116 degrees? still having fun!

it is hot.

113 degrees hot.

except it was even hotter. 116 degrees.

but, we're still having a blast in vegas!

  

For Summer Camp:

the theme is blizzards in july. so i've been researching as many snow, ice, and winter activities as i can. it's been a blast. the first day was filled with snow and snowflakes. i tortured myself teaching young kids how to cut a six-sided snowflake, however it turned out to be really fun and most of the kids picked it up after one or two mishaps. i was pretty proud of their work! 

we also had a bag of insta-snow on hand at the school. it's a white powder that when you add water puffs up like snow. although, it's not real snow which was a disappointment. the kids were amazed at the "poof" reaction though.

then, even another snow creation. this one blew my mind. i seriously microwaved a bar of ivory bar soap. let it sit in the microwave for a minute or two, and it grows... and grows... and grows! it looks like shaving cream, but it's not that soft. the kids took handfuls outside and made snowballs or crumbled it into falling snowflakes.

one of the activities doubled as an awesome sugar-packed treat. my amazingly sweet husband picked up all the supplies for me since we're sharing a car and he's working an afternoon shift. i'm sure he wondered why i needed a bag of marshmallows, m&ms, twizzler pull apart licorice, frosting and skewers... but the treats turned out sooooo cute!

some of the other week's activities were making our own popsicles. my own recipe of several other combined recipes:

• many blended strawberries and raspberries
• a little bit of orange juice
• a few spoonfulls of sour cream (yes, sour cream)
• a few spoonfulls of sugar
• a few spoonfulls of vanilla frosting, just for fun

it actually turned out amazing. some of the kids didn't like it, but very few. most of the kids couldn't get enough! we just froze some of the mixture in dixie cups with a popsicle stick in it. easy, and delicious.

totally digging the photo bomber too

we also played with painting on ice with a salty, food coloring mixture. the salt melted into the ice, then the color seeped down and created an awesome affect.

then, i mixed food coloring in shaving cream and they added the ice cream onto their cones. they loved playing in the texture.

and of course, you couldn't have an "ice" week without making sugar cube igloos.

then, we had a whole day dedicated to dry ice and borax. this day was awwww-mazing! i had just as much fun as the kids. the first activity was making "borax goo." but it was awesome. they just mixed water, elmers glue, food coloring, and borax together to make this ooey gooey fun.

 

most of my dry-ice experiments, i don't have pictures of because i was too involved in the process. but we made huge exploding bubbles. visit this site to see the awesome details.

but the coolest thing i've ever seen (that may be an exaggeration, but it definitely holds some truth too) was exploding this bottle.

 

it was way better than any mentos in a coke trick i've seen. all you do is throw some dry ice into a water bottle, screw on the lid, toss the bottle and wait. you can see it get bigger and bigger.... then BAM! it was as loud as a gunshot, and the bottle just burst. oh, it was awesome. it kinda scared the kids because of how loud it was, but then they begged to do it over and over again. all in all, it was a pretty "totally wicked" week at camp.

the home life:

besides getting my hair done and watching drake play softball, this week was totally a bummer as far as after camp goes for me. mostly because drake is working nights again. so i go to work at 7:30 leaving him sleeping soundly in bed, then he goes to work at 4 while i'm still working away. then he gets home around midnight while i'm sleeping. sure, he wakes me up and i might groggily try to talk to him for a minute... but honesty, i've usually already been asleep for a couple hours and i'm just not that coherent. it's been a little lonely. wednesday night was drake's first softball game however, and i thought he was drop-dead sexy as can be swinging that bat again. oh, it was so great. in vegas though, even at 10:30 pm, it's still 100 degrees. and that makes anything outside almost unbearable. i'm constantly a stinky, sticky mess. 
one of my lonely nights of drake working however, was spent with amazing company doing my number one most favorite thing. watching an extremely talented performance of any musical.... but mostly my number one forever and all time, Les Miserables. the woman we are living with in vegas, her daughter, and our other roommates and friends took a mini roadtrip to cedar city, utah to spend an afternoon at the Shakespearean Festival. i'm the first to admit i was a little skeptical at first about how much fun a shakespearean festival could be without being a shakespeare geek... but let me be loud and clear: 

everyone needs to visit the Shakespearean Festival! 

i guarantee you will not be disappointed. it is the perfect outing for anyone. it's great for kids, adults, boys girls... anyone. we first picnicked on the grass outside while we were entertained with a free performance. it was top notch. people walked around selling homemade tarts, pastries, caramels, and other assortments of goodies. it was amazingly delicious. then, there was some fun entertainment, part of which i was called up for. you should check out my facebook page to enjoy a video... i'm not smart enough to steal and load it onto here. but basically, i participated in a competition of "sheep-catapulting." it's always fun to get up in front of a crowd and embarrass yourself, right? i actually wasn't embarrassed at all. i had a blast. but then, the night got better. we later enjoyed an absolutely amazing performance of Les Mis... and i couldn't have been a more content girl leaving that theatre (unless probably if my husband had been there to enjoy it with me). all in all, that made for a fantastic weekend which felt really good.

our last day with our new friends ryan and timmeri before they left to live and work at the grand cayman islands was a huge success. she successfully colored my hair exactly how i like it... plus convinced me to go for the bangs. i was craving something new, but i didn't think i'd love them this much! thank you guys for being our friends for this last month!!
for those of you that actually made it through all of this, i'll repeat again how this is basically my journal and that's why i love recording every detail of my life. one day i'll really appreciate the trip through memory lane