Camp Invention and busy weekend

I got lazy and didn't keep up with the blog these past few days. On Friday, I got to attend Alex's Camp Invention Showcase. It's the last day of camp, and the kids get to show off their creations from the week. It was great to see him talk about his work, explain the reasoning behind his creation, and then demonstrate it. He asked if he could go back next week, so I take that as a sign he really liked it. As for this weekend, it's been a whirlwind, Grandpa Jay came down from Chicago to help Matt out with our basement. Eventually, we hope to finish it and have a playroom/mancave/office/extra bedroom/storage/bathroom. For now, we are starting with the basics, and Alex is helping out his dad and grandpa with it.



Demonstrating his duck chucker:


Other weekend craziness:

Rocket tea party

Who knew? A tea bag can be turned into a mini-fire-missle. Pretty cool!

Eleven's a madhouse!

So, I think trying to photograph 11 kids and two adults is a project all its own...



And my two oldest nephews love to get their groove on...

Guitar hero

We are channeling Fat Albert and his junkyard band with our makeshift homemade instruments. Na na na, gonna have a good time (hey hey hey)!

Stanley!

So we slacked off a bit today doing a project. Alex has Camp Invention this whole week, from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. everyday. But he asked if he could stay up and watch the Blackhawks game. I relented and let him, thinking he would fall asleep watching it. He loved it, we loved it, and one amazing end later, we decided to make our own little Stanley Cup in honor of the greatest sports trophy around and the 2013 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks!







Oh, and cute little man below...

Adventure...

So tired I can barely write this! I took the kids to Adventureland today and we hung out in the water park area. Dad came and joined us, and we had some fun!

No dice...

Today was a little bit of a bust, we made a die out of a box and wrote animal actions on it. Then we took turns rolling it and acting out whatever one it landed on. Here Alex is imitating a kangaroo, and wanted me to catch him mid-hop!

Lunch n' library

We had a picnic outside for lunch today and then read a book!

Backyard scavenger hunt

This was a cute idea I found, for a backyard scavenger hunt. I wrote out some things to find, put a circle next to it, so they could put the matching items there.

Baby, you're a firework

With the 4th of July coming up, we decided to do this little project - Fireworks in a Jar.



Warm water, bowl of vegetable oil, some drops of food coloring, and you have fireworks and all five fingers!

Dad is great!

He's a pretty great, fantastic, awesome, wonderful dad!



Whether he is snuggling his newest little boy,



Taking in the beauty of his little baby girl,



Being amazed at the wonder of becoming a new dad,



And starting a journey that would lead to fatherhood.

Happy Father's Day! Of course, we wanted to celebrate by making you a cake, which was our fun project for the weekend. And in honor of Bill Cosby and his famous "Chocolate Cake for Breakfast" bit, it was chocolate because, "Dad is great, gives us the chocolate cake!"

Stormy Weather

Needless to say, the weather has been less than stellar here. We've received tons of rain, and today was no exception. So, in honor of precipitation, we did two quick rainy day activities.



First, we created rain in a jar.



Secondly, we did a tornado in a jar. It was tricky to catch it on film, but trust us, we had some righteous little twisters in our jars!

Top Secret

We can't show you everything we did today for our summer fun, but we can say it was for some pretty special people!

Obligatory cute baby photo...

Slippin' and Slidin'

We got ourselves a little waterpark right here in the backyard! And um, the chair, shovel, lid, etc., are to cover up the stick/steaks I rigged up so they wouldn't accidentally step on them!

















And video, of course...