Ivory Soap in the Microwave

Pinterest strikes again!

Did you know that a bar of Ivory Soap expands in the microwave? 

We put our bar in for about 90 seconds 

 the kids were fascinated....

 and then they had fun pulling it apart (feels kind of like foam) and playing with it.

Summer Plan

Okay. Judah got out of school yesterday and Paeton gets out tomorrow. That means after tomorrow there will be 75 days of no school. I decided today that I needed a plan... a plan to keep the kids busy and looking forward to things that are coming up. At first I was looking at the different "Summer Bucket- List" ideas that are out there... tons of things on a list that you want to do and you check them off as you do them through the summer, but Judah likes a bit more structure than that. I had already made up my summer menu where I write each day of the week and put down what they can have for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. This went over big last year. The kids loved getting up and checking the menu - and it saved them from ending up with PB&J far too often. So I decided to do an activity list along the same lines - different activities to look forward to according to the day of the week. I may end up altering it some (for example, Sonic may get old) but this is what I came up with:

Some brief explanations:

Write a Letter: Each of us will write a letter to the same person and mail them out together. The person will change from week to week.

Get Wet: Lots of fun ideas like a car wash, splash pad, pool, water balloons, etc.

Get Creative: make playdoh, origami, make puppets and have a puppet show, paint, draw self portraits, fingerprint animals, make a bird feeder, toilet paper roll art, etc.

Get Active: have a picnic, go for a walk, Play soccer, Treasure Hunt, Build a fort in the living room and camp out overnight, bubble blowing contest, bike rides, etc. 

Another Proud Moment

This went out to the entire school today from Paeton's Reading Teacher! :)

My models...

I sure do have some great models, don't I? 

:)

Most of this year has been a challenge. I've gotten emails on a weekly basis telling me that Paeton didn't turn in work, complete work in class, needs to put forth more effort, etc. Today - twice in ONE day I received emails of a much better nature... the first one:

Yes... she is my reader! Those are just the books she's logged - I'm sure there are several that she hasn't, and I'm quite sure she's over the million word mark. 

The second email...

Today, I am a very happy mom. :)

Father Daughter Dance 2012

Paeton and a friend were modeling for me while I set up my camera equipment

The room they danced / ate 

 The prizes

 Paeton and her date...

 The food! (Yum)

 above, Paeton is going to do the limbo... below she's refusing to dance with her dad... oh how fun these pre-teen years are. Suddenly she cares what she looks like, is super self-conscious, and is afraid to dance in public. 

She and her dad had a great time. Daddy Josh was there too running the music.

Judah got to go out with a friend and play... they also went to a japanese steakhouse and out for ice cream... lucky duck! 

Valentines...

One of the great things about working at the church now is that I can see what Judah's up to! On Valentines Day they had a special guest read them a story about Valentines Day and then help them bake & decorate cupcakes! He's in the black shirt

He and Paeton got a package that day with cool cookies from Mum Mum & Papa 

 His is a lego guy and Paeton's is an iPod Touch

 And then they got goodie bags from Papa and KK

Grandma and Grandpa sent them special cards with cash in them... it was too cute! I told Judah to go put his money away and he said "I'm going to leave it there incase someone else needs it... I can share". He's the sweetest kid. Since then, he's used half of it to order a LEGO movie on amazon - he's watched it at least 5 times already. My kids are very blessed to have such loving and thoughtful grandparents! 

No School

Monday, the kids enjoyed their day off. We went for a very long walk / bike ride (Judah was given a new spiderman bike with training wheels by an anonymous person at church) and then we played in the back yard / grilled veggies for dinner. Judah probably went over a mile on that bike. He loved it. 

 Kelly finally made it to see our beautiful beaches...

Love this picture of Josh's mom. All photos were taken with my iPhone.

Fog

We've had a lot of bad fog lately... here are some pics from my iPhone camera 

(don't worry... Josh was driving, I was riding)