Week 49: It's Week 49. I have Run Out Of Blog Titles

I know, I'm behind. But there wasn't much to report from last weekend- except that fact that I seem to have survived the Great Illness of 2012.Then, I just kept putting it off. Thats ok, the next couple of weeks are going to be busy, so I can surely fit in another couple before my birthday, ending happily on week 52. And to answer many of your question, yes, my new list is going to contain 'Make 52 blog entries'. I figure I'll bind them together, and they can be sort of like a Waterstraut Family Yearbook. Who wouldn't want one of those?

Since I was so sick, arts week got cut short. That was fine because last week was crafts week- so it just became arts and crafts week. Bam! No problems.

Monday we mad our falling into space drawings, which actually turned out kind of awesome. You trace hands and feet and fill in with the rest- I think the boys drawings are adorable. I kind of wish I had made one of my own.

We also mad salt dough wide mouthed sculptures. I used a simple flour salt and water recipe and then once they designed their sculptures we put them in the oven at 350 degrees until they got golden brown. Peyton made a snake, while Hayden made some sort of monster.

Tuesday we painted our sculptures. I think they turned out pretty good. Peyton put all the little tiny shells he had been collecting in his snakes mouth and put it on his shelf. Hayden doesn't have anything in his monsters mouth, but he was pretty proud of it when he was done. I was just happy it wasn't just a mess of paint and he actually had some definition of where he was painting.

We used our left over paint, and painted faces on paper bags to wear as masks. They enjoyed this much more than I thought they would.. and especially liked wearing them around the house.

After our painting, we went outside and collected some sticks, and used some string to make dream catchers. All the while making these Hayden was talking about how he didn't need his good dream spray anymore. It was very hard for Peyton not to tell Hayden that his 'Good Dream Spray' was just some homemade Fabreeze with a small drop of food coloring. So far, the dream catcher seems to be working pretty good, and we've had no requests for good dream spray.

The project I had picked out for Wednesday used watercolor paint on cupcake liners to make flowers. I was sure I had watercolors at home, but I couldn't find them anywhere- so I just googled 'how to make watercolors'.. and 10 minutes later whal-la!! Watercolors. After we painted our flowers, we poured our water colors into some soda bottle lids, and Gatorade lids- and they actually dried great. Now, we have watercolors next time too! Take note, Asa and Kevin. I made watercolors out of nothing.

We also started on a project that took a few days to dry- making newspaper beads. You take newspaper, pour some boiling water of it, and let it set. Then after an hour or so, you stir it up , wring out water and add some glue. Then you just need to form it into some balls. They were dry on Friday, but we were busy all weekend, so we'll have to finish them up this week. We're going to make some Caterpillar and an Immunity Necklace for our Survivor Games.

After all that, we did manage to make a trip to the pool. This is worth noting, because Hayden is getting really good at not using his floaties. Which was good, because with the water higher than normal due to all the rain we've had- it was too deep for him to touch most places.

Thursday we made sand paper tshirts. These were so cool, and might even make a return appearance at 'The Best Of' week. You take a piece of sandpaper, color a design on it- and then iron it on to a shirt! It totally worked, and the kids loved it. I think they even liked this better than the bleach pen tshirts- and the best part is my discovery that Walmart sells 'crafting t-shirts' for only like $2! Not too bad. I do still have to wash them, so I'm not sure yet how they hold up.

Friday after Asa got out of work, we headed out to Aquatica. I am so over tourist season, but sometimes you just have to power through. It was the most crowded I had ever seen it, but we still managed to have a good time. A couple of spins around the river, some time in the kids area, the bucket area, and some time in the wave pool and we headed out.

We had gone to Orlando on Friday because our friends daughter was in a Pageant, so we stopped by and saw the evening wear and interview portions. Angela did really well- and big congratulations to her as she placed in the top 10. Pretty awesome. I wish I had snapped a picture here, but I had left my camera in the car.

After we left the Pageant, we decided we would stop at Hollywood Studios. The good news was the sun was down, so it wasn't quite so hot at this point. The bad news: tons of stuff there is all done running/showing  by 6 pm. We did convince Hayden to go on the Star Wars Ride for the first time ever (After a bribe for points), and it didn't even make me THAT motion sick.

The good part about everything being done for the day- the crowds had really thinned. Except for Toy Story and the Rock N Roll Roller Coaster, there was no waits for anything. We got right through to see Muppets 4-D and the Little Mermaid. Eventually, even the Roller Coaster wait was only 20 minutes, and Asa and Peyton went to ride that while I hung out with Hayden, visited with Buzz Lightyear- and attempted to get the free ice cream again from the hidden mickey. To no avail though.

We didn't get home until late Friday, so after we all slept in we headed out to the Fresh Market Saturday. For all my friends in the Tampa Bay Area, I just want to say if you haven't tried the Whatever Pops food truck, you must. Seriously. Best. Popsicles. Ever. We picked up some veggies, and made it a quick trip as it was super hot outside.

Saturday was also mine and Asa's dating and engagement anniversary. We had a gift card we'd been saving, so we went out to dinner, while Justin was nice enough to watch the boys. Our original plans were to go to Busch Gardens after dinner, but the weather had other plans for us. We walked around the mall for a little while, and made a stop at whole foods for a desert (they will freshly fire a creme brulee for you at no extra cost, fyi) and a couple of things I'd been meaning to get for our trip. Who wants to spend that long in the car without some cinnamon sugar almonds after all?

Sunday I got all stressed out, which kind of sucked. We were going to go to the dog beach, but never made it. We did need to clean up the house though, so we utilized our time well. It was Katie's birthday too, so Kevin and Katie came over and we had some cheesecake and visited while the kids played. And, we even had Kevin as a guest auction host.

Last night we offered to keep Angela (since we knew Kevin had plans to pop the question to Katie- she of course said yes by the way), so today I have three kids again. It's kind of nice. Although I had things planned for us to do- and they're just happily off playing together after sleeping in until 11:00, so as Asa would say 'that's time on the clock'. Hopefully we'll at least make a trip to the pool before the rain starts up.

Thats it! I have two funny quotes I wrote down earlier in the week though.

Oh! I do have some cute puppy pictures for you this week. I love my puppies.

 

Me: 'Theres a blue turtle shell coming up, Hayden'
Hayden:  "I dont care, thats called being a man"

Peyton: "yes! mom did laundry.. I can finally stop wearing this underwear" (I did not know this was an issue, fyi)

Also, if you're keeping track.. I now haven't heard from Calib for three days. This is good news for Calib (as it seems he's having enough fun not to want to skype every night), but bad news for me.

Next Up: It's List week, in which we attempt to knock off Items from their Summer Bucket List, and Items from my '31 things to do before I turn 31' list. Plus we have lists to make for going on vacation!