"Super Hero Day"

With school starting up again in about 3 weeks, I've been feeling acute pangs of guilt for not being a "funner" mom this summer. Granted, I did have a baby 3 days before the last school year ended. STILL, I want to give my son a reason to be excited to be home next summer by giving him some fun memories THIS summer!

A long time ago my mom gave me a big book for preschoolers that has outlines and ideas for 80 different themed days; everything from Chicken Day to Pants Day to Wrapping Paper Day. I've never actually read through any of the ideas, but it inspired TOday:

Olsen Super Hero Day.

We started the day with super hero pancakes. I simply added a few drops of food coloring and used a knife to move it around to make shapes.

Gregory sincerely asked if the CTR pancake would actually give him super powers. I told him if he always chooses the right, the Lord will always bless him and that's even better than super powers (if only all his questions inspired such meaningful answers!).

As incentive for Gregory and Charla to complete their chores last week, I sewed them each a cape. Luckily they did earn their capes, so after breakfast they donned their capes and we took a walk to a playground not too far from home.

Charla REALLY liked her cape- so did Gregory, but she was a bit more expressive

I brought sandwiches and a special treat from my childhood- Kool-aid squeeze-it's. My kids all ended up with blue tongues (except Kai).

They had a blast running around on the play equipment and leaping off stuff for me to snap super hero shots of them. Of course I couldn't resist grabbing a few shots of Kai demonstrating his super-cuteness.It looks like she's gently floating down

This picture just looks funky to me- like he's laying a Leora

Queen of the Castle

Unfortunately, even super heroes can't deflect everything. When Gregory got the see-saw going too hard, it irritated some wasps we hadn't noticed underneath. Charla ended up with a sting on her knee, which abruptly ended our outing. Luckily, sharing the last Squeeze-It with Gregory on the (all up-hill) walk home distracted her from her welt.

Moments before the wasps attacked

Once home I treated my toasty kids to Otter-pops. I asked the kids if they could think of a super-hero movie they could watch. Gregory remembered the DVD his aunt Trish sent him for Christmas- a sort of Marvel comics Hero's cartoons: The Justice League. Perfect.

There's a method to Leora's madness- she was biting the middle to get the ice to move to the top. Smart girl!!

The day still had the typical squabbles and whining common any other day, but it was SO fun drawing them into the theme and playing along! Maybe I'll have to start consorting the book for some more ideas.

Have a super day!