Sunshine and Summertime

With being a little behind with my blogging for March, April, and May, I will try to catch up with what I can by Saturday. Hopefully I can finish it because next week is the FIRST WEEK OF SUMMER!!! I am just like a kid, I love summer time!!!

 I have begun my lesson plans for the summer, and I am going to start off where I left off last summer with the letter, "J". Besides my lesson plans, I have made a Summer Fun List again! Now, I love staying busy in the summer, no slacking off for my kids! Ares will be in swimming lessons and the twins will be in gymnastics along with everything else we are doing. You might think I'm crazy, but it is so much easier having things scheduled and structured.

DISCLAIMER: Now, for all those reading this, we are from Wichita, KS. A lot of these things on my list are stuff that we can do for free or cheap around town or around Kansas, besides the obvious stuff we can do at home. Many towns/cities have low cost/free things available to everyone. Look at your Parks and Recreations for your town and check out your local paper for some good deals.

Summer Fun List

Scavenger Hunt

Shaving Cream Play

YMCA water park

Sprinkler Parks

Drive-In

Water Balloon Fight

Sponge Bombs

Summer Snow Day

Science Fun Day with the cousins

Bonfire and S’mores

Glow in the Dark Fun Night

Outdoor Movie

Pick fruit at an orchard

Make homemade jam

Make homemade ice cream

Make fruit popsicles

Treasure Hunt

Walk to Dairy Queen

Grill a Pizza

Go to Riverfest

Watch fireworks

Ares’ learning how to ride his bike without training wheels and girls learn to ride tricycles

Visit police station or fire station and bring them cookies and thank you card for all of their service to the community

Make a backyard fort/clubhouse (not a permanent one. Try bed sheets.)

Blow bubbles

Day trip to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (was named one of the top ten places in the world to watch a sunset, and it is in our own backyard!)

Go to cemeteries and do grave rubbings (this really is fun and educational. We will be doing it on the graves from our relatives that came from Ireland.)

Go to the Salt Mine Museum in Hutchinson

Take a walk by the Water Walk downtown to see the fountains

American Indian Festival

Oklahoma City mini vacation: Frontier City, White Water Bay, and Bricktown Canal

Helping Grandma Boots with the horse farm

Go to Botanica’s Butterfly Festival (First 100 kids through the door get to release a butterfly)

Fly a kite

Do a Home Depot or Lowe’s free kid course

Have a family picnic in the back yard

Go fishing

Go to the Zoo

Ride the miniature train at OJ Watson Park

Play Mini Golf

Bowling

Summer Reading Program at the Library

Go see MTW’s Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat

Go see a Wichita Children’s Theatre show (these should be $3 a ticket)

Have a family game night

Go to Fall River Lake

Go to Ballet in the Park’s free show, Peter Pan

Go to Yoder Heritage Days

Go to Wilson’s Czech Festival

Visit Old Folks Home

Visit the nuns at the Convent

Vacation Bible School

Catch fireflies

Go Camping

Go to a Carnival

Ice Skating

LOTS of Sidewalk Chalk

Write and mail a letter

Demolition Derby

Rodeo

Observatory at Lake Afton

Go Dragon/Troll Hunting

Explore a Forest

Go on a Hike

Laser Tag

 

 

 

Kids' Mardi Gras Party (3/4/14)

I have always wanted to do a Mardi Gras party with the kids, but Fat Tuesday always sneaks up on me every year! This year I wasn't letting it sneak up on me!

I made the girls tutu dresses, my first ones I've ever made.

I then had Ceri, Brigid, and Ares make their own masks and crowns.

The kids really got into the Mardi Gras spirit after this! I took pictures of their complete outfits, and then we ate our Fat Tuesday meals. Ares and the girls had grilled cheese while Kyle and I had chicken bacon ranch tortellini.

Afterwards it was dance party time!

We then ended the evening with King's Cake. None of us had ever had it before, and I must say it was pretty tasty. Ares found the baby Jesus in his piece so he was 'King' for the day (which was probably a whole 10min before bed lol)!

Pie Themed Party, Girls' 2nd Birthday (Feb 23, 2014)

My apologies for slacking on my blog, but we have been living life. We had birthdays, my sister visiting from Germany, her baby shower, moving, etc. I'm going to start off where I left off, in February!

For the girls' second birthday party I wanted to do a pie theme, focusing on the expression, "Sweetie Pies".  I handmade a rag banner, their burlap birthday sign, and the signs for their party saying "Sweetie Pies" and "Pie Bar" with the list of pies on it.

These were the kinds of pies I had to serve:
Big Pies:
*Dutch Apple Caramel
*Cherry
*Peach
*Lemon Meringue
*Blueberry
*Coconut Crème
*Pumpkin

Pie Cookies:
*Blueberry
*Cherry
*Peach

Pie Pops:
*Cherry
*Blueberry
*Pumpkin

Pies in a Jar:
*Chocolate Crème
*Banana Crème
*Coconut Crème

Pie Balls:
*Key Lime
*Pecan

I know what you're thinking...."Man that's a LOT of pie!", but the hubby and I have huge families so the majority of this was gone. What was not eaten was given to a scouts dinner for their dessert, and boy did those kids love it!

I then decorated the tables with mason jars and tulips. They turned out so pretty!

The girls looked so adorable in their Sweetie Pie shirts and extremely fluffy tutus I made them.

So many people showed up for their party, and I am so grateful that they did! The girls loved it! Thank you so much for making their day so special!!!

*Special thanks to my sister Karen who had come in town from Germany early for the occasion, and for her and my bestie, Kyle Ann's help with the making of all of these pie goodies!