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!

Hawaii- Last installment, I promise!

Four hundred photos. Way to many photos to sift through and and then decide which are blog worthy. It just takes FOREVER.

But I've narrowed it down:)

We wanted the real Hawaii experience, and cracking a coconut is certainly that. Well, at least I think so. Cause it's no small feat!!

There is no way you'd ever see me standing over a spike and throwing a coconut down with enough force to break it on top of the spike. My luck and I would nail my arm, and then there goes the vacation. Then I could say how nice the Hilo ER is.

Of course Doug can't pass up a challenge.









Hmmm.... there is nothing coming to mind about these photos.

No commentary. Just cute pictures. We stopped at a random spot/park in Hilo and strolled around. Just gorgeous is all there is to it.







As we were wandering around, there was a man in flippers coming out of the ocean with a spear. He began to clean his spear in a nearby water spigot, and as we got nearer we noticed something very strange in his "bag."



Turns out he was fishing for octopus and caught two of them. Strangest things! When you touch them, the little tiny suction cups stick almost magnetically to your finger. Pretty strong little suckers! Pun intended:)



I can't help but love this picture. Andon was getting very tired of me asking him to smile.



Seriously, with the three hour time change, and the fact that he goes and goes and goes till he crashes, it's not really surprising that he passed out in the car.





We visited one of the active volcanoes on the Big Island. It was MASSIVE.





The Lava Tube was insanely big, as big as a subway tunnel it seemed. It was hard to imagine it was carved out by lava.







We also went to this hot pool. The ocean empties into this "pool" and it stays heated from the underground hot springs. It was amazingly beautiful! And the views...well, this is Hawaii after all.







Brittnee, for reasons I can't remember and at the time elluded me anyway, had forgotten to wear her swimsuit. I think Doug and I assumed she had it on since EVERYONE else had swimsuits on. Go figure:) But being the fish she is, she got in anyway. Clothes and all.

What a girl.







Elle took the girls to get pedicures. They turned out so cute!! Thanks Elle!




Of course we can't go anywhere without our phone:) Luckily though she was hardly on it which, I suppose, means that we were entertaining enough.



Just driving around the island afforded the most gorgeous views. This one was a very long road, completely covered by a canopy of vines and foliage. It felt as if we'd been transported into another world.









And lots of signs like this.





All in all, a FANTASTIC vacation! The kids are already asking when we get to go back:)

Hawaii Part 2

Here's the thing about Hawaii. EVERYONE DRIVES SUPER SLOW. I wish I were kidding. The highest speed limit we saw was 55. It's almost unbelievable. Does that mean the cars have longer lives??



There's a local place called Tex's that has the yummiest food! And the Malasadas...oh my....I wish I could run and get some now. How I ended up not getting a picture of these delectable doughnut like substances is anyone's guess. Malasadas are like doughnuts but without the hole, but less sweet. Don't get me wrong, they're still decadent delights of doughnutty goodness, but certainly better than doughnuts. They're filled with bavarian cream, pineapple, mango, etc, with a light smattering of sugar crystals. I firmly believe that food can be bliss, and these proved my point.

But the food was excellent too :D







View on the drive to Akaka Falls. I've just never seen anything so beautiful, just off the highway, tucked into the land. It almost seemed sad to me that there was
a man made road right through all this beauty.



Taken from my car window so its a bit blurry:)



Gasp! A picture of me:) And of course, Brittnee can never resist bunny ears. You have no idea how many pictures she's done this in. :D









Again. GASP. Could there actually be TWO pictures of me?









Akaka Falls was unbelievably gorgeous!! Minus the mosquitos of course:) I ended up with 6 bites. And that was just on ONE leg.





Doug and Brittnee running up the stairs. This might not seem like a big deal, but these stairs were never ending, and they were straight up. Doug asked me how I was doing and I said "Fine. Why?" He just smiled. Maybe he heard me trying to conceal my heavy breathing.



Don't we look enthused? There was a Hawaiiaan lady there selling her husband's art work. We were taking a breather and she seized the moment:)



There are some huge, and I mean HUGE Banyan trees. Their trunks looked like smaller trees wrapped up and entwined around each other to make one tree. Absolutely incredible. This particular one we found had a hole you could crawl into that leads to the jungle floor. So super cool!





In case you were wondering, Doug's brother and girlfriend went with us. Just in case you were wondering:) We had a so much fun with you guys!!



Good grief, there are so many pictures!!! I was hoping to get this done in two posts but it may take a few more.

Stay tuned! If you're still interested. :D