Summer fun

May 14, 2010

It was finally hot enough to break out the kiddy pool and have a fun sprinkler day. It was Isabel's first time in the pool too. She wasn't too much of a fun at first but it didn't take long for her to discover how much fun it could be. It was pretty cute seeing her in her bathing suit too!

Picnic Day - Davis April 17, 2010

We love Picnic Day up at UC Davis. We're amazed that every year when we're preparing to go and thinking about what was so fun from last year and we need to do it again, we always find something totally different and have a blast. So last year we loved the SPCA dog shows and animal things. This year the highlight was the entomology department. Sooo fun. Davis, of course was packed! So we squeezed into the department to look at, touch and hold lots of fun (BIG) bugs! The walking stick bug was pretty funny...the members let the kids hold them and the kids would say "WOW! look at this praying Mantis!" and the members would say "IT'S NOT A PRAYING MANTIS! IT'S A WALKING STICK!" I commented "You've had to say this more than once?" We were there a while and I think they must have said that same phrase a good 30 times at least :)

Both Rebekah and Isaiah held the walking stick but when it was Isaiah's turn the bug kept "walking" up his arm and ended up front and center on his face. He started to freak out and the member of the entomology dept started to get scared that the beloved bug was about to be squished...so we tried keeping him calm long enough for the bug to be returned to safe keeping. The bug was literally the length of his face. I so wish I would have got a photo!

The toxicology dept handed out cotton candy...the kids loved that. It was Isabel's first taste. She was so tired by the end of the day that she just held it and started at it. Goodbye Davis...until next year :)

GAK, flubber's cousin

Several weeks ago I found the old movie "Flubber" with Robin Williams. I remembered liking it as a kid so for 24 cents (score!) I got it from a thrift store. The kids did love the movie and so the next day I thought it'd be fun to make "GAK"....we called it "Flubber's cousin". The had a lot of fun pulling a squeezing and stretching this new creation..but by the end of the day I remembered why I've never made this before with the kids....It gets on EVERYTHING! What they discovered was that if they left the gak in a ball and came back an hour or so later the gak would take the form of whatever it was left on...say, the nice tablecloth...or the hose outside (that dripped onto the concrete and the dirt). So at the end of the day we said goodbye to the Gak, we'll see you again in another 6 years when I muster up the courage to do this activity again :)

Cinco de Mayo

So we're loving the new cupcake cook book called What's New Cupcake. So fun. On May 5th we had a little party and the kids looked through the book and decided that they wanted to make alien cupcakes. What a mess! But it was fun. Then in honor of Cinco De Mayo we made sombrero cookies and paper bag pinatas. It was a fun (sugary) day!

Earth Day!

For Earth day the kids learned more about recycling and taking care of the earth. Here's their art project...Mr. Earth.

Savanna - an African grassland

I'm tyring to make up for lost time with this blog so here's another post of a school activity. In science the kids were learning about habitats. As part of the grassland habitat lesson we expanded it to the Savanna. The kids tried making the Martha Stewart pipe cleaner animals...not as easy as she claims. They turned out pretty cute though. The kids had fun!

and No, that's not a monkey hanging from Isaiah's arm...it was supposed to be a Giraffe but to him it was more fun to make him into a "circus giraffe".

Last day of school!

For the last day of school we wanted to something really fun. The units were all finished and projects completed so we opened up our Smithsonian kit and the kids chose what crystal they wanted to make. Isaiah chose the Emeralds (green - his favorite color) and Rebekah chose Pink amethyst (Pink- her favorite color). It was really cute seeing them wearing the kid size safety goggles and mixing the solution. Now we wait!

Father Son Campout

Last weekend was our wards annual Father Son campout. Isaiah talks about this ALL year. We found giant marshmallows at the store. They were awesome! I've never seen marshmallows that big. So he was excited to take those to make giant s'mores. They had a fun time. On the way they found a black widow crawling out of the tent, EEW!

They went fishing and flew a kite (spiderman kite of course). Isaiah tried convincing everyone that he is indeed, the Hulk. "See my muscles?!" and tried kissing a huge toad. :) Sounds fun!

Yoda

This last Christmas I made the kids all Yoda hats. They really liked them (especially Isaiah). The other day while Isabel was eating Isaiah found the hats again and was sure Isabel wanted to wear hers. They do look pretty cute huh? :)

Zoo trip

Okay...so it's been a LONG time :) Here's some updates...School's out (woo hoo!) Rebekah is going into second grade and Isaiah will be starting his Kindergarten year this August. Isabel is almost 16 months now and as cute as ever!

So as our first act of fun on summer break we went to the Sacramento zoo with a few friends and had a great day. Rebekah loved playing "the navigator". She was glued to the map for the first hour or so we were there! As soon as we'd get to one animal she'd say "Okay, now we're going to go the the....." I had to remind her to enjoy the animal too once we got there then we could move on. :)

Isaiah was really enthralled with this exotic talking parrot there. That was the longest we stayed at any animal (and he begged to go back after we were all done -so we did). The bird was saying really cute and funny things. He'd mimic what sounds the kids were doing. Isabel was really enjoying it too! She was trying to sing along with the bird when it would sing "Lalalalala". I wish I had my video camera!