Time Flies When You're Having Fun
7/29/2012 03:01:00 PM Posted by mommy2twincesses
I've been so caught up in staying cool and staying sane while it's too hot to be outside that I'm so far behind I feel like I'll never catch up.
Okay, to make a long story short, this summer we've been running like crazy! From trips to the lake, weekends with grandparents, learning to swim (without formal lessons), to just having fun here at home, we have been some crazy busy girls!
We recently saw The Wizard of Oz live! K loved meeting Dorothy and I loved that the production was by a local theatre group and we snagged tickets to a matinee viewing for only $5 per person!
We've been spending lots of time swimming and the girls are little fish! They are both swimming without floaties and M is especially good at retrieving dive rings from the bottom of the pool! Here she is showing a little sass and pride in her skills ;)
I'm in awe every single day at how big they are, how much they've grown, and what pure joy they've brought to our lives! I'm sure that this wild ride we're on is just starting to pick up steam too <3
Free Activity for Kids-Homemade Bird Feeders
6/27/2012 02:27:00 PM Posted by mommy2twincesses
The dog days of summer have just begun and we’re beginning to check things off our Summer Family Fun Plan. The intense heat have us trapped indoors the majority of the day so I’m really glad I have this crazy long list to find activities from-and even more so since most of them are free!
I found myself needing to busy the girls the other day so I could get some things done so I whipped out my list and randomly chose an activity. I didn’t want something to make a big mess and having everything I’d need was a must. After a few minutes of thought, I decided we’d make homemade bird feeders!
To make your own you’ll need:
A large plastic garbage bag
Empty toilet paper rolls
Peanut butter
Bird seed
Spoons
Plates
Hole punch
Yarn
This is basically self explanatory, but just in case I’ll walk you through what we did.
I started by gathering the supplies and then spreading the garbage bag over the table we were working at.
Next, I used the hole punch to make two holes in the end, on either side of the toilet paper rolls, to tie the yarn for hanging.
Using a spoon, I spread a thin layer of inexpensive peanut butter around the paper tube.
I then poured a small mound of bird seed on a plate and rolled the tube around in the seed until it was fully covered.
To finish off the feeder, I tied a piece of yarn to each of the previously punched holes.
After my brief demonstration, I left the girls at it to make their own bird feeders! It bought me between 30-45 minutes! YES! Score 1 for mommy!
When they finished smearing and rolling, I did the tying and out we went to hang our bird feeders in a tree! I used this opportunity to talk to them about how happy Jesus would be that we were feeding his animals because the Bible tells us that it’s our place to care for them. Their honest and pure enthusiasm made my heart sing and has led to further discussions of showing our love to animals-we even got pet Sea Monkeys to care for!
LOL, this was the best I could do since I’m so anti-pet :o)
Shaving Cream Paint-Crazy Fun!
6/18/2012 09:00:00 AM Posted by mommy2twincesses
While trying to come up with ways to keep my littles entertained this summer I came across this amazingly easy and cool idea on Pinterest. Shaving cream paint!
Paint of any kind is normally messy and makes me cringe just a little, but right now it’s hot outside, the kiddy pool is full, and messes are on the daily menu-as long as they are OUTSIDE.
I grabbed a few items that we already had on hand and quickly mixed up an hour’s worth of fun!
What You’ll Need:
Shaving cream
Muffin Tin
Food Coloring
Spoon
Paint brushes
What You Do:
Fill each section of the muffin tin with shaving cream.
Add a few drops of food coloring to each pile.
Mix it well.
Give the “paint” and brushes to the kids.
Get done whatever you need to do while they’re painting themselves silly!
Here is what my finished product looked like:
Here is what my painted child looks like:
Can you tell they had a ball?! LOL The great thing was that all they had to do was dive into pool and they were as clean as when they started! This was fabulously easy and fantastically fun……we will DEFINITELY be doing this again-possibly even in the bathtub :o)
Do you have any fun/creative activities that never fail to keep your kiddos busy?
Vacation Bible School-Great Start to Summer
6/16/2012 04:10:00 PM Posted by mommy2twincesses
I have such fond memories of Vacation Bible School (VBS) growing up! It was one thing that I looked forward to each and every summer and was considered a rite of passage because only the “big kids” got to stay. I can’t believe that just a week ago my precious 3 year old identical twin girls got to go to their first VBS! *tear*
The local Baptist church came around a couple of weeks ago passing out flyers for their upcoming VBS but the allowed grades read Pre-K through 6th grade. I totally dismissed it because they aren’t even close to Pre-K yet, but because we’re such a small community a member of the church told me specifically that the girls were more than welcome to come.
I thought about it and talked about it with the girls and they were super excited and could hardly wait to go!
When the first night rolled around I got them dressed and out we went. They met their teacher and stood in line with their class, but were super shy and didn’t want me to leave right away. I agreed to go in with them and by the time the music started and they warmed up to their new friends they didn’t even notice me sneak out.
The rest of the week was as smooth as butter! I am still in absolute amazement at how well they did, all by themselves! *gasp and gulp* My babies are growing up way too fast!
The highlights of their time in VBS was K finding the “Golden Pinecone” and therefore getting to wear a Ranger hat around all night and be called “Ranger K”, both of them getting suckers for knowing their memory verse (this was only a few children from each class per night), and M winning an overall prize for “Best Behaved”!
The theme song of the week says it all, “It’s gonna be a cool, cool summer!” and what a better way to start it than “learning to trust in Jesus”?!
Do your children attend VBS? If not, I really encourage you to give it a try! It’s fun, it’s free, and most importantly of all, it introduces them to Christ!
Summer Family Fun Plan-Mostly Free
6/08/2012 11:33:00 AM Posted by mommy2twincesses
I keep seeing all these amazingly adorable summer family fun plans floating around online but I hadn’t found a single one that I thought we could actually complete so I figured I’d just make my own! Unfortunately mine isn’t “101 Summer Fun Ideas”, I didn’t come up with a cool number at all-92. Yeah, I’m making 92 the new 101. Just go with it! Or better yet, make your own summer family fun plan!
We live in the middle of nowhere but our boondocks just so happen to lay smack between two pretty big cities, so we get the best of 3 worlds-the backwoods, the “Home of the Blues”, and the home of the “Red Wolves”. So, you’ll notice that my list includes things to do at home as well as things to go out and about and do.
The first section of my list is the freebies! These are all things we can do for “free” either at home with things we already have or at places we have memberships to so we don’t have to pay admission.
At Home Fun Freebies:
1. Play Frisbee
2. Catch lightening bugs
3. Make and eat homemade popsicles
4. Camp out (or at least set up a tent and pretend) in the backyard
5. Make s’mores
6. Have a movie and popcorn night (or rainy day)
7. Family game night (or again, rainy day)
8. Host a sleepover
9. Play with water balloons
10. Eat huge slices of watermelon -don’t worry about the juice dripping from your chin and elbows
11. Sit on the lawn and watch a firework display
12. Slip-n-slide
13. Take a nature walk nearby and collect interesting things you find
14. Make up and go on a scavenger hunt
15. Fly a kite
16. Play in the rain and/or splash in puddles
17. Make and blow your own giant bubbles
18. Have a pillow fight
19. Karaoke
20. Dig in the dirt-look for worms, rocks, marbles, whatever you can find
21. Plant something and watch it grow
22. Hand wash vehicles and/or bikes
23. Let the kids pick the menu of the day and YOU help THEM prepare it
24. Make puppets and put on a show
25. Go for a family bike ride
26. Take a walk
27. Melt and create with crayons
28. Spread out a blanket and look for shapes in the clouds
29. Star gaze and if you have older children look for constellations (print out a map online)
30. Transform old tees (try cutting, tie dying, and even bleaching!)
32. Make and deliver surprises for loved ones
33. Start a collection
34. Make your own pizza (and a dessert one too!)
35. Make ice cream sundaes
36. Play hopscotch
37. Color/paint a picture
38. Get creative with glow sticks
39. Freeze small toys in ice and let the kids stay busy-and cool-by chipping them out
40. Make instruments and start a band
41. Try baking soda dropper art
42. Have fun with shaving cream paint
43. Make a fairy door/house/garden
44. Make marshmallow poppers and declare war
45. Paint toast
46. Make an alphabet book
47. Have a spa day (paint nails, give facials, do hair and makeup, ect.)
48. Make and fly paper and/or straw airplanes
49. Jump rope
50. Hula hoop
51. Have a water gun fight
52. Microwave ivory soap
53. Make rock candy
54. Make and enjoy snow cones
55. Make frozen fruit and/or yogurt treats
56. Make lava lamps
57. Host (or attend) a family BBQ (keep costs down by doing it “pot luck” style)
58. Schedule a mid-year check-in with your Elf on the Shelf
59. Write messages with “invisible ink”
60. Mesmerize the littles with a jelly fish in a bottle
61. Grill banana s’mores
62. Make” hot dogs with hair” for lunch
63. Finger paint with pudding
64. Mail something fun to family/friends
65. Play flashlight tag in the dark
66. Make mud pies
67. Celebrate a crazy holiday (or make up your own)
68. Clean out closets and/or toy box and donate to charity
69. Bake something sweet
70. Try a new food and/or recipe
Out and About Fun Freebies:
71. Vacation Bible School at a local church
72. Library summer program(s)
73. Go swimming
74. Go to the zoo
75. Go fishing
76. Visit the Farmer’s Market
77. Have a picnic at the park
78. Stay cool at a splash pad
79. Go bowling
80. Enjoy watching or participate in an Independence Day parade
81. Visit a museum (many offer free days and some even free summer passes)
82. Feed the ducks at a pond/park
83. Go on a park hop
84. Visit the Children’s Museum
85. Spend a day at Shelby Farms
86. Go to the movies (look for summer freebies in your area)
87. Build sand castles (you could do this at home or at a park or beach with sand)
88. Go for a boat ride
Other Fun, But Not Necessarily Entirely Free Things:
89. Enjoy an afternoon at the Botanic Garden’s Big Backyard
90. Organize or participate in a town clean up day
91. Volunteer for ANYTHING worthwhile
92. Make a water bag to play on
That’s my list! What do you think? I have to figure out some cute way to display it so we can check things off as we go. I don’t have fancy printing software, so I may just write it on scrapbook paper, frame it, and use a dry erase marker to make the check marks.
Oh, and one more thing-check out my “Fun Stuff for the Girls” board on Pinterest to find instructions for these and other awesome ideas! When we complete an activity I’ll post about it and then add links as I have a habit of tweaking ideas I find online.
Do you have any plans this summer? How are you keeping your little ones busy?
