Rainbow Party

We started Rainbow day with a purple breakfast of blueberry muffins, and mango blueberry smoothies.
We invited Ben and Syndi to join our party!

Justice and Erik were taking a break from the activities and watching everyone else make their stepping stones. Sean was in charge of getting the quick crete but bought cement instead. Most of the stepping stones turned out beautifully but unfortunately some of them will have to be redone.

We made tie dye shirts, everyone except Ian wanted swirl patterns so I attempted to demonstrate how to do it. I remember doing it at Keepers Camp last year so I was hoping that I learned how to do it better. Syndi donated a really nice kit that she got from a garage sale for $3!

I did Ruby's dress and 'helped' Ian quite a bit but it was really enjoyable to have all the other children able to do their own dyeing. Even Erik was mostly responsible.

Savannah was hot so Ben and Aaron went and got our beach umbrella but since Savannah had worked it out with sunglasses they used it for shade for themselves. We were really happy that the sun decided to shine on our fun day!

Jess spent all week making this beautiful Jello Ring for our party. Ian and Ruby did not like it but everyone else enjoyed it. Sean made us burgers on the outdoor toaster (BBQ) that were to die for! We also enjoyed rainbow dips of salsa, guac, sour cream, and peppers. Jess brought rainbow sherbet and I made funfetti cake! I think one of my highlights was definitely the food.

Libby has really started talking~it seemed like she was trying to tell everyone how to properly make their stepping stones.

You gotta love to see those boys work, they all took turns mixing the cement and getting it to the perfect consistency for the stones. I found some really cool stones in rainbow colors to commemorate rainbow week.

The hardest part for me was doing something every day but it really cemented the learning for the children. Even Ruby knows how to spell red now. Using so many different methods (M&M's, watercolor, light, milk, pencils, crayons, food, books, actions, movies, and more) helped them to see all the ways light and color are in the environment and how creative God is in his use of color.

Thank you so much to Jess and her family for doing this together and for such fun and memories! and thank you to Renee and Hilary for the ideas!

Blue Day

How could I have forgot?!? Yesterday while at my house Jake ran out to the play set and whacked (I'm a home schooler, I can make up words if I want to) his foot on the border. He broke his toe! This is a picture of the covered wagon that the children made out of our wagon and pulled Jake around in. We ended up taking the covered part off for the walk, but Aaron was such a great friend pulling Jake and including him in the exploration. Ruby even hitched a ride with Jake toward the end of the walk, it was very sweet.

Back to Jessica's for Blue Day on Friday! We began by doing some copy work and coloring. This week has showed me where I need to improve on my teaching and also what my children are capable of, especially the one that tries to get out of work by saying that they don't know how to do it. All of the children were so respectful and hard working. We fit all of us, Libby and I included into the powder bathroom. It was the only room with no windows and completely dark. Jess did a really cool experiment with flashlights and color pieces. We were able to see some of the secondary colors but when we combined them all, they did not make white. Some scientific discovery told us that the experiment did not work the way it was intended because the flashlights were not true white and the walls were not white either. I keep telling myself it is the process not the product!

Next, the children made pie graphs. They figured out percentages, and did some division and graphing using skittles. It was yummy, and I learned a thing or two.

Poor Erik had me helping him and we had to keep redrawing the percentage pieces. I was really grateful that I taught bar graphing, it was much easier to explain!

We had blueberry bagels with blue cream cheese, blue (dark purple) grapes, and blueberries! Blue food that is not really bad for you is difficult to find. However after lunch Jess and I were not satisfied! Jessica's wonderful husband went to the local Mexican restaurant and brought us back chips, salsa and a delicious Chalupa!What a guy and what a way to save the day!

Green Day

Some green frog eggs that Erik found on our walk after Green Day Activities.

Thursday was Green Day in our Rainbow Week! We began by experimenting with watercolors. When we first started Jake said, "mom, I don't really like this." Not to toot my own horn I think I did a pretty good job explaining and demonstrating the techniques. I am NOT an artist. I am much to picky and I like things to look like Hilary's crafts. Watercolor is definitely not a precise craft. Savannah and Erik and a little bit Taylor resisted using the water because it would mess up their picture, Savannah was persuaded by the temptation of a watercolor pin for Keepers at Home.

By the end of our 'session' the Keepers and Contenders had earned pins, and the Cub Scouts had earned belt loops, Not Bad!

My favorite part was that Jake said, "hey mom, remember when I said I didn't really like watercolor? Well I was wrong, I like it!" For me, that made everything we were doing worth it!

Ruby is such a great little helper she just loves to feed Justice. If she is not there when the babies need fed she goes and gets her baby and feeds it.

Ian was pretty excited for Green Day lunch! His favorite foods are green, again the funny thing is that we forgot to serve the green broccoli. We had Delicious green limeade floats, grapes, kiwi, celery, pistachio pudding, and spinach herb lettuce wraps with ham and cheese. Yum, I wish I could eat like that every day.

When Jess got to my house Ian looked at the boys and exclaimed, "Hey look their PJ's match, they are twins!" It cracks me up that he didn't realize that, just like when I said something about Renee's son, Moredcai being adopted my children were shocked!

After lunch we made window clings using tissue paper and liquid starch, they turned out really pretty but were so messy (especially the ones that went on the window starch side touching) that I was not able to take any pictures of them.

At 1:30 we were done and all cleaned up and looked at each other with a big sigh. Jess said exactly what I was thinking, "It is a long time until bed!" We decided to call Ben and Syndi and go for a walk. It was perfect! We all enjoyed stretching our legs, some fresh air and exploration. Erik has an internal magnet toward anything frog and at the pond he found some frog eggs. Of course with our frog saga we could not just leave them there so Taylor, Ben and Erik went home at got a bucket (They picked a really nice one off of the shelves that we use for honey) and we collected the eggs and brought them home. We are anxiously awaiting the hatching of the eggs.

Yellow Day

For Yellow day Libby wore a little outfit that was mine when I was a baby! She kept taking the booties off and sucking on her toes. Ever since she discovered her toes they are constantly in her mouth. Her feet get that cold clammy feeling that comes from being wet! Sometimes she misses her mouth and gets poked in the eye. It makes me laugh, but I do feel bad for her because she looks so surprised when it happens. We began by watching a Bill Nye the Science Guy DVD about light and color. He did not have a Biblical World view but we discussed that and moved on. My favorite part was the crayon factory. I would love to go take a tour of a crayon factory, anyone know where the closest one is?

We enjoyed popcorn (yellow) with the movie and Jess even put some skittles in the bottom of their popcorn containers! How fun!

They worked on some more parts for their lapbooks, and Jess saved the day again by her extreme patience working with Erik on his letters. That boy does not want to attempt anything unless he knows he can excel at it. She talked about being grown up and independent and practice. I know I need to work with him more on writing but he knows how to push my buttons. Please pray for me in that area.

For lunch we had lemonade, 'Olivia Eggs' (deviled eggs), Honey Mustard, home made pretzels, yellow peppers, bananas, and pears.

I needed a few items for tomorrow and Jess offered to keep the kids while I went to the store, ALONE!! Seriously the first time since Libby was born that I have been completely alone. I went to the Library, grocery store and dollar store in 45 minutes!

Orange Day

Tuesday, we met at our house and I was in charge of the activities. I felt some pressure to measure up to the fun we had at Jess' house so we began Orange day with a chromatography experiment using coffee filters and watching the water travel up the filter and separate the colors. There were some really cool designs and we discovered the highlighter pens do not work.
Then, we had a color scavenger hunt. The children had to find the next clue on an object of the color they just found. I bought a scavenger hunt book from Klutz Books, it has been a great investment and we have used it over and over again. At the end of the hunt the clue was black, it took some hunting but they finally found a HUGE bag of M&M's in my oven! We used the M&M's to do some estimating (which really made Ian sad, because he did not understand, poor little guy) we also did graphing (it was much more difficult than I anticipated. But thanks to some quick thinking on Jess' part the activity was saved) OK so I know that was a run on sentence but frankly my brain cannot figure out how to fix it. Then they got to eat the M&M's. I also helped myself to a few.


We painted a color wheel on paper plates, we discovered that we had to paint the bottom because the paint did not stick on the front side. Way to adapt! Then we used Aaron's Snap Circuit and spun the plates. It was supposed to turn white but instead we only say primary colors. Maybe it would have worked if we could spin it faster?
We had Orange Lunch: Grilled Cheese sandwiches (we call them boy-cheese not girl cheese), Orange Peppers, Peaches, Apricots, Tomato Soup, and Orange Juice. Funny thing is I forgot about the Carrots.

Even Honor and Justice had on Orange for the festivities! I love those cheeks, only wish I knew how to crop Ian out of the photo. After lunch we dyed eggs and experimented using rubber bands, wax and mixing colors. I divided up the eggs only to discover later that I accidentally used one dozen that were not hard boiled. That should be fun to figure out. We tried to do the 'spin technique' but they all spun the same.

This is Aaron's new picture look. After Jess and the family left Syndi and Ben came over to do a wee bit of the American Revolution. We all painted some Red Coats, and Minute Men. It was very tedious but all the children, save Erik did a very precise job. Erik's soldier was painted all red because he was wounded and dieing!

Syndi was extremely patient with Ruby during the painting time. Ruby just kept wanting more and more paint and ended up with it in her hair and on her arms. I felt bad that I did nothing to help, I just laughed and Syndi cleaned it up.
Syndi read the story of the Liberty Bell and they added one more component to their lap books! All in All it was another successful day!

Red Day

Monday was the kick-off day of Rainbow week. We discussed the creation of rainbows, Noah and the Flood, the color wheel and primary and secondary colors. Jess did an experiment using milk, food coloring, and dish soap and we watched the colors mix. It was really neat to see the different bowls mix in different ways. The children then drew pictures of what they observed.

It is fun to work with Jess on this because she is a great gatherer, organizer, and planner, and I am really good at doing what I am told to do. I was a little concerned that Taylor was going to get frustrated with Savannah doing her project exactly the same. I asked Taylor about that and she replied, "Imitation is the best form of flattery." What a great sport!

I admire how Jess gets right in there and experiences it with the children. Probably my favorite was the ice cubes that were made using primary colors and then put into bags to melt. Red and Blue, Yellow and Blue, and Red and Yellow.

Ruby did some of the experiments but mostly looked at books and helped to feed Honor and Justice. It is pretty cute to see her hold Honor who is over half the size of her. She also spent a lot of time nursing, diapering, and burping her baby.

We had a red lunch: Braeburn apples, red pepper, craisins, strawberries, pizza and Cranberry Soda (which my children did not care for-at all).

The rest of the day was equally busy. We went to Cub Scouts, Cash n Carry, JoAnn Fabric, back to Jess' to pick up Taylor, Ruby and Ian, home for a quick dinner then off to a Ladies' Tea with Deanna and her girls and Jess and Savannah and Taylor, Libby and I. Whew! This was a successful and fun day 1.