Summer Fun List 2016

It is summer again! I have just a couple days left of summer school teaching, then that means fun filled days with my creative, enthusiastic little girls, 5 and 3. To me the most important thing is to do enough to keep them engaged, which is code for out of trouble, and help them create beautiful memories of their childhood, which is code for hope they get tired enough to go to bed without a hassle at a reasonable time.

My plan is to have a list of possible activities around town that we can plug into at any given moment. Here are my go to activities for 2016:

1.  My girls are Disney crazy. They love all the characters from Disney Junior, all the princesses, and even the classic characters. So I was really excited to learn that the Disney Store has fun free events every Wednesday. Some times there are movies or Sing-A-Longs. Afterwards, we can play at the Busch Garden themed, International Mall play area. This isn't a new place for us, but the kids always love it. We have learned that in the evenings there are less people and less chaos at the mall play areas.

2. For years we would go to the library story times, but those became very crowded and less about reading and more about corralling kids. Barnes and Noble has great story times too! Many of these events are Friday and Saturdays but there are weekday story times too. We sometimes have a cookie at the cafe as a treat. B&N also has reading programs for older kids.

3. Bowling for free! A friend of mine mentioned this national program so I had to look into it. You can take your children to bowl two games every day. As I look into it and filled out the information there is a one time cost of $29.95. It is a good deal especially if you have multiple kids and live in an area where you never know if it's going to rain. I also figured out if I go with my kids at least twice, the one time cost would at least allow us to break even.

4. Bayside Gymnastics Academy has open gym time once a week for a low cost. The girls love to jump and tumble and run. This space is great. It can also get a little wild for young kids, so I avoided it when my kids were under 2. However, we have a great fondness for this warehouse and it is designed to contain kids in a huge safe padded space.

5. My kids love art. We have attended several events sponsored by the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Pete such as the Painting in the Park in April, and the Breakfast with Santa in December. These events have become staples to our family fun time. MFA is really welcoming to kids. There is a chunk of the museum that is just for kids. They also have activities to do with the kids for the traditional exhibit areas. They also have a cafe at the museum but there is ice cream across the street. The museum is next to Straub Park which has open spaces and great banyan trees kids love to play in, climb up and swing through every time they see them.

We have a few more things we will do....

1. Beach 
2. Make and decorate cupcakes
3. Make pizzas
4. Splash parks 
5. Pool time
6. Build a fort (Indoor and Outdoor)
7. Create an art museum and invite grandparents to the opening
8. Game night (Candyland, Uno, Chutes and Ladders, Mermaids)
9. Have an banana split
10. See Finding Dory
11. Go to a Rays Game
12. Go to a Rowdies Game
13.  De Leon Springs and Old Spanish Mill Pancakes
14. Visit the Atlantic Ocean 
15. Roller Derby

It will be impossible to do it all and still have stay at home veg out and play days (those are just as important to me), but I like having a list of ideas that I can look at when I am feeling less creative. Cheers to summer!

Painters Tape Saves the Day!

There are days that you just can't make it to be the outdoorsy family you usually are. Perhaps it's a late season snowstorm or hurricane day off of school or my favorite, is the Florida heat is so suffocating today that the layers of sunscreen and gallons of water required for outside play is just too much to bear. I enjoy arts and crafts with my girls. I find things on Pinterest like the next mom for sure. But sometimes we are just in need of something different, then crayons and glitter. My secret for creative indoor play? Painter's Tape. 

There is no painting but Painter's Tape will make adventures appear in your home that weren't there before like obstacles courses, hopscotch fields, giant Tic Tac Toe, alphabet search, and race tracks.

The great thing about Painter's Tape is that it doesn't hurt the surface you put it on. There is no lasting damage to your walls or floor. 

1. Obstacle course. 

A hall away is best, but if there isn't one that can be an obstacle at the moment, you can recreate the same effect with furniture. Simply you tape stick the tape on either side of hallway in crisscross ways. Place some tape really low and some of it really high. Consider the size of your kids in the process. If you kids are bigger makes sure that they will be able to crawl without tearing everything down immediately. I added areas for my little ones to crawl, stand up, jump over and then crawl again. After it was set up, I told them we were secret spies that had to get the magic sparkling treasure on the other side but we couldn't touch any of the "sensors" (aka tape.) It was so fun. 

2. Hopscotch 

We have a big brick hallway and I taped down hopscotch field with numbers. Since my kids are young it was a fun and easy number activity. We threw things and hopped down the hall. We counted backwards and forwards. Then I had a pack of dollar flash cards that had different numbered animals on it. We matched the animals to the numbers. So, we got a little early math skills and large motor jumping skills out of the fun.

3. Tic Tac Toe

A large board was made on the floor and we picked toys to be the X's and O's. Stuffed animals were X's and dolls were O's. We played for a while. This board was the least successful because my kids aren't quite into the strategy of Tic Tac Toe yet, however it was a good distraction. 

4. Alphabet Letters

On an area of the carpet I taped all the letters of the alphabet in half hazard ways. We sand the ABC song slowly while going to every letter. Then I called out letters to see who could find it first. Then we sounded out words with the letters, then I had another dollar set of alphabet flash cards and they matched the letters on the floors with those on the cards. 

5. Race Tracks

On the family room rug, I created a race track with straight shots and swerves. The girls got out all their cars and played on the track. Eventually they raced cars and got other toys to ride in the cars. The imaginative play they created was amazing. The track became the road to the castle or the circus. All the friends were on their way there and having great time. 

After the day of tape was done, I peeled it all off and there was no trace of using the indoors like an outdoor play area. It did take a little prep time, but well worth the effort. 

Summer List of Things to DO

 

Summer Bucket List for 2014. 

35 ideas and things to do locally and at home with my girls, one is almost 4 and the other almost 2. Most of these are free and the couple that have admissions costs are less than $30. You can't beat it. 

I am lucky enough to work at an independent school that has great opportunities for the summer. Lydia will attend a fine arts camp for two weeks half days while I am teaching for a couple of weeks. We will take advantage of our church family VBS this year too, which will be just a few days in the evening, since we have already made plans for the traditional VBS times.

We will also go on vacation for a few weeks to Tennessee to be in the mountains and see friends. So we will be on the go, as always but I also love the days that we get to be home, and this is what the bucket list is for. Fun summer days and rainy summer days where you can find something new and special to do. I labeled the ideas that can be done on rainy days since there are plenty of them in Florida. 

1. Roast Marshmallows. We have a fire pit outside. We were thinking we could roast marshmallows with the girls and make s'mores in our backyard.
2. Road trips: Orlando, Chattanooga, Knoxville and Jensen Beach. We are still hoping to get the most out of our Disney Passes so we have on the calendar at least one trip to Orlando. We are going to vacation in Chattanooga and see friends in Knoxville and then spend a couple of days at Jensen Beach, to rest and relax.
3. Library. One of my frustrations is always that the Children's programs at the public library tend to mirror the school calendar so when I am free they are vacationing which is fair, I suppose but I hope to take Vivian at least a couple of times to the library. Free. 
4. Bayside Gymnastics Open Gym Time. This local gymnastics establishment is not only owned by someone I went to high school with but Lydia has taken several classes there. It's a great establishment and even though their summer open gym time can be nutty, I think it's an easy thing to do with the girls when we want to get out of the house. For both girls $10.
5. Pool. Lydia know how to swim and Vivian is taking lessons. I am excited about moving into a pool-tastic summer. Last year the pool thing was still a lot of work. Lydia wasn't a big fan and Vivian you had to hold or put into the floaty device. Lydia can swim well now, so we are hoping that will add more fun less work. 
6. Little pool slide. This is simple. Take a small blow up pool and put it at the bottom of you playset slide. Instant water slide.
7. Mudpies. On the day we do the little pool slide I figure would be the day to make mudpies. Messy and clean all at once. Chances are there will be little clean, but here is hoping.
8. Tea party. I wanted to have a fancy tea party for summer fun. Little muffins, little sandwiches, fancy cups and plates and dress for the occasion. I think it will adorable. rain
9. Make jello aquariums. There are gummy snacks that have fish and we will make blue jello and put them in clear containers as a fun snack and dessert. rain
10. Root beer float. Giant frozen mugs, ice cream and root beer. Also a fun summer treat. rain
11. Paper roll road map. I keep having this thought. We have long hallways at our house. I think I can take paper from the easel roll and roll it down the hallway. I thought I could draw some things on it and have them draw some roads and play with cars. rain
12. Obstacle course. My vision of this is things to jump over, things to crawl under, things to do along the way. I think this will work indoors or outdoors depending on your home and your willingness to make things chaotic. rain
13. Outdoor fort/tents. The new play set has space underneath it where you can clearly tie sheets and create a tent. Recently we cleared out our linen closet so we are very prepared for sheets to hang all over the backyard.
14. Make bird feeders/bird bath. I fear that these projects will bring bird poop into my yard as well but since we have already been spending a lot of time in the backyard I have seen bluebirds, robins and hummingbirds. It would be fun for them to be a little closer. 
    
15. Sprinkler fun. Simple. Old School.
16. Splash park. My girls have never really liked splash parks something about the water in their face but I like to try it at least once a season. 
17. Kite flying. Simple. Old School. Kite are pretty cheap. Dollar Store for sure, we have a couple from Walmart that I think were a couple of dollars. All you need is a field or front yard with some space. 
18. Little Kid Yoga. I love yoga. At one point in my life I practiced every week and it was genuinely fulfilling. Since then it's been hard to fit it in. I think Lydia would enjoy doing some position and so will Vivian so I ordered a book about yoga for kids. Book $12. rain
19. Soccer game or baseball game. The Rowdies are back and so are The Rays, we haven't taken the girls to a professional game and it just may be a ton of fun to do it. Prices vary. 
20. Scavenger Hunt. Hide stuff, make the find it. rain
21. Make pizzas. We would get pre-made dough have the girls make pizza. A little sauce spread around, cheese sprinkled on, maybe mushrooms. rain
22. Get Sea shells. Lydia loves to find sea shells, so I thought it would be fun to go to the beach just to do that. We would take "hunting" gear. We would be on a search for just shells like explorers. 
23. Paint Sea shells. Once we got our shells we would paint them. It would be fun to do. We are about painting just about anything. If I give them small brushes they like the fancy feel of this type of painting. rain
24. Sunset. A lot of the time we catch the sunset on drives from point A to point B. I would like to take the girls to the beach to see the full on experience. 
25. Beach 3x Eliot and I are lazy beach people because we have always lived by the beach and well it takes a lot of effort. The girls on the other hand love the beach. My goal is to make to the beach at least 3 times this season for them. 
26. Ft Desoto Park I have been to the Fort itself in years. I think it would be fun to go check it out. $5 toll to get out there. 
27. Tin foil river Another backyard idea taking a roll of tin foil and making a river through the yard filled with water. Random silly fun. 
    
28. Weaving with paper  Imagine painting paper then cutting them into strips to weave them. I am not sure at all how this will go with Lydia but I think it has the potential of being kind of cool. rain
29. Sewing with yarn and paper plate Another craft as a pre-sewing activity. Punch holes in a paper plate and have her make a design with yarn colors. rain
30. Spaghetti painting. I have been waiting to do this for a couple of years now. Make spaghetti and let the kids dip it in paint and paint with it. It is clearly the messiest thing in the whole world, so I have to gear up but I think it could be really fun. rain
31. Shaving cream designs. Cheap shaving cream and a cookie sheet. Let them have some sensory play. I was thinking of filling up the water table with it too, see what happens. 
32. Tube wall. I have seen this a couple of times now, using tubes from paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls. Using paint tape you position the tubes all over and some what connecting. Then roll marbles or other small balls through them. rain
33. 4th July crafts and World Cup crafts! The World Cup is serious in our house. So there will be more to come for this item, but for now the idea is watch, play, dream soccer and add a few kid crafts to the even rain
34.  Dinosaur World a Florida delight! I think. I want to know. $15 for adults, $12 for 3 and older. 
35. Old Mickey's Farm This is a local farm with farm animals. You can visit there for the day. Milk cows, pet goats, you know your average farm visit activities. $20 for me and Lydia, Vivian is still free.

And We are DONE!

April 11 marked the one year anniversary of our Park Quest. After reading some inspirational outdoor articles, we decided to venture to visit as many parks in the area as possible, the first goal was 50 between April and August. This goal quickly evolved to as many as we could over the course of a year.

Crescent Lake 

This is what we learned:

1. There was no way to get 50 parks in 4 months unless both of us would have been unemployed and wanted to do nothing else but go to parks. We covered 36 parks in one year which breaks down to about 3 parks a month. Even that was tough. Imagine there are 4 weekends in every month, if we only went on weekends, which we didn't but that could have been an activity planned for 75% of weekend time in one month.

   

   Albert Whitted Airport Park

2. Not all parks are created equal. Based on my experience I can say that the city of St. Petersburg seems to work hard on maintaining these community spaces, but if you have just one afternoon in the area there are several parks I would recommend over others. The definition of park is even different for each consumer. As a young family a park usually has a playground, but for a hiker, runner or biker a park has a host of trails to explore, or perhaps for a tourist may just want to sit and see the water. I can provide lists for each of these. 

   

   Myrtle Beach City Park

3. Sand sucks unless on a beach. 

   

   Northshore Park 

4. Fenced in playgrounds are great for parents who want to zone out. 

   

   North Straub Park for Tree Lighting

5. Always take water or a drink with you. I can't remember if all the parks have water fountains but I don't recommend using the ones I do remember. Creatures live in these parts.

   

   Philippe Park in Safety Harbor

6. Don't be afraid to drive a little longer to see something new. We live such rushed lives that if we carve in time to go to a park, we tend to go to the closest because it's easiest when in fact there may be something new to do just minutes a way. 

   

   Hammock Park in Dunedin

7. There is a ton more to see!

   

   Boyd Hill in St. Petersburg

We are so lucky to live in a truly gorgeous part of the country. The weather, of course, is typically amazing, so even on the coldest of days it is great to be outside and we have a ton of options to chose from in the Tampa Bay area. Even though the Park Quest itself is complete, I will continue to share new parks when we get to them, one at a time.

Boyd Hill Nature Preserve

As a child this place was home to a lot of my memories. This is where I remember going on library field trips. This is where I pet my first snake and saw my first bee hive. I was not the kid that chased frogs in the mud, but I thought they were cool and pretty much every creepy crawly bug thing I can think of was in a small science center at Boyd Hill. I was excited to be there on Saturday and it had been clearly a long time since I had been in the building itself, because when we went inside, the library was gone. Apparently, it has been gone for 15 years, a true surprise to me. The lovely volunteer behind the counter, though gentle was amused by my dismay. Even though, change is always had, the new and improved all nature center was very well done. They clearly have school come in for programs so there are a couple of classrooms.

We paid $3 for each adult to get in, so for a family of 4 a total of $6 was not bad. This allowed inside the actual nature center to see various displays, touch and play with several areas and have access to the several trail preserves. Inside we got to see and pet a tarantula, see several turtles, frogs and the biggest toad I have ever seen in my entire life.  Outside there was an aviary sanctuary. There were several interesting rare birds to see up close since most were birds of prey. We walked around a couple of the short trails which were perfect for our kids attention spans. Afterwards we walked through the butterfly garden and saw the metal sculpture in the trees which really has been there since I was a child.

The park was full of small kids and families some attending birthday parties since this was a gorgeous Saturday morning. We went to the playground which Vivian was obsessed with and once again I was reminded that it used to be a huge wooden structure that must have over time just fell to pieces. Now it is a traditional strong playground equipment. There is a smaller one near the picnic tables which Lydia declared was the perfect playground. I think because she was able to play on every element without help from me. There is also a little area that has a stage and benches which my girls loved.

The girls loved it and we could have spent all day there running around. Next time we may bring a picnic. There is also a ton of programs the center offers for young children, some during the week and others are for summer camp. The edge of this preserve is right up next to Lake Maggiore, which also has picnic tables and playground space. It is a rich nature corner of the city of St. Petersburg.

Totally Awesome Cheap Kid Backyard

Slowly we have been working on our backyard. It is small. We are lucky enough to have a pool but it's actually positioned in the middle of our house. This was a really highlight for me, because I always thought that the girls would be able to play in our backyard without worry of the pool. The swampland of our backyard and drainage issues, have been a significant hurdle. Over the last year, we have been working on that. After two years, we can hang out in our backyard. I have diligently been looking at Pinterest for various ideas on what to do in small spaces that is inexpensive and kid oriented.

First of all, I wanted them to have a play set of some kind. We were looking at many different types, but with a small space it's hard to really  know what to do. I kept my eye on Craigslist. I knew we didn't want to spend a lot of money and the wooden play-sets are expensive. On the low end, they are close to $600. I found a relatively small one for $100. We went and measure it, then Eliot and his dad went took it apart in chunks and put it back together in our yard. We purchased a couple new swings, new screws and bolts and added a coat of wood finish to protect it.

The playhouses were a similar story. These things are crazy expensive brand new, some of them range close to $400, even the second hand stores were selling them for $200 which technically is half price. I just looked on Craigslist for almost 8 weeks. I found one that was terribly beat down, everything faded for $20, I spray painted  it bright solid colors and it looks lovely. We found the other one for $30 in really great condition.

The sand boxes were also second hand and so was the kid picnic table my in-laws got the girls which is great to outdoor mess activities and fun lunches. I placed the old play kitchen outside as a mud pie station for the future, when I am ready to commit to a mud day.

On Pinterest I saw a couple of really easy things that I knew I needed to do. One was spray painting stepping stones. We had a stack that happen to come with the house, so I just used the extra spray paint I had to rainbow it up. The girls love those things, more than I would have guessed. They jump from one to the next over and over. I also saw a chalkboard screwed to the fence which seemed adorable to me. Most of the links lead to really complex and expensive directions for this project. My original plan was to go to Home Depot and purchase chalkboard paint and a piece of wood which roughly would have been about $50, then we found a pre-made chalkboard. It is about 4 feet by 2 feet and it was being sold as an outdoor sign option, it was $9.97. We pre-drilled the holes and attached it to the fence. I added a dollar store bucket with rope next to it, we drilled a couple of holes in that too and poof $11 for the same effect. We figured for this price point, we could replace it in the future if we wanted with very little effort or even add another one.

The piece that I was most excited about was the fairy garden. I was going to wait until the summer, but decided why not now. I planted a couple of herbs which I have been wanting to do for a long while and bought a couple of dollar flowers. I let Lydia pick them out. The bucket was a Walmart find for $5 (meant for a drink container at parties I drilled holes in the bottom) which was a fourth of the price of some of the flower pots that I was looking at. At Walmart I found a Fairy Garden kit which I could pass up for $12. We planted the flowers together, she added all the kit elements, and daddy moved it to the back yard so we could take care of it. I hope for her to make a fairy house this summer to add to it too.

That is basically it. I found $1 buckets and bowls at the dollar store to stick in the cubies of some old shelves that were laying around outside anyway so I put them on their sides. The buckets have shovels, some have rocks, some have other sand toys but they are to be played with as they see fit. The grown up part of the yard at this point is just a couple of chairs and umbrella for the sun and a fire pit for the evenings. Eventually we would like to add a couple more chairs and the hammock we bought on our honeymoon that we have never hung up. Right now this is a great play space and I am so excited to be able to open the backdoor and not worry about them. They can play while I get dinner ready. They can play while I work on the computer right inside. It's ideal. A great fun space for less than $300 including paints and additional accessories.

Rio Vista Park

Our dear friends were lucky enough to move into a new home with a park right next to it and behind it. We often call it their country house in the city. It is peaceful and quiet and lovely. I imagined that because of the  oddity of where the space is located that it would be a less frequented area but that is not the case at all. The majority of the park is between two sets of houses. It is long and somewhat narrow. A bike/ running pass runs through it. It actually serves to connect other biking paths specifically together I think. The area is very woodsy. For our girls it was a hoot because they were able to ride their bikes, trikes and scooters for a bit and then run in the to get pine cones, play with swords (sticks to other people) and hide from forest monsters.

It is very walk-able and safe. If you have a young child that does not like to be in a stroller or that may be a runner or both, this is a good park. There is nothing but the path and the woods. Towards the west end of the park there is a nice bridge that connects to parts of the neighborhood and a boardwalk that does the same both over a channel.

Trolls.

If you continue through the park, on the east end, perhaps even considered the most accessible piece of the park, there is a fenced in construction area which will be the future home of Rio Vista Park. It used to be Rio Vista Elementary School but the building was in bad shape and so they tore it down and it will now be a great size community park. The plans show a playground, exercise area, community garden and running trail. There will be some picnic shelters and a huge sized shelter that was already there that the city decided not to take down. The new portion of this park should be ready by April.

Our Water Week

This week we have been checking things off the summer list. Everyday this week we have done something in the water.
Monday Lydia took a big jump at swim lessons with her ability to follow directions and actually swim.

Tuesday I needed to get a few things done in the garage and so I filled up a couple of Tupperware of water and let both girls play with the beach toys. They loved it and were entertained almost 2 hours. Later in the afternoon the Rohrs clan came over and we played in the pool for a while.




Wednesday Eliot was home so we went to Northshore pool to play in the kid section. For all 4 of us it was $10 and we were there 2 hours so it was certainly a deal. Parking was free and we took snacks. I also took a could of toys which was a good idea because the kid section was great but my girls are still a bit little and have a healthy fear of water, so the giant buckets falling in their heads they avoided. I had a ball on the other hand. Even slid down the slide.
















Thursday we had a girl day at the Florida Aquarium. We saw fish and played outside in the water park and sandbox area. Lydia really takes a lot of time to warm up to splash parks. She hates water in her face and so she tends to run around them until she gets brave. She never quite got there this time. She played in the sand box and some girl took her shovel so she threw sand in her.
I was a little further away with Vivi and when I went over to ask the mom had one of those looks on her face as if her child would never commit any indiscretion in her short life. I hate that. I made Lydia apologize and she sat time in time out and ate a snack. I should have brought some sand toys. Oh well.
















Friday we had planned on a pool day with the Abuelos. But Vivian was noticeably not feeling well. She had gotten an ear infection.
Luckily even though she was asymptomatic with exception of a fever. I decided to take her in to see the doctor. So we played and cleaned and did house things. We had gathered some leaves from the front yard and painted them. We then used them as stamps. Vivian did very well with a brush considering she's not quite 1 year old yet.
















Later on we had a lovely dinner and playtime with friends. It was a great way to end a busy week. After a couple of hours of play everyone got in their pajamas. Lydia chose hers. She insisted even though it's 90 degrees out and it feels like 103. She did look cute though for sure.










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