Quiet July Week

Welcome back.  I hope you had a wonderful week and a lovely Fourth of July!


This week has been a little different.  We spent Monday with family eating, playing board games and finally watching fireworks in the rain.  Classes and activities mostly got cancelled this week between the Fourth (the gym closed for the week) and rain (no craft day or splash pad).  We still managed to have fun though.
We did lots of artwork

 Ro-bear did a lovely picture of Sebastian and Ceil from Black Butler and threw Maka from Soul Easter in at the bottom.

 L-bug started a series of drawings called the fiftapuses, sometimes pentapus.

 We spent some time crafting. 

 L-bug has been working on sewing a stuffed doggie/wolf for her friend's birthday.

I've been perfecting a soap sack pattern for the Etsy store.

Boo has been practicing her lacing skills.  That's not bad at all, especially for a four year old.  She loves her new set of lacing shapes from Target.  Gotta love Target's "dollar" section.

 

 

We played around with hair curlers and curling irons.  My hair doesn't hold curl very well, but L-bug's looked nice all day long.

When we went shopping this week. L-bug saw a backpack she fell in love with.  Sometimes I buy backpacks sometimes I don't.  I wasn't planning on it this year because last year's still looked really nice.  She started out brining it to work with her every week, but stopped as the year went on and it just didn't get worn out.  However, she loved this one so much I broke down.  She's packed her art supplies in it and has been dragging it everywhere.

We've also been trying to declutter and organize the house some before school starts.  This week we went through out bookcases.  We'd bought tons of books at a few book sales this year and they didn't fit on the shelf, so we sorted through what we had and got rid of enough books so that everything fits on a shelf again.  Its a wonderful feeling.  Every time I saw a pile of books on the floor I felt bad because I knew we weren't using most of them because we didn't know what was there.  I also cleaned out the hall closet, which was the odds and ends place.  Anytime we did a stash and dash it went into the closet.  No more of that.  The closet now holds outdoors things, a vacuum and cat food. 

We're making good progress on having less stuff clogging up the house.

How has your summer been going? I hope you're finding some moments of peace and quiet.  Thanks for stopping by to visit.  Hope to see you again soon.

Spa Day

We had a spa day at the house this week.  Grandma had sent home a Homemade Spa Kit and a DIY Soap kit and we tried both this week.  We forgot to look ahead in the spa kit to see what ingredients we needed, so we were limited in the stuff we could do.  We ended up doing an oatmeal face mask and coconut oil and egg hair mask.  We liked the face mask better.  L-bug's hair looks too greasy after washing out the hair mask.  The first round of face masks Ro-bear said no thank you, but by the time we were wiping off ours she decided to try too.  I love her worried face.  She did make it the entire 15 minutes before wiping it off.

 We also made some soap this week.  It was fun.  We tried a clear soap and a opaque soap and even tried adding some essential oils in.  It worked really well.


In the crafting world this week, we met with some friends at the park to make fairy houses.  We had a blast.  We're hoping to meet every week this summer and do some fun activity together.  This post took me a while to write, so we've done shaving cream marbling since the fairy houses. It was an awesome fun craft, just a little messy and the pictures are lovely.




Ro-bear has started drawing flying foxes.  This one's name is Pumpkin. Sorry he's upside-down.  He's flying over the river.

Since the Fourth of July is Monday we decided to try a Pinterest craft of painting fireworks with paper tubes (ie paper towel or toilet paper rolls).  Ours didn't turn out anything like the Pinterest picture, but it was fun. Then we used paint to just make pictures.



 I also finished the embroidery that I have been working on all year.  I truly thought I'd never get done, but its really pretty now that it is done. 

I'd say we're taking it easy this summer, but I feel like we're running more than we do in the school year.  We're enjoying library programs and splash pad and craft day with friends.  Overall we're having a lovely summer and I hope you are as well.  Share some of your favorite summer time crafts! I'd love more ideas for our little group.  

Summer Fun

Our Spring garden is finally turning brown and dying, except the strawberries who are having one last hurrah and producing lots of little berries.  The tomatoes are strong and the corn is growing like a weed, just like the kids.  Boo turned four officially now. She was a little confused after having her party so early.

One of her birthday presents was a little wooden knife to cut soft things like clay and dough, but Ro-bear stole it and decided to test its limits.  She tried to chop all the veggies for a taco dinner with it.  It did surprisingly well on some things and of course didn't handle others like onion and tomato. 

I cut the top and bottom off the green pepper and she cleaned it and chopped it all up.  I love Boo's face sitting there like, um isn't that MY present?

Speaking of food... My mom and I are working on a new blog called The Blue Rabbit Kitchen.  We will be posting some food recipes and ideas on there! It will be up and running soon so check it out. 

This food is a little random, but how pretty is this watermelon? 

Sadly it was soft and mushy so we didn't eat it, but I had to take a picture because its so pretty.

Do you spend a lot of time crafting in the summer?  We do.  I've been working on an embroidery and the girls have been drawing a lot lately.  Then L-bug and I decided to work on some anime inspired earrings.  These are the general idea, but the Fairy Tail ones broke before we got to make them earrings.

 We have Fairy Tail Guild symbols, Death symbol from Soul Eater, Soul's Soul from Soul Easter and random birds I just made up.

 Ro-bear drew a Flareon from memory.  I was totally impressed. I don't think I could draw Pokémon even with a model.



We've been doing the library programs for the summer.  We've been reading up a storm, we've already hit 50 books in just a few weeks.  This week's program was Snakes Alive.  L-bug got chosen to feed a giant lizard.  She's still excited about it days later.

Finally here's another random picture.  I woke up at Grandma Bev's and noticed that Ro-bear and Boo were symmetrical.  They were totally sleeping the in same but opposite pose.

I hope you're having a lovely June.  We're staying busy and having fun.  I hope you see you back next week. 



 



Boo's Early Birthday Party

 Our out of town family was in for the weekend, so we decided to have Boo's fourth birthday a tad bit early this year so we could all eat cake together.  Her real birthday is next week, but that's okay.  She had a blast playing with her new toys with her cousins and wearing her two birthday dresses.  She kept switching in between the two.

 Summer has officially started and so have our splash pad dates with friends.  I forgot to take too many pictures because we were all busy catching up.  The sun and the friends wore us out, but it was so lovely.  I'm looking forward to next Thursday. 

 L-bug and I have been watching Soul Eater and finally came to the end of the show.  We were both a little sad, so we decided to do some cosplay.  I made L-bug a pendant and a pair of ear buds like the character Justin Law.  Not our favorite character, but his costume is pretty awesome. 

The garden this week... the Spring garden is finally winding down.  We picked some peas today to keep for seed next year.  The girls have really enjoyed the spring garden and are looking forward to the summer garden.  The tomatoes are so tall and the corn is getting up there too.  The zucchini and watermelon, sadly, have been dug up by an animal or eaten.  I'm pretty sad that they were doing so well and now they are gone, but I know things happen that we can't control.

Our library summer program is also underway.  We went to see a magician and have been tracking all our books at home.  We're almost up to 30 already.  The kids love to grab a pile of books and read until my voice gives up.  L-bug has been reading several books to her sisters too, so that's a nice break for me.

We are working through Pollyanna some when we have quiet time, and I'm almost done with Pocketful of Pinecones.  It is such a delightful book if you haven't read it, I'd highly recommend finding a copy!

I hope your summer is as lovely as ours.  We are having a wonderful time exploring nature and working on crafts and the garden.  Time is upon me to start planning for next school year.  I'm just hoping I can keep some of the magic of summer all year. 



Stuff Sprouting



We spent a lot of time outside this week before the big heat rolled in and the storms brought the humidity. We went to the Farmer's Market this Wednesday, but there were not very many vendors so we stopped by the park before gymnastics.  The kids had a blast swinging and sliding. 

 We also spent a lot of time in our own backyard watching the chickens eat and beg sandwiches off us as we eat lunch.  L-bug and Ro-bear decided to start studying nature while we were outside and got a notebook to draw the things they find outside.  L-bug tapes samples of the plants in the book and draws some pictures too, and I drew a honeysuckle with them. 

 L-bug found a fly today and we read about them in The Handbook of Nature Study we haven't drawn him yet, but I figure that will be on the list of things to do later today.  Ro-bear has also taken up a fascination with ant hills.  We watched ants going into the ant hills at the park the other day and she kept asking what it looked like inside.  I meant to show her a video of the aluminum ant hill castings, but kept forgetting until this morning.  She loved the videos and kept watching them even when YouTube turned us onto the Copper Vs. Videos.  She loved those too, especially the copper vs the coconut with the coconut milk in it came on.  If you haven't checked out copper vs videos and you like lots of smoke and metal, I'd suggest you go look them up sometime.  They are kind of fascinating.  The ant art are also really neat.  I never imagined how long ant hills really are.  One we watched was over two feet deep underground. 

Out in our yard some exciting things have been happening.  Spring plants are bearing food and summer plants are starting to sprout. 

 We planted some corn, zucchini and peppers last week and they are already popping up out of the ground.

 Ro-bear took a green pepper from dinner one night and planted all the seeds in a pot.  One of them is sprouting. 

 Our peas are so lovely and very tasty.

 The strawberry plants are producing about one strawberry a day.  The kids and chickens share.  If the ants got to the strawberry first the chickens get to eat.  I tried to take a picture of the chickens enjoying their berry, but they devoured it too quickly for me.  Here they are begging for more. 

 What are your favorite outdoor activities in the summer?


Thanks for visiting and I hope you're having a lovely time.

A little Caving Field Trip

Last Thursday Daddy mentioned wanting to take a field trip to a local cave.  Last Friday we just happened to finish school with a reading on limestone making stalactite and stalagmite so we decided to take a trip Saturday to a local cave. 

 There is a rock formation called the dragon.  They let the girls climb on its back to take a picture, but Ro-bear was afraid of climbing up, so this was the best I could get of everyone.  Boo fussed because the dragon didn't come to life and move. 

 The guide took out picture at the 'heart of the cave'  one of our few and far between family pictures.

 The largest stalagmite in the cave.  The girls were extra silly posing. 

 Just a few pictures of rock formations.  They also let the girls do a couple of crawls, but I was too busy watching them that I forgot to take pictures.  Boo loved the crawls so much.  Ro-bear was so nervous she kept wanting to turn back. She said she knew that way was safe and didn't know if this way was safe.  Once we finally finished and were driving home she said she wanted to go back again some time, it was fun.

We actually had a pretty busy week this week. We got a new garden bed and lots of seeds and sprouts to fill it with.  We'll keep you updated on how the garden does over the summer.  Our spring garden is still overflowing with peas and spinach and strawberries and onions, so we needed a second garden to start summer. 

Sorry for the poor picture quality, some reason my phone doesn't like to zoom in for pictures.  Probably something about the girls dropping it way back when. 

We also go our Little Passports for England this week.  We were thinking about canceling and trying Eggdrop, but L-bug loved the England pack so I do not know if we'll stick with it or change up boxes some.  Ro-bear really wants to get Green Kids Crafts again.  We loved it, but even with the siblings pack we didn't get enough for everyone so it was more trouble than it was worth with the fussing and fighting over who got to do what.

 We got a 3-D puzzle for Big Ben or as Ro-bear points out, Elizabeth's Tower.  We don't have a bell inside so its not Big Ben.  Note: its the bell who is named Big Ben incase you were like me and didn't know that before this week. 

It wasn't too too hard to put together.  The little girls didn't help very much, but L-bug and I enjoyed working on the puzzle together.  She wants to look into other 3D puzzles, I haven't started looking yet.

We also got 'new' couches this week.  It was perfect timing.  His brother and sister in law were getting new couches and offered us their old ones.  At first it was just nice because our couch was a little ratty, but then the back hinge on our couch broke and became frustrating.  Every time someone sat on the right hand side of the couch the person on the left hand side went flying, or at least got jarred a bit. 

Ro-bear got sad the day our couch was leaving and wrote it a note.  The inside said, "your kid will miss you." the outside of the envelope said "This couch I hope it will be safe here"  She told me what to write then drew pictures on it and taped the envelope to the couch.  She got upset when dad tried to take her note off because he didn't know it was a note for the couch.

 Here is the new couch and loveseat and no Boo isn't jumping on it, she's climbing up, but man is it hard to stop her from jumping.

Boo so very much wants to be just like L-bug.  She even sits the same way on the loveseat. 

Tonight L-bug has some friends over for a sleepover, so Boo, L-bug and I are having a party upstairs.  We have popcorn, pizza, movies and old Lootcrates that got put in a corner and ignored.

 Sorry this one is grainy, but the fact that Ro-bear is chilling watching Bolt with a Face Hugger strapped to her face is just too awesome.  She had the Face Hugger downstairs in her bed, but the rubber band was found in a box upstairs, so she had to bring him up for movie night. 

I hope you're starting your summer off nicely.  Thanks for visiting the Blue Rabbit Academy.  Before I looked through my pictures from this week I thought we had mostly laid fallow this week and rested.  Now I laugh seeing all the things I discarded as relaxing.  Our summer is off and running, come back soon to see what adventures we've found for ourselves.