There is only week of summer that I am missing and like usual, it was busy to the last moment. Week eleven has to be intense. Even without our activities, there is the imminent imprisonment around the bend. Most of my kids were just fine with school starting. I probably was the most distressed this summer. I was having so much fun...I didn't want it to end. C'est la vie. Such is the cycle of life. Ever turning.
Week eleven had a fun craft. We made scratch tickets. I guess they are like the lottery kind, but we didn't use them for that. Here is the handy dandy tutorial, and hers look much nicer, but ours worked just fine. You will need to gather some supplies. First, print out whatever you are covering up, preferably on cardstock. Next, some dish soap, silver paint, and contact paper.
Trim your contact paper so it fits over your writing/design. Peel off the backing and place it on. (This might be the trickiest part. Finding the edge of contact paper is not for the faint of heart.)
It should look something like this.
You will need to look closely to see the outline of the contact paper on the cardstock. We backed the paper as well, although that is not necessary. Here is another picture. We made a fun puzzle for Grandma Cazier with most of the pieces, but I wanted the girls to get a chance to scratch as well, so we put all the parts of FHE on papers so we could scratch them off at random to have a scrambled FHE.
Now, to put on your silver coating. You mix a little dish soap with your silver paint and paint only on the contact paper, but making sure you cover your design. You may need to put on a couple coats.
These ones are ready to go. They aren't smooth and uniform like the ones on the tutorial, but they serve the same purpose.
And we used ours during FHE of course. Each girl got to scratch one off. They picked randomly. It was really fun. Our scrambled FHE started with treat. Got to love starting any evening with a treat.
That week we also picked most of the apples off our one tree. Some were falling off, but I'm guessing that they weren't all ready to be eaten. They looked pretty good.
But June's face says it all.
Despite the sourness, Ivory seemed to enjoy them.
Not to mention a thumbs up from Pearl.
On Wednesday, we met up with Tricia and went to the Dinosaur Museum. Actually, I think it is called the Museum of Ancient Life or something to that effect, but we always call it the Dinosaur Museum. All these kids are pretty cute. In case you are wondering about my Goth girls, Pearl and Daisy decided to dress in all black. They were being spies. (It is never dull around here.)
They have had a really cool exhibit going all summer. They have been making the Seven Wonders of the World out of balloons. They do a different one each week, but it takes thousands of balloons and of course they don't last forever. We happened to be visiting while Petra was on display and the Colosseum was under construction. It is amazing the detail they put into the Wonders. Sorry...you get to mostly see my kids. (They are the 8th wonder of the world.)
The kids explored and enjoyed many things. The sand is always a favorite. Even the biggies got into it. They play just as must as the younger kids. (It is good to be young at heart for a long time.)
These six still aren't very heavy. You should have seen it tilt when I stepped on...
Have I mentioned that I really like the T-Rex skeletons? I think they are so cool. Jurassic Park is still a favorite movie of mine. I need to go see Jurassic World.
It is tradition to get a picture by the mammoth shark, but this might be my favorite one yet.
And finally, the archaeological dig site. Once again, all the kids were 'digging' it. (Ha ha ha...) Check out my Goth Archaeologist. (Wait, my spy Archaeologist)
June, Robyn, and Daisy unearthed an entire dinosaur. They have never accomplished this in the past, so I dutifully took pictures, but I didn't even bother shooing away the boys walking across. You would think they would realize how valuable this find is? No one has discovered this type of dinosaur for at least...six minutes.
Thursday was our last treat day and we didn't make anything as a group, because I was busy making an ice cream cake for Fete Day. (Yeah, still no pictures of that cake.) Fete Day was a glorious time, made more exciting by the events that happened at the close of the day. Daisy lost her first tooth. (Pretend to be surprised!)
She went to take off her glasses and put them in her case and instead a tooth fell into her case. Apparently, sometimes they DO just come out.
The week wrapped up with the Boxtrolls. Weird movie. Only three girls watched it because two were out partying. I listened from the other room while I blogged.
Friday also marked our last morning with Sharon. She was off to her last day of training for China and then headed back to Oregon for a few weeks. In fact, I think she may be on a plane while I write this. We wish you the best of everything in China, Sharon. You will be great and you will have a million fun experiences to share when you come back and visit.
It was not destined for Ivory to get her room back though. The Neilsen's arrived that very evening and filled up the basement. (Sorry Ives.) It is always so fun to see them. We went swimming on Saturday. (Good excuse to use up our coupons before the end of summer.) The girls were ready to play.
So were the moms. And even the men.
I sadly did not pick up the camera enough. We even had extra time with Carter and I didn't think to use the camera. The Neilsen's were headed down to Lake Powell, but they thought two young boys would be more micromanaging than vacation. They asked if we could watch Carter.
Both their sweet boys are high functioning autistic, and it was something that I had never quite experienced. Carter is such a chill, good kid, but I found myself frustrated not knowing what he wanted and wishing I could communicate better.
Camille told me once that she feels half the people judge her because her kids can be out of control and if people don't know the circumstances, they think she is a bad parent. (On the contrary, she works so hard with those boys and therapists come everyday to help them learn new skills.) She feels the other half pity her. (Who would want that difficult job raising autistic boys?) However, I felt nothing but admiration as I took over her job for a couple days. She and Eric have such love and dedication for their children. True, their job is not easy - I know - but they soldier on. They are an example to me. This is one of my only photos of Carter. Great kid.
Before they left, we had a get together with some old friends and I actually made the treat that was planned for earlier in the week. Blackberry Citrus cupcakes. They were okay. Nothing to write home about or blog about I guess.
The Neilsen's left the morning that school started. And so ended the summer. Also, so ends these massive posts covering a week at a time. We can now go back to short, abbreviated stories of our life. Eleven weeks of summer sure flew by.
Well, your life certainly isn't boring! As if it wasn't enough to have five firecrackers living under your roof, you keep inviting people to visit you. Never a dull moment, what?
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