Water day.........

We had so much fun on Monday. It was such a beautiful day, a perfect day to have some fun with water. Before we went outside, we each made a water ball. They are so easy to make. The kids took three sponges and I helped cut them each into three pieces. They then stacked them together, wrapped a cable tie around their stack, and pulled as hard as they could. We then trimmed off the excess tie and we were done! They were very excited to set up the sprinkler that Kelton had brought for us to use. They would take turns running through the sprinkler and we would all cheer them on. In one of the pictures, Kelton is clapping for Eliott. :) After playing in the sprinkler, we decided to try to make a water slide. I put one of the tumbling mats at the bottom of the slide and the kids got the slide nice and wet. They had a blast. I love the picture of Maggie going down the slide, her hair blowing in the wind. :)

Making sun pickles............

We made sun pickles on Friday afternoon. We had to wait until we had enough cucumbers for everyone to be able to make a jar. It worked out that we had enough by Friday. Once we had gathered all our supplies, we set up a station out on the picnic table. We explored everything that we were going to use. The children enjoyed smelling the garlic and dill. They all (except Kelton) were able to at least try to cut their own cucumbers with the knife and cutting board. I know it seems scary, but we used a "my safe cutter" from pampered chef. I think a pumpkin carver would have worked great too. Ezra was able to easily cut his cucumbers. It was a little too tough for Maggie. The boys were thrilled to get to use a real knife. :) Everyone was able to load their own jars with garlic, dill, and cucumbers. I had them dip a smaller measuring cup into the vinegar mixture, so they were able to pour it themselves. They were so proud of their pickles, that they each placed their own jars on the deck. The pickles will be ready to take home on Tuesday (they will be in the fridge). In case you would like to try to make these pickles at home, here is the recipe.

Sun Dills

3 1/4 c. water
1 2/3 c. white vinegar
1/3 c. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. alum
1 clove garlic (for each jar)
2 sprigs of fresh dill (for each jar)
cucumbers

Drop one clove of garlic and two of the fresh dill sprigs in each jar. You can cut the cucumbers into chunks, spears, or leave whole and fill each jar. Then mix together remaining ingredients and fill each jar with mixture. Leave out in the hot sun for two full days or three if it is overcast. After that the pickles must be kept in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Making a croc habitat......

We have been discussing everything about crocodiles the last few days. We talked about where crocodiles live, what they eat, that they are reptiles, etc. We decided to make a croc habitat. First....we gathered all our supplies. Then.....the kids got to work cutting up the blue cellophane into many pieces. They loved squeezing lots of glue onto the plastic lids and placing on their blue pieces. This made a pretty lake for our crocs to live. They also glued a pile of straw on one side of the "water." This made a great hiding place for our crocs. We know that crocodiles eat fish, but also eat birds and mammals, so they need a place to hide in tall grass, so they can catch those things that don't live in the water.

We talked about so many things today. The boys have been gone on vacation with their family. We have all missed them so much. They had so many things to tell us. Stories about water parks/slides, the zoo, the park, a mouse on the loose, fireworks, and cookouts. It has been a lot of fun catching up with all that they have been doing. :)

Dinosaur dig......

The children decided they were going to be paleontologists and dig for dinosaur bones. They got so excited when they uncovered fossils (rocks), that they would scream out that they found one. As you can see excavating dinosaur bones can be a very dirty occupation. :)