Community Days

This past weekend was the annual Community Days...it's a lot more fun now that we live in town!  I don't feel like we have to plan out our weekend so much - if we want to go to something, we can decide at the last minute and we don't feel like we have to stay long!

The weekend started with a BBQ in the downtown park on Friday night.  It was fun to catch up with friends, even though the kids were hot and crabby!  We debated whether we should keep them up late to watch the fireworks that evening.  Lane was super excited about them, so we decided he could stay up.  I found us a good place to watch them down by the lake, but sadly, it was about 10 feet too far for Katy's monitor to reach!  So she got to stay up just because everyone else was.

I was really excited to see my friend Emily and her husband Kevin!  They drove back from KC that night and stopped by our house so they could watch the fireworks too.  They got here a little early (just in time to distract the kids from their crabbiness) so we had some time to catch up.  It was my first time to meet Ayden and he was so cute - and so well-behaved.  Makes me a little more anxious for my own :)

The fireworks were really good!  I was impressed by the show - big and pretty!  Super loud, probably because we were pretty close, but luckily the kids weren't scared.  We heard from some friends in Harvard that they were able to see them from their house!

The next day began with the parade.  I think Lane was hoping for more candy, but it's hard to get a bunch when you're not very aggressive :)

We ended up going home for lunch and to cool off.  It was really hard for me to be out in the heat so much - I'm just not used to it!  I walked around the car show for about 10 minutes before I had to go back inside and take a long nap!

After naps, we headed back to the park so that Lane and Katy could play on the inflatables.  Lane loved the slide and wasn't scared at all, even though he tumbled head over heels a couple of times.  Katy thought the little "maze" was fun, but she was more content to sit in the shade, eat graham crackers, and laugh at Lane.

The kids and Curtis played a round of miniature golf before it was time to head home for supper.  Lane was pretty sure that he beat Daddy because he got his ball in the hole first every time.  We let him think that :)

After supper, we walked across the street for the home run derby.  We thought it would be a lot more popular than it was.  Curtis signed up - and won in his age group!  (Do I need to mention that the only other guy was Brad?  And Brad said he hadn't hit a ball for years?)  Lane even took part and actually hit the ball once!

By that time I was really hot so it was time to go home.  We planned to go to the community church service in the park this morning, but I decided against it when I realized that it would already be 83 degrees by 10:00!  We enjoyed our church's air conditioning instead (and Curtis thought it was cold in church - I wanted to hit him!).

A good weekend - Lane said he had sooo much fun and can't wait until next year.  As long as the kids have fun - that's what it's all about, right?

Canning

I decided to can my first-ever batch of pickles this week.  I'm not a fan of dill, so I searched all over until I found a recipe that I think I might like.  I used the recipe for Sweet Pickle Spears out of the Ball Canning Guide.  Simply sugar, vinegar, turmeric, salt and mustard seed.  Canning was the easy part; the hard part was teaching a little boy to be patient.  He couldn't wait to get his hands on my canning supplies and "can" his own veggies!

He was so excited when I let him use some of my jars.  Even more excited when I let him use the lids, too!

Apparently he watched me pretty closely throughout the whole process - he knew that he had to get the air bubbles out and measure the headspace!

Ready to be canned!  He told me that he was canning cucumbers and watermelon to take over to Kitty O'bey's house because she didn't have any blue supplies - just green ones (which apparently don't work as well?).   He was entertained by everything for well over an hour!

Oh, and my pickles turned out pretty good!  Judging by the amount of blossoms on my cucumbers, I will be canning more in the next couple of weeks!

4th of July Fun

This is the first 4th of July in about 5 years that I actually got to enjoy fireworks - yay for kids that are growing up!  4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays, but since 2008 when Lane was a baby, I've had to peek at the fireworks out the window or "hide" from them with a scared toddler.

We started with the fireworks show in York Tuesday evening.  I really wish I had remembered my camera - the kids were so cute!  We went swimming beforehand so that they didn't have time to get grumpy.  By the time we headed to York (about 8:45) Katy was pretty sleepy.  She tried to take a little nap on the way, but Lane kept jabbering too much.  Once we got there, they did great!  We met my parents, Bret and Laura, and Craig and Christine and kids and "tailgated" in the parking lot of the fairgrounds.  We all brought lawn chairs and blankets and munched on popcorn, sugar cookies, M&Ms, and Twizzlers (thanks, Laura, for satisfying my Twizzler craving!).  I was a little worried how Katy would react to the fireworks.  I "prepped" her for them all day by saying that they would be loud, but we could cover our ears and just see how pretty they are.  She did great!  We were far enough back that it wasn't loud at all and they really were pretty!  Both kids thought the fireworks were a lot of fun.

Wednesday evening, Craig and Christine invited us to their house for supper and more fireworks.  We weren't sure if we'd stay real long since the kids were beyond tired from the night before...but we ended up staying until just after 10 (the TV has been my friend today!!).

Boys and fireworks...need I say more??

We spent about $10 on "daylight" fireworks for Lane...smoke balls, parachutes, snappers.  He thought everything was so much fun!!  He would get so excited and start talking in his deep voice with all the hand motions.

Craig lit off a "giant" parachute tube...so everyone lined up to catch them.

Turned out to be a handful of parachutes that were all tangled together...and landed on top of the house.

Katy wasn't too sure about all the loud noises and boys running everywhere!  When I asked her if she was having fun, she replied, "Yes.  Toys.  Bret."  She likes being around her uncles!

She was much happier playing with trains and all the toys inside.

By the time we finished our homemade ice cream, it was almost dark out so we decided to stay for the fireworks...

Katy was a little more apprehensive about these fireworks (closer means louder!) but as long as I covered her ears, she was fine.  I'm pretty sure Lane enjoyed them, but by that time he had discovered more toys and was pretty busy with a combine and auger wagons.  But he jumped at the chance to play with the sparklers!

After that we loaded up the kids and hustled them home to bed!  Unfortunately, neither one really slept in this morning.  Looking forward to an early bedtime tonight...and Lane's already talking about next year's fireworks!

Kids Camp: Dinosaurs

Dinosaur camp looked a little different this past week, but the kids still had lots of fun!  Casey planned to bring Brooks over to my house for everything, but then we found out that some important work was to be done on the farm.  A crane was coming to move a small bin!  Lane couldn't miss that...so we moved dinosaur camp to my mom's house.

First, we read some dino books:

Usborne Discovery Dinosaurs by Rachel Firth

Really Big Dinosaurs & Other Giants and Flying Giants, both by Monica Hughes

Dinosaur Babies by Leonie Bennett

Our craft was making dinosaur fossils!  I stirred up a batch of salt dough, then we pressed toy dinosaurs into the dough to make indentations.  Lane and Brooks had fun coming up with different ideas!  We did the whole dinosaurs at first, but then got more creative and did just the feet or just the tail.

While the craft was baking, Casey fed Keely while the rest of us went outside to see the crane.  (I tried to tie this into dinosaurs by pointing out that some dinos were as tall as the crane, but I'm not sure the kids cared!)

That took up quite a bit of time, but it was pretty exciting for the little ones!  Curtis was mostly excited to have it finished before the sun came out from behind the clouds ;)

Next up was snack time!  Casey made jello "dinosaur eggs" (yum!!) and we ate them with pretzel "dinosaur bones".

By this time the kids just wanted to play, so we put in a dinosaur video (National Geographic's Dinosaurs and other Creature Features) and let them play with the toy dinosaurs.

At home, I made a lunch consisting of cheese sandwiches in the shape of dinosaurs, hard-boiled "dinosaur" eggs, Puffcorn "dino bones", and "prehistoric rocks" (peas and carrots).

We planned on taking all the kids to the Dinosaur Museum in Milford.  I called them a couple of days ahead of time to make sure they would be open...but when we got there at about 3:30 on Saturday...they were closed.  I had one unhappy little boy!!  I quickly remembered that I had heard about a place in Lincoln called "Lost in Fun".  Casey looked it up and luckily it was open.  I think by the time we walked in the door, Lane had forgotten about the dinosaurs!

Brooks is in there somewhere!

Lane had a blast running around to all the exhibits!  Katy was a little more reserved, but she definitely had fun.  I knew she liked it when she abandoned the swings for something else!

Lane was way more adventurous than I thought he would be!  This inflatable slide was actually pretty big, but he went down it with no hesitation!  He also loved the "space pit" filled with foam.  He's asked to go back several times already!

Although dino camp didn't turn out quite like I wanted, the kids still had fun...and we've been talking and playing dinosaurs all week :)

Kids Camp: Space

This past week we did space camp!  Once again, we did activities on a couple of different days since we were pretty busy!

One rainy afternoon, we painted Styrofoam balls to look like planets:

Our finished solar system wasn't very accurate, but the kids love it!  Lane made those "satellites" all by himself during quiet time one day.

The books that we read were The Moon, The Planets, The Sun, and The Stars.  They were easy to read and a good introduction to everything in the solar system.  We also watched a Curious George episode (Rocket Ride) and a silly video called There Goes a Spaceship.  I was really disappointed that I couldn't find any other cool space videos at the York library!  We also checked out some pictures and videos on the NASA website.

Our other craft was Puffy Paint Moons.  It was pretty messy and neither kid really liked using their hands to spread the "paint", so I ended up finishing them both.   Lane really liked the end result though - they are both hanging on our fireplace.

For a snack, we tried the freeze-dried astronaut ice cream that I ordered from Amazon.  I liked it, but the rest of the family thought it was pretty weird!  I also made a snack for the afternoon: marshmallow stars, "planet" Cheerios, and "moon rock" M&Ms.

Later that afternoon, we headed over to my mom's to do our two "games" for space camp: walking on the moon and flying a spaceship.

First, Lane and Katy played in this old spaceship that Bret had when he was little.  It has lots of levers and gadgets to mess around with.

Next, mom had made a "moon" to walk on - a large plastic sheet duct-taped shut and filled with water.  It was really fun!

The water inside felt nice and cool on a hot day and it was really squishy and funny to walk on!  They also had fun throwing "Saturn's rings" around.

The funniest part was when Lane was playing by himself...all of a sudden, the tarp started to slide down the slight hill towards the dog pen.  Lane was crawling as fast as he could to keep from hitting the pen!

Next up: dinosaurs!

DIY Kids Camp: Ocean

Lane really misses the structure of preschool and getting to do the "fun" stuff there.  So, my plan this summer is to do "summer camp" with the kids once a week or so.  Each week (or every two weeks) I'm planning a day where we learn about something by doing crafts, games, reading books, and watching videos.

I started out with Oceans since there was a ton of ideas on Pinterest and there were so many different aspects of the ocean!  For this camp, I split it up in to an afternoon and a morning since we've been so busy lately.

Monday afternoon, Lane and I made sock octopuses while Katy napped.  The octopus is simply a knee sock stuffed with batting and then cut into 8 "legs".

Later, after Katy woke up, we watched Ocean Habitats: Shoreline and Reef.  It was a little advanced for Lane (lots of terms that I'm sure he didn't know), but he soaked it up anyway!  (I just grabbed ocean-themed videos and books at the library hoping for the best!).

After the video, the kids had fun "fishing" for Goldfish with a pretzel stick dipped in peanut butter.

I read them the book A House for Hermit Crab and then they stayed busy with a corresponding preschool and tot pack while I made supper.  This was Katy's first time doing a tot pack; she needed a little direction, but she loved it and did great!

Camp began again on Wednesday morning.  We started out by reading books: Mister Seahorse, The Snail and the Whale, and Trout, Trout, Trout.

Lane was super excited to do the "ocean craft."  We made an ocean in a bottle...I tried to find tiny shells or sea creatures to put in the bottles, but after searching Walmart and Amazon, I didn't find any!  I ended up taking apart the beaded necklaces they made at VBS last week since there were dolphins and whales mixed in.  

They look less than thrilled in this picture, probably because I gave them
strict instructions not to touch!  I didn't want blue food coloring
all over the floor!

Later in the morning, after I got some chores done and the kids worked out their crabbies by playing outside, we watched a few videos about sea creatures on the National Geographic website.

Since the kids have been obsessed with cushions lately, I made up a game called "Save the sea creatures!".  They had to rescue Nemo, the octopuses, and a duck from the couch by only jumping on the cushions and not landing in the "water"...otherwise sharks would get them.  Katy didn't get it, but Lane was so into it that he was running and jumping and out of breath.  He saved the creatures about 4 or 5 times :)

Finally, we enjoyed an ocean lunch of jellyfish hot dogs, a bread and cheese boat (that had a pretty sad sail!), and ocean jello.  Curtis and I were fine with regular hot dogs ;)

The kids had so much fun doing all this and even more fun when they got to tell Daddy everything they did!  I hope I have enough motivation to keep it going all summer....and hopefully we can make it a summer tradition.  (That's why I'm blogging about this...so that next year I can remember what I did!).  Next up: Space!