Summer Fun

Here are are a few of our summer adventures from July:  

One simple thing that we love about summertime is garage sales!  My kids have become bargain hunters just like their mom.  They have fun putting their dollars in a wallet and seeing how far they can make it stretch.  Hannah, esp has been learning some good lessons about not buying the first thing that she finds but saving and waiting.  

These pillow pets were such a fun find for these two.  Hannah found hers and would you believe...right across the street a little boy was selling his Thomas pillow pet too.  Mommy loves that they are mini because they take up less space. They have been snuggling with them ever since :)  

 Here's a toy that takes me right back to my childhood. Hannah loves her light bright.  It has been a wonderful quiet time activity for summer afternoons while Isaac was taking his nap.  It's pretty handy that her dad is so artistic.  He can draw her pretty much any pattern that she wants.  :)  

 Have I said how much we love the metro parks?  Here we are with "skimming nets" ready to go on a bug catching walk.  

 The kids got bug jars from the naturalist.  They had 3 different rounds of bug catching.  They would bring their finds back to him and he would tell them all about their bugs.  Fun morning!  

 We love, love, love the library.  As long as we were home, we were there at least once a week...but often several times in a week.  It is always so fun for me to come home and see how excited they are about the new books that they picked out.  A new favorite series lately has been The Berenstain Bears.  These book take me back to my childhood too...I can almost hear my parents reading some of the stories to me as I've been read them to the kids.  I also love that they help teach practical life lessons to the kids.  

 Pirate Day at the art museum.  They did an awesome job doing a pirate story and craft time for the kids.  The timing was perfect for my two.  They have been spending lots of time wearing bandannas on their heads and running around the house pretending to be pirates.  This day was perfect for them!  

 Painting their feet to make foot print parrots 

 so ticklish 

 3 little pirates 

 The Bubble lady at the library. 

 Summer festivals.  Hannah ran into a friend...they were so excited to ride some rides together!  

Isaac might have gotten out of a few naps this summer.  Here he is..enjoying some quiet time.  Can't believe how big my little boy is getting!  

Dancing to the music on the circle...yeah for summer evenings!  

We LOVE summer! 

Microwave Puff Paint

The kids had fun painting with microwave puff paint...a fun recipe that I found in family fun magazine.  

We mixed up different colors and went to work (they are painting with Q-tips)

 Hannah had so much fun microwaving her picture and seeing the results  

Microwavable Puffy Paint

Source: Family Fun (www.familyfun.com)

Mix for each color

1 Tbs. flour

1 Tbs. salt

1 Tbs. baking powder

2 Tbs. plus 1 or 2 tsp. of water

Several drops of food coloring

Stir until smooth. Apply paint to card stock (works the best) – all we had was construction paper (it worked fine but the edges curled up in the microwave). To dry and make the paint puff up, put the artwork in the microwave for 20 seconds. Keep adding 10 seconds at a time until dry.

See my hands?!

I love to trace my hands. Mom and Dad were really excited about how well I did this evening...check out my art work!