2014--Fourth of July T-Shirts

 After a 2 year hiatus, we made some great 4th of July t-shirts this afternoon.

I found the idea on pinterest and it is from this website.

 The first step is to simply draw stars onto freezer paper.  (I never heard of ironing freezer paper onto cloth....you learn something new everyday)

 I purchased regular Froot of the Loom colored shirts.  I placed cereal boxes inside the side to prevent bleeding from one side to the other.

 After the stars are cut out, iron them onto the shirts using a medium iron.

I did a few stars on each side of the shirt.

 Now, talk to the children about the dangerous aspect to this part of the process. We filled a spray bottle with bleach and a touch of water.  We also used this mixture in squirt guns.   Bleach is poison, and I stressed it was only to be sprayed on the shirts.

I used a little spray bottle to go around the stars....I could have used a little less but this was our first try at this type of shirt.  The sunshine bleached the cloth in just a couple minutes.

 Then the kids went at it with the squirt guns. 

 I then turned the shirts over and they squirted the backs...you can see the cool lines appearing on the back of Kimberly's shirt.

The big kids now want shirts. I know now that less bleach will do just fine, and that we will have to move quicker.  The freezer paper isn't waterproof, so some of the bleach did leak through the stars.

 Quickly bring the shirts in and rinse in the sink until you have removed most of the bleach.

The final step is to wash them in the washing machine.

 We're very happy with the final results!!

You can check out our past t-shirts over here.

Happy Fourth of July!!

Free Summer Library Fun has Begun!

 It's that time of year.  The time to head to our local library, the Canastota Library.

There is a whole summer of fun that kicked off today with Nancy Sander from Puppets with Pizazz.

We have been coming to these free puppet shows for years and years.  I don't know how Nancy keeps coming up with such fun shows, but she does it every year.

 It was also the day to sign up for the summer reading program for the little kids and a book club for Gracie. This library really keeps us busy with craft days, animal shows, birds of prey shows, and much more fun.

 We love when Nancy reveals her secrets at the end of the show, explaining the different types of puppets and how she makes them.

 Luke with his favorite puppet.

Kimberly and a rat---this was her favorite character.

Thanks Canastota Library for offering so much fun for our kids. 

Happy Birthday to my Momma!

 I won't tell how old my mom turned,  but you many be able to figure it out.

 What a beautiful, mother I have.

 She can still blow out all the candles with one breath!

 

June Kiwi Crate---Camping Trip

 We enjoyed another fun Kiwi Crate.

The June theme was camping.

 Kimberly immediately choose to make the glowing campfire.

 Because the instructions are so clear, Kim was able to make the campfire completely on her own.

The campfire kit even came with "marshmallows" on a stick and a flickering light to keep the fire burning in the dark. 

It's very cute!

Luke is 9 now, and still enjoys some of the projects, he didn't care to make the campfire but he was very happy to make the sunprint backpack.

 

 Of course, in your Kiwi Crate, absolutely everything is included to do the projects, right down to the tiniest adhesive sticker.

 

 For this project, you first "paint" the bag cloth bag with water.

You then paint the wet bag with blue and green paint. The kids enjoyed the way the colors blended as you added more color.

 Next we took the wet bags out into the sunshine and placed the provided shapes on the bag.  It also suggests added your own items such as rocks, leaves or branches.  Both kids were happy to use the shapes they gave us.

 Place the bags in the sunshine until totally dry.  When dry, remove shapes. They were very impressed with the sunprints.  Kimberly is now using her bag to collect rocks and Luke hasn't decided what he will collect in his bag.

 Thanks again, Kiwi Crate, for another month of fun.

A Look Back at Our 4th of July T-Shirts

 We've had a lot of fun over the years making 4th of July t-shirts.

I thought you might get a kick out of seeing them from the archives.

Our 2008 shirts are shown above. 

 2010 fun and instructions.

2011 Sharpie magic.



Our very first shirts, from 2007.

Worth the Wait

 

After our long, long winter and terrible spring, I think my roses are about a month behind schedule, but they have finally made their long awaited appearance.
Photo credit: Gracie

Yarn Along

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

Head over to Ginny's blog to join the fun.

This is the fourth time I have made this ripple afghan.  I keep giving them away, and everyone has loved it.  The pattern can be found here.  I made it by crocheting rows 2-5 twice in blue and then rows 2-5 once in off-white.  I continue until it is long enough to keep me cozy while I work on it.

 

I can't seem to find a book (or the time) to read for myself, but I seem to always enjoy the read alouds I read to the kids.  Everyone has been enjoying Storm Makers.

It's about 12 year old twins, one of which discovers they can control the weather.  It's a vocabulary booster for my 8 and 9 year olds, and the 12 year old always asks for one more chapter.

A Pocketful of Cricket--Literature Unit

 I found a wonderful literature unit perfect for summer: A Pocketful of Cricket from Homeschool Share.   If you haven't used Homeschool Share you are in for a big treat.  There are FREE literature units on books on every subject  you could ever want to introduce to your early elementary student. The units incorporate art, grammar, science, social studies and much more.

 We learned a cricket could jump about 2 feet.  So we set up tape on the floor and marked out one foot intervals...Kimberly could jump the farthest-5 feet, everyone else was around 4 feet, including myself, although my landing wasn't picture perfect as I ended up on my back, on the floor, wondering what bones I had broken.

 Dirty summer feet

 The kids then headed out to catch some of our own crickets.  They found about 10, but they are the tiniest little things.  I think we were too early in the season for cricket catching.  I'm afraid these are so small we won't be hearing then chirp in the night.

 We have successfully kept crickets for months in the past, so hopefully these will grow and start singing.

All you need for a cricket habitat is soil, a bottle cap with water, and food.  They seem to love Cheerios and lettuce. 

There is enough in this unit to keep us busy for about a week.

I'll let you know what else we are doing for this book later in the week.



Oneida All-Star Softball-2014

 We have had kids playing baseball or softball for the past 22 years when Patrick Jr. began playing t-ball.

That's a lot of ball games.

 Some years we have had 5 of 6 kids on 5 or 6 different teams.

 This year we had 4 kids playing of 4 different teams,

 and just when we thought everyone's season was over, Kimberly made the minor league softball all-star team.  Way to go, Kim!!!

 Lining up for the National Anthem.

 Kim had quite a large fan base for her first all-star game.

It makes me so happy that the big kids still come out and support the littles.

 Kimmy coming around to score.

 Kimberly played her first game against her best friend, Suzie!

(Suzie's team come out the winners this game)

Kimberly and her fans....Here's to many more years of ballgames!!