Summertime Fun and Activities

I disappeared for a while!  No great adventures or fabulous vacations to write about, just life with three kids at home all day.  It's been a busy mix of swimming lessons, summer camps, play dates, and other random things from our summertime bucket list.  (We're actually making some good progress on this!).

It seems to be that the kids' new favorite activity is geocaching.  I am hoping it is because they love to explore the great outdoors and see new things, but really I think it must be the swag.  Either way, I'm happy.  It gets us out of the house and away from passive activities on electronic devices. 

Here's a few pics from our latest exploits:

Caching In!

We finally tried geocaching for the first time over the weekend, and the kids had a great time.  (We've been loyal letterboxers for 7 years now, so we'd been reluctant to think about geocaching.)  Now we definitely have a new family hobby to add to our list of things to do.  

Our very first attempt at finding a cache was not successful.  The girls were disappointed that we didn't find anything at first, but we later found out that that particular cache was missing.  We located another geocache on Sunday, and our second try went much better.  We found the cache, the kids traded trinkets, and we logged our first find!  Hurray!  

Because of where the cache was hidden, it sort of looks like the kids are in jail.  I took another photo close by so I could get all the kids together.  I think we will have to do this again.  

San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

I took a day trip to San Francisco with the girls to see the Conservatory of Flowers.  We thought we would take advantage of the free admission that the Conservatory offers on the first Tuesday of the month.  While we planned to go see the new butterfly exhibit, we never actually made it inside.  We packed a picnic lunch and ate in the outside gardens.  The kids ended up having such a wonderful time playing and exploring the area that the Conservatory was closed by the time everyone decided that they were ready to go in.  :(  No matter--I don't think the kids minded at all.  They had such a great time looking around, no one felt like the missed out on anything!  Audrey was fascinated by all the flowers, people, birds, and activity.  It ended up being a great outing anyways.

Cantor Art Center

Saturday was a gorgeous day in the Bay Area.  The kiddos and I took a drive to the Stanford campus and ended up having a picnic lunch in the Rodin Sculpture Garden.  It was the perfect place to hang out--plenty of shade, lots of space for Audrey to run around, and tons of benches and picnic tables to choose from.  Kelsey and Maddie enjoyed wandering around and viewing the color took of sculptures. 

Afterward, we went into the Art Center.  We spent about half an hour browsing the rooms (the length of Audrey's attention span).  The museum has a nice collection of pieces from around the world and a good representation of different time periods.  I think my favorite part was seeing Rodin's Thinker.  The kids had a good time....Kelsey was interested in the Greek and Roman art, and Maddie found the Japanese art engaging.  I am hoping we can return later this summer so we can look at some of the sections we didn't get to see this visit.  Given that admission to the museum is free, a visit of any length is well worth it.

Happy Father's Day

Very best wishes for a Happy Father's Day to all the dads, grandpas, uncles, and friends who help take care of our little ones!  A really special Father's Day to my handsome husband!  I'm so fortunate to be sharing this parenting journey with you.

End of the School Year Insanity

Anyone else feeling the squeeze of end-of-the-school year madness?  It seems like the number of activities, projects, and performances go through the roof during the months of May and June.  This week we have had an open house, science fair, field trip, tap dancing dress rehearsal (and show tonight), middle school social, 18 month check-up for Audrey (with shots and fever to go along with it), and Pocket Day (for which Maddie decided she wanted to make a special pocket shirt and so we sewed 60 pockets to her T-shirt!!!!).  I'm so on-the-go right now, I can't fall asleep at night until 3AM because I keep thinking that I am forgetting to do something, feed someone, or be somewhere.  I'm ashamed that we've eaten pizza so many times in the past two weeks that the kids actually asked for rice and beans last night! 

How many more days until school gets out?

Summer Time Fun

Summer is one of my family's favorite times of the year.  We love the longer days, sleeping in, working in the garden, and lazy days with nothing planned.  Each of the kids usually has a couple of summer camp activities or swimming lessons, but we kind of prefer the unstructured days with the freedom to do what we want whenever we want. 

Since M has been a bit sad about the school coming to a close (she loves going to school and seeing her friends), we made our annual Andrews Family Summer Time Fun List so she would have something to look forward to.  Our list is pretty informal.  We basically write down every possible thing that sounds like it might be fun to do.  Then we pull out the calendar and see how we can get to as many of these activities and ideas as we can.

So far it's worked pretty well for us.  We don't usually get to everything on the list, but we save it to use as  next summer's inspiration.  This year, some of our list includes the following:

1. See redwood trees
2. Bubbles
3. Cherry picking
4. Swimming with friends
5. Play dates with cousins
6. Leaf pressing
7. Letterboxing (visit here to learn more about this really cool activity.  In the past 7 years, we have done this in 2 continents and 6 states!)
8. Gardening
9. Picnic at the beach 
10. Visit Angel Island
11. Ride bikes and skateboards
12. Build a geodesic dome
13. See the new Monsters, Inc. movie
14. Make cheese
15. Make lots of ice cream

Last summer we tried having theme weeks (i.e., Olympics Week, Scrapbooking Week, Beading Week, Science Week).  The girls are considering if they want to do something like this again.  Our theme weeks were definitely a lot of fun, but required some planning and organizing.

I hope that this gives you some ideas and inspiration for your own summer plans!

Ribbon Hair Clips

I am such a fan of every project and DIY that is on Make It and Love It.  I wish that I had just a fraction of her creativity and imagination.  Anyways, with four girls in the household, there's plenty of hair to fix, brush, and style.  And unfortunately, I was not gifted in this area.  I can barely get my own hair looking presentable, much less anyone else's (poor kids).  I've found that the easiest and most convenient way to pull back the girls' hair is with a hair clip.  Fast, easy and cute! 

She has a fantastic tutorial on how to make them.  The directions are easy to follow, and I enjoyed making lots of different kinds of clips.  You don't need much ribbon, so I was able to use scraps from my ribbon bag.  The clips don't slip out which is great with baby fine hair, and they are gentle on the hair.

And clips look cute on the kids.  For some variety, I glued on an organza flower or a felt flower to decorate the clip--so girly!  A actually likes them and doesn't mind having them in her hair.  They are easy to put together so you can make one to match every outfit. 

It's Official!

It's official!  I am now mom to a teenager.  Egad!  How did that happen?  K turns 13 today, and it is incredible to reflect on how she has gone from being such a tiny and fragile baby to becoming a self-assured, capable young woman.  What an amazing process parenting is and what a privilege it is to be a parent. 

Happy birthday, K!!  We are so proud of you and love you immensely.  

M worked so hard to ensure that K had a really special day.  She did extra chores, got and wrapped presents, and even helped A make a present for her sister.  What an amazing kid!

The last photo is from one of my favorite moments of the day.  A wanted to read, so she got some magazines, sat down in our reading corner and called to her daddy to come and read with her.

My Baby

Well, we were SUPPOSED to be a part of the Live Below the Line challenge this week.  However, A ended up with a partially dislocated elbow over the weekend (very hard--how can you explain everything to a little one who is so young?).  HH and I were sleep deprived Saturday night and spent Sunday in the ER.  Poor baby!  She was definitely not happy with the doctors, nurses, and X-ray technician. 

We returned to the orthopedist this morning.  Fortunately, A's elbow was fine.  Either it reset itself or the ER doctor reset it.  I am just really glad that she is feeling better. 

Unfortunately, with all the chaos I was not able to get ready for our challenge.  We decided that all three of us will take this on next week together.  M was disappointed (I think she had mentally prepared herself for this), but she understood.  So check in with us next week to see how it's going!

Live Below the Line

K, M, and I have decided to participate in this year's Live Below the Line challenge.  The purpose of the challenge is to increase awareness of the extreme poverty faced by 1.4 billion people around the world.  From April 29 to May 3, we will be restricting our food expenses to $1.50 per day.  (M and I will be participating next week; K will complete the challenge the following week--it's her birthday on Wednesday and it's a little hard to give up ice cream on your birthday!)

Even before starting this challenge, we have a greater appreciation for our own good fortune.  Hunger and limited food options are not difficulties that we have had to cope with.  M was shocked at how little $1.50 will get you at the grocery store (i.e., a bag of Chex Mix is two days of her food budget).  She said to me, "I can't even afford a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!"

So here's to helping others!  The girls chose to participate for care.org.  We are hoping to reach our goal of $100 this year, but even if we don't, hopefully we'll be able to increase the world's compassion for others.  Here's a link to our Live Below the Line page. 

My Girls

I know Mother's Day isn't for few more weeks, but this is why I love being a mom.

Benefit Beading Party

A couple of weeks ago, we hosted a kids' beading party to benefit K and M's school.  Seats were sold at a dinner auction, and we ended up selling out!  Since we've never really done something like this before, we limited the number of kids to six and set the ticket price at $20.00.  The party lasted two hours and light snacks were offered. 

It was one of the easiest and most fun kid parties we've ever hosted!  We set out several trays of beads on our dining room table, along with several sample projects from which the kids could choose.  K, MHH, and I helped the kids with starting and finishing projects.  M helped with explaining how to make a particular necklace or bracelet.  A had impeccable timing and slept through the entire party. 

 

The girls had a great time.  After an hour and a half, I had to coax them away from the table to get them to eat snacks and play Bingo (we gave out bags of beads as prizes).  I think they could have kept beading for another two hours!!  Afterwards, we passed out little goodie bags of beads and stretch cord so they could make a bracelet at home.

The feedback was positive with one parent even suggesting that we raise the price for next year.  Given how this year's party went, I think we could even offer more seats.  Even better than hosting a successful fundraiser for the school, K and M made new friends with some kids that they didn't know. 

 

Healthy Gummy Bears!

Another one of our spring break projects was making our own healthy gummies using this recipe.  We didn't follow her recipe exactly, but we did use her general guidelines for fruit and juice measurements.  K said that she wanted to make a blue gummy, and as you can see, they sort of turned out more purple. 

Our recipe ended up being 1/4 cup each of lemon and lime juice, 1 cup of pomegranate juice, 1 cup of blueberries, 1 cup of bananas, 5 packets of Knox gelatin, and a generous squeeze of honey.  They were tart but tasted delicious.  Since we didn't have any tiny cookie cutters around the house, we went to the clay section at Michael's where M chose a set of "treat" metal cutters.  It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but there's an ice cream cone, a pineapple, an apple, and a mug.

They turned out really cute!  Everyone loved eating them as a snack, and they're so much healthier than regular gummy bears which often contain corn syrup, artificial flavors, and food dyes.

Terracotta Warriors

Last week the kids were on spring break.  While we didn't go anywhere or do anything big, we did get to visit some local places and do a few projects that have been on our list of To Do's for a long time. 

On Sunday, we took a trip up to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.  Hard to believe that it was everyone's first trip to the museum.  It was a Target-sponsored Family Day, and it was busy!  A staffer at the museum mentioned that the free days bring in 2-3 times the usual number of visitors.  Despite the huge line to get in, we waited for only about 30 minutes.  The museum was fantastic about taking care of their guests.  Several people circulated around the line, passed out brochures about the exhibit,  and answered questions.  At one point, a "warrior" came out to pose for pictures with people.

The exhibit was impressive to view.  I was surprised at how serene and elegant the warriors were even though they were soldiers.  The handicraft and innovation on the other artifacts found in the tomb was amazing as well.  

So glad that we had the opportunity to see these beautiful pieces.  The kids enjoyed the exhibit because they had learned about the works of art in school.  I was surprised at how enthusiastic K and M were when I initially suggested that we go.  Everyone enjoyed themselves.  It would be great to some day return and look at the rest of the museum.

Rock On!

Kelsey and Maddie have been a bit under the weather. I've had to think of interesting things to do (inside) the house that are fun and (hopefully) teach us a little something. Lucky us, I found these instructions for growing your own rock candy lollipops! The girls had a great time picking out flavors and colors. Kelsey decided to make green mint lollipops, and Maddie made a batch of blue vanilla.

We've let them grow for about a week, and they are getting pretty big. We actually added closer to about five and a half cups of sugar. :P  (I don't think we are going to be doing this activity too many times!)  I'm not sure how long we will end up letting them grow. The girls want to see how big they will actually get, and I think they look kind of cool in the glasses.

Sunbread

Kelsey was sick today so we had a quiet day at home and made one of our favorite recipes. It comes from Elisa Klevan's book Sunbread. The girls love the gorgeous illustrations, and while we considered making some animals from the dough, in the end we made our usual sun loaf. 

The house smelled like wonderful baking bread!  I think freshly baked bread is one of my favorite things to eat ever.

Silly me, I forgot to take a picture of the actual loaf of sunbread.  That afternoon Maddie had the brilliant idea to make our own butter, so guess what we had for dinner tonight?