…we stop trying to outdo each other and work together?

“Yes! YES! They do have too much time on their hands!!”

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    = Done = Click to read about it = Pictures included
  1. Build a sandcastle
  2. Have a picnic
  3. Lay in the grass and find shapes in the clouds
  4. Paint those clouds see link
  5. Plant some flowers
  6. Hang swings from a tree branch high above, and swing as high as we can
  7. Take our first camping trip (which will probably be in the early fall, because Mommy doesn’t do hot well)
  8. Build a campfire, cook hot dogs and smores
  9. Make a Nature Box see link
  10. Paint the bathtub see link
  11. Make an ice treasure see link
  12. Use a Chore Bucket see link
  13. Paint with puffy paint see link
  14. Make a treasure map and go on a hunt see link
  15. Make a dress up corner with lots of gaudy, fun clothes
  16. Two words: homemade popsicles
  17. Three more: homemade ice cream (in a bag in just five minutes!) see link
  18. Make a big batch of colored rice, all different colors. see link Make rice art.
  19. Fly a kite
  20. Feed the Charleys (giraffes) see link
  21. Catch lightning bugs and figure out how to make them light up in a jar
  22. Build/make a wooden boat, tie a string and sail it on a lake
  23. Ride a paddleboat
  24. Wave sparklers around for the 4th of July
  25. Make bubble solution and giant bubbles
  26. Put out a bird bath
  27. Bake Cupcake Cones see link
  28. Play hide and seek with flashlights at night
  29. Celebrate National Ice Cream Day (July 20th) with friends
  30. :More To Come:

I’ll admit, this list is more for my own benefit than anything…my computer is in desperate need of restarting. When internet browsers came up the the ‘tabs’ idea to contain so many open windows into one item when minimized on your taskbar, they had me in mind. Only I tend to abuse the privilege and open so many tabs in one window that I actually have to hit the arrow to scroll over, because they cannot all be shown on a 24 inch monitor! I didn’t want to bookmark all of the pages, as my bookmarks are already a semi organized mess. One single link from a blog already on my blogshelf turned into a two hour adventure hopping around blogland last night while everyone else was sleeping. I will be adding a button to my sidebar within the next couple days to have a visual (reminder) link to this post. I found so many excellent ideas last night. I’m off to restart my computer before it curses at me. I’ll continue adding to this list as I come up with more ideas.

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the movie game

May 18

Posted by: Rachel in: blog, games, me myself and i, ramblings

The Rules:
1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie (or write your favorite quote if you know it word for word).
3. Post them in bold for everyone to guess (comment with the number and your answer for that number - feel free to answer as many as you know!).
4. Remove bold and put quote in italics when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. No Googling or IMDb-ing. That’s cheating and that’s no fun!
6. Feel free to join in and post your own (and let me know if you do!)!

1. “This old gypsy woman once told me that if you jump backwards nine times before the sun comes up you won’t be pregnant. Well, I jumped so far I had to take a bus back and then I had twins.” Where the Heart Is - Andrea

2. “What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area.” The Fugitive - Andrea

3. “I’m pleasant. Damn it! I saw Drum Eatenton at the Piggly Wiggly this morning, and I smiled at the son of a bitch ‘fore I could help myself.” Steel Magnolias - Andrea

4. “In case I forget to tell you later, I had a really good time tonight.”
 HINT: V: “It was so good, I almost peed my pants!”
E: “She said she liked it better than Pirates of Penzance.” Pretty Woman - Amber

5. “Oh come on. You haven’t even tried donuts yet. You wanna store some fat, that is the way to store some fat, you’ll be sweating through the winter.”
HINT: “Do you wanna help me find my nuts?”
BIGGER HINT: This movie is very popular at our house right now, and I have mentioned it several times in the last few months! Over the Hedge - Amber

6. “Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.”
HINT: “ The thing about trains… it doesn’t matter where they’re going. What matters is deciding to get on.” Polar Express - Amber

7. P: “G*** Honey, how are you doing?”
G: “Oh great, considering I desecrated your Grandma’s remains, found out you were engaged, and had your Father ask me to milk him.” - Meet the Parents - Andrea

8. “Only one thing in the world could’ve dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window.” - A Christmas Story - Andrea

9. “I’m giving thanks that we don’t have to go through this for another year. Except we do, because those bastards went and put Christmas right in the middle, just to punish us.”
 HINT: G:<after an embarrasing moment> “So how fast can this thing go Tommy?”
T: “Like the wind baby”
Amber, you know this one! Yes! Home For the Holidays (if you haven’t seen this one, you need to watch it this Thanksgiving!) - Amber

10. “Are you telling me she’s the only one here? Nobody else? No aunts or cousins or uncles or anybody like that? A butler, security guard, something?”
“Nu-uuh”
“Does your Daddy have a safe?” Bad Santa - Amber

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If you have been visiting this blog for a while, you have probably picked up on the fact that I take A LOT of pictures. And I post A LOT of pictures.  I felt like you guys probably would have been right at home had you come to my house.  You probably would have know the layout of the house and where every light switch was from the background of my pictures.  I have had several requests for pictures of our new home.  I went in the bedroom, currently my favorite room because it is the only one we managed to get paint on before we moved in.  I’ve used this color before in an apartment and I loved being in the bedroom all the time.  It makes it easier for me to get my lazy butt out of bed with a warm yellow on the wall.  It didn’t get finished, we actually only got one coat put on over light tan paint that was already there.  It probably should have had a coat of Kilz, but it just so happened that I picked the thickest paint on the east coast.  And we have done our fair share of painting…this stuff is thick.  This color is actually a Laura Ashley signature color (cowslip 4), but since our landlord is buying the paint for us, I didn’t think she would appreciate me getting paint that was $30 a gallon!  I went for a gallon that was about $16 and had it color matched.  It came the closest to one coat coverage that I have ever seen.  That’s how thick it is.  But it does need a second coat, and then we have to go back and fix the trim because the paint edger for the trim didn’t like the thick paint.  I vowed that this would be the only picture I took in the bedroom, as there is a pile of linens to wash the size of a twin bed, boxes, a footboard for the bed leaning against the wall and we almost never make the bed.

But of course the kid had to climb up in the bed and decide he was in a “posing” mood.  “Take a picture of meee!  Cheeeese”

I missed a snapshot on his truck and when I tried to get him to do it again, this is what I got.

So I begged.  The same way he does when he really wants something.  He clasps his hands at his chest like he’s praying and says “Pwease pwease pweeeease” in this pitiful little voice and pokes his lip out.  He came up and gave me a hug and said “it’s okay Mommy, I wuv you,” and then he got on his truck.

He rides his truck everywhere.  I think he likes the sound of the truck on the floor.  He’s gotten pretty good at driving it too!

I like the shadows in this one.  Yes I know, he needs ANOTHER haircut.  I’ve been growing my hair out for Locks of Love for a LONG TIME, I’m just not used to this boy thing where they need a haircut once a month!

Calling the repairman on his imaginary phone.  Apparently there was a problem with his big wood truck.  “Hewwo, mit-ter wepairman?  Yes, I need my twuck fixed.  Tank you. Bye.”

The hard knock life of a toddler

This is an awesome toddler game, you know, when you’d just as soon poke your eyeballs out than look at Candyland…five minutes into the second game.  It is called Bunny Hop.  I wish the price was about $5 less, especially since I’ve never seen it in a local store, but it was still worth it.  The price seems to fluctuate $5-7 on Amazon if you keep an eye on it though.  We got this for Easter, since it happened to tie into the theme of the Easter bunny.  Caleb adores this game.  There are five bunnies of each color: Three will “hop,” two will not.  The object of the game is to get one bunny of each color.  Each player decides which color farmer they will be (although this does not affect game play).  You roll the dice to determine which color bunny to press, then press your farmer to see if your bunny springs up 5-7 inches in the air!  Almost every time, we have to press down all the bunnies at once before putting the game away.  This makes 12 bunnies go flying in the air at one time when a farmer is pressed.  That brings about big laughs at our house!

Mid game, Caleb decided that Charley wanted to play.  He wanted to be the yellow farmer.  See the blur by Caleb’s sleeve?  Charley made a blue bunny hop on his turn!  Good job Charley!

I mean, let’s face it…this is cute.  I love how much he loves Charley and how “real” he is.  I talk to Charley every day, and he talks back to me, gives me kisses and hugs good night too.

Old and new wooden toys.  Can you tell the difference?  Mom saved my inch worm pull toy from my toddler days.  Maybe my grandchildren will play with both of these.

No I don’t get everything I want.  Really.  Not with this face.

I think Charley won!

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My two year old (yes I know he is days away from being three, but just let me still call him two) routinely beats me at this game. It was a “birthday present.” So far I have stowed away 1 out of the 4 presents that have come in the mail!

In Gulo Gulo, the baby gulo (wolverine) has gotten stuck in the vulture’s nest. The vulture has an egg alarm to keep intruders from stealing eggs. The big gulos have to work their way down the path to the vulture’s nest to rescue the baby, but they get so darn distracted stealing eggs along the way. Sometimes they knock over the egg alarm and have to go back a few steps. At the end of the path, there are five tiles stacked up. The gulo must uncover a tile. If the baby is pictured on the tile, the gulo must steal a purple egg to rescue the baby. If the baby is not pictured, the gulo must continue stealing the appropriate colored eggs until turning over the baby gulo tile. All of this must be done without setting off the egg alarm, or else the gulo must go back a few steps. Not only did Caleb beat me to the end of the path, he uncovered all five tiles (the baby tile was at the very bottom of the stack), stole five eggs, thus rescuing the baby gulo all in one turn!! I was left sitting about ten tiles back after knocking over the egg alarm myself before his winning turn!

And if you look carefully, the red and the yellow egg (by his hand) are BARELY keeping the egg alarm from falling. This was how the nest looked when he won. You can see the baby tile there at the end with the purple egg.

Speaking of birthday presents…poor Daddy…Mommy was evil, I must confess. I wanted to open those blocks so badly when they arrived, but Scott thought we should wait.  Until his birthday, I mean, come on, who does that?  *rolls eyes and whistles* The boxes were heavy, much to heavy for me to move (even though I managed the 250lb TV cabinet a few weeks ago! Shhhh!). As predicted Caleb ask about every five seconds if we could open the boxes. And he may have had a little teeny weensy bit of egging on from Mommy. “You’ll have to ask Daddy.” I may or may not have sat at the dinner table and whispered for him to keep begging bugging asking Daddy about the “surpwise.” In the end, he lasted about 90 minutes. I’m so bad.

We have built houses, parking garages, ice cream stands, a barn, fenced in areas for the farm animals, ramps, and a robot. It is sad when you look at children’s blocks and say “Wow, these are more level than our floor!” We live in an older house that has settled a lot. If you spill something in the kitchen, you need to get it up fast, because it migrates quickly to the corner of the refrigerator!

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No really. I’ve had my nose stuck in BoardGameGeek.com for over a week now! Researching games. Looking at pictures of games. Reading about games. Pricing games. I didn’t know so many games existed. It really puts the Walmart and Target aisles to shame. My new favorite company is Haba (hint: on many of their games, you can read the entire instruction manual, English instructions will be second, you’ll see what I mean by originality). They are German (European toys are always better anyway. And prettier. And they have to meet higher safety standards!). The Haba games are gorgeous. Original. Top notch quality. Many are just beyond adorable. I challenge you to find cuter turtles.

Twiddle Beach Turtle

Twiddle Turtle

Or cuter wolverines (gulo gulo) for that matter.

Some people just really don’t like board games. Scott can be one of them. Can they be tedious to play with children? At times, of course! But the value, to me, is well worth any bit of frustration on my part. But being selective about your games can limit the amount of times that you wish to poke your eyeballs out during play *cough Candyland cough cough* (you’re reading an online blog, so go ahead and resign yourself to buying games online as well). Thats where the Board Game Geek site comes in. There are thousands of people on there who have already been the guinea pigs for you. They will tell you every aspect of the game play, how they felt about it as a parent, how their kids seemed to react, in depth descriptions that sometimes rival reading the directions that came with the game! A game may not only come prepackaged with educational value (yes, educational games can be great fun!), but also teaches children about taking turns, patience, cooperative efforts, friendly competition, and following instructions (you can bend the rules a little for the little ones, encourage them to play by the rules, but don’t make a huge issue about it if they don’t. Let their little imaginations roam a bit). Many games build dexterity and motor skills, many build vocabulary, but most importantly, you’re spending quality time with your child. You are more than likely sitting on the floor down at their level. You are watching them accomplish goals, learn from setbacks and enjoy time with you.

I would much rather be running out of storage room in the game cabinet or closet than DVD storage any day. Besides, Baby Einstein kinda weirds me out! Not saying I haven’t been down that road in the past, but what is the first thing that comes to mind when you see one of those DVDs? Hmm, wonder what this would be like high? You can’t decide whether those movies were made for babies or stoners!

In unrelated news, our unit blocks are soon to be on the way. She asked me how I planned to store them (I worked at Papa Johns, I’m familiar with the term upsale!). I told her that my husband had been commissioned to build a shelving unit for blocks and books. I’m really excited to see what Caleb will do with them. The other night when we went to Lowes, he entertained himself by building towers out of sanding blocks. Now if my kiddo just didn’t have a memory that rivals an elephant, I could begin to weed out some of the more annoying toys. Even the ones he plays with once in a blue moon. Some day, three or four months down the road, he will be looking for that toy. And he will pester the ever living snot out of me to find it.

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I had originally planned to review some of the Christmas items the week after the big day, but alas…stuff happened. Yeah I know what you thought I was gonna say. Anyway, I focused a large portion of my Christmas shopping on activities. Things that actually take up time, not just room in the toy box. We had no games.

I actually bought this Candy Land game shortly after Christmas. It was an impulse buy, I admit. FYI, Target overstocked on a lot of Christmas items, which are now on clearance to make room. Caleb knows all of this shapes and colors, so I don’t know how much “learning” can come from this game, but practice never hurts. Neither did the fact that it was on clearance. Of all the games we got, I would say this would be the #1 starter game. If you have a toddler and are looking for a very basic first game that plays quickly, this is an excellent choice. You can work with your child on shapes, colors, matching and taking turns. Since it was just the two of us, we used two game board per player. It comes with four gingerbread men, each with found shapes that must be matched to the player’s game board(s). You pull the candycane lever on the side, and a shape slides out of the castle door. If you don’t need the piece, you just drop it back in the top of the castle. Like I said, it is a basic, fun game for toddlers. There is no box, the gingerbread men store in the slot right behind the castle (as you can see from the picture) and the pieces store in the castle. I have played it approximately 72 times today. And honestly (I am trying, but haven’t had the luck of the draw I suppose) I haven’t won a single game.

I may have mentioned once or twice that Caleb loves anything with wheels, so I was looking for a creative way to incorporate that into a Christmas gift. I found a K’nex transportation set. I’m not sure who likes this more! At this point, he’s a little young for the building process I guess, but I have him help me dig through the container and find the pieces we need. This particular set (actually marketed toward educators/teachers) came with picture/instruction handouts. Again, shape/color matching, but the construction/building activity and fine motor skills required will carry this toy along to an older age.

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Scott and I have looked at the picture and tried to build this about four different times. If you only have one Lincoln Logs set (you haven’t added to your collection), you seem to always find yourself running out of needed logs before you are done. Some of their pictures in the “instructions” must use every single available log, and if you put a long log where there is supposed to be a medium length log, you will find yourself needing the long one later. I finally did it though, and I took pictures to prove it to Scott. He got annoyed last time and said it couldn’t be done. You have to hold the roof down while Caleb plays because he will promptly knock over your work of art if you don’t. He hasn’t really gotten into the building process with these yet, they knock over too easily. But he loves them all the same.

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I’ve been scouring the internet for gift ideas. As you can imagine, I came up with way more than enough. So I’ve created a list at wishlist.com to keep track of some of them for later purchase/birthday ideas, etc. I don’t think I could ever bring myself to use the wishlist service for something like a birthday or Christmas, but it would certainly be helpful for weddings, baby showers, etc. I’m just using it to keep track of neat products that I find online so that I don’t clog up my bookmarks.

1. Castle Blocks - I think these are amazing. This wasn’t one I found myself, I had a little help from Chris’s Holiday Gift Guide over at In the Trenches of Motherhood (aka Notes from the Trenches). These blocks look amazing. Be sure to read about how the ‘blocksmith’ started his business. Certainly a different take on your average wooden blocks. They look to be excellent quality. I am quite anxious to try them out, and I would love to take advantage of a holiday sale. This would be a good one to go in together with the grandparents!

2. Memory Game: I’m not even sure what I love about this one so much. It looks simple, long lasting and well made, for a nice price. Memory is a classic game that is good for all ages, so this would grow with your child, provided you are diligent about keeping up with the pieces. If not, it certainly isn’t a terrible budget strain to replace it. The shapes do look pretty small though, so watch out for the younger members of the family. You can always start out with 3-4 pairs and leave part of the board empty for the younger players.

3. Car Cake Pans: I must give credit for this find to my mom. She called to ask me if I though Caleb might like something like this for a gift. Would he like it? WOULD HE LIKE IT?? Let’s see, he loves to kitchen. He drags a kitchen chair across the room and positions it on my foot so that he can climb up and help. The mega bonus is that the cakes are little car shapes, they are absolutely precious. I already have birthday ideas whirling through my head. Wouldn’t that make a neat center piece. A long straight road running the length of the table with car cakes for each party goer. It could also be an EXCELLENT birthday party activity for kids a little older than mine. If you’re the organized type, you can set up a decorating station for each child, give them their vehicle, a paint brush for the icing (glue), and several pieces of candy for decorations, have the sprinkles lined up down the table. Kids would eat that up, literally!

4. Haba Boat Swing: I have drooled over seen this before. It is quite expensive, but doesn’t it just make you smile to look at it! Love the colors. I have always loved the concept of an indoor swing. Hey it could even double as a bassinet when the next baby comes along! ;) I’M JOKING! Don’t try that! Especially when the older sibling has been soaring around the room like Peter Pan in the thing for a year.

5. Aqua Play Set: This is just a neat concept to me. I’ve seen a similar thing made by Brio a while back, but I can’t find it now. Again, steep price, but there are different sets you can get, this of course being the most complete/expensive. Looks like it would made a good summer toy for those days when you need to get the kid out of the house, but once you do it is too hot to move outside. Set it in the shade and let them play. It looks like it might be time consuming to set up though(?)

6. Colorforms: Yes the same colorforms that were around when you were a child. They seem to be pretty timeless as well. Encourages pattern play and creativity. Look around, you might find a better price, but I just happened to see them here.

7. Lacing Tree: Need to brush up on your hand eye coordination. This looks like a cute version of a lacing activity. A little more clever than some I’ve seen where you just outline a picture that is already there. Here you can actually make decisions about which animals should go where. Waiting room activity anyone?

8. Mazes(click pictures for links): I think I’ve seen the first one (or a similar one) at Target. “Drive” the different vehicles around to their appropriate buildings/homes. Very cute also. Requires some thinking for how to get each vehicle to the correct spot and move others out of the way. The bead maze has two pens, so siblings/friends can share. Again, hand eye coordination. Both of these are self contained, so they would make excellent toys on the go (for waiting rooms, airport terminals, etc)

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from myspace, aren’t you happy, a double post ;)

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
CookOut Eggnog milkshake at dinner, and hot chocolate before bed?

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
He wraps everything he can, unless it is something that doesn’t make sense to wrap, like say, a Radio Flyer horse…. just sayin…

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I grew up with colored and I feel some strange requirement/guilty type thing to using colored, like I’m breaking some tradition if I don’t, but I really like white lights better. I think we used white last year.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No, we did outside decorations last year as it was our first Christmas in a ‘real’ house.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
We’ll probably do it the first weekend in December or so. I may do everything but the tree a little earlier, but last year our tree was looking a little sparse by Christmas. In other words, most of the needles were gone!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
All of it? Seems like I saw a recipe for some kinda pancake of breakfast casserole that I really wanted to try though. But hey, I’m not picky. (ETA: French toast casserole, that was it!)

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child:
Driving around to see the lights, then going home to leave milk and cookies out.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I don’t remember how old I was, but my mom told me. I know I was easily old enough, I didn’t feel like anyone spoiled it or anything.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
We always did as a child, just one, I don’t get the whole open gifts on xmas eve, what do you do the next morning?? Anyway, I think I’m stealing Kelly’s idea…the elves will bring Christmas pajamas, which will be the gift that is opened the night before.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
White lights, a hodgepodge of ornaments, I have some basic balls that are space fillers, they go on first, then my mom gave me a bunch of handmade felt ornaments that we used as I grew up, and I have a few things here and there that I’ve picked up myself. I STILL have the cut off stump from Caleb’s first Christmas. I have been threatening ever since to used a woodburning kit to write Caleb’s first Christmas 2005 on it and use it as an ornament, but I haven’t gotten around to it. I’ll do it at some point, and I’ll do the same with any future kids we may have.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it, I like to look at it for a long time before walking in it, because it is sooooooo pretty. Also could sit and watch it fall for hours. Caleb wasn’t crazy about the little bit we got last year, but I’m sure that will change.

12. Can you ice skate?
ppbbbssttt hahahahahaha Does watching the Olympics on TV count?

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
last year I got my first Digital SLR camera. In 2004, we got our first 3/4D ultrasound on December 29, which felt more like Christmas than Christmas day did! I fell in love that day!

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Being with my family, making memories

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Teresa (Scott’s nephew’s wife…got that??) makes this cake that is OUTrageous, some kind of layered chocolate cake with a buttercream type icing that has crushed Hershey bars in it. Apple pie, fudge, shortbread cookies…oh, did you mean just one?

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Don’t know if it is really a tradition or not, but we keep the presents up until after Caleb is in bed for maximum shock and awe in the morning! They always sat under the tree for weeks when I was little and it drove me NUTS (okay actually I became a pro at opening and resealing, I used to pray that my mom would go shopping again so I could have some uninterrupted time to snoop! Scott did this too, so one year his mom wrapped his gift and put a siblings name on it, then kept it off to the side xmas morning. He was so disappointed because he thought he didn’t get what he wanted until his mom gave him “Greg’s” gift last!)

17. What tops your tree?
I can’t even remember!! A star I think

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
I’m just in it for the kid!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
SO many, but how about three…John Berry O Holy Night (love this, amazing voice), Jingle Bell Rock, and Mariah Carey - All I want for Christmas is you (it just makes me all happy and dancey!)

20. (I’m adding this question!) Favorite holiday movie?
Bad Santa, hands down! If you like rude humor that is ;) “No aunts or uncles? Security guards, butlers? Does your Daddy have a safe?” “Money to fix your sleigh?” “Egg-xactly.” Home for the Holidays is another good one.

21. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Boring, I can take it or leave it. I would much prefer a Reeses Tree, just as Scott told me that Santa would actually prefer my chocolate cake with buttercream icing instead of cookies this year.

22. What do you want for Christmas?
to see Caleb’s face when he comes in the room. New camcorder will be in my left hand and digital camera in my right. But if Santa has extra room, he could sick that $1600 dollar lens in that I could never afford! Drool!

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