Roadtrip Car Ideas

We are getting ready to take off on a roadtrip to the land of the Amish, cow pastures, and shoe-fly pie. It's a girls roadtrip with Olive, Jem, and my Mom...Lancaster County, PA here we come. We are excited to see family, it should take us about 12 hours. The girls love a good roadtrip, and so do I if I pack correctly.

Each girl has their own small bag packed with their clothes, it just works out easier for me. I have some good snacks prepared in little snack bags, like raisins, cheerios,  m&m's, pretzels, and carrot sticks. Now that the girls are older I take one sippy cup per child, as we've had too many cups lost somewhere in the car only to be discovered weeks later- you get the idea!

Each girl has a little bag with 2 dolls, a few books, color wonder markers and paper, we also have books on tape, and a DVD player for a last resort. I made these fun activity packets for our trip. I printed off mazes, dot to dot pages, telling time, and anything else I found from various free sites. I laminated the pages back to back, attached an O ring, and included a washable marker to complete the activities. Wish us luck and I'll be back blogging next week.

12 things to look at with a microscope.

We just purchased a microscope for the girls. Here is a list of 12 fun things we've looked at under the microscope.
-skin of a cricket
-spider web
-grass
-dog fur, plenty of that to go around!
-flower petals
-plain Greek yogurt!
-hair
-water from pond
-ocean water
-ant
-leaf
-blood smear
Please keep us posted if you think of anything super cool to discover!

Old Jeans Turned Into A Purse!

My daughter out-grew a pair of jeans and we made them into a little purse for her to carry around. It actually turned out really cute. I used old play jeans, but can't wait to recycle some cute disney ones when she's done with them too.

Directions:
Step one: Cut jeans straight across at the crotch.
Step two: Turn inside out and sew across
Step three: I lined the inside and sewed it into the bottom and around the top. Line it by using a different fabric and basically sew a square about the same size, by leave the top open and slide it into the jeans.
Step four: Make a handle- either use ribbon and sew it on or use left over leg material (I made a braid with it) and sew it into the sides.
Step five: Add your own creative touch!

First Art "Still Life"

We purchased some new paint brushes and small canvases to paint, but instead of just painting I thought it would be fun to set up a still-life scene for the girls. I used a play scarf, bowl, banana, and peach.

At first Olivia got frustrated because her peach did not look like the real one. We had a talk about how art is a process, a way to express what you see, and how you feel. I think her finished product turned out great and I was proud of her for sticking with it.
We also used recycled paint trays left over from a cookie package. I blogged about that HERE.

I am also linking up with Welcome To My Wonderland to her little masterpieces link up.

Sensory Play With Colored Rice

This is the first time I have made colored rice and orzo, but it was super easy and the girls can't wait to get their hands on it.
Making colored rice or orzo:
- add 3 drops of food coloring to rice.
- add a few drops of rubbing alcohol to rice.
- mix well in a plastic bag.

- allow to dry for a few hours before you store or play with it.

Pink and Green Mama has some fun ideas with rainbow rice here. 

Homemade Shrinky Dinks

The girls had some friends over the other day and we decided to try our luck at homemade shrinky dinks. This is also a good recycled craft for all your #6 plastic containers...so look for them with salad or berries, you can even use the textured parts.

                                    (Here is a fish, I traced the design and Jem colored it in).

Homemade Shrinky Dinks:
- Use #6 plastic.
- Cut into the shape you want. (Important note: hole punch before you bake it).
- Use permanent markers or even stamp ink.
- A cookie sheet with aluminum foil on it.
- Turn oven to 350 degrees, they will shrink in about 5 minutes.
  (plastic shrinks about 1/3 of the original size).

Skip to My Lou has some lovely ideas here.

Rocks and minerals.

My girls are so interested in rocks and gems. Olive knows the birthstones for each family member and knows that Mica is just "fools" gold, even though it looks pretty. The girls had a blast when we went ruby mining over 4th of July weekend in the mountains of NC. Olive enjoys matching her new found collection up with these rock photos. She also thinks quartz is lovely because it looks like a diamond.

Swim Team and an important link!

Olive just finished her first summer of swim team and she loved it! When she first started it was hard for her to do a lap and now she's swimming 15 laps per practice and even won a ribbon in freestyle! I am so proud of her for getting up each morning and giving it her best.

Jem is now taking swim lessons as she is fearless and wants to do everything just like her big sis. With that in mind I thought it was a good idea for her to have proper lessons.

Please take the time and read this article about swimming and drowning....drowning is a silent thing. Click HERE to read the article.

Lost Toy Search

I thought you should know about this site called Plush Memories, they specialize in finding lost toys. We experienced this with Olive at age 3 when she lost her pink rabbit. Pink rabbit has been with us since 3 months of age and I'm happy to say is sleeping soundly with her tonight...thanks to this site. You can post what you are looking for and folks will help you find your lost lovey. The search is entirely free and you may want to take a look to see if one of your unwanted toys can become someone's lost lovey.

(Pink rabbit is the one on the right)
So word to the wise...if you child is in love with a special blanket, or plush toy, buy an extra one just in case.

Word Sliders

You are going to love this....

Olive enjoys reading so I made these fun word slides to show her just how many words she knows with common endings.

Word Endings and letter:
it, use letters- f, k, w, b, h, l, p, s
at, use letters-b, c, f, h, m, p, r, s
ip, use letters-d, h, l, r, s, t, z
an, use letters- p, r, t, v
ig, use letters- j, p, r,w, b, d, f, g

I started making them on my own and then I found my "Easy button" here.  I am planning to use the workbox system for homeschooling this year and thought these would be a good addition and something encouraging that Olive can do on her own.

I printed the pages out and laminated them with my Scotch TL901, lets just say that I've been a laminating fool!

Back from vacation!

We had a nice holiday in the mountains of North Carolina. The girls thrive in nature, running in open fields, discovering critters under rocks, spending time with Grandmom, and hiking in the deep, deep woods.

During our hike on the Appalachian Trail we saw many interesting mushrooms in a variety of colors, snails, and wildflowers. We also went ruby mining! The girls received a "salted" bucket that contained special colored gems, while Buzz used a "native" bucket and found a 1 carat ruby (in raw form.)

Olive spent many hours looking at her new rock collection. We also caught 3- 2/1/2 pound rainbow trout from a stocked pond...they were jumping to get out of that place! On the way home we spend time with friends in Atlanta, GA and watched fireworks.

 We were all happy to be home, which I think, is a sign of a good vacation!