Sputnik with some Colossal Cuties

What I love about summer is the freedom, so today it just felt like a day to get out of the house and hit the road.  We made a day trip down to Tucson and enjoyed a day at Colossal Cave.  It is the perfect first cave experience for the younger set and still enjoyable for us grown up kids.

Waiting our turn and enjoying the view

Here we go!!!!

Love all the history, beauty and mystery

After enjoying the 71 degrees in the cave we headed out to continue our adventure:

Panning for gold, Sadie was disappointed to learn she had
been fooled by the fools gold!

1930's Fun House Mirror
Hilarious

Our damsel in distress.
Where is Dudley Do Right?

Until Next Time..........Have Fun! 

Boredom Busters

I'm so not a TV/Movie parent, love to swim but what else can we do at home to entertain the kiddos. Love pinterest here are some of the pins we tried:

Made a bird seed wreath

The  kids painted pots and we did our tippy pots

Our naked egg experiment.

Soak an egg in vinegar and watch the shell slowly fall off

What pins have you tried that entertain the kids?  Love to hear your ideas.

Summer Nights

I love the summer, summer nights are filled with late night swims, games, movies and just a relaxed energy fills the house.

Swimming with glow sticks adds to the fun

Its too hot during the day, so in Phoenix we become children of  the night!

The best part of summer nights are the quiet summer mornings that last a little longer with sleeping children!

Long Beach

The summer started off slow, with everyone being sick. I feel like we are finally back to our normal crazy.

Feeling like summer was escaping me, we made a spontaneous trip to Long Beach.  I decided to take only the oldest, Teagan and Brendan.  We had a fantastic time exploring new places, the most moving was the Holocaust Museum.  Since Teagan and Brendan have both been studying WWII so this was a wonderful field trip to learn from this dark period of history and how even the darkest hour there were heros among us, people strong enough to step up.

On a lighter part of the trip:

The Long Beach Aquarium was awesome, with all of the touch tanks! Their aquariums were beautiful and educational.

Feeding the Lorakeets-my favoite birds

They even let you touch the sharks! Ok, not this one but
some smaller ones. 

We enjoyed exploring the Queen Mary and its history.

Whale Watching:

and some time wandering the surf shops in Surf City.  Now it feels like summer!!

I hope you are enjoying your summer.  

DeAnn

Making the Most of Being Homebound

Summer started with a sold temp of 104 and that was not the outside temp but the children's as they started dropping like flies.   Not how I had hoped our summer would start.  Those who remained healthy, enjoyed the endless TV time with the sickies, swimming and some homemade games:

We practiced our alphabet and had letter races.  Mom drew a flash card and they raced on their alphabet to find the letter first.  This was a big hit.

We made this simple game with a stick, a homemade pom and a cream cheese container.  They love trying to get their pom into the cup and its great hand eye coordination too.  

Sweet girls all cuddled up, feel better soon! 

Bricks Art

These caterpillar's were fun and simple enough for the girls to make.  Now I have a nice door stop to keep the pool fence open when needed.   Other ideas are bees, lady bugs,  I love the snowman!  Here are some photos I found on line to inspire!





Just use "grown up craft paint" and then add a clear coat to add shine. The girls did the dots with an inexpensive craft sponge dot brush! Enjoy!

Summer Delayed :(

Summer has had to be put on hold in our home...while we battle the final flu. Not a fun way to kick off summer and its hard to keep the house quiet for those who are sleeping as the wage war against their virus.

Luckily the weather was spring like no oven mits required so those that have not fallen victim enjoyed:

Hopefully the rest of us will be spared, one can hope!