My 1st Week of Summer as a Sitter

The 6-year-old, Little Bear, that I watch graduated from kindergarten on Tuesday.  Yay for him, boo for me.  Gone are the days when I chilled out in the backyard tanning while the 2-year-old, Baby Bear, napped.  My break-time is now at the beginning of the day when they are still sleeping.  What I will miss most, however, is the daily trip to the park.  Baby Bear  and I had a routine that we both enjoyed.  Time to create a new one...

The first photo was taken on day 1 of summer vacation.  I call it "Child Labor."  The neighbors down the street were having their sidewalk demolished, which became the greatest attraction for the boys.  Little Bear spent no less than four hours that day watching and helping move broken cement from the lawn to the driveway.  Which was about as interesting as watching paint dry, back when I was a kid.  But, to each their own, I guess.

Side note: the French Open was on this morning and it brought back painfully boring memories of my childhood summer vacations.  Tennis and the Noriega trial ruined my afternoons!


It is my mission to bring as much arts & crafts into these boys lives as Emily possible.  I would say humanly possible, but knowing what people are capable of (i.e. Guinness World Records) I can only provide enough creativity as I find on Google, various blogs, suggestions from friends or random thoughts.  Here some examples of what we did with "our own two hands" this week:

 

• egg-cartons masks
• We collected various leaves and flowers from the neighborhood.  Later that day we glued some flora down to make collages, that were not so photogenic.  
• toilet paper roll nose makers

My budget for arts & crafts is non-existent, so everything we use is reused scrap or things we happen to have around the house. 

By the way, I am open to any and all suggestions for things to do!