Luke's 9th Birthday

Luke had a great 9th birthday today! He requested Skylanders cupcakes to take to school for a treat. Well... after looking at many different stores, we discovered that no one actually makes Skylanders cupcakes. So, I headed to Party City hoping to find some kind of party favor that we could stick on top of the cupcakes. No luck. It seems that Skylanders is too new of a "thing" to be made into cupcakes.

 

It's a good thing Luke has a Mom who knows how to use Photoshop. I used address labels and created a Skylanders clip art. I printed them onto the address labels and we stuck them on top of the cupcakes and called them stickers!

 

 

 

Lots of great gifts for a great kid!

 

Happy Birthday to you!

Geocaching

It has rained here all week, so when today turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day, I decided to take the kids geocaching. Dan was working on fixing our fence gate, and with the giant electric saw out, he needed his "helpers" out of the way. So, we gathered snacks and jumped in the car.

Because of all the rain, there were many puddles. At our first stop, Luke fell and was covered in mud from the waist down. But, that didn't stop us! We forged on!



We found five caches today. Two of them were the kind you could trade toys. Those are the kids' favorites. It was a fun way to enjoy a few hours on a beautiful afternoon!

Painting

We have created an art "gallery" at our house, so the kids got to work painting their canvases. I gave them red, yellow, and blue and they mixed until they found colors they liked. We talked about abstract art and realism. As you can see, they each forged their own path and created their own beauty.

Overheard in the "studio" today:
Maiya:
I make purple!
Round and round.
Painting picture.
I like purple.

Evan:
I made a 5!
Red dot, dot, dot.
Look, I mixed and made green.
How do I make brown?
Can I borrow someone's yellow?

Lucas:
I don't know what to paint yet. Artists take their time until they know what they feel like painting.
How can I make black? I just keep making blobby brown.
Maybe I add more blue to make black, because blue is the darkest color.
I am making a guitar. It's not abstract.

Bird Feeders

The kids put peanut butter onto toilet papers (very messy) and then we rolled them in bird seed to make bird feeders for our winged friends.

New Family Member

We have a new member of the Wagner family! This is Dexter (renamed from Gordie). He is a rescue from an animal rescue in South Carolina. He was listed as a lab/golden retriever mix. But, he's a little small for just those two pups being in his family tree, so there is likely something else, too. He's basically a mixed up pup, and we love him!

Great Wolf Lodge

We spent a night at the Great Wolf Lodge recently. We surprised Luke and picked him up early from school and drove the kids to a "surprise family getaway." The kids loved the slides and water, the arcade, the kid activities the lodge planned, and MagiQuest. It was a great two days! Lots of new, fun, family memories!