Crafts and 4th of July

Thursday, the boys skipped their summer program because Carter wasn't feeling good. He had a fever off and on and I didn't want to send them and risk getting the other kids sick. I had expected to have that morning to get stuff done, so I loaded the boys up and they ran errands with me. First, we went to Hobby Lobby to get supplies for the boys to do a 4th of July craft. Evan actually said to me that "I love this store, I want to stay here forever" haha, there is no doubt he is mine!!

Then, we ran by the library and turned in the boys reading program sheet. They each got a medal and tons of coupons for free treats at local restaurants and a free round of golf at a putt putt place. They also got their name put on the wall with all the other kids that completed the reading program. I just had to read them 30 books. I thought we'd be done in like, 5 days, since I read them 3 stories before naptime and bedtime every night, but I realized that we end up reading the same books a lot. So, it took longer than I expected. The boys are so thrilled with their medals, but only Evan would pose for me.

Then, we made a quick stop a Kroger to pick up a few things and went home to do our craft.

I saw this on another blog and thought it'd be easy and fun for the boys. They were so excited to do a craft.

I got two canvases from Hobby Lobby and used painters tape to make some stripes. The boys painted the red on first.

I love this little table from IKEA that we got just for crafts and stuff, I don't have to worry about anything, I just wipe it down when they're done and if something doesn't come off, it's not a big deal.

The boys do crafts in their underwear, any painting or anything messy, they do in their underwear. It's a lot more fun for everybody when I'm not worried about them getting it on their clothes.

While we waited for the red to dry, the boys played with some new things I ordered from Zulily. They love these alphabet popsicle sticks, you match the upper case letter with the lower case letter and stick them together. I ordered a ton of fun, learning toys for them when Zulily was have a great sale.

I also got this alphabet center. I hung it up and the boys put all the letters away, they can work on upper case, lower case, and letter sounds with this.

After nap, the boys painted the blue part on the flag.

After the blue dried, the boys put their handprint in white on the flag. It was an easy and inexpensive craft and now I have something to put up next summer for Memorial day and July 4th.

July 4th, Carter was feeling a lot better, but Evan started feeling bad. It didn't stop him from having a great time, though.

I didn't get many pictures, but I did snap one of the boys eating their corn on the cob. I think little kids eating corn on the cob is so cute. My parents made a delicious meal, pork chops, potato salad, deviled eggs, corn, etc.

The boys love my parents swing, Evan had really started to feel rough before his nap. He ended up feeling better after his nap, but he wasn't over it completely until Sunday. :(

When I got home, I canned a batch of homemade spaghetti sauce. I had 15lbs of tomatoes from my parents garden that I peeled, chopped and cooked. I used a recipe that I found online. It took forever.

I was so proud of my sauce after getting in canned. I had a little left over, so Greg and I had it on some spaghetti squash for dinner the next night and it was awful!!! All that hard work, all those tomatoes, all for nothing!! I was so disappointed.

But, my parents have a ton of tomatoes, so I'm not giving up yet. I actually have another batch cooking using a completely different recipe. I'm really hoping that this batch turns out better. If not, I'll move on to homemade Rotel and salsas.