Fun day outside

Camp Scarlet was in session this morning for the last time for this school year, and oh, what a glorious day we had!

We started by making sidewalk paint, using Valerie's recipe from Frugal Family Fun Blog.  You could certainly go out and buy sidewalk paint, but why would you when it's so easy and inexpensive to make?  Just mix equal parts corn starch and water--we used 1/4 c. of each, and that made plenty for our purposes--then add a few drops of food color. (Valerie says it's much easier to mix if you put the cornstarch in your container first, then add the water.) 

 The colors were so vivid and beautiful, and the kids learned a little something about mixing colors.

 We used paint brushes to apply the paint to our driveway.  When it dried, it looked like chalk.  Pal and Car even did a little experimentation by painting over some of their "real" sidewalk chalk drawings.  Very fun, and, just like sidewalk chalk, the rain will wash our canvas clean.

So, I just have to inject, here, that I was actually planning on making our own sidewalk chalk, however, I neglected to actually look up the recipe until last night, when I discovered that we would need plaster of paris, which, unlike corn starch, we don't just happen to have on hand, for that.  So...next time we'll be using this recipe from Family Education to make sidewalk chalk.

And, to inject again, I was planning on making Mega Bubble Blowers today as well, from the May issue of Family Fun Magazine, but forgot to buy glycerin for the bubble solution, and I wasn't entirely sure where around here my husband has hidden the dowels he assures me that we have, so we'll add that fun activity to our sometime-in-the-future list as well (as I'm writing this, the instructions are not yet posted on Family Fun's website, but when they are posted, they'll be here).  Valerie has some awesome pictures of her family's mega bubbles here, if you'd like to see.

Anyway...back to the outdoor Camp Scarlet fun.  The kids brought their bikes and had a great time riding around up by the garage.  With no collisions, even.  Added bonus: before today, Bubby needed intensive parental assistance to ride his bike--he would get stuck and not be able to get going again (you know how that happens sometimes, when the pedals are in just the wrong spot to start and you need to push really hard?) without a push. 

Well, today, since I was needing to assist three children, Bubby got tired of waiting for me to get to him and figured it out himself.  He was rocking it!

At this point, I needed a break, but the kids were still good to go, so after a quick drink of ice water, we headed back to our swingset.  I'm not quite sure what was going on, but I do know it involved monster eyeballs and a waterslide (complete with real water, J, just in case you were wondering how the seat of Car's pants got so dirty).

After lunch, inspired by the back yard "waterslide," the kids donned their swim suits and we headed for some fun in the sprinkler(s).

 We even used this tarp for a slip-n-slide.  We'll need to get some smooth plastic for the older boys this summer, but the textured tarp was perfect for the little ones--the friction kept them from going too, too fast.

And now, my friends, I think it's time for me to stop typing and start taking advantage of rest time :)  I need to be ready for round 2 of biking in less than an hour, probably followed shortly thereafter by round 2 of slipping and sliding (this time with the big boys).