SWOOP Bag Giveaway!

Finding just the right storage for our LEGO bricks (as you know) has been a never ending process. We have them stored nicely in drawer/bins right now but the biggest complaint is that the boys have to dump them out to find what they are looking for so there is always a supply of LEGO bricks all over the floor. I've seen Swoop bags before and was SO excited to get our first bag to try out.

It. Is. Awesome.

-------------------> Click HERE to read more and enter to win your own!

Building Week Part 3: Chain Reaction

This is SO fun your kids will want to do it over and over. Mom Trusted has a great chain reaction you can build from popsicle sticks that will surely create some giggles.

Want to see one in action? It will surely make you run to the store for sticks!

Building Week Part 2: Strong Shapes

This is an easy, fun experiment to find out how strong different shapes are. Shape 1 sheet of paper into different shapes and see how much they can hold. We made a triangle, square, and cylinder.

We used books and loaded them on slowly (in the same order for each shape)

The triangle won with 12+ books! The cylinder held 9 and the square held 5 (but the seam was a little weaker on the square too) We used this information to make a card pyramid and discussed our thoughts on how the Egyptians built their pyramid without modern technology.

A house of cards is rewarding, but frustrating lol!

A coffee break was definitely needed. What are you building this week?!

Look for the Helpers

We discussed how we personally talk to our kids when big things in the world happen on the Facebook page yesterday but I thought this deserved repeating here. Every family and every kid is different. Whether you tell your kids or they find out and ask questions, encourage them to look for the helpers and find ways to help. We always feel better when we are doing something.

Unfortunately things like this happen around the world so this image and this quote is a great way to live our lives. Look for the positive. Be the helper. Thank the helpers. Be the light.

Building Week

Welcome to Building Week - this week we'll cover different activities that involve "building". Today I wanted to focus on our favorite building material, LEGO bricks, but switch it up a bit and pair it with learning. There are so many ways to mix them together and they are all great for visual learners which both of my boys are.

Matching patterns with DUPLO from Rockabye Butterfly

Math with LEGO bricks from Homegrown Learners

 Create structures (easy or hard) photograph them and have your kid recreate them! from My Little Princess World

A lot of great math ideas from The Pleasantest Thing

Another great LEGO instruction book - perfect for beginning builders from Kids Activities Blog

How do you use LEGO bricks for learning?

Fort Friday! Pirate Edition

Happy Fort Friday!

You can share your forts by emailing me, Facebook, or Instagram and tag #allfortheboys and #fortfriday (by contacting me you are giving me permition to share your photo on the blog. Let me know if you want it linked up anywhere) - some are tagging me properly and I'm not able to pull it up again later :( So if you don't see yours here, email it to me!

I've posted this before but I think this pirate ship bed deserves another mention don't you? from My Modern Met

Made by Marzipan turned a table into a pirate ship fort

LOVE this ship from a party on Catch My Party

A homemade pirate ship from Create with Your Hands

Love the balloon water on Captain McGroovy's Pirate Ship

Love the sails on this one by Ikat Bag

Pirate Week: Part 5 - Printed Paper Bag

If you want to have your own pirate party ( or just have cute lunch bags for field trips) I thought I'd share with you my printed pirate bag file.

I printed straight onto the paper bag from my regular printer. To do this you'll need to tape down the bottom and the top together so it doesn't get caught.

Put the bag in your printer according to directions and print! I changed the settings to match the size of my bag in my printer dialog before I printed. I didn't have an issue with any of them. You could use these for popcorn, chips, nuts, goodie bags etc!

If you want to print these pirate bags you can download the files here!

Regular sized paper bag

Jumbo paper bag

Minted Giveaway!

Whether you want to have your own Pirate party or need Holiday Cards, Wedding Invitations, business cards you name it! I've got $100 for one of you!

-----------------> CLICK HERE TO READ MORE (and to enter!)