOO little fun. It could have been the extra kids, so I'm willing to try this one again with just the big girls.  Bear wouldn't even TOUCH the shaving cream ;)

We also used our clothespins to make clothespin mermaids.  The girls had a blast (we did this one while the little brothers were napping).  They turned out super-cute.  We used regular markers (not sharpies) for this one, and they weren't as good.  Also, if you try this one, use something other than hot glue for the tail. It will take longer to dry, but the hot glue made it impossible to slide the foam "fins" into the wood pin.

Summer Fun List- Week 7

We only managed 2 projects this week, but they were fun ones. All summer I had been saving Kleenex   own band instruments. The kids decorated their instruments with different stickers and whatnot, and then we rocked out!  Rubber bands and Kleenex boxes make surprisingly good guitars, BTW!  I shot a super-cute video of the kids rocking out with their instruments (complete with vocals by Birdy) and it won't upload. Boo!

The other project we did were these adorable clothespin dolls. We used some fabric and yarn and ribbon we had around the house.  We drew on their faces and shoes with Sharpie (works way better than regular "kid" markers).

We made the skirts by using a cup and a plate to trace a circle, and then we folded the circle in quarters and cut a small hole. Then everything was hot-glued on.  It was pretty Mom-intensive (the girls drew the faces and shoes, and mostly just instructed me on what they wanted for the rest because of the hot glue).  But as you can see, we had no problem making several dolls.  They are surprisingly sturdy and have held up to a lot of play in the last couple of weeks.

I joined the party and made a "Super Bear" and my own pretty girl. The girls helped me make a "Cowboy Daddy" doll, too. 

Summer Fun List - Week 6

For week 6 of our Summer Fun List, we picked "carnival can game".  The original idea was to decorate cans and use them, but I just felt too darn lazy that day. Plastic cups worked nicely and the kids (even Bear) had a lot of fun with it!  Definitely something we'll do again when they get bored- it required 0 prep and it kept them busy and having fun for a good half hour!

The next project we did was the swirling colors milk experiment.  This was one of my favorites.  The girls and their friends that joined us thought it was SO awesome to watch the colors "jump" away and swirl together.  If you do this one (and you totally should), be sure to use whole milk- it worked a lot better than skim and swirled longer.

We also made our very own home made bouncy balls.   I think calling them "bouncy balls" is a little optimistic, because ours only bounced about the same as, say, silly putty, but the girls thought they were awesome and Birdy especially played with them on and off for a few days.

Last up was our home made "gak".  The recipe we used didn't make stuff of the consistency I expected, so next time I think we'll try another one (so I'm not including it). But the stuff we DID make was pretty cool and about the consistency of silly putty.  All three of the kids had fun with it and it was worth doing again!

Summer Fun List- Week 4 & 5

We only managed to do one of our summer fun list projects before we left for UT (yep, this is going waaaaayyy back to June...).   We made these awesome "stained glass windows" with one of our new friends.  They were a lot of fun and look soo pretty hanging up in our window!

Week 5 of our summer fun list came after we returned from UT.  These "bird" masks weren't on our list, they were a Michael's free kids craft project. I decided to count them because we had a lot going on that first week back. Plus they are cute! 

We also made these pringle can kaleidoscopes.  They were fun enough to decorate, but the kaleidoscope part was kind of lame... Too much effort for the 2 seconds of fun we had with them :)

Our last project for Week 5 was "soap clouds".  Basically you get ivory soap (has to be ivory, it has a higher air content and won't burn into a stinky mess).  The micro wave action makes it puff into fluffy "clouds" of soap.  It was good, clean, cheap fun (you just have to watch out because the soap flakes and should be swept up- not wiped with a wet cloth). Then we let the kids take their soap clouds into the tub. 

Summer Fun List- Week 3

You and I both know I have a bunch of blogging to do about our fantastic trip to UT, but I want to catch up on the week's worth of blogging I didn't get to before we left.  So- let's jump in the time machine and go WAAAYY back to the second-to-last week in June:



Our first project was these cute little popsicle stick puzzles. There are a lot of different ways you can do these that I found online (like cutting pictures from books or photos to fit the sticks and glueing them on) but I stuck with the easiest and most fun- tape the sticks together, flip 'em over and color with markers. We invited our friends the Shills to come and do it with us and all of the kids loved it- boys, girls, little ones and big ones!

Next came our nature scavenger hunt. I found a template for a nature hunt online (and I can't find the link, drat) that had things I felt we could find in our neighborhood.  We took the opportunity to go explore the cemetary that is right accross the street to hunt in.  It was great fun until tragedy struck:

Birdy stepped on a fire ant hill. NOT FUN!

Then we made sponge bombs. These are super-fun and we take them to the pool every visit. All of the kids love them!  Instead of using fancy zip tie or fishing line (tried it- too hard to tie tightly), we found the best was some heavy-duty hair rubber bands work really well.   Also, I included this wide shot so you could get an idea of what "our" pool looks like. It is big, and the little pool in the front right is the 1 ft. deep "baby pool".

Last, the girls were THRILLED to finally, finally pull the "shaving cream slide" stick. Basically it involves spraying shaving cream on the slide and getting all shaving cream-y as you slide down very fast.  The kids (except Bear) loved it. As you can see, we invited our friends the Zielke's to come and join the fun. Seriously, how could you keep something as cool as shaving cream slide day to your self?

What better way to wash off all of that shaving cream?  BTW- Notice Griffy running bravely through the sprinklers (he also loved the slide) while Bear is nowhere to be seen? He wanted NOTHING to do with the messy slide and scary sprinkler and spent the afternoon happily playing "fountain" in the kiddie pool.

Summer Fun List: Jello Messy Play

I saw an idea for "Jello Messy play" on Pintrest. It basically involves giving your kid a pan of Jello and telling him/her to go nuts.  The mom part of me said "No, I shouldn't put this one on the list" and the rest of me said "I kind of want to make my own pan of Jello and go nuts!"  So in it went!

I'm sure it will be no suprise to you that it was a hit with all the kids (BTW- the blond boy is Birdy's future husband- we were watching him for the day)   It was fun to see what they did with it. It took them a while to get really messy- they spent some time playing with the jigglyness with their fingers (and tongues!) it was funny.

It didn't make as big of a mess as I anticipated. The big kids we good about not flinging it around and they pretty much just had messy hands.  Bear on the other hand was worse to clean up than after his first birthday cake.  I would say if you want to do this (and you totally should) and you don't live where it is a zillion degrees outside, do it outdoors and in swimming suits. It will make clean-up SO much easier.



Summer Fun List: Week 2

We got lucky in our second week of our Summer Fun sticks- we pulled two oil-and-water experiements!  Mommy got to teach a mini-lesson on density (to explain why the oil floated and the water and food coloring sank) and then we got to work.  First up we did "oily fireworks"- the picture above.  It was my favorite- it was pretty to watch the food color swirl and make little colorful "firework" shapes. The girls thought it was awesome, too. We did it a couple of times and showed Daddy when he came home from work.

Next up was the more impressive "make your own lava lamp".  This one used a TON of oil, but it was worth it and alka seltzer is cheap. We kept the oil jars for about a week until the alka seltzer ran out, so they could do it lots of times and show their friends.   This one was the girl's favorite.

We made liquid chalk and painted our sidewalks. There are a lot of recipes out there for this, but I picked the easiest one- 1 cup corn starch and 1 cup water and food coloring. I used the gel colors to get a more intense color and put it in our 6-cup muffin tin (not my idea- Pintrest).  All three kids and our neighbor girl LOVED this one. We had a very colorful and decorated sidewalk until it rained two days later. Perfect!  I want to do this one again and put it in old ketchup or other squirt bottles and do splatter painting!

The next project we did was a classic- God's eyes. I was suprised at how much they liked this one.  I was even more suprised that Birdy had an easier time catching on to the pattern of wrapping than EJ. They both got the hang of it and created some lovely yarn art. They have been begging to do this one again.

Our last project for the week was so awesome, it gets its own post. Here is a teaser.  Stay tuned!

Summer Fun List: The Beginning

 Since I joined Pintrest, I've been pinning all sorts of cool craft projects, science experiments and other fun things that I think "I'll do that with the kids, someday." However, I lacked motivation to actually do them :) 

Soon, though, I found myself facing down the barrel of a long, hot summer, I decided to make a list of all of those fun things and we would do them.  I wrote all the fun-looking activities on Popsicle sticks (in case we want to use them again next year, plus- they are more fun than slips of paper!). I tried to stick to relatively easy, age-appropriate projects that were either free (using things we have on hand) or not more than a couple of bucks to do.   The idea is that on Sundays we pick 5 sticks with activities we'll do during the week. That gives me time to plan to buy supplies if I need to for some of the projects.  Last week was the first full week of summer and we kicked our list of with our first projects.

Painted rocks! No, I didn't need pintrest to tell me how fun this one would be :)  I threw in some of my own ideas thankyouverymuch.  The girls had a blast and, as you can see, got creative- EJ made a mermaid, mountain scene and a ladybug.  Bear didn't get to paint, but he had a lot of fun carryng around his "eggs" for a few days until they were confiscated after he threw them at someone's head one too many times.

Mini marshmallows + toothpicks.  Once they stuffed themselves with about 50 marshmallows each, they had a lot of fun with this one.  Bear never really got past the eating phase.

 Look closely at the photo above and you can see that Birdy spelled her name- it was the first thing she did :)

Paper Dolls.  This one broke the budget rule in a big way because we had them color printed on card stock, but it was worth it.  Also, I found some sticky stuff that is AWESOME and makes it so they don't have to fuss with tabs!  These particular dolls require that you purchase the download rights, so if you want to make your own let me know and I can send you the file (if I know you...)

Hand Print Mermaids!  The girls LOVED this and they spent a long time decorating and embellishing their mermaids.  EJ's is on the right (she wanted a "Chinese" mermaid, which I thought was cute) and Birdy's is the one with blue hair on the left.  Hint: if you microwave the papers with wet paint, it dries it super-fast.  That really helped them get to the "decorating" phase quickly.

We planned another activity, but we ran out of time and fridge space, so it rolled over to the next week. I plan to brag about what a creative and awesome Mom I am blog about our Summer Fun List projects - both to share some of the fun stuff going on here and to keep a record of them!  If you want any info on the projects we've done, I'm happy to share!