Scenes from a summer's day.....

What I found this afternoon....

after he went to the midnight premier of the new Batman movie last night.

Permanent Ink Science Shirts

We had one white t-shirt left after making our patriotic shirts, so I went on a mission last night and found this site full of wonderful, sciencey, projects.

I had everything needed for this project already in the house, (which makes this a perfect activity).

We needed:

permanent markers-we had Sharpies and Bic markers-they both worked fine

rubbing alcohol

medicine droppers

a bowl and rubber band to stretch the shirt taunt

pre-washed white t-shirt

Stretch the shirt over the bowl and secure with a rubber band. Use markers to make a design. We did mostly circular designs, using three colors at the most.

Use the medicine dropper to drop about twenty drops of alcohol into the center of the design. Now is the time to discuss the science concepts of solubility, color mixing, and the movement of molecules from one to another. The kids liked seeing how far they could get the colors to spread using more drops of alcohol.
After we spread out the colors, we used the blow-dryer to dry the design. I didn't want the wet marker to get onto the white shirt while we were working on another area. This shirt was easily done by Mark and Grace-on thier own. They are 8 and 6. I was just on hand to help them get the shirt adjusted on the bowl with the rubberbands.
Put the shirt in the dryer on high heat for about 15 minutes to set the ink.

Luke calls this his "crazy shirt".

Bald Eagle Sighting!!

Mark-my boy with the "eagle eyes"-spotted this immature bald eagle at the state park not ten minutes from our house. We are so excited!!
This may just start a unit study about eagles. I found this great site to positively identify "our" bird.

WE ARE PSYCHED!!

Scenes from a summer's day

"Hey kids, did you forget something?"

The Many Faces of Laura

Scenes from a summer's day...

Becky's Latest Cake

Happy Birthday, Uncle Joe!!
I have never seen such a cute cake!
Another great job, Becky!!

Locks of Love-Mommy Style

I haven't had my hair cut in at least 2 years, so today I took the plunge. It has been way to hot for all the hair that I was carrying around.

An added bonus was when the hair stylist told me that my hair was long enough to donate to Locks of Love.
The girls are growing their hair out to donate, I think they were surprised to find out that I beat them to the mailbox.

Just a couple more inches to go, girls!

A-Lot of safety-I hope

Backyard Fun

Matt's boss gave him a trampoline, and the kids have been enjoying it--a lot.
Whether they are big or little, they have been jumping-a lot.
I am afraid they are going to get hurt-a lot.
That's why Daddy is putting up a safety net right now, I believe it will come in handy-a lot.

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Crafty Record/CD Clocks

Becky and Laura assembled what they needed to make their own clocks yesterday. Amy's clock was made at a library recycling program-and it came out so cute the other girls had to get into the act.

The clock uses an old 33 record album, used cds, clock movements, (we got ours at Michael's craft store) Sharpie markers, paint, and paint pens. (anything can be used to decorate, as long as it shows up on the record)
The first thing we did was to make the hole in the record big enough for the clock movements to fit through it. We just eyeballed it to cut away a little at a time of the hole until we got a tight fit.

We then used Elmer's glue to glue the cd in the center of the record.

Laura then colored her cd with a sharpie marker and then used paint pens to draw the numbers on the clock.
White paint was used to outline the edges of the record and she embelished that with stickers and sharpie markers.
The last step is to assemble the clock movements on the clock. The back of the package told us how this is simply done. Set the clock and now Laura won't ever be late for anything ever again!

Becky chose to make her clock a mosaic. She cut up old cds to use as her mosaic pieces.

After making the hole in the record big enough for the clock works, she glued the cd into the center and then arranged her mosaic pieces.

The sharpie markers worked great on the cds.

After the cd pieces were on the record, Becky put the clock movement parts into the clock. Instead of numbers, she used cd mosaic pieces to represent the numbers on the clock. VERY COOL!

Becky's finished product.

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Photo credit: Amy

Amy's crafty clock

directions coming soon.....

Kimberly's First Movie

Kim enjoyed her first trip to the movie theater today. A local theater offers free family movies every Wednesday throughout the summer.

A good time, and alot of popcorn was had by all!

Scenes from a Summer's Day

After the rain

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Renee, from "Go East," they said... is giving us a summer photo challenge. I am up for the challenge, are you? Go and visit her site and sign up to join the fun!