Crater of Diamonds Trip

Boogs and I had a great time taking a little trip with D and the four J boys to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. Five boys in the car for 6 hours led to a noisy drive. Luckily, they had books, crayons, and each other to occupy themselves.

We stayed at the Diamonds Old West Cabins in Murfreesburo. The boys loved being in the jail house cabin. On day two, they put me in jail and tried to keep me there.

 

 

We went to dig for diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park three times during our stay in Arkansas.

 

The diamond fields were huge. There was plenty of room to dig. We spent about two hours in the fields on our first evening. It was pretty late by the time we had dinner and got everyone settled for the night.

The boys were up bright and early the next morning. Boogs said they planned a jailbreak at sunrise. I don't think J2 was ready for the morning to begin.

We enjoyed the wooden playscape near our cabin until we discovered several large wasp nests in the bottom part of the boat.

We made it to the fields by nine in the morning for another round of diamond hunting. We found quartz, glass, volcanic rock, and LOTS of jasper. The boys were disappointed that the diamonds were so hard to find. We stopping digging and went to lunch. While we were at lunch, someone found a diamond right where we had been digging.

Boogs and J3 had more fun making clay figures at the sluicing tub than actually digging for diamonds. They played with the clay for hours.

The state park had a really neat pool. Boogs, J2, and J2's cousin really enjoyed it while the other boys took a nap.

 

We spent part of the afternoon at the mini golf course. It was nice to have it all to ourselves. We thought the 93 degree weather was perfectly cool after having been in 103 to 107 degree temps last week in Texas.

 We went back to the fields in the late afternoon for more digging.

 

 Boogs and J3 pretended to sleep on the front porch after our long day.

The ride home was pretty quiet. The boys slept off and on for several hours. 

 Thanks D for inviting us on this great adventure! We can't wait for the next trip together.

This post is linked to Coombe Mill Country Kids Outdoor Linky Party.

Tenth Week of Summer

Our 10th week of summer was filled with time in the pool, diving class, playdates, library time, and new car shopping.

Boogs went off the high dive as often as he could.

He learned how to jump backwards off the board without hitting his face. This made me a bit nervous.

On the last day of diving class, the coaches threw towels for the kids to catch as they jumped off the diving board. Boogs loved it!

 A couple of weeks ago, I did this to my car:

I accidentally backed into a tree. Unfortunately, the body shop and insurance company decided that the damage was enough to consider my car a total loss. Ouch! We were not really prepared to purchase a new car, but we did. Here is my new car. I hope it lasts 12 years like my old one did.

Ninth Week of Summer

We spent a lot of this week in the pool. Boogs had diving class Monday thru Thursday. We had a playdate at a pool on Friday. Guess what we did on Saturday? We spent the day with friends in their backyard pool. We are managing to stay cool in the 100+ degree Texas heat.

Making Our Own Country

Last week, a library book led us to explore a sculpture garden. This week, a library book led us to create our own countries. I Need My Own Country by Rick Walton is a fun little book about a girl who creates her own country to get away from her brother and mother after she feels she has been treated unfairly. She explains exactly what steps to take. Boogs loved this book and asked if he could follow the steps to create his own country. Of course!

Boogs read through the book several times (sneaky repeated readings) and wrote down what he needed to have to make his own country. Boogs' country's location was his room. He named his country Winter Island after his pet hamster, Winter.

 

The flag for Winter Island has a smiling Boogs in the center. The national animals and their favorite snacks are at the top of the flag - a hamster and a fish. There are sunflower seeds and fish food lined up behind the animals. We hung our flags on the doors to our countries.

The book said, "...there might be invasions. You will want to defend yourself." Boogs really had fun with the invasions. His stuffed animals were his citizens. They defended the country against my invading army of books. (My country was called Creatimagination and was located in my craft room.)  He used his citizen soldiers to knock down my book citizens. I threw pencils and shot rubber bands at his army. Boogs declared there would be two battles a day. This lasted about a week.

 

After each battle, we had to give out medals for bravery, sacrifice, honor, and  peace.

The book informed us that we needed to have national money. We spent an entire morning making money for our countries.

 We had fun working on projects for our countries.

One afternoon, I heard Boogs playing the same few notes over and over again on his keyboard. When I asked him about it, he said he was working on the tune for his national anthem. So cute! He is still trying to come up with the perfect pledge of allegiance.

I often make story themed lunches inspired by the books that we read. This is the lunch that matches Boogs' country. In his ELB lunchbox: Winter Island cheese quesadilla, broccoli for the island's trees, candied sunflower seeds for the national animal's snacks, blueberry water for the national sport of swimming, and rice & beans with a melted cheese hamster for the national animal.

This post is linked to:
After School Linky Party
Read Explore Learn
Link & Learn
It's Playtime

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Eighth Week of Summer

I can't believe we have already passed through eight weeks of summer. We have three full weeks left of summer before school begins on August 26th. We are slowly starting to think about the end of summer. All of the supplies from Boogs' 2nd grade list are in his backpack ready for the first day of school. We still need to go through his clothes and replace the things that are too full of holes, too covered in stains, or too small. Unfortunately, that describes about 90% of his clothes.

We managed to stay busy during our 8th week of summer. We stayed home on Monday and worked on a few craft/writing projects and had an unscheduled day.

On Tuesday, we spent the day with friends and went downtown to the Big Top Candy Shop in Austin. The kids thought the store was amazing. Boogs bought some sour spray candy (yuck!) and some sour powder candy.

Since we were downtown we stopped by the Austin Postcard Mural for a quick photo.

We had a playdate on Wednesday at a shady park. Then we spent the hottest part of the afternoon at the library to view the movie The Rise of the Guardians.

We were inspired to visit the Blanton Museum after reading Seen Art? by Jon Scieszka. I even made Boogs a lunch based on the book.That is supposed to be Van Gogh's The Starry Night drawn on the cheese with food writers.

My mom was able to join us while we explored the museum. In one exhibit hall, we each sketched and colored a picture of one of the paintings hanging on the wall. When one of us showed their sketch, the other two had to guess which work of art it was based on. Fun!

Boogs' favorite things at the Blanton Museum were the penny exhibit by Cildo Meireles called Mission/Missions and the roping cowboy statue (unfortunately, I can't remember the name of it). The 1970s kitchen brought back childhood memories for me. We all enjoyed the miniature elevator with doors that opened and closed by Maurizio Cattelan.

We left the Blanton Museum, had lunch, then walked across the street to the Bob Bullock Museum. Boogs really enjoyed exploring the Bullock Museum and learning about the history of Texas.

On Saturday, Boogs passed the swim test to be on the year-round swim team. Yea! He is excited and very proud of himself, as am I.

Lunches July 22nd - August 2nd

During the school year, Boogs' lunches are based on the stories we read at bedtime. I have tried to make at least one story themed lunch a week during the summer. These are lunches from the past two weeks.

Batbaby Finds A Home by Robert Quackenbush

Boogs read this story to me the other day to add to his summer reading log. Batbaby and his parents are forced from the old barn they call home when a bulldozer shows up and knocks it down. The little family tried to find a perfect spot for their new home. The church steeple had a noisy bell. The farmhouse had a pouncing cat. The tunnel had a train roaring through it. The family wondered if they would ever find a new place to roost in peace. Woodpecker showed the bat family the perfect spot for them, in a small bat house attached to a big house. Boogs decided that we should go straight to Home Depot and buy supplies for making our own bat house. I am still thinking about it. In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j bat, almond butter & jelly house, marshmallow with an owl, cheese moon, broccoli forest, and mango for the lights of the train in the tunnel. 

 Flat Bread Pesto Chicken Lunch

In the ELB lunchbox: Flat bread with homemade pesto sauce, rotisserie chicken, & mozzarella cheese, yellow tomatoes, raisins, strawberries, and salad.

Bunnicula series by James Howe

We have been listening to all of the Bunnicula books on cd that our library has. (I kind of miss listening to music in the car.) Boogs loves these stories. His favorite is the first book in which Harold the dog and Chester the cat meet Bunnicula. They think Bunnicula is a vampire rabbit that sucks the life juice out of vegetables. Chester is terrified the rabbit will progress to drinking human blood so he tries various ways to get rid of Bunnicula. In the ELB lunchbox: Breakfast for lunch - Bunnicula boiled egg, cottage cheese with raspberries, oatmeal, bacon, grapes, and a toasty B for Bunnicula.

 The Naked Lady by Ian Wallace

This book led us to explore the Umlauf Sculpture Garden. You can find details for our adventure here.

A Sock Is A Pocket for Your Toes by Elizabeth Garton Scanlon

Boogs made me laugh while we were reading this book. It is a very simple rhyming verse book that describes all kinds of things that are "pockets".  A pocket for a chicken is a coop, and a bowl is a pocket full of soup. Boogs disagreed with all of it. He said, "You know they are just calling things that hold other things pockets. That is not how I describe a pocket. This book is annoying me."  Well, I picked out this book because I thought it would be fun for Boogs to think of things we see everyday that are pockets. No, that activity never happened. I still enjoyed this book. In the Laptop lunchbox: turkey sandwich socks, berries, and veggies.

I Need My Own Country! by Rick Walton

A girl, who has been treated unfairly, decides she needs to make her own country. This book details the steps she takes to make her own country from picking a location to making a flag. Boogs and I used this book as a guideline for making our own countries in our house. We are still working on our pledges and national anthems. I will post our country activities next week. Items representing Boogs' country were put in his ELB lunchbox: Winter Island cheese quesadilla, broccoli for the island's trees, candied sunflower seeds for the national animal's snacks, blueberry water for the national sport of swimming, and rice & beans with a melted cheese hamster for the national animal.


Seen Art? written by Jon Scieszka & illustrated by Lane Smith

A boy is supposed to meet his friend, Art, on 53rd street. When he arrives, his friend is not there. The boy asked a lady walking by if she had seen Art. Thinking the boy meant the Museum of Modern Art, she directs him to the MoMA. He goes inside the museum and again asks for his friend. He meets a string of new people who each try to help him discover "art" by leading him through the great exhibits of art at the MoMA. There were at least 60 works of art showcased in this fun and silly book. Boogs and I discussed the different types of things people consider to be art and how subjective it is, that people have different opinions and place value on different things. The day after we read this book, we went and toured a local art museum. I really enjoyed the discussions Boogs and I had about what he thought was "good" art at the museum we visited. In the ELB lunchbox: chicken wings, home fries, carrots with hummus, kiwi, MoMA fruit leather letters, and cheese with Van Gogh's The Starry Night drawn on it.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Seventh Week Of Summer

Our entire week was unplanned. I think this is the first time that's happened all summer. After our busy sixth week of summer, I wanted a laze-around-the-house (and get some chores done) kind of Monday. Boogs decided that staying home would be a perfect time to try out this:

After a few runs, he put a step stool near the bottom of the stairs and told me he was charging 1 penny to see his "death defying show". He guaranteed, "For just a penny, you could have the best seat in the house."

On Wednesday, a friend invited us to join them at a nearby skate park. Boogs took his scooter and had a blast.

Boogs is responsible for fixing dinner for the family one night a week. He has to look through cookbooks to find a recipe, help put the ingredients needed on the grocery list, help grocery shop, and then cook the food (with help). This week he chose Deceptively Delicious's Aloha Chicken Kebobs, salad, berries, and Blueberry Lemon Muffins for dessert. Yum!

A library book inspired us to seek out some sculptures so we went exploring at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden. You can read about our adventure here.

There was a HUGE thunderstorm Friday night. The rumble of the thunder made all of the windows in our house rattle. The storm lasted less than an hour, but it dumped a ton of rain in the area. On Saturday morning, we took a lovely family walk to a nearby park and then discovered exactly how much mud the rain had caused.

The mud was so thick that Boogs' boots kept getting stuck. Daddy "helped out" Boogs by spreading mud on his face. Yuck!

Boogs thought it was fun to see exactly how dirty he could get. He even poured mud into his rain boots.

We did not run into any of our neighbors on the walk home. Boogs had to go straight to the backyard to be hosed off before he was allowed in the house.

This post is linked to the Country Kids for Coombe Mill weekly outdoor linky party.