Summer Play Book: Rock Candy

So as much as I would like to say our Summer Play Book was a success, I can't! :)  We did complete several activites and trips but there were SO many that we didn't get to.  _______________-(insert excuse here!)  We will save them up for our fall, Christmas, and Spring Breaks.  My guess is we will have some things left to do for next summer! :)

We did try the Rock Candy.  It was a lot of fun!  The boys enjoyed making it.  Check out the fun! (You can find the directions on my Summer Play Book post.  Just click the link above.)

Soaking our sticks

Mixing up our sugar

Cooking it up

Rolling our stick in the "starter" sugar

Our sticks ready to go in

Picking out our colors

Adding our sticks

TA-DA (That's a dirty sock on Noah's head.  Why?  More like why not? )

My crazies!

So we let the rock candy sit for a LONG time.  When I say LONG, I mean as in over a month!  LOL  We kind of forgot about it. :)  It didn't seem to matter.  They turned out fine and the team sill loved them.  

They turned out pretty!

This was a fun activity!  We will definitely keep this on our Summer Play Book for next year!  Give it a try!

~Kristee

Summer Play Book: Fry an Egg Outside

Well we tried this one a few days ago, and we were pretty bummed.  I had high expectations, probably a bit misguided probably due to the movies.  Jeff & I both thought we'd see some sizzling action when the egg hit the ground!  I guess we were a bit naive. :)

When we told the boys what we were doing, they were like:  What?  Why?  Eli was concerned about us wasting eggs.  (Sure, he is concerned about wasting things but could care less about smacking his brothers around!)

Anyway we tried it two different ways.  The first time, we put an old cookie sheet out in the yard for several hours thinking the sun might heat it up.  After several hours we went out and tested it.  This is what happened:

Yep that's right, nothing!  Not a sizzle, not even the faintest sign of being cooked.  Lame-O! :)

So we thought we just crack one straight on the road.  Maybe, just maybe it would be hot enough.  So this is what happened:

Again, nothing!  We stood there for a few minutes waiting with anticipation.  But since it was 118 degrees outside, we didn't wait too long!  We thought we'd come back out and check later.  

Well later, we noticed that a neighbor drove over the egg in the road.  What was left was now completely dried out and didn't even remotely resemble an egg.  The egg on the pan, well, I looked out the back door to see one of the 5 or 6 feral neighborhood cats chowing down!  (I hate those cats!  They poop all over the yard!) 

Now I know what you're thinking, "Gee Kristee, I could have told you that wouldn't work!" That's OK, chances are I would have tried it anyway! :)  That's just how I am.  :)  Has anyone EVER had success with this?

Oh well, it was mildly amusing.  I hope this saves you the trouble!  Of course, if you just want to "waste" some eggs, go ahead!  Knock yourself out!  :)

~Kristee

Summer Play Book: Slime

Well today the boys had a play date at our house.  We had a total of 7 boys under the age of 7.  It was loud and crazy!  Since it was 118 here today, I didn't figure they'd be playing outside too much, so I thought we'd make slime! It was messy & fun, absolutely perfect for little boys!  I will say it's more of a flubber consistency than slime!  Not that it matters!  :)

They each were able to mix up their own (with some assistance).

Not sure what Noah is protesting!

The clown

Mixing in the glue

Glue/water/color mixture

 I wasn't able to get many good pictures of the slime after.  It was a bit chaotic!  :)

Here's a few tips:

*Since we had 6 boys making slime, I dug out the handy Dollar Store bowls.  We used 2 bowls per boy.  One for the borax/water mixture and then one for the glue/water/coloring mixture.
*We used plastic spoons to mix.  I wasn't sure what the borax would do to our "real" ones.  Probably nothing! :)
*The directions said you could use either white glue or clear glue.  We used both.  We liked the texture of the white glue better.  It was more smooth.  But the clear glue had a more true slimy look.
*After it was all mixed up, there was quite a bit of water left in the bowl.  We just took out the slime part and let them play with it on a plate.  That way there was less splashing!

They all loved watching it "transform" into a blob when they added the borax mixture.  It was pretty cool to watch.  There were lots of giggles, references to balls of snot, and of course the sounds of passing gas.  You know, normal boy chit-chat! :)  We put it in Ziploc bags and so far it's keeping pretty good.

This was a great activity.  It was inexpensive and quick!  Perfect!  I know that your little man or little gal will love it!  With the heat this weekend you made need an extra activity to help keep you sane!  :)  Let me know if you try it and how your team likes it!

~Kristee

Summer Play Book: Water Transfer Experiment

Yesterday we did the Water Transfer Experiment from our Summer Play Book, and I have to admit, it was pretty interesting.

We started with 5 glass containers.  In 3 of them we added water, and the other two were left empty.  In the 3 filled with water each of the players added one of the primary colors, red, yellow, and blue.

Noah added red.

Jonah added yellow.

Eli added blue.

Happy Boys!

We spaced them like this.  We wanted our colors to make green and orange.  If you want purple, just add your red by the blue!

Goofy!

 The boys couldn't figure out how we were going to end up with water in the empty ones!  They thought it was a trick and that I was going to pour water in when they weren't looking!  I guess they think I'm sneaky!;)

Next we tore up some paper towels and rolled them up into 4 different strips.

We put one end of the strip in the full container and the other end in the empty one.  We waited and watched!

Micah even enjoyed it! :)

 The water actually traveled much more quickly than we thought it would.  We could watch the color travel up the paper towel.  It was pretty cool.  Within about 30 minutes we had these.

Things are starting to happen!

This was after about 2 hours.

This is what they looked like when we woke up.  The yellow had turned green and the green was teal!

This activity was really fun!  In the original post she suggested doing it at night and seeing the results in the morning.  I would recommend starting it in the morning, that way you are able to watch it progress!  The boys really had fun watching what was happening. 

This receives 3 thumbs up from my team... 4 if you count the Momma! :)

Give it a try and let me know how your team likes it!

~Kristee

Summer Play Book: Bottle Cap Stampers

So our latest effort to complete our Summer Play Book was our Bottle Cap Stampers.

I have been saving the lids from milk jugs, juice bottle, Gatorade bottles and everything else I could find, for quite some time anticipating this activity.

The team thought it was somewhat fun.  They had fun digging through all of our foam stickers choosing the ones they wanted to use.

But when it came to the painting part, that was a different story.  They became a little frustrated.  (As evidenced by Eli's hands on his head and pouting face.)  Our dollar store stickers are just not very thick.  So when dipped in the paint and then stamped, it didn't leave a very good impression on the paper.  You could see quite a bit of the bottle cap on the paper.  That made it difficult to make out the shape of some of them.

We will definitely try it again, but next time with a few adjustments.

*I'll splurge on some thicker stickers.  I've seen some at Walmart that are pretty thick.
*I'm gonna have them try an ink pad instead of paint.  The stamp got too much paint all around the sticker.  I think that the ink pad might help this problem.

It's worth a try.  Let me know if you try it out and how it works for you! :)

~Kristee

Summer Play Book: McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park

So Poppa came to visit last week and we wanted to take a morning trip somewhere. (Before the afternoon heat set in.)  We choose the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale.  I'd heard great things about it and based on the website, we thought it looked like a great outing for our team.

This team's opinion...it was AWESOME!  Super affordable, close, plenty of room to run and be loud, & fun...a perfect recipe for a great outing with our team!

Here are the highlights:

Train Ride:  At 2 tickets per person, it's a steal of a deal.  The ride was pretty long for the price.

Carousel:  Also 2 tickets per person.  It seemed to go on forever!  (Of course I was standing and riding backwards and my players had to ride it 2 times.)

Play Structures:  3 different ones for all ages.  Some really cool elements not seen at our local parks.

Old West Area:  Out in the sun and the sand got pretty hot.  They have a stagecoach the kids can crawl on
as well as a slide and a jail (makes a great photo).

Model Railroad Building:  It's air-conditioned, so it's a great way to cool off.  It's completely free.  They have 3 really neat sections that are works-in-progress.  LOTS to look at!

Hartley's General Store:  We stopped in for some yummy, cold ice cream.

*Tickets are $1/ea or you can buy 10/$12.

**Pullman car exhibit was closed.

They also have plenty of picnic tables space for a picnic lunch!

Riding the train.

Jonah & Poppa

The whistle was a little too loud! :)

Coming out of the tunnel...Eli was scared for Noah! :)

They all had to wear hats since Poppa came to visit!

Spinning around

Model Railroad building.

Lots of really cool details

Scowling criminals

Fun on the stagecoach. 

Old west area

For our Gaggie, who used to be a Hartley! :)

It was a really great morning!  I would highly recommend this day trip.  The only way it could be better...if it was fall! :)  I hope you check it out with your family!

~Kristee