Fishing

The other day on the news, I saw a story about a website called g2g outside (the address is http://g2goutside.wordpress.com/ ) They give parents ideas to get their kids outside and playing. Normally they have just had the website with ideas, but last night they held their first program. It was at the Great Plains Nature Center. Kids got to come and fish or hike for an hour.....and it was free! We chose the fishing, since I really didn't see hiking with Lily. They provided the poles and bait and had people out there helping. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it.

After we got the hooks baited, thankfully not by me, we went to pick out our spot. Zach wanted to fish by himself....you know, because he's 6 and really old.......

Lily wanted to fish by herself, because you know, she's 2......

She did finally let Daddy help her though.

Riley was OK with help from the start.

One of the helpers came up to Zach to see how he was doing and he started asking her questions about the stuff in the water. I'm glad he asked her, because it looked like slime to me, but she got down there and was helping him pull stuff out and explaining what everything was. I loved how patient she was with him and how she answered question after question for him. She was great!

Finally, Riley caught a fish!!!

Look how excited he is! =)

Then we just had to wait until Zach caught one. I say only Zach, because by this time, Lily was all fished out. She had found the one spot of concrete and sat down on it...because really, why would she want to sit in the grass??? Definitely my girl. =)

Zach finally consented to letting Jeff help him.

Then he caught one!!! Yeah!

Then Lily tried to touch it......maybe she does have a little bit of her Daddy in her......

After we were done fishing we went back to the front where they had water and snacks for the kids. If you did the fishing clinic, you got a free kids tackle box! Then they had the drawing for the prizes and each of our kids got something!! On the way home I asked the kids what their favorite part was. Zach said catching the fish, which Lily quickly echoed, and then Riley said, "The snack!!" then thought, "Oh and catching the fish too..." What a silly guy. =)

The g2g people said that they will continue to have outdoor activity ideas on their site throughout the winter and they will try to have more fun free activities that they sponsor next summer. Yeah!!!

Sunflowers

My favorite flowers are definitely sunflowers. They are so bright and cheery! We have planted them in our yard in the past, but just didn't get around to it this year. So, when I saw some growing wild by my parents house, I went with the kids to pick them. I love the enormous ones, you know, the ones that are taller than you.....but these are just as pretty. The kids all took turns posing with them. They are usually pretty good sports with all of my picture taking. =)

How can you not love something so sunny??

Summer Adventure Book

Today, the boys made a book of all of the fun things they did this summer. Here is their book:

Playing with Frisbees

The boys got frisbees at our National Night Out block party. They had a lot of fun playing with them the other day.

Even Lily tried it out!

Ice Cream In A Bag!

Today we made ice cream in a bag. It is so fun and so easy! First we put 1/2 cup milk, 1 Tbs. sugar, and 1/4 tsp. vanilla in a ziplock bag for each of the kids.

Then we put lots of ice and 6 Tbs. of rock salt in a bigger ziplock bag and stuck the bag with the milk into the bag with the ice.

The next part is the fun part.....

Shaking the bag!!!!

Of course, 5 minutes is a really long time to have to shake a bag, so guess who got to do most of the shaking? =)

This is what our ice cream looked like when it was done:

It was yummy....and you can eat it right out of the bag!!

A cool treat on a hot day!

Fun With Cooking

I like cooking with the kids. Really, I do. Most of the time I only let them help me when we are making cookies or candy or something fun. I usually do not have the patience to have them help me with dinner. But, they love to help when I am feeling like making homemade pizza. They love to "help" roll out the dough:

But their favorite part?

Putting on the toppings!

Normally I just make one pizza and they all help pile the toppings on. But this time I thought it would be fun for the kids to make their own little pizzas too. They each got to choose what was on their pizza and put as much or as little as they wanted.

Lily loves cheese, so that was what she wanted on hers...she was a little upset I wouldn't let he put more on.....


Riley put everything but black olives.....which he describes as disgusting....

Zach piled on everything!

They like pizza, but they loved the ones they made themselves even better!