Sunday, June 5, 2016

Week In Review: May 31 - June 3



What a busy week it was! Summer kids started this week and we jumped right into the fun! It was also a big transitioning week: the big kids transitioning from school back to daycare rules and the daycare kids getting used to the big kids (and everything that goes with them) being back again. It's a pretty big transition for all but nearly everyone handled it fantastically.

The boys (Max and Harrison) were still in school nearly all week and were worried about missing out on things. Luckily, they got out early both Wednesday and Thursday, so they didn't have to miss much. Tuesday was a free day for the kids. They colored Ninja Turtle masks (I failed to get pictures of their finished products but they look really fun), played with Lego's, and played in the new circus tent with the stuffed animals.

Wednesday was Ice Cream Shop Day. This year we used our baking soda snow recipe for the ice cream and it worked well (even though most of it ended up on the patio). The kids mostly enjoyed mixing the "ice cream" rather than serving it to each other (as they've done in year's past). Kids of all ages enjoyed ice cream cones for their afternoon snack!


 Our "ice cream" was our baking soda snow recipe (baking soda and cold water mixed together). For our "chocolate ice cream" I added in two scoops of cocoa powder. A few of the kids even tried it out!





Thursday was the boy's last day of school. We started the day off with donuts and homemade sidewalk paint on the patio. Paint brushes were involved for the first bit, but the kids wound up ditching the brushes and painting with their feet, then their entire bodies.





When the boys got home from school (with a couple of school friends), we had massive silly string fight and popsicles to cool off. It was a great way (and a tradition of our's) to kick off the summer!





The real treat for the day came when our fire ants arrived! We got to put them in the ant farm (not without tears, dropping a few ants, and wildly trying to kill them). Then Max read them his book report on Fire Ants that he did for school.



In the madness of releasing the ants into the ant farm, I let a few words that I don't typically say in front of the kids slip...Oops!



Thursday night we rang in the start of summer as a family at one of our faves (Star Bar...yes, totally a bar, but with excellent food) and the summer concert series at Jasper Winery. It was a beautiful summer night!




























Friday was our annual Lemonade Stand Day. In the past (read more here), we've just set a stand up in the backyard and the kids sold each other lemonade. That's what we did in the morning. 


Lemonade art. I drew the lemonade shapes and once they were all colored, we taped a straw on the back.


I had a few kinds of lemonades for them to try out: regular lemonade, pink lemonade, strawberry lemonade, and iced tea lemonade. The surprise hit of the day was the iced tea lemonade. The kids drank a ridiculous amount of it (thank god it's caffeine free). This is the only time all summer that they'll be allowed to drink lemonade so I let them have at it.



Since the kids are another year older, I decided this was the year to try out a real lemonade stand. We waited until all of the littles were down for naps, before we set up. The kids worked hard to sell the lemonade: they held up signs, waved at passing cars, and shouted "lemonade for sale!" loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear. They had a great time, but only made it an hour selling their lemonade (they got "hot, tired, and bored"). 
They made an impressive $25.25. At only .25 cents a cup, I'd say they did pretty well! A lot of cars stopped and didn't even want lemonade they just handed the kids money for looking so cute! It was so much fun to do. After everyone cooled off and the lemonade stand was picked up (something all of the kids were in charge of doing), they got to go on Amazon and picked out a few new toys for all of the daycare kids to enjoy. I am so proud of them for stepping up and taking charge of the lemonade stand. They took their job very seriously for that hour!




A few other highlights from our week:


Our caterpillars arrived, got huge, and are now crysallis. We now are waiting for them to become butterflies before we release them (we're hoping for better, less dramatic, outcomes this year).


In between playing Lemonade Stand in the backyard and doing the actual lemonade stand, the big kids and I walked up to the boy's school. The middle mini completely failed to give out his end of the school year thank you notes and gift cards to his teachers. He told him he'd just give them out the next time he saw his teachers....failing to think that'd it would be nearly three months until he sees them again. So we walked up to the school (only two blocks away) and delivered them to the teachers. I was so impressed with how great the big kids did on our walk. They had hand holding partners and followed directions precisely. I remember a time when these kids had a hard time understand the word "no." It tugged at my heart as I realized how big all of the kids have gotten.


A few of the drawings from the week: ice cream cones, a popsicle, and lemonade (all drawn by me, colored by the kids, and cut out by the older kids).



Thankfully the weather cooperated and there was TONS of outside time (nearly all day every day). The older kids did a great job of coming up with their own games to play and even created their own (somewhat dangerous) obstacle courses.



We ended our busy week with a cook out, dinner on the patio, and falling asleep in the swing.




I know there's so much more I forgot about our week (and it was only a four day week)! I have my two helpers with me for the summer and we have so much fun stuff planned for the kids. I can't wait to share it with everyone!