Summer Vacay - Day 33: Sprinklers

One thing we don't have at our house is a sprinkler. Our garden hose has been squished on the end so nothing can be hooked up to it. When we play outside with water the kids all know how to cover the long skinny end with their thumb to make a stronger farther spray so it never seemed necessary. While we were at my moms visiting they opened up the hot tub cover, turned on the sprinkler and filled the dogs kiddie pool with water and let the kids go wild. It was crazy watching them jump out of the hot tub, run through the cold sprinkler or dunk themselves in the little pool until they were chilly and then diving back into the hot tub to warm up. They were out there all afternoon playing in the water and it got me thinking, maybe we need to invest in a sprinkler.

Summer Vacay - Day 32: Angry Birds

Todays activity was so much fun. It took up almost 3 hours of purely playing together. We started by making our players. Each kid made an angry and a pig. Is everyone familiar with the game Angry Birds? I'm not so much but my kids play it on the iPad at times and have seen Ryan attempt to do his thing. As far as my understanding goes, you try to knock over structures by launching angry birds at pigs. So each of them made their pig and angry bird using a glue gun, googly eyes, felt and pom poms. Once they were completed they each modelled them for the camera:

Putting our animals aside momentarily we took some dixie cups and built a simple tower and started there. It didn't take too long until their ambitions grew and Brayden had to use every single dixie cup we had. I think the tower was taller then Madison and they giggled in anticipation as they carefully placed the pigs on the tower. Once all pigs were placed, Brayden launched his Angry Bird and watched his empire crumble to the ground.

I can not tell you how many times they told me how much fun they were having and they thought it was "SO AWESOME." Once they were finished and I forced them to quit so we could go out and get some groceries they very carefully placed their pigs and birds in ziplocks so they can play with them again tomorrow. I would totally recommend this for anyone. All three my kids loved it although Maddy focused more on creating homes for her cute cuddly friends and the older two were all about the destruction angle, it was great fun.

2012 Beattie Reunion

Well, it's that time of year! We had the annual Beattie reunion this weekend and it was AWESOME. The couple of vacations trips we took up past Castle Mountain to prepare were totally worth it, even though those trips were so much fun too. It was our (Ryan and I) turn to organize the troops, find our venue and delicate tasks/meals which was kind of intimidating at first thought but with everyone doing what was asked it was easy. The technical start time was breakfast Friday morning and all but 1 family was able to make the trip up Thursday night getting the cousins all pumped up for the weekend. Friday morning the sun was out, breakfast was great and we were ready to play! The kids were riding bikes and quads while the adults followed on their quads. After everyone had arrived the party was really able to start and we had some lunch, got sweaty posing for a family picture and then got the kids in the water. The men had made a rope swing off the big trees into the river which was a big hit with the little kids and Uncle Derek!

After the men were finished building the rope swing they were back to work building a sweat lodge for later that night. That required some collection of special rocks, chopping down a few dead trees, a big tarp and a HUGE fire to heat the rocks. It seemed that building a big fire was no problem for these men thanks to the help of a propane tank. In the evening after Grandma's night games we started heading across the river to the sweat lodge. Jess was the only girl courageous enough to tackle the boys in there and I'm sure if she didn't enter in her sweats she could have outlasted each and every one of them! When it did get to hot you would see the tarp lift up and out someone would run into the river to cool down before going back in for another bought of the extreme heat.

The next morning all these men were boasting about how amazing they felt after their hot/cold experience the night before and were already talking about how they could improve on the lodge for that night. After breakfast we played some Minute to Win It and had a lot of laughs together at everyone else's expense. We played around, packed some lunches and loaded everyone onto quads for a ride up into the mountains to check out West Castle Falls. So pretty!

The boys did some fishing and the kids explored in the shallow waters and around the little paths close to the falls. There were deep parts and the water was freezing cold but the kids didn't really seem to notice it all. Sort of makes me jealous how they are so tolerant to things like that. I was more of a wuss, stayed close to the shore and just snapped the pictures and let everyone else get wet and cold.

As soon as we got back to camp late in the afternoon the kids got straight into their swimsuits and attacked the water. I have no idea how they get so much energy but I was so ready for a nap and a lazy evening. I got out my book and sat in my comfy chair and read while my kids splashed and the men worked at improving their sweat lodge. After dinner we all gathered around the fire pit for an evening of performing. Grandpa started out talking about fire and how awesome it is (in a controlled environment of course) and lit it up for the night. He had earlier placed a small copper pipe with rubber hosing inside it into the top of the fire and as the fire burned it started lighting up with different colours. It was pretty cool and looked amazing. After the fire was lit and warming everyone each family got up and rotated through a skit and song performing in front of the family. It was fun and our kids really enjoyed learning and practicing our little performances. Even the next day on the drive home they were repeating one skit and laughing uncontrollably. It was great. Sunday we had a short Sunday lesson and the kids each got a sling shot from Grandma after learning the story of David and Goliath. Slowly people started to clean up and pack up to go home but we didn't end up leaving until almost dinner time. It was such a fun weekend it kind of sucked to pull out of the perfect spot and say goodbye to everyone. It was such a success and I know the kids will be talking about it until next year so ... mission accomplished!

Summer Vacay - Day 31: Face Painting

My kids love dressing up, putting on old Halloween costumes and playing around. They love putting on those fake tattoos and the girls love getting into my make up so I wasn't surprised when it only took about 30 seconds after Aunt Jess brought out the face paints for the line ups to start forming. My kids love getting their faces painted and I think it's one of the few things that they will actually sit still for. It didn't take too long for Grandma to get in there and help out to shorten the line. With the two of them working hard they got through all the cousins and my girls went back for seconds getting big red hearts on their hands. They were pretty happy to be sporting their face art and Madison was very careful with her smiles so that her cheek wouldn't disfigure her little kitty. Also, I had no idea Aunt Jess had such mad skills with the face painting!

Summer Vacay - Day 30: Minute To Win It

Minute To Win It is so fun to watch. You kind of make a food of yourself having to do all these silly things making silly faces but who cares right? Its fun if you let yourself have fun. This year we played Minute to Win It and the kids were included on one of the challenges. We all had to get the cookie from our foreheads to our mouths. Daughter like mother.

Summer Vacay - Day 29: Boat Races

Yesterday we headed back up into the mountains for some more camping. This time it was with Ryan's family for a reunion. That means 14 kids all 7 years old and younger which equals lots of, um, energy. How to productively burn and direct all that energy? Boat races of course. Ryan separated the participating cousins into three different teams and got each team to pose for their official team picture:

Once teams were sorted out they were placed in their boats and off they went down the river. The three oldest boys were separated into a different team and each of these boys were pretty much the only ones that did much work. I will give credit to the 2 oldest girls of the bunch for the odd effort but the younger kids were solely along for a free ride.

Free ride or not I think most everyone enjoyed floating down the river, especially my three. Dad got in the boat with them and took them for a ride further down the river then they'd ever been before. Brayden took Madison for a ride while he was trying to teach himself how to master the paddles. He did alright and I think Ryan only had to go in after them once when he got tangled up in some roots. Sydney then had to have her own turn with the paddles which started out all right. It wasn't until she started picking up speed with the current and heading into deeper waters that realization dawned on her and she gave me the frantic looks that said "How do I steer this thing?" Thankfully she survived just fine and was ready to give it another try a few seconds later. However I was a party pooper and told her no because there was no way I was getting back in that freezing water to save her again. Next time we use paddles it will be in warmer waters!

Summer Vacay - Day 28: Ice Art

It has been hot so today we did something cool (cool like ice, get it?). Yesterday I froze an ice chunk and this morning we pulled it out and placed in a pie dish and I tempted the kids with food colouring. As we sat there staring at our ice chunk I passed around a small dish of kosher salt and asked each of them to sprinkle a bit on the top. We then watched as the salt melted the ice in the spots it touched, felt the surface and they came to the quick conclusion that salt melts ice. Now that we could see holes forming and crevices down the side I told the kids they could start squirting food colouring at their leisure.

The colours starting soaking down through the holes the salt had made and through all the little cracks forming. The kids really liked watching the colours fall down the sides where the salt had melted. The also LOVED that the water pooling in the bottom of the pie dish was changing colours as they added more colours. It turned into a big game and they started going out of control so I had to empty the dish and cut them off the food colouring, lesson learned: next time I'll limit the amount of food colouring poured on the salty ice. Either way the kids liked it, they thought it was cool how the ice was only melting where the ice was touching it and how quickly it was melting. Mixing the colours was fun and they learned how to make brown and black so successful! Another good activity for our gang.

Summer Vacay - Day 27: Fireworks

Who doesn't like fireworks? My kids absolutely love them. I'm sure that their time in the Philippines only intensified it with their dad lighting them off any chance he could get. This morning when I told the kids we would making fireworks for our fun activity they were pretty pumped. Maybe I shouldn't have made it sound so fantastic because they looked super perplexed when I brought out the water. They've seen dad light off fireworks, they've stood only a few feet away from them and watched them shoot up into the sky so they knew fireworks don't start with water. They must have thought I was taking crazy pills but that's ok, I had a plan. We started with our water, 2tbsp of oil and a couple drops red, blue and yellow colouring in the oil. We mixed the colours with the oil so the colour drops were tiny blobs in the oil and we carefully poured the oil mixture onto the surface of the water. Then, we just watched:

Summer Vacay - Day 26: Rain Clouds

Getting ready for our family reunion this coming weekend hasn't left me too much time for creative genius or long activities so today was something super quick and easy but educational. It got all of us around the table at the same time for about 10 minutes and they talked about it for a few hours after so even though it didn't take up a lot of our day I guess the bonus was that it stuck around in their minds for a while after. So on to the activity. We made rain from a shaving cream cloud. First I took a mason jar filled with water and brought it to the table along with blue food colouring and some shaving cream. We talked a little about evaporation and how clouds are formed. When I asked how rain comes from clouds Brayden answered, "The cloud gets too heavy and the rain falls out." It's always so comforting to know he's paying attention in class and retaining that information! So bonus points for Brayd today and his science skills. So then I squirted shaving cream on top of the water to form a cloud and dropped a few drops of food colouring onto the top of the 'cloud' and we watched. For about 3 long seconds nothing happened but then Sydney started yelling "It's raining! It's raining!" and sure enough blue and sunk through the shaving cream and started mixing into the water. Fast, simple and successful! Gotta love it.

Summer Vacay - Day 25: What Makes Green?

Today we played a little bit with colours. Brayden knows what colours make what but Sydney and Madison are still figuring it out so I thought this visual would help them remember. It was simple and we didn't need too many supplies. We took two paper towels, 3 clear glasses (one with blue coloured water, one with yellow and the middle was empty) and placed the paper towel like we did in the picture. At first the napkins were soaking up the colour quickly and it was exciting to watch it rising up but it soon started to slow and we had to wait what seemed like forever for the colours to reach the middle glass. The kids got bored after they couldn't visibly see the colours rising anymore and had to colour at the table while we waited but I couldn't blame them. Even with a cool end result it was anti-climactic but I think Sydney will always remember how to make green from now on so yay for our activity.

First Camping Trip of the Summer

It feels like we have been so busy this summer playing and something happening every weekend. We finally had a free weekend where we get out of town and do some camping. Both Ryan and I enjoy camping but being away from home for so long we haven't had much opportunity to do much of it these past 5 years. When we first moved to the Philippines our first trip home was a year later for Christmas. Once we started to figure out that summer would be the more logical (fun) time to come home we were hopping between families so much we didn't have any free time to something just us and the only camping trip we made was the Beattie Reunion trip. I'm not complaining, our trips home were super fun and a whirlwind of excitement, we just didn't do camping. This weekend was the first time the 5 of us had been camping in a relaxed setting and the kids 3rd time camping, ever (Madison's 2nd). So did they enjoy it? I think the picture of Brayden is answer enough! What did we do with all our free time with no cell signal cutting us off completely from civilization? We played!

Friday we spent setting up and working out the kinks in the trailer we were using for the first time. We explored the huge area we had staked out earlier in the week and Ry got to work chopping down fire wood and making a bridge so we could easily cross the river. Saturday the kids had a lot of fun in the morning skipping rocks into the river, running back and forth on the bridge and starting up their dirt bikes for some riding. They cruised for quite a while on their bikes getting faster which each turn around the loop. The weekend did not go by without injury though, Sydney waxed out pretty bad on her bike leaving her arm and side kind of bloody. She did get back on and ride back to camp showing no hesitation the next day to get back on and show Grandma and Grandpa her skills. She is one brave little girl!

Saturday afternoon Ry's parents joined us and brought their quads (4-wheelers for all you Americans) to add to the fun. The kids got turns going for a ride but I think it was nice for Maddy since she doesn't have a dirt bike to cruise on. It gave her a chance to go around the loop with them and not be left there standing watching her brother and sister have all the fun. With the extra man around the boys got to work and quaded up the mountain a bit dragging logs for firewood back to camp. They started chopping down big dead trees on the river edge for a sturdier bridge and tested the quads power by pulling dead logs through the river and up to camp. Nothing like men and their toys! I'm not too sure if it's more manly they were so matchy (because they are so manly they don't care about wearing the same outfit) or less manly (because they were wearing the same outfit) but either way there was no denying the similarities between father and son this weekend.

Our first camping trip of the summer was a complete success. The kids ran wild, we all were filthy and stank like fire. What could be better then that?