Roper Mountain Science Center – Animals and Activities
Wow! Look at all those tiny legs on this one!
Our girls love any trips we take to Roper Mountain Science Center! There is so much to see, learn, and explore. Whenever possible we try to go to their second Saturday events because they are a big hit with our kids. The second Saturday events have a theme and the kids can do anything from holding animals, crafts, participate in events, and much more. They have everything from animals, ocean life, space activities, farming, cultural events, and more! I have even learned a few new facts about history, animals, and space too. 🙂
Karlie holding a snake
Jake holding the snake. I am not a big fan of snakes so I was okay with not holding this snake, although I did touch it briefly…very briefly!
Look at this cool guy!
Yes, that is a huge spider that she is holding in both her hands! A tarantula actually!
Brina holding a box turtle
Karlie wanted to hold the box turtle too
Super soft……Chinchilla!
Is it a baby pig, baby squirrel, or baby chipmunk Brina is holding???? None of those, it is actually baby mouse (the mouse is only 1 day old)!
Creative Kids: Sidewalk Chalk Paint
With the warm weather just around the corner (it was in the 70’s here this past weekend). I want to share one of our family’s favorite outside crafts with you. Sidewalk Chalk Paint is super easy to make and can entertain the kids for hours. The sidewalk chalk paint can take the place of traditional chalk and is inexpensive to make at home. You can make whatever colors you want; we’ve done all the colors of the rainbow, including Charleston Green (which was requested by the girls).
We’ve had kids from 1 years old and up play with this neat paint and love it!
Sidewalk Chalk Paint
- 1/2 cup cold Water
- 1/2 cup Cornstarch
- Food Coloring
- Jumbo Muffin Tin
- Variety of Old Paint Brushes
Stir the cold water and cornstarch together until you have a smooth consistency. Mix in 3 to 6 drops of food coloring. Repeat the process until you have filled your muffin tin with a rainbow of colors. If you want to make less you can do 1/4 cup cold water and 1/4 cup cornstarch. You can make your sidewalk chalk paint darker by adding a few more drops of food coloring.
My niece Noelle and I were having fun doing her name together!
This works on any sidewalk or driveway, although smooth surfaces may be a little better. Our driveway is rough but the kids always have a blast doing this activity. When Jake’s sister and family was here a few months ago we did this activity with the kids.
Brina painted her name on the sidewalk
The sidewalk chalk paint will wash off your sidewalk or driveway and is safe for your grass and plants. If you have leftovers you can put them into empty yogurt containers and store them until the next time the kids are ready for sidewalk chalk paint. You may have to add a few drops of water if the paint has become a little dry but it should revive well after adding a little more water.
Creative Kids: Invisible Writing
The girls love to do crafts and all kinds of fun activities…..(so do I)! 🙂 As I was getting ready to leave for a few hours the other day I left a “secret” note on the girls bar stools. They didn’t realize it was a note because it was invisible . The night before the girls had asked if they could paint again soon so I decided that since the paints were going to be out anyway I might as well leave an invisible note for them to discover the next morning.
These invisible notes were a hit and super easy to do. Take a white piece of paper, write a message in white crayon, and have the kids paint over the letters to decode the message. Once the girls figured out it wasn’t just a plain white piece of paper on their bar stools they quickly decoded the message.
They decided it was pretty neat and the next spent hour writing invisible notes back and forth to each other. I love it when I start a fun activity and they run with it. Thankful that the girls get excited over the little stuff.
These would work really well for younger kids too. You could do a picture instead of a note as well.
Family Fun: Adventures With Our Cousins
Cousins hanging out at the park together!
We had an opportunity a few months ago to spend some time with Jake’s sister and her family. The girls were in school during their stay with us but we still found plenty of time to have fun. It was great having an opportunity to hang out with them and create new memories, especially since it will be quite awhile before we can get together again.
Oh MY…..your lips look different today…..Silly girls with silly mouths!
My cute little kitchen helper!
Noah helping with the “science” experiment! Loading up the ingredients into a Ziploc bag.
It’s going to blow!!!! We did an experiment with baking soda, water, and vinegar inside Ziploc bags. When we sealed the bags they bubbled up and they popped! The kids really enjoyed doing this one.
Cousins Night Out!
We ended our fun adventures in town that evening with a special treat! Ice cream cones!!!! This is the only picture of the 5 of them, everyone was having so much fun playing I didn’t want to make them stop to pose for a picture! 🙂
Paul and Mirm were able to get away one night to meet friends and spend some quiet time together so we kept the kids. Since Jake was working when Paul & Mirm left I took the crew to Par Tee Time which has bounce houses, batting cages, and miniature golf for the kids. After Par Tee Time we picked up some pizza, had a picnic in the park and played. We ended our night out with the cousins at Bruster’s for ice cream cones than headed home to get everyone showered and ready for bed.
Whose up for a game of miniature golf?
Sweet girl having a blast on the bouncy castle!
The three older chickies having a blast giggling and playing
Come on NOAH! We know you can dunk that ball!
Even my sweet little niece joined the big kids in a game of miniature golf!
Concentrating hard on getting the ball into the hole!
Practicing his swing in the batting cage
Next one up to bat
Karlie taking a whack at it
Got those frogs…..Brina having a blast playing with her little cousin!
Getting some extra air on that jump!
Look out here she comes!
Snapped a quick picture of Brina as she zoomed to the bottom of the slide!
Karlie Cool Cat having a blast
Did you just see me dunk that ball!
Goofy girl, she makes me laugh!
Eating pizza at the park
Playing at the park
I had a blast with the kids. They did really well bouncing around and playing together. Thankful for some extra time with my nieces and nephew. The girls always enjoy their time with their cousins. A lot of great memories of their time with us!
Teaching Our Children: How to Wrap Gifts
Letting the kids wrap their own gifts
As I sit in the middle of the floor with little scraps of Christmas wrapping paper around me I have to smile….. The girls LOVE going to the store to pick out the perfect gift(s) for each person. They also really like to wrap the gifts! While they have a tendency to make a mess, use more wrapping paper, put on too much tape, and take a long time wrapping they have a blast doing it. Although, I have noticed that every year they get a little better and more efficient.
Each girl starts the gift wrapping activity by picking out their own roll of wrapping paper to use for their gifts. They use that roll of wrapping paper on all the gifts they have to wrap until there are no more gifts to do or the wrapping paper is gone. They do the entire wrapping process on their own from cutting the paper to taping and even labeling the gift.
While we still have the occasional – “Mom, I didn’t cut the wrapping paper big enough” overall they are getting better at the whole process. At times, I’ve even had problems not cutting the paper big enough! Typically, we spend an evening or two (depending on the amount of time we have) doing a “wrapping party” while listening to Christmas music. As they wrap their gifts I will tackle some that I need to do as well. Everyone has fun and we get a lot accomplished at the same time.
I love that they take the extra time to not only wrap the gifts but label, add little notes, or draw pictures on the outside of the gifts. They started doing this on their own last Christmas. It was so cute reading their notes and talking about their drawings as we opened the gifts. They were so proud of the gift and the wrapping which they did from start to finish. Here are some of the sweet drawings and notes we found under our tree last year:
Silly notes written on the gifts…..made me smile
Brina even picked out turtle food at the store for the turtles and wrapped it for them.
Karlie drew a planet, specifically Saturn, on this gift
I Love You note on the gift
Brina drew little “heart” people on the outside of this Christmas gift.
Picture of the sweet sisters on the gift
While the gift wrap my not win a decorative prize the girls are proud of their work and are excited to share. They are learning many lessons during this too (hand-eye coordination, measuring, sharing, giving, etc….). Pretty soon I will have to start delegating more gift wrapping tasks to them! 🙂
Gift Giving: Christmas Cookies in Decorative Tins
Christmas Cookies in a tin with Candy Canes on top
Our family loves baking Christmas goodies! In the past we have made large batches of goodies and delivered the items to our neighbors, family, and friends. Other years we do one or two tins whenever we are baking to give away to friends, family, or to who ever we think it may be a blessing to that week.
It is a simple gift that has been a big hit (and fun for the kids to help with too). All we have to do is bake our favorite cookie(s), put them into a decorative tin, add two candy canes on top, and deliver them. The girls love putting two candy canes on top of the tin in the shape of a heart. Making these treats bins are really easy and they always great reaction from those we have delivered the goodies to in our area.
Christmas Tins
- 1 Tin Container
- A batch of your favorite cookie(s) or candies to fill the tin (or you can do a variety of recipes)
- 2 Candy Canes
- 2 pieces of Tape
You can get any tin or plastic container in any size, shape, and color at your local dollar store this time of year. I used double-sided tape but regular tape would work too. If you are wanting to make up several tins this is a great gift to do because you can make a large batch of cookies to fill them and do an assembly line with your kids.
When we deliver items and Christmas cards to our neighbors we bundle up in our coats, put all the goodies in a big basket and walk from door to door (great exercise and fresh air for the whole family). By the time we walk door to door and spend a few minutes catching up with each neighbor an hour or two or more has gone by but we have had a blast and hopefully were a blessing to those living on our street too.
Here are some cookie recipes we have used in the past:
Peanut Butter & Candy Cane Cookie Cups
Introducing……the Newest Members of Our Family – “Coconut,” “Oreo,” & “Snowball”
The 3 newest family members of our family “Coconut,” Oreo,” and “Snowball”
If you had asked me even a year ago if I would ever have goats as pets I would have laughed. Goats, seriously! I don’t know how to raise goats, what would I do with them….. Guess what!? Life has a funny way of changing my perspective. We have GOATS! Three adorable, fluffy, social, fun loving, goats that have become such a sweet part of the family!
This one cracks me up……silly Oreo!
The girls immediately loved these little balls of fluff…..and as hard as it is to admit it didn’t take long before they had stolen a piece of my heart too. They are always thrilled to see you. I love driving into the driveway and seeing them come racing across the yard to greet us.
Our little “Oreo Sunday”! He is the smallest of the 3 but makes up for it with his colorful character!
The girls are overjoyed to have goats. They do a pretty good job of taking care of them too. The goats love it when the girls are outside playing. All three are very social and are great with kids. The only thing we are still training them not to do, they’ve gotten better, is to not jump up on people. We have already trained them with several things already. One of the best things we did for training was to teach them to head into the goat pen for their grain or a treat whenever we rang a bell rings so when we need to put them into the pen it is really easy.
Sweet baby “Snowball” coming to say hello! He is the most timid of the 3 goats and especially in the beginning he would bolt to the pen whenever he saw Skipper or if he was startled.
It has been over a year in preparation for these little guys. They are a neat addition to our family or as the girls call it “our small farm”! It all started with me reading an article on goats. Followed by months of researching, building a goat house and pen, and finding the perfect critters to adopt into our family.
Our “Toasted Coconut” chewing happily on some leaves. Coconut’s our adventurous eater, he’ll try anything before the other two goats (even your hair if you get it too close).
These little guys have been a fun addition to the family. Skipper was excited to have more friends in the yard as well. It didn’t take long to train her not to chase the goats and for the goats to not be scared of the big black lab charging through the yard. After researching how to train them to stay in certain parts of the yard we decided to get them collars similar to what we use with Skipper (they wear the collars and the wire for their boundary is underground). After a little trial and error it has worked like a charm. The goats have their boundaries and Skipper has hers. The goats are not allowed in the driveway because they would most likely climb on the vehicles or in the front yard (they would eat any of my flowers on the front porch or garden).
Our twin goats munching on something delicious!
The whole process has been an experience to say the least. There was moments of excitement and even some moments of tears…..I will share a little more of that part of the story a little later.
Curious Oreo, he just had to see what that silver shiny object was in my hands (my camera)!
The goats are always munching on something. They like anything from leaves, bushes, flowers, fruits, vegetables, peanuts, hay, grain, and more. We feed them grain once a day and in the cooler months make sure they have some hay to eat. Most days they will spend out in the yard eating or lounging in the sun. It has been a lot of fun learning what foods they goats love, for example, banana peels are a favorite as are peanuts (whole or just shells). One of their special grain treats smells like black licorice. Almost everyday after the girls get home from school they go immediately to see Skipper and the goats (usually bringing them treats).
Oreo looking over his shoulder to see what was taking Karlie and Brina so long!
All three goats Nigerian Dwarf Wethers and were born in February 2012 so they are not quite a year old. Oreo was born in the mountains of North Carolina. Our twin boys, Snowball and Coconut, were born in the foothills. When the goats only grow to be about the size of a black lab.
Buddies…..the girls love playing out in the yard and the goats love having the girls nearby.
The girls were excited to see meet family members and they have spent hours playing with them. It took us a few weeks before we came up with their names but everyone agreed on “Oreo Sunday”, “Snowball”, and “Toasted Coconut”. It has been quite entertaining to have these little guys around. They have a lot of personality and are always thrilled to see you.
The goats like to climb up onto things….such as fallen tree limbs! Karlie and Brina hanging out with the “billy-billies” as they call them
Snack time!
Crepe Paper “Surprise” Barricade
A surprise barricade in the kids doorway on Christmas morningIt is a lot of fun doing something little to get the girls attention on special days. Last year on Christmas Eve after the kids were in their room and sound asleep we added this crepe paper surprise barricade across their doorway. On Christmas morning we woke up to GIGGLES and “MOM! DAD! WHAT DID YOU DO?!” They thought it was hilarious! 🙂
The first time they got out of the room by popping off the bottom row and crawling underneath (they wanted to see what it looked like from outside the room too I guess). Then they busted through it…..laughing as they ran.
The whole set up took about 5 minutes and the girls still talk about it! All you need is some crepe paper (we used three rolls we already had at the house) and tape or sticky tack. We crisscrossed the crepe paper in front of their closed door using tape to stick it to the door frame and went to bed!
Jake putting up the crepe paper “surprise” barrier on Christmas Eve
Adding the final color of crepe paper to the doorway
Game: Bean Boozled by Jelly Belly
Bean Boozled Game Some friends of ours introduced us to this game called Bean Boozled by Jelly Belly a couple years ago and it has been a big hit with our family! We’ve even picked up some boxes to take with us when we traveled to play with extended family and friends.
There was a local store that carried the game, but the last couple of times I was in the store they didn’t have it in stock. When I asked about it both times the person working told me that they didn’t know if they would be re-stocking it. I checked online and Amazon carries it (this would be a great one to add to an existing order so you get free shipping).
I cannot tell you how many laughs we have had over this game. It is quite hilarious! With a group of people you have each person pick out a jelly bean to try. The is no way to tell if you have a “good” flavored jelly bean or a “bad” flavor, but as soon as you bite into it you’ll know! The faces of the people biting into the jelly beans is priceless. We even played this game with Jake’s grandparents the last time with visited Vermont.
Flavors
- Licorice or Skunk Spray
- Top Banana or Pencil Shavings
- Buttered Popcorn or Rotten Egg
- Berry Blue or Toothpaste
- Chocolate Pudding or Canned Dog Food
- Peach or Barf
- Juicy Pear or Booger
- Caramel Corn or Moldy Cheese
- Coconut or Baby Wipes
- Strawberry Jam or Centipede
Even though they may “look” the same they taste VERY different. It is a good idea to have a napkin available for each player in case they need to spit out the jelly beans. If you want to play a trick on your co-workers put these in a bowl on your desk, depending on which one they get they may never snag a candy from your desk again!
For obvious reasons this game can only be played one time! Once all the jelly beans have been eaten the game is over. Our kids love this game and can tell you many great memories of when they played it with various family members and friends.
All the fun flavors, hilarious game! The box reads:
CAUTION These jelly beans may look alike but they could not taste more different from each other. Think you can tell them apart? WE DARE YOU!
