Backyard Breakfast Birthday Bash

We celebrated Naomi's 9th and Johnathan's 7th birthdays this year with a backyard breakfast bash!

 

Here are the BEFORE pictures.  All set up to bounce, decorate pillowcases...

mix pretend coffee and play with homemade flubber...

 

 eat donuts...

make yogurt parfaits...

and, of course, the adults needed real coffee, because this party started at 8 am. (You gotta beat the heat when you try to have an outdoor party in July in Texas!)

And here are the DURING pictures.  We had a lot of fun!  So much fun, in fact, that we used up every drop of energy and did not take any AFTER pictures.  But if I had, they probably would have featured a very large blob of homemade flubber with every color mashed together and smooshed into the grass!  We are so thankful for good friends for our kids and the fun of watching them play.

 

Happy birthday, Naomi and Johnathan!!

Sensory Summer Part 2

Another squishy sensory experiment... homemade flubber!  It was amazing to make and play with.

 

 

To make it, we dissolved a teaspoon of Borax in a 1/2 cup of warm water in one bowl.  Then we mixed a bottle of glue with a cup of warm water and food coloring in another bowl.  Then we poured the glue mixture into the Borax mixture and mixed it until it was... well, flubbery!

 

We did this one while Abby was napping because Borax and babies don't mix.

I found zillions of versions of this recipe on Pinterest, and I also discovered it works with glitter glue - so pretty!

Happy Birthday, Johnathan!

 

It's Johnathan's 7th birthday!

We celebrated him with lemon cake, Legos, Star Wars... all his favorites.

 

His birthday was on a Sunday this year, so we spent the morning at church, had pizza for lunch, and watched David Meece perform at a concert at church in the evening. 

 

We love our funny, sweet, insightful son!

Sensory Summer Part 1

These unscheduled days of summer have been a great break, which means we have time to do more messy, fun, outside projects that are wonderful for sensory development.  One of the first ones we tried was sidewalk chalk painting.

 

I got the simple recipe that uses cornstarch, water, and food coloring here:
http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2013/06/summer-boredom-buster-sidewalk-chalk-fun.html

Now we have a beautiful sidewalk (until the sprinkler hits it!).

Happy 4th of July!

 Our 4th of July was filled with... 

Food (Flourless Chocolate Cake was fabulous!)

 

Fireworks  (The Kurten Volunteer Fire Dept. put on an amazing show, as usual!)

and lots of FUN!

This post was brought to you by the letter F!

Life

 Amidst a season of loss, the exuberance of our kids reminds me that God's mercies are new every morning.  These photos capture some moments of joyful play with Grandma and Grandpa Stata during our second visit to Colorado Springs.

 

Running through the sprinkler with Grandma....

 

 

 

Slaying the "Blue Goose" Dragon Grandpa

 

Remembering Grandpa Gardner

Grandpa Gardner was an Oklahoma farm boy, one of nine children in his family.  As a young man he flew P-40s over North Africa and Italy in World War II.  Later he retired from the Air Force and ran multiple cattle ranches and a sod farm until he retired at age 80.  I have wonderful memories from my childhood of riding horses with him, driving out to his ranches to "help" followed by hamburgers at the rural diner, and having family dinners at Furr's Cafeteria.  He was a  gentle man, full of love for his family and delight in his great-grandchildren.