The Mom Crowd

Recently our family had the opportunity to take a little vacation (or vay-cay, as I’ve been continuously calling it) to Panama City Beach, Florida.  We have not gone anywhere together as a family in about a year, and we were due some days of quiet away from home.  Thankfully, a family from our church let us use their beach house free of charge!  So we loaded up our car and hit the road.

The house we were in was perfect for the kids.  They were so enamored with the sun room up front that they weren’t the least bit interested in opening the cabinet doors and nooks & crannies throughout the house.  We brought one baby gate, which was perfect to block them out of the bathroom; they had free reign everywhere else.  It was a little one-level bungalow right across the street from the water.  All we had to do was cross the street and hike through about 10 yards of sand to see the waves.  To top it off, the beach was “private”!  So there was no one else around for great distances.  Nice!

The first morning we were there, we suited up and got lathered in our sunscreen, donning our hats and looking good.  I even had a new swimsuit to wear (Wow!  We’re talking 3 years, people, since I’ve cared about that at all…)  The kids were ecstatic to use their new sand shovel and beach toys.  I brought a blanket, Dave remembered the umbrella for shade.  We were set.  I was thinking we’d be there for a couple of hours and then go back to the house for lunch.

Except that two hours was about 90 minutes too long.  Turns out, the kids were kinda freaked out by the waves and had no interest in getting wet.  This didn’t stop me from trying to get them in the water, mind you.  I held Eli and tried to let him get a little cooled off as the waves lapped up.  One little splash of saltwater on his face was all it took to convince him he didn’t like it.  They weren’t quite sure what to do about the sand, either, though that was easier for them to handle.  And boy, was it hot.  Upper 90s, sticky and humid.  The only enjoyment Dave and I found was when we could individually step away for quick little dips into the water.  (My swimsuit was great – stayed in place and everything!  Score!)

After 20 minutes of playing in the sand, Lucy was soaked from sweat.  Poor girl was so hot.   But she was not going in that water.  It became clear that if we weren’t going to swim, we might as well go back to the house.  Otherwise, we were going to melt away into the Gulf.  We didn’t have access to a swimming pool, which would have changed the way we spent our days completely.  Instead, we cleaned ourselves up and decided to see what else the beach town had to offer, which turned out to be a lot.  We enjoyed fun window shopping and cruising along the strip, and the kids weren’t too traumatized to head back to our beach in the evening hours to collect sea shells and watch the sun go down. 

On our last day, we decided to drive a little further east and see St. Andrews Park.  We didn’t know what we were going to find, honestly, but we brought a picnic lunch.  It turns out we should have brought our swimsuits, too, because we found this:

It was utterly kid-friendly, this little wading area for families.  It was like “Beach for Beginners”, and Lucy loved it.  She and Dave wandered around for awhile and ended up swimming in their clothes for about an hour.  Oh, how I wished we knew about this from the start!  We would have done this on the first day and then she probably would have warmed up to the “big waves” at our beach not much longer after that.  Eli would have enjoyed sitting around in the shallowest parts of the water with me, too.  Oh well.  Maybe next time.

Looking back, I realized we did lots of things right on our kids’ first beach trip:

• We packed everything we needed for beach fun: towels, blankets, toys, sunscreen, beverages, and the camera.
• We knew not to include eating while on the beach.  Nothing’s worse than a sand-covered snack!  We scheduled beach time around eating times.
• We kept a flexible and positive attitude with every activity.
• We all looked really good.  Seriously, we’re a family with good fashion sense.   (Okay, I’m reaching, here…)

Here is what I learned to do for next time:

• Research what there is to do before leaving home!  Had we done this, we would have known how to introduce beachy fun to our young ones in a more effective manner.
• If possible, go in a month when it’s not quite as hot.  The water was a great temperature for swimming, but it was sweltering outside of it.  We looked for shade at every opportunity.

Some links on the subject:

• 10 Tips for Your Beach Vacation
• Packing Tips for Beach Trips
• Tips for Taking Your Toddler to the Beach
• Little Toddler Beach Bums

What about you, moms?  How have your beach endeavors fared this summer?  Any stories or tips that you’d like to share?

I got this idea from an online friend a while ago and I thought I’d share it with you guys. This is a very easy and fun craft to make. It makes a great gift for a friend or grandparent and your kids can be big helpers too!

I found all the supplies at Walmart except for one (noted below).

Here are the supplies you need:

• Clear, glass, flat marbles–usually found in the floral section
• 3/4″ magnet rounds–can be found in the craft section
• Clear Silicone Adhesive–in the hardware section
• 1/2″ hole punch–found at Joanne’s or Michaels
• Small pictures found in magazines, your own pictures, clip art from the computer, letters printed out from your computer etc. (Use you imagination!)

Directions:

1. Use the 1/2″ hole punch to punch out pictures of your choosing. If you don’t want to use a whole punch then you can just use scissors. But, the hole punch takes a lot less time and kids like doing that part too.
2. Squirt a pea size amount on the back of the marble. Put it on top of the picture and press down until the silicone spreads over the whole image.
3. Wait a few minutes for the silicone to dry and then attach the marbles to the magnets using a small amount of silicone. Wait for them to dry and you are finished!

We made some for my niece’s birthday. We picked out a cool font on the computer and spelled her name. We cut out the letters and made the magnets so she would have her own special magnets to hang up her stuff on their refrigerator. I made a black background with hot pink letters and it turned out really cool. I wish I had a picture of it!

The cool thing about the glass pebbles is that they end up magnifying the picture so even though it looks really small when you cut it out, it looks really neat when you are finished.

Buying all the supplies cost me less than $20. The special hole puncher cost almost as much as all the other supplies put together. But, I have enough supplies to make a ton of magnets! This is a simple, fun, inexpensive, and easy craft. I hope you have fun making it to!

Do you ever feel like your house is actually a plastic factory because of all the plastic toys, sippie cups, and utensils you have for your kids? I do. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed at all the plastic that has invaded every room in my house. Especially when I read things that remind me that every piece of plastic ever invented is still on the earth and hasn’t decomposed. Or that animals are dying because plastic toys, bags and other products end up in the oceans, rivers, lakes, forests and animals eat them. Or when I read about how there are harmful plastics in plastic forks, cups, plates, spoons that my kids use everyday. I know that I don’t want to contribute to further global damage any more than I have to but it is truly impossible to avoid ALL plastics. Even though I aspire to reduce, reuse, recycle everything, I know that I will not be able to do that. My kids see things that interest them and 90% of the time they are made of plastic. I could simply institute a rule where we only buy used toys (nothing wrong with that) or wooden toys. Again, an unlikely solution. If I knew what I know now when I first started having kids, I would have stuck closer to cloth and wooden toys. I have already replaced or discarded several plastic eating items–they are much easier to replace.

I have begun to think more about the toys I get for my kids and to be a little more choosy when purchasing something new. I can’t control what grandparents get for the kids but I have encouraged them to think a little more green when it comes to toy buying.

There are lots of options for non-plastic toys and dinnerware so I thought I’d pass them along in case you have one of those moments where you contemplate throwing away every small piece of plastic that you have stepped on one too many times and need some replacement items. Or maybe you are tired of replacing batteries or hearing that obnoxious toy song for the umteenth time.

A word about wooden toys: one thing that attracts me to wooden toys is that they tend to open the mind for more creation and imaginative play. Instead of having plastic superheroes and movie characters that have already been created for you, wooden toys are more generic so that the imagination can take over. They also are more geared for educational learning. Wooden toys are not only durable but they have a “classic” look to them and are easier to pass on to the next generation.

Even though I could probably open my own store full of plastic toys, (we have a whole plastic bin full of “characters” that the boys play with all the time!) I keep my eye on earth friendly, natural, fun toys too. I don’t mean to communicate that all plastic superheroes, barbies, or Polly Pockets are evil–it is just nice to know that there are other options out there than the mainstream toys we are bombarded with everyday.

Toys:

RosieHippo Toys

Oompa Toys

Melissa and Doug

Water bottles, plates, spoons etc:

Kleen Kanteen

Bamboo Baby Fork and Spoon

The Snack Sack (a portable cloth sack that includes a stainless steel bowl–used instead of a ziplock bag)

Stainless Steel bowls, plates, cups from Lifewithoutplastic.com

More bottles, cups, spoons at thesoftlanding.com

Happy Independence Day!  I hope you’re all out enjoying yourselves at parks, barbeques, parties, ballgames, movie theaters, and the like.   For those of us who are more likely to spend the holiday at home, I thought it would be nice to piggyback off of Amanda’s super fun post from yesterday with some easy entertainment ideas for you and your family members!  I’m not reinventing the wheel here, just having a little fun.

Five summery or patriotic movies you can enjoy with the kids:

• The Sandlot – summer classic about friendships, baseball, and a big scary dog.  Includes a great 4th of July scene.

• Field of Dreams – quintessential baseball fantasy with great family relationships and sweet moments to treasure.

• My Girl – sweet, simple story about an important summer in young Vada Sultenfuss’ life (with a Home Alone-era Macaulay Culkin; remember how cute he was?)

• An American Tail – great family animated film about a little mouse who gets separated from his family en route to the States.  Lots of history, too!

• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington – “It demonstrates democracy in action,” the trailer declares.  Experience again this movie classic and tell your children all about the late, great James Stewart.  I first saw this in a high school government class.  Loved it.

Easy music idea: 

If you’re looking for some fun with background music for your holiday dinner, look no further!  Make a playlist or mix cd with “freedom”, “summer”, or “America” as your theme.  This is especially fun to do with tweens & teens; give them $10 and have them buy 10 songs from an online store to make a mix for the family.  Here’s a small sampling of what I found in my iPod with those words in the title:

SeeqPod – Playable Search

I played my list at dinner last night and it sparked lots of fun conversation with my dear hubby.  Crank it up and enjoy!

Any other film or music suggestions out there?  Are you inspired to decorate your house like the one in the picture above?  (Yes, that is an actual house in my neighborhood.)  Have a great holiday, and for grins, I’ll have Bill Pullman take us out:

A few weeks ago, The Mom Crowd was given some products from “Raggs“, a program now showing on public television.  I was told it was a fun, lively, educational show that pre-school children would love.  So I tried it out on my daughter Lucy.  It didn’t take long for her to find it completely mesmerizing, and within a day, I started hearing the request, “Watch Raggs?” 

Raggs is a rock & roll loving dog, whose friends (Trilby, B. Max, Pido, and Razzles) are in his band.  When they’re not performing for scads of jumping children, they’re hanging out in Raggs’ clubhouse talking about all kinds of topics, like jobs and friendship.  The show is sweet, colorful, and physical.  There are segments that invite the kids to join in on dances and other movements, as well as montage videos of real people, like what you’d see on “Sesame Street”.

Overall, I have not found “Raggs” to be as irritating as other childrens’ shows (which shall remain unnamed).  Lucy loves it and talks about the characters all the time.  She likes her Raggs coloring book and the stickers that came with it.  It won’t be long before I’m sure to hear her singing the familiar Raggs tunes.

Here is a video of the Raggs Kids Club Band singing “What’s the Dealio?” 

You can also check out these links for more information:

Series Overview

Online activities for the kids

How to find Raggs on tv where you live

Have you seen Raggs?  What are your impressions?  Do your kids like it?