Summer Week 7

July 9 - 13


Sometimes ten hours a day doesn't seem like enough time to do everything that I have planned for the kids. Mostly because they find something else to occupy their days that is more creative and more involved than I could ever come up with. For example, Bubbles in the Backyard turned into "there's a rain storm of bubbles and we need to build a tornado shelter using every single backyard toy and put them under the play system." Building their shelter took up all of their morning, while the actual taking shelter from the tornado part of their play took all of ten minutes. That's usually how those things go. Lego's in the living room kept a lot of the school aged kids busy all week long and the surprise hit for the week was the Oregon Trail card game.

Here's some other highlights from our week:

Bubbles in the Backyard featured soooo many bubbles, plus a giant kiddie pool with homemade bubbles.

Cousins, card games, and dinner one evening. We went from a house full of kids, to more kids.

The kids became cowboys and lassoed their stick horses as we learned about Oklahoma. I had planned to do a tornado pop bottle experiment with them, but this one was so much fun! I'm glad I forgot to buy pop bottles.

Hot dogs and football for Ohio.

The kids: "We're really into bars this summer."
Me: "Please be careful how you phrase that."

Let me clarify: they really like toppings for things this summer. We've done a waffle bar, potato bar, taco bar, and a burger bar. Their favorite toppings for everything are black beans, salsa, and pickled jalapenos. 

The Oregon Trail card game was a surprise hit with all of the kids. I wasn't sure if they would be able to play it or understand it. They all agreed it was hard, but we tweaked a few of the rules and they all (ages 5-10) played successfully.

An American Girl catalog came in the mail. As a couple of the girls were flipping through it, this fell out. The two girls immediately became giddy because they thought they had won a ticket to see "the real American Girl dolls! Oh my goodness!" I had to compose myself before I broke the news to them that's not what that is at all.

One afternoon, after a hard day of running through the backyard, I realized it was really, really quiet in the living room. I went to make sure what they weren't watching anything inappropriate and found all sets of siblings snuggled together in different places. I thought it was adorable and of course, as soon as I took pictures, they all stopped because, well, someone noticed.

After a meltdown in the bathroom over a shirt, this one lost her first tooth. Read the full story here.

Lego's in the Living Room is now a thing. My "kid free" area was overtaken with children building TONS of things.

We did a Circus Day (similar to this) for Rhode Island. The girls' favorite part of the circus was doing gymnastics and the trapeze bar. This kept them busy all day long.

Sea animals in one kiddie pool and doll washing in the other. Then it became a spa.

Hershey's chocolate for Hershey, PA. Everyone REALLY enjoyed Pennsylvania!

Two boys worked one morning to make a candy machine. The issue was that I didn't have any candy to give them to put in it, so I had them chop up pretzels instead. They did it....and then thought I was torturing them all day long simply because I didn't have any candy. I now have a bag of M & M's in my cupboard I have just in case the kids happen to build something again that requires candy!

Four girls were playing, setting a table, and "cooking" food. They were getting along really well, so I wasn't paying close attention to what exactly they were playing. I lose count of how many times a day several kids play "kitchen" or "house," so as long as I don't hear/see fighting, it's just like any other activity to me. That was until I saw them sit down at the table with their cooked food, grab hands, and tell each other they were thankful for their friends. It was only then that I noticed they were playing Thanksgiving. So much better than just regular "kitchen!"

Our sweet tea (that HAD to be drank out of our tea cups even though it was cold sweet tea) for South Carolina and the National Park Matching Game for South Dakota.

The biggest theme for summer has been friendship. The kids view daycare as one big playdate all day every day. I wouldn't have it any other way!