Adventures of Evie

  This weekend Evie and I spent some time looking for and planning out some fun things for summer. Our schedule stays pretty full but we want to really make the most of this last summer we have before she starts school in the fall. We found this summer bucket list online and while some of these things aren't going to be within our reach, a lot of them are definitely things we can do! Pretty shortly after our list was printed up Evie found a way to check off our first item...dancing in the rain! Luckily she was already in her swimming suit when it started raining so it was no big deal for her to get a little wet! It's going to be a fun and BUSY summer! :)

  Today was a holiday for us so everyone was off work which was nice. It was hot outside and we had the morning to pretty much do whatever we wanted before we headed off for a family cookout. This is a project we did over the weekend since I didn't end up taking any photos of our Monday! We made towers out of pool noodles and shaving cream.  Evie had a lot of fun with this although she couldn't really spray the cream out herself so I had to make big piles of it that she could dip her pool noodle pieces into. They really stuck together well though! At the end clean up was also a breeze! We just hosed out the pool, swished the noodle pieces around to get the cream off and let them all dry. I have some other fun things planned for her this summer with the shaving cream so I'm glad she liked the texture and playing around in it! :)

  Today we finished up making some summer crafts and we played with our water bombs. We made these yesterday but didn't have time to use them much since it was so rainy. She had a lot of fun tossing them around at things...and people! After we finished up with that we tested out our summer obstacle course! First she had to go through a few pool noodle rings... Then through some rings on the ground and onto these posts she had weave in between... Then after shooting a marshmallow through a ring on the trampoline she got to fish through her cereal pool for golden eggs...one of which held her prize! She loved this so much that we had to do it over and over! For the first round I put her prize into a water balloon but that was tricky for her to break open so we changed over to the eggs. All in all it was a fun day though! Looking forward to more summer fun with this. :)

  Today was a rainy and gloomy day. While it was pretty gross out it wasn't super cold and Evie was begging to go outside, so we decided to set up her little plastic pool in the garage and play anyway. I got a bunch of pool noodles recently at Dollar Tree for us to do projects with this summer. I have tried to do this in the past but usually they get snatched up pretty quickly by crafters and they are three times as much at other stores. But today for some reason there were a TON left so we seized the opportunity and grabbed some to play with. We also picked up some sponges to make water bombs with. When we got home I had Evie change into her suit and I cut some of the noodles into rounds. Then we added foam and water and viola! Cereal bowl pool. She had a lot of fun fishing through them, finding rings of the same color, and also just tossing them around. This is a great sensory play idea for younger kids but I have big plans for ours! Hopefully tomorrow it will be sunny enough to ...

  Today was library day and Evie was especially excited about it because today she got to sign up for the summer reading program! She has to read 20 books (which will be no problem at all for us!) and then she gets a T-shirt and a prize. After we got our books and a board game to try out we headed down to the ice cream place for a fish bait sundae.  Then it was time to head to dance! This is her last class before her big recital and I can't wait to see how she does. She's very excited to get on stage in her costume and show off. :)

  Today was a busy day for us. I started a new side job this week so it's been a bit of a learning curve as to how to fit both of those into our schedule. Today it was pretty chilly outside and Evie slept in and woke up cranky so she took a bubble bath and then had some breakfast and by then I was off work for the day. So we skipped our activities and decided to go outside and get some yard work done while it wasn't brutally hot. We mowed the grass, trimmed up the fence line, planted our garden and our new flowers, and then Evie helped me blow the grass of the walk and driveway. We spent the rest of the afternoon jumping on the trampoline, playing board games and eating snacks, It was a fun Monday and a good start to our week. :)

  Friday is finally here and while it's typically our library day, we had so many errands to run today that we just didn't make it there. We did get a new game for Evie today though and she LOVES it. It's a scavenger hunt type game and you have to run around the house looking for specific items and also play games, answer trivia questions, and most importantly...avoid bedtime! All of Evie's most favorite things.  We also added a little pocket to the back of her puppet theatre today to hold the little princess puppets we made. There are plans to make some props for these but summer gets so hectic for us that it could be a bit before we get to that!  We had a ton of fun making little stories and shows today though! It was super windy so it didn't last a long time (she really wanted to play outside!) but it was fun nonetheless!

  We are still spring cleaning this week so while I was decluttering and cleaning up the house Evie settled in to make some more Aquabead designs. This kit has really been handy recently. She loves making the little characters and animals and it keeps her busy so I can get a few things done around the house.  This evening when everything was all wrapped up we took our second trip to Kings Island for the year! Evie was a little more cautious this time than she typically is and stuck to the little rides but it was still a fun evening. She found a friend to ride some things with too! It was a slow night and we didn't have to wait in any lines which is always nice! So she got to ride almost everything she wanted to before we went home. Only one more day til the weekend and we can't wait! 

  Today was dance day and to be honest, we didn't do much else! Evie has her recital in about a week so today we tried on her full costume to make sure it fits and looks the way we want for photos. Then we ran through her dance a few times to practice. After that we put everything back away neatly and then played outside for a bit.  In the afternoon we had some snack bowls while we waited for the rain to stop so we could play again. It wasn't a super busy day but we had a lot of fun and got a lot done! :)

  Today we decided to have a craft day! We are spring cleaning and that means we're shuffling all our craft supplies around. So today we broke some out and had some fun with them. The first one we did was this Aquabeads Princess set. If you're not familiar with Aquabeads they are little balls that you arrange on a plastic tray to make designs. This one was for Ariel. After you match up the beads to the colors on the guide you spray them with water and then they mold together. Evie ended up being really patient and precise with these but she did need a bit of help. There is a base set that comes with a pen that I think would have helped a lot so we added that to our wishlist for the future! Today we made Ariel, Tiana, and Jasmine. Once they were molded we took them off the tray and played some games with them! Evie wanted to make a puppet show so for our next craft... This puppet theatre that I started ages ago and never got around to finishing up! It still needs a bit of fine...

  On Mothers Day this year, Evie and I went up to Carillon Park in Dayton with my parents. There is a building there which depicts the 1913 Great Flood of Dayton and I'm not sure if it was seeing the images life sized or sitting in a boat from the floods or what did it but it really didn't sit well with Evie. Since then she has been consistently asking me if we are going to have a flood or a hurricane at our house. Even though I've explained to her many times that we don't live close enough to water for a flood (or a hurricane!) she just didn't seem comforted. Then her great grandfathers house flooded (not badly) and that just made matters worse! So today I decided to do a hands on activity for her to show her what causes a flood and why we aren't in danger of one. First we made a little land mass in a bin filled with water and then we used princesses to act as the houses. I let her fill it up a little and then I showed her how the sun typically lowers the level...

  This year we are trying to do as many little weekend trips as we can squeeze in. Summer is hectic for us because once the pool and Kings Island open up we spend as much time between the two as we can manage! We also have her birthday, her dance recital, and our last big trip of the year coming up soon. So we decided to do a little weekend getaway before everything gets REALLY busy. We are currently working on filling in our 50 States map with photos and even though Evie has been to some of these states before, there aren't any photos of her in many of them so we're working our way around them again! So Michigan was the choice for this trip so we could get in our photo. I did some research to find a cute city in Michigan where we could have some fun, enjoy without much time, and somewhere none of us had been yet. We landed on Frankenmuth. It's a cute little German town that has some really cool scenery, a lot of history, and of course good food! Evie had fun riding the riv...

  Today was pretty much just a fun day. We didn't do much in the way of learning. Evie practiced writing her letters a bit and we played some Pictionary and then we headed outside to enjoy the sunshine. We played in the pool, jumped on the trampoline, and had food truck food for dinner. When the sun was starting to go down we got everything cleaned up, came inside for warm baths and then snuggled up for bed. Not too exciting but tomorrow afternoon we are headed out on a mini vacation so it was nice to have one last fun day in the yard before we're going away for a bit! :)

  Today we made a "boat" and sailed out to sea! Evie gathered up her trolls and had Poppy be the captain of the ship. She spent most of her time rescuing Branch and Chenille when they fell overboard. We had some choppy waters with sharks and octopi circling so it was a much needed job! After she found a good spot to put her anchor down she started her treasure hunt! We used a treasure map as a scavenger hunt and hid diamonds, shells, and other small trinkets all over the house. When she reached the end of the map she found the treasure box and was VERY excited to find that her treasure was a bag of cotton candy! When we finished sailing, eating, and treasure hunting we updated Evie's routine chart to add a few new tasks. She is doing a great job with her chores lately and with her fifth birthday looming on the near horizon it seemed like a good time to give her just a bit more responsibility. We spent our afternoon at dance class. Only a few more classes til the recital! ...

  Today we had a fun little scavenger hunt! In Toca Boca there are these little creatures called Crumpets which are tiny cute little creatures that live in trees and other small places. I have these little windows and doors and I popped them all over the place for her to hunt down. Then when she got up I told her that Crumpets moved in last night and she should go and say hello to them all. She had a lot of fun tracking them all down and even MORE fun using paper to color in her own characters and then sticking up the doors and making ME go say hello. It was cool to see her use her art skills and creativity to make things and see where she would put the doors and windows! After we finished up with the Crumpet hunt we headed up to nana's house for family night! We are always excited for family dinner and now that it's warmer it's been awesome getting to play outside at the park by her house. :)

  Its finally swimming weather! And we are HERE. FOR. IT. Today we filled up Evie's mini pool and then filled it with water balloons because, why not? We spent some time while it was filling having a picnic lunch and jumping on the trampoline. She also had fun playing with the hose while it was getting full. After it filled up we noticed it had a leak so it's probably going to be time for a new one soon but hopefully it will get us through this SUPER hot week After we finished up floating, swimming, and just having a nice relaxing day together we had some dinner and then grabbed some ice cream downtown. It was a pretty perfect spring day and I can't wait for more sunny days like today! :)

  It's almost Mothers Day so today we worked on a few little projects for that. We made some little handprints earlier in the week for my mom and even though it feels a little weird, I thought today I'd give her some things to make for me. So she filled out a little card and made me a door hanger for some "quiet time" (yeah right! lol). She is getting really good at coloring and writing and this was great practice for both. Later we made a stage and some finger puppets and she had fun making shows for me. This was an easy project and there is nothing she loves more than performing on a stage! Once we had finished putting on shows and coloring we did ONE more project for Mothers Day which was a lot of fun... ...a questionnaire! I used to get these every year when she was in preschool and I loved them. It's so funny to hear what her answers are. I think she had most of them right on point but there were definitely a few silly ones! Next week looks super sunny and no...

  Today started off pretty fun and then went a little downhill. In the morning after work we spent a little time outside on a nature hunt! We made some binoculars and a check off sheet and tried to find everything on our sheet.  Evie did a pretty good job finding things and enjoyed using her binoculars to spot them all. Later in the day we went inside to clean up and she took a bit of a tumble down our stairs. Luckily she went down feet first and managed to only get a knee scrape but it shook both of us up a bit so we decided to spend the rest of our evening snuggled up watching a movie. It's supposed to be rainy the next few days but hopefully it will clear up after that and we can have more sunny days like today!