It's been a long time I'm away from blogging. I do miss it a lot when I'm too busy to write down my daily life. Now my life has slowed down a little bit after we're used to our summer schedule. I decided to come back and resume my mommy diary. It's hard to believe more than two weeks of summer has gone. We still have lot on our summer to do list need to be checked off. In the mean while we have quite a few accomplished.
Movie (in the park/theater) Sprinkler water play in backyard (looking forwad to a super hot day) bubble (part of the water play day, but girls have been playing bubbles a few times in the yard) story time at library (to be done on 8/10 and 8/11 when library has story telling festival) fly a kite (need a new one, old ones are all broken) Make homemade play-doh (Yes, done, super success, even 11 year old neighbour loves it) Bake a cake/cookie (need to plan this soon) Build a fort/tent in the living room/back yard Go bowling farmer's market (was there for a birthday party, really cool, need to go again) candy landDay water balloon fight. Create a “mini-me museum day zoo day (done, on the first day kids out of school) Biking or hiking on a bike trail. Fishing contest (done, Sophia won the first place) build and grow (did once, will do more) do paper crafts (folding, flower) make a loom and yarn flower sew summer quilts for Olivia and Lucas (will start to design this week) B&N bookstore trip
Summer here in US is much longer that summer in China when I was a kid. Now we're almost half way done with summer, 4 out of 11 weeks. We've done lots of fun stuff but still have quite a few to do on the list.
Here is our summer to do list
1 Local zoo Done 2 Children museum (Dora show??) 3 Science center 4 Community park Festival Done 5 Fireworks on 4th Done 6 Fishing contest Done 7 Kids workshop at home improvement store Done, but we will do more 8 Beach at Erie went this weekend 9 Biking I need a bike 10 Library story time and reading club doing it everyweek now 11 Swimming in outdoor pool Done, but we will do more 12 Movies at park Will do this in two weeks 13 Local farmer's market Been there a couple times but thinking about doing some U pick there 14 Boating in lakes Done, will definitely do more because we paid a two-year registration fee 15 Idlewild park 16 road trip 17 explore different playground 18 BBQ in backyard Did once but want to do more
The zoo trip was a big success. We went there first week of summer and arrived at the gate when it was just open. There were very few people there that early. The weather was perfect to explore the zoo, lower 70s with not much sun. The baby elephants were every active playing in the water. We didn't have to fight the crowd to see penguins, that was girls' favorite party. We all ventured the stingray tunnel for the first time.
Community park Festival was a week before the 4th. It was not as big as last year, but it has all the things we like to play. The girls did the big jumping castles, climbing inflatables, trackless trains, cookie making, pony rides. Again the weather was perfect, lower 70s. But the grass was a bit muddy since it rained the day before. We watched the fireworks at our front porch afterward. As requested by Sophia we did our own fireworks on the 4th.
Fishing contest is a new thing we did this year. It was at the local sports club. With the help of dad and granddad, Sophia and Olivia both got a couple of blue crappies. It definitely makes Sophia proud when she got her first fish. We ate hot dog after the contest. It was great summer outdoor activity, we will do it again next year even we know we can't win.
We did a couple workshops at Lowe's this summer. Since Sophia started to read, she read instructions and does most of the building by herself now. Olivia needs quite a lot of help. But both of them enjoy going to Lowe's to build things and bring back fun toys. I still need to sew patches to their aprons.
We did picture book picnic at our local library last year, Sophia loved it. So we are doing it again this year. It's even better that they not only are doing stories and songs this year, they added a little show for kids to do themselves. Amazingly Lucas enjoys the stories, too. Olivia definitely eats better outside on a picnic blanket.
Olivia's another favorite thing is local farmer's market. She likes the fresh strawberries, she likes to look at flowers, she likes the little unique playground with wooden pirate ship and tractor, she likes the yummy fresh cookies. She always asks to look at the animals especially the big white rooster. She can never leave without looking at him.
Lucas must loves water. He is very active when we put him in the pool. We went to lake Erie over the weekend.
We did some boating at Lake Arther last weekend. Girls were a little neverous to be on a small boat in a huge lake. But they're getting used to it and started to have fun at the end. We'll watch the weather and go again if it's not too hot or too cold.
I still have lots of things on the list that we like to do in the rest of the summer. Sophia, for the first time asked me to take her to a movie. I think we'll start with movies in the park and see if she likes it. I will be sure to spray some OFF before we go. Museums and amusement parks are also on the list. I think I will pick a rainy day to go to museum, a not too hot weekday to go to amusement park. We will do zoo again if a nice day comes up before our membership expires at the end of July.
Fun activities on budget (3) - found at www.utahbabyguide.com
I found this article at www.utahbabyguide.com and I thought I would share it with you all. I thought there were some good ideas.
20 things to do with your baby that cost less than $2
1. Take her to the library for story time or singing time. 2. Treat her to a photo shoot in your living room 3. For boys: gel your baby’s hair to look like a Mohawk For girls: paint her toenails bright red 4. Make his hand print into a greeting card and send it to the grandparents 5. Take your baby on a stroller ride using a new route on your walk 6. Let her finger paint with pudding –it washes out of clothes 7. Make a special mix soundtrack and dance to it together 8. Blow up a bag of balloons and throw them around together (make sure she doesn’t eat any popped balloons- they are a major choking hazard) 9. Get a pet goldfish. The bright color of the fish will be mesmerizing to the child. 10. Make a tent in the living room using blankets and couch cushions 11. Get online and play baby games –try Googling “baby games” 12. let your baby “talk” on the phone to a relative that lives far away 13. Blow bubbles in the bath tub 14. Make your own play dough 15. Let her “help” you “cook” (Jell-o works well) 16. Play “roll the ball” back and forth 17. Paint or put stickers on rocks 18. Play in front of a mirror 19. record her voice and play it back for her. 20. Make sock puppets
So far we did 1, 2, 7, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20.
Everyone loves Build a Bear, no matter how old you are. To be honest I'd love to build a bear for myself, but never did. Sophia and Olivia each built a bear on their birthdays. For less than $10 we had a whole day of fun and a new friend to love and have tea parties with. The house box is Sophia's favorite thing to color. Then she used it as a house for her dolls. So don't throw away those boxes as garbage.
I have always wanted to start this series, kids "fun activities on budget". It's not all my original ideas, it's something I was inspired by books, magazines or TV commercials, and tried myself and felt like to share with other active moms.
Ibought this book back in January for less than $20, not for my kids but for myself to paint. This craft book is best value ever. Easy to follow, great result, I even painted faces at Sophia's preschool Valentine's day party. It's also a great thing to do for playdate. We used more than 5 times, all the paint still looks like new and will last for a long time.
The trick is to paint hands for little kids, easier than painting on face. Baby wipes are great to clean if you makes any thing wrong.
