Letterboxing

Letterboxing is a fun family activity.  It is really similar to geocaching except you are given clues to find the hidden item instead of GPS coordinates. 

Also, letterboxing is about collecting stamps--like the kind you use ink and notepad.  Each letterbox has clues that lead to a hidden container that should contain a stamp and a little notepad.

{A letterbox we found.}

 The idea is that once you find a letterbox you leave your stamp in the letterbox book (indicating that you actually found it) and then use the letterbox stamp in your own stamp book for you to keep and remember.  (If you're a little confused by my explanation, visit the links below for more detailed instructions.)  

To start letterboxing, you will first need a stamp book.  This is for collecting the stamps that you will find at each letterbox.  You can have one stamp book for the whole family or you can have one for each child, whatever works best for you.  I like to use sketch pads (the stamps look really nice on the blank paper) and then cut them in half so I really get two stamp books from each sketch pad.

Next, you will need to buy or make a stamp.  This stamp is going to be your "signature" that you use when you find a letterbox.  Here again you can either have a family stamp or individual stamps.  There are los of tutorials available online that show how to make your own stamp.  This can be fun because then you're stamp will truly be unique and one of a kind.  

You will also need to buy an ink pad so that you actually use the stamps (most letterboxes don't include an ink pad, plus you don't know how used the ink will be once you find it).

Once you have those three things--stamp book, stamp, and ink pad--you ready to find your first letterbox!

You will find the clues for the letterboxes on these websites:

www.letterboxing.org  

and

atlasquest.com.

 When you go to these websites, simply enter where you live or where you are going to see if there are letterboxes in that area.

Once you pick a letterbox and have the clues, you are ready for the search!

I love letterboxing because sometimes they are hidden in locations you've never explored before.

{A beautiful waterfall we found while letterboxing}

Plus, it feels like a treasure hunt as you try to decipher the clues. 

If you like geocaching or outdoor activities, then you are sure to love letterboxing!

{Tuesday's Tip} 20 Ideas to Keep Kids Happy While You Cook

Sometimes dinner time can be a little CRAZY!  When the kids are hungry, screaming, whining and needing attention while you are hurrying around the kitchen getting dinner on the table...it is easy to feel more than a little frazzled by the time you finally sit down for dinner.

Now, your house may not be this extreme or feel this chaotic everyday.  But still, wouldn't it be nice to have your dinner prep time go more smoothly?  It can help if you have a specific dinner routine set-up for your family.  That's what we've tried to implement at our house and it has helped a lot.  The kids are kept busy so that you can focus on dinner.

These are all idea's to keep your hands free to make dinner, but still be engaged with your family to have an enjoyable evening together.

{20 Ideas to keep kids happy while you cook}

1.  Play with play dough (use a place mat for easy clean up)
2.  Make a customized napkin by drawing a picture with crayons, pens, etc.

3.  Let your kids help you cook
4.  Let your kids set the table
 

5.  Build with toothpicks and marshmallows

6.  Give your kids a job or chore in another room

7. Turn on music and have your kids dance until you say FREEZE!

8.  Have your kids read a book to you.
 

9.  Have everyone dress up in apron's while they help in the kitchen.
10.  Let your kids play with some water at the kitchen sink.

11.  Listen to a book on Tape or CD

12.  Hide a small object in the kitchen.  To help them find it say "Hot" if they are getting closer to the object or "Cold" if they are going farther away.
 

13.  Play card games, like War
14.  Have a race and see who can clean up their room the fastest.(or any small chore you need done)
15.  Play Simon Says

16. Make a mosaic by ripping and gluing paper
 

17.  Practice spelling words with magnetic letters on your fridge.

18.  Play 20 questions 

19.  Memorize a poem or scripture verse together

20.  Spend time doing homework

These ideas may sound simple, and that's exactly the point.  You don't want anything too elaborate or messy while your hands are tied.  But your dinner prep time will likely run a lot smoother if you already have an action plan in mind.

"Brain Quest" Dinner Game

I bought these brain quest cards for my kids.  There are like a thousand questions on them and it's a great way to learn new facts.  So I decided test all of our brain smarts by having a Brain Quest Dinner Game.

We took turns asking each other questions.  The person asking got to pick which question to ask (each card has several questions to choose from).  The guessers raced to be the first one to answer the question correctly.  The guessers had to raise their hands, so whoever raised their hand first got to try answering the question first.  If the guesser got the answer right, he/she received a point.  The person with the most points at the end of dinner got to pick the family activity we did together after dinner.

 

We actually had a lot fun asking each other questions from these cards during dinner--it was a simpe, fun family competition!  Brain Quest cards are available for all different grade levels, so you can even get your younger children involved.

To make this dinner even more fun, give everyone a special invitation before hand!

{Click here to print your own Brain Quest dinner invite}

Fairy Garden

My daughter and I have been working on a fun project...we're creating a fairy garden. In case you don't know, a fairy garden is a place where the fairies live and right now we are getting the garden ready for winter so the fairies have a nice warm place to stay.  It's still a work in progress, but this is what we have added to our fairy garden so far.

This has been such a fabulous project because it is exciting to see the joy, imagination, and excitement that my daughter has for the fairy garden.  Plus it has been inexpensive.  I have only purchased a couple items, but everything else I had around the house .

We created our fairy garden under a nice tree in our yard.  The bird house, which is the fairy house, we found on clearance at the store.  It has a small door at the back for a perfect fairy entrance and the hole at the top is a great window.  We put some grass inside the house so it is soft and comfortable for the fairies.

We also put a small pot of food out for the fairies so they will know to come and stay.  We walked around our yard and found fairy-sized tomatoes, crab apples, seeds, and flowers.  The small flower pot is my daughter's that she used to grow her own sunflowers.  We turned it upside down and now it is a table for the fairies.  We also found a large flat rock as another fairy table.

Surrounding the fairy food and house we decorated the fairy garden with lots of pine cones and fake flower bouquets--they provide more shelter for the fairies.We found lots of pine cones for small trees

Postcard Collecting

Who does not like getting letters in the mail?  Especially kids!  The other favorite thing that all kids love is COLLECTING.  Kids love collecting rocks, sticks, sea shells, cars, trains, stuffed animals--you name it!

Well, we came across this fun website, postcrossing.com, for collecting postcards.

When you login to the website, you will be given mailing addresses to send your postcards to. After you mail your postcards, your address is added to the pool of addresses for someone else to send you a postcard.  It probably won't be from the same person you mailed a postcard to, unless they choose to. (This could also be a convenient way to find a penpal, if the recipient responds.)

It is a fun way to collect stamps and postcards from all over the world! 

We have received postcards from China, Russia, Finland, Mongolia, Canada, Lithuania, and many other countries.  It is such a good feeling to send and receive letters.

I know my kids look forward to getting mail and this is a fun a way to do it!  I keep all of the postcards we've received in a small photo album.  That way it is fun and easy to flip through the postcard album to see what we have collected.  With postcrossing, it also makes it worth it to purchase postcards while on vacations or outings--a souvenir that is pretty inexpensive but in the past we have lost them.  Now we have a way to actually use our postcards!

{Tuesday's Tip} 20 Fun Things To Do on a Walk

The weather is getting a bit cooler and it's time to enjoy evening walks together as a family.  There are always fun things to discover on your walk.

For instance, we saw this tree with hundreds of birds all talking together (at least that's what it sounded like!).  I didn't have my best camera with me while we were out on our walk, so this is the best I could get.  It was cool to see and fun to watch them.

{birds in the tree}

We also found a tree with seeds like long beans that we used to sword fight.  We also pretended they were light sabers and fought off the bad guys on our way home.  There are always fun things to do, see, and pretend.

To make your walks enjoyable for the entire family, I came up with 20 more idea's to use the next time you go on a walk with your family!

{20 Fun Things to do on a Walk}

{Helicopter seeds}

              Find "helicopter seeds" and make them fly
(I learned you have to break them in half and then throw in the air and watch them twirl down)  

 Jump over cracks

Find sprinklers to run through.
Make a scavenger hunt and see what you can find

{coin toss}

Bring a coin and toss it when you get to a corner. Go left on heads and right on tails.
 Have a race to the corner

Play follow the leader
Play "I Spy"

{skipping}

Play "Paper, Rock, Scissors" and the winner decides how to cross the road (like skipping, jumping, galloping, tip-toeing, etc.). Be sure to watch for cars.

Roller-skate

Find a pine cone to throw and see who can throw it the farthest
Go to the park or other nearby trail to walk

See how many animals or bugs you find

Find a rock to kick and see who can kick it the farthest

Balance on the curb

Collect leaves

{beautiful sunset}

Go at sunset
Take pictures doing funny things
If there are farm animals in your area take grain, carrots, or apples to feed the animals

Sing a song like The Ants Go Marching or The Princess Pat

You can add to this list with your own ideas, it's easy.  Enjoy your walks before it becomes too cold!

{Tuesday's Tip} Be Active

I am not a runner.  In fact, I used to hate running.  But over the past few years some of my family members have really gotten into running and they've motivated me to be a little more active.  In fact, this summer we signed up for a couple of races together.  Although they made me nervous and weren't all easy, it was worth it to say that I tried.

To start training for my first 5K, I completed the "Couch to 5K" program.  There's probably more than one out there, but this is the one I tried.  And I felt like it did a good job getting me ready.  I also had a friend that started the program the same time I did and we ran together once a week.  That helped A LOT to make myself accountable for my runs and to have someone there for moral support. 

We did a pretty good job following this running program.  But by the end, I had to push myself to just get out and run.  I'm not fast enough to run a 5K in 30 minutes, I run (or jog, really) at a 12 mph pace.  But the Couch to 5K program helped me to run an entire 5K...like, actually run the entire distance without stopping to walk.  That was a first for me!

I also completed 2 other races during the summer.  The first race was the 5K Foam Fest and it was so fun!  The race included a combination of foam, mud, and water along with other obstacles.  There are lots of different types of races out there, some with mud, obstacles, water, color, night runs, etc.  I'd recommend doing these fun races with a friend or as a team--the more the merrier! 

The second race was the Rivalry Relay--a 60 mile relay race with my family.  This was a challenge for all of us...but we did it!  It was also a good bonding experience and something I can cross off my bucket list!

The best part for me about running and doing this training is that my body feels healthier (especially my heart and lungs).  And more importantly, I just feel better about myself for being active! (Let me tell you, that feels so much better than the guilt I feel when I'm lazy or go on a food binge.)

We all need to find a fun way to be and stay active.  I understand that it's hard to get started and even harder to find the time.  Just like most rewarding things in life, it is definitely challenging.  But that's what makes it even more worth it, right? (Ha, I'm starting to sound like a health-nut!)

Do you want to find a race in your area? 

Here are some local and national running websites:

Runner's World

Running in the USA

Utah Running Guide

Utah Running

So, I want to find more ways that me and my family and stay active together.  What do you like to do as a family to stay active?  Please share your suggestions.

Happy Tuesday!

Silent Dinner

{ASL signs--sea turtle & "I Love You"}

How does it feel not to hear?  If any of you or a love done have experienced hearing loss, then you know that it can be a real challenge.  This is what our dinner was about last night--we had a "silent" dinner.

During dinner no one was allowed to speak out loud, instead everyone had to communicate using sign language and gestures.  However, to make sure that we didn't just sit in silence, I created a few dinner rules for our silent dinner:

1. You are required to communicate during dinner!

2.  You can use signs or gestures

3.  NO SPEAKING WITH LIPS

I left these rules out on the table to help remind everyone while we ate dinner.  I also gave each person a paper with some sign language on it, including the ASL alphabet. 

{ASL alphabet}

Our silent dinner was actually really challenging!  We spent a long time spelling out words and made up most of our own gestures.  It was a good learning experience to be in someone else's shoes for a few minutes. 

There are plenty of You Tube videos, apps, websites, and books devoted to teaching ASL (American Sign Language).  You could easily include a sign language video or book to help everyone learn more during or after dinner.

Zucchini Boats

Ever wonder what to do with all that zucchini from your garden? If your garden is anything like mine, the zucchini grows like crazy (and the cucumbers too)! We try to eat as much as we can by cooking, baking, and freezing it. I've even given some zucchini away to neighbors, friends, and co-workers. But even then, I still have left overs.  So the Zucchini Boats were born.

To make a zucchini boat, all you will need is 1 large zucchini (or cucumbers work great too), a sharp knife, a spoon, and any materials you want to use to decorate your boat.  I used a skewer stick and scrapbook paper.

We had enough zucchini and cucumbers for everyone in our family to have one.

First, we cut a hole in the top large enough for Barbie dolls to sit in.  You can skip this first step if you don't have any dolls or toys that you want to ride on your boat.

Next, carve out the zucchini out like you would carvie a pumpkin.  Use the spoon to remove the seeds.  Then we used skewer sticks and scrapbook paper to make a mast.  You can decorate your boats any way you want.

When our boats were ready, we took them up a nearby canyon and raced them down a little stream to see whose was the fastest.  The barbies made the boats a little top heavy so we raced them again without the dolls.

The kids had fun watching their boats float in the stream, fixing them when they go stuck and wading in the stream.  I packed a light picnic dinner which we ate on the bank of the stream.

If you did not want to go to the mountains you could use a kiddie pool, a gutter filled with water, or even a bathtub to watch your boats float or race.

Enjoy being creative!

{Tuesday's Tip} Sensory Bins

I love sensory bins for toddlers.  I feel strongly that they are a great way for kids to experiment, feel different textures, and learn more about the world around us.

I have several, medium-sized plastic bins to hold the sensory items that I switch in and out when I'm not using them (pictured above).  Then I have one big plastic bin that I keep empty so that I can add different sensory items to it.  It is best if this bin is large enough for kids to climb into.  When I've used sensory bins with kids, if the bin isn't big enough for them (as in, they can only reach their hands in and dig)...well, they still try to squeeze their little bodies into the bin and that can be more frustrating than fun for them.  So I've found larger bins are better for sensory exploration, like a wash bin, or large Tupperware bin.

You can use the sensory bin inside or outside.  I'd recommend that you lay down a towel, tarp, sheet, or something underneath the sensory bin for easier clean-up.  Depending on activity you may want to stick your child directly in the bathtub after the sensory activity (plus, that just continues the fun for them as they splash in the tub).

{25 fun items for kids to play, dig & discover}

Shredded paper (newspaper, recycled paper, or colored paper)
Water balloons 

Air balloons

Noodles (dry or wet)

Corn meal
Bird seed

Grass
Snow (Or insta-snow powder, you just add water and it is cold like real snow)

{Insta-Snow Powder}

Rice
Beans (Very easy to clean up)
Wheat (I LOVE this texture because it is very soothing) 
Ice cubes in water (Use different shapes or add food coloring to make more interesting ice cubes)

Pom poms

Flour (Messy but really fun!)

Water
Sand
Water beads (These are cool, I found them at JoAnn's.  They are really tiny and you add water to watch them expand.  They are reusable if you dry them out.)

{Water Beads}

Cotton balls

Fabric (cut into long strips)
Bubbles
Pool Balls
Saw dust
Hay

Pine cones (or bark)

Dirt with small rocks

To help your toddlers explore the sensory bin, you can add regular kitchen items, like large spoons, bowls, flour sifter, whisk,  funnels, etc.  Sandbox toys, like shovels, buckets, and molds, are also perfect for playing in the sensory bin. 

{Wheat sensory bin}

Pretend play items or toys can add some variety to your sensory bin, like cars, balls, animals, dinosaurs, plastic bugs, people, dishes, etc.  Also, check out your recycle bin for safe objects your child could use in the sensory bin as well, like toilet paper tubes, empty butter/yogurt containers, egg cartoon, etc.

Please leave a comment to let us know if this post was helpful, we'd love to know what you think! Also, please share your favorite sensory activities and tips.

Healthy Fruity Ice Cream

I LOVE ice cream!  So listen to how great this is....milk free, yummy, healthy, with-no-added-sugar ice cream!  Plus it is SUPER EASY to make.  You don't get better then that, right?! 

There is a machine out there called Yonana's and it uses frozen bananas to get the creamy ice cream texture instead of milk.  Then you add other fruits as desired.

So I thought...why buy one more machine to clutter my house just for this one yummy snack?  So I tried it in my ordinary blender and it worked perfectly! :)

So what you need is frozen bananas because they are the key ingredient to give a thick creamy delicious flavor.  Just take a ripe banana and peel off the skin.  Then cut banana into chunks and freeze.  Next you'll also want to freeze the other fruits you will be adding to your ice cream, like mango's, strawberries, pineapple, etc. (I tried a mango-strawberry blend, and it was delish!)

To make the ice cream, simply put 1 frozen banana and other frozen fruit into your blender and blend until creamy.  I defrosted my fruit first for about 30 minutes in the microwave to make it a little easier to blend and less icy.

And...that's it!  Looks just like ice cream, it tastes creamy just like ice cream, but you know that it's so healthy for you!  Amazing!  This is a great family treat and a good alternative rather than just making smoothies all the time.

Have a happy and safe Labor Day!