Paint by number

Last week, I shared some things I'm doing with my kids this summer, but I wanted to show you what I've been working on in my spare time (all 10 minutes of it per day). 

Paint by numbers! I remember working on one of these as a kid and it just seemed like something fun to do, so I ordered one. So far, it has been very soothing and quite relaxing. It's very detailed work, but I like it. I just enjoy doing things with my hands and this will take a long time, so it's nice that I can keep coming back to it. Honestly, it might look insane when I'm finished, but it's more about the process and my summer of bluejays memories. :) 

There are a ton of paint by numbers on amazon and Juliet has been pretty interested in watching me, so I might try and get her a kid version. 

What are you up to lately? 

5 fun things to do this summer with your kids

Summer always seems so appealing because it's such a long stretch of time without school or other extracurricular activities, but when it finally gets here, I suddenly don't know what we should do with our time. 

We can only chase each other around the kitchen so many times (I can only do one lap) before we get tired of that game. 

I've seen some "summer bucket lists" on pinterest and there are a few fun ideas out there, but most of them seem to be along the lines of "water balloons" and that sort of thing ends up being like the running around the kitchen game for me. 

I can only tie so many water balloons only to see my two year old immediately drop it on the sidewalk and ask for another before I get tuckered out. 

A few of you have asked what my "summer plans" are for the kids. And even though I may look to be somewhat organized via the blog--that's really only because I post about activities after the fact and can arrange them so they all look very neat and tidy and thematically linked. 

I'm not a very good planner--mostly, I wake up and try to think of something fun. I use pinterest to collect ideas and then we just see what we can make happen with what he have around the house. 

Having said that, I do have some general ideas of things we'd like to do (or have already done), so I'll share them in a list for you. Maybe something will jump off the screen and work for you and your kids. 

1. Why not Eat Your Way Around the World this summer? I ordered this for us and we made the first meal tonight. We went to Egypt and although I was skeptical--it was all really good! Cooking is not my thing, but Juliet LIVES for it. So, I try to cook with her every now and again. The recipes in this book are very simple and on a kid level--so perfect for ME. The point of the books is to visit a different country every night (or week) and sample some of the food. You can take it farther by checking out books about the country from the library, making decorations, writing a menu, etc. Really, where ever you imagination and creativity take you. Juliet wanted to make a menu with hieroglyphics, so we googled some and went with it. We also found Egypt on the map and talked about pyramids and the Nile while we were cooking. It was a lot of fun and the food was really tasty.


2. Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden If you haven't done this yet, your kids will love it. We raised ladybugs and butterflies this spring and there were tears when we had to release the animals. It is really very fun. Juliet kept an observation journal where she recorded what she saw each day. It was a good, sneaky way to work on handwriting skills.

3. Learn some new songs together. I recently bought Lullaby Baby: 50 Songs to Read, Sing, and Hear for Lucia because she is at that age where folk songs, lullabies, and nursery rhymes are so appealing. She can sit for hours listening to music and she loves me to sing to her. I wanted to expand my repertoire, so this book is great for us. It plays the tune and provides the words. Most of them are ones I already am familiar with, but several are new to me. Some I can catch onto and others are more difficult, but I'm working on it. There are lots of song books to choose from--your library probably has several--I know ours does.



4. Visit someplace new (via books!) We are tackling the rainforest this summer. Juliet is extremely interested in nature and butterflies and plants in particular, so the rainforest seemed like a good choice.
We have checked out a lot of great books from the library--a rainforest book post will come soon! Right now, we are reading Rainforest Explorer which presents the information in a really fun 1st person perspective. You don't have to go to the rainforest, though. Just pick a destination and head to the library--the world awaits you!

5. Have an art show. We've used our rainforest books to inspire several watercolor sessions in the backyard. Juliet has been painting various butterflies, flowers, and birds that she's learned about in her books about the rainforest. The three of us have spent many afternoons in the backyard with our paper, books, and watercolors. Lucia gets tired after a painting or two and soon is just running around hitting trees with sticks, but Juliet has kept at it and made quite the collection already. We had a mini art show when my parents came to visit a few days ago and she enjoyed showing off her work. When my mom tried to buy one of her pieces, she refused to sell any of them! I tried to sell a few of mine, but unfortunately, they weren't interested. Lucia did agree to sell and made some cash! :) 

This is what we've been up to so far--I'll share more when I figure out what it is we are up to next! What are you doing to keep yourselves busy and entertained this summer? 

thank you, Maria and Mateo!

The best thing about blogging is meeting all sorts of wonderful and amazing people that you never would have met otherwise.

Last week, I received a package all the way from Spain with these lovely books inside. A reader, Maria, had emailed me once or twice with questions about some English books. She asked if I could read Spanish--to which I replied "Very little!"

A little while later, and we got this.

Two beautiful books that she had carefully translated into English for me on yellow post-it notes! Thank you so much, Maria! I can get about half of the words, so your translation helped us enjoy the full meaning!

The girls loved getting the books and listening to them. At one point, Lucia did rip a few of the post it notes out, but I was able to return them to their rightful spots. :) 

Her son Mateo also drew some pictures and wrote a little note to each girl--really, it was just the sweetest thing and such a bright spot in our week. 

Thank you again, Maria! We love our new books!

seahorse books for kids

Are you looking for yet another beautiful ocean book? Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea is just incredible.

I'm quite certain you will love it. Our library had it--hoping yours will, too!

What are your summer plans? We have moved on from our ocean studies and have begun exploring the rainforest.

I'm picking up a pile of rainforest themed books from the library this week--I'd love to hear your suggestions if you have any. We are particularly interested in the birds and butterflies.

The book we don't want to return to the library this week

If I see either Mem Fox or Laura Ljungkvist's name on a book, I am certain it will be fabulous. So when I saw BOTH their names on a Yoo-Hoo, Ladybug!, I jumped at the chance to bring it home for a few weeks.

We had been on a lady bug kick for a few weeks and both girls really loved this one. It's one of those "find the object" sort of books that kids enjoy so much. The level of difficulty was more on Lucia's age level--2.5. It was really too easy for a kindergartener, but Juliet still enjoyed it because the illustrations are just so beautiful.

It's hard to see the ladybug, in this photo, but he's hiding under the blue teddy bear. 

I noticed that the title is "Yoo-Hoo, Ladybird" in Australia. Either way, it's a wonderful book!

Have you discovered any new favorites lately? 

bingo games

This post contains affiliate links. 

 How has your summer been going? I've been a bit out of it with our usual schedule and routine gone for now. Yesterday, we started out painting in the backyard. That lasted all of ten minutes. I have no idea what happened in between, but around 4:30, I found myself sitting on the floor in the living room surrounded by a large amount of colored craft feathers.

We were not doing a craft.

In desperation, I had just opened a few bags of feathers and let the kids go nuts.

They were running around throwing them in the air and I knew we needed a little more structure back in our lives!

I saw these fun bingo games on zulily.com today and thought they might be something fun to add to our game collection.

If Ocean and Bird Bingo don't sound like your thing, they have a lot of other ones--cat, dog, horse, space, weather, texas, nature, wildflowers--basically anything you can think of!

I've never seen these games before--do any of you have any of them? Do your kids like them?

This Paul Galdone collection also caught my eye. I collect his books, so I especially like these beautiful versions.

Hope your summer is going well and that you haven't found yourself covered in craft feathers yet!

What I learned in kindergarten

As an end-of-the-year project, I thought it would be fun to interview Juliet to see what she learned in kindergarten. I had a list of topics that she had studied at school and at home and asked her to tell me what she learned.

I recorded her answers and then she illustrated each. I used unlined flashcards to make the mini-book.

If I had thought of this early enough, I would have had her copy her answers in her own handwriting, but since we only had two days, this had to do.

She had fun illustrating the book and came up with some good connections as she thought about what image would best fit on each page.

I thought this was a fun project that you could adapt for many different ages. I might try it with Lucia next. She always has interesting things to say.... :) 

Hope you have a happy weekend!