Freedom Festival Circus Party

Doug was going to a movie with some friends Saturday evening so Abi and I picked up Maddy and headed straight back to Provo to go to the Circus Party.

It started at four and we got there right at four. I am so glad we did because it definitely got more and more crowded through the evening.

The first stop was the bounce house and little slide. Maddy wanted to go in but then got scared so she stayed out with me.

All of the games and activities were free. You only had to pay if you were buying treats. 

The girls wanted to play this jug game. Abi knocked down most of them. 

Maddy didn't get any... but she tried. 

I told them they could pick out one treat. They chose cotton candy. 

Abi liked watching them make it.

Then we did the face painting. Maddy wanted a flower on her arm...

Abi wanted a butterfly on her cheek...

Unfortunately the face paint did not last long because they played in the splash pad for about 45 minutes right after getting it done!

Maddy is always afraid of the water and sometimes won't go anywhere near it. But this time after a few minutes she enjoyed it. She never goes out and gets really wet but she liked getting her hands and feet wet.

She kept getting her hands wet and then putting them on the ground to make hand prints.

This gorilla man was so funny. You can see Maddy in the right not even noticing him. Right before this she had been RIGHT next to him and not noticed. So I pulled the camera out to get her reaction to seeing him. It took her forever to notice him!

And here is the moment when she did! It was so funny. I wish I had been videotaping it. She yelled "OH!" and then ran off!

At one point the workers came and threw in some beach balls...

After drying off we headed back over to the bounce houses to see if the big slide was finished being blown up. It was. Both girls headed up but as you can see in the picture below, Abi was looking behind her. I found out right after that it was because Maddy was crawling back down under the people. She decided it was not for her.

Abi loved it and went on it about eight times.

Maddy was satisfied jumping up and down on this little pad  and eating her cotton candy.

Then it was time to leave. On our way home we stopped at Barnes and Noble to pick up Abi's free book from their reading program. They played with Legos for a while.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

 I found out a week ago that there was a My Little Pony movie coming out to theaters. I immediately looked it up and found out that it was having a VERY limited release here in Utah and was only playing at three theaters and only one time. So, I picked us up some tickets for the one and only showing at noon at a theater in Provo. 

Doug stayed home with Maddy so that just Abi and I could go.

She was SO excited!!

I thought the movie was really cute and enjoyable. She loved it!

On the way into the movie we had noticed a carousel in a building next door so we went over to check it out. Turns out it is this big building called Provo Beach Resort that has games, bowling, laser tag, surfing, and all sorts of things. I had never heard of it before. 

We got a $5 card so she could play a few games and ride the carousel.

Then I found out that in this little area (Riverwoods) the Freedom Festival was putting on a circus party that night. So we went home to get Maddy and come back!

Science: Moving Water

This week's science project did not work as well as the last one.

I used toilet paper and I think if I would have had paper towels to use it would have done better.

We put water in two glasses with food coloring and the idea was that the colored water would move down the paper into the empty glass and make purple water.

It did actually start working as you can see the paper was starting to color. It was cool to watch it move. But then the paper broke. 

The Rock Candy

Here are the finished Rock Candy sticks!
I took the rock candy out a bit before I probably should have. I think they would have been a little bigger if I had left them in a full week. The girls loved them though. They turned out pink just like Abi wanted and they said they tasted good. Success! This was a really fun project.

Water Play: Whatever you can find

A few weeks ago I picked up a slip and slide and the girls were so excited on Friday to finally try it out after I had picked up a hose from the store.

We got their suits on, sunscreen on, set up the slip and slide on the little hill in our yard, and went to put the hose on.

Then I realized our hose hookup did not have a wheel to turn it on! What?

I searched the garage, called Doug, and tried everything I could think of to get the water to turn on. I found another faucet on the side of the garage and it doesn't have a wheel either.???

So, the girls were really disappointed.  I tried to figure out something else to do. 

We did some water balloons but they would basically toss it to each other and they would fall on the ground and burst. Not much fun.

I filled up two pitchers with water and Abi and I chased each other and Maddy around dumping them on each other. That was fun but only lasted a few minutes.

Then I got an idea.

I went in the garage and turned the sprinkler system on. 

That worked. The girls had a blast running through the sprinklers and going down the wet slide.

Pick a Park: Dry Creek Trail

Each week we try to go to a park that we haven't been to before. This week we chose to try the Dry Creek Trail Park in Lehi.

I had to do some grocery shopping that morning so I just ended up grabbing some lunchables for the girls to have at the park and we had a little picnic.

It was a pretty little setting. 

The problem with this park is that on the toys there was no shade and they were too hot for the girls to play on. Maddy just walked around and Abi did the zip line over and over.

Library: play

I love going to the library with the girls each week and they love playing in the little play room!

Summer walking

I took these pictures of Maddy on the way to my sister's house on Wednesday. She was lifting her arms up and down the whole canal road. It was so cute. We love walking to my sisters because now we know it is exactly .75 mile to go there and back home.

Summer of 100 books

Last summer I encouraged Abi's summer reading by giving her a timer bookmark and for every 10 hours she read we took her on a date. 

I wanted to do something different this year. We decided to make a goal for reading 100 books and make a paper chain of each book she read.

I put out the strips for writing book titles in a little container to be pulled out after Abi reads a book and then we put them on the book chain.

After each book she reads she has to fill out a little book report in this book I got in the Target dollar section...

They have to be chapter books. Originally I was going to make them be over 100 pages but then I realized that all of her fairy books that she loves are around 60-100 pages so I changed it to over 50 pages. 

After every ten books she gets to pick out a little prize I have in a basket containing mini lego sets, books, pens, pencils, and other art supplies. 

It has been so much fun reading her reports... and she is already to book 40!

Art: Simon Says

This week for art we played Simon Says. I would say Simon says draw... and they would both draw whatever I said. The idea behind this is that they are both drawing the same thing but end up with a completely different work of art. Honestly though I think the idea is better than the actual activity.

They both thought it was fun but not as much fun as the other art projects we have done so far.