Summer Week 4 - Under the Sea

Another busy week for us. I planned lots, but did not get to everything and I am slowly accepting that this happens sometimes.

Monday started off pretty smooth. We did our morning routine as usual (sans Charlie's hair being brushed...it was not worth the fight that day). We read Ocean Season by Rob Hirschi and did a craft inspired by the book. This is one of my most favorite art projects to do with the kids because you can do it many times with different themes and it is great to see how creative my girls can be. We did finger print art. I whipped out my old stamp pads and my special markers and let them go to town. Charlie had fun just putting her fingers in the colors and telling me what they were. Kairah and Kaijah were very creative with their pictures. It was a blast.

Charlie, Kairah and Kaijah making their pictures, The finished results.

I really need to start taking before pictures...this is after

The rest of the day we just relaxed and watch a movie. After dinner we worked on the yard a bit. Boy was that interesting. Our yard is covered in sand right now because we had a large mess of trees and vines removed after we bought our house. Well those trees and vines will just not quit popping up, so slowly we have been cutting them away and adding things to our yard like a vegetable garden and butterfly garden. So, on Monday we worked on raking up some debris from around our beautiful oak tree, the stump next to it and the table. The stump and table area are just about cleared out, but while raking the debris from around the oak tree we disturbed a bull ant nest. Ahhhhh - I freaked. So I quickly ran inside and researched how to safely destroy get rid of them. ( I know, I know...I am supposed to love nature, but these buggies were killing my oak tree and are mean little things). We put down some corn meal and watched them take the bait. My husband came outside wondering what we were doing just looking at the tree. After I explained it to him, he just shook his head and grabbed his gloves to help us dispose of the piles we created. (Update - the bull ants seem to be gone, I guess I will find out when I rake again). After all that, we were done for the evening.

Tuesday was also pretty smooth. In the morning while watering our plant on the patio, we discovered one of our baby birds did not survive, but when we checked the nest the rest had safely flew away (another to do being added to the list - clean off umbrella it is pretty dirty after housing those baby birds). I also discovered how annoying older elementary school and middle school children can be on this fine day. Do not get me wrong, I love my children, but boy can they cause a ruckus. For about 2 hours I had to keep telling them "stop making noise" because that is all they were doing. Geesh. I soon found out after my facebook rant, that I am not the only one with this problem and we all had a good laugh about it.

Our book for the day was Fish Had a Wish by Michael Garland. After reading the book, which Charlie really loved, we made fish out of CDs. I did not buy anything special for this, although most posts I found about this craft used glitter, spangles, and the like. I just grabbed old scrapbooking stuff I had the closet, along with some paper, glue and scissors. I think our fish came out great!

Fish L->R U->D Charlie, Kaijah Kailah, Kairah, Mine

After quiet movie time I did a craft with that was meant for the older girls, but Charlie joined at the table to watch (I even gave her an old stained shirt to keep her busy). We "updated" shoes. Kailah and Kairah found a bunch of pins on pinterest about decorating shoes, so we tried a few ideas. It was really fun, so much so, they did not want to stop when it was dinner time. That is my idea of a winning craft idea.

Shoes - ribbon wrap flip flops, puffy paint & glitter chucks, puffy paint skates, puffy paint flip flops, puffy paint heely's

In the evening I enjoyed reading this article: Dominos and Donuts, the Truth About Change . Check it out!

Wednesday was the 4th of July. I hit the commissary (grocery store) and whipped right through. I only had Kairah with me and the store was practically empty. We spent the afternoon and evening at a friends for a BBQ and swimming. It was a great time.

Charlie rocked a new do

Thursday was a hectic mess. Kailah had an appointment in the morning and Kairah needed an appointment because one of her wires broke (braces). So I got that scheduled and of course it was right smack in the middle of Kailah's appointment. Luckily the two places are down the street from each other, so I made it work.

1 year with braces

Kairah's appointment took way longer than expected, but they ended up cancelling the check up we already had scheduled which was a plus. She is half way done and is very excited to be done with the creepy headgear.

While we were in Fort Walton Beach I thought I would hit up the local Goodwill. I was completely surprised at how expensive the Goodwill has become. I did not buy anything, but Kailah and Kairah bought a pair of shoes and a shirt each. Since Kohl's was on the same street and I had a coupon, we popped in there. Let me tell you, I love this store!!! We scored some great deals. After shopping, we were all tired and went home. All four of the girls napped and I fought with the BBQ grill.

Friday was an even bigger mess. Lew and I were woke up by a loud thunderstorm at around 4:30am. Next, Kaijah came and got in the bed with us, then Kairah and Champ. Kailah was up, but did not come to my door. After about an hour of wrestling around and shushing folks, I gave up and got up. Charlie did not wake up until her sisters got loud at around 6am when Kairah and Kailah started fighting about a board game (did I ever mention that no one in my house is a morning person, but me). I got tired of listening to it and ignored them and went to sleep on the couch. Lew left for work late (thank goodness they called him for late reporting, because I was so worried about him being out in the storm) and kept an eye on the kids. I woke up to a quiet house at around 9am....all the girls went back to sleep. I called my hair salon to see if my stylist had any cancellations....SCORE! she did (as usual people do not like to go out in the rain). Had a wonderful time getting my haircut and catching up with my stylist. I was so refreshed after my appointment I did a little sewing with Kailah and Kairah.

Once again, we looked at some pins on pinterest and the girls decided they wanted to "modify" T-shirts. They made market bags. We used the blog as an inspiration, but kinda did our own thing. I used another blog to inspire my "updated" shirt. I am not quite finished with mine, but I sure do love sewing.

Kairah and her crazy hair :D did a great job on her bags, I am going to add better straps to my camp shirt

After lunch, we walked to the nearest red box to pick up a movie for the girls to watch.  Apparently no one in the house cared about their appearance on this fine day. Charlie was so chipper in her mismatched outfit with crazy un-brushed hair which was left over from Thursday cool hair do. Kairah and Kaijah were also crazy haired weirdos. It cracks me up when they are like this. I guess it could be worse. I could have girls that have to take an hour to get ready just to check the mail.

During the movie I got ready for my monthly Girls Night Out. I had a blast with some friends at TGIFriday and the movies. We went to see Magic Mike. It was so funny.

Well, that was my crazy week.