Weekend

I spent the weekend doing some of my favorite relaxing things while the girls spent the weekend having some quality time with their grandparents. I think it was just what everyone needed to recharge, I know I certainly did.

 Looking forward to the girls being home this week and working on some new ideas we've had floating around for a while now.   And surprising them with a few of the things mama has been working on while they were away.  I'm glad for them to have these adventures and get to spend time making lovely memories with their grandparents, but I must admit that I miss them terribly while they are gone.  We will all breathe a contented sigh once we are all back under the same roof again. 

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment -Inspired by Soulemama.

 A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

 

Mail Call: Mama West Wind

I love love love getting little surprises in the mail.  So much better than junk mail and bills don't you think?  When I spotted the return address on this little package I couldn't wait to open it up.  I had won a giveaway over at Rhythm of the Home and this special little surprise was coming from Mama West Wind.  



VOILA!

Isn't she fabulous?  The girls were so excited to add one of her gorgeous dolls to our playthings.  The materials are so lovely and she just has a character all her own.  If you haven't seen her Etsy shop you are missing out.  There are so many of her lovely dolls that we would love to add to our seasonal tables like this honey bee, or this gnome, or this adorable toy mouse.  They are really all too fabulous to narrow it down. 



Summer Fun List

We've been steadily working our way through our Summer Fun List so I thought I should share it with you before summer comes to an end. We took a different approach for our list than what we did last year. I wanted to make some of the activities easy for the kids to see and understand so I went with pictures they could recognize.

 

I used some wooden discs, a sharpie, and some colored pencil to add some dimension to our summer fun. I picked out some of the activities I knew would excite them, some we'd be likely to do over again, and some I thought I could actually handle drawing. We all know I'm not the one with the drawing talent in the family so big thanks to Pepaw and my sister for helping with that.

 

Once all the drawing was finished we glued a magnet to the back and voila!  They are residing on the fridge right now because I haven't finished my magnetic chalkboard, but it works.  We can choose right from there and the great thing is I can place them on our magnetic dry erase calendar on the date we're going to doing an activity. 

I think we'll stick to this method for our other seasons as well, it has been a lot of fun.  I already have some great ideas for a fall list.  But first let's get to the rest of the summer list:

1. Make balloon Animals
2. Make Pajamas
3. Bleach Pen t-shirts
4. Make a fort
5. Make a pinata
6. Paint ourselves
7. Chalk drawings
8. Glow stick lanterns
9. Make popsicles
10. Night swimming
11. Make our own books
12. Homemade bouncy balls
13. Watertable ice fishing
14. Library day
15. Movie Night
16. Make & fly a kite
17. Have a picnic
18. Backyard Camping
19. Face Painting
20. Science day
21. Baseball game
22. Swimming
23. Ice Cream Party
24. Boat Ride
25. Water fight
26. Sun Prints
27. Pink hair (Kinsley is most excited about this one)
28. Sprinkler day
29. Bake sale
30. Make a kite
31. Pick berries
32. Jewelry making
33. Make slime
34. Learn to hoop dance --though I think I'm moving this one to fall when the weather is nicer
35. Flashlight tag
36. Catch fireflies/lightning bugs
37. Mini golf
38. Lemonade stand
39. Puppet Show
40. Go Fishing
41. Go to the lake
42. Bonfire
43. Make pickles
44. S'mores
45. Bubbles
46. Fireworks
47. Bowling
48. Catch butterflies
49. Mommy date
50. Daddy date

Have a fun summer!

Travel OK: Science Museum Oklahoma

If you're still looking for something fun to do this summer head to OKC to Science Museum Oklahoma.  When I was a kid the science museum was my absolute favorite place to visit and now my girls love it too.  It's a must see whenever we are in the OKC area.

As you can see we took the whole crew and everyone had a terrific time.  There is something for everyone there, the young and the young at heart. 

There is truly too much to list and you can easily spend the entire day there and never repeat an activity.  We love the gadget trees with the world's tallest spiral slide, the trains, tinkering garage, the plantarium and of course the Science Live shows.  We've been going for more years than I want to admit to and it never gets old.  They are constantly changing and adding exhibits so the experience is always fresh and exciting. 

From the moment we step back into the parking lot Kinsley is already planning our next trip back.

Calm Jar

I'm sure you've seen the mood jars all over Pinterest. You do stalk Pinterest like I do right?  When I first saw it at Here We Are Together I wanted to make one for the girls.  Sometimes we all need a minute to calm down and collect ourselves (especially on Mondays) so we're calling ours the calm jar.  When your little one (or you) feels a little out of sorts just give the jar a good shake and watch as the glitter slowly settles down right along with all the out of control emotions.  It's a great alternative to a traditional time out or a screaming match over who had what baby doll first.  And with two very strong willed babies (and okay, a mama too) I think this jar will get a lot of use helping us all remember to take some deep breaths and remain calm.


I had a plastic peanut butter jar cleaned out to use for this but I couldn't resist the shiny mason jar.  I'm counting on the fact that they won't get mad and throw it across the room.  Wish me luck. 

Her directions say to use about 1 Tbsp of glitter glue to 1 cup of hot water.  We really just filled our jar just shy of how full we wanted it and dumped pretty much the entire container of glitter glue into it.  Such is the hazard of little helpers, but really it worked out just fine.

We added glitter until we thought we had a good amount and then added 1 drop each of blue and green food coloring to get the color we wanted.  We stirred everything with a bamboo skewer so we could just throw it away when we were finished. 

We haven't used it for its official purpose yet but immediately after Kinsley spent a solid 20 minutes just sitting right here staring at it. 

It only takes a minute or two for the glitter to settle since we used a heavier glitter. It works for us since the girls are still so young but if you're aiming for a longer calm down time you'd want to use a fine powdery glitter.

Summer Fun: Melted Crayon Sun

When I saw this craft over at Morning Sun Rae I knew we had to add it to our summer list.  We have a huge basket full of crayons that needed to be repurposed and every house needs a bright sun for the summer right? 

She does a great step by step tutorial so there is no need for me to repeat it.  But I do want to say that when she says you don't need much crayon she isn't kidding.  A little goes a very long way and make sure you use something thick enough to avoid it melting all over your ironing board cover.  Better yet, I'd just iron it on an old towel so you don't have to worry about it.

We made two really large suns and we still have a ton of shavings left over, this was probably 8 crayons or so.  I have an idea for what to do with the rest of the shavings so it isn't a big loss, plus we had fun making them.  Though it's really really messy, we probably should have done this part outside. 

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.