Strawberry Day!

Towards the end of last week, the kids decided they wanted to come up with some themed day ideas of their own.  Dylan was quick to say she wanted to have a Strawberry Shortcake day (which we changed  to a Strawberry day). Jackson wanted a Pirate day, and since his next birthday party will be Jake & the Neverland Pirate themed, I thought we could get in some good practice for that and maybe even sneak in a few decor ideas that we can use later on for his party.  Zaine decided he wanted to have an Indiana Jones day complete with watching one of the movies (and just skipping past the scary parts).

So needless to say, I spent the last few days searching on Pinterest, trying to find some fun ideas at little to no cost, which just so happens to be one of my favorite things to do.

So today, our theme was "Strawberry Day"

Although our day started a bit later than originally planned, due to the thunderstorms, our first bit of business after running a few errands, was to head out to a local strawberry patch. I went online and found two that seemed pretty popular with friends of mine, Skelly's Farm Market & Susie's Garden Patch. We ended up trying out Skelly's Farm Market today but we'll also try to stop out at Susie's sometime this summer and check it out.

Once we arrived I was a bit nervous that we wouldn't get to head out into the fields because of all of the rain we received, but luckily we weren't disappointed. Since we couldn't drive our car out into the fields because of the rain, they personally drove my 3 kids and I out to the field in their "Gator". Needless to say this was probably the highlight of the day for them, especially Jackson, the look on his face was priceless! He really felt like we were on safari and he was bouncing in the back of a jeep. In fact on the way back he decided he was Indiana Jones and made a gun out of his hands and shot all of the bad guys.

The kids did a great job only picking from our designated row and we all had a really great time.  After picking a couple of pounds worth of strawberries, we headed back to the play area.  My kids loved the wooden pirate ship, castle and barn.  They played for a good bit before coming inside to enjoy some fresh, homemade strawberry donuts.  And I won't lie, I could have ate an entire dozen all by myself! They were so delicious! 

 Overall it was a great experience for them and for me. And even if you just came out to pick strawberries, they are only around $1.50 for a pound. We picked a couple of pounds and the total price came to just over $3.00, not bad for a fun day out!

We will definitely be heading back out there again soon. And I'm looking forward to seeing all they have to offer during the fall!

Once we got back home, we were quick to make some Homemade Strawberry Ice cream.  Last year I tried a very simple recipe from KevinandAmanda.com and made her chocolate chip version. Crossing my fingers that this version will turn out equally yummy :)

Dylan and I made a few different strawberry (and other fruit inspired) cards that we will be sending out this week.  Dylan loved creating our own Scratch 'n' Sniff cards! You can find an easy tutorial here.

Then Zaine and I made Strawberry Applesauce (recipe found here). He was such a helper and really felt proud of himself once it was all done. It turned out incredibly yummy! We will definitely be making a bigger batch soon!

And that pretty much sums up "Strawberry Day" We were going to pick up a book that my daughter had read a few years ago, The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Woods.. but we never made it out to the library with all the other running we did today. 

Tomorrow's theme will be Jake & the Neverland Pirates (picked by Jackson), should be a good time!

Summer Fun with the kids! Day 3: Lazy Summer Day!

So far the first few days of summer vacation have been a blast! Monday we had Rainbow Day, Tuesday was Fun with Eggs Day and yesterday was a Lazy Summer Day (I decided early on that it is important to have at least one day during the week where we have no specific plans for the day) hence, Lazy Summer Days.

On Tuesday (Fun with Eggs Day) we had a good friend of Zaine's over to spend the afternoon with us. We made boiled eggs, had fun drawing faces on them and then the kids had a big egg hunt in the yard.  After coming inside we made deviled eggs with a Dr. Seuss twist, and then the kids took turns reading Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Later on in the day when they were winding down, we put in an older Alvin and the Chipmunk Mystery of the Easter Eggs dvd that we had picked up from the library.

Yesterday, we ended up doing quite a few different things.  First we decided to go to a local park and bring Max with us, needless to say he was thrilled :) First we went on a walk around the park and then played on the playground before we headed back home to drop Max off. 

We made stops at the library, McDonald's (we decided it would be a good day for .75cent ice cream cones). Then headed back home for some more fun.

We made a DIY sprinkler that I had found on Pinterest.com. Basically you poke a bunch of holes in an empty 2 liter bottle and attach it to your hose using duct tape. Although it wasn't the warmest outside, and the fact that it was actually sprinkling the most of the morning, the kids were determined to try it out.

To be perfectly honest the DIY Sprinkler wasn't quite a success. We found the only way to get the water shooting up was to jump on it... so that's what we did!  Then after awhile the kids decided it would be fun to give each other "a shower" with it.  The above picture of Jackson is him showing me how brave he was! Won't lie, the water was pretty cold!
Seeing how Max was in need of a bath, we gave him a very quick one inside before going in. Since I knew we would have to give him a bath yesterday, I had picked up a book from the library that I thought would go perfect for the day " Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion.

(I absolutely LOVE Max's ears when they get wet! His fur is so crimpy!!)

So all in all, another successful day :)

Summer Fun with the kids! Day Two: Fun with Eggs!

Yesterday was Day One of my kids summer break. We spent the day doing rainbow crafts & activities.
Melted Crayon art

Making our own Rainbow Play-doh - Which gave us the chance to pull out all of our old play-doh toys that we haven't used in years.

Tree paint (just mixing equal parts of flour & water, and then adding some food coloring). Max also appreciated this activity! 

Rainbow Cupcakes - These turned out amazing! I ended up using only a spoonful of each color per cupcake.

Then Zaine & Dylan took turns reading Genesis 9 and the meaning of rainbows. 

 Overall, the first day of Summer break was a success!

Here is the inspiration sheet for Day 2 of Summer Break, Fun with Eggs!

What fun plans do you have this summer?

Summer Fun with the kids! Day One: Rainbow Day

Next year, my youngest son Jackson, will be in full day Kindergarten.  So this is the last Summer I have before all three of my kids go back to full day school.  My mommy heart isn't taking it all to well.  So in order to smother spend as much time as possible with them until the next school year starts, I'm determined to have a fun filled summer this year.  Dedicated to spending more time, more quality time, with each of them over these next few months.

With spring/summer being my busiest time photographing families & weddings, I knew I would have to start planning early on in order to be prepared for the first week of summer.  A few years ago, when Zaine & Dylan were younger, and Jackson was just a baby, I used to follow a blog that really inspired me!    http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/ 

Of course this was way before Facebook and Pinterest, and before most people followed blogs religiously.  What I loved most about the blog, was that she used everyday items that you most likely already have in your house, to create fun filled days for toddlers.  She would always include a craft/activity and recommend a book to go along with the subject of the day.  Since we are huge fans of our local library, this made most days activities 100% free, which is right in my price range!   So my goal this summer, is to have an activity/craft/treat/book & movie all based around one subject for each day of the summer (leaving a few days off here and there so that we can truly appreciate some lazy summer days).  This of course will also only be from Monday-Friday leaving weekends to family time and allowing me to still schedule photo sessions throughout the summer.

I'm currently narrowing down our activities for a small "Welcome, Summer!" party that we will be having when the kids get home from school on Friday. Hopefully I will get a chance to post those details later this week. But for now, I have gotten everything together for our first full week of summer and thought I would share my inspiration with you!

Our themes for our first week are as follows:
Monday - Rainbows Day
Tuesday - Despicable Me/Egg Fun Day
Wednesday - Lazy Summer Day
Thursday - Post Office Day
Friday - Bike Adventure Day

Our first day will be this upcoming Monday. And this is the inspiration sheet I came up with to show all of the fun ideas we'll be doing.

Rainbow Day:

Homemade Play-Doh - http://www.thehandmadehome.net/2013/02/the-best-homemade-play-doh-color-intro/
Rainbow Trees - http://ohboylefler.blogspot.com/2013/03/sidewalk-paint-and-signs-of-spring.html
Cupcakes - http://www.wilton.com/technique/Layering-Cupcake-Colors?cmp=pint2013&icid=0109layeringcupcakecolors


Not only will these ideas help entertain my kids this summer, but it will also give me an excuse to try out some of the fun things I've found on Pinterest.com and check them off my Pinterest Bucket List.   And doing it all with an extremely small budget of under $10 a week (not an easy task for a family of three kids), will be a good test on how creative I can be with using supplies we already have here at home.

So for the first day of Week 1, our total cost came to $2.50 (Cake mix $1 and Frosting $1.50) everything else we already have here at the house.  I also made sure to reserve "The Magic School Bus Makes a Rainbow" book & DVD earlier this month, online at our library, so that we would have it waiting for us to pick it up.