July 4th Extravaganza

It Is July 4th!!!! We just came from a flag raising at our Church and the kids nabbed these awesome flags from the centerpieces. We put them in the bushes to show our patriotism.  All Day I quizzed the kids on what day the Declaration of Independence was signed and what happened after that. Luck for them Xander was wearing a shirt with '76 on it to help.

Off to the Zoooooooooo!!!! The kids wanted to go to the petting animals and I said that if I get my glazed almonds then they could go to the petting animals. DEAL! Love those almonds.

Xander asked the lady in the petting area what they use the wool for and if they use it to make all the clothes for the people who work at the zoo. She giggled and said no but do you want to learn how to make yarn? Lila and Charlotte learned how to make yarn out of the wool  from the sheep.

Later we went to THE LAIR. It is the new reptile exhibit at the zoo.  It has been under construction for awhile so we were excited to see it.  Then they pushed us out a couple minutes later because they were closing but I caught the picture below while the guard was yelling at me. ;) 

Here we are enjoying Alan's BBQ.

What is the Fourth of July with out a laser  party??? Alan set up his lasers and we turned on the music . The kids danced while I tried to figure out how to use my camera in the dark.

This is Lila.

Xander and Charlotte

Lila and Charlotte. I think the kids got to bed pretty late but we all had a wonderful time thanks to a fabulous DJ dad!  Love him tons!  :)

Summer Crazy.

Swash Buckling Sword Fighting

Sweet Smilin'

At first this was some kind of tree on an island in the
Avatar movie but i think it  looks like a duck.

Ok, First let me say that LAUSD has shortened our summer to about 6 weeks so they could sync up all the different school schedules. It was really annoying because you never knew if your kids had the same vacation dates if they were in different schools. Thereby giving you NO vacation. Now that they are fixing that we a really jacked up for this one summer. Anyway now we are in the Crazy Summer of fun! On top of Swimming lessons, piano lessons, and Karate lessons the kids and I started a list of what we wanted to do. You have seen lists like this ALL over pinterest and blogs. Here is the beginning of ours. The first 10 days we went off to Utah to see family! YAY!!! Now that we are back. We Started off with a Glow Party.  I think they had a great time and it was super easy but then Lila hit me with what was up for tomorrow. The 4th of July. THE ZOO! What???

Look what the wind blew in...

So. Cal has been incredibly windy lately. Leaves from tree across the community have flown into our back yard and Charlotte found a favorite one today. We decided to paint the back of it and turn it into a stencil. We then laid the painted leaf on a paper and made sure all the veins made contact with the paper. Once pulled, this is what we got. Fun little project with the kids.

Christmas Earnings

 Every Christmas the kids want to buy each other gifts and they always think that the sky's the limit! Last year I started having them earn money with extra chores at the beginning of December. Whatever they earned they could spend on their siblings. The month went so great! Because they were always earning for each other, their thoughts were always on service and their attitudes became so much better. Here is what I did this year as a quick project to collect their money. They ran to grab a random kids cup to collect coins and I thought to myself "no way."

  I quickly grabbed the red disposable cups, adhered card stock to the top with glue dots and let them decorate. I cut out a slot for them to drop their money in with an exacto knife. I knew that if I didn't close it up coins would go "missing." Voila! I realize that with a little more time my project could have been a lot prettier but the kids had a good time and I don't have ugly Shamu cups as an alternative.