Mission : Impossible - Update

1 - A glow-in-the-dark summer kick-off dance party - I wanted to do this early on in the summer, before the nights got too late, but we haven't done it yet.  I was feeling sick the night we were going to do it.  Oh well!  Maybe we will, maybe we won't.  We'll see.
2 - Tie-dye t-shirts (to be worn throughout the summer for various activities) - It was fun!  More hands on for me, and less for them, over all, but a big success.  The shirts have (obviously, if you regularly read the blog) gotten a LOT of use since then.  They love 'em!
3 - Sign up for the library's summer reading program and start our summer reading poster * - We started the library's summer reading program today.  It's great for the preschoolers and the independent readers, but Ben is right between those, and kept himself busy looking for books to check out instead of participating in either group.  If I had more time or arms I'd love to start a group for 6-8 year olds.  And our poster?  We simple put 'Summer Reading' at the top of a bright poster, and stick a sticker on for each book we read.  And big stickers for each chapter book read.  We are hoping to cover the entire poster!  
4 - Plant flowers in the front yard - We planted them by seed, but are they growing?  Nope.
5 - Build mini-marshmallow and toothpick buildings - We did this today, and it was loads of fun.  Post coming soon!
6 - Make a zipline course for toy 'guys' (action figures) outside -  This was awesome!  Post here.
7 - Plant the vegetable garden - Such a great afternoon.  We've since added some peppers and herbs and will be putting the rhubarb in today or tomorrow.  Check it out.
8 - Play the string and donut game *
9 - Make paper and straw rockets * - We did this one when some friends were over.  Fun!  Thet didn't fly very far, though!
10 - Go to the Colorado River walk and play in the water under the bridge - Awesome morning.  Again, post a-comin'!  We'll be doing this a few more times, for sure.
11 - Learn about cup-stacking and have cup-stacking races
12 - Go on a long family bike ride- all. the. time.  One of our very favorite family activities!  Especially now that James (3) rides a two-wheeler by himself!
13 - Create a secret code and write letters to some cousins in the code
14 - Spend the morning in Greer (nearby small town with streams and lakes), bring a picnic- We haven't done a lunch picnic, but we have spent some time in Greer about every week.  I think we'll give it a break for a little while!
15 - Card board construction set buildings - Bif flop!  So not worth the effort of cutting out cardboard squares!
16 - Make cookies and take to someone
17 - Lego Challenge #1 *
18 - Basketball at the park- Done it a couple of times, sure we'll do it again!
19 - Origami
20 - Camp in the backyard - The kids have slept out in the tent for the last 4 or 5 nights.  They love it!
21 - Write letters and draw pictures to send to grandparents
22 - Sidewalk chalk maze for toy cars
23 - Swim at Becker Lake
24 - Harry Potter Day *
25 - Invite a family for a BBQ
26 - Make "tribal" can drums *
27 - Scooter ride and walk
28 - Art project - Drawings to submit to county fair
29 - Mystery service project - "see a need, fill a need"
30 - Make popsicle stick harmonicas *
31 - Play twister in the sprinkler
32 - Make THE LONGEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD
33 - Spend the morning at Sipe Wildlife Area
34 - Lego Challenge #2 *
35 - Make frozen yogurt in the ice cream maker *
36 - Play soccer around the yard - Yep!
37 - Make a poster of "listening, loving, seeing..etc."
38 - Relay races! *
39 - Write a run-on story (one sentence per person, take turns)
40 - Paint a self portrait
41 - Build a boat to float in the ditch - The kids all did this together, without me at all.  They did great!  Too bad our irrigation ended a while ago, so they only got to float them in the ditch a few times!
42 - Play freeze dance
43 - Go on a walk somewhere new
44 - Make cup and balloon marshmallow shooters and have a war
45 - Play soccer at the school - Done!  Will do again.  Soccer season starts in August and we need to brush up on our skills!
46 - Lego Challenge #3 *
47 - Go fishing- Done so much the kids are kind of sick of it.  Okay, really sick of it.  :)
48 - Make slime
49 - Heart attack someone's house
50 - Star Wars Day *
51 - Sidewalk chalk - fill one sidewalk square each and then take a 'tour' of the exhibits
52 - Play jugball catch *
53 - Art Project for the county fair - painting
54 - Take an ABC photo tour of the town *
55 - Make paper bag puppets and have a show
56 - Colored ice paintings on a big paper outside
57 - Lego Challenge #4 *

Mission : Impossible - Glow in the Dark Party

Remember back when school let out in August and I planned to have a little kick-off-the-summer glow-in-the-dark party for the kids?  And it never happened because I got a little sick?  Well, FINALLY the glowing stars aligned and we had ourselves our party.  

It was worth the wait.

So.  Much.  Fun.

We are lucky enough to have a huge stash of some really legit glow sticks from my brother-in-law.  We love to break them out here and there for extra fun, mostly in the summer.  So, Sunday night, after what had been a pretty cruddy day, actually, we all came together on the front lawn, just enjoying dusk, and each other.  It was so good, and so welcome.

Soon, one of the kids had the idea to bring out the glow sticks.  Everyone ran around playing with them, and of course, true to my nature, it didn't take me very long before I wanted to take pictures.  It took me a few minutes to figure out my settings, but once I did, we were in business. (Also, the dog we were sitting may or may not have been attached to a glow stick for a while, too.  Cuteness.)

Everyone had so much fun experimenting and then checking out the results, and then coming up with new ideas to try to make a cool image.  They totally got more complicated as the night went on.

Here's what settings I used - I set my top settings to no flash, and then made sure my camera was on MF - manual focus.  (I have an older Canon Rebel.)  Once you get your shot set up, push that button and hold still until you hear the shutter open back up.  Or better yet, use a tripod, if you're the fancy type.  Me?  I really know nothing about photography except that I love to play at it, so if you have any great suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

 Pretty soon we were onto numbers and words.  Yay 2013!  You'd think it was New Year's or something, huh?  By the way, I love that little clever exclamation point down there.  Tyler's hand made a great dark space between the line and dot.  Smart man, that one.

SAM!  Sam did his S, Tyler did the A, and Madelin the M.  We were all strangely thrilled when we got these figured out well enough to read them.  It took some serious communication and teamwork - a good little family exercise, I suppose!

Then Ben!  Ben and James made the underlines.  Cute kids were endlessly patient and helpful.
There were moments of frustration trying to figure it all out for some, but not those guys!  Oh, and little tip, if you are the glow stick letter maker, make you letter backwards.

By this time, everyone was ready to bed.  We eeked out one last name, and then it was time for the kids to head to their sleeping bags in the tent in the backyard.  Maybe I'll remember to write more about that later.

Such a truly fun night.  I hope it's seared as well in those kids memories as the glowing lights are in these photos!



Check out our big summer Mission : Impossible plans here.  And some of the activities I've posted about are collected here.

Mission : Impossible - marshmallow and toothpick towers

Marshmallow and toothpick towers -

This was a fun little activity that kids ages 3 - 12 participated and enjoyed.  Score!  Also, they stuck with it for between and half an hour and an hour.  Score two!

So, here's what you need.  Get out a pencil and paper, because this is a super long list -

-toothpicks that are pointy on both sides
-mini marshmallows


That's it.

Just throw 'em on the table and let the kids do what they want with them.

I love these activities.  For real.  The kids all have their own ways of seeing things, and each of them created completely different structures.  Unfortunately, and this really stinks, our kitchen is a dungeon, and getting decent photos was pretty impossible.  Ha!  Impossible.  I guess the Mission : Impossible this time around was taking non-blurry pictures.  And I failed.


Anyway...

Hope you enjoy!



Want to get some other fun activity ideas?  Check out the Mission : Impossible posts here.

Mission : Impossible - Update!

We're a couple weeks into summer and let me tell you - I wish every single day could be like this.  That's how much I'm loving these long, hard-working, hard-playing summer days.  I wake up excited for what we have ahead of us, and go to bed so bone tired I can't even think straight.  It's good stuff.

The kids are loving our Mission : Impossible theme.  I keep it all a secret from them until the time of day when we  are ready for our activity, and then I announce to the kids, " Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to ..."  And every single time they are ecstatic, excited, and dive right into it.  Below I'll highlight the activities we've already done, and give a little recap of how they went.  For the full original list, see here.




1 - A glow-in-the-dark summer kick-off dance party - I wanted to do this early on in the summer, before the nights got too late, but we haven't done it yet.  I was feeling sick the night we were going to do it.  Oh well!  Maybe we will, maybe we won't.  We'll see.
2 - Tie-dye t-shirts (to be worn throughout the summer for various activities) - It was fun!  More hands on for me, and less for them, over all, but a big success.  The shirts have (obviously, if you regularly read the blog) gotten a LOT of use since then.  They love 'em!
3 - Sign up for the library's summer reading program and start our summer reading poster * - We started the library's summer reading program today.  It's great for the preschoolers and the independent readers, but Ben is right between those, and kept himself busy looking for books to check out instead of participating in either group.  If I had more time or arms I'd love to start a group for 6-8 year olds.  And our poster?  We simple put 'Summer Reading' at the top of a bright poster, and stick a sticker on for each book we read.  And big stickers for each chapter book read.  We are hoping to cover the entire poster!  
4 - Plant flowers in the front yard
5 - Build mini-marshmallow and toothpick buildings - We did this today, and it was loads of fun.  Post coming soon!
6 - Make a zipline course for toy 'guys' (action figures) outside -  This was awesome!  Post here.
7 - Plant the vegetable garden - Such a great afternoon.  We've since added some peppers and herbs and will be putting the rhubarb in today or tomorrow.  Check it out.
8 - Play the string and donut game *
9 - Make paper and straw rockets *
10 - Go to the Colorado River walk and play in the water under the bridge - Awesome morning.  Again, post a-comin'!  We'll be doing this a few more times, for sure.
11 - Learn about cup-stacking and have cup-stacking races
12 - Go on a long family bike ride
13 - Create a secret code and write letters to some cousins in the code
14 - Spend the morning in Greer (nearby small town with streams and lakes), bring a picnic
15 - Card board construction set buildings
16 - Make cookies and take to someone
17 - Lego Challenge #1 *
18 - Basketball at the park
19 - Origami
20 - Camp in the backyard
21 - Write letters and draw pictures to send to grandparents
22 - Sidewalk chalk maze for toy cars
23 - Swim at Becker Lake
24 - Harry Potter Day *
25 - Invite a family for a BBQ
26 - Make "tribal" can drums *
27 - Scooter ride and walk
28 - Art project - Drawings to submit to county fair
29 - Mystery service project - "see a need, fill a need"
30 - Make popsicle stick harmonicas *
31 - Play twister in the sprinkler
32 - Make THE LONGEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD
33 - Spend the morning at Sipe Wildlife Area
34 - Lego Challenge #2 *
35 - Make frozen yogurt in the ice cream maker *
36 - Play soccer around the yard
37 - Make a poster of "listening, loving, seeing..etc."
38 - Relay races! *
39 - Write a run-on story (one sentence per person, take turns)
40 - Paint a self portrait
41 - Build a boat to float in the ditch
42 - Play freeze dance
43 - Go on a walk somewhere new
44 - Make cup and balloon marshmallow shooters and have a war
45 - Play soccer at the school
46 - Lego Challenge #3 *
47 - Go fishing
48 - Make slime
49 - Heart attack someone's house
50 - Star Wars Day *
51 - Sidewalk chalk - fill one sidewalk square each and then take a 'tour' of the exhibits
52 - Play jugball catch *
53 - Art Project for the county fair - painting
54 - Take an ABC photo tour of the town *
55 - Make paper bag puppets and have a show
56 - Colored ice paintings on a big paper outside
57 - Lego Challenge #4 *

Mission : Impossible - make a zipline for toy guys

This week, one of our favorite Mission : Impossible missions was for the kids to make a zipline course to run their guys (toy figurines) on.  They absolutely loved it!  

Here's what you need to make one of you own :

- Twine or cord

- Scissors

- Tape

- Guys

- Paper clips

1 - Tie your lengths of cord from a high spot (tree branch, gutter, nail, whatever!), and run it down to a low spot.  Anchor the cord there, and tie it so that the cord is pulled taught.  

2 - Bend open some paperclips, and tape them to the hands of your 'guys'.  You'll have to improvise on this a little bit depending on what your toys' hands look like, how far apart they are, and all.  But, it's pretty easy stuff.  I'm sure you can manage.  Just tape 'em generously.

3 - Hook the guys, by the paper clips, onto the high part of the cords, and let 'em go!

This was an awesome activity, and here's why - it involved problem solving, teamwork, creativity, athleticism/kinesthetic play , imaginative play and more.  When I first told the kids what we were doing and gave them the supplies, they were looking to me as the expert to guide them into what they were supposed to do where and when.  That's not how I work with this stuff.  At all.

So I stood out there with them, and soon they started suggesting things, kind of timidly, like, 'We could tie it up here.'  Soon they were feeling confidence in themselves and that they were the experts of this activity.  Then they were climbing trees to tie the cord up REALLY high, figuring out different ways of taping on the paper clips that might work better, and suggesting getting soap out to rub on the cords to see if it would make the guys slide down even faster.  It was so fun to watch them bounce ideas off of each other and try things out, to adjust and fine-tune and tweak things as they went!

I love this stuff.  Seriously, this is why homeschooling is where my heart is.  If only I could somehow just give my kids the tools that they need, a tiny bit of encouragement here and there, and then let them take it where they will, with confidence that they will succeed.  That's such a scary thought, though, isn't it?  It feels like this huge risky gamble - yet I know people who do it well!   Huh.

Anyway, back to the ziplines - fun.  Lots of fun.  We still have a few of the lines strung up, and I'm sure they'll continue to get used here and there, until it's time to tear them down and throw them away.

Mission : Impossible - tie dye tees - the results!

 This morning I brought the shirts in and rinsed them in the sink until the water ran clear.  Let me tell you, THAT was a long little job!  By far the most time-consuming part of this project!  And maybe on a different day I would have let the kids do that part, but we had a pretty full morning lined up, and I just needed to get 'em done while they went about their normal morning routine.

After that, I threw them in the washer for a normal cycle, then the dryer.  By the time we got done with our morning adventures, they were all ready to wear!

Sam loves his!  And, by the way, please freeze my kids in time for a little while.  Please!  Because seriously, he is getting so big, and I love it and I hate it all at once.

You can't see Madi's shirt well in this picture, but it's diagonal blue and green stripes and looks super great!  Lewis' shirt matches, but his greenish stripe is along the chest.  These are two peas in a pod - I love how they love each other!

James wanted lots of yellow, and racing stripes down the side in orange, and that's what he got!  Dang!  I better get some pictures that actually show the shirts better, huh?

Here's Ben with his blue whirlpool in the middle, and two tornadoes on the sleeves.  He's happy!

All of them wrangle together with their fun neighbor friend who had to run right inside and change in to HIS tie-dye shirt once he saw we were taking pictures.  The kids all adore him, and even though he's a big 8 year old, James calls him his best friend.  Isn't that cute?

James.  What a kid.  They were playing in this shallow irrigation ditch, but he wants to make sure he's safe, so he ran a grabbed a life jacket from our shed and put it on himself.  Love it.

What did I tell you?  Pure sweetness.

He's gotta be thinking about something important, don't you think?  Oh the way that kids' brain works - I wish I could jump inside of it for a day.

All in all, they look pretty happy with the shirts they created, don't they?  And these shirts, I'm sure, will get lots of use over the summer.  Here's hoping I don't get too sick of seeing them!

This summer we are doing 50 fun activities to keep things fun!  Check them out here!

Mission : Impossible - Day 1 - tie dye shirts

Summer has begin, and with it, so has our MISSION:Impossible summer theme.  (Check out that link for my list of over 50 varied and fun summer activities!) Okay, so I get that we're only 1 day (uh, or 3/4 of a day) into it, but I gotta tell you, I love this plan!  We're going to have so much fun!

First off, I have to say, our daily routine went smoothly.  I'll add one or two things over the next week, but for now it's great.  I just have to make sure to be consistent so the kids know we are really doing it every day.  (Why is it so hard to be consistent, anyway?)

This afternoon, when it rolled around to a good time, I brought the kids into the kitchen with me one by one. We talked over the designs they liked and wanted, added rubberbands to to their white tees, and then it was the next one's turn.  (Funny story - after explaining to Ben he couldn't have a ninja or mountains or a forest on his shirt, he went with a spiral "whirlpool" and 2 twists "tornadoes".  Love that little mind of his!

When that was all over I got our dying kit out and started getting it all ready.  I was originally planning on getting Rit dye in a few colors, but at the craft store I saw a kit that had enough for 5+ shirts in it, and it was cheaper, so I got it.  Amazon doesn't seem to have the same kit I used, but here's a list of some similar ones.

I would have loved to just let the kids go nuts with the dyes, but I thought better of it, and just had them help and coach me on what colors they wanted and where.  Good thing, too, since it was still plenty messy and my hands make me look like Smurfette.

To minimize mess, I used plastic wrap to cover our little card table.  I also brought out a pan for water, that we rinsed and refilled regularly, to soak the shirts before adding the dye.

Here's what it all looked like -

We dyed Madi's first.  All blue and greens.   This is when I figured out that it works great to squeeze the dye into the fabric to distribute it well.  I think it went further this way (I was a little worried we might ot have enough dye for all 5 shirt - but there was plenty left over!)

Ben's was next.  Here's another little tip - lay out a cookie sheet to work on to catch spills, and run a length of plastic wrap over it.  Work on the t-shirt on top of that, and then roll the tee in the plastic wrap afterwards.  

James was next - he was waiting patiently and watching the whole time, eager for his turn.  He wanted a yellow shirt with orange-y stripes down the side.  It was fast and easy!

 
Then Sam's.  This kid is great, I tell you, and he's so serious and earnest sometimes.  He wants things to be just right, and so he rethinks and second-guesses and worries over these kinds of things.  I finally told him to just choose - have fun with it - and no-ones was going to be perfect, but it was all a big experiment.  That helped, and once I started adding the dye, he kept suggesting changing this here, and adding that there.  He ended up with a pretty wild shirt!

And now the shirts are sitting outside, wrapped in their plastic wrap, letting the dye set in and the cloth to dry.  Tonight I'll rinse them in cool water until the water runs clear, and then wash them in a normal cycle in the washer and dryer.  And tomorrow we can see how their shirts turned out!

I can't wait!  I'm really impatient to see what their different designs look like, and they keep checking on their shirts and asking about them, so I'm pretty sure they feel the same way!


By the way, and this is huge - MADELIN took every single picture in this post!  She loves to take pictures, and it was so fun seeing her check out different perspectives and all.  I'm so impressed!

our summer plans : routine

Here's my current draft of our summer routine.  I'm 100% sure I'll be adjusting and tweaking and adding things here and there, but this is generally how our days will go.  I'm more of a routine "order of operations" girl, instead of having a rigid time when we do things - I find that stresses me out!  Except meals, of course.  I can't skip those!


AM - 

family scripture study/reading
(walk)
breakfast - 8

then each kid will do one of the following and rotate, I think. Each activity will last maybe 20 minutes before moving on to the next.  I'm not sure how we'll pick each day, but I'm leaning toward popsicle sticks or rocks that they will pick out of a jar that tells them which they do first of the following -

chores
read (to yourself or a younger sibling)
draw/write (depending on your age)
math game

free time!* - following that rotation the kids will be free until lunch.  Each kid will have a day to help me make lunch, and maybe all meals.  I love this one on one, working side by side time, and find it especially valuable in the summer when all the endless fun seems to pull them away from me day in and day out!

lunch - 11:15

lunch cleanup - everyone helps, and this is a great time to blast music!
garden time - we will all head out to spend 15 minutes tending to our area of the garden.  Each of the kids picked a vegetable to plant, and they will be primarily responsible for the weeding/de-bugging in that part of the garden.  We'll try to keep this short and sweet!

free time!*  - even though we have this loose structure of this routine, I still really, deeply believe in the benefit and need for kids to have a lot of free play time.  There will be hours and hours of free time every day for outside play and friends.

dinner - 6 - I find it really hard to get everyone to get their bodies inside for dinner during the summer.  We have bright sunshine until late in the evening, and there's just not that cue from the sun going down, so of course they want to run and play still!  But, I really want this family time, and we make it happen.
clean up - as a family.  again, blast some music!

read - (we may head outside for another hour or two after clean up, but before bedtime we will come back together as a family and read our current book series.  Right now it's Harry Potter - we're reading the Goblet of Fire - but after this series is done, Tyler will read the Lord of the Rings series to us.)

bedtime - 8 - our routine is jammas, teeth, wash up, family prayer, tuck in, songs or stories


* depending on the activity of the day from our Mission : Impossible theme, we might spend the morning or some of the afternoon free time doing that activity.  This is when the big, extra-fun stuff happens, for the most part.

So, I'd love to know - do you have a routine?  Maybe a more rigid schedule?  Do you do school work kinds of things with your kids over summer, or do you have them work hard on chores and home projects?  Or maybe you just set them free and let them do whatever they want?  I think all of those approaches to summer have benefits, for sure.

our summer plans : Mission : Impossible (free printables)

I decided a while ago, since we aren't travelling anywhere this summer, that we need to make the most of our time in the warmth, sunshine and freedom.  Here's what I decided to do - (I'm pretty excited about it, actually, and I hope the kids are, too, when they find out about it!) -

It's no secret that this is an adventurous, boyish, active family I've got here, so when I was thinking up fun things to do, I wanted to appeal to that part of their nature.  And what kid doesn't like to rise to a challenge? So, when summer begins, we'll have a little family kick-off party to celebrate, I'll let them in on the theme, and then every day or whenever the mood strikes, I'll let them open another MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE mission to do (should they choose to accept it).

It took quite a bit of brainstorming and searching (thank you very much, Pinterest, for making that job easier) and narrowing down to come up with the final list of activities.  I wanted a good mix of indoor and outdoor, active and calm, away from the home, and easy to throw together.

Wanna see what I came up with?  I thought you'd never ask -

1 - A glow-in-the-dark summer kick-off dance party
2 - Tie-dye t-shirts (to be worn throughout the summer for various activities)
3 - Sign up for the library's summer reading program and start our summer reading poster *
4 - Plant flowers in the front yard
5 - Build mini-marshmallow and toothpick buildings
6 - Make a zipline course for toy 'guys' (action figures) outside
7 - Plant the vegetable garden
8 - Play the string and donut game *
9 - Make paper and straw rockets *
10 - Go to the Colorado River walk and play in the water under the bridge
11 - Learn about cup-stacking and have cup-stacking races
12 - Go on a long family bike ride
13 - Create a secret code and write letters to some cousins in the code
14 - Spend the morning in Greer (nearby small town with streams and lakes), bring a picnic
15 - Card board construction set buildings
16 - Make cookies and take to someone
17 - Lego Challenge #1 *
18 - Basketball at the park
19 - Origami
20 - Camp in the backyard
21 - Write letters and draw pictures to send to grandparents
22 - Sidewalk chalk maze for toy cars
23 - Swim at Becker Lake
24 - Harry Potter Day *
25 - Invite a family for a BBQ
26 - Make "tribal" can drums *
27 - Scooter ride and walk
28 -Art project - Drawings to submit to county fair
29 - Mystery service project - "see a need, fill a need"
30 - Make popsicle stick harmonicas *
31 - Play twister in the sprinkler
32 - Make THE LONGEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD
33 - Spend the morning at Sipe Wildlife Area
34 - Lego Challenge #2 *
35 - Make frozen yogurt in the ice cream maker *
36 - Play soccer around the yard
37 - Make a poster of "listening, loving, seeing..etc."
38 - Relay races! *
39 - Write a run-on story (one sentence per person, take turns)
40 - Paint a self portrait
41 - Build a boat to float in the ditch
42 - Play freeze dance
43 - Go on a walk somewhere new
44 - Make cup and balloon marshmallow shooters and have a war
45 - Play soccer at the school
46 - Lego Challenge #3 *
47 - Go fishing
48 - Make slime
49 - Heart attack someone's house
50 - Star Wars Day *
51 - Sidewalk chalk - fill one sidewalk square each and then take a 'tour' of the exhibits
52 - Play jugball catch *
53 - Art Project for the county fair - painting
54 - Take an ABC photo tour of the town *
55 - Make paper bag puppets and have a show
56 - Colored ice paintings on a big paper outside
57 - Lego Challenge #4 *

That's it!  I'm sure, since life is really good and happening, we won't do all of those.  But, if needed, they are ready and waiting to be accomplished!  I plan of following this order, roughly, since it mixes things up in a pretty good variety, and if I get my act together and my printer working, I'll be printing out this little thing below and filling it in with the days' activity, in an envelope for the kids to open, and dramatically and suspenseful-y.  (it has ample space under the tagline to write in whatever you want!)

Should be fun!

OH! I almost forgot - those activities above with the asterisks?  They are ones I hope to elaborate on at some point, either with pictures, or links, or descriptions - ones that I didn't think were super self-explanatory.  (or maybe they are, but just not for me!)

If you want to throw together your own summer MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE, feel free to use my ideas and the printable and have a lot of fun!

AND - keep your eyes open for the summer schedule I threw together.  It's not all fun and games around here, poor kids.  I like to keep 'em a little busy, and we have a few serious things we need to accomplish, good weather or no



*** - here's our daily summer routine, so far.  I like a little bit of structure to keep things exciting, but also get stuff done!  Check it out.