Summer Break: Day 11

Legos! Really, need I say more??

I found a great link via Family Fun magazine that shows all sorts of small creations that even a Lego novice like me could handle.

We used the set Zoey got last Christmas. It didn't have all the necessary pieces mentinoed in the link. But we improvised & made up our own. I think I know what I'm going to get Pazely for her birthday in June though. (The Builders of Tomorrow set: 650 pieces)

♥

Week in Review: May 24-30

Making clay.

Molding clay.

Painting clay.

Friendship bracelets.

Hail storms.

Tornado warnings.

Library.

Summer Reading.

Italian Sodas (total consumed to date: 9).

A neighborhood walk.

Butterfly sightings.

Frog pet.

Funeral.

Bathing suits.

Sprinkler fun.

Handmade aprons.

Puffy paint.

S'mores snack.

Porch lounging.

Sun soaking.

It's really a toad.

Giant poppies.

Beautiful blue skies.

Bye bye toad. 

Friends for lunch.

BBQ.

Watemelon.

Bubbles.

Packing for a  mini-mini-mini family vacay.

Click HERE for a photo play-by-play.

Happy Monday!

♥

Summer Break: Day 10

As I've said before, Sundays are always a super fantastic day to relax. And I thought it appropriate to take a break today on any more specific planning of summer projects or organizing of activities for the girls.

I declared today an all-out full-on playday, which included:

a BBQ

running through the sprinklers

playing with baby dolls (the kind that pee when you feed them a bottle)

playing with friends from school

eating watermelon

blowing bubbles

lounging on the porch

soaking in the sun

paddleball

catching bugs

playing superhero

blowing "wishin' flowers" (dandelions)

And it was nice.

The end.

♥

Summer Break: Day 9

The book Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meal 2, borrowed from the library, was the source of our fun today.

The girls & I made S'mores Cups. I'm a sucker for s'mores & this recipe included ice cream, so I thought it would be a perfect treat on this hot day.

To make 4 dessert cups, you simply need:

1 CUP graham cracker crumbs

2 TB butter

chocolate or vanilla ice cream

4 large marshmallows

bittersweet chocolate (I used a milk chocolate Hershey bar)

First, melt the butter & mix it with the graham cracker crumbs. Then, divide that equally & press into the bottom of the dessert cups. (My dessert cups were silicone cupcake liners. They made extra small treats, with lots of graham cracker crumbs left over.)

Scoop some ice cream on top of that.

Using a vegetable peeler, shave some chocolate over the ice cream.

Roast the marshmallows (over the stove top!) & slide them on top of the ice cream.

Pazely helped out with this part. haha!

I shaved some extra chocolate over the marshmallows.

Done! And yum!

♥ ♥ ♥

Summer Break: Day 8

I had a full day of work today, but when I got home it was still sunshine-y & bright & VERY warm! (We hit the 90's today!) I pulled out my list of fun things to do & chose a rather simple project to complete with the girls.

It's a project from the same book we made the clay from.

Old jeans-turned-apron.

The only supplies you'll need are fabric scissors, old jeans & puffy paint.

The jeans need to still fit the person in the waist. Make sure they're old & worn in the knees & you're not using a nice new pair!

I used sharp scissors & cut the jeans until they looked like this:

Cut right across the crotch, as far below the pockets as you can go. Then cut up the side seams & across the waistband. Keep the snaps or buttons on the waistband intact. This is how the apron will fit around the waist. Just snap it in the back. Cool, huh?!

The next step is simple: PAINT!!

My little Pazely is looking rather soiled. Her face is covered in paint & chocolate.

Summer does that. It turns my kids into dirty little ragamuffins.

The girls are modeling their finished projects, straight out of their bath & freshly jammied. Yet, I see Pazely missed a spot.

Update on the frog: It's a toad. And it's gone. Zoey let the toad go. Not sure why, but I know daddy was an accomplice. I think it stressed her out having a pet that she really wanted to hold, but was too scared to. The girls are still excited to catch frogs/toads down by the lake before the frog races next weekend.

Happy Memorial Weekend!

♥

Summer Break: Day 7

The completion of a project is always VERY exciting. Today the girls & I applied Mod Podge to our painted clay pieces. Once that was dry, we decided what sorts of fantastic things we wanted to make our creations into.

We made bright colored cookies... (pictured at top).

...& pendants to hang from ribbon. We did pre-hole a few items with a toothpick before baking. I had to use the drill to widen some of the holes once the pieces were baked. And that went so smoothly that I tried to drill a hole through something that was hole-less. It worked! So, don't sweat it if you didn't pre-"drill".

The round circle pendant & green square pendant were made by painting acrylic paint onto the piece & then, once that's dry, using a black sharpie marker to draw a design. Seal with Mod Podge when done.

We also made magnets:

Here we are, modeling some of our creations:

I embellished Zoey's clay necklace with a flat-backed sparkly pink gem.

My owlie necklace was painted a brown/rust color. Once dry, I brushed it with a light blue, which made the details "pop"!

Pazely is wearing an owlie pin. The pin, magnets & sparkly pink gem were applied using E6000.

Tomorrow I work, so it'll be different to be away from the girls. (It's only once a week though.) Our fun will just be reserved until later in the evening.

And it's confirmed that we are taking a mini-mini-mini vacation (just 3 days/2 nights) next Tuesday-Thursday. Yay! We're only heading 1 1/2 - 2 hours out of town. Possibly Cheyenne? We need some family time & I can't wait!

♥

Summer Break: Day 6

I cannot believe how many days I have stretched this activity. This is day 3 of the oven baked clay project. And we're not even done!! Tomorrow is the final day. Promise. This makes me realize it doesn't have to be jam-packed into one day. I totally plan on doing this with other crafts I have planned. That rocks!

Ok, so today we painted. Pazely & I had a blast.

Zoey painted a few things & then ran off to the garage (where she had been most of the day) to play with her new frog pet. She is still afraid to pick that thing up with her hands, so she uses gloves. Quite funny.

Don't get me wrong: I won't pick it up either. After convincing daddy that frogs don't cause warts (it's a myth), we are now under the gun to feed the darn frog. I'm not about to go catch crickets with my bare hands. (I googled & it seems that's what frogs eat??) I called around & this town doesn't sell crickets. And the only pet store in Morrill County that I've been referred to seems to have gone out of business. Seriously? Tomorrow is the final froggie straw. If I can't find crickets, we'll release the little critter back into the wild & he can feed himself. Zoey's already been in tears over this, so you can imagine my heartbreak.

Frog drama.

*sigh*

♥

2010 Summer Diaries

The girls & I are planning on having lots of fun this summer & if you'd like to follow along, just pop in each day 'cause I'll be (& have been) posting each day about our Summer Break. If you'd like easy access to what we're doin' every day, I recently added a photo on the sidebar {over there on the right} titled "2010 Summer Diaries". If you click it, you'll be taken to all the most recent "diary" entries of our summer shenanigans.

Happy Summer!

♥

Summer Break: Day 5

The girls & I headed to the kickoff for the Summer Reading Program at the library today. The theme is "Make a Splash, Read". It's all beachy & summer-ish. The younger kids (lots of 'em!) decorated beach bags with markers. It was happy chaos all around. I saw one kid climbing through the bookshelves & another sitting so sadly in a chair, his legs covered in purple marker.

After our crazy fun at the library, the girls & I walked to our favorite (& only?) little coffee shop in town for some Italian sodas & a cookie.

I'm thinking we should keep a tally of how many Italian sodas we drink this summer.

(Italian sodas consumed thus far: 6)

On our fantastic sunny walk home, we saw this:

Clay was also on the agenda again today. This time, we used all the playdough/clay tools we could find & we cut out a bunch of different designs. The directions from the recipe in the book said to bake for 30 minutes in a 300 degree oven on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. After the 30 minutes was up, we turned off the oven, but left the pieces in the oven for an hour. (I didn't realize that wax paper could go in the oven. It didn't smell nice & was kinda smokey. Next time I'd probably opt for parchment paper.)

Tomorrow we'll paint!

Our evening ended with a surprise pet: the girls have a froggie thanks to a neighbor's find. They named it "Lou", after our family cat that recently passed away. We're hoping to keep him AND find another froggie pal for the frog races next weekend at Camp Clarke Days!

♥

Summer Break: Day 4

The girls & I made oven baked clay today. I got the recipe from one of my favorite books: Weekends with the Kids by Sara Perry.

The recipe is simply mixing a 1 pd. box of baking soda with 1 CUP of cornstarch in a pot. Add 1 1/2 CUPS of water & stir on med-low heat until it forms a ball. Then scoop it out onto a lightly cornstarched area until it cools enough to handle. Knead until smooth. Wrap tightly in saran wrap when not in use. Stores for up to 3 weeks in the fridge.

Ours never really formed a ball & was a bit sticky, so as I was kneading I kept dusting with lots of cornstarch.

The girls & I just played with the clay today. We'll bake with it tomorrow. I found some fun projects to make. I'll cue you in on the rest of the recipe tomorrow--the "oven" part.

And later this evening while daddy was out taking the 5 year old on a date, Zoey & I made friendship bracelets. The how-to for the easy knotting technique we used is found HERE & from none other than my favorite crafty chik Jessica, a.k.a. jek-in-the-box.

Tomorrow the Summer Reading Program at the library begins. Yay! I'm glad to have some help in entertaining my kidlets during some of these summer days!

♥