First, I'll start with what didn't go right, and progress to our huge successes. The first thing that was an utter failure was something I thought would be relatively easy - a huge indoor fort. I think what went wrong with this was the "huge" part. I really took that word and ran with it. The problem was, it got too big and unwieldy. I was getting very frustrated and it didn't help that the kids kept telling me, "Maybe we should just wait till Daddy gets home." Needless to say, I tore the whole thing down and we never really attempted it again. I'm still crossing it off the list. (No picture for obvious reasons.)
Our second failure was this idea I've seen floating all over pinterest to make a Giant Squishy Water Bag. If you want to see what it's supposed to look like, you can go here and follow her instructions to make your own. The reason ours was a failure had nothing to do with the construction of the thing itself, more the fact that we don't have a spot in our yard flat enough. We taped the whole thing up as instructed, but as soon as we got a good bit of water in it, the whole thing started rolling and sliding down our slight slope. There it got wedged under our chain link fence and ripped numerous holes in the bag. The kids were so bummed that it didn't work, so I cut the whole thing open, laid it flat and turned it into a giant slip & slide. They still had fun and that's really all that matters.
Now, on to our successes. We made two different flavors of Kool-aid slurpees using the instructions found at My World Made By Hand. These were so easy to make and turned out great. Honestly, I haven't actually bought a slurpee anywhere lately, so I don't really know how they compare, but I thought they were delicious! We also made a copycat recipe for Sonic's Cherry Limeades that I found on Pinterest, and while I thought they were good, I still prefer the ones from Sonic.
Another fun success - Living Room Sleepover. Complete with a movie and Marshmallow Popcorn - so yummy! I could not stop eating this stuff! You can find the recipe at The Craft Patch. (FYI: I've made this recipe twice now, once with store brand marshmallows, and once with name brand, and the name brand version was much less sticky.)
Painting T-shirts was an activity we were all looking forward to. It took me a while to gather all the supplies though, and in the end, I think this was probably one of our most expensive activities this summer. If I had already owned fabric paint or freezer paper it would have been much less, but I had to buy everything for this project. I followed the tutorial at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar for the freezer paper stenciling and they turned out great! I did find that painting a darker paint on a lighter shirt worked much better than trying to use white paint on a darker shirt. Those just took too many coats and ended up bleeding a little under the stencil.
We had a rare rain shower one afternoon last week that wasn't accompanied by thunder, so we were able to cross Play in the Rain off our list.
And finally, our biggest success had to be the Gigantic Bubbles. I don't know why, but I was a little skeptical about this one. I shouldn't have been though because they turned out AWESOME! I followed the tutorial at Tatertots & Jello for the bubbles and wands, but I only made about half her recipe of bubbles and that was plenty. If you're looking for something fun to do with your kids, they will most definitely love this activity! At least mine did :)
Well, that's what we've been up to. We still have 11 things left on our list and school is fast approaching. Enjoy those last few weeks before school starts and I hope your all busy making summer memories of your own.
Looks like a lot of fun things! Keep those good times rolling! Of course, I can't get enough pictures of the kids. Love to you all.
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