Rainy Day Scavenger Hunt

A few days ago it was raining with no sign of letting up in sight.  The boys were bored.  I knew because they kept saying "Mom! We are so bored!"  So I had to come up with a plan and quick.
I got to thinking.  What can I take three boys to do when it is raining outside that won't cost anything and they haven't done 500 times already this summer?
And then I had an Ah-Ha! moment.
Take them on an indoor scavenger hunt!  Where?  At a local thrift store!  Perfect place..lots of random stuff, big area, and we are bound to find whatever I wrote on the list.

I grabbed a sheet of paper and jotted down a few things such as:
-an orange shirt
-a purple skirt
-a baby bottle
-an action figure
-a stuffed lion
-a baby blanket
-3 different kinds of baskets (woven, plastic, milk crate, and metal, etc)
-a piece of furniture with flowers
-a funny doll
-a book about animals
and so on and so forth.

So then we put our shoes on and headed to the thrift store near our house.  They spent a good amount of time looking for the items on the list.  This was a really great team building opportunity for them.  It showed them how to work together, vigilance, and attention to detail.  They really loved this activity.  They even asked when would be the next time we went on an indoor scavenger hunt.
We didn't buy any of the items on our list, but I did find a great vintage flour sifter for $1 (SCORE!!) and a Darth Vader action figure for $.69!  (Star Wars is a really big deal in our home.)

The next time you find yourself with some bored kids and wondering what to do, try giving this a go.  Let me know what the kids thought about it!

At the Movies with Kids - "Paranorman"

I took my oldest son (8 years old) to see this movie last weekend with his friend and his friend's mom.  We got our tickets, bought our drinks and popcorn, and settled into our seats in the (almost completely full so we had to sit in the front) theater.
This movie was cute!  The animation was really amazing, and the story line was excellent.  I would compare this to "Coraline".
My son has been having nightmares of zombies since then, unfortunately, though.  There were a few times during the movie that I jumped and my son grabbed my arms in fear.  This was the scariest movie he has ever seen, though.  He has never seen anything zombies before, and so afterwards, my husband pulled out his book about different monsters and let him read about all the different ones.
Overall, I would give this movie a 4 out of 5 stars.  I think it is great for kids that are probably 7 and older.
And....keep a look out in a few months for a "Paranorman" giveaway!

Time for Back to School......Already?

School starts in less than one week, and it is hard to believe that summer has gone by so quickly.  We did a lot this summer, and I hope the boys enjoyed themselves.  Mostly, we stayed in town and did things near our home, but we did take a weekend trip to San Antonio.

They spent time at splash pads, pools, and waterparks...

(that's my 2 year old on a big kid waterslide!)

We spent some time at the Museum of Science and History...

(we love that place!!)

saw 'Beauty and the Beast' at the Children's Theater in town..

played with legos almost every day...
(of course! doesn't everyone?   This is at Legoland Discovery Center)

...we played at the hospital, too (Wyatt had surgery and was admitted for almost a week.  No worries, he is fine, and it was just for precautionary measures!)

....we went to a rodeo!  (The boys were super excited about this!  They even got real cowboy hats for the event.)

And we went to San Antonio!  (First picture is all three boys piled into one bed to watch tv before bed.  The second one is them playing in a window at a rest stop outside of Austin.  The next few were taken at the Alamo, the Riverwalk, and our awesome, wonderful, super fabulous hotel.)

And of course we had a lot of fun playing at home this summer, too..

I hope you and your family had a wonderful summer break also!  What sorts of things did you do?  When do your kids go back to school?

                                                            Thanks for stopping by!

"Twinkle Toe" movie review

We got this movie in the mail today (I won it in a giveaway).  The kids always get SO excited when they open the door and see a package sitting on the porch.  They ripped open the box and couldn't wait to watch the movie.  I was actually very surprised they were so interested in it, since they have been more interested in Star Wars lately.  Well, I was definitely wrong.  They have watched it twice so far today!  Hunter actually kept rewinding the musical numbers and dancing around the playroom.  Yay!  "Twinkle Toes" is a hit in our house!
I think it was a great movie for kids.  It teaches some great lessons about bullies, being an original, and standing up for yourself.  You can accomplish anything if you believe in yourself and put your mind to it!

I am Enough

Bubble Painting

 The boys were wanting to paint yesterday, and Wyatt was wanting to blow bubbles, so I thought to myself Why not do both?  
And that is exactly what we did!
I made a solution by mixing some dish washing liquid and water, about 50/50.  I added about 15 drops of food coloring to each cup, stirred, and added a straw so they could blow the bubbles over their papers.
They really loved this activity.

This is what they looked like after they made them, while they were still wet.

This is what the paintings look like now, after they have dried.
Aren't they great?  We will save them, and use them in a future craft.

Sensory Pasta Play

Wyatt loves to help me cook.  Sometimes, I am cooking something that he just really shouldn't be helping with because I don't want him to get hurt.  That't when I like to busy him with a small bag of alphabet pasta (10/$1 at the super market) and various sizes of bowls, spoons, and meauring cups.  I also took a piece of card stock, put on of each of the letters of the alphabet stickers on it, and let him match the pasta letters to the letters on the card stock.  This activity kept him busy for the entire time I made dinner yesterday.  When he was done playing, I put the pasta up for next time.