Summer Art and Reading

I should know by now that any art project requiring shaving cream and food dye is sure to turn crazy quickly. This adventure started out tame, mixing colors and shaving cream with a spoon in a baking dish. One finger dip in the shaving cream later, and blue-green foam exploded over the patio.

The kids loved it, and like with so many of our art projects, were soon naked to fully enjoy the fun.

In other less-messy activities, the kids joined the summer reading program at our library. They were so excited about earning a prize that they quickly raced through the required ten books for the first level, and begged me to return the next day. Two sweet teenage volunteers checked in their logs, gave them a certificate, and reached underneath the desk for the much anticipated prizes.

We were expecting a sticker or small coloring book, but instead both kids received a stuffed animal, book, two tickets to a baseball game, free passes to museums, stickers, numerous free kids' meal coupons at local restaurants and an echo microphone. All this for reading ten books of their selection? This was nothing like the summer reading program of my youth! (I remember being so thrilled about the patch I earned for my backpack after slogging through a summer's worth of nonfiction, fiction, how-to, mystery, and science books.)

Lucie and Ryan were hooked. The next night we read another set of ten books, and returned to the library for the next level of prizes. A second wonderful prize package was presented, along with a raffle ticket for each kid. With such a bonanza already, it's hard to imagine what the grand prize for the raffle could be. A pony? Trip to Disneyland? Dinner with Curious George?