Witches at Gardner Village

My sister and I took our daughters to see the witches at Gardner Village. My daughter is 3 and loved finding all of the witches and pointing them out to us! My niece is only 3 weeks old but we had fun posing her for pictures with the witches! The shops are really cute even from the outside and it is a nice place to get outside with a lot of shady areas and fun thing for kids and adults to see. Plus, the Naborhood Bakery has delicious frozen orange rolls to take and bake - just be sure to ask for 2 orange icings for a bag of rolls. Mmmmm!

Basketball Bedroom

My son LOVES basketball and wants to be in the NBA. We redecorated his room in basketball for his birthday gift. We wanted this to be a surprise so I worked on all of the elements of the room while he was at school and waited for an opportunity to do the painting and decorating. My sister and brother-in-law asked my son what he wanted for his birthday and he requested to sleep at their house and play the wii as their gift to him. That turned out really well because we were able to redo the room while he was at their house.

I painted an accent wall in his room orange and used round sponges dipped in a darker orange-brown paint to add a basketball-type texture. I then taped off the lines and painted them black. It turned out really well! I looked for pennants to use as his curtain but was shocked to find that they were $25 or more EACH! I needed 5 so I ended up making them using felt. I made a scoreboard out of a magnetic whiteboard we already had and I glued numbers to magnets so that he could really use it as a scoreboard if he wanted. I was also shocked to find that a sports ball rack was so expensive so I used a toy storage rack with the plastic tubs that we had. I sewed Utah Jazz fabric into pillowcases. For the accent pillows, I used one of his old Jr Jazz jerseys, a basketball net and an extra pennant. The accessories are a coaches whiteboard clipboard, a basketball trophie and another old Jr Jazz jersey I hung on the wall. I found a metal dresser with a locker look at IKEA.

My son was so surprised to see his new room and he absolutely LOVES it! This was a fun project and I think it turned out really good!

Minnetonka Cave

Every few years we visit Minnetonka Cave near Bear Lake in Idaho. It is really beautiful and educational for the kids. It is a pretty long hike for some and has A LOT of stairs so may not be appropriate for some families. Speaking from experience - there is NO BATHROOM at the bottom of the cave and it is A LOT of stairs to try to RUN up when you are in a hurry because your 5 year old NEEDS to pee and just CAN'T wait. Ha ha ha ha. Been there, done that ~ wouldn't recommend it!

The view of the mountains and trees from the entrance is gorgeous as well. It still amazes me that all of that is tucked in the mountan behind that ordinary looking entrance hole.

Silly String War

Our family goes on vacation to Bear Lake each year. My mom and dad always sneak several cans of silly string into the kids hands while we are there and we have a silly string war! It is SO fun and one of the things we always remember about our vacation! As you can see from the pictures, the adults have as much (or more) fun as the kids!! This is one of the things that makes them the most hip-happening grandparents!

Cinco de Mayo

On Cinco de Mayo, I made tacos for dinner and bought a chili pepper pinata that I filled with plastic maracas, balloons, noise makers and candy. My kids and neice had so much fun breaking the pinata!

Treasure Hunt

While vacationing in San Diego in April 2009, I organized a treasure hunt for my 3 children and my 2 year old niece. I put a note in an old bottle an labeled it 'Ye Olde Pirate Punch'. I dropped in the sand at the edge of the water by our hotel room. The kids read this message: "ARG! I have stowed me old treasure on the shores at the point of paradise! {we stayed at paradise point} If you have found this here scroll, I have long since gone the way of the sea and you are now destined to claim the treasure! Travel to the inland pool to the circle of fire...." {The fire pit at the pool}. They were then sent to the crows nest {a high viewing tower on the property} and to a descendant of Blackbeard {the concierge} before going back to the beach in front of our room and dug in the sand to find ye olde treasure me Hardy's!

I had filled the treasure box with a few trinkets for each child and a pirate loot bag of quarters to use at the arcade in Las Vegas on the return trip home. The kids and adults both had a lot of fun on this treasure hunt and we created memories that pirates could never steal!!

St Patricks Day

I read about leprechaun traps in Family Fun magazine. I thought this would be a great way to make St Patricks Day fun & memorable. The idea is that you try to catch a leprechaun so they will show you where their gold is. If you have a good enough trap, he may leave you a few coins as a reward!
We used a small box, colored paper, and pipe cleaners to create our trap. We left lucky charms out as bait. It seems that we did fool the leprechaun but he escaped. But not without being mischievous first! This crazy leprechaun turned our milk green, turned our coffee table upside down, took decorations off the wall, turned pictures upside down and opened every cupboard and drawer in our kitchen!! He left us gold coins at every stop. We could see that he had danced on our upside down coffee table and he had walked on the wall as he escaped our trap because he left footprints.

I used a kitchen sponge cut in a shoe shape and dipped it in flour to make the footprints. With some chocolate coins and green food coloring, the rest was easy.

Of course we had green milk and clover shaped french toast and sandwiches. With dinner I made 'ice cream cones' using mashed potatoes instead of ice cream. My daughters face was priceless as she took her first bite of her white ice cream with sprinkles!!

Next year, we will make an even better trap and hope that sneaky leprechaun cannot escape because I could really use some gold!

Valentines Day

Valentines Day this year I decorated the kitchen table with heart confetti and heart plates and cups after the kids had gone to bed the night before. For breakfast we ate pink heart pancakes (with help from a little red food coloring in the batter and a cookie cutter) and pink strawberry milk.
I had small gifts for the kids - a light saber DS pen for the boys and play make-up for my daughter. I had a very hard time finding pretend makeup so I used some small jars that I purchased from the craft store and coated the inside with different colors of paint. I found a small set of Wet n Wild makeup brushes for 99cents. She loves this and spent the day applying 'her makeup' on herself, me and even the dog!
Lunch was heart sandwiches and heart shaped cucumbers. I added food coloring to water bottles to make them red for a valentine water.
It was so much fun to make a 'couples holiday' into a family day of love!