Summer is officially here in our house! Max's last day of school was Monday June 2nd and we celebrated having our summer crew all here with a silly string fight. Majority of our time has been spent in the backyard. We also got started on our themed days for summer.
Here are the highlights from the week:
The last day of school and the elementary school decided to serve peanut butter (Max is allergic). At the beginning of the school year this would have bugged the hell out of me, but we have been more than pleased with the school and how they have handled Max's peanut allergy (and all other allergies) so I was more than fine when his teacher said to pack cold lunch for him.
This was a huge deal for Max because he's taken hot lunch every day this school year because of his peanut allergy (the school's hot lunches are typically completely nut free so the school separates hot and cold lunch kids so he only sits with other hot lunch kids) and he was beyond excited and slightly proud of his cold lunch. Of course the last day of school requires a note from mom too!
Max had an excellent school year and was disappointed for his year to end. He's been a pretty good sport about "being one of the daycare kids" but still reminds me that he wants to go back to school.
Coloring with the smelly markers.
One morning I broke out "the bored box." This contains numerous educational games and activities, puzzles, and Colorforms. I only break this box out every once in a while so it's always extra special when I do. The items in the box contain lots of little pieces, so it's only for kids 2 or older, which makes it even more special.
Even the cat got in on the "bored box" activities.
Harrison working hard on his firetruck puzzle. If kids had trouble figuring out their puzzle or other activity, I had them rely on each other for help. This worked out great and they all helped each other in some capacity.
Play dough time! I've been buying play dough from Dollar Tree and it's actually better and cheaper than the Play Doh brand (it comes in 3 or 4 packs for $1). I put bugs and sea creatures on the table so they could make prints and shapes.
The kids painted bird houses with glitter paint. All of the kids painted the inside of the bird houses first and I had to remind them to paint the outside too.
Playing with the latest sensory sandbox. See post for details: http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2014/06/sensory-sandbox-pool-party.html
The Pool Party got destroyed pretty quickly, but the kids loved it!
Silly string fight to celebrate the end to an excellent school year!! In case anyone was wondering, rain does in fact wash silly string out of a yard.
The kids got creative with the Magformers early one morning.
A pizza party to celebrate the end of the school year. The kids made "crowns" out of paper plates, colored them and wore them while they ate. The kids loved the pizza party so much that they'll be doing a Make Your Own Pizza next.
These are the rascals I took on a nice long walk around the neighborhood (they're all making sure Elizabeth has everything she needs before we started.....have I mentioned she's rather spoiled??). I was surprised that it was the 2 older kids I had with me that complained about their legs hurting after the first block we walked. They really started complaining when I told them the kids and I had been taking 2 mile long walks during the days. Tears started flowing (yes, still from the 2 oldest kids!) so we cut our walk short at 1 mile. Looks like we have some exercising to do this summer!
We stopped to watch the street cleaner and someone moving out of their house.
We had to watch "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" on our pizza party day. This brought back childhood memories of Friday night pizza parties while my parents, sister, and I watched the movie on the left.
A kiddie pool filled with bubbles! The kids were rather timid to try out the bubble water but soon jumped right in and started a bubble fight.
Elizabeth isn't a big fan of the little pools (or wading pools or spray parks) but she happily played in her swimming suit in the cozy coupe.
H needed cuddles from his sissy to warm up.
Harrison helped me make pancake muffins one evening. They were suppose to be breakfast for the next day but quickly became a second dinner for my 3 minis.
Max asked Elizabeth to scratch his back. She happily scratched his back, poked at his spine and told him it was "yucky" and checked his underwear for poop.
I found these in the Target Dollar sections. They worked well for the most part, but it was quite time consuming and the kids lost interest fairly quickly.
The only bouncy ball that didn't turn out. It was flat but still bounced!
Who doesn't love stickers??!!? Yes, that is a child (mine to be exact) standing on the table REALLY getting into stickering. I was a bit surprised to see how much the two 6 year olds enjoyed the stickers too.
Music time! The kids had to try out numerous instruments before the found "the one" they wanted to play to our music.
We said good bye to the good ole' metal swing set. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Harmeyer, the kids will be getting a new one for their birthday's near the end of the month.
The kids decided it was an excellent idea to collect all of the toys in backyard and put them behind the playhouse. They informed me it was their "new shed." That's great......until they forgot to put them all away at the end of the day. I got quite the work out putting all of those away!
Face painting.
The kids colored the new daycare picnic sheet. They lost interest fairly quickly, which surprised me, but every time I re-explained to them what they were coloring this sheet for, they got excited about coloring it. Turned out pretty good!
Play dough yet again.
Reading time outside.
We have lady bugs! The kids have more than enjoyed watching our ants and lady bugs and were quite excited to finally see lady bugs actively crawling around in Lady Bug Land.
Elizabeth received her first birthday card in the mail. The card (from my Aunt Cindi) contained $2, which she tried to hand to me, telling me "oh here ya go. Money. It's money." When I told her it was all her's, she ran and got her favorite red sparkly purse and shoved the money in it.
Gardening Day. See post for details: http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2014/06/gardening-day.html
Digging For "Gold" game. See post for details: http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2014/06/sensory-sandbox-game-digging-for-gold.html
Friday was Farmer's Market Day. See post for details: http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2014/06/farmers-market-day.html
Friday was also National Donut Day, so of course the kids just had to recognize this day too!
Relaxing in the afternoon with puzzles. We're waiting for a rainy day to do Puzzle Day.
We've been spending so much time outside lately that sunscreen has become a part of our daily regime. Harrison insisted that I leave his face white this time.
We are all soooo happy to have summer here! Two days into the week, my oldest mini informs me that he's done with summer and ready for school to start (I kind of figured this would happen--the boy LOVES school!). Looks to be a fun but challenging summer trying to keep everyone happy and entertained!
