Our Flag Cake

The girls and my mom had fun making their traditional flag cake for the 4th of July!   This is the 3rd or 4th year that they have made and decorated a flag cake, and it's always a hit.  After they finish decorating the cake, we always sing Happy Birthday to America before eating it.  The kids think this is so much fun.  This year we also threw in a little "Star Spangled Banner" and "America the Beautiful."  Fun times and great memories!

Impromptu Lesson

E(2) said she was building a boat with the pattern blocks, and O(5) said "That might be longer than the baby!"  So we found a yardstick to measure the blocks and found out that they were in fact longer than our new baby friend.  We also measured O and E and talked about the features of a yardstick.  It was a fun impromptu lesson on measurement!

Fossil Cookies

We studied archaeology in our homeschool last week, so I thought it would be fun to make fossil cookies with the girls.  The girls were surprised (we rarely bake cookies) and delighted!

We made super easy peanut butter cookies...we mixed together 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 egg.

We rolled the dough into balls and pressed imprint "fossils" into the dough using our playdough stampers.  We baked the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes at 350.




  Fun and simple!




(please excuse E's dirty fingernails...they are not actually dirty, but are dyed with tie-dye).






The inspiration for making fossil cookies came from here.

Cultural Exchange...Scotland!

The girls and I studied Scotland in May.  We received a fabulous cultural exchange package from Scotland, and I want to share it with all of you.  It may help those of you compiling packages know what kinds of things to send....

Scottish coins




a cd of children's songs and rhymes




Several different Scottish snacks




a small Scottish flag




 a fun craft




stickers and an adorable little book...we LOVE the book!




Lots of great postcards




An amazing Scottish coloring book




Pictures of Scottish bank notes




Pictures of Scottish stamps




They put together an AMAZING letter that was actually a book!  SO much work went into preparing this package!








A Scottish magazine




and lots of other fun things!  What fun it has been to learn about Scotland!  Thanks to our Scottish friends!!!

Tie-Dyes for Baby

Our girls were SO excited to tie-dye onesies for the new baby in our family (my bff's new baby).  O(5) is worried that baby boy won't like her onesie because the red faded to pink, but I assured her that he'll love it!



Tie-dye is a great way to make older onesies seem new again!  Here are the tie dyes we made for Sweet E before her birth. 

Excavating Dinosaur Bones

Since we are studying archaeology in our history program, I thought it might be fun to let the girls do their own excavation.  When I saw these dinosaur bones, I knew they would be perfect for my plan!



We walked over to our clay pile and filled a bucket with clay.



The girls had a wonderful time burying their dinosaur skeletons in bowls of clay mixed with water.








They were covered in orange clay by the time they finished!








We put the containers of clay in the sun to dry for a couple of days. We saved the excavation activity for a day that Elliott was home early from work, so that he could participate in this fun activity.



He gathered together a couple of hammers, flat head screwdrivers to use as chisels, and brushes to brush away the clay and dust.











They squealed in excitement when they finally saw their dinosaur bones!








After they finally freed their dinosaur bones, they had lots of fun making clay soup!




They requested that I read to them while they played, so we read LOTS of books about fossils and archaeology while they played.  Fun times at Lakeside Homeschool!