I still can’t believe it’s already Friday. This past week has been the perfect summer vacation week. I’ve loved hanging out with my kids until late in the evening and I’ve really loved being able to sleep in past 6:30am. A few days were spent at home reading books, playing board games, drawing and baking with a quick trip to the lake for a refreshing swim (it has been hot here!). We also took a train ride into the big city and walked around and admired all the people and breathed in that polluted city air that we all crave every now and then. And one day we spent the day with the lovely Giova and her family and had a great time chatting, swimming and, unfortunately, hanging out in the emergency room of our local hospital (no worries, all was fine in the end!). Lazy days of summer really are the best.
The kids even opened up their first activity in their summer garland. Man, were they excited! And they loved, and I mean LOVED, the whittle challenge that they opened. After looking up the word whittle (because just as I had expected they had NO idea what it meant) they got busy whittling away their little bars of soap. It really is the perfect medium for kids to learn to carve with a knife. Soft enough to be able to actually carve out a nice shape but hard enough that it doesn’t break into pieces. I was amazed at how much control they had with the knives and I’m proud to say there were no injuries (or blood) involved. They ended up going through about 10 little bars of soap and I’m now the proud owner of a soap owl, man, woman, heart, cloud, star and cat to name a few. Guess what the grandparents are getting for Christmas this year? I must remember to tell my frequent-traveler husband to bring home all those little hotel soaps from now on (or friends and family out there as well!).
I wish everyone a great week-end. Make sure to pop by next week because I’ll be hosting my first giveaway. It’s a good one too. Sponsored by one of my all time favourite companies. Exciting stuff.
Jillian In Italy 
I completely forgot about whittling soap! When I was a kid, my cousin used to make smurfs for me! She did an awesome job too! I’ll try this with my kids but will more than likely stick to the simpler designs. Thanks for sharing this, I forgot all about it and it is definitely safer than wood!
Hmm…smurf shaped soaps sounds like something my kids would be totally into!
Hey Jill, what type of knife did you give the kids to use? I want to do this with Ellie and Jonah!
We just used small paring knives from the kitchen. None of them are very sharp though and in the end it worked out perfectly. I was going to use our Swiss Army Knives but I think they are too sharp for something like this. Seriously, the kids LOVED this. I need some more hotel soaps!
It sounds like such a lovely week. And I’m totally loving the whole idea of that activity garland! Please adopt me?
Of course I’ll adopt you (only if Tala is included though). It’ll be fun when she’s old enough to do all these activities!
Sounds really great!! Have fun!!
Sounds like a lovely week indeed (except the hospital trip though). I’ve never heard of whittling soap before, but am sure to keep the little soapies from now on and send them to Italy 😉