Up Party

I recorded the movie Up a few days ago and then came across this blog that had a bunch of ideas to go along with the movie. So I gathered my supplies and printed out some stuff and we had an UP Party.

I printed Adventure Books for each of the kids, plus some other activities, like mazes and puppets. I found nets at the dollar store so we could go Snipe Hunting. For lunch we had hot dogs and grape soda, plus chocolate bars for snack.

I couldn't find grape soda in bottles with bottle caps, but I did find this craft kit to make bottle cap jewelry.

I hung up some balloon decorations. I also got some tennis ball dog toys for the kids to play with Wrangler.

Of course, we had to pick up a couple of balloons for the kids.

Logan didn't quite get the idea of the party just being us. He kept asking when the other people were coming.

Park Play 2012

Today we went to the park after nap. It was our first trip of the year and I'm sure we will be going lots more. Both kids love the playground. We stopped at Sonic first and got happy hour drinks with our lucky Chinese money. This was a hit since both love bouncing and jumping.





Sophie must be going through a phase of some sort. Normally she loves to swing but when I put her in the swing she got upset. Apparently the swing was too high. (This isn't a new park, we've been before.) Then when we moved to the climbing thingy she wouldn't go down the slide. She did let me take her picture but only with Logan next to her. The crazy part is she would climb up any ladder-type thing there, getting up several feet.






Unfortunately, it was cooler than it first seemed so we only stayed about half an hour before heading home.

Happy Chinese New Year

We hosted a Chinese Dinner in celebration of the Year of the Dragon. Grandma Noi brought fried rice and egg rolls. I made a couple of chicken recipes from our favorite cookbook. We had green tea and red bean ice cream for dessert. The kids had fun making crafts before dinner, decorating paper lanterns, creating dragons, and coloring masks. We just invited family and had about 16 people come. We picked up some firecracker poppers at the local Asian market and the kids loved making all that noise. Sophie and Logan made red door banners for decorating their rooms and Paul did the ones for the front door.


I had the kids paint on the red paper with black paint after showing them some examples from the web.


Afterwards, I asked them what the sign says, what they would like to tell people who came for our party. Sophie's says "Happy to You!" and Logan's " Big Surprise!"

We had red envelopes for the kids with lucky money in them. Chinese New Year entails so many different traditions. My hope is that we will be able to add to our celebration each year as we learn more about the culture.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

How We Spend Our Days

Playing with beans and spoons.



Uno Stacko

Hanging monkeys

Moon sand pizza maker

Races down the hall

Mickey Mouse Yatzee

Building forts with every toy they have.

Painting

Puddle Jumping

Both of the kids love playing in water. They beg to wear their rain boots and play in puddles anytime they see one. Thankfully, most days I can say yes!

Royal Bounce

We decided to try out this bounce place in the mall. It was huge! It has about a dozen or more bounce/slide things, plus a basketball hoop and riding toys. They let you bring in your own food and drinks and can come and go with the all-day pass.

I do think the place may be a little too big and the layout has a lot of blind spots when you've got little kids, but overall, we all really enjoyed it.

New Years Eve 2011

We asked our sitter if she would come stay with the kids so Paul and I could go see a movie in the afternoon of New Years Eve. On our way home we picked up barbecue for dinner. Our friends stayed to eat and enjoy an early "midnight" countdown. We had hats, tiaras, plastic leis, and horns for everyone.



We sipped sparkling cider from fancy glasses.

After the kids went to bed, Paul and I stayed up, watched some TV and went to sleep. I think Paul was asleep by 10pm. Such an old man!