High Five for Friday

Hi there! I'm linking up with Jennie today to share some fun stuff from the past week.

1) Friday evening, since we had no homework to do, Grant and I made some candy cane bead ornaments to get a jump start on Christmas stuff. The best part is that my mom taught me how to make these when I was kid (crafty, she was not but we had fun) and now I get to make them with Grant.

2) Saturday was my birthday. As soon as I woke up, Grant handed me an envelope that said "Mom" (he calls me Mama). Then he told me "I wrote 'mom' by myself! It's a sight word!" How cute is that? I'm not one to make a big deal out of my birthday but Husband wanted to take me out to breakfast and do a little shopping before we took Grant to a birthday party for one of his friends. Later on we had a movie night and Grant got to see Jurassic World for the first time.

Brunch at Briggs! I love starting the day with a dish the
size of a row boat filled with grits :)

We took Grant to a birthday party at this neat gymnastics
place (that's him on a trampoline about to dive into a foam pit).
What a fun place! He had a great time and I dont' think
he's ever been that tired after a birthday party!

Testing out my birthday present on Sunday!

3) Also over the weekend, my little kitchen helper and I made some chicken & rice soup.

4) I had a dinner date with Grant on Monday! Usually he picks Cracker Barrel for our dates. I guess he's tired of it because it was Moe's this time. He loves when they yell "Welcome to Moe's!"

5) Since I was off work on Wednesday and Grant was off school, Husband took the day off and we went to the Museum of Life & Science in Durham. It's one of our usual places on days off but they recently opened some new tree houses so we were excited to check those out. We had a really great day together!

Up in a tree house!

Even with the new tree houses, "Into the Mist"
is still one of his favorites!

6) Yesterday when I got home from work there was a package from my sister waiting for me. Along with a cute new bag, she also sent me three boxes of my favorite store bought cookies! I love packages with treats from home :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

Kiwi Crate - June 2015 "Backyard Adventure"

So, initially this Kiwi Crate box was a bit of a let-down for me. I felt like the name was a bit misleading. I see the name of the box when it ships, so when I saw "Backyard Adventure" it led me to believe that we'd, well...do stuff outside. Or at least end up there. This was not the case (though technically one activity could be done outside). 

That being said, Grant had a lot of fun with this box. One activity was a growth chart (he loves to have us measure him so he can see how big he is) and the other was backyard golf (which could be played outside if you have a good spot for it - we don't, so it stays inside). I let Grant choose which to do first and the golf game won.

All the pieces included and the detailed instructions.

For this one you make little bugs and flowers from the pipe cleaners, felt pieces, and googly eyes.

I couldn't resist the urge to make some too!

Then you weave the pipe cleaners through the little holes on the golf arches.

Then you add the bottoms to the arches and assemble your stick.

And since they included a ball in the box - it's time to play!

This past weekend, we did the growth chart. A growth chart is something I never bought for Grant. I've always measured him in the doorway of his room and made marks, so this activity was fun and came in handy :)

Everything you need including a ribbon for hanging.

There were three sheets leaf of stickers, some rubbing crayons, and a plastic texture sheet. You put the crayon sheets over the plastic texture sheet and rub the crayons over the stickers and the texture plate makes them have lines like real leaves (they actually designed it so the right leaf would have the right patter (oak leaf, maple leaf, dogwood leaf). I thought that was very interesting and well thought out!

Grant had a hard time keeping the stickers on the plastic while he colored, so helped him hold it quite a bit (and, yes, I colored too). But we got it worked out.

After the stickers are all colored, you just add them to the branches on the growth chart.

He filled up the top and all the little branches along the tree, so
since he loves jumping in leaf piles so much, he put some on the ground too.

Then you just pick a spot and hang it!

I hung ours a foot off the floor.

There was also a fun little bingo game in the booklet that comes in the box. We haven't done that yet but definitely will soon.

We already have our July box, that came earlier this week. It's called "Interesting Insects" and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

I was really skeptical about getting (and keeping) this subscription. I think I said in my last Kiwi Crate post that $20 per month is a lot, to me, for a craft box. But so far, I'm really impressed with it. They really do include everything for you. With school starting in just over a week I'm not sure how much time we'll have for these so I may have to put the subscription on hold (I love that you can do that). But so far, we've both enjoyed what they've sent us and I think I look forward to the box showing up just as much as Grant does!

Kiwi Crate - May 2015 "Science of Color"

Back in early may I tried a $5 mini box from Kiwi Crate which contained everything we needed to make two wind cars:

We had a lot of fun making them and playing with them after. It also made me curious about what a full sized Kiwi Crate contains. The mini box signed me up for a regular subscription so instead of cancelling, I went ahead with letting the first box come.

Our first box was called Science of Color. I was pretty excited when it came and couldn't wait to see the activities it had for us. I will admit that $20 a month is steep, to me, for what I thought were just crafts but it did contain everything we needed for the projects (except water hahaha). There were two activities, a bonus activity, and a booklet comes with it that has suggestions for more things to do. So far, I was impressed.

The contents of the box

"Color Separation Lab"

Spin Art!

Bonus color experiment activity and the booklet
(which has a cut out/pop up rainbow activity)

I admit to letting the box sit around for a while. I thought we had plenty of time to do it and the weekends had been so nice that I didn't want us stuck inside. But this past weekend was ungodly hot outside (AND our June box has shipped) so it seemed like a good weekend for some inside activities. On Saturday we did the Color Separation Lab.

Getting set up.

They give you very detailed instructions for each project. For this one, you color on the "mess mat" with the marker color you're using and you draw a thick line of that color on a strip of paper (provided) and then fold it and stick it in the water. The paper slowly absorbs the water and when it gets to the marker lines, it separates. And the mini-scientist notes on the mat what colors they see.

He liked watching the water soak into the paper and work it's magic.

Noting his findings :)

When you're done and your strips of paper are dry, there is a rope you can hang up and little clothes pins to hang up your paper strips like a fun little garland.

So project #1 was a success.

Sunday we did the Spin Art! I was so excited to show Grant this! Though because how "school-like" the first project was, I think he wasn't looking forward to it as much as I wanted him to. But when we got it together, he was really excited to start.

See how detailed the instructions are?

For this one they sent you stuff to basically make a top and you spin the top in the box. They sent several paper disks that fit onto the top and watery paints to be squirted onto the spinning top with a dropper (all included). Grant got heavy handed with the paints they provided so I sort of made more with food coloring I had and water. I don't think my homemade version worked as well as the ones sent in the box, but Grant thought it was great that he didn't have to skimp on t he paints and had no complaints about them.

He really loved this activity!

Some of the finished artwork

This acitivity was a HUGE hit with Grant. And even though it looks like it should have been messy, there was very little clean up involved. They sent enough paper disks for him to make 8 pieces of spin-artwork. He was so excited about what he made that he was asking to send them to people (Gramma, my sister, etc). And because the top was made of wood and they sent spare pastic pieces, we can keep the top and do this project again (if I cut out some paper circles that fit). 

We haven't done the bonus activity yet or the pop-up rainbow (that requires a gluestick that I don't have) but the two main activities were pretty great. They tell you in the instructions the level of parent involvement and I found that to be pretty accurate. Grant could do a lot of it by himself but still needed my help with stuff too (like putting the top together, for instance). When I checked my account after getting an email that our June box shipped, I saw that it's called Backyard Adventure. I'm excited to see what that one has for us!

High Five for Friday

Hi there! Today I'm linking up with Jennie to share some fun stuff from the past week. 

1) Saturday we were supposed to go see some hot air balloons but we found out when we got to the parking lot that it was too windy for them to fly (or even inflate). It was a pretty big let-down. But I did score my first ever trip to Hobby Lobby (and I can't wait to go back) and we hit the new Cabela's for the first time too.

Grant and I really enjoyed Hobby Lobby! Husband behaved
himself and tolerated it while silently willing me to leave.

Cabela's was fun to explore. Grant loved the aquarium
and the camping section made me want to go camping so bad!

2) I started loom knitting. Usually when it comes to yarn crafts I am completely inept. But this loom knitting thing is great! I started my first scarf Saturday afternoon and took it outside to sit at the picnic table while Grant played in the sandbox fought bad guys. Just as I was getting done with my first thingy of yarn and was about to head in to attach the second, a bird pooped on my head. But at least it didn't get on my scarf! I'm currently working on my 4th scarf, I love it!

Grant fighting bad guys while I figure out the knitting.

My first scarf! 

2nd scarf! (This is not for him but he was
 tolerant of being my model.) 

3rd scarf! (My 4th one is going to be like the 2nd one
 becauseI bought more of that yarn)

3) Sunday I knew we were going to throw something on the grill for dinner. So I enlisted Grant's help in making some mac & cheese.

He's a very good helper (just ask him)

4) Before dinner on Sunday (after getting the mac & cheese ready) I decided to bust out the slip-n-slide that Grant got for his birthday last year. To the best of my knowledge, this was a first for him and he was a bit apprehensive about it (strange for a boy who is constantly throwing himself around the living room to demonstrate his "ninja moves"). For the life of me, I could not get him to slide on his belly. Even after I demonstrated - several times - how it's done.

It didn't matter, he had fun anyway!

Monday afternoon I decided to forgo cooking dinner in favor of another afternoon on the slip-in-slide. And FINALLY got Grant to slide on his belly! Because I take  bunches of pictures of him, he insisted that he take one of me. It seemed only fair. We had so much fun playing on that thing! I hope the weather is nice this weekend so we can do it again (I don't care how old you are, slip-n-slides are fun!).

Mama on the slip-n-slide!

Finally sliding on his belly!

5) I had a sick boy on my hands this week. It came out of nowhere and didn't last long. By Wednesday afternoon this was happening in my house:

Pirate fireman Leonardo, at your service.

 6) Yesterday our first full sized Kiwi Crate arrived! We had a blast with the mini one I tested so I'm excited to explore the box this weekend and see what we get to do.

I think we're going to have a really great weekend, if I survive tonight. Tonight is Grant's preschool graduation and I've already been in tears over it! We plan to do a little celebrating with him tomorrow (a special lunch at Chuck E Cheese) and have lots of fun over the weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!