Easy Art

 Every Thursday morning, I mop our kitchen floor. The kids always want to be close by. They love hiding out in the awkward space between the stair railing and the windows. It happens to be right next to where I'm working.

 As I was cleaning out my craft area, I found a big roll of contact paper. I had completely forgotten about it. Before I started mopping, I taped two sheets to two separate windows with the sticky side out and gave the kids tissue paper squares. They were content the entire time I worked.

 They loved seeing the light through the paper and how it was different if it was wadded up. Levi wanted to cover every sticky centimeter of that contact paper. Later we were playing outside and were really excited when they noticed their art through the window.

 Later that day, Clarey wanted to paint. Having just mopped the floor, we went outside.
Since we were outside, we collected objects from our garden to stamp with.

 Levi loved using the okra. It had a good handle and he could move it around a lot.

 Clarey preferred the apple I brought out with us. (How I wish we had an apple tree!) She liked how it made a big shape and it was easy for her to grasp. They also used a bell pepper half and some leaves from the basil plant.

Levi loved to see how the shapes would change if he moved his stamp. Here is making a "tornado!" with the okra. It was great fun. And when we were done, we simply threw all of our stamps into the compost pile. Easy clean-up!

Okra Seeds for Sale!

 The boys have harvested our okra seeds. They decided that since we had many more than we actually need to replant next year, they could make a bit of money by selling them.

They set up shop at the end of our driveway.

Originally they wanted to sell them for $5.00 apiece. I explained that we bought all of the seeds we used to plant in our garden for much less than $5.00 and that if they wanted to sell any, they needed to lower their price. They decided 5 cents would be good. Clayton made the sign and Levi helped him tape it to our mailbox.
After a good 20 minutes of waiting and no customers, I heard Clayton tell Levi, "We need a better location. We just don't get any traffic here!"
Sadly, they've sold no seeds. I'm sure there will be many more business ventures in the future.

Animal Matching and Animal Tracks

A while ago I had seen a great matching game on Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning. It used everyday objects and traced them on to card stock. How easy! Since the kids are so interested in everything animals, I gathered up 6 and traced away. 

To keep it appropriately challenging, I also wrote the names of the animals on cards to match to the shape and then just the starting letter of each animal name. Everyone was able to play with it at their own level and was still interested. 

Levi took it one step further. He asked for play dough to make the animal tracks.

 After he had made all of the animals' tracks in the dough, he asked me if I could match them up. How's that for full-circle?

Now that Clayton is in School

 First, I have to say that I miss Clayton while he is at school. My only consolation is that he absolutely loves it. He told me this week that he's "obsessed with the alphabet!" Could it get any better?  But, what have we, Levi, Clarey and I, been doing now that Clayton is in school?
Painting...

 hammering...

 playing with cornmeal...

making messes with cornmeal...

 cleaning up the cornmeal...

 beading...

 making a post and sign for our front porch...

 picking carrots... (Levi picked these for me)

 playing hide and go seek with stuffed animals...

 dressing up...

enjoying each other...
treasuring them while they're still at home.

Critter Lane Petting Zoo

 A little over a month ago, Critter Lane Petting Zoo opened up. It's less than 5 miles from our house. It's full of animals. My children love animals. We bought a season pass.

There is a parakeet house where we get to feed parakeets.

 There are rabbits. They do nothing, but Levi loves them anyway.

 There is even a Tibeten Yak.

 They're not so sure about the goats.

 The goats are a bit aggressive. Clarey won't get within 25 feet of them.

 She does really like these creatures, whose name I cannot remember. I do remember they come from South America, can leap nearly 6 feet, are good burrowers and are very mild tempered. Still, their name escapes me.

 This is a very, very loud cockatoo.

 Mr. Alpaca. He yearns to be with the other alpacas.

Levi loves to feed the animals.

 Except for this Indian antelope. He wasn't about to offer up any food for it.

 This donkey is Levi's friend. He comes right up to him every time we visit. Levi now refers to him as "my donkey" and soon will be naming him.

While the swans are beautiful, what Clarey really loves is running on the bridge across their pond.

It's the perfect place for us to visit. I know we'll be going back soon.

Concrete

 One morning, the kids heard a loud noise outside. They had to go and investigate.

 Guess what! It was a concrete truck. They were there to add on to our driveway.

They were slightly mesmerized watching the concrete flow. Though we had the concrete poured to create a nice parking spot for Cyle's truck and to clean up the area to side of our house, it is actually a bike riding, big wheel racing, soccer ball kicking and basketball throwing playground.  And it is so nice!