Summer Vacation Week #1

We have had a busy week this week. I have been trying to keep the kids busy doing fun activities and classes. We started out the week with a cooking class. We made sugar cookies. I tried a new recipe. The were very light and fluffy. I have never found the "perfect" sugar cookie recipe for us. While this one was good, it was not quite what we are looking for.

We frosted them to look like watermelons. I found the idea somewhere on the internet (I never can remember where I find ideas!). I thought they would be so cute for the first of summer. The girls had lots of fun frosting them. We did it while the baby was napping, or it could have turned into a HUGE mess!

They turned out so cute. We took some to a few other families and they thought they were adorable. DH even had some of his fellow employees comment on them at work when he took them in his lunch.

We have also been doing "Summer Cleaning" as opposed to "Spring Cleaning". I thought I might as well put the girls to work. They have actually had fun doing it. This week we cleaned the living room from top to bottom. It is so nice and clean. We also cleaned out the coat closet.

The girls had fun trying on all of their winter stuff to see if it still fits. It took us a little while to get everything cleaned out, but it looks so nice now.

My oldest wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love. She was going to wait until school started again, but we thought it would be better to do it at the first of summer instead so she didn't have all that hot hair on her all summer long. Here she is before:

She donated 12 inches of hair. The stylist was surprised at how thick her hair is. M said her head felt much lighter after the cut. She has such pretty hair. We get comments on it all the time. It is the most beautiful auburn color. Women pay a LOT of money to try to get their hair that color. Here she is after:

I think the cut makes her look older, but she will always be my little girl.

It has been raining here almost all week. The girls haven't minded one bit since that meant we couldn't go out and do all the weeding I had planned. We did finally make it out to weed all the flower beds in the backyard last night and dead head some flowers. All this rain will surely bring out more weeds next week though.

We have had to be inventive with activities to keep the kids busy while it was raining. One day we made a fort out of sheets and furniture.

The girls played in their little hut for 3 hours straight! They love playing "house". They also had fun reading in there.

The girls have been doing tons of reading. Probably because I am bribing them! They get to earn a little Twillerbaby and a Twillerbee doll. A has to read 500 minutes to get her Twillerbaby, and M has to read 1000. To get their Twillerbee doll A has to read 1500 minutes and M has to read 3000. They are already well on their way. A has read over 180 minutes this week alone.

We have done other fun activities as well. We went shopping and got Dad's presents for Father's Day. We had a girls night last night while Daddy was at scout camp and watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua. We were going to paint nails too, but decided to wait and do that today since Dad will be gone all day. Poor Dad will be taking the scouts on a 20 mile hike today....in the rain. I am sure he is going to be really happy when he comes home!

We have had a great week. I hope I have the energy and ambition to keep up on all the activities and fun things I have planned. I want the girls to make lots of fun memories this summer.

One week down Ten to go.......

Works For Me Wednesday

I thought I would do a Works For Me today. Next time you change your vacuum bag, shove a couple of dryer sheets in the new bag before you place it on your vacuum. When you vacuum it will make your whole house smell like it was just washed. I love it when you are outside walking around and you can smell that someone is doing laundry...this will make your house smell the same way.

Tired of Chores

Lately I have become the ranting raving screaming yelling kind of mom and I hate it. My big problem is chores. I will send my kids off every morning to do their chores. Three hours and a lot of yelling later they are still trying to make their beds. It absolutely ruins my whole day. Why can't they just get in there and get it done? Don't they know we could then spend the rest of the day playing? I guess that is the key right there, they are playing! That is why they aren't getting their chores done.

Well, I have grown so tired of the fight that I keep inventing different ways for them to get their chores done. I tried rewards (such as treats, staying up an extra 15 minutes, watching a show, going to the park, etc.), but that only worked for a little while. We have also tried "obedient bucks". Money that they can earn for doing their chores, which they can use later to buy various treats, or toys from the "treasure bag". That only worked for a little while too. I found out that was more of a hassle for me to uphold the system and remember to give them their "obedient bucks". So tired and frustrated that nothing was working I came up with a new plan. I wrote the name of every room in our house on a paper and put them in a cup. We all take turns drawing out a room, and then we go clean that room TOGETHER. I think I have been missing a key point of motherhood. I would send them off to do their chores, while I did mine. Get them to work on a project or play with something while I worked on something I needed to do. I have come to realize I wasn't fully involving them in my life, and consequently not really being involved in their lives as much as I should. So the new plan for chores is working. They love cleaning together. I enjoy it too. Yesterday by 9:00a.m. my house was spic n' span. And we had the rest of the day to play and spend time together. I noticed that my girls tried to keep things cleaner for the rest of the day too, since they had to help clean everything up. And here is the best part....they are actually doing more work now than they were before!!! I hope this plan with continue to work, what a happy mom I will be if it does!