And So Ends Playdates 2012

Everyone is gone now. Handy Man kindly drew me a hot bath to soak my tired bones and my sad heart.  As usual, you can't have a long enough Playdate. After being fed, and  the storm went through, all the Mama's and one Grandfather loaded up some sad little ones, not wanting to say good-bye to summer and good times.

Bean is headed out for vacation and will be gone for his birthday. He requested a Wizard of Oz themed cake for Playdate.  In addition to painting and sketching, I possess no talent at all for cake decorating, but I make some good icing.  This is an I SPY birthday arrangement in case you didn't know.  Can you find Dorothy, the Emerald City, the Wicked Witch of the East, the Yellow Brick Road, and the correct color order somewhere over the rainbow?  All there.

 Gideon and I painted, wrote with chalk, and took another trip through the troll tunnel before the others arrived.  I have so enjoyed finding my way into his heart this summer.

 This was Science Playdate and first we made oobleck, and then some gak in addition to playing all day with orbeez.  We always let all the kids do the science, with lots of grown-ups close by.

Here is where the liquid becomes solid and no matter their age, they are all enthralled with what is happening in that cup.

 
Then they have a great time playing with the end result.

Down to the youngest amongst us.

 
We headed in for snacks and Bean was as thrilled to make sno-cones for all the wee ones as they were to eat them.  We started with the youngest and moved on up.  Aunt Lois was sure that meant she was never going to get her grape sno-cone, but we did finally reach the nineties and Bean not only had to make it, but take it to her himself.

 No science day would be complete without the Mentos Mz. Glitzy Dance. This is root beer.

 Diet Coke here.

 Then it was time for the group shot.  Wow, we've grown by leaps and bounds from the 4 we started with.

 I like Root Beer and I love me some Diet Coke, but after the fizz is gone and Mentos added-blek.  Didn't deter the boys even a little.

 Most people wouldn't hop into a pool that looked like that either. Of course they are the ones that added the mud, so I guess when you know where it comes from it isn't a problem.

I will miss them. 

Thank you Lord for another summer of fun.  Our worse mishap happened this evening, when after a pouring rain, Handy Man slipped and lost a good size chunk of his ear to Cluckingham Palace- ouch, ouch, double ouch.

Wonder what the neighbors will talk about when I put the yard back in order.

Edited by Ceece:
Here is the photo from the first blogged playdate!