Adventures of a Summer Stay at Home Mommy: "Let's Go Fly A Kite, Up To the Highest Height. . ."

I have SO many ideas and SO many crafts, activities, and projects that I want to do with the kids this summer, but the problem is that I'm so excited and I want to do them ALL right away. The anticipation of watching the kids' faces as they explore or try something new is SO much fun and rewarding. The last two days I've been expecting rain because the weather forecast says we are supposed to be getting some. I won't complain that our days have been sunny and nice - but, doesn't Mother Nature know that rainy days are appreciated every time and again?? Or at least the weather forecasters should get it right so I my day can go as planned.

Today I expected to be filled with house organization - instead, it was nice out so we went to the store and picked up the last bit of supplies we need to do all of our summer projects then came home to have some fun!

First - there was a great breeze - so we flew some kites! It's crazy - most of the power lines are underground, so all we had to worry about were trees. The kids had fun flying their kites and we had the perfect amount of wind to fly them a couple different times today. Good cheap fun!

Then, we ventured inside and made our very own lava lamps. I can't take credit for the "recipe" - but it was lots of fun. AND - I scored some pretty cool water bottles that actually look like the old school lava lamps. It's amazing what you can do with vegetable oil, water, food coloring, and Alka-Seltzer! The kids learned that oil and water don't mix along with what colors to mix together to make different colors. Lots of fun!

Items you need - liquid food coloring
would work MUCH better. I learned
the hard way - but, still made the project
work. Just put the water and food
coloring in first, shake well, THEN
add the oil.

Fill a water bottle 2/3 - 3/4 full of
vegetable oil. Then fill the rest of the
bottle with water, leaving an inch at the
top.

Add 10 drops of food coloring. DO NOT
SHAKE. This is why I think you should
put water in first, then food coloring so
you can give it a shake, especially if you
have gel food coloring - then add oil.

Next, break Alka-Seltzer into quarters
and drop 1/4 in the bottle and watch
the "lava" float! It's fun!

To get a better effect, only add one 1/4 sized tablet at a time
and then let the oil/water mixture settle. The more
Alka-Seltzer you add, the more "shook up" the
water/oil gets. But, my kids were having so much fun
we added a lot at first, as the picture shows above.

The girls painting for the first time!
Well, in the tub at least!

We did one more thing that I just couldn't wait to do - and that was painting in the bathtub! It's easy! Shaving cream and food coloring - stir and paint! It did not stain our bath tub at all - but the darker colors may stain the kids if you paint them on directly and leave on. We painted Jennah all blue as a Smurf, then both girls wanted bikinis painted on! Too funny. It was amazing how long the "paint" lasted. They were in the tub for more than an hour and never fought!