Hello, Summer!

The countdown to summer is on like bing bong (Uncle Si-ism, America’s favorite uncle).  I am looking forward to letting the kids sleep in, not packing lunches and no homework (and the summer hiatus of me yelling “HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW THIS?!?”) 

For many of you, it’s the beginning of “Camp Mom”. 

How did the generations of mothers before us survive the summer without Pinterest? I’m getting dumber by the day and have no fresh or creative ideas to keep the kids occupied.

Pinterest has saved me and makes me pass for a halfway decent mother. 

Here are some summer activities that will not take all day to implement and have been Team-Bowman-certified.

(1) Poor man’s fort – What kid doesn’t love a fort?  

(2) Name art – The only annoying part of this craft was creating and cutting out the letter templates. The ones we made are hanging in their rooms.

(3) Muffin tin driveway paint – This was a nice change from sidewalk chalk and it all washed away when it rained.

(4) Goldfishing – My kids have never eaten celery until goldfishing.  They devoured it.

You need celery, peanut butter and Goldfish crackers.  You are now ready to go fishing.  I had my kids draw a pond and decorate a paper plate with color pencils and crayons first. 

(5) Scavenger hunt – I have ones for the backyard (real long ones) and different ones for road trips. 

When you’re on a road trip and everyone is crunchy, you will be glad you brought it.

(6) Origami – We used construction paper and made a blue headfish, goldfish, polar bear, fox and dog.  For the polar bear and dog, cut the paper into a perfect square first.  

They have diagrams and animation to show you how to make each one.  The animation R-O-C-K-S and shows you exactly what to do.  It was a little addictive. 

Then, my kids used pipe cleaners to make little corrals for the animals.  Whatever works, right?

(7)  Tie dye – This will make you feel like you accomplished something very big.  I had a ball (after all of the prep) and something to show for our toil.

(8) Fruit leather –  Our first batch was way too thin and crunchy because my oven runs a little high so the next time we made it thicker.

(9) Melted bead suncatchers – Love, love, love! 

We have thousands of beads from a beading kit and we’ve made sooooo many necklaces and bracelets and still have a ton of beads.  This was sooooo freakin’ easy.  You could also get cheap beads at Joann Fabrics (next to Target in Pineville) or Michael’s.

They spent about an hour (yes, one whole hour) sorting the beads by color.  That is not necessary however you may want to make it mandatory since it eats up a lotta time! 

The first batch we made (pic below) was literally a ‘dump and bake’ with no pattern or strategy whatsoever. 

My husband drilled holes in them and hung them from sticks using fishing line and pipe cleaners. 

When baking them, definitely open up your kitchen windows and every door and turn on every ceiling fan in the house.  (open every door, people)

Thank you, Pinterest peeps, for hooking me up!