Zak's Birthday Party

My baby turned 6.

I still think he's five. We went to a soccer meeting for Zak's team to meet the coach and some of the other players, and I almost said he was five. When did he suddenly get so big? I know that's maybe the most redundantly used statement, but it truly is fitting. He's in first grade and I still have no idea what to do with all my time. Either my house will be IMMACULATE because I have nothing else to do, or it will be a disaster cause I've finally found a hobby.

Time will tell I suppose.

We, (okay it was Doug's idea..he's always trying to minimize my sometimes over the top ideas) decided to have a water party at the spray park behind Lowe's. Super fun! We borrowed an EZ up, brought a couple of tables and then let the kids play croquet and run through the water. Pretty simple party but it was a lot of setting up. Phew!







I made these sponges for the kids to play in the water. Cut them up into strips and tied them with dental floss. Super easy and super cute! The kids loved them.



I also made sugar cookies in the form of sea life. There was a manta ray, a starfish, and a goldfish. And I am no baker. It took me two times to get the recipe rolled just right. I also decided to try my hand at royal icing cause it's prettier, and it floods better on the cookie. HOURS later I finally got it, but it was a MAJOR PAIN! But a tasty pain!





For some reason, the shower was a hot spot to play.















Busting out a move!! Andon is famous for this. :)





Playing croquet...



Eating goodies....






Sunbathing....









and lunch....








Then came pinata time. Zak wanted to make sure we had a pinata. The kid is all about candy!







Zak was the first to hit. Obviously, he's the birthday boy, and boy did he LOVE that.







Hindsight is 20/20. We should've wrapped the pinata cause it kept breaking, and Doug kept having to find ways to tie it up again.





After a few hitters and another few breaks, Doug just decided to rip it open like King Kong and scattered the candy everywhere. Everyone seemed fine with that:)







On to cake and ice cream, or as I do it, on to cupcakes.





Gift opening is the best!









It was a fabulous day!! Zakry felt special and we're so glad that all our friends could be there!

Look at the mischief on that face! Mhmmm, mhmmm, mhmmm.

Trying to keep the Summer boredom Away

I'm running out of ideas for things to do to not hear the words "I'm bored." My suggestions on what they could do to relieve their boredom apparently just aren't good enough. I don't know why they don't want to clean their room, vacuum, do the dishes, all of which would keep them occupied for quite a while, relieving any and all boredom pretty darn quick.

I just don't understand it:)

I've been looking for ideas for kids which aren't so out there like building your own tree house out of cardboard. Great idea. Not really practical. And it has to be a project that my kids can do on their own without a lot of interference from me, ie cutting out specific sizes for said paper tree house. It's their project, I don't want to do it, because then it becomes MY creation. Know what I mean??

I came across this idea from one of my favorite blogs, eighteen25 and HAD to try it. Both ideas were super easy and the kids enjoyed doing it. I even thought the crayon one was pretty darn cool.

The first project was painting rocks.

We gathered some rocks from the empty lots across the street from our house, preferably ones that are light in color and flatter. But it really doesn't matter.


You then heat your oven to 350 and bake those rocks for about 15 minutes. They come out piping hot, so make sure you use hotpads and kiddos don't touch them with their hands.

Then you take crayon and rub it on the rock in whatever design your little heart fancies. But here's what's so fun, the crayon melts onto the rock, practically sizzling! It creates some really cool effects!










The next project, I think, is quite clever. It's painting with Karo Syrup. What's very fun about this, is that when it dries, it dries bubbled and raised, giving it a 3D look, instead of just flat paint on paper.

I poured some Karo Syrup into cups with a few drops of food coloring. I totally guessed to amounts.



Then you draw a picture on your paper. We used black crayon so that the outline will show up after you paint.







It does take overnight to completely dry, but it was very fun to paint with a different medium.



As the kids were doing this, I decided to make a wreath that I had been eyeing for a while because there is currently nothing on my front door, and I missed the holiday decorating for the 4th.



It was super easy and took not a lot of time at all. I wished I would have used a foam wreath, but the dollar store didn't have them in the bigger sizes, so I used a grapevine. It still looks good, but I think if I were to do it again, I'd used the foam. Got this idea from landee see landee do Of course, hers is fourth of July and since I didn't get around to doing mine in red white and blue, I decided to do other colors that I can use through the summer.





I'm always on the look out for some fun summer ideas, so if anyone has any, feel free to pass them along!