Friday, July 27, 2012

Mini Mommy Camp

After many ideas on pinterest and a push from my good friend Cari Mommy Camp has begun! Its not as well planned out as I would have liked it to be so lets just call it our trial run.  If the kids enjoy what we do then there is always next summer for more well planned out activities.
Day 1: Adventure Landing Water Park - too hard to take pictures with all the water :-(

Day 2: Tie Dye Tuesday and a Random Science Experiment

Ready to get started

Jacob, Carter, Colby, Abby, Lauren, Dylan, and Blake

Listening carefully to Mrs. Cari as she gives the instructions

Finally able to help Abby after many attempts...

Working hard

Waiting for the next color


Now Blake is having the best time EVER

Dye is in place now it is a waiting game...


What happens when you drop dry ice into a bucket of warm water?






It makes clouds!! This was not planned by either of the mommies.  Yup we listened to a 7 year old tell us to do it.  He learned it at Science Camp :-) thanks Carter for the extra fun!!

Day 3: Guana State Park
     A little hike through nature in extreme heat never hurts anyone.  Thank goodness the trail had lots of shade and on occasions we had a little breeze to cool us off.  The kids found walking sticks which they believed would help them hike better.  Reality was they used them to swat away the bugs/insects that were along for the ride on our hike.  Before venturing out into the swamp the kids put their brains to work and did a scavenger hunt at the Education Center.  Finding everything on the list won them either a poster or coloring book.  With a little help we had 5 (Blake didn't play) winners!! Time to see if these 2 mommies could handle 6 kids (2 of them are little divas), a stroller, the sun, the heat, and bugs on a 1.5 mile hike.  Here is the proof that Cari and I can get a bit sweaty and dirty with the kids!

Ready to show this trail who owns it

Little Miss "I don't want to be in the picture"

The road we hiked to get to the trail...kids were complaining already

First insect we found

Dylan's pet frog

Carter wanted on too

Of course Colby had to get in on the action as well

The crew

Our view as we hiked

Midway we stopped for a snack and some shade

Carter and Lauren

Mommies wanted to be a part of the photos too

Just chillin

Love these two boys

Abby following her idol


After a long hike the boys needed to fish in the river before leaving and look for crabs. 

Dylan found a crab leg

Colby fishing

Carter reeling one in

Colby out to help pull the "it was this big" fish in

Dylan fishing

Colby running out of the water screaming....a crab pinched his foot

The girls needed to stay cool in the car watching a movie and eating snacks....along with keeping Blake company.

We ended the day with the best way to cool off and the most yummiest snack ever...Yogaberry!


Day 4: Downtown "monorail" and Library

At the beginning of the summer I asked the kids to name a few things they would like to do before the summer was over and this was #1 on their list.  They love riding the "monorail" and the best thing about it is It's FREE!!! We ride until we can get off at the library.  The downtown library has so many more books and videos...especially the National Geographic videos the boys like to watch.  I must tell the truth so does Daddy.  Doing this trip is fun but when Mimi/Grammy joins in it makes it a lot more FUN!! You will also see the kids wearing their tie dye projects.  I think they turned out really cute but maybe I am a bit biased :-)

















So this was our week.  It was fun but we are exhausted.  Letting go of all the "stuff" a mom feels like she has to get done is hard but when you spend quality time with your kids it is so worth it! Especially when you see the smiles and hear the laughter.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Canvas + fingers + Paint = Masterpiece

Another great project from my new addiction "Pinterest".  I saw this idea and thought what fun this would be but am I asking for a big mess and will they make it look nice enough to hang somewhere in the house.  After seeing the wonderful artwork my niece Addie did I decided what the heck lets have some fun and see what we get.  To make it a bit more fun we asked Katie and Jackson to join us and I have to admit I wanted Ms Crafty, AKA Ms Becky (their mommy), to join so she could help with the details.  Needless to say I did not know it was going to take an hour to get the words taped onto the canvas....some may not take as long but I wanted it to be spaced correctly along with the letters the same size.  I never dive into projects the easy way which is the biggest reason I wanted my good ole friend Becky joining me.  Next time I will be sure to have the project ready to go so that the kids aren't sitting under me asking "are we ready yet?" a 100 times. 

Canvas taped, paint ready and off they go finger painting.....


Here are 4 Masterpieces that I personally think could be sold for lots of candy or ice cream if you really wanted them....


After such hard work a little picnic on the back porch is always fun!


Thank you Pinterest for the idea and thanks to Aunt Nikki for posting your picture on FB which inspired me to actually do it.  Wonder what the next Pinterest project will be ?!?!?!