The majority of last summer is one big blur. My grandmother was sick and in out of hospitals and nursing homes for most of June, July, and August. I spent a lot of time worried about Gracie who was struggling on so many levels. I was working too much – in my infinite wisdom I decided last April that I could handle an additional part time job. Remembering it in my mind, it seems like last summer was really bad. But, looking back through the pictures, it doesn’t appear to be all bad. Yes, there were a lot of tears, but apparently, there was a lot of fun and a lot of smiles, too!
One thing I discovered over that summer was that Gracie needed supervision when she was playing with other children (this is much, much better this year, but we were in a different place last summer). So, any time she had a play date, I tried to do an organized activity so I could be there and actively participate. And yes, there were times when that is as tedious as it sounds. But, a lot of the time I truly enjoyed it! One afternoon, the girls invited a friend over to play and we had an “art play date”. It really was a lot of fun! I found most of the ideas at One Charming Party.
These were supposed to be birds, but when I made up the clay, I got impatient and added too much water! So, we ended up with things that looked like Ziggy dressed as as Native American.
The girls still enjoyed making them! One of my favorite parts was the Art History lesson. I printed out some samples of different artists’ work and then the girls each created their own masterpiece in the frame and wrote who their favorite artist was. Van Gogh was the universal favorite!
Then, we did some fence art – I just had the girls stand against the fence and sprayed them with the hose.
Then, when they moved away….instant picture on the fence!
And, of course, we had to have an art-inspired snack!
I’ve made rainbow cupcakes before, but the rainbow cake was a whole lot of fun. Basically, all you do is take a regular cake mix and then separate the batter into eight equal bowls. Add liquid food coloring for each color of the rainbow to the batter. Then bake each individual layer separately – since they’re so thin, it only takes a few minutes so you need to watch it carefully. (You could add them all together, but you wouldn’t get the separation of color). Once the layers have baked and cooled, start with your bottom layer, add a thin layer of frosting, and top with another cake layer. Repeat with all the layers and then frost the top. Really easy! I think it turned out pretty good and Gracie certainly enjoyed it!