Buoys

Last summer my dad was cleaning out the garage and put these beauties in the trash. And I (being a self proclaimed craft hoarder) knew that without a doubt I had to do something with them.

Pretty beat up, huh? And this is from after I washed and sanded them too.

So I picked 4 colors that I thought looked nautical.
Lime Green, Red, Royal Blue and Bright Orange.

I sprayed two of the buoys with the Lime Green and the Red. It didn't matter if the colors touched or not because I'd be taping them off and doing the other two colors after the first two had dried.

After they dried I taped with painters tape to give them stripes. Since I used spray paint and it's not always easy to control, I covered all the Lime Green and Red paint that I didn't want to be painted over.

Then I painted with the Royal Blue and Bright Orange and hung them to dry.

I stuck the address numbers to the bottom of the longest buoys and hung them off the mailbox post. The other two are out hanging at the end of the dock.

Peanut Brittle with Friends

I got together with some girlfriends today, Jaymie and Ann(who graciously offered her house to do this project). We made 18 batches of this peanut brittle to split between our 3 families and to give as gifts too.


The three of us and some additional friends are going away for a weekend coming up and we wanted to take something with peanuts for another friend of ours who has a nut ban in her house due to a child's allergy. This way she can get her peanut fix while nobody is in danger.

Ann found this recipe on this website. Pretty easy instructions. It was 85*F today, so it got pretty toasty, but it was worth the effort! We definitely plan to make this again in the fall!

Sidewalk Paint

The weather is GORGEOUS outside today! I even have the windows to the house open (love not using the air conditioning for a day). My oldest daughter has her friend over and all the kids were looking for something to do. This is my easy stand by project. No age limits!

3 Ingredients

cornstarch
+
food coloring
+
water

The cornstarch and water should be about equal parts. We've done this in cups and used paintbrushes to apply to the driveway, but I decided to see if the kids could control the paint a little better with these squirt bottles I got at the grocery store . I think they did work quite well! Good to know, but we will definitely be using the cups and paint brushes again because it's so fun to paint legs, arms, feet and hands too!

I put the cornstarch in the bottles first and then added the water and shook the bottles until they were mixed well. Then I added the food coloring to the mix.
This is fun for the littler ones to see the different colors that can be made by adding more than one color to the bottle. *learning op!*

The kids were mixing all the colors together on the driveway.
When the paint dries it will turn out more vivid in color with the more food coloring you use.

Another fun day in the summer!

My Favorite Holiday

I know the summer started at the end of the school year for my kids, but summer really begins for me on the July 4th holiday. My holiday was delayed this year, but now that it's here I'm happy to say it was a great one. The kids were outside swimming in the lake all.day.long! Which meant that the little two were in bed by 7:15pm. The day could have been made better if my siblings and husband had been able to be here too. Maybe we'll all make it for the Labor Day weekend...

Elise, enjoying the water.









Dax, Cheese!




Erin, swimming in the water.