Week 3 of Summer Schedule

Monday: We sat down and named a food that starts with each letter of the alphabet. It was fun to see what each kid would come up with. We couldn't come up with a food that starts with the letter "U". I'm not sure letter X worked either. I thought of xanthan gum but it's put into food not really a food. So if you can think of an "X" word let me know too.......without Google of course :)

Tuesday: We looked all around for objects that were square, rectangular and round. The kids got pretty good at recognizing things while we were driving.

Wednesday: Did you know that June 27th was the birth day of the song "Happy Birthday"? We made our own songs up to happy birthday and painted with pudding. (note to self: Jonathan likes to paint all his body...watch carefully :)

Thursday: Making maps of how to go from one place to another

Friday: Made homemade thin mints. They are pretty yummy. If you would like to try them you can find the recipe here: http://bakingbites.com/2005/10/thin-minties/

June Summer schedule complete.....onto July next week.

Week 2 of summer schedule

Monday: I taught the kids how to use the washer and dryer. Why didn't I do this before, it was so easy???? I love saying "hey sis, please go put the clothes that are in the washer into the dryer." And she does it......SO NICE!  I didn't know how to use a washer and dryer till I went to college. My Mom just did it for us.
Tuesday: I got some little notebooks at Staples on clearance (5 for 1$).  We made them into nature books. We took a walk and found bugs to draw.
Wednesday: We were suppose to experiment with sticky stuff around the house but were to pooped from playing at the Splashpad.
Thursday: Took a trip to the ZOO and went to story time. The kids got to pet a snake. We lucked out as the National Children's Study was there with a game and each child who played got a coupon for a free Papa Murphy's kids kit. I got them for Friday's lunch and the kids had fun putting their own little pizza's together. *I enjoyed the lunch date with my hubby. Have I mentioned that I LOVE having Danika home to babysit!!!! Three of them also won bike helmets WOO HOO!!!!
Friday: We made rock candy. We made three different kinds, Peppermint, Cinnamon, and Cherry flavored. It was fun to see the crystals forming only an hour after we did it. We are leaving them in the jars for a week or so to get big crystals.

Even with the other activities through the week: Tennis lessons, Tee ball, coaches pitch, library, scouts, activity days, 4-H..... I feel like I need do more for each day of the week to keep their minds going.  

What in the world!!!

What is this world coming to??? I usually check out KSL to see the top stories and tonight I was just disgusted. It seems like the news has more bad things to report than good so it's very discouraging. There was a story I read tonight that just made me sad and mad. Maybe you heard about it....a 68 year old bus monitor being bullied by seventh graders. SEVENTH GRADERS! What????  The world is spiraling downward even faster than when I was little. That type of behavior would not have been acceptable when I was growing up (I still feel like it isn't but it's more commonplace than before). I believe it comes from generation after generation of decreased discipline. I'm glad this woman is getting so many to support her but the kids still haven't apologized! Now if one of these boys were your kids and you knew about it....wouldn't you kick his behind over to the ladies house and make him apologize??? I'm thinking he better buy her flowers as well. I would make him write "I'm Sorry" 100 times in a card to give to her. It makes me wonder what in the world the parents are doing as well.

Cabin and Quilting

 The cabin was fun. We didn't take many pictures. I only had my camera phone when we went to Cleveland Dinosaur Quarry and the Mini Grand Canyon. It was amazing to drive and suddenly see a huge drop. It's a massive canyon in the middle of nowhere. 

Last night I had the privilege of spending time with these fabulous ladies. We were putting a jean quilt together. We started at 7 and didn't finish till 1 in the morning. It still needs to be sewn some but for the most part the hard stuff is done.  

It does the heart good to have friends like these.

Random ideas

So for Thankful Thursday we had a water balloon pinata. We had some friends over and I think they all had fun. I'm too lazy to post the pics I took so just envision a kid blind folded flinging a bat at water balloons.

For Food Frenzy Friday we made Gifts for Grandpa's for Fathers Day. I'm pretty sure I'm safe to post this as Kevin's Dad is at the cabin and my Dad doesn't have the internet. Since we will be at the cabin next week I needed to get all the Fathers Day stuff done before hand. The kids wrote letters and drew pictures. I got jars at the dollar store and we filled them up with peanut M@M's. Danika and I wrote a poem to attach to it:

M@M's for Grandpa

Green is for the happiness,

and brown is for your smile.

Yellow is for the hugs,

that you give us all the while.

Blue is for the sadness,

that you live so far away.

Orange is for the words,

you always nicely say.

You're a special Grandpa,

with a very tender touch.

Red is there to show you,

we LOVE YOU very much!

Aren't we poetic? he he. I made some strawberry freezer jam and wanted to give it to those I go visiting teaching too. I like to come up with a saying or poem to go along with the items I give. I couldn't think of a poem for this one so I ended up doing this:

We often get ourselves

in a pickle, or in a jam...

I thought you would

prefer the jam.

Yep...I'm corny that way.

Why not Wednesday

Today the kids and I made jello worms. I took a picture with my phone since I couldn't find the camera (pretty sure BriLynn took off with it and hid it somewhere) but alas, it wasn't sent right and I'm to lazy to send it again. The picture that's on the site I got it from has a cooler picture than I took anyways. It was fun for them to squeeze the worms from the straws. Here's the site for the recipe if your interested.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bowl-of-Worms-Anyone/

Day 2- Tackle Tuesday

Tag and Simon Says

I was surprised at how good our kids were (well the oldest three) at Simon Says. Tag is classic, whenever I play it I wish I were a  bit younger to keep up. Flair tried to play too but I think she got in the way more than anything. As we would run she would run in front and almost trip us. It makes me feel better to play with them even if it's just for 20 minutes. I think it makes the day go by smoother.

I'm nervous for tomorrow...I'm taking Flair to get spayed. I feel bad, poor girl. I hope she recovers fine from it.
Tomorrow is Why not Wednesday and we will be making Jello worms.

Summer Schedule 2012

MISSION MONDAYS (Treasure hunts, Scouts or Faith in God Books, Games using brains)
TACKLE TUESDAY (activities using our bodies, Library day)
WHY NOT WEDNESDAY ( Crafts that get messy)
THANKFUL THURSDAY (Gods creations/Zoo/Parks/Water)
FOOD FRENZY FRIDAY (yummy food to create and eat)

Today was the first day of our Summer Schedule. I sat the kids down and discussed what is expected of them through the Summer (ex: chores done, reading done etc. before playing) and went through our schedule. Today we looked through the ads and found three food items for the oldest kids to get and buy. We figured out the cost ahead of time and then they paid for them. I should have got pictures of them but forgot. I figure this will teach them the price of things and that not all products are equal. I had to have Andrew put back an item at checkout because he didn't get the one on sale. The youngest had three items they had to take a pictures of.  

They better I hope they have fun with this schedule cause it took me a lot of time to put together ha ha.