Checking Things Off.....

School is literally weeks away, so we have been trying to check more & more things off of our summer fun list. The only problem is that this excessive heat is not cooperating with us!! One of the things that the kids wanted to do was look for frogs and turtles in the creek by my parent's house. They have been down to the creek several times this summer, but since there isn't a whole lot of water in the creek, they haven't found any. Plus, I think they forgot that was one of the things they wanted to do when they went down there. (They were more interested in looking for rocks & having Granddad teach them how to skip the rocks the last time they were down there.) But we did find this little guy in our own backyard!

So, I talked the kids into letting me check it off. They did go down to the creek (lots) and they did find a turtle (just not in the creek).
Another thing we got to check off was taking a nature walk:

No, I don't normally dress my children up to take a nature walks. They were having their picture taken, in a nature setting, so we decided to do two things at once. I'm efficient that way. ;0)

They did get to walk down some fun trails with Aunt Amy, and they saw little creeks, lots of plants and trees, and lots of insects. Then, when we were almost back to the car, we saw a deer!!

I have closer pictures of the deer, but they are all blurry for some reason. :0( The deer just stood there while we looked at it and took pictures. The kids weren't exactly quiet either....

They wanted to make their walk last longer, but it was still over 100 degrees, and it was 8:00 at night! We told them we would come back when it was cooler.

We have also checked off go to the drive-in. We technically went to the drive-in already. We went right before we wrote the list, but the kids wanted to go see Mr. Popper's Penguins at the drive-in. Well, we didn't get to it before it left the main theatres. Luckily, we have The Palace theatre, where they play movies no longer in the main theatres, and it's way cheaper!! So, yesterday, we went to see Mr. Popper's Penguins in the theatre instead of the drive-in, and the kids agreed that we could check off the drive-in too. Yeah!

We still have a few more things to check off of our list. Some of them might have to wait until after school starts, or not get done at all this summer. Things like go fishing (it is way too hot to sit there in one spot and fish) and go to World's of Fun (we may change this to the State Fair and go in September). But, we will try to get as much checked off as possible. Even if we don't get it all done, we have had a lot of fun this summer!!!

Faux Stained Glass

My favorite art project (#16 on our summer fun list), was making faux stained glass. When I worked at a daycare (way, way back in high school & college) we did these with the summer school-age kids. They loved them, so I decided to try them with my own kids.
All you need is Gallery Glass window color. They come in lots of different colors & you can get them at Michael's.

You also need liquid leading. You can find it next to the window color.

Since I am not an artist, I let the kids find coloring pages on the Internet & I printed them off. If you are good at drawing, you can draw your own pictures with the liquid leading. You need to use something slick to draw the pictures on. I like to use gallon size ziplock bags (since they are cheap). All you have to do is outline your picture, making sure that you don't have any open sides, because you will fill in the spaces with the window color when the leading is dry.

These are the kids' outlines.

I did the outlines for them, but maybe someday I won't be so anal & let them do it themselves.....maybe... ;0)

After the black was all dry, they filled in the color by themselves. (Lily did get a little help from me.)

Each section can be a different color. It is pretty easy & doesn't use up that much of the bottle.

(I realized when I posted these pictures that they are all using purple in each picture. I thought that was funny.)

This is what they look like when they were done filling them in:

Here is what they look like after they start to dry:

When they are completely dry, you can peal them off of the ziplock bag:

Then you can stick them up on a window!

You can peal them off & put them back up again!

A small note of precaution though. When I used to do this at the daycare, we left one up for a really, really long time & it was really, really hard to get off. So, if you don't want them up permanently, you may only leave them up for awhile. (not a several months...)

This was a really fun project & the kids like looking at their "stained glass".

#22: Family Game Night

It should be easier to have a family game night...but it doesn't seem that way at our house. The kids play games during the day, or the boys play games by themselves at night, but it doesn't seem like we have a night where the entire family plays a game together very often. I think that's why the kids (mainly Zach) wanted to add it to the summer fun list. We decided to play Monopoly. The real Monopoly, not the junior version. Zach said he was old enough. (The box says 8 and up mom!) Riley decided he was old enough too. (If Zach gets to do it, so can I!) Then Lily wanted to "help" daddy. So, that's how we had our family game night, kind of impromptu. =)

Lily didn't last too long though. She rolled the dice for Jeff a few times, but then decided to go play something else.

The boys had SO much fun though!!

By the end of the game, this is what the board looked like for Zach:

He had a ton of money & owned a lot of property. He takes his Monopoly game serious.

He ended up winning the game:

He was VERY excited he beat Jeff & I.

Riley came in second. This is his second place winner face:

We did help the boys out (Riley more than Zach), but not to the point that we helped them win. They did that all on their own. They can't wait until we play again. =)

#21: Catch Fireflies

We were at my parent's house last night, and the kids were playing outside with their cousins, when they saw fireflies! Their Aunt Mary came in and found glass jars for them (and for her own children) and helped them catch fireflies. Thanks Mary for helping us cross another thing off of our Summer List!!

#5: Run Through the Sprinkler!

We could have checked this off of our list as soon as we wrote it.
They had run through the sprinkler several times before we even started thinking about our list.
But, they wanted to do everything they had already done before the list was written, again.
When the list was written though, we had already set up our pool.
So, they haven't been that interested in running through the sprinkler.
I am sure we could have technically used last week's trip to the spray park as "running through the sprinkler", but we didn't want to "cheat".
So, today we got out the sprinkler and they ran through it:

About 5 times.

Then they asked to get in the pool.....

but at least we can check it off now. ;0)

# 2 Walk to the Park

We finally got the chance to walk to the park.
This shouldn't be something that is hard to get done.
Actually in the Fall & Spring, Lily & I walk to the park all the time.
But in the Summer, it is harder.
First of all, our park is not shaded, so it gets hot, super fast.
Secondly, since it is hot, I usually have whiny kids on the walk BACK home, after we walked to the park & played at the park. (today was no different.) ;0)
So, I like to either drive to our park or to another, shaded park.

But, one of the things the kids really wanted to do, was actually WALK to the park.
So we did. =)
When we got to the park, the kids had fun playing & playing!

Then we walked all the way around the park (there is a walking path) and then headed home.

They were so hot & tired when we got back, that they headed straight for the pool.

We will definitely go to more parks this summer & we will probably walk/ride our bikes to the park by our house again, but it's nice to get this first time checked off our Summer Fun List.

Summer List 2011

Every year for the past few years, we have made a Summer List.
I had seen it on several blogs that I like to read & thought it was a great idea!
So we copied it. =)
The first year we only had 10 things on it.
The kids have gotten a lot better at adding things to the list.
We have 25 this year!!
We will do a lot of these several times, and some of them only once.
For us, it's just a fun way to get in all of the fun things the kids want to do before summer is over.
So, here is our list for 2011:

1. Walk to DQ and get ice cream


2. Walk to the park


3. Go to the Drive-in


4. Go swimming


5. Run through the sprinkler


6. Have a picnic


7. Go to St. Maarten/swim in the ocean!


8. Pick mulberries at Grammy & Granddad's


9. Have a sleepover


10. Pick peaches


11. Make S'mores


12. Go fishing


13. Go on a scavenger hunt


14. Go to the zoo


15. Have a water balloon fight


16. Do art projects


17. Do cooking projects


18. Sleep in a tent


19. Go to World's of Fun


20. Do Fireworks


21. Catch fire flies


22. Have a Family Game Night


23. Summer Reading Club


24. Look for frogs/turtles in the creek


25. Take a nature walk