Crafts and junk

So today kae and I made a 100% recycled wreath.

This is not as easy as it sounds. 

The round was white cardboard from a box that had been full of books, painted brown.

The leaves and flowers are cut up and painted egg cartons. 

We ran out of leaves, so some are from a cereal box cut up and painted. 

I normally save the egg cartons for Connor to destroy, but we'd accumulated 3 huge 18-egg cartons

You see my dollar store craft foam? You know you have craft foam envy

I'll got glue some ribbon to the back tonight so she can hang it up in her room. She's very proud of her foam creation 

Me and my brownie

Mm nom brownies...... /drool

But I mean the Girl Scout variety 

"Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?"

"Are they made from real Girl Scouts?"

Kae and I went to Camp Welaka again yesterday for a mommy and me session.

The email said, meet in the parking lot at 9:30, we will begin promptly at 10. There was no one there!

The morning started with me finding out one of our counselors and I were camp buddies from 20 years ago. And then the flag ceremony

That's kae in the lead

Then we did knife safety in The Beehive

And carved bars of soap. My fish broke and became a heart. So kae did a fish to run it in my face.

Then lunch, sorry no pictures!

After lunch we learned knots. It was....interesting

Then we were SUPPOSED to do fire circle safety and roast marshmallows for s'mores, but it started raining, so we did fire safety in the lodge, that was impressive

 A-frame fire set up

Log cabin set up

Teepee setup

S'mores 

All in all it was a fun day! 

How to draw a....

Stuff!

Today we checked out how to draw books from the library. We got:

Mythical beasts

Sea monsters

Flowers

Fish

Dragons

So kae has done a couple flowers, a unicorn 

She's drawing king triton right now

And I drew an ouroboros 

And a butterfly fish

I am not an artist, but we had super fun!

Paper weaving

Today's edition of make something monday is brought to you by clearance scrap paper at Joann fabrics! Hurray 10 cents a sheet!

So, hurray Pinterest boards, I found a cute idea to do paper weaving. Kae had already done some in school before thanksgiving last year. They made placemats. I think we might do some fabric ones as Christmas gifts. But today was just paper.

I hung it in the door with masking tape. She used solid pink, pink and brown argyle, and sparkly pink swirls. 

School supplies

Big sigh

Very big sigh

Now I'm not really complaining. Because, for now, I'm only buying for one kid. But really?!?!

It's the scavenger hunt from hell!

The list they had at Walmart was last years list. When we got home I found this years. I have to take half the crap back because she doesn't need it! And I have a whole slew of other crap that wasn't on the list that she DOES need.

What I hate is the communal supplies. I understand the reasons, I'm still allowed to hate it. 

I also hate having to buy all the copier paper, dry erase markers, and sticky notes for the teacher, and then another $50 supply fee. Yes, at Kae's school it's $50 per kid. 

I will, of course, suck it up and buy the supplies. Plain, boring, unisex supplies. Because I'm not sending kae in with a monster high pencil case, and having her come home with Ninja Turtles (my example because she hates ninja turtles).

I remember when I had my popples pencil case, with my fancy left handed scissors. And my personalized pencils that grandma got me. And my Lisa frank trapper keeper. All inside my purple backpack. 

Now all children must be the same, with the same supplies, in their identical uniforms, and no real chance to learn to be themselves. 

I read on cafemom about teachers treating kids poorly for having "that parent", who can't afford to send in the name brand stuff the teach asks for. The parent that can't pay the supply fee. The parent who can't volunteer. 

So we'll teach the kids to be communist with their trickle down supplies. And treat the parents like garbage for having to buy cra-z-art instead of crayola.

Tour de fleece - the end

So I got a good amount of spinning done this year, as compared to the last two years, where I was so busy with the kids ;)

I finished 5 yarns this year!

Circe 

Finnick!

Red lung (cough hack cough)

Lime and Violent (mystery roving)

And Anita Blake

These were all started and completed on my wheel. I also worked on two spindle projects

The graveyard

And The Evil Queen

Of these 4 are from Storied Yarns on etsy, one is Kaunai pencil roving, and two were mystery fiber. Circe was labeled merino, but it was a lie, I'm thinking falkland, and lime and violent is, I'm pretty sure, Corriedale.

I spun (that I know for sure) approximately 1200 yards of fiber this tour :D

Camp Pink

Kae had her first experience with Girl Scout camp this weekend!

She went to Camp Pink at Welaka. They seem to run the programs differently every year. Last year there was day camp, this year there wasn't. Last year it was only resident camp for overnight, this year they have weekend sessions. 

Good changes in most cases :)

Camp pink was, well, pink. They had a pink fashion show, ate pink food, had pink s'mores, did pink crafts. Including sparkly pink screen printing!

They also went canoeing in the lake, and saw a baby alligator. 

Kae made new friends, didn't have any anxiety about being away from us, and there were no bullying issues. It was wonderful, and I'm truly grateful to the counselors who work with the girls to make it fun, even during a tropical storm.

Imaginary Vacation

It's actually been pretty easy to keep kae busy during Connor's naps this summer.

It frees me up to work, and spin/knit/read.

Today was library Tuesday. We...I picked another library adventure off the list of doom.

Pick a destination from the travel section and plan a trip.

So today kae planned our imaginary vacation to : Greece.

She got a whole worksheet to fill out, using the travel books and the iPad to find the answers.  I'm going to type them out because well, kid handwriting.

How much does it cost to travel to Greece?

By plane? $2,759.39

For 4 ? $1995.90 (each)

By boat? 1339.00

For 4 ? 5357.00 (yowch)

List 3 cities in Greece you would want to visit:

Athens

Apollonia

Thessalonika

And why:

Because its where the old Greek gods temples are, and probably mount Olympus. (No really)

Find a pretty hotel in - Athens - 

Novotel Athenes $114/ night

Find a museum you would like to visit :

Acropolis Museum

What exhibit do you want to see?

The Parthenon gallery 

Will you try new food in Greece? YES

Find 3 traditional recipes:

Moussaka 

Baklava

Tiropites

Pick one to make at home! Triopites (we'll make next week)

What time zone is Greece in?

Eastern European Time

Draw Greece 

What language do they speak? Greek (which earned me a "duh, mommy")

And she wrote out hello and goodbye in Greek. 

It took her almost 3 hours to search and find all the information. She asked for help only a few times. And had a blast. 

Now I'm not sure if we should pick another country next week? Or do something else from the list?!

Summer Break Tour

Last night kae and I did - 

This!

We went to the Summer Break Tour, two opening groups I'd never heard of, Victoria Justice and Big Time Rush.

Kae was super stylish in all her sparkly hot pink glory.

We had grass seats at Coral Sky, Cruzan, whatever. The name will change again in a week.

We squished Olivia Somerlyn, who actually wasn't bad, we'd just never heard her before.

Victoria Justice was actually really amazing live. She did mostly songs from her nickelodeon show Victorious, but a few originals, and a cover. 

And then BTR came out, they were...alright. Let me point out that I compare them to The Monkees a lot. Without the awesome that was Davey Jones. They are an invented boy band for a tv show that now put out albums. The music is typical boy band, but catchy. I knew one song from their set. Kae didn't care.

And danced around like a crazy person.

We left before the encore, kae was tired and hungry.

All in all she had a great time. And I had fun watching her have fun. Though it will probably be another few years before we try that again. So many Tweens 

4th of Boom

So we went to my dads for the 4th. Again. It's not a huge deal, I try and be flexible. Next year I bring food for the kids. Dads jambalaya is way too spicy.

Anyway. 

I spun in the car on the way there

And then some more whole the kids played in the pool, and the big kids went to buy fireworks.

Bobo and daddy

Kae and her Uncle Zach

Lots of steps at grandpa's house

Then we set off fireworks. Lots of very loud, very dangerous fire works. There were only 4 "oops", one of which I wish I had gotten on video. We joked on Great Grandpa that he was having Vietnam flash backs. Yeah. 

Ooooo

Aaaaaaaaaah

Sparkly.

The kids slept in past 7am, it was nice

TdF days 4-5

It's been a long week. What with a holiday in the middle of it!

I finished spinning Finnick

Then wound him into a center pull ball

Then did a 2-ply. 245 yards of dk weight super smooshy merino /drool!

I think he'll be a hat. For me