C is for...

Chalk (homemade: 1 C plaster paris-they carry it at Wal-mart or any craft store and it's cheap-, 1/2 C cool water, 2 Tbs tempra paint--mix then pour into toilet paper roll with one end covered in foil then let dry until hard, about an hour)...drew pictures, played four square, hopscotch, traced shadows...



Chefs (easy chef hats ), they couldn't decide on Cookies or Cupcakes so we did both. Kylie wanted to pretend like we were pastry chefs in Paris so we talked in accents until Jayden informed us that we were giving him the creeps. He doesn't do cheesy.)

Crayon rocks --so easy, cheap and totally cool. The kids loved it so much they were begging to do it again when their friends came over the next day. They decided to give their rocks to dad for father's day so that he could use them to decorate the garden.

Cards--they made candygram cards for Jason for Father's day then we made these personalized notepads for Father's day (Kinkos will make it for about $7 for a 108 page notepad). The kids were so excited to give it to him and it was fun to have a cute personalized gift that he can actually use. (I love Jayden's picture: "work. work is not fun.")

Boredom


Abby (and Taylor and Connor) stayed home sick from church today. Ricky and Abby were hanging out and got a little bored. She was excited to show off her toe people when I got home and wanted me to take a picture of them. I think she had a fun afternoon with her dad. What do you think?

Before and After

I have been busy the past several weeks painting, sewing and decorating. It's been so fun! The 90's decor needed to go and the white walls were screaming for some color. I've been working on our dining room and kitchen. They're not 100% done yet, but they're close enough that I wanted to post some pictures. Here are some before and after pictures. I didn't really take any good before pictures of the kitchen so these are the pictures I took when we looked at the house to buy it. They're not great, but you get the main idea though.

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After:

Dining Room Before:
Dining Room After:

I did all the painting in these two rooms but we have painters here doing our family room and entry way (the walls are way too high for me tackle on my own). I love the way it's looking and can't wait to start putting things together in there!

Creative Play

I was able to break away from making dinner for a few minutes this evening to take a few pictures of my older kiddos playing outside and enjoying the beautiful weather too. Abby has been reading a lot of the Boxcar Children books and is really enjoying them. Her and Kambry decided to play Boxcar Children today. They used a bunch of boxes to make their boxcar house and were having a great time. I totally remember playing things like that with my siblings when I was younger. It was fun to watch them playing together. They were in heaven as they pretended to gather water and make their dinner over a camp fire before retiring for the night in their little cardboard beds. They even had a guest room just in case they ever have company. I can tell they just adore each other and love playing together. They sure are lucky girls to have each other



Taylor has been so cute with Parker. I love that he's ten and gets excited to play with is four year old brother. They both seem to have a great time playing together despite their age difference. Most recently they've been playing ninjas. Taylor used his pocket knife to carve some swords for them to use during their sword fighting practice. Parker thinks Taylor is beyond cool!

I don't want to give any false impressions that our kids are perfect and our life is nothing but roses and cherries. We certainly have our share of grumpys and arguing. Overall, I think we have some pretty amazing kids though. I love that they are (more often then not) such good friends. I sure do love you kids and wouldn't trade you for the world!

S is for....

Scavenger hunt (I made a map by crinkling up a sheet of paper, tearing the edges and letting it soak in tea. Then at each location they had a mission to complete, like 10 jumping jacks, singing a song, etc. The treasure was a basket filled with items starting with "S"- stickers, silly string, suckers..)

Silly putty

(a favorite, we've made it several times since--1/4 C Elmer's glue, 1/8 C "Sta Flo" liquid starch-you can get it at Wal-mart for about $3, food coloring)

Stories under the Stars with Smores

Shaving cream art (shaving cream and food coloring)

Stick creations (hot glue and popsicle craft sticks)

Science experiments (check the library and internet for kid friendly experiments, here they are testing out different parachutes they made)