Summer Fun Day 1

Actually it was Day 2, but who's counting. As part of my oath to be a better more involved mom, I've decided that we are going to do something fun every day of summer this year. We will see how it goes. So, Day 2, here we are, in pictures.

We played with beads.

Maisey was doing the fierce bead model pose. That's better than the crazy face, I guess. After a little time spent outside on the swing set, sandbox, and trampoline, we returned inside to make our own play dough.

And then we made play dough creatures.

Maisey made dancing dolls. Evie just mixed the dough together to form a greenish gray blob. Then, after planting a half-dead 4-pack of flowers outside in Maisey's garden pot, we decided it was time for lunch, and then dessert--homemade cotton candy.

The best part of the cotton candy machine is it makes a giant (or big enough!) wad of cotton candy from just two little life savers. Now that's what I call savoring your candy.

We went to a park where Evie napped in the car while Maisey played. After this we did boring stuff, like grocery shopping and then cleaning up a messy house and putting away groceries. Then we played out in the yard, awaiting the arrival of Daddy and Chief from the vet, where he had a 12 1/2 pound hemgiosarcoma tumor removed from his abdomen. It was growing out of his spleen, to they removed that too, and two smaller tumors the vet found after removing the massive blob. I won't show you a picture of it, but rest assured it was huge and disgusting. Twelve and a half pounds! That's a quarter of Chief's body weight!

He has to wear the doughnut for a few days till his incision heals. He looks slim and young again (at least to me). His overall prognosis is guarded to poor, but we can tell how much lighter and happier he feels. And we really do appreciate the time we have left with him.

The rest of the evening was passed in domestic bliss. (Or it was horrible screaming and yelling girl drama. I can't remember. I guess I blocked it out). Anyway, Day 1 (really Day 2) of summer was fun.

Teacher Gifts

I'm feeling artsy and crafty, and as it's the end of the school year (Kindergarten and preschool) things are getting hectic. So what do I do? Heap more projects on, in the hope that the sheer artfulness will take my mind off of how incredibly busy these next two weeks will be, especially without my DH, who's in Shanghai for the week.

First up? Teacher gifts.

I had great ideas a few weeks ago about what to get my kids' teachers. I started with beautiful Thirty-One Gifts Littles Carry-All Caddy in black Parisian pop, for $12 each. I thought about themes: spa day (foot scrubs mani-pedi gift cards, etc) or summertime fun (sunscreen, gift cards to a book store, etc), but then I saw Pinterest, and there was a cute little reusable coffee cup with the tag that read "thanks a latte." It was adorable. But sadly, I don't know if these teachers drink coffee or tea. So what to do?

My girls love to give flowers, so I saw (also on Pinterest, where else?) a mason jar filled with magnetic letters and a cute bouquet of flowers. I prefer living plants, so I decided to do a potted flower and voila, the play on words came to me: Merci Bouquet!

I got really cute cardboard butterfly shapes at Michaels to use as the card, little chipboard shapes for my daughters to color and paste on as embellishments, and a giant clothespin to clip the butterfly card to the carry all bag. Since my 21/2 year old can't write words yet, I had to write the note for her.

I got African violets at Lowes for about $4 each, and put the pot inside a sandwhich bag, then wrapped the pot in colored tissue paper, wrapped with a ribbon. Then I crinkled up celophane in the bottom of the carry all bag so the plant would come out over the top of the rim. I set the plant inside the bag, clipped the card on the back of the bag, and voila! But of course, I felt like something was missing, so I added a few chocolates to each bag, and voila! Cute little thank you gifts for the teachers, who are very special people. Oh yeah, I added a little scented bottle of hand sanitizer to the back pocket, just for good measure. I can't wait for the girls to walk them into their classrooms next week!