Creative Kids
Lego Mania at Roper Mountain Science Center Robotics Camp
Lego Mania Event
The girls attended Advanced Lego Robotics Camp at Roper Mountain Science Center this summer! They always love the events at Roper Mountain. The camp was packed full of learning and fun. They got to make a variety of robotic items throughout the week. Halfway through the week the kids put on a Lego Mania activity for the parents. They created a carnival with moving rides, water parks, and more fun creations!
Karlie created the only dual robotic Ferris Wheels.
Pausing for a brief moment by Brina’s Ferris Wheel – hers went faster!
Karlie made an interactive Time Machine Restaurant! That would be neat!
Brina’s Water Fun adventure, complete with a seesaw on the water!
Karlie made an “Oh No!” Waterpark – complete with slides, tubes, and more fun!
Pottery Creations at Hearts of Clay
Karlie and Brina having fun at Hearts of Clay
For the girls birthday they received a Hearts of Clay gift certificate so we did a “Girls Night Out” this summer. We had a blast figuring out what they wanted to create, making the moldings, painting, chitchat, and having fun together. It was neat watching them come up with and create their treasures. One of the best parts was when the store worker told them that at the end of the session they can dump any of their remaining paint from their pallets onto the floor, they girls thought that was awesome! They asked the worker several times to make sure she wasn’t just kidding….how often do kids get permission to spill paint onto the floor.
They both made plates – Brina made the flower one and Karlie the square one
Karlie made a miniature goat and named it Oreo!
Painting their pottery creations!
Brina having a grand time!
All smiles!
Karlie’s rocket, planet, and space plate!
Brina’s flower plate
With the extra clay leftover from their plates they made a black lab, Oreo the goat, a heart, cat, giraffe, and an egg!
At the end of their session they let the girls dump their remaining paint onto the carpeted floor! They thought that was awesome!!! Karlie’s ready to dump hers now!
Karlie emptying her pallet of paint onto the floor!
Brina putting her paint onto the floor! So exciting!
Need to get all the paint onto the floor…..can’t forget to clean the brush off onto the floor too!
It was a great evening out at Hearts of Clay! Thankful for a nice evening with the girls.
Outdoor Summer Activities – Pool, Games, and More!
We spent a good bit of our summer time in the pool when we were home. Last year I got a blow up seesaw for the pool. It was a big hit with the kids! The hardest part was staying on when you were all wet!
Having fun in the pool!
We put crepe paper across the two doors with kids sleeping in them. They thought it was hilarious when they woke up and were barricaded in the room. They had a blast running through it that morning!
Karlie reading the “clues” for the treasure hunt that morning.
Looking for another clue!
The girls came up with a bunch of outdoor games for the whole family to play. One of them was a relay race in the side yard. The Dad’s even participated!
Another game required the teammates to hit the baseball.
Now were ready for the bike and scooter races!
Hula Hoop contest!
Noah thought he was pretty smart doing it on his arm instead of around the waist!
The youngest had the best hula hooping skills! She won hands down as the best hula hooper in both families!
Aunt Mirm braiding the girls hair. The thought that was pretty cool having all the fancy braids!
A lot of girly chitchat, giggles, and silliness going on in the back of the van.
Window Easels
Noelle’s window art
One of our fun summer crafty activities that ended up a big hit with all the kids was Window Easels! Each kid (ages 4 to 12) got to pick their own window as their easel and could draw whatever they wanted on it. I had a stack of window paint (like the ones you put on car windows) and each kid could come grab what colors they needed for their particular artwork. They had a blast doing it. I didn’t get a huge amount of pictures during the activity because I was helping distribute the paint and wiping up any drips as they happened. It has a big hit! I left the painted easels up for the rest of their stay so everyone could enjoy their artwork for several days. You could see the artwork both inside and outside of the house which was pretty neat! Some of the kids choose to paint both the top and bottom windows (while standing on a chair) while others just wanted to do one window.
Brina did both of her windows
Noah’s creatively decorated windows!
Nadia, the youngest one of the group, had a lot of fun doing her window – “All by herself!”
Karlie packed a lot onto her window – Art, Names, Signs, Shapes, Math, and more fun stuff!
Not only was it a lot of fun it gave me a good excuse to scrub down the windows this summer too! It was the perfect summer craft. It kept the kids entertained for quite awhile and there were very little clean up. Plus no one had to wait for turns at the easel because everyone had their own and they all painted at the same time. It was fun watching them paint and hearing them chitchat at the same time.
Family STEM Activity Night
Karlie watching the robotics demonstration right after giving her speech to the students, faculty, parents, and family members in attendance. So proud of her! She was the only 3rd grader to give a speech that night!
The girls had a blast at their Family STEM Night! Karlie gave a presentation to everyone in attendance about their STEM Club and robotics competition. That night they had a lot of fun activities as well as informational meetings throughout the evening. Brina and Karlie had a blast learning, soaking in all the great information, and participating in the various activities. It was neat to see them work both independently and together to create some neat projects in the evening!
Learning about the cool pieces and their purposes. Karlie was thrilled to hold the one that had been up in space!
Karlie testing her dragon racer.
Brina testing her dragon racer.
Putting together a soft bed for the raw egg.
Almost done with wrapping our egg!
Final wrapping to their egg nicknamed “Pink Flemingo” for the egg drop competition. I remember doing a similar activity in elementary school. Super Fun!
Under all those pink and orange feathers and bubble wrap is a raw egg – “Pink Flemingo”!
A little concerned that the Pink Flemingo may have broken in the drop so they are hurrying to get back and unwrap her!
Brina so proud of her Pink Flemingo egg drop activity and wrapping skills! The Pink Flemingo did survive the egg drop! Yay! The girls loved this activity!
Making their airplane gliders to fly and measure!
Hero of the Year History Project
Karlie’s Time Magazine Hero of the Year Project – Thomas Sumter
The girls did a Social Studies project at school recently about various people in the American Revolution. They made their own Time magazine “Hero of the Year” cover page and article. They each picked one person and they did more research about the life of that particular person. Karlie choose to research Thomas Sumter who was nicknames “The Fighting Gamecock”. Brina did her research on George Washington who was nicknamed “The Father of His Country”. Both men were instrumental and influential during the early years of our country specifically during the time of the American Revolution.
Brina’s Time Magazine Hero of the Year Project – George Washington
On the back of each of the girls Time Magazine cover page was the details about the hero and his life. It was a fun Social Studies project and the girls got to learn a lot of other details about the American Revolution during their time of research. It is neat to see them get excited over fun school projects. Both of them really enjoy learning about history!
Our Snowman – Rainbow Sherbet
Karlie and Brina proud of their colorful snowman!
Of course one of the fun activities every kid wants to do during a snow storm is build a Snowman! While I cannot say our snowman will win any prices for being perfect or expertly made, especially since it was the girls and I who put him together, he is pretty colorful to look at. We had a lot of fun building and creating him together!
Since we were already doing the spray painting we decided to do something different this year with our snowman. We call him – “Rainbow Sherbet!”
Rainbow Sherbet added a little extra color to our white yard!
The girls are hoping Rainbow Sherbet will last for a few weeks. I am hoping he’ll last a couple days! Once it starts warming up everything melts quickly in South Carolina!
Karlie and Brina had the help of a certain black lab named Skipper! She was proud of their creation too, ha!
Karlie is armed with a paint spray bottle, wonder what she is planning to paint now!
Winter Wonderland!
Brina making a snow angel
We spent our days finding ways to have fun both inside and outside the house. I think they spent almost as much time outside as they did inside even on those days when it was snowing the whole day. They had so much fun.
A sweet “I Love You”
Karlie found a nice leafy spot for her snow angel!
I wonder who might have wrote this one! Ha!
Yes, we get another SNOW DAY! YAY!!!! So excited!
Every morning before the kids and animals were tracking in and out of the house the deck looked beautiful all covered in a fresh coat of snow!
One morning we measured the amount on the back deck – 3 inches overnight! Awesome!
Not sure how much we actually got but the kids sure have enjoyed all of it!
A good snow storm is not complete without some snow cream. The problem is my traditional recipe had dairy in it so I found another one and we substituted Coconut Milk. It didn’t turn out as creamy as our old one, however, the kids still had a great time making and eating it!
Whipping up two batches of snow ice cream – one vanilla and one chocolate!
Karlie’s stirring up the vanilla!
A bowl of snow cream with sprinkles on top! Delicious!
If you want the Snow Cream recipe it is as follows:
4 cups Fresh Snow
1/3 cup Sugar
1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla
1/2 cup Milk or Coconut Milk
Stir everything together and enjoy! You can add chocolate or any of your favorite toppings!
A Rainbow of Snow Colors
Brina painting a huge rainbow heart on the snow!
We had a blast in the snow! One of the things we did this week was get some old spray bottles fill them with water and add a few drops of food coloring to it! We filled and refilled those spray bottles several times over the last few days as we painted pretty pictures in the snow! The girls had a great time!
I would like to take the credit for coming up with this awesome idea all on my own, but my amazing and creative cousin suggested we do some snow painting when I spoke with her earlier this week. Yes, it was a huge hit like all her fun ideas, thanks Renelle! The neighbor kids even came over and had a grand time painting pictures in our yard.
Pretty red heart in honor of Valentine’s Day spray painted in the snow by the girls!
Coloring the front porch steps! Coming up to our house was a rainbow of colors for several days, thanks to Brina & Karlie!
A friendly “Hello” to greet our friends and neighbors coming into our yard!
Pretty rainbow on the snow!
There were all kinds of random paintings all over the yard and driveway!
Karlie Kool Kat having fun painting the snow!
Brina Bee painted her name on the driveway!
Someone even did my name, so sweet!
A little more defined green star!
Someone painted Dad’s name on the yard too!
Karlie, Brina, and Skipper standing at the top of the driveway where they painted the word “Welcome”
I thought it was cute that they painted a smiley face next to the mailbox to bring some winter cheer to our mailman! Sweet kids!
Brina’s armed with a spraying, wonder what she’s going to do next!
The rocks, trees, bushes, and various random items had been marked by the spray painters!
The well covered was sprinkled with paint like confetti!
Skipper even got a pretty painted dog house. It looked like a big decorated gingerbread house when they were done!
Snow Animals!
Skipper jumping up to catch a snowball that was tossed into the air! She was having as much fun as the kids!
Our outdoor pets were not quite sure what to think about the snow at first, especially the goats since the snow covered all their delicious leaves. They did enjoy having the kids and the family outside more often this week to play! The goats and Skipper followed the kids around the yard joining in the fun as much as they could. Sometimes it was a little crazy riding a sled down the hill and having goats and dogs almost hopping into your lap, but it gave us a good laugh!
Skipper trying out the sled as Oreo watched. She wasn’t overly excited about being on the sled by herself!
Our South Carolina dog enjoying the snow!
It was amazing the amount of snow that piled up on these two! It showed up better on Oreo, but Snowball definitely had a thick layer too. They didn’t see to mind the cold from snow at all!
Snowball hanging out with the family! He was more camouflaged this week!
We always had a trial of critters following us through the woods. The goats especially liked it when we rustled up some good leaves for them!
Snowball peeking around the tree at Skipper
Skipper still guarding the front porch!
