August 26: Homemade Sidewalk Chalk



Shake it!

I picked up this Crayola Chalk Making kit sometime last summer from a Meijer clearance section.  Koen and Ty we were actually going to make chalk...and in such cool shapes!  It was very simple to do -- just add the right amount of water to each bottle of powder, replace the lid and shake it up, pour it into a mold, and let it set for 20 minutes.  While I did help put the water in the bottles, the boys could really do everything themselves which is a great thing!  

Carefully pouring the mixture. 




After our chalk was completely hardened, we headed outside to see how it worked.  The boys were more interested in playing with the bug shaped chalks than using them!  They really did turn out cute, and I'm keeping the molds for any future projects that need molds:  soaps, candy, etc.



It works!

August 21: Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Last May, Koen received a kite for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa Davies.  We've talked about pulling it out a few times, but either the wind was great and the weather wasn't, or the weather was great with no real wind.  Today was a nice kite-flying day! 

We crossed the street to Koen's old preschool and Daddy and the boys worked together to get the kite up in the air!  The wind wasn't constant...more gusty, so there were numerous attempts to get it up, but it worked!  The funniest thing was Koen wanting to catch the kite's tails.  The first time he did it we asked him to leave the tails alone since his pulling on them pulls the kite out of the sky.  When he tried it again, it dawned on me that we had just read a book where Curious George hangs on to some kite tails and takes a ride over the city!  When I explained to Koen that he was too heavy to ride a kite like Curious George he was really disappointed, but then just focused on flying the kite with Daddy.

Koen tries to get the kite up on his own.

Success!

June 1: Outside Fun and Games!



"Leaves" from the "pine cone tree". 



Despite some wind, it was a beautiful day here today!  Ty and I spent about five minutes in the backyard before we were both covered in mud, so we changed clothes and changed plans and headed out the front door.  Ty made sure I took plenty of pictures of him riding his bikes and scooter!  He loves tooling around and exploring the bugs, plants, and other nature things he comes across. 

He discovered a number of things in the garage today, too, including the bean bag toss game Grandpa Smits made for us last summer.  We hauled that out onto the driveway and played that for a long while!  He made sure each bean bag went in...if it didn't go in when he tossed it, he'd simply push it in!  I tried to get him to toss the bean bags from different distances just to get him to try something new.  He did try it but wasn't super excited about it since most of them didn't go in on their own.  He had a blast making up his own rules to his own bean bag game!

November 10: A few new things...

Brielle enjoying the sunshine...and showing off her shirt just for Aunt Elise who gave it to her!

 

Ty's rice box!

It was a gorgeous day outside, and Ty was restless.  I sent him outside, but all the outdoor toys, etc. had been put away for the coming winter so when I went to check on him, I found him digging in the mulch/dirt with his fingers.  Trying to protect our landscaping, I suggested Ty try a rice box, and idea I'd read about in a few different places.  We still don't have a sand box (on the must-have list for spring 2011) so I dumped a bunch of rice in a shoe box and told Ty to dig in that instead of the dirt.  We even pulled out some cars to bury and drive in the rice.  He had a blast playing with it out on the deck!!!  Unfortunately, while I was vacuuming the living room, he decided he wanted to play with the rice box inside the house, so he carried it in all by himself.  Tysen actually did a fairly good job of getting it in without much of a mess, but while he was playing with it indoors, rice began flying.  Fortunately, I had the vacuum out and was able to clean up the mess without too much fuss, but the rice box is an outdoor play idea, or if it is indoors it needs to be used in an area where the "flying rice" can be easily cleaned up.  (Just an FYI -- I had packed the rice away but needed to pull it out again when Ty asked to play with the rice box the following two days...he really enjoyed it!)



Blowing bubbles

After spending at least 30 minutes digging in the rice box Ty went out to blow bubbles.  This activity usually takes Ty less than three minutes simply because he dumps out the bubble solution.  Today was different!  He blew bubbles for at least five minutes before he dumped out the bubble solution.  He's been getting better at blowing bubbles as he gets older and it's fun to see his excitement and joy at being able to create beautiful bubbles! 

I decided to start another observation activity, too.  I'd used an avocado to make soup and kept the seed because one of my idea books, 365 Days of Creative Play by Sheila Ellison and Judith Gray, included an idea of growing an avocado tree.  All you need are:

• Avocado seed
• Sharp nail
• 3 toothpicks
• Small water tumbler



Ty places the toothpicks in the holes.

Make three holes in the avocado seed with a sharp nail.  Insert a toothpick in each hole and make sure they are secure.  Fill glass tumbler with water and balance the avocado seed on top using the toothpicks,  The tip of the seed should be in the water.  Place on a window ledge.  Soon a root and a shoot will appear.  As soon as the shoot has leaves, snip off the top.  This will let the avocado tree branch out.  Pot the little tree when roots are thick.  Continue to snip off the top growth to make a thicker bush.

In our experience, it's been 4 days and there's no growth yet.  We'll see...



Our avocado seed in water.



September 9: Going to Grandma's

We started our day visiting the consignment shop, LOLLiPOSH, on the north side of town.  Basically, a friend of a friend had just gained ownership, and it was the grand opening!  Mary DeBoer had told me about this place a while back because they have such cute hair headbands, etc. for little girls, in fact, Brielle has worn them in a few of her pictures.  So off we went to meet Mary and her kids.

After that, we trucked out to Holland to spend the day with Mom (and Dad when he was finished with school).  For the past four (?) summers, we've frozen corn together and today was the day.  Dad had kindly husked most of the ears before I arrived.  Mom and I spent a few hours working together and froze about 5 gallons of corn (bagged).  It's always wonderful to have "fresh" corn in the middle of winter!

It was a gorgeous day so we did some of the work outside.  Sage was outside the entire time we were there...astounding!  Tysen followed us out and spent most of the afternoon entertaining himself out there.  I also laid Brielle on a blanket when we were out there and she LOVED it!  She cried each time we brought her inside and stopped crying when she got back outside!  Koen was content to stay inside and play trains, though we did get him outside a few times.

Once the corn was cooling, Koen and I went on a mission to find gym shoes that would work for him.  I've tried a few pairs but none were OK with him.  I thought if he had a say in picking them out, it might make a difference.  Wouldn't you know, the first pair he saw he tried on and liked.  Of course, they were Toy Story shoes which are WAY cooler than the clearance shoes I'd found.  He was not happy about putting them on to show Grandma and Grandpa, so we'll see how it goes at school next week. 

Seth had a golf tournament in Ludington, MI, early Friday morning, so he and the team went up north after school Thursday.  Since he wasn't going to be home, the kids and I stayed for supper.  The kids had baths -- the boys thought it was hilarious that Brielle's bath was in the kitchen sink, got jammies on, played for a bit more, and then home again.  A great day!