Our visit to The Children's Museum

Since it has been so incredibly hot lately I thought a trip to The Children's Museum {this also happens to be # 7 on our summer activity list, too} would not only engage my kiddos, but keep us all cool and not so damn crabby happy.


The Children's Museum {Here's a link if you'd like more info.} is like one of our favorite places to visit, next to Disney World that is. Nothing can top Disney World. So, since we don't live in Florida and we do live within 30 minuets of the museum, off to the museum we went.


In all honesty it is a super nice museum. There are activities and attractions for children of all ages and abilities. The activities are hands on and very interactive. We have a yearly pass. It totally pays for its self in 2 visits. There are 4 floors so it is difficult or nearly impossible to get through everything in 1 day. Not to mention, our kids wouldn't last through the entire museum.

Oh and my favorite part . . . it is SUPER CLEAN! I mean it is a museum for children and it is hands on so as you can imagine, things tend to get goobered up, because let's face it, no matter how hard we try, those darn kids just goober things up! Despite the number of children who come in contact with each area of the museum, it is clean and well taken care of.

This time we decided to begin on the 4th floor and work our way down. We went to the Science works area first.

G is in the water area here. He is trying to build a dam to stop the water so it will not flood the housing development downstream.

Next, we moved onto the Healthy House.  There are several activities within the house that promote a healthy and active lifestyle.  In the kitchen G learned how to make a healthy snack with an interactive touch screen computer.

B pushed a light in the bathroom and all of the germs were illuminated. Of course my boys were very entertained by the fact that there were even germs on the potty! I loved it when they told me I was right about the germs on the potty! {Yay! They did listen, for once.}  When he let go of the button the germs disappeared.

After the healthy house we were off to the construction area.  B and G enjoyed using larger diggers to scoop up piles of mulch.

They also loved the bulldozer that they were able to drive. Look out because this thing really moves!

After leaving the Science Works area we headed over to ride the carousel. With a membership you can ride for free. I think it costs .50 for everyone else.

Behind the carousel are several other areas for the kids to play in.

G especially enjoyed serving ice cream in the ice cream shop.

He also had fun watching these balls roll and drop.

From this area we moved onto the Playscape.  In the Playscape kids can play in several different areas that encourage imagination.  These areas include: sand, water, building blocks, dress up, house, and magnetic items. 

There is even a special place for babies to move around in.  Baby M loved playing with these blocks and looking in the mirrors.

After eating some lunch in the cafeteria {We packed our lunch, but there are restaurants inside the museum that you can eat at}.  We went to the Dinosphere.  Again, there are many different activity options in the Dinosphere.  The boys began with the digging area.

We ended our trip in the dinosaur dress up area.  B and G are trying to protect their eggs from the other dinosaurs!

How have you and your family been trying to keep cool?

Vaca Fun: Day #2

Summer Vacation officially began for us yesterday.

So far we're still keeping things interesting  . . . let's face it we've only been at this 2 freakin' days people!

We headed to the library.  While we were there we were able to catch the 'story time', we signed up for the summer reading program, and checked out some books to bring home. 


The libraries around town offer a summer reading program which basically is put together to encourage reading over the summer.  Kids check out books and get points for reading or listening to books.  The points can be turned in for prizes.  Oh and a bonus . . . it's free!

Waiting for Mommy to make lunch

It was close to lunch time when we got home.  It was such a beautiful sunny day so I asked B and G if they would like to have a picnic in the front yard.  They thought this was a cool idea!

Lunch outside is good stuff!

After eating lunch we read/listened to a few books.

We also enjoyed the nature around us.

G noticed a butterfly on a dandelion.



He's walking over to the dandelion quietly so he doesn't scare the butterfly away.



Bending over to pick it.



"Look Mommy!  I brought you a DAM lion!  The butterfly left though."

Baby M thinks he's hilarious.

Our evening ended with B's baseball game.

Summer Vaca: Day #1

Today was our first official day of Summer Vacation.

My goal for the summer is to have fun with my kids, to practice skills to prevent summer loss, and maintain our home in hopes that our weekends can be spent enjoying time together rather than working.

After feeding Baby M I, set out to do some dusting, window cleaning, and  fabric refreshing.

Sometimes I don't even know why I bother cleaning the mirror in this bathroom.  It seems like 2 seconds after I do it, along come B and G and their finger prints!

Along the way I came across some picking up that needed to be done.

Since Baby M isn't old enough to put her books away and hang her laundry up I helped.

Baby M and I read books after this project was completed.

 

All of us spent a lot of time outside and in the water over the weekend, so of course this mess was to be expected in the bathroom.

Now when I arrived in G's room I was well . . . a bit surprised with the condition I found it in.

Let's just say that he was a little less than enthusiastic about my request to put things where they belong.  He did a great job of putting things back in their places!

B worked on a page from his summer packet while G cleaned up.

After eating breakfast B and G made puppets.

G and I practiced some preschool sight words and he read a book to me.

B practiced some sight words and read a book to Baby M.

We ate lunch and everyone, but Mommy took a nap.

I'd say we accomplished quite a bit on our first day of Summer Vacation!

Spring Break Review

I managed to survive the first day back from Spring Break.  I have to be honest though, images from the time with my family were re-playing in my head and helped me through the day.

Here are some of the fun activities we did:

We went to baseball practice.  Read more details about what happened He got a Hit and I Missed it.

The weather was beautiful so we enjoyed playing outside with chalk!  B made this picture of the two of us.  He defiantly captured my good side.  Isn't it beautiful?!

We took a trip to the beach.

We even went to the moon.

Some eggs were colored.

I made a cake for a friend's birthday party.  Brent and I got to attend a a party without children.  Yay for adult time!

Eggs were hunted.

Finally, we celebrated Easter.

We didn't go anywhere fancy for spring break, but we did have a lot of fun!

Woody from Toy Story (4 years old)

I have previously shared my son’s love of the Toy Story movies resulting in a total of 4 Toy Story themed birthday parties.  This love began with his 3^rd birthday party which I have also already shared.   When his 4^th birthday approached he informed me that it must be a Woody theme, because the previous year was Buzz Lightyear.  As he said this to me the tone of his voice practically said “Well duh, Mommy!  Why wouldn’t this year be a Woody theme?”  Again, I created invitations along with matching Thank you notes for the party.  I also made a cake and came up with kid friendly activities to match the Woody/Cowboy theme.  Keep on reading for more details!

4 Year Old Woody Party

For my son's 4th birthday he chose to focus on a Woody theme. Again, at the time of his party Toy Story had not been re-released so I had a difficult time finding Toy Story items to use for his party.

Invitation

I used cowboy patterned paper and brown cardstock to create his invitation. I also found an image of the gang online and copied it onto cardstock.

Front

Inside

Thank You Notes

I used the same paper from the invitations to create the Thank You Notes. I always like to include a picture of the birthday boy at his party on the Thank You Notes. I have wallet size pictures made at Sam’s Club and they are inexpensive.

Email me at uniquelyerinnicole@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing invitations like this.

Cake

For his cake I made a cowboy hat. To create the hat I used the Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl to bake the cake in. Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye action figures, Twizzlers candy were used to decorate the outside of the cake.

Activities

Bullseye Horse Races

What you will need:

Poster board

Paint

Paint brushes

Construction Paper

Yarn

Number punch outs

Putting it together:

Front:

Trace the image of Bullseye on the Construction paper.

(I copied an image onto transparency film and then used the overhead to do this.)

Paint the image and cut it out.

Punch 2 holes in the top and 2 at the bottom.

Back:

Glue the number on the back of the construction paper.

Punch 2 holes in the top and 2 at the bottom.

Use the yarn to tie the Bullseye face to the construction paper.

Directions:

Create a starting and stopping point. Line the runners up at the starting point. The first runner to the finish line win!

Panning for Prospector Pete’s Gold

What you will need:

Rocks (I got some from the dollar store)

Gold Spray Paint

Sand

Large Container (I used a large storage bin)

Foil Pie Tins

Putting it Together:

Put the rocks on newspaper and spray paint them gold. When they are dry turn them over and paint the other side.

Pour the sand into the large container.

When the rocks are dry hide them in the sand.

Directions:

Have the kids search through the sand for the gold with the pie tins.

Special Activity Choices

Special Activity Choices

So often I feel as if I never have enough time to spend with my family. Throughout the week we are busy with work and school. It’s like a never ending cycle. Then finally, the weekend arrives. Our weekends are typically spent grocery shopping, cleaning, and doing laundry. A new week begins and the cycle repeats it’s self again.

I usually create a list of items that must beaccomplished. Anymore, I find that my mind is racing one hundred miles a minute. Just when I think of one task that must be accomplished I come up with 10 more items to add to the list. If I don’t write it down I become overwhelmed, forget, nothing is completed, and I am left feeling frustrated.

As I was creating my ‘To Do List’ one day out of the blue I left a space for my kids to make a choice. After writing down what MUST be accomplished I encouraged them to think of 1 special activity that they would like to do. This is how the daily ‘Special Activity’ came to be!

My kids love that they get to be in charge and choose at least one thing a day to do. Sometimes they choose an activity that involves our whole family such as playing a game. While other times they pick something to do individually, such as make a model car. When it gets near the end of the day if an activity hasn’t been completed they remind us that we need to do their Special Activity. It also helps to motivate them to complete their homework and finish dinner on time. Bottom line, my kids feel empowered and we are carving out family and individual time rather than just rushing through what HAS to be done.