#49 Rain Painting

We were so excited to see the rain fall today!  It has been a while since we've had a rain that lasted more than a couple of minutes.  We decided that this would be the pirfect time to work on our rain painting.

We got a piece of paper and each of us picked a color for the paper.  We then made some strokes of paint all over the paper.  Then working together held the paper and walked into the rain.  Yes we got a little wet but that's okay.  We let the rain hit the paper.  It was neat to see some of the water causes the paint to splash in different places.  The paint didn't move around as much as I thought it would but it was still fun standing out in the rain with my kiddos!  Here is our finished piece :)

#48 Finger Painting

Well it's hard to believe it but the kids have used almost all of my finger paints.  They love it!  I guess I'll just have to go get some more ;)  Today was fun.  My son decided to get some paint, rub a little on the paper and then rub the rest on his hand. Needless to say his hand was very colorful!

He had fun though and made a beautiful picture.  Of course as his mother I would absolutely love any picture that he made :)

I told you he would rub a little on the paper and then the rest on his hands!

My daughter kept getting aggravated at me while she was painting.  Mommy stop taking pictures until it is completely done!  She doesn't like me to see her work until she is finished. 

My daughter is an artist or at least that's my opinion.  She always impresses me with her beautiful pieces of art.  The following picture shows her desert, during the sunset, and the objects are shadows with the sun going down.  I love it bunches!

The objects from left to right are a rock, camel, the sun, a flower, and a cactus.  She had me help finish painting the sky because it was taking a long time.  I gave them big pieces of paper this time :)  

#47 Glow In The Dark Bowling

This activity had the whole family excited!  I gathered together some water bottles that I had been saving and filled them back up with water ;)  I then broke open the package of glow sticks and lit them up and put one glow stick in each of the ten bottles.  Well that was really all there was to it! 

After that we set the ten pins up, grabbed a big ball and started rolling.  We played for at least 30 minutes!  The kids would say 1, 2, 3 Go!  Then it changed to 1, 2,3 Hike!  LOL!  It was so funny!

It was almost impossible to get good pictures except with my flash.  We really did have all the lights turned off in the house.  Plus I gave each person a glow in the dark bracelet so we could tell where everybody was.  My son probably got the most excited.  He just kept jumping up and down and screaming.  This will be one that we definitely do time and time again :)

#46 Straw Splatter Painting

So the idea for this project was to take paint, drip it on the paper and use straws to splatter it every where.  That so did not work for us!  I guess we didn't have the best straws though.  So we switched to regular painting and I did a little splatter painting. 

My son did a little splatter painting and regular painting combined :)

Daddy created his own new flower with the paint.  He asked me if I liked it.  What am I supposed to say but yes ;D

I do think Daddy did a pretty good job with his inventive flower :)  My daughter on the other hand painted a frog with a lily pad.  I love that she even included a flower on the lily pad!  It really brought the picture together!  I may just have to hang it up some where to show it off to everyone.  I have an artist in my house! 

I love how the frog is even jumping in the air.  She really thought this picture out I think :)  I'm so proud of her.  I really do think she enjoys are immensely.  I think I may have to go get her a paint set of her own to play around with!  We all had a good time painting and everybody got a little messy but Mommy.  There is a first time for everything!  :)

#45 Visit A New Park

Okay so we were so crazy today!  We decided to go to a new park today with the kids and then passed by another new park and decided to go there too!  Two new parks in one day you say?  Oh yeah we did!  :)  They were very different and both very fun!  The first park we went to was more like a tree house style park.  There were levels to the playground equipment and the highest section made me so nervous with my two year old! 

You can't really see the lower section of the playground because this area was so big.  They had a couple of mini climbing walls which my husband and daughter loved!

The next thing we decided to do was the swings!  I love to feel the air in my face.  There is just something calming about it all.  My children don't usually last too long on the swings unless there is some kind of contest but I could stay on the swing just about all day!

Once we were done exploring this park you might think that we would go straight home.  Going to the park does wear me out but we decided it would be so much fun to just stop by another new park.  This one I liked better for my two year old!  They had some bouncy animals as well as a car and a huge dinosaur that was actually steps.  Too fun!

Yes, even Daddy decided to take a drive but I don't think that is the proper way to drive a car ;)  I would never get on the kiddy things like that...well any way!  Onto our next adventure!

#44 Sock War

I have to be honest here.  My husband and I would have sock wars before we had children and adding children to the mix made it even better :) 

You see my husband had been gone for 3 days as a camp counselor and we wanted to do something special for him when he came home.  What would be better than our favorite sock war.  So my daughter, son and I gathered up the socks, turned the couch (That's the dividing wall) and kept watch.  We knew about what time he would be coming home and we wanted to be ready. 

He finally came home and walked in the door to find "nobody" in the living room.  We then popped out from behind the couch and attacked him.  Do you think I took pictures? Of course not!  We were having too much fun getting Daddy!  He ended up jumping over the couch and attacking "our team" :)  It was a great way to welcome Daddy home!  He was so excited to see us!  

#43 Walk in Creek Bed

Well this one we really didn't plan out.  We decided it would be a nice day to go to the park and just spend some time together as a family.  We didn't even think of the creek until we saw the trail that lead down to it and we decided, why not?  Because we have had so little rain the creek was very low and was easy to walk through. 

My daughter and son loved it!  They thought it was so neat to walk through.  My son decided that he needed to lean down and ouch the water.  The only thing wrong with him reaching down to touch the water is he ends up sticking his whole bottom in the water.  We have to constantly get him up.  We should have just brought swim diapers I guess.  : /

It was also very neat to get a chance to look at all the fish in the water.  We saw a few different types but I could only get pictures of one :(

Can you see them?  Pretty cool I think :)  It was all in all a great time for our family and we even took a hike through the park afterwards.  It was so nice to be outside and it not be too scorching hot.  Until our next adventure!  :)

#42 Make Grilled Cheese Rolls

Wow!  This was so obvious but yet totally over shot my mind.  Smashed bread with a slice of cheese rolled up and grilled in butter.  How delicious is that!?!  I totally loved them and thought they were so cheesy!  Even better is they were perfect to dip into tomato soup!  It was a win, win for me!  My children on the other hand didn't seem to enjoy it as much.  They didn't even finish one of their rolls :(  Well maybe next time.  My daughter did eat most of her tomato soup so that counts for something right?  Well I don't know about that but a snack for mom sounds great! 

#41 Dance In The Rain

It has been such a hot summer here.  We have gone with soooo many days without rain.  We just happened to be doing an event at church when it started raining a little.  We didn't think it actually would!  It only lasted for about 5 minutes but during that time my family decided to do the chicken dance.  I know we looked so silly to those people outside but we had a blast.  We even had a couple of people who decided to join us including my niece.  It was a time that I hope I never forget.  Who cares!  I'm going to live like there's no tomorrow :) 

#40 Yogurt Chips

So the kids helped me squeeze strawberry banana yogurt out of a ziploc bag on to wax paper.  We made little dots  out of the yogurt and then covered with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer.  I have to say that I liked the yogurt frozen better than out of the container and my daughter couldn't get enough of them.  My son on the other hand wanted nothing to do with the frozen circles, LOL!  I had to get out a containter of yogurt for him because he wouldn't eat the frozen pieces.  Well at least he tried it and I found something healthy that my daughter loves!  Yes!!!!

#39 Nature Scavenger Hunt

I decided that it was finally cool enough to take the kids outside so we drove to a nature park.  I thought that would be the perfect place to go on a nature hunt!  We found everything on our list but 1 and even started a different scavenger hunt which we decided we would finish at another park at another time.  I didn't think that the kids would be in to it as much as they were.  Even my son, 2, was finding different items.  It was nice that our list also had pictures to help!  Maybe tomorrow we can finish up our lists :)

#38 Painting Treasure Boxes :)

We found these cute little boxes at the dollar store and we decided we would paint these boxes as part of our summer bucket list.  We have had to change some things on the list because of many different variables but we are going to reach 101!!! :)  My kids love to paint so this was such a fun activity for them both.  Look how great they did!!! 

No more pictures :)

Bubby's Treasure Box!

Sissy's Treasure Box!

My Treasure Box!

#37 Making Crayons

Peeling the paper off and breaking up the crayons!

My son kept breaking them without taking off the paper :)

The children got bored with this activity pretty quickly.  "Do I have to break any more crayons?"  It was so funny!  The fun part is going to be coloring with them!  I will update once they are completely cooled down and we get a chance to use them.  I can't wait!  :)

#36 Make Rainbow Cupcakes

This was one of those duh! moments for me.  I was like, "how do they make that cake look like a rainbow?"  Wow, let me think....Oh!  Add food coloring!  LOL!!  Sometimes I don't even understand myself :)  Anyway!  The children loved this activity but of course they love anything that we do in the kitchen!  They helped mix the cake and add the colors.  Then we scooped the mix in color by color and the cupcakes turned out bright and beautiful!  We used the funfetti mix from Pillsbury!  Top it off with some chocolate frosting and you have some amazing deliciousness!!!!! 

#35 Avocado Fries

So I love avocado.  Especially in guacamole!  The avocado fries made perfect sense to me because of that love and the love of fried food (I could do without that one but still).  I have to admit that I was disappointed with the fries.  There wasn't any flavor and I would definitely have to add a lot more seasoning if I ever decide to try it again.  The dipping sauce was not bad though.  The surprising thing to me was that my daughter liked them and my husband didn't think that they were half bad either.  BLAH!!!!  The good thing is that they didn't love them so much that they would beg for them again so I think I could get away with not cooking them again.  You win some and you lose some :)

#34 Pom-Pom Shooter

So we were going to use marshmallows for this but you ended up using pom pom balls so now we made a pom pom shooter.  We used 2 plastic cups and a balloon.  Depending on how you place that balloon on your cup and how low you cut the cup those little balls can fly across the room.  My children decided that they did not want to shoot these little balls one at a time.  Instead they did it a bunch at a time and my daughter kept calling out 'CONFETTI!!!!!!'  :)  It was too cute and they definitely had fun with this one.  We didn't play as much with these though.  I think because it would be more fun outside and it is too hot to go out today. Maybe another date we will see how far and how high we can shoot these little balls but for right now we are chillaxin!  :)

#33 Ice Egg Dig

Another Pinterest Idea!! In fact my summer bucket list is full of them!  What I did was put water in some balloons and then placed an object inside, tied it up and placed them in the freezer.  Once we were ready I cut the balloon off the frozen egg and we went outside to dig!  I brought spoons for us to use to break the ice but we ended up using the porch to break the ice apart more than anything else.  Daddy decided we were all hot since it is over 100 degrees outside and started rubbing everyone with ice and putting it down people's backs!  How rude I tell you!  Of course we may have got him back but that's not the point ;)  It was a very fun time! 

#31 & #32 Ivory Soap Cloud and Paint

So I found on Pinterest where people were talking about a soap cloud in the microwave and I knew that our family would definitely want to try it!!!!  Ivory Soap only is what everyone stated so I made sure I went out and bought Ivory :)  I have to admit that I was a little skeptical but thought hey it's only $1.00 for three bars.  Once in the microwave it was only a few seconds before it started to do what looked like bubbling but ended up looking like this small cloud that just kept growing in size.  It was really super cool!  We didn't let it go the full 2 minutes like some had stated because it just stopped growing.  It was really cool though!  Falls apart in your hands but isn't soft like a cloud for sure!  We broke it apart and made a mess in our kitchen but it was so worth it.  Plus the kitchen smelled fabulous!!!! 

Then I saw another post from someone about using the soap clouds to do other things.  They recommened making paint so we went for it!  We choose our food coloring and mixed some water with the cloud and placed the mixture in ziploc bags.  The paint was a little hard to squeeze out of the bags at times and wasn't as smooth as I would like but still very nice and the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves.  Even Daddy painted in the bath tub.  My son just kept saying Eeeewwwwww!!!  He thought it was gross but couldn't stop touching it!  What a great afternoon!!!  :) 

#30 Vinegar Color Fizz

Man am I glad to see that we now have 30 things done!  With our schedules and camps it's hard to get things done over the summer.  I thought about cutting our list down but decided against it after talking with the family!  Everyone wants to get everything done on the bucket list!  So number 30 is our vinegar project.  We colored vinegar and put a bunch of baking soda in a casserole dish.  We then used a dropper and slowly dropped the different colors onto the baking soda.  The kids and even we parents thought it was pretty cool.  The reaction with the bubbling of the vinegar was memorizing.  After dropping for a little while we decided to just dump a whole cup in there.  The bubbling was really good then and we finished off our last 5 cups of colored vinegar.  Fun and colorful!  You can't beat that :)

#29 Feet Print Butterflies

My husband and I were a little nervous with this one!  We had to put paint on the bottom of everyone's feet and put it on paper without making a mess!  We decided that this would be better done outside.  It worked out so much better than I had imagined!  The kids had so much fun putting paint on feet and picking out their colors.  They really loved helping clean off the feet because we needed lots of water for that.  One more craft to put on the future list.  We'll see how our feet grow!  :)

Mommy's butterfly :)

Abby's butterfly :)

Daddy's butterfly :)

Alex's butterfly :)