Fishy Fun

We had lots of fishy fun today at our Finding Nemo party. We created a special fish tank for Nemo (and Dory and Bloat) and of course watched them on the big screen after our craft. The fish tank was a baby food jar, and the fish was held by a paper clip connected to the bottom of the jar with a piece of fishing line. We put a magnet on the lid, which grabbed on to the paper clip and made the fish look like it was swimming. We put blue sand on the bottom for the water. I got the idea from the fabulous Family Fun site. Click here for instructions from their site. I would also suggest a jar larger than a baby food jar, with a wide mouth if possible. Expect to spend some time getting the measurement of the fishing line correct. It has to be just right to achieve the swimming effect...as you cut 8554 different lengths of fishing line, be sure to sing Dory's just keep swimmin', just keep swimmin' =)

Robert poses with his Bloat and my Nemo

Austin, Robert, and Rhianna suggested we make a fishy pyramid. I think they have a future in studio photography

Jersey Barnyard

Our last field trip of the summer was to Jersey Barnyard. It is home to Belle of Blue Belle fame (the cow in the Blue Bell commercials). We were able to meet all the animals, including the baby cows! We toured the working dairy and each took a turn milking a cow (who just so happened to be Belle's baby). We have had a wonderful time this summer and the kids have all been great. I hope they behave as well for their teachers when school starts!

Lilli and Rhiana pet the baby cows

Bellerina, the cow we milked

Erin bravely milked Bellerina first

Lilli milkin' away

Where they milk the cows

Colton and Chad enjoy their Blue Bell

Dinosaur Park

Today we visited the Dinosaur Park, which is located in Cedar Creek. They had amazing life sized dinos spread out along a trail. At the end of our tour the kids were able to play archaeologist and search for fossils in their fossil dig area. They also had a wonderful gift shop and lots of dino toys for the kids to enjoy. We all left as dinosaur experts!

i just LOVE this picture of miss gracie =)

miss lexie

chad and colton do their best impression of dinosaurs being born

group shot less the three girlies

last but certainly not least, here is alexis having the time of her life! i'm sure she is contemplating the virtues of the velociraptor behind her

Surf's Up Party

No need to vacation in Hawaii...we had our own surfing adventures at the Rec Center. We crafted our own surfboards, learned surfer lingo, and enjoyed a viewing of Surf's Up.

hannah works on her surfboard

karley shows off her finished surfboard

austin parks and pizza

This trip was by far the most popular, and after visiting Austin Parks & Pizza I could see why. This was my first time there, and we were pleased to find go karts, bumper boats, two climbing towers, mini golf, tea cups, laser tag and of course arcade games. And i'm probably forgetting something....I was thrilled to find a Pacman/Galaga game and skee ball. Good times!

Mark assured me he would let his parents go at a very reasonable rate

lilli, allison, haryle, emma and karley make sure no leaves the bumper boats dry

zachary shows off his guitar hero skills

erin and ashlynn climb their way to the top

Indiana Jones

Today the Rec Center was transformed into a forbidden forrest, the Sands of Egypt and even had its own Cave of Doom! The kids navigated their way through the Indiana Jones style adventure using the clues provided. We transported the Cave of Doom and Sands of Egypt to Riverbend so the kids could get some more fun out of them during the movie. It was a great night and everyone enjoyed watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

cindy was kind enough to lend her services as a tribal face painter. she was beyond hilarious!

henry makes his way through the cave of doom

big thanks to miltons for supplying the boxes for our cave!

josie and henry mummified

the forbidden forrest

sam goes over the unravelled clue with zachary offering advice

josie digs through the sands of egypt for treasures

jackson supervises movie set-up

I Love Horses Day Party

Every day is a holiday somewhere, and today is National I Love Horses Day. We celebrated all things equine by crafting our own horse which we then used in a horse race. After our time at the track we enjoyed watching the classic National Velvet.

christina shows off her horsey

christiana, grace and nicole race down our homemade track

capital of texas zoo

Today we visited the Capital of Texas Zoo. It is quite different from your typical zoo. There are some animals which roam free, like the deer and baby goats. The animals which are enclosed seem far more accesible than in a traditional zoo. We enjoyed getting close to the wallabies, monkeys and especially the white tiger! It is definitely worth a trip out there!

the kids dubbed him King Julian

the white tiger

even though there were lions and tigers, the guinea pigs were their favorite!

after we finished our self-guided tour, we were given feed to feed all the animals (the friendly ones anyway)

Senior Trip to Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Today we visited the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center with the "Smithville Seniors". Our docents led us through the center and taught us which plants are native to Texas and will thrive even in this heat wave and drought. It was the first day of Joan Son's exhibit "Origami Diva", which was beautiful (and air conditioned!). We were a bit worried since there was a heat advisory and the high temp reached 107, but we were all pleasantly surprised at how plesant it was. After our tour, we enjoyed a scrumptious lunch at the onsite Wildflower Cafe and spent time in the fabulous gift shop. We're all looking forward to the next senior trip!

bug hotel

Today we created some new homes for Smithville's smallest citizens. We used oatmeal cylinders which we decorated with tempera paint. After the hotels were fully decorated, we used an exacto knife to cut an "H" on its side for the windows. After the windows were cut, we trimmed a piece of window screen to fit the entire inside of the container to make sure the bugs didn't check out too early. Lastly, each child established house rules for future residents, such as no eating each other (Coey), no sneaking out (Avery) and share your grass (Lanie). I'm sure their future residents will be happy to abide by the rules if they are able to live in these beautiful new homes!

Lanie hopes her bugs will share their grass

Juliann's snails will know who is boss!
avery hopes to have a quiet home


logan decided not to impose rules on his residents

coey's bugs will be required to clean up after themselves!

I Scream, You Scream

To celebrate National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day, we held a our own ice cream party. We even made our own ice cream! It's super easy and delicous...

Ingredients
one cup whole milk or half and half (i think half and half tastes the best)
one tablespoon sugar
one teaspoon vanilla extract
pint sized baggies
gallon size baggies
six tablespoons rock salt
ice

Directions

1) Put milk, sugar and vanilla extract into the pint bag. Make sure it is sealed tight!

2) Fill gallon bag up halfway with ice; add at least six tablespoons of rock salt.

3) Put the smaller bag in with the ice and shake, shake, shake for about five minutes! Your ice cream will form and will have the texture of soft serve.



Since it was National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day, we added things like air heads, sour punch straws, butterfinger bars, graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate! You can enjoy it plain or add your favorite candy.

Eliana adds her special ingredients

Filed trip to Children's Museum, Zilker and Peter Pan Mini Golf

I have to admit this was my favorite field trip so far. We started our day at the Austin Children's Museum. While we were in the museum we saw something we haven't seen or heard in what feels like years - rain! The museum was wonderful and had lots of great hands-on stuff for the kids. This summer they have an amazing exhibit called Maker Kids. They have stations set up for screenprinting, stamping, origami, book making, quilt making and all kids of other fun stuff. Kids can create to their hearts content!

The rain brought something we also haven't seen in what feels like years - temperatures under 107 degrees! Seriously, the cooler weather was very welcome since we spent the rest of the day outside. Once at Zilker, the kids played on the playground until the Zilker Zephyr was ready to run (it had been delayed due to weather). While we were waiting we discovered a small museum/exhibit near the entrace to Barton Springs. It was like a cave and had tons of great information on aquifers.

After our ride on the Zephyr, we headed over to Peter Pan Mini Golf. This is a fabulous old school course on Barton Springs & Lamar. It was a great day and enjoyed by all!

miss erin and mister pan

the group shot

colton shows his stuff

the rec center band, with rosie (miss g) and colton a. on guitar, erin on upright bass, zachary on background vocals and colton on drums

mark contemplates the gears

lili works on her creation

makenna gets to work