Fun in Nature

I can't believe that my kids are getting so old. Louie is in kindergarten this year! As they get older (especially Louie), their minds have the ability and the need to learn so much. I mean, Louie is doing great in kindergarten and Leo and I have fun at home with arts and crafts, music and Nick Jr., but they need more and their little minds can handle so much more than I am usually organized enough to offer them. So when I saw the advertisement for the Wonderbox, and the discounted first month from being a Wittlebee member (this is cool, but I suspended my subscription because I am WAY too picky about clothes to have someone else pick them out every month), I was very interested in it. Each month you are sent a different box full of 5-6 projects based the subject that month, and suggestions for other activities related to the subject, including what to do with the box itself! How cute! This month (our first box) was nature related. It has supplies for making sun prints, going on a nature hunt and decorating your canvas bag, making a balloon greenhouse, and a few more. Friday it was so beautiful outside that we decided to do the balloon greenhouse since it seemed pretty easy and fun for the kids to do outside during that time between after school and dinner (which tends to become a bit chaotic!). They had to put dirt in a balloon with a funnel (which they thought was so cool), then we added seeds and water, blew up the balloon and hung it from the curtain rod (where I still have no curtains because I still haven't finished sewing them!), and now we wait. Which Louie was a bit upset about...by this point Leo didn't even remember what we were doing. LOL

And here they are hanging up.

Louie was very focused and interested, Leo just liked the idea of playing in the dirt. :) The ages for the projects are 3-6, since Leo is just barely old enough, not every project will probably hold his attention. This week we are planning on doing the Sunprints, which I am super excited about (maybe more than the kids!). I will post how that turns out. Very excited for the other activities from the box, and to see what this next box has in it! The way everything is put together is very simple and organized and all the packaging is so cute too! And a great value, it's only $20/month. I had a discount for the first month too since I was already a Wittlebee customer so we got it for only $10! I am so glad that we tried this. The kids are learning so much AND it is helping to keep them occupied so they don't get bored and start wrestling or running back and forth through the house (it happens...all the time)!

Ready, Set, Go!

The other day when we were trying to kill the hour between dinner and bed, I noticed two of their many cars were battery operated and decided to race them! The kids loved it and started lining up all of their cars and trains to race. They never really got the idea of watching them to see which one would win, or pushing them against each other. They had fun none-the-less.

Day in the City

Since we've moved to Chicago, we haven't really gotten to explore the city we love as much as we'd like to. Chicago can be an expensive place, so we had to get creative. For Leo's birthday back in October, we managed a really nice trip for about $10.

We took the "L" downtown which was our only expense  for about $10 round trip (kids were free). Louie loved looking at the buildings and even made a new friend. He was so sweet and loved Louie's company.

We then stopped at the Harold Washington Library Center and read some books to the kids and walked around this huge library!

Then we walked through Grant Park and over to Buckingham Fountain for a lunch that I packed for us at home. Louie had a blast chasing the birds and admiring the fountain and buildings. We love our city and its beautiful architecture against the amazing parks and lake view never cease to impress us! We just enjoyed the views the rest of the afternoon, it was very nice! Best of all, we only spent about $10 the whole day!

Movie Night!

The boys got a bunch of movies for Christmas this year to include all three Toy Story movies! My husband and I both love them so we had a movie marathon the other night of 2 and 3...not sure why Louie wanted to skip 1.  You can't have a movie night without popcorn, and according to Louie "that's what kids do when they watch a movie"..so that's what we did! We laughed, and I cried at the end of the 3rd one. It was great fun and didn't cost a thing! (We also got popcorn in our stockings from my mom!)

Toy Story 3 is on sale at Amazon right now for $9.99!

$25 Gift Certificates for $2

I recently discovered Restaurant.com where you can purchase gift certificates at a discounted price for hundreds of restaurants. For instance, usually they have $25 gift certificate for $10! However, recently they have had a coupon code (CLEARANCE) for 80% off making them $2 for a $25 gift certificate!! I purchased several of these and love the savings. They file all the gift certificates on your account for easy printing whenever you need them as well! (Make sure you read the fine print though, some have restrictions about dining in and days or hours that you cannot use it.)

Plus, they currently have a deal where if you purchase 5 $25 gift certificates (a $10 total) for participating restaurants, you can get a $25 Restaurant.com eGift Card!!

Offer ends Friday, December 31, so if you are interested, grab them now while they are really cheap!

Little Drummer Boys

Today as I was preparing dinner, I could not keep the kids out of the kitchen. They like to pull out all of the Tupperware, which is kind of why they are strategically on the bottom shelf of the cabinet (it's the only thing I let them play with). So I decided to try and keep them busy by giving them some spatulas and spoons and told them to make some music.

They loved it!! Louie even noticed the difference in noise between the plastic, rubber, and wooden utensils. :) We have toy instruments, but of course my kitchen supplies are much more appealing! Louie even made up his own song.

Hide-and-Seek

Baby it's cold outside, and the kids are sure getting bored inside. When we were kids, every Tuesday night when my mom would work late my dad would play hide-and-seek with us. So while I wasn't sure that it would keep my kids attention at 3 and 1, I gave it a try. It turns out, Louie LOVED seeking. So I hid, about twenty times, but every time he found me he would scream with suprise and laugh. Leo basically just followed him around screaming and laughing along with him. It was so funny that one of the times I hid, I grabbed the camera to capture the moment...WORTH IT!

A Simple Christmas Tradition

My earliest memories of Christmas are very simple. One thing my parents were always great at was creating memories with us that didn't actually cost a lot of money. We would watch the rainstorms from our garage, play board games, take walks together (rain or shine), and from Thanksgiving to sometime in January we would all hop in the car and drive around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music.

My kids love the lights, whether their on our tree or the house across the street, so we've carried on this tradition. It's such a simple and creative way to entertain the kids for an hour or two without spending any money - unless you decide to treat yourself to a latte like I often do! :)