More COLORS

Again I will say it...
"I love Garage Sales and Goodwill!!"

I got the colorful counting bears for 50 Cents at a garage sale.

I got the colorful plates (w/ matching cups) at goodwill for 3 dollars.

Eli spent all morning playing with the bears and plates - matching colors and then being silly and mixing them up... he even put the bears to sleep. 
In a few days when I give them to him to play with - I will use the color cups with the bears to make it an all new game:)

Elijah was matching the colors correctly -
for about 5 minutes...
then he started acting silly.

Elijah went and got the blanket because
he wanted the bears to go to sleep:)
How sweet!

Andre couldn't resist - he had to play with the bears too...
Again - after about 5 minutes - they were both acting silly
and the bears were EVERYWHERE

Here is an EASY science experiment...

Cut some white flowers from your garden, or your neighbors, or even from a park...
or you can buy white carnations...

Put them in a vase with some colored water (just add food coloring).  Within a day, the flower will have changed to the color of the water.

This shows kids the purpose of the stem - to bring water up from the roots to the flower.

More Colored Water Fun:

This time I gave the kids eyedroppers and ice cube trays to mix their water with

First - I let Eli play with the water all by himself -
I let him make a great big mess and have fun
(so the big kids could experiment without him)

Let the Experimenting begin...

MAD SCIENTIST Simone

Eddie is clean & tidy  - in this picture

Eli got to check out magnets for the first time -
I had to keep him busy...

Aahhhh - the messes that kids can create...

Lego Mania

I really know how to have fun on a weekend ...
I organized our legos by color while watching Hoarders
and yes - I had a blast doing it!

Simone, Eli, and Eddie playing Legos

Andre decided to switch to the TRIO Blocks
since they are easier to build with

OH - I almost forgot to mention the BIRDS the kids got fot their B-DAYS...
Aang and Katara (from Avatar)
(yes - more animals)

adding to my zoo -

And the animals keep coming...



Simone with the new chicks (3 weeks old)
They are Brown Barred Chickens named
 Chocolate milk and Hot Chocolate

Edison with the new 9 week old rabbit - Fluffy
He is an French Angora Bunny so I will attempt
 to do something cool with his hair

Andre and Eli playing on one of the bunny houses.
Our older rabbit - Snowball - is in the hutch.
The two rabbits need to be seperated for now...

Science Experiment - mixed colors make new colors

For Edison's 6th Birthday we got him this science kit from Amazon

The science "tools" are big for little hands!  I have tried other science kits before but they had such small parts I ended up having to do the experiments.  With this one, I can let the kids explore on their own (which means I have a few extra minutes to clean up after their last mess)

I guided them through the actual experiment - mixed colors make new colors...

1. First we read the book White Rabbit's Color Book

2. The book is about a White Rabbit that finds three paint buckets - yellow, blue and red... The bunny gets in the diffenent paint and changes color.

3. I gave the kids white cotton balls to represent the bunny and the kids made picked a color and made it in their test tubes with water and food color.

4. As I read the book again, I would pause and have the kids do as the bunny did in the book, dipping the cotton ball into the colors.

5. When the experiment was over, I let the kids play with the water on their own.

6. They were then told that the table had to be perfectly cleaned or there would be no experiments tomorrow.  They did a good job cleaning but they used a WHOLE roll of paper towels!

Edison started the project - he made the "bunny" yellow

Andre was going to mix the yellow with red to make orange

Simone was going to mix the red "bunny" with blue to make purple

Elijah had to be included too - so he was given green water in a flask
which of course ended up EVERYWHERE

Our finished bunnies:)

1/2 Marathon!

On suday I ran the GoSt.Louis Half Marathon with my sister Solveig.  We kicked those 13.1 miles!! We did it in 3 hours and 26 seconds:) 

The first time we ran 9 miles a month ago, it took us 3 hours - so we are really proud of our time!!  Will I do it again? I don't know... Solveig might be able to bribe me - I mean persuade me...

Super Easy Stage and night time bug hunting

We had an old porch swing that slowly fell apart and which we slowly threw away.
The only thing remained was the frame... and it sat in the rear yard for about a year... waiting for a great idea... well it came:)

I hung up a shower curtain and it instantly become a STAGE!

This is my new TV!  without commericals:)
There is never even a rerun!

The gymnastic channel is my favorite!



Armed with flashlights, the kids went off to explore the yard in the twilight...
they found lots of bugs hiding in different place -
they even found their new easter present (a swimming pool) hiding in the side yard

Closet OFFICE

You know me and closets... I just love changing them into something FABULOUS...

I transformed the kids' bedroom closet into a mini-office.  They love it!  They do crafts, draw, and write stories in it.  It's another schoolroom and they don't even know it:)

I had a child size coat tree that wasn't being used, so we wrapped Christmas lights around it.  The lights are centrally located and they can still use the hooks.

This is Simone's side of the office.  Her Aunt Karis crocheted the Fairy doll that is hung up. 
I hung another curtain rod with hooks to display their completed art work on.

This is the boys' side of the closet.
I spray painted an old rusty shower caddy red to hold the boys' odds and ends.

The closet needed more lighting so I strung 2 stings of Christmas lights onto a metal craft wreath.

Here are Simone and Eddie in action... they were writing a story - for fun!!

Shop class and hole digging

Josh and the kids built this ramp for their scooters and bikes.  He had them measuring and hammering! 



Then they decorated it with red and flame duct tape.

 Josh had to find and fix our water stop box.  So the kids naturally wanted to help.  They were really good at finding worms to feed the chickens.  They even found a hibernating cicada that they rehomed in a new deep hole.  This was a good lesson in the life cycle of cicadas. (They sleep underground for 7 years!)



Simone and Eddie are in the very deep hole.

Andre in the hole that was way over his head.

Front Porch Learning Space

We do A LOT of school work outside, mostly on the front porch. 

Our front patio set needed a make-over!  It needed to be a little more inviting...

I used my new love

 - SPRAY PAINT -

to transform the table and chairs into something shiny and new

I almost forgot to take the before picture!
 Here is the table and one of the chairs-  white and rusty.

Since there were only two chairs to the set, I grabbed one from back -
 and since there is a variety of colors, it doesn't look out of place.

The kids enjoying their new school space -
They were writing a fictional story while we were waiting for
Daddy to come home from work.