Wearing the Shirts

Here are pics of the boys actually wearing the tie dye shirts that we made. I'd say they were a complete success and fun to boot!

Tie Dye T-Shirts

The boys and I made tie dyed t-shirts Sunday and Monay nights. On Sunday we did the actual dying, and tonight we rinsed, washed, and dried. Joey is having a hard time picking a favorite to wear to school tomorrow, but it's probably going to be the blue and yellow one (mixed to make green).

The rest of the pics and more captions are here for Day 1, here for Day 2, and here for the wash and dry:-)

Brothers...

Around July of 2005, I put together a collage frame of pics of Joey and Johnny posing together spanning Johnny's first year (Johnny was born in July 2004). Then again, in July 2006 I did the same thing for the previous year. These frames are hanging in the stairwell to the pool room (or is that now the playroom;-). I realized the other day, that I never did one from 2006 - 2007 and that it was time to do one for 2007 - 2008 too. Time flies!!! (Please slow down.) So, I've been busy going through albums pulling out the best of the best of them posing together from July 2006 - July 2008. You can view the album here. I have to say that looking at 2 years of them getting big in a few minute slide show of super cute pics is enough to make any mom cry (maybe dad's too), so watch out.

Melting Crayons

I borrowed this idea from Patricia. There are variations here.

Essentially, you round up all your crayon pieces and if they aren't already peeled, you peel them. You decide if you want basic muffin cup shapes or something fancier. Muffins cups can be lined with paper. Put in an ample amount of crayons because they melt to less than what you think. 250 degrees for 15-25 minutes works great.

If you want to do a little more work, melt individual colors on the stove top or microwave (did not try this) and pour them into candy molds or some other mold.

Let the crayons cool off pretty good before peeling.

Let the kids color! They will be fascinated about how the crayons melt, about the colors that mixing makes, about rainbows and tie dye, and about the texture they produce when they use them to color, etc.

All my pics are here.

The Amazing...

We opened up the costume bin yesterday for some super hero action. This is so much fun for them (and me!). I had gotten Johnny The Incredibles costume for his b'day but hadn't given it to him yet. He tried it on early on then many other than put it back on and fell asleep for a long nap in it. He didn't take it off until bedtime. Too cute. I love Joey's tough Superman pose:-)

All the pics from today are here.

Other noteworthy news is Joey losing his 4th tooth in the top middle. Pic is at end of album.

Lots Going On

The day started out with me finding a box turtle on my morning walk with Blaze. I brought him inside for the boys to see and then let him go near my front door pond.

We went to Lake Wheeler where we fed the ducks and geese. The boys made a new friend named Quinn. The ducks looked differenet today. I think they were Gadwell Ducks. Typically, we've seen mallards, but not today.

Yates Mill Pond is so close to Lake Wheeler, that we headed there too. We were happy to see that the mill was running (3rd weekend). I talked to a few photographers trying to capture a winning shot of the water spilling out and set out to take my own picture. Since then, I've read up on how to change the shutter speed and want to go back and see what I can do. The boys had fun diverting the water with rocks and playing on the big rocks while I was busy with the camera.

We took the Odyssey to Auto Bell. It was filthy and just in desparate need of some attention. The boys love watching the cars get washed by the big spinning equipment.

Late afternoon, we ended up at Daniel's community pool where we swam for several hours and ate pizza. Thanks to Wendy and Daniel for the invite!

All of today's pics are here.

There You Are

I was on my to Y camp to pick up Johnny today at lunchtime when I saw these two fawns out of the corner of my eye. So, I did what I would do and turned around to go back and try to take a pic. I got one from the car window then moved closer. I shot several then tried to move to a better angle. At that point, they ran with their little white tails bobbing. I enjoyed the show. Pics would be better minus the greenery clutter.