Friendship bracelets

This was a quick activity that we did on an extremely hot day. It was too hot in the afternoon to play outside, so we stayed in. Who better than friends to make our friendship bracelets with, right?
Alaina made a cute headband, and the rest of us made bracelets, or anklets. We had a good time,(and it is a great quick craft that doesn't make a huge mess)!!

Nature Journals

Remember the paper that we tea stained, and the leaf prints that we made? Well this is the result we got when we combined all our pieces. The kids and I punched the papers, and tied them together with a cardboard cover, and some natural twine, and then we decorated the covers with our leaf prints, and some loose twigs. I think they look great.

Pool Party

We attended our first pool party of the season with a group of Target people. The kids had a blast goofing off in the pool (especially the big goofy kid). Jackson liked the pool, but was more interested in playing with lincoln logs and eating cheese balls. He also found rocks, which is a favorite for him. Everywhere we go , Jackson finds rocks and sorts and carries them around. Maybe he will be a Geologist when he grows up?

Ruby Red Deliciousness

I love my neighbors. They have the most beautiful garden. Every year Theo tells me that she isn't going to have a big garden, because it is too much work, but every year it seems to get bigger.
I love the fact that they go on vacation this time every year, and I have garden duties. The best part of these duties include picking the great produce that is ripe. This time of year it isn't much, but I did get about a quart of peas, and the best part of all I picked about 2 quarts of ruby red delightful, delicious, lovely little raspberries. I get all giddy and excited to go into their garden and come out with this beautiful reward (my kids think I am crazy).
I can't wait to go back tomorrow and pick some more.
My dinner tonight consisted of a handful of freshly shelled peas, and a bowl of delectable red beauties with a little cream (left over from our butter making). What a great summer meal.
I even wrote a haiku about raspberries.

Ruby red beauties
Growing in the garden sun
Raspberries, oh yum.

I am content!!

Cherrific Day!!

I can't believe how much fun the kids had with the cherries. They not only enjoyed picking them, but they also fought over who's turn it was to pitt them. They thought it was fun. We froze a bunch and ended up making little cherry cobblers with some too. (we still have more to do).
Kenzie even wore her cherry dress for the occasion.
The little bird bowl was made by me, and the mini cake stand was a gift from a good friend.

Cherry Pickers

Today's activity was a field trip to a local orchard for some Cherry picking. We participated in a pick your own outing. Both the big kids were saying "yuck, I'll pick them if I don't have to eat them", but after tasting a few, they decided that they really like cherries (minus the pitts).
They really enjoyed this activity, It was a lot of fun to see who could get the most in their buckets, and who could find the biggest cluster of cherries. JT climbed the tree and found the ripest cherries at the top.
Even Jackson got in on the action. He enjoyed eating some too, the evidence is all over his face (top photo). We are looking forward to going back in about 2 weeks to pick Apricots (yummy) Later we will be baking some delightful treats with our well earned rewards (not sure what we will make, but we will let you know).

Homemade Yummyness.......

Yesterday we made homemade bread and butter. We each picked a fresh herb from the garden and mixed it into our whole grain

French Bread.




We used Basil, Sage and Oregano.

We also made our own butter.
It was so creamy and sweet. Delicious!!!

The neighbor girls came and made butter too. The girls tried rolling their jars on the floor to see if it would go faster, it didn't.

The results were very tasty!! All of the kids got in on the action, even Jackson.

The boys were the best shakers!!

Evil Pests

I had a great garden going this year. I had 3 beautiful heads of broccoli that were ready to be harvested, as well as some other plants that were growing nice and big.

This is what I came home to. My broccoli and cauliflower, completely gone, and most of my other plants eaten down to just nubs.

This is the culprit. Nasty groundhog. He liked the peas too.

Philly

This weekend we took a trip to Philadelphia. It was john's Fathers Day gift. He wanted to go to the Philly Comic Con. Friday night we explored a little of Chinatown and has some scrumptious food. (however the many choices were overwhelming) John and the kids tried a variety of baked items that were all a little interesting.

Saturday Kenzie, Jackson and I went to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, and Ben Franklins burial place in the morning. I would have liked to spend more time in the historical areas, but it started pouring rain on us, and our plans were thwarted.

Our Hotel was right next door to the famous Reading Terminal Market. You can find just about any type of food you want there, so that is where we had Breakfast, and lunch. It is really kind of a cool place if you can get past all of the people.



Chinatown Arch
Saturday afternoon, John took the boys back to the comic con for the kids costume contest. Jackson was Yoda again, and JT made a Mega Man costume (I'll have to post the other pics later, they are on a different camera) Jackson won 2nd place and JT won 3rd. I think a great time was had be all. Philly was nice, but we are happy to be back to our tine home town. We just aren't big city kind of people.

Tea Staining

On Thursday, JT and I tried our hand at tea staining paper. We will be binding our own "Nature Journals" to use with some of the other nature projects we have been doing. (books will post later) We just used regular cardstock for a thicker sturdier paper. (My kids need durability) When we cover our books and bind them, we will be putting one of our leaf prints on the covers.

JT enjoyed crumpling the paper and trying to make it as messy as possible.

We hing it through the kitchen so that it could dry. It was kind of cool to see all the papers hanging there.

Summer Activities

This summer I am determined not to let go to waste. I don't want the kids to just waste their time, so I decided to do at least 1 educational activity every day (excluding weekends) So this is what we have done so far.


We did leaf prints by covering the plant pieces with muslin and hammering the pigments out. Some turned out great, others, not so much.

Jackson liked to hammer too.


Next we made a flower press. I cut the wood to size, and drilled holes for the large screws. JT helped to cut the cardboard pieces, and I cut some newsprint paper to size too. We assembled it all with paper in between the cardboard pieces, and wood on both ends, fastened it with wing nuts, and it is ready for flowers.




Not a bad start to the summer I think. Check back to see what comes next!!