Happy Independence Day!

We've had a lot of fun this week gearing up for Independence Day - in our own way! We made these gorgeous, patriotic wind socks to hang in our play yard and enjoy this week.



We also made lots of firework-y art (most of which I didn't remember to take pictures of us doing...). We made glow in the dark stencil art,



painted with koosh balls in red & blue paint for a fireworks effect and we dipped the koosh balls in glue and sprinkled glitter in the design; we created a collage using glitter glue and sequins stars. Super cute art from everyone!

We spent lots of time playing outside as the weather cooled down just enough to be perfect for outdoor summer play! We created a cool tent/fort in the climby cube with a big blanket and the tubes - this kept everyone busy for hours! It became their camping spot, they watched fireworks there, they ran away from bad guys there. They also used great problem solving skills to work together to fix the tent as the blanket slipped, to figure out now to get through the tubes without too many collisions, how to keep the tubes close to the climby cube without it rolling away and so on.







We brought some sand back into the play yard to work on playing (nicely and responsibly) with it. For now, I've made a "sand table" of my own with a large, but short rubbermaid container full of sand and plenty of scooping and sifting toys.







We are working on the concept of keeping the sand in the box and not just throwing it at our friends, or across the yard or dumping it in the grass. We have gone through countless tons (maybe literally) of sand over the past 10 years - they love it, I'm working on it. We'll see how having it in a different setting works for us.

Yesterday was "Wet Wednesday" again and we had lots of fun in the water. The big kids played on the Slip-n-Slide and loved it! They were quick, slippy little gals!









Even one of the little ones worked on getting over her fear. Little Miss K would watch the bigger kids for a while, with lots of interest, then precious T - my very helpful 13 year old this week - would hold her hand so Little Miss K could walk down the slide, after several times of this, she would lay down and let me push her down - just loving it the whole time! By this time next week, she'll be running and slipping down like the big kids, I'm sure! It was amazing to watch her progression as she worked through her fear!



While the big kids played on the Slip-n-Slide, the little boys took advantage of the peace and overtook the wading pool. Baby B couldn't be away from his mower for too long, so he had to bring it in the pool with them.



M is a little fish - he had a blast crawling under the slide the kids had put in the pool.



W has not been thrilled with the wading pool, especially with the rowdier big kids, but he got right in this week and played the whole time! I couldn't even get him to stop scooping water long enough to say cheese for me!



Today we had our final Independence Day celebration with a tiny bit of "fireworks". We did a ton of "poppers" with the kids - some of them throwing them down on their own to pop them, some of the stomping them! They had a ball (and we had a mess!)









I also lit a few smoke balls for them - they loved watching the smoke, checking it out, running through it -











- even though it was pretty stinky!



Happy 4th of July this weekend, everyone! Be Safe!