Week Two

Another week bites the dust! Addison started art camp and absolutely loves it. The teacher has nothing but great things to say about her. I think it helps that Addison loves all things art and can focus on a drawing for an hour if she has to!
Here was our schedule for the week:

Speaking of being occupied for hours, make a big blob of homemade playdough and Brianna will be happy all afternoon! Add some spaghetti, cheerios, and cut up straws and she is in heaven...

Baby Claire woke up while we were playing with play dough. If I could just figure out how to get her to play with it instead of eating it, we would have two occupied babies!!

Tuesday we headed to the library with a few books in mind to look for. I realized I have no clue how to use a library and with a cranky preschooler and tired infant, Tuesday wasn't the day to learn. We headed into storytime and a selected book was Mouse Paint, one of the books I wanted for Brianna! All was not lost!

Wednesday turned out to be the perfect day for lunch with Nana... long drive but we had a great time! 

All tuckered out from the drive

And last but not least, we did some watercolor for Father's Day and I finished up a Get Well pack for Pa. It's possible the recipients haven't gotten their presents yet so don't peek if you haven't gotten a package from us!

I cut out letters on clear contact paper and they colored around the letters. Addison thought it was great but....

Brianna didn't quite get it! She had fun painting though!

My attempt at a Clemson colored rice hot pack and a flax seed cold pack for Pa. It might be a little too girlie but if it works, I don't think he will mind.

We never got to do the Pepperoni Rolls and still haven't made it too far with the alphabet exercise flash cards but hey, we have a few more months, right?

And the week continued

I finished the bibs! Very cute! and Claire is enjoying one right now as she gums some fruit.

Our next big project was Pretzel Butterfly snacks. I melted some chocolate in pastry bags, gathered up all our sprinkles, covered the kitchen table and let the girls go at it! The butterflies didn't look anything like they were 'supposed' to look BUT they tasted good and we had a blast so that's all that matters.

Thursday was our day to 'be thoughtful'. We had planned on making Get Well cards for Amy's Dad but we found out that day he would be having surgery the following morning to remove a large malignant brain tumor. He is doing good and was just taken out of ICU yesterday. SO, this week we will be finishing our 'Get Well Pack for Pa'. 

Unfortunately we didn't go have lunch with Nana either. Mother Nature is making up for months of drought conditions and dumping it all on us over the course of a week. Instead, we went to Bounce U to get our sillies out!

Brianna LOVED this thing! 

The BIG girls on the BIG slide!

Hurricane Simulator... it wasn't on!

And through all of it, Poor little Claire had Roseola. So, I don't have any pictures of her. She was either sleeping, crying, or covered in a rash and at given point this past week and weekend. She's all better now and I promise to make up for the lack of her cute little face!!

School's out for summer!

Like most moms, I was excited that it was summertime but completely overwhelmed thinking, "what in the world am I going to do all day long every day for three months with three kids?!" Of course, I turned to the internet for help. I stumbled upon a blog with an idea I thought was FANTASTIC! A weekly schedule! It's laminated so we erase each week and start over. It is only Week One but it's going great. Haylee is staying with us this week too so we had to have some exciting things going on at Camp Kara. Addison checks out the schedule every morning and reminds me so I don't forget what to do. Here is this week's...

Monday - Make Something

Tuesday - Time to Read

Wednesday - What's Cookin'

Thursday - Be Thoughtful

Friday - Somewhere Fun

For Monday, I scratched the Baby Toy idea (so much for sticking to a schedule!) because I realized Claire was probably too old to play with a tag toy. Since I needed some more bibs for her, I figured this was the perfect opportunity to get something done AND entertain the kids! We got some fabric markers and each girl drew a picture on the plain white fabric that will be used for the front of the bib. I have yet to construct these bibs but I have big plans to get started on it tonight. Here is Addison making her first marks. I'll update with the finished products... when they exist. :) Hmmm, this one might have been a lot more work for me!

Tuesday we went to the library. The girls were so excited to go. Addison and Haylee understand the whole 'checking out' a book concept but I'm worried that Brianna won't understand why she has to give her Dora book back! We also went to a story time geared for 3-5 year olds and Brianna loved every minute of that. Haylee and Addison were a little too cool to do some of the dances but I still think they had a good time. We got a library card and each girl checked out a book. There is a playground right next door so we did a little playin' and a little squirrel huntin' too!! Tuesday was a busy day!

Haylee had her eye on a squirrel that she wanted to chase!

Brianna MIGHT have been more interested in blocks than books!

Somewhere along the way, we had some downtime and had our first Mani Pedi's of the summer.

So much more to come but the dishes and laundry (and bibs) are calling so we will post those pictures another day! Oh, and here is your daily dose of baby Claire - can't believe I almost forgot!

Quick Trip to the Zoo

We took a quick trip to the zoo today in the heat of the day to burn off some of the kid 'crazies' that had been accumulating. Mommy and Daddy don't really want to go outside much now that it's 90+ degrees!
We were greeted by some skink of some sort when we walking in and both girls were ready to pet it...

We spent a couple minutes checking out a few of the animals, who were panting, napping, and hiding out in the shade. Then we headed over to the real reason we were there... the Splash Pad.

Relaxin' after playing... just what we needed. EVERYONE was asleep when we got home!