More Summer Fun! {2012 Part 2}

We have been having glorious weather here and have continued to spend a lot of our days outdoors. 

The girls and I will be so sad when Winter comes:(

Most recently, Elle and Em both attended Cooking School for a couple of days. They LOVED it and it reconfirmed my interest in teaching a Homeschool Kids' Cooking Class this fall! The girls are going to absolutely love taking the class and also assisting me in teaching it! I am so looking forward to it!

Elle attending a church Day Camp for 3 days while Em attended Gymnastics Camp {maybe the next Gabby Douglas}! They both thoroughly enjoyed their camps and it was good for them to have some time pursuing their separate interests and building new friendships while there.  They DID miss each other terribly, though!! And, the baby-----well, she was UNDONE every single day! I had a hard time keeping her happy! She was ready to pick the girls back up (or never leave them) by 10am daily!  CeCe and I took trips to the library,{where she could roam around}, the pond, feeding the ducks, mall play area, and doing some fun crafts. When I had both Em and CeCe, we went to "Ladies' Lunch"

 at our favorite Thai restaurant! When we were all together, we had a wonderful picnic lunch in the park!

CeCe LOVED having the one-on-one time to explore and have me all to herself!!

We really did enjoy having special time just me and Ce Ce, though. It made me think back to when Elle was a baby and how much I enjoyed having one child. Having 3 in 4 years really has limited the amount of time each child has gotten to spend with just myself and/or my husband. So, we have committed to each child having some special time and we will rotate each month according to when their birthdays are. My husband and I also agreed it would be a wonderful idea for us to commemorate our anniversary on the 5th of every month with a date night {at home or away from the house, once we can find a trusted sitter}. We have already had some special time with the girls and they LOVE, love, loved it!!

We did the Ivory Soap Microwave Experiment.

The girls really enjoyed this Messy Monday Experiment!

We have also been trying to squeeze in as many play dates with our friends as possible!

So sad that summer is winding down, but gearing up for another wonderful school year!

Wishing ALL students {whether at home or going to school} a BLESSED school year!!!

Blessings,

Aria:)

Summer 2012 Updates!! {Puffy Paint Tutorial}

Hi! I hope this post finds you well! I wanted to post a quick update on us.
{Click on any of the photos to enlarge them}
We have continued to do homeschool work this summer (mainly math and phonics) in preparation for officially starting our school year in a few weeks. I am so glad we never got totally out of the "school flow" so that it won't be such a shock when we delve back in 100%. Elle is about half way done with her first grade math work book and Em is starting to really get a hang of reading. She will turn 4 next week!

Here are some of our recent adventures and fun while learning!

Our family spent some time at the State Fair and had a wonderful time!

We all were shocked that the baby, Ce Ce 26 months, wanted to ride all of the "big girl" rides! None of us were prepared for that. She is the one that never even goes on the little pony ride at the grocery store, LOL. I guess she really is growing up!

Elle made a really cool obstacle course and all of the girls had a great time playing with that!

We have been doing lots of crafts this summer--tons of painting, collecting things on nature walks and observing beauty all around us. We made bird feeders out of rice cakes, peanut butter and bird seed and the girls hung them on the tree in our front yard. 

The birds really loved them-we need to make them again.

We also made Microwave Puffy Paint. 

We always love creating fun art using this technique!

You should try it! 

Microwave Puffy Paint Recipe

• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp salt
• food coloring

Add small amount of water to make a smooth paste.  

We like it pretty thick so it really puffs up well:).

Paint on pieces of cereal box cardboard and microwave for 20-30 seconds. 

 We L-O-V-E going to the library!!!!
We always check out 100 books and spend some great learning time down there.

We have strung popcorn for movie nights and such, but seeing this on Pinterest reminded me of making these cereal and pretzel bracelets. The girls had a ball making them and eating them! It kept them occupied in the mini-van for a long time!

We will be rounding out the summer with a kid's Cooking Class for the big girls, as well as Gymnastics Camp for Em (future Gabby Douglas maybe:) and a Church Day Camp for Elle! 

I pray your summer is going well and you are enjoying it!!

Blessings,

Aria:)

{Messy Mondays} Part 1

Our girls LOVE doing "Messy Mondays!" 

Every week, we come up with new and fun ways to have some Messy Fun!

Here are a few of our latest Messy Mondays!

Enjoy!!

~Top-Shaving Cream and Marbles Fun

~Middle left-sprinkler/water fun outside

~Middle right-Bath tub paint

~Bottom left-writing on the doors and windows with markers

~Bottom right-Homemade Play dough with spaghetti and wooden beads.

More fun to come!!!

What kinds of ways do your kids like to get messy?

Blessings,

Aria:)

{Summer Highlights} Part 1

Our summer has been fun, busy, and full of ups and downs!

It has been H-O-T here! We have tried to spend time outside when the weather has allowed. We always love being out in nature! 

Here are a few highlights of our summer thus far:

~By far, Ce Ce's favorite outdoor activity is water play! She could do that all day and all night, LOL.

~Our family traveled to Georgia to visit my mother and grandmother and other family. We had a great visit!

~We suffered through extreme summer thunderstorms and lost power our a four day stretch. We ended up going to a hotel and the girls LOVED it---me, not so much, LOL;) We did have a lot of fun and were able to re-set our priorities and God's grace abounded during this difficult time.

~One of our closest friends had a beautiful baby boy---we love snuggling with him!

~Our girls went to Vacation Bible School and had an amazing time learning about Jesus!

~We love dining al fresco----the girls enjoy eating breakfast on the back deck.

~It is not summer unless the girls run through the sprinkler!

~We took our girls to a local carnival fair and ate funnel cakes-it was so much fun!

~Playing at the park is also a favorite family activity!

~We enjoyed the fireworks from the back porch of a cousin, so the girls were in their jammies:)

~We take our girls downtown to a family friendly park that has a carousel---the girls LOVE it! {Too bad it is not free!}

~Elle has started working on Multiplication in Math---she LOVES it!!

~We are counting down to Em's 4th birthday!

~One of our Bible Memory Verses has been "The joy of the Lord is your strength!"

~Ce Ce loves working on transferring! 

~Elle and I have both started "Gratitude Journals." They have been so beneficial and we LOVE sharing our journals and what we are thankful for each day!!! {I recently read "1000 Gifts" by Ann Voskamp and it was life-changing!!}

~Em has been reading using Starfall and really, really enjoys it!

~I finally decided it was time to teach the girls to sort their own laundry--they are having a lot of fun doing this chore!

We have been studying poetry and the girls have been writing their own poems. I will have to share some of them later-they are really very creative!

Well, that is some of what we have been up to thus far.

How is your summer coming???  Anything fun going on with you??

Blessings,

Aria:)

Messy Mondays!! {Summer Fun} 5!!

Here is a quick re-cap of our latest installment of Messy Monday Fun Day!

We decided to do painting with bubble wrap!

It was so much fun! The girls LOVED watching their creations come to life right before their eyes.

The girls simply painted on the bubble side of the wrap and pressed it onto the paper.

Em making her ice cream cone. She was so impressed with herself!

Elle painting a piece of bubble wrap shaped like a rainbow.

She did a great job using lots of colors.

It turned out GREAT!

Some of Em's creations-I helped her with the flower stem.

Elle's painting she did:)

Em's freestyle painting she did, lol.

We had a lot of fun doing the bubble wrap paint. I am sure we will repeat this many times in the future!!

Blessings,

Aria:)

Messy Mondays!! {Summer Fun} 4!!

Here is our 4th edition of our Messy Monday Funday meme. We are having a great time, hot, but still having fun nonetheless!

 This week, we decided to play outside with bubbles. I attempted to make my own bubble solution{using water, dish soap and glycerin), but the girls wanted even MORE so we could try to make giant bubbles using hula hoops. That idea failed, but we did have a lot of fun and were able to finally get the kiddie pool cleaned out so we can use it!

 Elle and Em had a good time using pipe cleaners to design different bubble wands.

 It was so incredibly hot, the girls ended up in the soapy water, ha, ha!!

We had a lot of fun getting messy today!

After getting dried off, we also decided to check another activity off of our Summer Bucket List, and made our own Popsicles!

Summer Fun at its finest!!
What are you all doing to stay cool this summer?

Blessings,

Aria:)

Messy Mondays!! {Summer Fun} 3 and Happy 4th!

Our latest installment of "Messy Monday Funday" involved shaving cream! Really, really fun and super inexpensive if you buy it at the Dollar Store.

We have found that the extra-thick variety works best!

I just gathered up some scoops, measuring spoons and doctor-related syringes and measuring cup (we are studying Medicine in homeschool right now:) and let the girls get creative.

They made all kinds of food items, medicines, and more! It was great!!

Luckily, Big Daddy was home for the 4th, so little Ce Ce was napping while the big girls and I were able to be outside.

 We took the kids to the fireworks festival on the 4th this year!! The girls are normally very scared of the fireworks and cannot sleep through them, so we were not sure how they would respond being there. Guess what, they LOVED it:) I am so glad we ventured out of our "normal" and kept the kids up super-late (our fireworks didn't start until 10pm!) and tried new things!

Oh, and the funnel cake:)

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July Holiday!

Blessings,

Aria:)

Our 2011 Summer Bucket List and More...

Why does it seem like this summer is just FLYING by?? I know with each child being added to our family, it just seems like the time passes exponentially faster than before! Is it the same in your family?

This summer, we have decided to make a "bucket list" of the fun things we hope to do. Some of the activities we have done before, but a lot of the things we chose are brand new adventures for our family! We are really looking forward to having lots and lots of fun this summer!

 We all decided on what things we thought would be fun. We also looked in books and magazines for inspiration. There are some things we have never done and others are our favorites!

 After gathering all of our suggestions, I made a Word document and inserted photos to make little cards for each activity.

 Then, we just tossed them into our bucket and there we have it.

Our Summer 2011 "Bucket List" of Fun!

We also are going to do a Summer Park Tour this year. We are blessed to have many wonderful metro parks in our area. We have selected 10 of them to visit this summer. 7 of them being new to us. We are going to keep track of them on our Familyfun tear-out we got from the magazine.

 Each time we visit one of the parks on our list, we will take a photo there and put it into our "Park Tour" photo album. This should be a fun way to store our great memories we will make this summer!

Some of the fun things we have on our bucket list include:

• Having a movie night
• Visiting a nursing home
• Praying for someone
• Random acts of kindness
• Making homemade ice cream
• Making bagels
• Making fruit smoothies
• Gardening
• Making smores 
• Flying kites
• Camping out in the backyard *we may have to do this next year when the baby is bigger*
• Having a park party with friends
• Making popsicles
• Making sidewalk paint
• Washing the car
• Going swimming
• Visiting a museum
• Sprinkler fun day
• Bike rides
• Feeding ducks
• Going Bowling
• Cooking out (bbq)
• Playing hopscotch
• Movie night
• Painting our toe nails
• Having a garage sale
• Going on a boat ride
• Going to the zoo
• Baking bread
• Making soft pretzels
• Making lemonade

It should be fun seeing how many things we can cross off of our lists!
How are you planning to enjoy your summer?

Blessings,

Aria:)