Part 3 - Wrapping Up Our Summer Adventures

Here's the final installment of "What I did on my summer vacation with my Little Hs."

We had lots of story times. You can see that I have three sides so that I can fit three kids perfectly:

We enjoyed Ice Cream Soda day even though it was rainy. Actually the kids loved it! They put on their rain gear and played in the rain for a long time.

Speaking of water, we had a spontaneous Flotsam day. Have you ever read the book Flotsam by David Wiesner? It's a great book for kids - no words (or very few? can't remember at the moment), wonderful pictures and the kids make up the story as you go. Anyway, we started out by doing a science experiment to see what things float and what sinks. In our back yard we have sea shells scattered along the pebble walkway so the kids went out and gathered sea shells, rocks, sticks, leaves, etc. and their bowls just started to look like bowls of flotsam:

To continue on the floating experiments I gathered up lots and lots of pennies then we made a boat out of foil, floated it in a big bowl of water and added pennies one at a time to see how many the boat could hold before it would sink. Naturally they all needed their own big bowl, foil, and pennies because that's so much more fun. And it was the best thing! They played for over an hour without fighting or whining or anything. And they probably would have played longer if I hadn't called them in for lunch. Water just works wonders for kids, doesn't it?

One day we made shark shirts for the boys and a buddyfly shirt for Mia. These were really fun and easy to make but I'm really annoyed with the shirts themselves (Hanes t-shirts) because they shrunk so much when we washed them. So obnoxious!

One of the highlights that the kids really loved was movie night! We set up our projector to watch movies on the family room wall. The kids made signs for the movie and concessions. Tiernan sold tickets and treats: popcorn in movie style popcorn bags, taffy, and fudge (since it happened to be national fudge day), and pop! Josh was the ticket taker and Mia made sure everyone was invited and attended the movie. The kids set up blankets and pillows on the floor and we closed all the curtains to make it as dark as we could. (I'm not nice enough to let them stay up until it is dark before we even start the movie.)

This was so popular we had another movie night the next week and the Little Hs can't wait to do this with all their cousins in Durango later this summer. So much fun!

We went on lots of picnics in the park - too many in fact since the kids have said they don't want to go on any more picnics! Wow. I never would have expected that. :)

What a fun visit with my Little Hs!

Back Seat Drivin'

This weekend Mom, Becky, Mia and I went to Durango for Jodee's (soon to be sis-in-law) bridal shower. Yay!

On Friday night we all went out to dinner for Danny's birthday and we (the girls) followed Danny & Jodee back from the restaurant to the motel. Now, as you may already know, mom is a notorious back seat driver. Well, we were stopped at a red light and when the light turned green Danny pulled forward and waited to turn left. (Did I already mention that Danny & Jodee were in one car and we were in another car? That's important to remember.) There were two cyclists in the cross walk walking their bikes across the street.

Mom said, "Look out Danny. Don't hit those people."

Me, "Oh my gosh. You're back seat driving from another car."

Part Duex (That works since their parents were in France, right?)

On Daniel Boone day we went on an "exploration" hike at Chatfield. The boys had fun exploring and recording what they found in their explorer journals.

Mia? Well, she was not so into it and would have been happier staying home that day but 2 out of 3 isn't so bad.

We went up to the Heron Observation deck and even spotted a heron! And disagreed on exactly how many boats were on the lake. And enjoyed snacks while watching for more herons or anything else that was interesting.

One day we painted with corn cobs (between you and me, it was not nearly as impressive as the picture in Family Fun lead me to believe... What? Do they have professional corn cob painters there? I mean, really!)

...which evolved into finger painting then whole hand painting which is soooo fun! And just a little messy.

One of our favorite days was National Root Beer Day! We made homemade root beer (for the first time ever) and it was super fun. Let's be honest, anything with dry ice is super fun!

We had playgroup at our house that day and the Little Hs are rather shy critters. This is how the conversation went the day before playgroup:

Me: We're having playgroup here tomorrow for Root Beer Day.

Little Hs: We're not going.

Me: Um, it's at our house.

Little Hs: Well, we're not coming out then.

Me: That might be a little goofy.

Little Hs: We don't care.

When the big day arrived the making of root beer lured them unsuspectingly outside. They clustered together in the sandbox as the kids started arriving until they realized it wasn't scary at all - it was just a big group of friends and lots of fun. Whew!

I was gonna say "let the fun begin" but since it's taken me so long to get to blogging anything it's almost time to say goodbye to the fun, so... Here's a look at how me and the Little Hs started our three weeks together.

First we made aprons because they all like to help in the kitchen and the adult sized aprons just don't quite do the job for them. We used tempera paint and animal stamps and they all designed their own:

One morning was National Donut Day so we made donuts at home. The kids each got a bag with either powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar in it and they got the shake the hot donuts in the sugar to coat them. That was fun! And messy!! And yum, what a delicious breakfast.

Another day was World Ocean Day so we made shark and fish (girls don't like sharks!) magnets using Shrinky Dinks. Those are so entertaining to watch while they shrink! And the magnets turned out really cool. But, we didn't realize until too late that you are coloring what will be the back of the magnets so now their names are backwards. Oh well! Still so fun.

I'll post more later after I break free from these outlaws!