Creature Creations

Let's make creatures! We got out some air dry clay again.

  

I had some boxes left over from a project last year.  These are perfect for storing creatures.

I always look forward to what Ethan creates.  He is very artistic.

Everyone had their own ideas in mind.  It's more fun if I don't suggest ideas.

Alexis' creatures. ♥

I fell in love with Abbies creature!  Abbie is three years old and made sure to get the eyes and mouth on there.  I thought that was especially well done!

Even Stephanie enjoyed this project.  I love the blue and white guinea pig.

We have lived in our home now for almost four years and didn't attempt to try out this cool attachment to our stove until a couple of days ago.  We can now grill inside.  ♥

Watermelon Pie

"What's for lunch?"  They all ask me this each day at some point.  I told someone we were having sandwiches and watermelon.
"But I don't like watermelon."  The music screeched to a halt and there was silence between us as my mind tried to compute that somebody on this planet does not like watermelon.  Approach with caution!

"Well, you are in luck because this isn't watermelon.  It's watermelon PIE.  See?"  Was all I could think of to say.

"Here is your piece."  I gave her a fork.  She ate it up.  "Now I know I LIKE watermelon pie, but not watermelon." She told me later.  Phew! ♥♥♥

Kids Speak II

I love the honesty in a child.  I'll never forget when Stephanie, age 3, came to sit next to me on a porch step.  I scooted over for her.  She said I needed to scoot over because "you have a BIG hiney."  LOL !  Here are some more interesting bits of information from some of the kids.  I'll keep them anonymous this time.. except for my own.

3 year old boy, "My mom has a friend.  He stays the night sometimes."  (She was single...)

6 year old girl, "My mom's been going through a lot of guys these days."  Geesh!!!

6 year old girl, I asked the group,"Does anyone know what it means to obey?"  She replied,"It means do what your mom says before she yells."  ☺

Adam got hot fire sauce from Taco Bell.  He asked the kids if they wanted some.  He told them, " It'll put hair on your chest!"  Ethan responded,  "You put THAT on your CHEST?"  LOL

6 year old girl, "Me and my mom are both wearing leopard underwear."  I could die laughing about this.

The kids have learned to pray to God about whatever is going on in their minds.  So at lunch time a couple of weeks ago, my son, age 5, prayed," Dear Lord, thank you for this day.  We are having hot dogs for lunch.  Hot dogs are shaped like weiners.  Amen."   I am sure God smiled at that one.. ♥♥♥

Water Art

It's a bird, it's a plane,  wait... It's the SUN!  We were blessed by a full day of sun and it was glorious. ♥  Although it wasn't warm enough to get out the wading pools, it was just right for some water art.

Place hands, feet or even body on the dry cement.

Turn the sprayer to the mist setting.  You don't want the water to come out too fast.  A squirt bottle will work for this, too.

Spray over the top of the hands..

Then move to reveal your water art!

Feet were next..

Then we tried to create butterflies.

This was sure to 'fly away' soon, the sun was getting warmer.☺

 Ethan decided to leave a body mark.

It worked!

He drew a face. ☻

"Spray me!  Spray me!"

Anytime we play with the hose it is sure to bring smiles.  Need another water idea?  Give your kids a paintbrush and a bucket of water to paint the house with.  No paint needed, just good clean fun.  Happy Monday!♥♥♥

Treasure Trove

This is a drawing of Leland Kays.  It was drawn by my father in law as a gift to his father in law.  It is hanging in the living room of Lelands son and his wife, Jack and Kay Kays. (Known as Grandma and Grandpa Kays, to us.)

This is my husband Adam with his Grandpa Jack Kays.  That is the neighbors dog, Lucy.  Lucy "lives" in both households.   During our last stay in Kennewick WA at the Kays home, we stumbled upon an amazing treasure that belonged to Grandpa Kays' father.

It was all in a giant chest.  Kind of a jumbled mess, but upon further inspection- something amazing.  The woman in the photo is Kay Kays, Jacks wife.  (Grandma Kays.)

The first thing that stood out was this helmet, worn in WWI by Leland Kays.  His initials are carved into it.  If you have never worn one of these, it was pretty heavy duty.  I can only imagine what this helmet saw.

We found several old letters that had been written to family. This envelope is dated 1920.

A guide to caring for your wagon.

Inside the wagon booklet.  I learned that you can only change a wagon wheel when it's hot?

An army song book and a day planner.

There were several volumes of this newspaper.  This one is dated April 22nd, 1934.  I was surprised at some of the wisecracks inside in the descriptions below photos of dead soldiers. 

So much to explore.  These are quite fragile, and soon Adam and I will be preserving them.

Under all of those papers- another treasure!  Lelands gas mask.

It was very heavy!  I complain about carrying my purse, and these men carried so much stuff on their backs.

Inside the gas mask case was this little guide that also included repair tape.

What an amazing history lesson.  We also found piles of receipts for purchases that suggested making homemade beer.   (Prohibition?)  I will have to blog again about this when we are working on preservation.  I'm anxious to put together a timeline of Leland Kays' life to go with these artifacts.

Adams Grandpa Kays pulled out this photo for us to look at.  That's Jack Kays, second from the right.  I think he and my husband have a striking resemblance.  Jack told me these men were co-workers at the time, and that the man on the far left was a real cowboy.  He really stressed that that guy was "the real deal".  
Happy Friday! ♥♥♥

Plugging Along

The garden is plugging along even without the warm sunny summer.   Not all of the corn survived, but i'm pleased with the growth.

We found baby tomatoes on the Topsy Turvey plants, how exciting!

I see some baby zucchini trying to grow.  That is gold as far as I'm concerned.  I recently used my last cup of frozen zucchini to make bread.   I am looking forward to this years harvest.

This picture just didn't turn out, but can you see the baby pumpkin?

This song is dedicated to all of my fellow Washingtonians.  Close your eyes and just imagine the sunny weather for a minute. ♥♥♥

Nature Hunt

We each had a paper lunch sack with our name written on it.  The goal was to gather things that God created.  It was nature hunt time!  We explored parts of the park that we hadn't seen before.

Hands were reaching. 

We were really noticing the plants and seeds that we found.

Bags were filling up. 

The woods offered even more variety for the picking.  It was a great day of exploration and trying to imagine how God created these things.

Look!  I had my ducks in a row. (ha ha ha..)

We dumped our bag contents out on the table to get a better look.  It turned out that we had escorted one slug, 10 spiders, a long leggy bug, and 3 aphids home with us. 

Time to get out the magnifying glasses! 

A nature hunt is a great way to keep the kids busy for a bit.  We pretended to be scientists.  Happy Wednesday! ♥♥♥