Yearly Archives: 2011

Color Wheel Deconstruction

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I have been an absent blogger for the past few months.  Thanks for hanging in with me while I enjoyed some precious family time.  There are so many fun things that I can’t wait to share with you, and deciding what to share first was a challenge.  I decided to tie up a few loose ends of Annika’s Art Birthday Party.  I know, I know the party was in March, but better late than never right!  We built this fun color wheel deconstruction.

The beautiful color wheel ceiling graced our living room long after the party was over, some might say too long (ha!).  My kids loved the bright colors, especially my daycare kiddos.  When it was time to finally take it down the kids asked “What would happen if they turned on the fan?”  Great question.  I love the curious minds of kids so we started by saving all the sewn dot streamers and cutting the paper streamers off the wall.  We started by slowly turning on the fan.  I’m sure this is not recommended by the ceiling fan company, but it was fun!  After we decided that the fan could handle spinning with the extra weight, we started spinning it a full speed.  So fun!

We thought the streamers might fly out further but the they created a tight whirlwind.  So pretty and fun to play with. 

Kaleb loves standing on his head.  He thought it was great to be under a “whirlwind”.  I guess when you find a talent you go with it right!  Almost every family outing or picture session there is at least one with Kaleb on his head.  Love it!

The kids also wanted to stand in the center of the “whirlwind”, although I don’t recommend this one.  At first it was great fun, but soon the streamers got tangled up in their hair.  Whoops!  No major damage, just large rat nests that took a while to get out.  Still they thought it was worth it!

 I love all the smiles as the kids played in the pile of discarded steamers.

Here is a link to a fun list of great experiments that my kids love.

Loving My Dehydrator!

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Many of you know that I love my dehydrator.  Our family loves snacking on healthy fruit chips, fruit leathers, and yogurt drops.  I also love dehydrating meals to go back pack camping.  But those recipes are for another day.

Today I am loving my dehydrator for a non food reason.  I dropped my cell phone in water.  BOO!  Unfortunately this is not the first time that it has happened in our house, so I feel like I am becoming an expert on reviving wet phones.  Our dehydrator has brought phones back from a night in a puddle, a swim in a front loading washing machine (which I watched swirling around and there was nothing I could do but watch till the cycle ended) and a dip in the toilet.

Here is what has worked for us.  Remove the battery out as quickly as possible and towel dry.  Quickly place all the parts in the dehydrator on low over night.  Simple, but it seems to do the trick.  It has worked with all the phones we tried it on, but I make no promises.  I have also heard that submerging the wet phone in a tub of dry rice works as well.  I would love to hear if you have any tips as well.  Happy Dehydrating!

 

Doodle Drawing Game

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This is one of my kiddos favorite drawing games.  It is not a new game, but a good one just the same.  It works well when you are in the car, at the doctor office, waiting at a resteraunt and most any where else since all you need is a paper pen and some imagination.

One person begins the drawing, and the 2nd person uses their own unique perspective to finish the drawing. You are welcome to turn the paper to whatever angle you desire. There is no “right side up.” Simply document what it is you see and finish the drawing using pencil, pen, crayons, inks, or whatever tool you’d like.

The black pen started this drawing and the blue pen finished.  I love the unique perspective of each of the artists.  There is no right or wrong way to interpret the drawing that is handed to you, just sketch what you see.

For this picture, the blue pen started and the black pen completed the drawing.  I love the floating balloon girl.  That is why this game is so great, you never know what the other person will see.

Once the drawing is complete, it is fun to have each of the players describe what they drew or thought they were drawing.  There is always lots of fun giggles.  The more elaborate the story the better.

If you are looking for more road trip ideas, follow the link to a fun list of things we like to do.

Wet and Wild Days

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This is one of my kids favorite City activities.  They set up 3 giant slip n slides made out of sheets of strong plastic.  The slides alone sound fun, but when you add firefighters standing at the top shooting water down the slide it’s perfect (according to my kids!).  Need I say more.  It is a great time and the kids love it!

Wet and Wild Days

 

Wet and Wild Days

 

Wet and Wild Days

Kaleb loved seeing how far he could go off the plastic at the end.  He would take a running start to make sure he maximized his speed down the giant slip n slide.  I love it!

Wet and Wild Days

Annika had a blast!  She may not of had the speed of Kaleb, but what she lacked in speed she made up for it with great facial expressions!  Love it!

Wet and Wild Days

They also loved the Fire Truck sprinkler.  It created a great muddy/grassy area for the kiddos to run and slide in.

Wet and Wild Days

Nothing like ending a fun day with a nice jump in a mud puddle.  So fun, the kids can’t wait until next year!

Our House Guests

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Where is summer going?  It is so hard to believe that we are into August already!  You may have noticed that I have been absent the last little while.  We have been getting acquainted with our new friends and house guests…7 cute fluffy chickens!

Urban Chickens

 The kids have been waiting for this moment for almost a full year.  We have been reading lots of blogs about raising urban chickens.  I raised chickens growing up, but that was on a farm where we had lots of space and room for them.  Raising chickens in a small urban backyard is a different story.  Thank-goodness for all the blogs, they have been a wonderful resource.

Urban Chickens

Every city has their own laws regarding chickens, make sure you check what the laws are in your area.  I am thankful that city is very chicken friendly.  We had to ask all the neighbors within a 100 feet of our property line.  That ended up being 16 houses.  After getting all the signatures that we needed, we then moved on to planning our coop.  The city zoning needed to approve the placement of our coop, and we applied for a permit.  Once our plans were approved we started building the coop and preparing for chickens.

Urban Chickens

Our chicks went on a vacation to the cabin with us!  I know, I know, but what is a girl to do when we have 7 babies to look after.  They were so little and I could not imagine asking someone to look in on them, so off to the lake they went.  The chicks loved to trip, and were wonderful travel companions.  We set up a little box in the car with a heat lamp so they would not be too cold.  I really wish I would have taken a picture of how cozy they looked.  Once at the cabin, the chicks enjoyed sitting on someones shoulder, being snuggled and played with.  So cute!

Urban Chickens

Kaleb loves hanging out with the chicks.  I caught him more than once with a chick on his head.  Ha!  This little cutie named Chip since she looks like a chipmunk.

Urban Chickens

Annika loves snuggling Marshmallow, Marsha for short.  I love the names the kids came up with.

Urban Chickens

Bree has a soft spot for the 2 smallest chicks Ruby and Chip.

Urban Chickens

Chip has become part of the family.  She even received a spot at the girls outdoor tea party.  Too funny.

Urban Chickens

At the moment the chicks are still living in a brooder box in our dinning room.  They spend lots of time outside, but until their coop is finished they are sharing a corner of our home.  I love how these little cuties have become a part of our family.

Urban Chickens

This is what welcomes us at every meal.  They line up on the edge of the brooder box watching us eat.  They love watermelon, spinach, cucumbers, grapes and many other fresh treats.  I’m convinced if a chicken could beg, these little cuties have it down.

I promise this is not going to turn into a chicken blog, but I thought I would share our newest family members.  If you have urban chickens we would love to hear any tips or advice you have.  We are excited about our new adventure and I can’t wait for our first egg!