a new summer tradition

if one thing's for sure, it's that i thrive on tradition and familiarity. there is comfort in the joys each season brings and in checking these things off my list. when my girls look back on their childhood, i want them to remember the events that made up the soundtrack to each season.  just a few on our summer playlist include: backyard camp-outs, fishing, homemade freezer popsicles, ball games, growing vegetables, and TIE-DYING!

i suppose i associate tie-dying as a summer activity because the first time i ever tie-dyed was at girl scout camp in first grade and the last time i tie-dyed was with my best girlfriends the summer before i headed off to college.  we made pillowcases so we'd be the last things on each other's minds before we laid our heads to rest (or maybe it was just cheaper to do pillowcases, haha, the details escape me now). either way, these memories are etched in my brain, and that has got to count for something.

haley really enjoyed the whole process and became quite good at it, while cameron was just content to sit around and mix the bowls of dye for us.  and that's okay too.... maybe next year! we spent at least 3 hours in the summer heat banding and dipping and ringing out and speed-drying things on the hot black pavement.  we learned that blue and yellow make green, and that wal-mart needs to restock their red dye to this can double as an educational project too.

our big project was a tie-dyed a-frame tent for our little friend Ryder who has his 2nd birthday party this Sunday.  i think the results are every little hippie boys dream. for the girls, we made shirts to wear to daddy's ball game that night, capes, blankets, and even a pretty dress out of one of my old tank tops. i`ll be sure to share our results with yall later.

by the end of it all, each bowl of water seemed to have turned a murky greenish-blueish-grey color and my cuticles were rubbed raw from rubber-banding so many different things.    i think my fingernails are stained a permanent shade of green, but my heart.... it must be tie-dyed.  i had myself a ball!