Smart Summer: Forest Friendly Week

We checked the calendar last night and were excited to see that we are entering Forest Friendly Week of the Smart Summer Challenge. This week is going to be perfect for my two little nature loving girls and I can not wait for all the fun activities we have planned. We'll be getting out and learning all about nature, insects, animals and the great outdoors this week. I made a quick list of some of the activities we'll be doing this week...

Making a fairy garden
Homemade bird feeders
Making Binoculars from cardboard tubes
Painting animal and insect rocks
Listening for animal sounds in our own habitat
Making some forest animal finger puppets
Putting on a puppet show
Playing animal charades
Learning about animal tracks

This list certainly isn't set in stone and I'm likely to add several things to it as the week goes on and I see all the other great activities going on this week on the Smart Summer Challenge Facebook page.

And I'm happy to say that I finally came up with the perfect use for my new basket.


I picked this basket up at a yard sale a couple weekends ago for the incredible price of one dollar! I knew it would be perfect for holding something but hadn't come up with the perfect collection, until today. As I was pulling out a few books that went along with this week's theme I spotted my basket sitting empty across the room. Perfect! It's the perfect size to hold books that can be rotated out depending on our study theme or the changing seasons. Not bad for a dollar, not bad at all.

Art in the Park

Following along with the nature theme this week for the Smart Summer Challenge today the girls and I did a little art in the park. We loaded up the wagon with a quick and easy breakfast, our art supplies and we were off.


First order of business was a quick breakfast to give us the energy we needed for a morning at the park.


We had some whole wheat tortillas with a little peanut butter and wrapped around a banana, blueberries and grapes. Perfect picnic breakfast.

Then it was time to get our art out. Last night I printed out the outline of the numbers 1 and 3 for the girls to create with their found items. The scoured the park looking for bits and pieces to glue to their outlines.


Kaitie's number one was an easy task and really she was more interested in throwing the rocks than playing along.


Kinsley, however, took her artwork very seriously inspecting each thing very carefully to make sure it would work for her.


She was very proud of her finished product. She especially liked the tiny little feather and was SO excited when Daddy surprised us at lunch time and she got to show off her artwork.


After all that creativity it was time to cut loose and play for a bit.

The only downside was the mosquitos, they are awful this year and nothing seems to keep them away.

Asiah's Birthday

Today was my neice's 8th birthday (goodness I can't believe she's so old already). She came over to the house and while she was here she mentioned she wished she had some of her Grandma's chocolate cake. While mine isn't exactly the same I told her there was no reason we couldn't make chocolate cake and I put the girls to work.


They measured and poured and mixed until a good looking cake was made. They could hardly wait to dive in but I made them wait until after dinner. I'm such a meanie. Of course we ordered pizza for dinner so it wasn't that bad of a wait. I didn't get a picture of the finished cake because everyone devoured it so quickly and I was not about to get between those girls and their cake.



While we were waiting on the cake to finish i pulled out some plain white canvas hats that I picked up at Michaels and let the girls decorate their own sunhats to wear outside. Kaitlyn was less than impressed but the big girls had a good time.








Then the birthday girl requested movie time so we made a 'port' and watched The Little Mermaid until it was cool enough to play outside.

(This is a common scene around our house this summer isn't it.)


Even though it was still pretty warm out we couldn't wait any longer to have a Silly String Fight. Kinsley had never seen the stuff before but Asiah was beyond excited.


Turns out the cans were a little harder to push than we thought they'd be.


This was the best picture I could get of the birthday girl. You'd think she was afraid I'd spray her or something. Silly.


This girl took the game very seriously.


I'd say everyone had a pretty good day and I know we're all exhausted after. Happy Birthday to my littlest neice.

Summer Series: Beat the Heat With Water

This summer has been ridiculously hot so far and it's made it nearly impossible to spend much time outside. The only ways to beat the heat are to go out first thing in the morning or drench ourselves with water. Since we're not really morning people we've done a lot of playing in the water.



The girls love the new water table, it has definitely become a favorite new toy. It will be great to bring inside this fall and turn into a sensory table too, I can't wait.





And of course you can't call it summer unless you get to run through a sprinkler.







The girls had a blast at the splash park by grandma's house on our last visit. Kinsley made sure they packed their swimsuits "just in case" they went again while they are spending the weekend with her. I have a feeling they'll definitely make it there again.








We also got the cousins to come over and had a huge water fight. I learned two things that day.

1) It takes about 25 times longer to fill up water balloons than it does to pop them all. We did more than 100 balloons and I swear it felt like it only took them 3 minutes to use them all up. Thankfully we also had made more sponge balls.

2) Kaitlyn doesn't care about water fights as long as she can find a way to drink the water from her pool. Silly girl.


We really haven't done any swimming this summer since neither girl can swim on their own and I just don't feel comfortable taking them on my own. Hopefully soon we'll all make it out to the pool.

Fourth of July

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend and didn't blow anything up besides fireworks. Thankfully there were no big emergencies or fires anywhere in our area and everyone had a nice relaxing holiday.


Kinsley spent most of her day running through the smoke from her smoke bombs.


And helping daddy pick out which fireworks to do next and then running like a crazy person.

We tried doing some glow in the dark sno-cones last night too. We put glow in the dark bracelets in the bottom of our glasses and then made the sno-cones on top. I was less than impressed with the glow but Kinsley thought they were "awesome".


You can see the glow really well from the sides but not from the top. Maybe next time we'll just do glow in the dark water.

Summer Series: Glow Stick Lanterns

This fun little project didn't make it to our Summer Fun Calendar since typically the girls are in bed before it's dark enough to do this. Tonight we were up late thanks to some neighborhood fireworks and a cranky baby sister so it was the perfect fun activity.



Just take your glow stick, cut the top off and dump the contents into a jar. Shake it up and the kids have their very own glowing lanterns. Easy Peasy. The contents are non-toxic but be careful because it will stain your clothing.

We used some old canning jars I had in the cabinet but you could use any container with a tight fitting lid. If you used a plastic jar even the littlest ones could participate. They would be great for nightlights during a camp out and even the adults thought they were pretty awesome. Kinsley is using hers as an extra nightlight tonight.

Summer Series: Sponge Balls

You've all probably seen these floating around blogland and hopefully you put them on your summer to-do list too. It's the perfect cheap, quick and fun summer activity for the kids.


We bought two packages of sponges from the dollar tree and used some cotton yarn I already had on hand. So my total cost for this was $2, told you super cheap.


Take your sponges and cut them into (semi even) strips. Since they are so soft the kids can easily do this part themselves. You might end up with several different sizes but trust me they still work just fine.


Stack your sponge strips. We used 8 on the first two and I think only 6-7 on the last two since we didn't end up with an even amount. But the smaller ones worked great too and I might make them all that size next time. Then simply tie them together. We used cotton yarn but you could use fishing line, dental floss, zip ties or whatever else you have on hand. Just pull tight.


This is what you'll end up with and you're ready to head outside for some waterfight fun.


Try not to drown your baby sibling in the process. Kaitlyn didn't even mind that Kinsley kept follwing her around and squeezing it out over her head. It could have been that it was over 100 degrees outside.


We may or may not have pulled out a few water balloons for a little extra fun. And yes, I know she already needs another haircut. Sigh.

We're already planning a huge waterfight this weekend so we're going to be picking up some more sponges and make a few more. Unlike the water balloons they are reusable so you can just keep playing as long as you have some water to dunk them in. Surprisingly they hold a LOT of water, which I found out when the hubby hit me with one while I was filling up the balloons. They would definitely be fun enough for an older crowd too, we all had a blast and it was a great way to cool off.