Brown, the Color of the Week

You may think brown is not that fun of a color, but there are a ton of things to do with the color brown! Since Ares was going to be gone on vacation on Thursday I tried to fit in what I could in three days.

Monday: For our water activity I made a brown bath. I did not take a picture of this because in all honesty, brown water is actually rather gross looking. I had mixed the color tablets we had and it turned out brown. Then we added toys that we had that were brown.

Tuesday: I had the pleasure of watching little Miss Emma on Tuesday so after Kyle and I took Ares to school we took all three girls to the park.

While we were at the park I had the girls help me pick up acorns. Only Brigid tried to eat them, and Ceri and Emma were more interested at looking at them.

After I picked up Ares from school that afternoon he did his homework, we all ate dinner, and then headed to the Mary and Bill's miniature horse farm. When we got there, Mary had some chores for Ares to do first. He first had to shovel out a stall. You would think a 6 year old wouldn't like having to do this, but he thought it was so much fun! (In fact he was asking to go back all last week!)

Then Mary took all the kids on quick wheel barrow rides. She went to fast for us to get a picture of Ares though!

Afterwards we went to go get the horse that belonged in the shed that Ares shoveled out, and Ares put him away. I can't remember the horse's name, I want to say Spice, but I don't think that's right. He did a very good job leading the horse to his stall. Mary tried to get the girls to pet the horse, but they were a little scared. Ares then fed him.

Ares helped Mary put all the other horses in their sheds for the night, and then led their dwarf pony in for the night as well.

Before we left to take Ares to karate, Mary pushed the girls on the swing. Ares then found a HUGE caterpillar! We took it home with us to put in a jar, and give to his teacher. We had such a fun time out there! Thank you so much Mary for letting us come out, and having Ares help you, he loved it!

Wednesday: After tutoring and dinner I had the kids do this week's art project. I painted the kids' forearms brown (Ares did his own), and had them press it onto the paper to make the trunk of our trees.

Then I painted the kids' hands red, pressed that to the paper, and did the same thing with orange and yellow. This made our leaves.

We then glued on the acorns that we had collected on Tuesday. Here's how they turned out!

After our art projects were done, it was time for taste testing brown foods. I had them eat wheat bread, accept Ares. Bread is always a hit.

Peanut butter was next on the list. Luckily none of my kids got my peanut allergy.

Then the finale was chocolate chips! My personal favorite brown food.

Thursday: That morning I dropped Ares off with his dad for them to go on vacation at World's of Fun. I then took the girls over to Kyle Ann's for a play date. I had forgotten to bring my camera that day so I didn't take any pictures unfortunately. Jude and the girls haven't played together for a couple weeks, and you could tell they had missed each other!

Friday: I got the house and the girls ready for Kyle and I's first date night in a couple months! It really was an awesome week! :)

Pink the Color of the Week

This week was not as packed as our purple week, but it was still fun!

Monday: Kyle and I took the kids swimming at the YMCA. We had a much better experience at the YMCA we went to this week because they let Ares go down the water slide (unlike the people at the South YMCA). We did not take any pictures because we didn't want to have to worry about a camera this time around. The kids all had a blast, and were so well behaved. I'm so proud of them :)

Tuesday: For our science experiment of the week I made homemade play-dough. If you want to make it this is what you'll need;

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
• 20-25 drops of food coloring

Step 1: Simmer water, oil, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring in a saucepan.

Step 2: Turn off burner and add flour. Mix until it is a dough like consistency.

Step 3: Put onto a cool work surface. I used aluminum foil because I didn't realize I was out of parchment paper. Let it cool for 5 min or more.

Step 4: Knead it for a little bit until it's smooth. Then it is ready to play with!

After a fun time with our pink play-dough, it was time to test taste pink food. There really are only two foods I could think of that are pink and they are...
Grapefruit:

and watermelon:

The grapefruit went over well, but my children absolutely love watermelon and that container that I had bought of it was gone in a matter of minutes.

Wednesday: I got to watch the beautiful Miss Emma on Wednesday morning! She had a much better time of it than the last time I watched her so she must be getting used to me :). YAY!!! For our art project I decided to go a different route than the normal art projects for pink. Usually all you see are pink piggys, and let me tell you right now... I don't do pigs. Instead, I decided to have the kids paint pink cotton candy. I had them use cotton swabs to paint with, but next time I would use cotton balls instead. It turned out really cute though!

Next, I painted their toe nails pink! My girls wanted their nails done, but they kept touching them so they were rather smeared. Emma was so good with hers though, and just laid there while I painted them.

Now the next thing we did was not on my lesson plans. When I was finding my art supplies that morning, I came across some pink colored bubbles I forgot that I had. My girls love bubbles, especially the colored kind, so after their nails were done drying I took them outside to blow bubbles.

That night, after Ares had done his homework, and we had eaten dinner, it was time for a family game night! Tonight's game of choice, Bohnanza. This was a new, more grown up game for Ares. He did very well with it though, and he actually ended up beating us!

Thursday: That afternoon I had a tea party with just the girls. I had them pick out their dress up clothes, and helped them accessorize. I brought out play food on pink dishes, but I gave them real tea to see how they did with it. I made them sleepy time tea with a drizzle of honey in their cups, and I of course waited for it to be cooled off enough where the girls could drink it. They thought this was so much fun, and it was a bonus that they liked the tea!

That night, my Grandma, Mom, Aunt Jenny, Aunt Amy, and I went on the Haunted Delano Ghost Tour! oooooohhhhh.......

The tour began at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. In one of the dugouts was a drunken ghost, and a member of the Cowtown Baseball Team. They were a little hard to hear, and understand. The jist of it was that 3 people had died at the stadium; Lawrence, Dumont, and a homeless guy.

After this we waited for the trolley, but when it came a bunch of the people who had been behind us magically got in front of us. Since it was going to be 20 minutes until the next one we decided to drive. This worked out better for us because we were able to stop drink and bathroom breaks at our leisure. Our first stop was at Accent Bridal and Tux. We went down into their deep dark cellar where you were able to get a good look at the structure of the building. The building itself was built in 1872.

After the cellar we went to the upstairs where they keep their prom dresses. The beautiful part about this building was the exposed brick walls. They were breathtaking! The only problem with this building is that no one told us any ghost stories!

When we got back outside we heard some ghost stories from some tour people from previous tours of that building.

Our next stop was Central Plains Novelty where we got some free bone necklaces, and heard a ghost story from the women who owned it about how their mother haunts the upstairs. It was a sweet story, and I do hope their mother is watching out for them there.

After this it was break time, then off to Amira Dance Studio. They had a story about an apparition of a man in a bowler hat, and of the water being shut on and off by itself even after they had changed the plumbing. The building used to be a Safeway grocery store in the 1920's, and one of the voices that they've heard in the past was someone saying, "What is the price per pound?" Cool right? (Also look at that gorgeous ceiling! I really wish I had gone into architecture, I love this kind of stuff!)

Our next stop was The Perfect Touch Salon. This one was my favorite stop! It used to be a brothel and dance hall so all the employees were dressed up like saloon girls. We found out a man named Red Beard who owned the place was killed in a shoot out with a dance hall owner across the street. He haunts the place, and so does a woman that they have named Victoria, but they don't know what her real name is. She only appears around flowers though so they like to keep it very flowery. It was after this spot that my camera died also... coincidence?

 Our last stop of the evening was the Downtown Senior Center. The hauntings of the senior center were that water would pool up in one spot with no explanation. Their kitchen was the most haunted place there though. Apparations would flash through the windows, the freezer would open on its own with voices, lights would turn on by themselves, and machines that weren't even plugged in would turn on by themselves. Creepy!

All and all it was a good night, and we learned a lot of history!

Friday: Today I got to watch the beautiful Miss Emma again! Her and I had some bonding time, and snuggled while watching The Wiggles on my laptop while the girls were trying to take a nap. Afterwards, all the girls played, and were very good all afternoon. Sorry there were no pictures, but I was charging my camera battery so it wouldn't die on our family day trip to Lindsborg tomorrow. Keep an eye out for the Lindsborg, KS post later this weekend!