Wild West Week

It was another slow week.  I've had all these fun ideas floating around, but doing them is a whole other story.  The kids made a craft, watched "Home on the Range," and Sidney and I made cowgirl krispies, meaning we dyed rice krispie treats pink.  We did get to go somewhere though, to the Schiele Museum, where the current exhibit is all about cowboys.  Jayden and Sidney got to ride horses.

Helping me make cowgirl krispies.



Science Week

This week we did a bunch of random science experiments I found on Pinterest.  Science was always my worst subject in school, so the kids didn't get any real science lessons.  When we did an experiment all I could say was, "Wasn't that cool?"  I couldn't explain to them why anything happened, but they didn't seem to mind.  Almost all of this stuff can be found on my Pinterest board if you're interested in trying anything.  I would give you links, but I'm too lazy, so let me know if you need help finding any of this.  It was all really easy and I only had to buy alka seltzer and borax for about $4 total.  The borax was used for 3 of these experiments, so if you're looking for fun, easy and cheap fun for your kids, here it is.  Everything else I had on hand.  We also took a trip to Discovery Place one day.  Josh was in Houston all week and he brought home astronaut ice cream for a surprise, so we counted that as a science treat.

Cornstarch and water makes for lots of gooey fun.

Milk, food coloring, and toothpicks.  Jayden wanted to try water afterward, but it wasn't the same.

Puffy painting.

Lava lamps.  This was Jayden's favorite thing and only needs 4 ingredients.

Gak!  I used to love this stuff and the kids love it too.  This also only needed 3 or 4 ingredients.

Crystals.  These were pretty cool and only needed water, borax and pipe cleaners.  The picture is terrible, but basically you soak the pipe cleaners overnight in water and borax and it crystallizes the pipe cleaner.  It also crystallized the vases I used for them, which was actually really pretty.

Raleigh

We spent the weekend in Raleigh.  Not exactly an exciting destination spot.  Josh has an older half sister he hasn't seen in about 15 or 16 or more years, who just moved there.  They wanted to get together so we could all meet.  We decided to make a weekend of it since we don't have any vacation plans for the summer.  We stayed in a hotel for fun and met up with her and her family for dinner one night.  It was a really fun and relaxing weekend with swimming, napping, and going to the movies.  I only took pictures when we stopped by the temple.  Sidney was so excited to touch the temple, it was really cute.



Around the World Week

We learned about a few different countries this week.  Mostly we did a lot of reading and looking at pictures from different countries.  We learned about China so for dinner one night we had Chinese food and made homemade fortune cookies.  Jayden and Sidney didn't really like them, but it was fun and they enjoyed getting a fortune. 

Another day we learned about Italy and how a lot of famous artists are from there, so we did some painting.  And we had pasta for dinner.

We learned about Egypt and I made heiroglyph puzzles for the kids to solve.  Again, we didn't do much for the theme.  Hopefully by next summer we'll be back to normal.

Sidneyisms

• Sidney: Mom, are you thinking what I'm thinking?  Mom: What are you thinking?  Sidney: That you want a spankin'!
• I made a comment about how I'm getting fat and she said,"Well, that's why you need a fat dress!"

Patriotic Week

Patriotic Week was pathetic.  We played a patriotic version of Don't Eat Pete, learned about the Declaration of Independence, made red, white and blue paper airplanes, and Josh took the kids to watch fireworks on the 4th.  We also celebrated Josh's birthday on the 3rd.  We had a lot of family time this last week, so it wasn't a total bust, it just really wasn't very themey.

Book Week

For Book Week we took a different book each day and had an activity to go with it. 

For "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" we made muffins.

For "Are You My Mother" the kids had to find all of the things around the house that the bird passes in the book.  It's not until after he passes all these things that he finds his mother, so I hid from them and they had to come find me. They couldn't find a boat, so they got a plastic cup because it floats like a boat.

Wednesday was Dr. Seuss day.  We made green eggs for "Green Eggs and Ham."  We read a bunch of Dr. Seuss books and then watched "Horton Hears a Who."

Then we read "Library Mouse."  In it the mouse writes his own little books so the kids each wrote one.

At the beginning of the week I challenged the kids to read 100 books in one week.  Their reward would be ice cream sundaes.  They pulled it off and enjoyed their treat Friday night.