Seconda Settimana

This last week was really fun. The schedule may seem like overkill sometimes, but I am afraid that without some direction, nothing would happen at all. Well, nothing productive. My desire is that at the end of the summer, the kids can look back and feel like they accomplished something.

Monday, we made Easy Marble Mazes. I actually had this craft scheduled for last year and never did it. We kind of petered out at the end. June had me put it early on the calendar so we wouldn't miss it, but even then, I was trying to decide if it was a good idea. Finally, I just jumped in with both feet.

This craft does not take a lot of materials, but you may not have them on hand. Most important is a box top, or something flat that you can hold on to. I imagine you could cut out the bottom of a box, or I have seen this project done with one of those coffee table trays, but try to find something around the house. (I bet you can.)

Materials:
Banker's Box Top
Straws
Scissors
Hot Glue
Pencil (to draw maze if needed)

I had the girls sketch their mazes before they did anything else. You would be surprised how hard it is to make a maze. I was very impressed with their efforts. Now, start cutting your straws to fit your lines.

Pearl was a good little cutter. We made her maze together and she was a pro at cutting those straws by the end.

The next part is the scariest part if you have kids. Hot glue and little fingers don't always get along. And as a general rule, when we do projects around here, I am always in charge of the glue gun. But, there were so many of us, that I shared the responsibility and I was very impressed with my children's abilities. (It shows that I still tend to do things for them that they probably can do alone.) We had three glue guns going. I glued for Pearl, Curtis helped Daisy make her maze, but the older three girls did theirs ALL BY THEMSELVES. (And only a few singed fingers in the process. I expected this, since I tend to burn myself as well.) And look, the marbles roll around perfectly.

I was super amazed by the creations that the girls made. Some of them added drawings and rules to their mazes. They have been playing them all week. This ended up being such a fun craft. Check these out!

Our field trip this week took us to Farm Country out at Thanksgiving Point. (Extra points for using the membership again!!) We were all over the place and took a ton of pictures, but since it is my blog, I choose what makes the cut.

We headed over to the pony rides first. We wanted to get that done before it got too crowded. Also sad to realize this is June's last year riding the ponies. She is getting too old. While we waited in line, most of the girls ran over to look at the goats.

Daisy was very patient and waited next to me. That earned her an extra photo and the first choice of which horse she wanted. (Although sometimes they have to assign horses based on weight and age.)

Everyone seemed to get on a horse they liked. Ivory got Elvis.

Daisy's first pick was the white horse, Luna.

Robyn was paired up with Blondie.

Clancy (my favorite) was ridden by Pearl.

And June got Ozzy.

There were only six horses, so my kids practically filled the arena. When the ponies stop walking they announce for children to stay on their horse until a parent helps them down. I felt so funny walking around helping almost every child off a horse. Sometimes I feel like I have a lot of kids, but I wouldn't trade a single one of them.

Now to my picture choices: Look at these horns. I'm amazed at what animals can walk around with on their heads.

Turkey's are so fascinatingly ugly. My kids think it looks like they have a brain on their face. I can't disagree.

I'm amazed people figured out these birds are edible and tasty. If I shot this thing I would think it was diseased.

I've always been confused about chickens. I thought if they had a comb they were a rooster. Not so. I think this is a whole flock of ladies. I don't know...what about that one in the middle. (I'm not sure I will ever be convinced.)

The peacock was looking stunning. He was really showing off shaking his tail feathers. (This one I KNOW is a boy!)

My favorite were the Clydesdale's. This horse was so beautiful and friendly.

I ran into my friend, Celesta, and her three boys while we were there. Yes, my kids are photobombing.

Last picture was of the pigs. Robyn really likes pigs. I didn't know this until recently. So I took this picture for her. I think she would make a lovely Fern, but I'm afraid I would be tempted to slaughter her pig for bacon. It is a good thing we are not farmers.

Skipping ahead to other tasty food, we made Raspberry Fool this week. I already feel like I have my quota of pictures on here, so I'm not going to post the instructions in detail. If you want to have the full explanation, check it out here. Plus, the Pioneer Woman explains it better than I can.

It is a very easy recipe. Throw your raspberries in a bowl with some sugar and water. (We skipped the raspberry liqueur.) Let them rest and juice. Whip your cream with some sugar in the meantime. Now go back and mash the berries and add them to the cream. Easy huh? We even crushed some vanilla wafers to go on top.

We had leftover berries and wafers and sugary raspberry goodness. The kids just found what they liked and helped themselves. Some bowls had extra wafers and others, extra raspberries.

June took a wafer and decorated it. I think it looks like a raspberry frog...not to be confused with a chocolate frog. (Although I'm sure it tasted equally magical.)

We ended the week with a relaxed morning watching Muppets Most Wanted. The Muppet movies are so bizarre, but I always laugh out loud at some point. I love summer when I can catch up on all the kid movies I want to see.

And so ends another week. More adventure to come.