Sea World + Shark Week

A few weeks ago the boys and I took a last minute before school vacation to California. We made Sea World one of our stops! We hadn't been since they were toddlers so they were SO excited. We love sea life (well, any animals really). The boys spent the few days before we got there devouring their website. Do your kids do that? Research where they are going until it drives you crazy? lol!

They loved the Shamu cam and were dying to go on the new roller coaster Manta. We got there and went on Manta first thing - it didn't disappoint! We all loved it! Then we looked at the schedule and decided which shows were important for them to see. 

My 8 year old LOVED Pets Rule. Loved it. We stayed after to pet some of the animals too. My 9 year old loved Sea Lions LIVE (I thought he would it was my favorite as a kid but sadly no more walrus in the show). I remember going to Sea World and dreaming of the day I could become a dolphin trainer. I think they were doing the same ;)

Some other favorites were the Beluga whales, the penguins, the brand new Turtle Reef and of course - the Shark Encounter!

We saved Shamu for last with the Shamu Rocks (a Shamu show set to music that my boys loved) and I'm so glad we did. We had perfect seats for the end of the night fireworks right after!

I was freezing because I lost my sweater somewhere along the way but Sea World found it and mailed it to me for free that night! (I stopped by lost and found and they had me fill out a little form) I thought that was pretty cool. Usually when I lose things I consider them gone but that was a great experience. 

If you've been thinking about a trip to Sea World lately - do it! So much education and experience for the kids. Their new shows and exhibits are so cool and I'm so glad we went!

(For full disclosure we were given media passes to Sea World but did not have to write a review - we liked it so much we wanted to :)

Speaking of sharks - who is excited it's Shark Week on the Discovery channel? I thought I'd do a little round up of shark crafts for your shark loving kids.

A paper plate shark from Almost Unschoolers

Love this clothespin shark from Estefi Machado 

Paper Plate Shark Jaws from Dollar Store Crafts (I shared this before but had to include it!)

If you weren't around last year around Halloween here was my son's constume that got a lot of laughs around the neighborhood.

Something for the Little Ones

I came across this great archive of activities to do with your kids ages 1-3 from Play Create Explore. It looks like a fun list to go through if you're looking for some ideas!

Like Clean Mush

Body Painting

Baked cotton balls

Dinosaur Sensory Bin

Or Styrofoam Sculptures

Find the full list HERE!

Construction Vehicles Craft Kit Giveaway

We had the opportunity to try out the new Boy Craft Construction Vehicles craft kit from craftprojectideas.com. This kit gives you all you need to create (and play with) 3 wooden construction vehicles. 

My new 8 year old thought he'd like to give it a shot.

Here he's building the dump truck.

As soon as he was done with that one and waiting for the wood glue to dry - he wanted to start on the next! He decided he didn't want to paint so he pulled out his markers to do some decorating. He was very interested in the included decals as well.

A craft kit that kept him entertained during AND after it was finished? Check! Now CraftProjectIdeas would like to give one away to one of you! Easy entry here (as usual) if you want more info on the products or for more inspiration from Craftprojectideas you can visit their site, Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube!

Enter to win now! 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Olympics!

My boys are so excited for the Olympics this year! They love seeing all the ads out and can't wait to watch some of the events. To wear out their energy a bit before they watch tv how about hosting your own olympics?

Love this party from A Small Snippet SO much! Lots more great photos here

DIY medals from Collage Collage

DIY torch from Domsetic Goddesque

This awesome party even has some great printables! from Bird's Party Blog

Are you/your kids getting excited for the Summer Olympics?

DIY River Raft by Mer Mag

Mer Mag is a huge source of inspiration for me. I LOVE this River Raft they just did for Handmade Charlotte. A fun craft for winter OR summer!

Find tutorial HERE and Mer Mag HERE

DIY PLAYMAT

My boys made this playmat/placemat for a post over at Modern Parents Messy Kids. They made it with the intention of giving it as a gift but it has yet to leave our house. My 8 year old loved designing his own and wanted to do more scenes after this one!

Go check out the post to see what cool new product we used, more photos, and the how to!

Sometimes Parties Don't Go As Planned

I thought I'd write a little post since I talked about my boy's sleepover on Facebook. We had planned to have 4 boys plus my 2 over for a sleepover with all kinds of amazing sleepover activities and of course a midnight snack bar. However, things change.

We had planned on moving beforehand and were supposed to be settled in by then. Things changed and we were in the new house but just barely. There was nothing there. So we brought a few things over so that we could sleep there since that was the address on the invite. Then we realized that no one had RSVP'd except for one boy. I didn't want to plan a million activities for 6 kids when we may have none. So I bought decorations and got snacks last minute. We picked out some things to put together a few goodie bags. 

1 boy did come and my boy decided that to make it more of a special sleepover we'd go to a pizza place with an arcade and then to the movies (yes we did have the other boys' parents permission). So we did. We saw BRAVE which they all liked and then came home for late ice cream cupcakes.

We did end up doing a few activities and I had my camera BUT forgot my memory card so iPhone photos it is.

Our birthday table set up

After the movie we came home and had a glow party. We put glow sticks into white balloons, had glow necklaces and glasses from the dollar section at Target

In the morning - a part of the party my son was most excited - cereal lol! We don't ever buy cereal so he was super excited to buy several different types to choose from along with some cinnamon rolls on his birthday party morning.

Then we went swimming at 8am and made light sabers out of pool noodles.

In the end he loved his little sleepover. His Harry Potter party last year was a bit more involved so having it a little easier this year may have just been what we needed. Just some more proof that we aren't perfect over here either ;)

Summer Fun Jars

We have our list of Summer Bucket List activities but haven't displayed them all in a fun way yet. Now that we are getting settled in our new place we are all working together to come up with a way that will work best for us. Our schedule this summer is pretty much the same as last. So we have afternoons and evenings free to do all of our Buckett List items (along with the weekends of course!)

I love this visual display from Mer Mag though and wanted to share it!

I really love the visual reference even for kids who can read. I think it helps in the decision making process and the excitement to do the activity. These images were printed straight from Pinterest!

She gives downloads for the jars and more gorgeous photos on her blog.