Fourth of July treat

The activity department held a festive Fourth of July activity for the kids. They made a berry shortcake and frosted cookies. Clearly, something they all liked and its tough to find something all three of my kids enjoy. 

The kids rinsed out their mason jars. Ten they cut pieces of shortcake and put the pieces in the jar 

Then the kids scooped strawberries and blueberries to their jars. Finally whipped cream was added to the top to complete the red white and blue theme 

They liked frosting the cookies too. Gabriel made purple frosting out of the blue and red to create an "experiment".  

Happy Fourth of July! 

Shadow animals

I don't think we have ever shown the kids shadow animals.  They use flashlights when they go on walks at night.  They all have flashlights that they can wear on their head from the holidays and they get giddy when we remind them about their head gear. 

One night they were eating a snack before bed and we showed them how to make animal shapes with the flashlights. It brought back fun memories of my childhood. I made all kinds of neat things when I was a child.  

Week three summer homeschool

Our homeschool routine marches on.  Alex continues to have interest in math. I printed some double addition problems for him and he flew through it.  I asked him to play his nintendo ds math game. In true competitive Alex form, he strived to earn three stars on each level. This meant that he needed to learn how to tell military time, perform long addition problems, and division including the remainder concept.  

My six year old amazes me with his math abilities. He learns math concepts quickly and it will be exciting to see where he goes from this point. 

Gabriel has been working on several things.  He has finally showed interest in writing and I am thrilled to see his spelling improving. He made a card for Lane's birthday without any help which was a first for him. 

Gabriel draws angry birds and even cuts them out.  We have a huge Baggie full of angry birds. I was able to encourage him to label the birds too since he namesake of them. 

We continue to work on his computer program for summer school through the school and a friend who is a teacher tutors him once a week. I'm hopeful we can gain his confidence in learning because he is a bright child.  It just doesn't always show verbally   

Lane is working on fine motor skills. She has been working on writing letters and her name.  Another big development, with some help she can "read" the -at word family.  I am so happy that she understands that the letters c a t are blended together to form the word cat. 

Lane's princess decorations.

Laney wanted a Sofia the First birthday party until two weeks prior to the party. Then she changed her mind and wanted a Rapunzel themed birthday party. Since I had a ton of saved of ideas for a Sofia party, I had to switch gears quickly.  Thankfully Sofia and Rapunzel are both princesses and both wear purple. 

I was able to use some of the same ideas  and Lane liked the idea of using all of the princesses. 

Her party was held at her dance studio. When we arrived the table was already set and it was so pretty. I was thrilled that it all came together in the end. 

If you look at the photo, you can see Lane's hand reaching for some Cheetos  

It's probably a good thing I didn't have longer to plan because I would have gone overboard with the fun theme. 

I added yellow ribbon and a large yellow flower to some purple cups.  I bought the cups and plastic flowers from the dollar store.  It was easy to hot glue the ribbon and flower. 

Plain purple forks are fine but why turn the forks into royal forks! I glued sparkly gems to each fork to add some pizzazz.

I wanted something cute for the forks too I cleaned the can and added purple duct tape.  I'm still amazed by the colors and patterns that are available.  I grabbed the hot glue gun and added ribbon around the can and a large purple plastic flower.  

I found a free printable that said "welcome royal guests."   I put it in an inexpensive dollar store frame and set it up for the party.  I didn't do a ton for Lane's party but the simple personal touches added something special for her. 

Truth or Dare

While we were in Tampa, we took the kids on a streetcar. They were really excited to go on it. They could barely hold their excitement while we were waiting for the streetcar to arrive at the station stop. It was really neat to watch the joy on their little faces.

From the tecolinestreetcar.org site: Today, electric streetcars are back in Tampa, supporting continued growth in Downtown, Channelside and Ybor City. The first phase of the TECO Line Streetcar System is a 2.4 mile section that connects these three areas, improving transportation capacity, supporting Tampa’s thriving cruise industry and transporting workers to and from their jobs.
We took the streetcar to historic Ybor City from our downtown Tampa hotel. We have wanted to see Ybor City since Andrew took the bar when we first moved to Florida 2001. It is a neat historical area and I am glad we got to take our children there.
When we left the hotel, we didn't take any electronics with us. We disconnected completely for our Ybor City trip. On the way back to the hotel, Lane and Alex shared a seat. Alex taught Lane how to play truth or dare on the trip back.
I have never heard 4 and 6 year olds play a game of Truth or Dare before and it was hilarious. I tried not to laugh at their conversation. Some dares included: hitting the bench five times with a hand, smelling a shoe, and telling a random stranger hello. Truth questions included: do you like to smell your feet, what is your favorite food, and what is your favorite color. The innocence of this age is wonderful.
The few other passengers on the streetcar were having a tough time containing their laughter as well.

Band aids are still the rage

It cracks me up when kids do things that have been done for generations before them.  Of course it's new to that child and they think its a unique idea.  

Such is the case with Lane and band aids. She loves them.  She loves to pick them out at the store and creates an entire art display when she uses them.  Even the teensiest owie deserves a band aide. 

I captured one of Lane's artistic creations.  Since band aids are still affordable, I didn't flinch and she was rather thrilled with the outcome. 

Our friend Whitney

Shortly after moving to Florida, we went out to eat at a Japanese steak house. We didn't have one in Iowa so it was real treat to have one only a few minutes away. We sat down at the hibachi grill next to three women. 

Almost five year old Alex struck up a conversation with the gorgeous young woman sitting next to him.  I honestly think it was his first crush because he acted completely different around her than anyone else. We learned her name was Whitney.   We exchanged information and found each other on Facebook.  

It was an instant friendship with Whitney. The other two women were her cousin and her mother.  We haven't seen her cousin again but we have been in touch with Trudy. 

As far as I know, every time Whitney ventures to Florida, she contacts us and gives us a piece of her vacation.  One time she and her friend hung out with us for a few hours and it was delightful. 

You know how sometimes you just click with other people? Well that is our Whitney and Trudy. We adore them. It feels more like family than even long time friends because when we get back together it feels like its been a week rather than a few months.  It's an easy friendship. Whitney is the girl who every mother wants their daughter to grow up to be - smart, funny, outgoing, beautiful, thoughtful...the list of positive adjectives is never ending. 

The last time we spent time with Whitney and Trudy we met in New Smyrna Beach.  Andrew and I hadn't been there since before Gabriel was born, over 8 years ago.  Surprisingly it still looks the same. 

The kids played on the beach until it got too cold and the tide came in, attempting to take their breach toys out to sea. 

We had an early dinner and an awesome treat of ice cream   Even though it was a cold evening, ice cream was yummy and appreciated by everyone. 

Whitney taught the kids their family tradition of getting ice cream on their face      I don't remember the exact tradition - eating without a spoon maybe?  They were thrilled with the des and two weeks later wanted to do it again at a birthday party we attended.  

We plan on spending time with Trudy and Whitney in a month.  Since it will be close to Alex's seventh birthday, I'm sure he will be thrilled to practice the ice cream tradition. I will have to ask Whitney what exactly the tradition is because me kids seem to think its just to put lots of ice cream on their face.