Last days of the pool

Can't believe that it is almost August already. Out here by us most of the schools are starting up mid August, somewhere around the 17th to the 20th. Can't remember the exact date... since most of us won't be going. Well we are trying to make the most of our days left with the pool opened.

We have the girls' cousin is over for a few days. Here they are hanging out in the sun under the rainbow.

Balloon Science

I am going to do something I seldom do on my blog today. I am going to recommend a website. This website produces tons of science experiments. The experiments are videotaped and explanations are provided for each. You can sign up for one free experiment a week or pay the registration for the whole collection. Not much money and TOTALLY worth it, IMO. But just an emailed experiment a week is great. My friend who recommended this site told me that her idea with her kids is just to plant the seeds so that the remember the experiments when they get older and begin to apply science at their older ages. Then they can look back and remember doing these experiments that are relevent to what they are learning as older children. I liked that. I am stealing that exact thought process this year with my kids and science. We are going to have all the fun and none of the hassle of trying to explain things and have them lose interest. Unless they ask of course.

OK So here it is...http://krampf.com/ Again, this man is great. I highly recommend this for people wanting to dabble in cool experiments with their kids.

Here are Brenda and her cousin as they experiment with the amazing unpoppable water balloons. From this experiment, they filled the rest of the balloons up with water. Some were babies and the game was to see how long they could cradle the baby without popping it. Some were not tied and they sprayed them at eachother. Some were just good ol'fashioned water balloons to be exploded at eachother. BTW if doing this experiment at home, do have a towel or two handy. Brenda made her goal to pop the water balloon. She spent a good amt of time trying to get the fire onto the part of the balloon that had air. And POP went the water.

Talking about POP... he also has a great section about what makes the sound that you hear when something like a firecracker or balloon pops. That was an interesting topic. The whole family learned something that day.

This is the kind of website that can teach the kids how fun science really is.

Nearing the End

Here we are at one of the last park craft days of the summer. After the craft, Brenda brought her fortune teller to play with her friends she hoped to see there. We have spent the last day or so making a bunch of those. They have created fortunes on their own, bad and good. We colored the sides without words so Brenda can have an opportunity to memorize the spelling of the colors. Purple is a surprisingly difficult spelling to remember, I have recently come to find out.

So school starts up in about three weeks. We have some time left for fun. What to do with the rest of our time??? I am picking up, K, the girls' cousin, tonight for an indefinite amount of time. That is a start.

Back from camp

Barring the usual suspects: the big storm, sweltering heat, a sick leader, etc. we had a great time. There was swimming and creeking, water games, songs songs and more camp songs, latrines, tents, chores, activites, secret pals, fabulous PA's, and so much more.

Hopefully by now my girls have forgotten all about the hornet nests, raccoons, mice, spiders, and other critters. Hopefully they have forgotten the tearful nights of "I-wanna-go-home"s. And we will be able to plan more fun just like this for next year.

This was one of the big reasons that I signed the girls up for girl scouts in the beginning. They get a chance to be part of nature in a way that is supervised. Nature becomes part of their lives for a few days where otherwise it would not. Plus the Girl Scout adventures and memories are so worth the time and energy. I want my girls to have this. So thank you C for helping us make this trip such a success.

Off My Blog Earlier

Off C's Blog.
I am redoing this because of some random rule C reminded me about that says you can only use one word to answer. Really...
1. Where is your cell phone? .......Here
2. Your significant other? .........Away
3. Your hair?...............Unwashed
4. Your mother? .............Beautiful
5. Your father? ..........Sad
6. Your favorite thing? .......Quiet
7. Your dream last night? .......Nope
8. Your favorite drink? ....Sodawater
9. Your dream/goal? .........abundance
10. The room you're in? ......Kitchen
11. Your hobby? .....Knitting (this is just presently)
12. Your fear?....Judgements
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years?......Happy
14. Where were you last night? ........Home
15. What you're not?.......Unhappy
16. Muffins? .......Sweet
17. One of your wish list items? .......Travel
18. Where you grew up? ....Illinois
19. The last thing you did? ....Type
20. What are you wearing? .....grubbies
21. Your pets? ......Abby
22. TV in your house? ........boring
23. Your computer? ........addicting
24. Your life? .........Fabulous
25. Your mood? .......Busy
26. Missing someone? ........Yes.
27. Your car? .........Messy!!!!!!!!!!!
28. Something you're not wearing? ........Make-up
29. Favorite store? .......Hobby Lobby
30. Your summer? ...........Delightful
31. Like someone? .........Huh?
32. Your favorite color? ........Purpleredblue... (That is one word!!!!!)
33. When is the last time you laughed? .....Today
34. Last time you cried? .......donno.

Girl Scout Camping SOON

Is this my girls obsessing? Not in the least. It is just pure excitement and anticipation!!! Brenda has designed this count-down calendar designed to remind her of all the fun things that camp has to offer, while counting down the days until we leave to camp.

Good news for those of you who are keeping tabs on our Girl Scout experiences!!! I think I have found co leaders for both troops that I need! In the end I do have a couple other options, but the best one by far seemed to be find a way to keep in my town. This way in years to come, the drive doesn't become an issue. I want to find a group that works for us for now and in the future. And staying local seems like the best decision. Most of the girls around here are in the same activities and sports. We can work around these things easier. Anyway I am working out kinks and issues. Brenda's troop would be one that the leader just stepped down from this year and the girls still want to be in GS. Bret's troop would be brand new. We will see how things pan out. I will keep updating the situation as new occurrances happen. Meanwhile, we are off to camp in just a few days!!! We are so excited. And we are going with this awesome other troop. All is well...

Museum Fun

We wanted to get out and have some fun that wasn't pool related. Off to the museum we went. I surprised each girl by picking up one of their friends. Then away we went to help sick stuffed animals, and feel people at the diner, build, knock down, create, destroy, and just basically have a great time.

Knitting with Friends

One of our very own Wild Women is preggo and due next month. So we are showering her with our love at the next circle. We have been working on creating an elfish knitted blanket for the baby. Everyone is creating her own knitted square of whatever shape color design. Those of us that don't know how to knit or crochet are embellishing the blanket with ribbon and such. Then it will be sewed together into a baby blanket. So here we are at one friend's house working on the blanket while the kids play and have fun. The next circle is a week from Friday. It is our annual pool side drum. Bottoms up...

My Painting Idea

While we were in the craft room the other day molding clay into bowls, I was inspired to put a painting activity together. They are always asking me if they can paint. I painted a bunch of old canvases black and set them aside to dry. The next day I brought out three colors of acrylic paints and some foam shapes to use for stamping. These are what we created. The first one was Bret's. I think it kind of looks like a bird. The flowers are mine. The third one with the squiggly shapes was Brenda's. Originally she had big plans for it. Then she made a mistake, took a piece of napkin and smeared the red all over the place in a fit of frustration. In the end I had to send her away to calm down. It is an issue we have been having. But I got this idea for the squiggly lines because I thought the red she smeared looked so cool that there needed to be a design added to it. So I added the lines, which Brenda decided later we should try to do again soon. Marley too the paint and the foam pieces and stuck everything to the canvas in her own creative way.

The Chicken Story

So I want to tell you a little story about Marley and her creativity. Here we were at craft time the other day. The park sets up craft day three times a week, so after swim team practice we usually head down to the park with a bunch of other kids and friends from swim team to do the craft. The craft this day was a foam chicken. Each person got his or her own bag of foam pieces that fit together to make this chicken. They sat down with glue and began to get to work. There was one chicken already completed for the kids to look at for reference. Marley being the Marley that she is went right to work gluing the flowers and pink parts. She glued on the eyeball and the beak where she decided they belonged. Did she even know it was a beak? Probably not. She marches to her own drummer. The whole time, there is little Bret putting her chicken together. Now Bret also hears her own special beat. She is a little older, so she did conform to the chicken idea. Yet where she put her flowers, how many she used, and where her feathers ended up, well that was her own creation. Marley, marveling at her creation, lifted it up to show Bret, who adequetly acknowledged the foam creation. Then Marley looked at Bret's chicken with a small startle in her eyes. "Hey, I want to do a chicken too, Mom."

Even after she saw Bret's foam thing, with the same pieces that hers had, she was clueless to the fact that they started with the same thing. She thought that she was given this Picasso of shapes, while Bret had been given a chicken.

I guess if you are given lemons, you get to choose whether to make lemon marangue pie or lemonaide.

The First Square

... Rectangle??

Off C's Blog.

I think she won't mind... Though I didn't ask. That was rude. Oh well.

1. Where is your cell phone? .......I don't know until someone calls.
2. Your significant other? .........Watching RAMBO in the bedroom.
3. Your hair?...............Pulled Back.
4. Your mother? .............Haven't seen HER in years.
5. Your father? ..........Haven't seen him since I was 19.
6. Your favorite thing? .......Quiet time.
7. Your dream last night? .......Don't remember.
8. Your favorite drink? ....Bubbly water.
9. Your dream/goal? .........A happy abundant family.
10. The room you're in? ......Kitchen.
11. Your hobby? .....I'll have to think about that.
12. Your fear?....Looking back on my life and realizing it should have been different.
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years?......In the forest in a little shack.
14. Where were you last night? ........At the fireworks.
15. What you're not?.......Unhappy.
16. Muffins? .......Love 'em.
17. One of your wish list items? .......Vacation to travel all over the place.
18. Where you grew up? ....Illinois
19. The last thing you did? .....Today? Cook a meal.
20. What are you wearing? .....bikini swim suit.
21. Your pets? ......Abby the happy dog.
22. TV in your house? ........Three: bedroom, family room, boys room
23. Your computer? ........kitchen, that is why I am here now.
24. Your life? .........Fabulous, like out of a story book that I wrote.
25. Your mood? .......Free like the wind.
26. Missing someone? ........Yes.
27. Your car? .........A van full of rukusy children.
28. Something you're not wearing? ........Make-up
29. Favorite store? .......Hobby Lobby, it has EVERYTHING except food
30. Your summer? ...........Delightful
31. Like someone? .........Huh?
32. Your favorite color? ........Purple, red, and blue... together.
33. When is the last time you laughed? .....Every day I laugh.
34. Last time you cried? .......Two weeks ago, but I am better now.

Day At Scott's

A real good friend of ours is out of town for the holiday, and gave his keys over to Bret in case we wanted to head over and spend a day or two at his place. We are just as welcomed when they are home, but equally so when they are gone. Today we packed up and headed out to the country life. We swam in the pond, caught some fish, lazed around watching movies, and just had a good time.

The girls helped me pick last year's dead Cat Tails out of Scott's pond. I thought it would make a good project. We will make a pillow and use them for the stuffing. I remember doing this with a friend when I was younger. We didn't have the tools that my girls have at their finger tips. Their pillow might even LOOK like a real pillow.

Create A Day

Friday, day of the Fireworks, I came out of my room to find Bret (dad) playing his music in front of the computer. He has been there a lot lately. So I thought it was a good day to get the girls into a creative mood as well. We went upstairs to the craft room for some fun. I cleaned they created. Afterwards, the older girls headed downstairs while Marley and I played make-believe for an hour or so. We ate and slept in her pink house. She fed me from her pink fridge, we visited Sophia and went to the museum. It was a fun filled day for her already and it was still early.

Also it was Marley's first time to really experience the fireworks. OOOh AAAH. We didn't stay for the festival, but the fireworks were awesome as always.