Leprachaun Trap

Parker's first grade teacher is amazing. She is always doing fun projects and activities with the kids that really get their minds going in a fun way. One of the projects that we had to recently was to build a Leprachaun trap for St. Patrick's Day. I had no idea what to do, so we looked through the amazing world wide web and found some pictures and went from there. We built our trap using an oatmeal container, tissue paper, easter grass, marchmallows, toothpicks, lucky charms, and gold coins. It turned out awseome and the whole family participated, so it became a fun family activity. Parker took it to school and even caught a Leprachaun!! WOW!! He was thrilled.

Parker's Science Project

Parker participated in his first science project this year. I had a hard time coming up with something that I felt like he could explain all on his own in his classroom. We tried one project that had to do with density of liquids and the different liquids were supposed to stay separated in a jar displaying the different density of each, well we must have done something wrong because they all mixed making one big jar of mud looking liquids. So we went with plan "B" and inflated a ballon by mixing baking soda and vinegar. Parker liked it and it fascinated him, so I guess it passed the first grader test. He was prestty excited to present it to his class, when I got there to help him one of the balloons got a hole in it and didn't inflate properly, luckily I brought a back up, but I must not have rinsed the bottle out well enough because it didn't inflate like it should have either. So it was kinda bummer, but the kids in his class got the idea, and had even seen it earlier because another student did the same project. I think Parker had a fun time with science and now I know what to expect and can be thinking of something really cool for next year.

Craft Day

While Matt's cousin Summer is here we (all the girls) wanted to get together and have a craft day. So last Wednesday we met at Grandma C's and did some projects. Some made pillow cases, t-shirt dresses, headbands and these fun kids mats. Tara, Kerry, and I mostly worked on the kids mats to get ready to take to Disneyland. They are a mat, made out of fabric that folds into thirds and holds 3 cars. It rolls up and ties for east storage. We thought these would be perfect for the kids while on the airplane and to play with in the hotel room. So the ones we did are made out of Cars material and they have 3 pockets to fit 3 Cars cars in. We are going to get together tomorrow to make the girl one that will be princess fabric to hold little princess dolls. They turned out so cute and I know that Paxten and Parker with love them! Yay for craft days!! and Yay for getting projects accomplished!

What we've been up to

Well I sure have been a slacker when it comes to blogging. We are starting the busy time of year and I have realized that I will not be home as much and out with the kids more often, which is a good thing. The weather for this week looks really great and I am looking forward to being outside with the kids going to parks, playing on our swing set, and going for walks!
We had a great time on our camping trip, the weather was really nice the first 2 days and a little windy and rainy the last day, but we managed to stay warm and dry thanks to the camper Matt's parents let us use! Thanks again Chris and Kerry. We had a great time with family and enjoyed just relaxing and doing nothing. Parker loved playing in the dirt, swimming in the warm spring with the fishes and going fishing. He said he wanted to stay there forever. The only thing he discovered that he didn't "love" about camping was the outhouse. He was afraid he was going to fall in and let's face it the outhouse was a little scary!! Paige on the other hand stayed in my lap the entire weekend. She didn't like the dirt or the other people that wanted to hold her. I was glad to get home and let her be free and give my arm a break. She has been busy going going going since we got home. I was beginning to wonder if she still remembered how to walk while we were camping.

So the project that I just completed I had started with the intention of using on our camping trip and boy did it come in handy. Matt seems to always get holes in his jeans so quickly and I started a pile of jeans for a denim quilt. Well thinking about our upcoming camping trip I thought it was a good time to put the used jeans to a new use and make a quilt. So I spent a couple of days cutting up the legs of the jeans and about a week cutting blocks. Then my mom helped me one afternoon sew the blocks into strips. Then it took another day to sew the strips together and to tie the quilt together. Then my wonderful mom sewed the binding on and we were finished with about 1 week to spare before the trip. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out and am excited to have it for all of our future camping trips, reunions, picnics and other events.