Summer Ice

The kids have been trying to come up with fun craft ideas to work on these last few days of summer.  One of their ideas was a cardboard "clothes folder"  Benjamin was very excited to demonstrate its functionality.  Haha!!
They also really wanted to freeze a bunch of small lego pieces and toys in big tubs of water in the freezer and then excavate them.  We have done this many times in Seattle when the temps drop below freezing we would put toys in large plastic

containers and leave them outside overnight.  The next day they would take small tools and chisel their toys out of the ice.  It took more energy to freeze them in the freezer but it was much more enjoyable to excavate on the sunny deck, that is for sure.
And then after they got their toys out Marty and I decided to keep the ice intact and reuse the hunks of ice in our beverage coolers for our upcoming party.
The other nightly or morningly (is that a word?) activity is this new video game called Overcooked.  Marty even plays it.  I'm not really a video game player.  But I have to half laugh half cry when I overhear them playing this.  It is a cooperative game where they work as a team to get a certain number of meals out (they have to gather the ingredients, chop, cook, avoid rats, etc.) to the hungry customers.  Their conversation goes something like this: Hurry, get the tomatoes. No, not the mushrooms, the tomatoes.  Chop them,

hurry.  Come on, chop the tomatoes.  Uh-oh.  The soup is burning.  The SOUP IS BURNING.  Grab the soup.  Someone do the dishes, Hurry, Someone, do the dishes.  Oh, no... the rats, watch out, here come the rats.  It is funny, until they yell at each other so much that someone's feelings get hurt. But I really like that no one is shooting anyone and they are working together as a team.  It would be nice if they wanted to transfer their cooking skills over to real life and help me in the real kitchen 😄