Archive for the ‘Kids’ Category

I usually don’t like hot, muggy days, but I do today!   No, not because we head to the beach, but because those are days we can hang inside our air condition house and find fun things to do in here.    What I love is seeing my kids use their imagination turning things into other objects.  For example, Katie loves dressing up in her “princess” dresses and then playing with the clear marbles my mom bought her at a garage sale pretending they are loose diamonds.    Kevin, he plays with his PVC pipe and pretends it’s either a light saber, sword or gun.  

Of course every kid makes the tents with putting blankets over some chairs, but my kids took it another level today when they put on their Indian costumes I had bought at a garage sale and were fighting off the bad people with their guns (pvc pipes) and karate moves.

Like I said… even though I usually HATE hot, humid days, I now know I wouldn’t want this day any other way!

While at Epcot we came across their phone booth and the kids had no clue what it was, which made me feel old.  We had to explain that people didn’t use to have cell phones and if you wanted to make a call when you were out and about you would have to look for a phone booth!  So of course they had to have their picture taken with one.  LOL

When people think of having kids they always think about how expensive they will be, but I think what they usually think of is the clothes, diapers (when they are babies) food and toys they will have to buy the kids.    But I don’t know (at least I never really did) how expensive they get as they get older!  After we had our kids that’s when my sister started warning me about that.   When they are little, you can find clothes for them at garage sales, but the older they get the harder it is as older kids tend to be a little rougher on their clothes.

Then you have the teenager years when they want to go out to movies and shopping with their friends, the acne starts so you have to start buying acne cleanser type stuff,  let alone all the clothes and school stuff.   Then the high school years come and  you have more expensive school things (now they want a laptop or they need a special calculator for math) they are old enough to take drivers education which means a lot more money.  Not just for the classes, but as soon as they can drive your insurance sky rockets, plus some kids might think they need to have a car of their own.  I know we used to just borrow our parents car when we needed to go to work and to school, but we were lucky as my Dad ended up getting a work car  so we had that extra car around our house.

Oh!  Another big thing I forgot about… TEETH!!!  Our kids dentist already gave us a heads up to start a slush fund for the kids teeth as BOTH of them will be needing braces!  UGH!  Why do I have a feeling it will never end?!?

Last year when we went to Epcot we did the rides first and then made our way to the world showcase, but just as we started it everyone else seemed bored so we ended up leaving.   This year I was determined that we were going to do the world showcase since this will probably be our last time there for quite sometime.

Before leaving I tried to do as much research as I could so I could make the world showcase fun for the kids & Paul.   That’s when I found out they have these great places called Kidcot at each country.  The first one you go to they give the kids a mask and they can color them and decorate them with sharpie markers anyway they want.   From then on every country they go to they get a new thing to hang from it along with a stamp saying they were in whatever country it was.   Kevin had fun trying to find the kidcot at every station before me.  Then while we were in China the guy working taught the kids how to say Hello in Chinese which they thought was really cool!

Then the other thing I had found out and was so glad we did it was when we were in France we went and visited Boulangerie Paitisserie where I let Paul go in to find us a special treat with Kevin.   With they walked out I was expecting one plate since you know how prices are at Disney and Paul has a hard time separating from his money, but when they walked out they had 3 plates!  One had cheesecake, one had chocolate moose and the other had what Paul seemed to think was a Napoleon, but what ever it was called it was WONDERFUL!   Put it this way… we didn’t have the park hoppers on our tickets, but I would of been willing to take a day away from Magic Kingdom (our favorite) to go back there just for their pastries!   Paul said everything in there looked awesome and he could of dropped an easy $50 there since he wanted one of everything.   If that happened though I think he then would be on the search for some fast weight loss pills as I can’t imagine how many calories we ate as it was.

In Mexico they  have a boat ride that the kids really enjoyed too!  It kinda reminded me of It’s A Small World, but without the song going over and over again and of course without the line of people waiting to get on either.

So if you ever to go Epcot and you have in your mind you’re going to be bored in the world showcase.. wipe your mind clean and go in with an open mind.  You just might find out there are a lot of fun things to do and great food to try!

If you live in Michigan near a Celebration Cinema and have kids 12 & under than I have the deal for you!   Celebration Cinema is once again having their Flick’s Family Film Festival!  In case you’ve never been to one of them before, kids 12 & under are FREE, while adults are just $2.50! 

Their schedule is as follows:

Oct 2-Oct 8        Aliens in the Attic
Oct 9-Oct 15      Night of the Museum
Oct 16-Oct 22    Monsters vs Aliens
Oct 23-Oct 29    Ice Age 3
Oct 30-Nov 5     Harry Potter

If you would like to find out where the nearest Celebration Cinema is that is closest to your house, you can just click here.

I’ve never had this issue before so I’m asking all you mom’s out there for some advice.

My kids have always gone to bed good for me until this summer… then they wanted to stay up due to the sun being up so silly me let them.  After all I can’t imagine going to bed when the sun is still up too.  For at least a week now I’ve been really trying to get the kids to going back to sleep again around 8pm, but am having no luck.  

How do you get your kids to get back into the swing of going to bed early for school?  Any tid bits would be greatly appreciated.

If you’ve never seen Aloha Friday then here is the run down from Island Life….

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought on Fridays I would take it easy on posting too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you would like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave the link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participates! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

Now on to my question of the week:

What’s been your favorite thing you’ve done this summer?

For me it would have to be us taking the boat up to Ludington State Park and going tubing, beaching the boat and enjoying our own private beach!!

If you would like to read some more Aloha Friday questions or even participate, just visit An Island Life!

A couple weeks ago it was a little toasty outside and the kids wanted to squirt each other with the hose so I asked Paul if he would want to wash the car with the kids.  (That way he could kill 2 birds with one stone)  

While I was inside cleaning with the windows wide open I could hear Paul reminding the kids NOT squirt him while they were giggling.  I thought I would go out to see what was going on and needless to say I came back in the house all wet.  They were having the time of their life washing the car and squirting the water all over.   I was surprised after they had it looking all spiffy the kids didn’t want to make the inside look nice with some new car accessories, but I shouldn’t complain should I?

So today was another toasty day and what did Kevin request to Paul… that they clean my car again!  I guess driving on the dirt road to pick blueberries today got it a little dusty.   I think it was more they just wanted to spray him with that cold water all over again.