Summer Passport: Boredom Busters

There have been and will be many days when I need the girlies to entertain themselves. With help from many lists I found online and activities I know my girls love to do, I have created a list of activities to cure those summertime blues. The favorites so far: making your own newspaper, taking pictures and playing the name game.

Rules for the Name Game:
Write a famous person's name on a piece of masking tape. Don't let the player see the name. Tape it on either the player's back or forehead. After everyone has a name you begin youngest to oldest and ask a yes-or-no type question to help you figure out what name is on your forehead. With kids I like to have them ask a question and then you also give them a hint. This way the game goes quickly enough for those with short attention spans. The first person to guess their name wins. We've had lots of giggles while playing this.

Summer Passport: Places to Go

I included a map of Utah in the girlies' Summer Passport. It's always fun to see your destination on a map. After they have been to a certain place, the girlies can put a stamp or a check mark on the destination. We've never been to Antelope Island. Do any of you have any suggestions?

Las Vegas. . . check

Salt Lake City. . . check

Next stop: Ogden

Summer Passport: BUGS

On Monday we had a morning full of bugs. We learned about arthropods. Exoskeleton was the word for the day. We looked closely at arachnids and insects. Did you know a cockroach's body lives after it's decapitated? The only reason the body dies (after a few hours) is because it can't get any water. Yuck! And in Japan, beetles are the most common pet. You can purchase them in department stores over there! I found all my teaching resources at Orkin and Terminix.

My girlies took the theme of "BUGS" and flew with it. They begged to use my camera without any explanation. Since our activity was done for the day (after only 1 hour), I gave in and said, Go for it! They came back with a photo shoot ready for a gallery. They wanted to capture the world as a bug would see it.

I'm so proud of my creative daughters.

Summer Passport: Lemonade Stand

Image from our lemonade stand in 2009

Since the beginning of March, my girlies have been begging to have a Lemonade Stand. I told them to have patience and we'd have one when the weather was warm enough. I included this activity in our Summer Passport, on both the BOREDOM BUSTERS page and also on the calendar. They love jumping rope to get the attention of passing cars and then pointing the way to their stand. With colorful umbrellas and homemade signs they pulled in a lot of business. Thank goodness kids were out bike riding and friendly moms were carpooling that day!

Summer Passport: Help the Humane Society

I have two guest bloggers today. My girlies wanted to share what they wrote about their experience helping the animal shelter. I hope this activity helped introduce my girlies to a life of service.

Chloe wrote: "The activity for Monday was HELP ANIMAL SHELTER. So we went to Wal-Mart, bought some flannel, tennis balls, and dog treats to make things for the animal shelter. With the flannel we made 8 knotted blankets. With the tennis balls and dog treats we made fetch toys(we sliced the balls open and stuffed it with treats)."

Jess wrote: "Did you know that we we're helping animals yesterday? Well we we're. It was so fun. We went to the Humane Society and made all these cute things, like we made little blankets that had Puppies and Kittens on them and we cut the sides with just lines, and we cut tennis balls in the middle and we put Doggie treats in them. Now it's time to talk about the Humane Society.I thought that it would be a little, old animal shelter, But you have to see the size of that thing!It was about twice the size of what I imagined.When we walk in we see these big, furry Guinea pigs. There where cats behind the Guinea pigs. My favorite cat was Kelly, She was furry and she was black."

Making blankets for the cats and dogs was an easy craft for the girlies to master. Cutting open the tennis balls took a little more elbow grease than expected, but it was a quick way to create cheap dog toys. We had a good experience at the Humane Society. We weren't able to go back and see the dogs, but the girlies were able to enjoy the smaller animals up front.

Our Summer Passport

"What are we going to do now, mom?"

That is the dreaded question every mom hears during the summer. In the past, this question would turn me into either Oscar the Grouch or a nervous Snuffleupagus.

But not this summer! I was determined to be so on top of things that I would never hear that horrible question again. Not to toot my own flute, but I came up with a brilliant plan. I call it our Summer Passport.

I created a booklet that the girlies can refer to daily. It's a cross between a vacation itinerary and a checklist. I've listed all the relatives they might see this summer. I've listed the day trip destinations we will visit. We have certain days designated for service projects, learning about different countries and field trips. Most essentially, I included two full pages of single-spaced boredom buster ideas.

Each morning if the girlies have done their assigned chores we start the activity for the day. And thankfully, since I've thought ahead, I'm not frantically putting stuff together. So far this plan has been working well. I admit that I have still been asked (many times), "What are we going to do now?" But I can effortlessly refer them to their Summer Passport and all is well. Love it! I'm sure I am not the first mom to do something like this in order to have a sane summer. I just wish that someone had given me the idea sooner!

Along with this Summer Passport, I now have plenty of things to blog about! I'll fill you in on our activity for the day and review it for anyone who's interested.

Vegas, Baby!

I have the sweetest brothers-in-law. They are all fun just like their big bro, Sco. However, I have a tender spot in my heart for my bro-in-law, Jeff. Scott's nickname is Sco and Jeff's nickname is Ro. So the girlies call him Uncle Ro.

In Vegas, Ro lives in the nicest bachelor pad I've ever seen! Three bedrooms, two baths, an eat-in kitchen in a gated community with a pool. It's like a little slice of heaven. Not to mention the NICEST Albertson's grocery store next door. I love shopping there since it's a bit upscale in comparison to ours.

Anyway, Ro is a teddy bear. He's big and sweet. My girls adore him. Their favorite thing to do is bounce on him while he lays on the floor watching TV. They also like to climb him and hang from his shoulders. What would we do without that kind of entertainment on vacation? He has a soft spot for them as well. He sets a good example for Ashley by putting a few pieces of broccoli on his plate. He bribes the girls with churros if they'll obey their mom. He takes the time to watch cartoons with them.

Chloe, Jess and Ashley can really tell that they are loved by him. He'll make a great dad someday.

While we were chillin' at Ro's pad we were able to relax and spend time as a family. The girls played Rock Band, we went to the Leid Children's Museum (that needs a post of it's own), to the Disney Store at the Premium Outlets, swam in a desert oasis and even watched a few Fifa World Cup soccer games. The weather and timing weren't ideal for golf for the bros, but they got some quality time together in front of the TV. One of the highlights for me, and also one of the reasons I love Ro so much, is when we were deciding which movie to watch Ro spoke up and said "I've been wanting to watch 'Valentine's Day'." Sco was groaning and I was cheering! Two against one and I didn't even have to coax Ro to pick a chick flick. That's what I call "being considerate." I doubled their return by renting Sherlock Holmes and Wolverine for the next two nights' entertainment.

Thanks, Ro, for the awesome long weekend. We owe you big time!