Tie-Dye!

This is like a rite of childhood, right? Only I never did it as a child and I've only once participated and they came out ugly! So I was a little intimidated....and I cheated. I bought a kit at Joann's 70% off, so it was $3! I couldn't resist. I knew this was on my to-do list but when I saw that pretty little package for $3.00, I snatched it up! Although, I have to tell you, even the kit scared me!

The boys did a scrunch technique and the girls did the roll and tie technique. The boys shirts look pretty cool and I haven't opened the girls yet. I will post photos tomorrow with all 6 of the kids wearing their new shirts.


The package said "enough for 8 shirts" but after we did our 6, we kept going! I think we finished all the dye after 12 shirts! I bought the Hanes pack of white t-shirts and what I learned from that is buy big!!! I wasn't thinking about the fact that they are meant to be worn as an undershirt.

Working together. Everybody loved to squeeze the dye......what a mess! The kids were COVERED! It will be a day or two before they come clean! I hope my neighbor doesn't kill me for the way that I sent her kids home!!! ;)

First we sprayed with water to moisten the fabric, another fun step!! The next time I do this, I will give the little ones the job of water spraying and the big kids the dye.




Mass producing the remaining shirts with the scrunching effect.


The rolled effect (spiral).


The boys doing the scrunching effect. Their shirts are pictured above in color.





"Are they ready" is still echoing in my head!! The sweet things are now sleeping and I am going to unwrap the rolled shirts and wash the pile of shirts so that when they wake up tomorrow they can wear them! I will bring the neighbors over bright and early and place them on their back deck so that they too can dive right in them!!!

Some helpful hints:

~make sure the kids are in old clothes that you don't care about!
~keep an entire box of baby wipes with you!
~use an old sheet that you use for painting. not a beautiful quilt that your mom made. duh!
~collect a big pile of rubberbands
~then collect more!
~buy BIG shirts!
~wrap rolled shirts in plastic wrap to keep them moist for 4-6 hours.
~hang wet shirts and don't let them touch anything or another shirt.
~hand the rolled shirts after you unwrap them, let them dry completely and then wash them.
~wash the shiirts in super hot water and keep them separate from other laundry until they've been washed several times.
~have fun!!!

Field Trips

Three to be exact. First we went to a school playground and I took some pictures with my blackberry, I'd upload them but I realized as I was snapping them that I don't know how! So we ran home to pick some things up (camera/snacks/etc) and our neighbor stopped by and she decided to come along with us to our next two places. We went to a local farm to visit with the animals. We saw it all, including peacocks with the most beautiful feathers.





They fed the goats, quacked with the ducks, laughed at the cows exposed rear end, waited for the peacocks to spread their wings, climbed some jungle gyms and played Veterinarian at the little Vet Shop. I couldn't pick one thing or one animal that was a favorite, they enjoy it all, however,



this sweet little one loves her lambie and I know for her the highlight was introducing her lambie to the sheep!!! so so precious!!!




Next we went to the lake. We spent the afternoon/early evenning swimming, digging, building and boating. It was a perfect day to be on the lake!


(couldn't decide between color and black and white!) grrrr, the right side always gets cut off here!

We had a very full day and my sweet things are all sound asleep!!! Which is a good thing because I've got another full day planned for tomorrow!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Homemade Crayons!!! (sort of)

I got this great idea from my friend Kristin in Maine. She did this with her kids last winter and I filed the idea away in my mind, just waiting for a rainy day. Well, it didn't rain today but it was suppose to. So I pulled out the crayon bucket and we all sorted out the broken crayons and peeled away. (hint #1, new crayons peel easier than old crayons)

We filled what I thought was a silicone tray. (hint #2, not all silicone can go in the oven.....oh yes, cleaning the oven is on my to do list.....sorry honey)

The kids were on a mission peeling those crayons and they LOVED breaking them! No surprise!





The finished product was so much fun and so unique! The kids were taken back by them!



"Oh my gosh, it works!"

(hint #3, if you discover that your "pan" isn't oven safe, it takes too much time to melt in the microwave. Sorry again honey, i killed the microwave. but we have 4 beautiful new crayons!)

Bead Madness!

This is not what I had planned for today, however when they saw the tub of beads, the plan was changed. We started out with 6,000 beads in the tub, we used a couple hundred and there are 3,000 beads on my kitchen floor! That would have been a picture! It's almost midnight so I can't go shoot it now, oh well. OOPS, I just gave myself away........YES, the beads are still on my floor! Most people would have cleaned them up before ending the project but we left for the lake instead and stayed there until waaaay past our bedtime! I will have to deal with the mess tomorrow.

We all enjoyed this activity and the finished product. They are so pretty! Tomorrow I will add some magnets to the back of them and find a spot for them, or mail them out to the grandparents. We spent a lot of quality time together around the table, after about an hour we took a lunch break and then the kids went right back to the table.

The bucket of madness was 50% off, so for $5.00 we had almost two hours of time together at the table and when I sweep the floor, we'll have another afternoon or two of fun!! ;)

Girly Girl Flip Flops!

Big brother had some buddies to play with and I have been waiting to do this with the girls!!! First we started with flip flops which then led to making matching hair bows, which then led to painting our nails and putting on make-up! Total girly girl day!!!! (love, love, love it!)





First, we cut strips of pink fabric with pinking shears and then tied them to the flops. Too hard for the wee ones but perfect for our favorite neighbor and my oldest girl. The wee ones sat with us while we cut and tied. It was a beautiful summer afternoon to be on a blanket making memories.


Then, our sweet friend painted nails to perfection! A pattern of purple and orange! Who would have thought! Big girls are way cooler than mommy! LOL
(You can see the matching bows in this picture)

So so proud of her pretty nails, new hair bow (at the bottom of her braid which sweet K did!) and girly shoes!!! What a day! We ended it with a movie night in our jammies while the group of boys did boy things in the driveway. Tomorrow I owe the boys!

~I bought the flip flops at my local craft store for just over a $1 and I bought 2 yards of fabric, which was too much! We made 4 pair of flip flops and 4 hairbows (although one daughter wanted only 2 strips of fabric!) and we had at least 3/4 of a yard left. The pinking shears are part of my craft supplies but they can also be found at any craft store.

updated with pictures......

Shaving Cream!!!

Today we played with shaving cream!!! So so much fun! I let the kids fill up a water table with 2 bottles of shaving cream. They all took turns with the bottles and it was messy fun! They had so much fun squirting it out and then running their hands through it.

They watched the lines they made and used different objects to see the trail they would leave behind.

They smeared it all over their bodies and this wee one loved to clap her hands and watch the shaving cream fly around. She was covered. They were all covered!!!

So so much fun for $1.50 a bottle!

I haven't done this with them in quite some time and they played with it differently this time. So next time I would make sure i have a source of water and a towel for wiping eyes. In addition, I would tell them it's not to eat. My oldest daughter did a little taste test and was completely disgusted! eek!

Friday's missing post

I was in crazy hostess mode. Bunco at my house. Hubby was out of town all week. It was crazy. There was alcohol to buy, bathrooms to clean and reclean, floors to sweep and steam, many trips to the market~with kids in tow, dogs to deal with, 3 trips to buy ice~ clearly I am a horrible judge at that! Oh, and moving boxes to uncover and unpack. Fortunately my sweet husband flew in around 1:30 and saved the day. He took the kids to the lake so that I could finish my tasks without playing mommy too. I was so thankful for his help! Bunco was a blast and I won $20! I just wish the night didn't go by so quickly. Fun people, great conversations, laughing, and a warm summer breeze blowing through my windows, a perfect night.

We traveled over the weekend to pick up my oldest daughter. Words can not describe how I feel to have her back home! So we will be ready for some fun tomorrow!