"30 Minutes of Play for 30 Days"

Since I get to be a stay-at-home mom, I spend ALOT of time with my kids. I'm not complaining. I LOVE it and I wouldn't have it any other way. However, we do get bored sometimes. Well I wasn't going to let us have a boring summer.

I printed out a couple calendars for the summer months and went to work planning a fun activities for each week day. I had found this "30 minutes of Play for 30 days" challenge online and I was determined to do this. See, I'm not the best at actually playing with my kids. I love setting up ways for them to have fun and play, but I don't always get involved with them. I'm usually content to watch them have fun. But I really wanted to have more fun with my kids and summer is a great time to do this. So anyways, here are our "30 days of play" in picture form.

 

1. We did ice cube toys. Basically I took a bunch of Tanner's tiny toys and dice and froze them in ice cubes, then we went outside and played with them as the melted in the ridiculously hot weather. The kids loved this. They were so excited when they figured out what was inside the ice cubes.

 

2. Chocolate/Caramel apples on a stick. These were a big hit.

 

3. Trips to the park

 

4.Feeding the ducks

 

5. Water Table. I just put a ton of different bowls and cups on a table and then let the kids play in the water. Tanner loved pouring water into the stacking cups.

 

6. Shaving cream finger paint- Tanner had finger paint EVERYWHERE

Bailey mostly liked playing in the tablecloth I'd laid down, so it wouldn't get everywhere...

 

7. Lake Day

Yep- just swimming without a lifejacket- bc he's a little fish!

 

8.Watermelon Pops

 

9. Slip-N-Slide

 

10. Workin' at the Car wash

 

11. Indoor obstacle course/blanket fort

 

12. Giant Bubbles

 

13. Whale Pool in our backyard

14. Trips to the City Pool

 

15. Picnic on the back porch

 

 16.Trips to the retired train caboose

 

17. Sponge Bombs

 

18.Water Balloon fights

 

19.Bubble Snakes

Bailey didn't think the bubbles tasted very good

And we did a few more things- like bath tub paints, kool-aid playdoh, home made Popsicles, family pizza nights and story time at the library. However, our laptop crashed and so I lost the pictures documenting this. (For anyone who knows me, this is heart-breaking). Anyways, I was able to complete a whole month of activities on weekdays only, before I got super sick with pneumonia and had to go to the hospital.

I really really enjoyed spending this special time with my kids. It was so fun because each day we had something different and new to look forward to. Both Tanner and Bailey loved every minute of it. And even though I did spend some time taking pictures to document each fun thing, I made sure that I also spent quality time actually playing with my sweet kids. It was soooo fun. I'm one lucky momma and this was a great reminder of that fact.

If you are interested in doing any of these activities look them up on Pinterest. That's where alot of my inspiration came from.  Until next time!

 

Labor Day Family Fun

I was so excited to see that Chris was working the evening shift on labor day. We got to spend the whole morning and afternoon with him and it was so fun.
We woke up, had a big breakfast, Bailey took her morning nap and then we played for a bit. Then we packed our beach bags and threw on our swimsuits. We load up and headed over to Cotter Springs. Its only about 5 minutes away and its gorgeous down there. It's just a little spring that's off the White River. There is a swimming hole with a rope swing and then a little creek to play in. It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a blast playing in the water. It's mostly shaded and the beach is all rocks. Bailey enjoyed trying to eat every rock in sight and Tanner love throwing rocks into the water.

                            Here's Tanner wading into the water. It's a bit cold, since it's a spring.

He decided he kind of liked it!

Bailey loving eating rocks

Sweet Bailey

My three favorite people

Bailey standing in the water

My little family at Cotter Springs

Tanner splashin' in the water.

Love this sunshine girl. Sportin' her sunglasses with Mom.

Tanner crawling over the little rock dam

Dad helping Tanner walk over the rocks. Love this man! He's such a good little Daddy.

 

 

Seriously love my babes!

 

 

After Cotter Springs we went and got some burgers and milkshakes. Then we took kiddos home for their naps. Then Chris had to go to work. But we had a lot of fun and I'm so glad we got to do something as a family. With Chris' crazy schedule, we never know when we'll have time to spend with Dad.

I hope you all had a great Labor Day too.

It was a Monster Bash!

We had Tanner's 3rd birthday party last weekend. I had to keep pushing his party back because I was recovering so slowly. Well Sept 1st was the big day. Tanner woke up so excited that morning because he saw all the party decorations around the house waiting to be put up. He insisted on me "making him handsome" by doing his hair and then he wanted a picture with the monsters...such a funny kid

I had planned a big water party for his birthday, but we woke up to grey skies and the occassional sprinkle. I was heartbroken.But then,20 mins before the party the clouds parted and the sun began to peek around the clouds. So we got to have the party outside. And I frantically started decorating. Here was the end result


I think all the kids enjoyed the monster splash birthday bash. I KNOW Tanner had fun. It was a breakfast party, so the first thing we did when everyone got there was eat.
I served toddler friendly cereals (monster cereal), cinnamon rolls on a stick with edible eyeballs in the middle (monster eyeballs), watermelon popsciles (Monster fruit), sausage (Monster toes) and then we had milk, juice and water bottles for beverages. The food was all finger food, except the cereal of course.





This was the "Monster sign-in" table where the mommies signed their monster's names and wrote the birthday boy a note. I used the inside cover of Tanner's "Tickle Monster" book- I felt it was pretty appropriate. Side note- Tanner got "Monster's, inc" at his party and since then we've watched it 9 times. Ugh! He kind of loves that movie!


The monster hats- each kid got one.

Tammer wearin' his monster hat


Here is the toddler table where the kiddos ate.

The monster centerpieces

The place settings.


Each kid got to take their monster bowl home. I had so much fun sticking eyeballs everywhere. And don't you love the chevron prints?
Here are the little monster's eating their breakfasts

After everyone ate we started the games. We did the "Monster Hunt" first. Each kid got a squirt gun filled with colored water and they shot at the monsters. As the shot them, the monster banner was painted with the colored water. It was quite the work of art when the kids finished.



Could this kid be any happier? He loves squirt guns

Then we moved on to the "monster water balloon toss". The kids really enjoyed this. And it doubled as a photo prop. Of course, Tanner didn't even attempt to throw the water balloons through the monster's mouth. Silly boy.

Then we did the "monster stomp". I loved these little monster feet. The kids put their feet on the tops of the monster stompers. Then they tried to walk while staying on the monster stomps. It was harder than it looked and most the toddlers needed help from their mommies.

By this time the sun was shining and it was really warming up so we turned the hose on and let the kids play in the "monster hopscotch sprinkler" and the "monster slip-n-slide". And man did those kids have fun. They loved it.
Tanner on the slip-n-slide

These two little boys have so much fun together

And I loved this picture of the kids crawling down the slip-n-slide together. Hahaha

Tanner running through the hopscotch sprinkler "super fast"

Bailey was a gem the entire party. I think she was just so happy to be a part of it and not be in he bed napping. She was loving all the kids playing and wanted to be a part of it

Oh and I'm pretty sure Bailey drank her weight in juice boxes that day. Oh such bliss!

The birthday boy and parents

After everyone had played we ate cake.
Tanner's monster cake


Here's Tanner and I with the monster cake I made for him.

I had showed him this cake weeks ago and he said "Ohhh, I LOVE it! Make it for my birthday mom?" How can you say no to that??? So I spent 5 hours making this cake. I can tell you right now, it was totally worth it to see his little face when he woke up from his nap and found the cake on the counter.
He was sooo excited! Anways, we ate cake and some of the kids got to eat the cake pop eyeballs.
Here's Tanner blowing out his candles

Then we opened presents. Tanner made such a haul. He was one happy 3-year old. Thank you to everyone for this amazing presents.

Then the clean up began. Luckily everyone stayed behind and helped pick up so the outside clean up was super fast. The rest of my house was a disaster for a couple days-but that's ok.
Tanner loved his party and loved all the monsters. I'm relieved to have it done and so pleased with how it turned out.

Thank you soooo much to my amazing husband who did EVERYTHING I asked him to do. And thank you to my sweet mom, who woke up early to help me get ready for the 9:30 am party. You two are amazing!

Anyways, the party is over and my evenings and nights are no longer spent prepping for this monster bash. It's kind of like the rush of Christmas morning and how its over so quick, but enjoyed so much. Oh well- I guess I can start planning for his 5th birthday party now. Happy birthday little man!