Rainbow Day

We had our annual rainbow day celebration at my parents house (Grandma and Grandpa Walker) in Morgan. The kids need less and less assistance each year and they do such a great job. I gave them a $50 budget and they spend hours over zoom, planning, purchasing, and preparing for today. 

A reminder: Rainbow Day occurs around the first week of school, usually in the days between "not-back-to-school" and the Official First Day of School, but may be held a few days before or after. Rainbow Day often coincides with Molly's Birthday (as preferred by the cousin crew) but does not have to be on that day (as preferred by the moms). The Rainbow Day Dinner consists of six color-themed courses. Children prepare and host the dinner, presenting each course one at a time in rainbow order. Rainbow Day may also consist of other rainbow activities like science projects or art projects. It may consist of crafting decorations or eating other rainbow-themed food throughout the day. However, the most important element of Rainbow Day is the child-led dinner. 

It was really so fun to have Rainbow Day in Morgan with Grandma, Grandpa, and Grandma Knowles. 

The courses were well planned and executed. We left with happy tummies and happy hearts. 

 General rules state that you can't use food coloring to change the color of a food - each course needs to be naturally colored. Blue tends to be a difficult color to create a full course out of and the kids made the case that rice crispy treats from the store come with a blue wrapper- but they would rather save their budget and make the treats themselves with blue food coloring, so I allowed it. In a hilarious turn of events, the blue food coloring the kids to make blue rice crispy treats also turned everyones tongues blue. It was one of those times when one person starts laughing and soon the entire table was laughing and the endorphin release from all the giggling was exactly what we all needed. It was so fun and funny. 

Another Rainbow Day Success! 

Rainbow Day

The second annual Rainbow Day is in the books! The kids have been looking forward to this Rainbow Day celebration since the day after our first annual Rainbow Day. I can't even count the number of times this year that the kids called each other (yay Ooma phone) to discuss the menu for the day. It was a lot. I was constantly finding papers with food ideas separated by color. 

We celebrated at the Haderlies house and that worked out great, due to the proximity to Molly's Birthday. We came up for her birthday celebration on Sunday and stayed to celebrate Rainbow day the following day. (There was some debate on what DAY rainbow day should be on every year, but hopefully, we have settled on that it's just around the first week of school.) We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, rainbow spaghetti for lunch, and then our 6-course, child-made meal, for dinner. 

I gave the kids a $50 budget and let them do all of the food-ordering. I loved the Walmart grocery app because they were able to see how much money they were spending and cut things out before checking out. They came within a dollar of the $50 total and I was really proud of them. 

Each child was assigned a course (not by me - they figured it out themselves) and they were responsible for preparing and serving that course. Here are the courses: 

Red, Orange

Yellow, Green

Blue, Purple

It was a very successful Rainbow Day, indeed. The kids were so proud of themselves and they had a wonderful time - which is really the only thing that matters. They are already excited for next year, and I hope this is a tradition that we can continue. I can just imagine what it will look like as they get older. I love them and their creativity. 

Homeschool Kickoff

The first week of school is always one of the best, and this year was only made better because the Haderlies were with us. Last year they were with us because they'd just moved back from Iowa and this year I was watching them because Baby Molly was born the first day of school. (!) We might just try to make it a tradition that we always celebrate the first week of school together.

Of course, we started with our "NOT BACK TO SCHOOL" day.

donuts. swimming. friends.  

one bonus day of summer before we start school. 

Then jumping right to it, with "About Me" banners and a rainbow mini-unit. I got books, printed a rainbow first-day-of-school sheet, and planned a few science activities. We learned how rainbows are made, what colors/order they have, how each of us are unique and together we make up a huge rainbow. It was simple but a great way to kick off school. 

The best thing, though, was that during one of those rainbow books we started talking deeper about food and colors of food and how our bodies need us to eat a variety of food/colors to grow healthy and strong. The kids got really excited and asked if they could plan a rainbow dinner. 

They planned out exactly what foods they would need and what they would have to do to accomplish their project. Lydia and Camille coordinated their siblings and cousins to plan and prepare the "official first-annual" Rainbow Dinner: a six-course, color-coordinated meal put on by our resident "Kid Cafe". The kids washed, chopped, and prepared foods for each of the color groupings then served them in six courses. 

It really was the best. The kids officially named it "Rainbow Day" and it's already marked on the calendar for next year. First week - a success!