Tag: Everyday Fun

Mommy Marketing (to your kids)

Get ready for something BIG!

Don’t underestimate the importance of selling your fun ideas to your kids… especially the ones they might not label as fun. Being a mother is a lot about marketing. You’ve got to talk up your job charts, your goals, and sometimes even upcoming vacations or holidays.

One of the doors in our kitchen is often covered with mom’s advertisements. If we have a vacation coming up– it’s on the door to get everyone excited about the trip. If summer is around the corner (or in full swing), the summer calendar is spread across the door with jobs and goals for the break. At Christmas time, the calendar with activities and service opportunities is there to see. No one in the family can claim they don’t know what’s going on or what is expected when it’s pasted on a door they pass 50 times each day.

 

 

Bitty Boat Races

Boats

This year it was unseasonably warm on Presidents Day.  It was 60 degrees in February!  We had to take advantage of the beautiful weather.  The cousins spent the night and we had a full day of adventure ahead of us!  …But what to do?

Boat Builders

The kids toyed with the idea of a cooking activity like the TV show, “Chopped”. In the show, chefs are given a box of surprise ingredients. They have 30 minutes to make a meal using the items in their mystery box. Our kids decided they could do something similar with a boat-making contest.

boat out of junk

Boat Builders 2

I gathered containers from the recycling can, balloons, straws, popsicle sticks, plastic cups and paper plates. I separated the items into boxes. We gathered a pile of tape, glue, scissors, and extra supplies in the kitchen for general use. The kids divided into partnerships of two and each group selected a mystery box. During the first round, the timer was set for 20 minutes. When the timer rang, the kids all stepped away from their boats. They had so much fun that they decided to have a second round.

Boat Builders

In the end, we had six boats made by three teams. We took them to the park and let them float down the creek.

Floating Boats

The kids had a great time rescuing their boats and “helping” them along with sticks, as the water was not moving quickly. They even put a tissue in each boat so they could measure how much water got inside the boats.

The adults and smaller kids had a great time cheering from the bridge.

Bridge

Afterward, we had a picnic lunch and played on the playground.  It was a terrific day.

Playground

 

Family Art Gallery

Art Gallery

We have a little artist at our house. She loves to color, glue, and paint.  It’s a passion we want to encourage, but it comes with a lot of clutter.  We found a great way to celebrate her artistic talents and tidy up the mess all at once.

We collected all of her best artwork in a box for several months. Then, we      sent out invitations to an art show.  We even gave the show a fancy name, “Just a Bit of Blue Sky”. We invited family and neighbors to come stroll through our house admiring the art.

In preparation, we hung all of her art on the walls.  We also invited siblings, cousins, and friends to bring their art. We hung it all up with masking tape.

My husband made a nameplate for each artist, a title for their display, and a brief description of the artist.  We also set up a table with coloring pages and watercolor supplies so guests could create a new piece of art to add to the gallery. We served brownies and ice cream, at the request of our featured artist.

It was a really fun evening, and our daughter was so pleased to share her masterpieces.  We left the art up for a few days. Then we gathered it all and put her favorites in her scrapbook. We took pictures of the large pieces to add to her scrapbook too. Then we let the rest go to Art Heaven.