Waterwall

I purchased an ebook with simple summer activities from the girl who does NoTimeForFlashcards plus some other cutsie-pie crafty moms.  I picked out all the activities that I wanted to do and went to ACE Hardware to purchase supplies for all of them, so I would be all ready.

We tried out our first one today: making a waterwall.  The original idea was to nail the bottles to your fence, I used zip ties.

Pros: 1. Cheap- I paid about $4 for a pack of 100 zip ties.

2. Age appropriate for all 3 kids.

3. Doesn't "waste" water as you can re-use it over and over again.

Cons: 1. Children cannot help construct what with the using a utility knife to cut the plastic, so they got bored and started fighting.

2. Only one child can use at a time...

 

 So the other kids might find it really boring and look like this:

3. The kids only played with it for about 20 minutes, then they got too hot and went inside.

Inside Lillian's Mind

Apparently, Lillian was writing in a journal every day at school.  When she brought it home she was so super excited to show it to me and I really appreciate being able to peer inside her mind and see what things made an impression.

"My Littl boy or grl will! not come out intl it July 6 teeth [16th] and I will be 7! yer's old and my mom! keep's throing up to day! my mom cudint find. her tag for wrk!"

I would say 75% of the entries have something to do with the fact that we are going to have a baby and/or that I throw up all the time.  I guess she's really excited.  My due date is July 15th, the day before Lillian's birthday.  Also memorable to Lillian was when I accused her of losing my work badge.  It's not just my name tag, but I use it to get into the parking structure, clock in and out, and buy food in the cafeteria, so it's really inconvenient to not have it.  That's me making a frowny face and yelling at her for losing it.

"My sister can't breath. I Don't know how its happing my sister is 4 yeers old we try to Pat her to sleep but she dus not go to sleet She Just wont go to sleep."

Nora had croup for several days and had trouble sleeping. The girls share a room, so I guess this made it difficult for Lillian to sleep as well.  I did not attempt to pat Nora to sleep, so I'm going to assume the "we" here is Lillian using the Royal We and meaning that she tried to pat Nora to sleep, which is sweet.

"I dont know how my sister can breev but my sister is still aliv She is feeling better."  "My Dad is sik but he still gos to work I dont know how its happing do you know how its happing it is to hard for me to stop him I dont know how he is doing it."

 This is during the week from hell where everyone was really sick except me, and then Tyler left for a business trip.  This page is a little heartbreaking to see Lillian so confused about how everyone could be so sick and knowing that her daddy was too sick to leave and wanting him to stay home but feeling helpless and not being able to stop him from leaving.  But, as you can see, Nora is still alive, so we made it out OK.

"My mom is having a girl my Brother is going to have a sister! On my Brth Day Jly 16 When I turn 7" "My mom is haveing a baby gril I named it mims is it a silly name. Do you think it is funny. Yes or no."

We watched Willow with the kids and they were all about naming the baby Mims for a while.

"My tooth is geting loser and loser! I have two lose teeth and my Brother liks the door on all the way open and the..."

 Ethan decided about this time that he was afraid of the dark and started demanding to sleep with the door all the way open and the lights on.

I included this page mostly so you could really see the contrast between Lillian's handwriting toward the end of the year (above) and what she was doing at the beginning of the year (below).

I lost two teeth its Whan my Dad Pld it. out I did not like it. I crid a lot it hrdid [hurted]. When he Pld it out. of my gums."

It's just a coincidence that both of these entries are about her teeth.  Why is her handwriting getting so bad?  When we do homework, I sit next to her with an eraser and pretty much erase every single word she writes and make her write it again and again until it's neat enough.  I keep waiting for her to catch on to the fact that if she just wrote it neatly the first time, it would take 1/2 the time to do her work.

Summertime and a new camera

Because Arizona is weird, school got out last week.  I had Lillian write up a Summer Fun List of all the things she wanted to do this summer.  Surprisingly, most to all of her suggestions were pretty do-able... like, hide-and-seek, pillo figt (sic), and have a water fight in the backyard.  Also on the list was "Make ice cream which Tyler took care of while I was at work yesterday.

We recently purchased a new camera and it's pretty fancy.  I took a photography class in high school (one semester) but that was dealing with an antiquated film camera and most of the class involved dark room techniques.  My sister Anne recently got a new camera and has been sending us helpful articles on how to not stink at taking pictures.  One of the tips that Tyler read was that when photographing children, you need to get down on their level.

So, he took the above shot,

and then he remembered he was supposed to get down on the ground... so the kids did too.

For Tyler

Tyler took this picture of Nora while she was eating breakfast this morning, then he asked me to upload it so he could look at it while he was at work.  So, here it is.