Summer Loving 2015

Every year way before even the hint of summer, I think of all the fun activities the girls and I will do, but this year work has been rewarding and busy thus my list is a few months behind. Tomorrow will mark my first official day of summer vacation of the completion of a new summer school course, the fun will be well deserved by all.

1. Hugging Puppies. SouthEastern Guide Dogs in Palmetto, right over the Skyway, gives visitors the opportunity to get a tour of these great amazing pups and at the end you get to play with the puppies. You donate $10 per person as a donation. Inexpensive cute community service and fun.

2. Makeme Studios. They have several arts and crafts classes for kids from age 2-12. The classes each have a different theme for something to create. They also have an Authors and Artists class where there is a story time and then they make something related to the story. Inexpensive and fun. Classes are about $10.

3. Library. The library is often on the list of things to do. The St. Petersburg Main Library always has weekly story times but they have kicked up their game this summer. They are offering Family Flix once a week there will be a family friendly movie, and activity for free. Over the last could of years they have turned the Preschool Storytime into a combined music time. Free fun.

4. Busch Gardens. We have the Fun Pass that we purchased at the beginning of the year and with the Preschool Pass kids under 5 are free. I plan on getting my money's worth this summer. The kids area is awesome there and my girls love it. They also have fun concerts and events in the evenings. The best tip I have for families with young kids is they have stroller parking for free if you ask at the parking gate. It takes you right to the front of the park without having to tram it with all your stuff.

5. Lowry Park. The girls grandparents purchased for them the Lowry Park annual passes when the Zoominations was in town (which was awesome!) They have a great splash area there too and of course animal viewing fun is always a good time for small children.

6. Crafty Fun! I plan on having the girls make canvas pictures frames, play with chalk paint on the drive way, make a tape city and turn the living room into an aquariums with fun sea creature art.

7. Movies. We have so many local cinemas that are offering inexpensive movie watching opportunities this summer, but we have had our eyes set for Inside Out for months. And though I have now heard some mixed reviews about how much my girls may understand about it, I think we will see it.

8. We will also be doing a lot of nothing. Cuddling with my babies on the couch, splashing in the pool, playing outside with the neighbors, being crafty, rainy day activities and taking a family vacation. This is the best time of year to really just be.

Making Bunnies

It has been a bit since I have blogged our happenings and I miss it tremendously. Over the weekend I had the girls make giant bunnies using the giant chart paper made by post-it. Since Lydia is 4 now I wanted her to practice her cutting skills. She did very well. I still made her bunny mouth but otherwise she did well. It was tedious. Vivian being 2 wanted to cut the just like her sister and not as successful. She did cut her papers up but not quite the same level ability but she was happy trying.

I had them on "islands" created by vinyl table cloths and gave them each a paper plate with mod podge and a disposable foam brush. Because I cut the bunny head from the post-it paper it stayed in place.

They both really enjoyed it. Afterwards, they made giant Easter eggs. I drew 3 lines creating 4 sections on the egg. My intention was that each section would have a different shape, circles, squares, stars and triangles. But the girls ended up putting them all over the egg which was okay too.

Each of their masterpieces were placed on the window of our sliders as decorations for the Easter Season.

A Collection of Random Ideas and Little Crafts

I was looking for some art for the  girls playroom. I didn't really want to spend any money. Lying around my garage was an old cheesy painting of of a women playing the guitar in a cool old green frame. I had some chalkboard paint lying around. I painted over the guitarist with 2 coats and turned it into a chalkboard. Using colored chalk I wrote on it what you see below. I worked out perfectly. It's placed somewhere the girls can reach it so it will remain like this for awhile. Eventually I can take it down let the girls use it or draw something new. Easy to do, less than $5.
Lydia is loves butterflies so I cut a paper plate up to look like one. I let her use the glitter glue and pom poms we had. It was an easy craft. Quick to do but tough to finish because we had to wait for the glue to dry repeatedly to be able to do the next part of it. So we had to let the head pom dry before we added a face which also had to dry before we added the antlers. It's a tough task for a 3 year old to wait.


Obviously you see what I mean about butterflies. I bought these a while ago at the dollar store. I believe there were 4 in a packet. I let both girls (ages 1 and 3) paint them as they saw fit, but then there was nothing else to do with them. I could have added them to anything really, but I chose to glue them to clothes pins. I use them to close chip bags and to hang kid art on our display line provided by Ikea.

The last completely random mom artsy moment was this set of dice. Eliot brought home a couple of boxes that were almost perfect cubes. I taped them up and spray painted them white. I used sharpies to make them sort of like dice. Instead of the normal dots I made each side with different shapes. So we can throw the dice and count the squares, then the circles and then all the shapes. I found a couple of dice games with fun printables, so Lydia can practice counting and then match the total with the actual number. We play bingo with them. She counts, finds the right correlation and then place a coin on it. We fill the sheet. It's easy. And fun and once we get bored of the giant dice we will recycle them, a nice Earth Day project for sure.

Summer List of Things to DO

 

Summer Bucket List for 2014. 

35 ideas and things to do locally and at home with my girls, one is almost 4 and the other almost 2. Most of these are free and the couple that have admissions costs are less than $30. You can't beat it. 

I am lucky enough to work at an independent school that has great opportunities for the summer. Lydia will attend a fine arts camp for two weeks half days while I am teaching for a couple of weeks. We will take advantage of our church family VBS this year too, which will be just a few days in the evening, since we have already made plans for the traditional VBS times.

We will also go on vacation for a few weeks to Tennessee to be in the mountains and see friends. So we will be on the go, as always but I also love the days that we get to be home, and this is what the bucket list is for. Fun summer days and rainy summer days where you can find something new and special to do. I labeled the ideas that can be done on rainy days since there are plenty of them in Florida. 

1. Roast Marshmallows. We have a fire pit outside. We were thinking we could roast marshmallows with the girls and make s'mores in our backyard.
2. Road trips: Orlando, Chattanooga, Knoxville and Jensen Beach. We are still hoping to get the most out of our Disney Passes so we have on the calendar at least one trip to Orlando. We are going to vacation in Chattanooga and see friends in Knoxville and then spend a couple of days at Jensen Beach, to rest and relax.
3. Library. One of my frustrations is always that the Children's programs at the public library tend to mirror the school calendar so when I am free they are vacationing which is fair, I suppose but I hope to take Vivian at least a couple of times to the library. Free. 
4. Bayside Gymnastics Open Gym Time. This local gymnastics establishment is not only owned by someone I went to high school with but Lydia has taken several classes there. It's a great establishment and even though their summer open gym time can be nutty, I think it's an easy thing to do with the girls when we want to get out of the house. For both girls $10.
5. Pool. Lydia know how to swim and Vivian is taking lessons. I am excited about moving into a pool-tastic summer. Last year the pool thing was still a lot of work. Lydia wasn't a big fan and Vivian you had to hold or put into the floaty device. Lydia can swim well now, so we are hoping that will add more fun less work. 
6. Little pool slide. This is simple. Take a small blow up pool and put it at the bottom of you playset slide. Instant water slide.
7. Mudpies. On the day we do the little pool slide I figure would be the day to make mudpies. Messy and clean all at once. Chances are there will be little clean, but here is hoping.
8. Tea party. I wanted to have a fancy tea party for summer fun. Little muffins, little sandwiches, fancy cups and plates and dress for the occasion. I think it will adorable. rain
9. Make jello aquariums. There are gummy snacks that have fish and we will make blue jello and put them in clear containers as a fun snack and dessert. rain
10. Root beer float. Giant frozen mugs, ice cream and root beer. Also a fun summer treat. rain
11. Paper roll road map. I keep having this thought. We have long hallways at our house. I think I can take paper from the easel roll and roll it down the hallway. I thought I could draw some things on it and have them draw some roads and play with cars. rain
12. Obstacle course. My vision of this is things to jump over, things to crawl under, things to do along the way. I think this will work indoors or outdoors depending on your home and your willingness to make things chaotic. rain
13. Outdoor fort/tents. The new play set has space underneath it where you can clearly tie sheets and create a tent. Recently we cleared out our linen closet so we are very prepared for sheets to hang all over the backyard.
14. Make bird feeders/bird bath. I fear that these projects will bring bird poop into my yard as well but since we have already been spending a lot of time in the backyard I have seen bluebirds, robins and hummingbirds. It would be fun for them to be a little closer. 
    
15. Sprinkler fun. Simple. Old School.
16. Splash park. My girls have never really liked splash parks something about the water in their face but I like to try it at least once a season. 
17. Kite flying. Simple. Old School. Kite are pretty cheap. Dollar Store for sure, we have a couple from Walmart that I think were a couple of dollars. All you need is a field or front yard with some space. 
18. Little Kid Yoga. I love yoga. At one point in my life I practiced every week and it was genuinely fulfilling. Since then it's been hard to fit it in. I think Lydia would enjoy doing some position and so will Vivian so I ordered a book about yoga for kids. Book $12. rain
19. Soccer game or baseball game. The Rowdies are back and so are The Rays, we haven't taken the girls to a professional game and it just may be a ton of fun to do it. Prices vary. 
20. Scavenger Hunt. Hide stuff, make the find it. rain
21. Make pizzas. We would get pre-made dough have the girls make pizza. A little sauce spread around, cheese sprinkled on, maybe mushrooms. rain
22. Get Sea shells. Lydia loves to find sea shells, so I thought it would be fun to go to the beach just to do that. We would take "hunting" gear. We would be on a search for just shells like explorers. 
23. Paint Sea shells. Once we got our shells we would paint them. It would be fun to do. We are about painting just about anything. If I give them small brushes they like the fancy feel of this type of painting. rain
24. Sunset. A lot of the time we catch the sunset on drives from point A to point B. I would like to take the girls to the beach to see the full on experience. 
25. Beach 3x Eliot and I are lazy beach people because we have always lived by the beach and well it takes a lot of effort. The girls on the other hand love the beach. My goal is to make to the beach at least 3 times this season for them. 
26. Ft Desoto Park I have been to the Fort itself in years. I think it would be fun to go check it out. $5 toll to get out there. 
27. Tin foil river Another backyard idea taking a roll of tin foil and making a river through the yard filled with water. Random silly fun. 
    
28. Weaving with paper  Imagine painting paper then cutting them into strips to weave them. I am not sure at all how this will go with Lydia but I think it has the potential of being kind of cool. rain
29. Sewing with yarn and paper plate Another craft as a pre-sewing activity. Punch holes in a paper plate and have her make a design with yarn colors. rain
30. Spaghetti painting. I have been waiting to do this for a couple of years now. Make spaghetti and let the kids dip it in paint and paint with it. It is clearly the messiest thing in the whole world, so I have to gear up but I think it could be really fun. rain
31. Shaving cream designs. Cheap shaving cream and a cookie sheet. Let them have some sensory play. I was thinking of filling up the water table with it too, see what happens. 
32. Tube wall. I have seen this a couple of times now, using tubes from paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls. Using paint tape you position the tubes all over and some what connecting. Then roll marbles or other small balls through them. rain
33. 4th July crafts and World Cup crafts! The World Cup is serious in our house. So there will be more to come for this item, but for now the idea is watch, play, dream soccer and add a few kid crafts to the even rain
34.  Dinosaur World a Florida delight! I think. I want to know. $15 for adults, $12 for 3 and older. 
35. Old Mickey's Farm This is a local farm with farm animals. You can visit there for the day. Milk cows, pet goats, you know your average farm visit activities. $20 for me and Lydia, Vivian is still free.

Sisters Theater Presents....

Over the holiday Lydia received from one of her aunties a set of cardboard finger puppets. She has really loved playing with them. On Friday when I got home from work she immediately started parading her finger people all over me, when I remembered that I had once mentioned a goal of making a puppet theater for them. I went to the garage and was mulling over how to create it with the boxes that we had available when I noticed that we still had a science board tucked away behind the frig.

It would be valid to wonder who keeps science boards around the house? Well, not us. We had it because we used to, before having kids, really liked making puzzles. We would use the science board on top of the table and then close it up and move it if we needed to use the table for something else. So it's really a puzzle moving board, which I am not certain makes more rational sense. Regardless, I had one.

The one we had had giant writing on the back of it which meant that the flaps didn't flap in the right way, so I bent them right off and reattached them with duct tape. Now being able to have the blank side facing out. I took a box cutter and cut a square in the center panel for the stage.
For about an hour the girls decorated the outside. I pulled all the stickers, pictures, glitter glue out along with markers crayons and I happen to have form flowers that were glittery left over from an Easter craft. They loved it.
Once their decorations were complete, I had them select from a box of fabric squares that I have. For a while I was hoarding fabric squares because I thought they were pretty and was determined that any day now I would be making quilts. Now that that delusion has subsided, I just have a shoe box full and use them for silly moments such as these. I simply took duct tape and stuck it on the inside creating a curtain.
We named it Sisters Theater and the show begun! Lydia really loved it. She performed several shows and we dug out other puppets that we had around. Mostly little finger puppets and a few that are supposed to be wash cloths but we always used them as hand puppets.
Vivian on the other hand, is still trying to come to grips with the mysteries of the theater. We have all been there, comfortably in our seats watching the show thinking, "How did they do that!!??" However, most of us sit and allow the show to transform us; to take us to another world, Vivi just goes to look.
The next plan is make puppets. By we haven't quite had the time yet.