Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Summer bucket list: fingerpainting!

Yes, I'm most certainly a multi-tasker. Even when the kids are involved in something fun, I'm always trying to figure out what task I can be accomplishing or how I can turn their creativity into something more significant. Handy I live in the 21st century then, since pinterst is always providing great advice for busy lifestyles. Not only can I be pinning while the kids are playing, but I can always find a project to turn fun into household decor.
That being said part of the point of our summer bucket list is to focus on the fun things we do so I'm not always multi-tasking. Going out for breakfast was a fun memory for all of us and one of our favorite babysitters, who just happened to be our waitress.
We've also been making sure to take lots of pictures, another pin on our bucket, to document our summer. The clothespin that reads: laugh, makes Emma laugh in the hysterical faking it kind of way whenever we read over our pins, but also reminds me that she is loving this experience! And her continuos reminder that an amusement park is another pin, will make sure we don't forget that we have to head south in the next few weeks!

Today we will throw another clothespin into our bucket since we spent some time fingerpainting. Thanks to pinterest, I was able to combine that with another craft, taping out names on canvas. Once the tape is removed we will have an instant masterpiece to hang in the kids new room! I'm not sure if the fingerpainting or mixing the paint into one muddy mess was more fun. It took a bit of effort on my part to keep my fingers out of their "pies" and add my own improvements!
As for advice if you want to try this: My painters tape, at 1 inch, was too thick and so I had to cut each strip in half, making the name taping process pretty painful. Other supplies were craft paints (which washed off quite easily in the bath) and a small canvas from the dollar store. Emma had to be encouraged to paint all over the canvas, in order for her name to appear, instead of trying to paint a picture in one corner, so that took a little of the fun out of it for her. Actually, I think Emma would have enjoyed it more if she were given a paintbrush, but Tommy and paintbrushes can be troublesome. I gave Emma a wet wipe to keep her fingers clean when changing paint colors, but tommy wiped his down his legs. Either way they went straight to the bath and cleaned up quite nicely.
A fun afternoon that will look good on the wall!! Thanks pinterest!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Week one, summer 2012: check

Alright so we still have this evening and a Saturday left in week ONE of our summer vacation, but basically we are a week into relaxing...most of us anyways. (Hubby is still working his usual amount of ridiculous hours!) The rest of us have been enjoying sleeping in. Tommy's got the record so far, since he stayed in bed this morning until 9:30. Wish I could have joined him since the other munchkin crawled in with me an hour earlier. Still, even waking up at 8:00 like I did Tuesday, felt awesome!
We've thrown two clothes pins into our summer bucket. A visit to Nana and Papa's was fun, (#1) got to see our cousins, my grandma, and several aunts an uncles. Emma and Tommy have cousins a year older than them  At 5, 4, 3, and 2 years old there was a bit of screaming going on and in between we heard bouts of "You're a coconut."
After everyone left we got out the old sparklers (#2) and had some fun trying to get as many going at one time as possible. Unfortunately, we have missed fireworks the last several years by leaving Canada around the first and being out of Michigan before the fourth. It was another bummer in that department again this year, but it was certainly nice to spend time with family and have a few days to totally relax.
Keeping with the spirit of summer, I tried to keep the rest of our week at home pretty low key. We painted every morning and managed a swim after lunch. One day we went to the river to swim, another day at our new kiddie pool courtesy of aunt Michelle, and another we got invited over for a swim and picnic at a friend's pool. We also took naps, yes I even laid down one day for an hour, and went to watch brad play baseball.
It was nice to have a mix of fun stuff to do, but still get some work done too!