Our first experiment was to put all of the crayons in to one pan.

 Yeah, brown was not what we were going for.

Next, we decided to melt all the crayons on very low heat.  They stayed in their individual loaf pans and after pouring the melted crayons in to the molds, the pans went back in to the oven to stay melted.  Please note:  not all of the crayons will melt.  Either they are too old or just a cheap brand.  But the ones that did were so cool.

The kids got to choose a mold to make specifically.  Some got creative and asked for different colors in one mold.  That gave us the swirl effect we were after when we dumped several colors in one pan.

 The final products!

These were so much fun and just a smidge of work.  The kids loved the result and are now reusing several crayons.

 

 Bryant worked hard on potty training and after one of our adventures out in May declared that he wanted to potty in the garage.  My philosophy:  Doesn’t matter where ya go as long as ya go.  He did.

 I love being a vendor at our local farmer’s market.  It’s a beautiful setting.  I meet some neat people and my kids love coming downtown to the Riverwalk area.  This was taken in the rain when I was just about ready to be done for the day.

 Trying to take it easy during May, I decided to give my stir crazy kids a break and we set up the sprinkler in the backyard.  Following a cue from Pinterest, I put a tarp under it. It was an absolute blast!

Zoe’s cousin made cinnamon rolls when we visited in February.  One Saturday, I was craving them and begged Zoe to make them since I was trying to not do much.  She obliged and we have now granted her the title of Official Cinnamon Roll Baker on Saturdays.  I think she is slowly enjoying it and gaining more confidence in the kitchen as she learns.

Get ready for a photo dump…but it’s full of all kinds of cuteness.

 Zoe testing out the creek in our neighborhood.  We went the next week with friends and had a blast.

 Mark was trying to get some yardwork done (with kids in tow) before a downpour.  He didn’t make it.  Neither did the kids.  Thankfully, they had the shed to seek shelter in.

 This is how best friends hang out.  Love seeing Ceili Rain and Megan (on the right) finally playing together (they spent most of their babyhood crying whenever they were beside each other).

 Big kids at testing.  Little kids got to hang out with mama.  I tried to plan something fun each of the three days.  We hit a local park and discovered they had installed a playground section for all kids.  My kids loved it!

 This is what happens when a baby comes to visit.  Our neighbor, A, asked us to watch her 3 year old and “wittle” baby.  Of course, my kids did not have a problem watching a baby.

 Zoe is my designated Lilla Rose partner.  She enjoys going to shows with me and she gets better every time with talking to customers and showing some Lilla Rose Love when needed.  But on the way to shows, we must play with the phone.  I think this picture shows the real me.

Our conversation about the glasses goes like this.
Me:  Bryant your glasses are on upside down buddy.
Bryant:  But dey hurt my nose the other way.  See?  Dey don’t hurt anymore.

Our local home school care group puts on a big project and performance fair every year.  The first year the kids just did a performance (handbells).  Last year, I made them do a performance and a project (they quoted poems they had memorized and then did the project).  This year, I gave them a choice.

 Liam chose dinosaurs.  We had a shoe box that had plaster of paris from another project.  He painted it and created his own diorama (or dinorama…haha) using some plastic figures we had.  I had high hopes of helping him sculpt them out of clay and then realized that I’m not that artsy and the best I can do with clay is a snowman.  Plus, this was his project not mine.  I was the printer and that was about it.  He even chose to wear his monster shirt because it looked like a dinosaur.  Then we picked out different dinosaurs and he colored pictures.  Of course, my ever social boy loved telling others all about his project.

 For over a year now, Ace has said he wants to be a geologist.  Except now.  Now he wants to be a comedian.  I digress.  So, he chose to do a project on rocks, gems, and  minerals.  He brought out his display.  Researched what he had and wrote up a bit on each.  He chose to type up the info and print it out (all on his own) and we found several cool kid sites that showed how rocks were created and such.  Pretty neat stuff.

Zoe decided to quote a poem by Ellen Watkins Harper called “Learnin’ to Read”  This was a great poem by an abolitionist. Zoe had to memorize it as part of her language lessons this year.  I love First Language Lessons of the Well Trained Mind.  She did an amazing job as always.  That kid would be able to memorize the dictionary if given enough time!

 Mark and Papa helped get us started and then quickly retreated inside to the air condition finish the bathroom floors.  At first, my blessed city kids freaked out when they realized there was cow poo in the mix (Poor Zoe was wearing her flip flops).  Slowly, but surely, they all got in to it and we eventually got the job done and the truck mostly rinsed out.