Time to Hero UP!

        I never would have guessed that I would know all the names of nearly every superhero, what they do, what weapons they use, and even which villain they are most evenly matched with. I even know how to pronounce Mjolnir. And if you are as cool as me, you would know I am referring to Thor's Mighty Hammer, of course!  Over the passed two years, as my boys have reached the target superhero age, my knowledge and their interest has exploded! And honestly, I've been loving it. I know I was meant to have boys, if not for this alone!
     Needless to say, Monday kicked off our terrific SUPERHERO WEEK! It wasn't hard finding things to do related to superheroes! Many of the boys' things are already some sort of hero.  Along with all of our activities, I thought it was also important to talk about some superhero qualities and characteristics. What makes a superhero a true hero? Are there real live superheroes? Yes... superheroes do exist and you can be one too. All it takes is a generous amount of courage, selflessness, and the will to fight for true honor and justice. These are noteworthy things, of course and why we all really love a hero.

Here are my little heroes in action...

I was thrilled to find matching superhero shirts at Target for $2!!!

Owen doing his: Hulk Smash! (yes we made this mask... out of foam)

We made quite a few of these stick puppet heroes and put on a show using last week's dilapidated cardboard rocket.

I love the way they play! This video of Owen using his puppets makes me smile! They are so cute!

New superhero outfits from Grandma!

Superhero puzzles!

Superhero stickerbook! Owen loved just looking through this at all of the heroes!

Ironman and Captain American paraded the neighborhood!

Painting projects... Elijah made this jet and painted it.

These painted cans are going to be a windchime when all put together.

Elijah and I worked together to make some hero symbols out of a craft media called "bendaroos"

No-sew Hero Capes!

These are just men's t-shirts with the front and arms cut off! Elijah used the leftover arms to put on his head and his legs! Silly boy!!!

William got to be included for this one! Super-baby!

I loved this... Owen lifted up William's cape and said, "Look mom, he's flying!"

My little hero's and I spent a great week together getting in touch with our brave side.  There's never been a better time to be a superhero! (And I have three all to myself!!!)

Rocket Week Part 2

School has been out for two whole weeks which means my life and daily routine has changed drastically! The days seem three times longer since they aren't split up by driving to and from school. And the opportunities are endless! There are a million fun things I want to do with my kids, however a few roadblocks already stand in my way. I knew of course that it would be challenging planning things around a baby's schedule and needs, but what I didn't expect was the amount of laziness and whining from my older two! oh my goodness... you would think I was torturing them just to get them to do a few simple things. "Mo--oOOOOmmmmm! Do I have to? Uh... why? Can't I just watch a show, or play a computer game?" Uh no... it's kind of beautiful outside and I don't want your brain turning to mush on my watch! They are allowed a certain amount of "screen time," but I want the summer to be filled with so much more than that!

Last week we finished off Rocket Week an extension of the first themed week of the summer. We ended up doing some pretty fun things, but our week was a little more relaxed than the first week. We started out trying an experiment using mentos and Diet Coke. The "Wow" factor was not quite what I had hoped for. It was suppose to shoot up into the air causing much excitment and amazment... nope, ours just kind of bubbled and sputtered and then quickly exploded over the top without really going high up into the air.

I registered the boys to be a part of the summer reading program, so on mondays, we go to the library and they get a sticker and a small prize for showing their reading log of books we have read.  Half of the books we are reading are rocket-related, and the other half are just fun ones that they wanted. We also started reading a chapter book during story time called "Ghostville Elementary," which they are loving! I could read to them all day and never get tired of it, but we have to mix it up a little...

One day we made miniture rockets out of toilet paper rolls. They had a lot of fun doing that... lots of cutting and pasting and creating...

Then we hung them from the curtain rod as you can see here.  The rocket names were from the week before. Another cut and paste project we did was making a collage. We chose things that either started with the letter "r" for "Rocket" or were related to rockets/ space. Here are some picture of their collages:

I love that there are so many resources out there for EVERYTHING! We have been watching "the Magic School Bus" which happened to have an episode about going to the moon! We also have that particular book, which we read a few times this week.

The vote is still out for next week... it's a tie between Superhero week and Living Things... maybe you can help us decide. We'll end up doing both and probably for more than just one week. When there is so much fun to be had on just one subject it's hard to spend only one week on it! I have a lot of ideas for both themes...

Rocket Week!

      I decided about a month before school let out that I wanted to do this summer differently.  Not only did I want us to do normal fun summer things, but I was feeling really ambitious... we are going to do it all... books, projects science projects, crafts, experiments, cooking, art, music, letters, math, games, and every free community activity I can get my hands on. Well, not only all of that, but I thought, every week we will center all the activities around a special theme to pull it all together and really have an amazing summer! I know what you are thinking... she's crazy! Yes... a little bit. And of course over-ambitious on how much I can get done with a 6 year old, 4 year old, and a 9 month old baby.
     My inspiration for the theme idea came from all the summer's my mom did "summer camp" for kids when I was growing up. She always had a million crazy-creative-resourceful ideas that made every day a fun experience. That's what I want for my boys. I spent much of last summer very hugely pregnant... and very hot... and mostly in front of (sorry to say) some sort of kids show.  I don't want a repeat of that( the extensive tv time, not the pregnancy.. although I also don't want a repeat of that either)!!!
     So, the first week of no school and we are off to a pretty good start on ROCKET WEEK, which with a unanimous vote from the boys deserves an extension over through next week as well. I thought I would try to keep up on everything and post all the fun things we are doing throughout the summer. Here are some of the things we've done so far...

5...4...3...2...1...BLAST OFF!  This was our rocket snack... they even made it to the moon!

This is suppose to be a cardboard rocket... it turned out to be more challenging than I had imagined.

The love being the pilot (however, there is only room for one...)

Rocket activity/behavior charts and Rocket themed books

Lunch one day... (cheese roll-up rocket with red pepper wings)

This was a small experiment to show them how combustion works.

We did this experiment too about thrust... very simple. Wish I had gotten a picture of them doing this, they had so much fun!

We also borrowed a stack of books from the library all about space, the solar system, astronauts, and all things ROCKET! We are having a great time. Even though the days are really busy this way, it makes them more fun and purposeful. We're making messes, mistakes, and lots of memories and loving every minute