Park Play 2

Hannah, Ethan, my sister Teresa and I went to the local Park Play again.  Its a program by the city to encourage coming to park and having fun.  There are games, sports, and arts and crafts going on.  It pretty casual and its open to all ages.  Best of all its free.  Here are some pictures of our afternoon (which ended up being pretty short because it was so hot out).

Hannah and Ethan playing connect 4.

Ethan, so cute.

Hannah making her craft.

Hannah watches has the helper finished Hannah's flower.

She wanted to show it to Ethan first.

Looking longingly at the Park.  (too hot to go on)

Don't forget about my giveaway, click here and scroll to the very bottom of the post. Comment so you can win.

Busy Bags and a Chance to Win.

Well I have crossed the 100 post mark. So now for a give away.  Yeah!

This magazine is a fabulous resource for finding ideas for kids.  I think it is absolutely great.  If you win I will send you a copy of the "Mailbox". Its pages and pages of ideas and things to do with your kids.  This would be great if you have kids, grand-kids, teach, or a gift for someone who does have kids.

--------------------------------------NOW CLOSED------------------------------------

Want to win?

RULES:

Entry for Giveaway:

Leave a comment below telling me what you do to entertain kids.

also: 

Additional Optional Entries:

Follow Mommy's Monkeys by email (on the side bar), and let me know you have joined up in a comment.

Blog about this giveaway, with a link the post back to me, and make sure to let me know you have done this in a comment. 

The give away will be open until midnight PST Thursday August 4th, 2011

Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry, winner will be chosen at random!

This giveaway is offered Worldwide.

I made a bunch of "busy bags" for Hannah and Ethan.  Simply put, a busy bag is a small self contained activity that I can pull out when I need to occupy them.  The driving force behind my busy bags is Family Camp, which we will be attending soon.  The kids need to be busy doing something so that I can enjoy camp.  But beyond that I can use the activities to occupy them at the doctors, or even when I'm making dinner.  So without further ado here are my busy bags:

Note:  I did my best to link where I found the idea if it was not my own.

Mini chalkboard and chalk.

Finger puppets.

Puzzles

Eye Spy bottle.  This is a bottle of rice and small object to search  and find.

Playdough and Golf Tees.

Push the Q-tips through the honey bears cap.  (Ethan and Hannah like doing this).

Glue the shapes into the shape book (Hannah loves gluing)

Brown Bear Brown Bear Story Animals.

Popsicle Stick Puzzles

Stacking Cups

Bear counters can be used to practice sorting onto the appropriate colored card. 

 (These cards are from Home Depot)

Alphabet letters, and bendy sticks.  The letters are just for playing with and practicing letter recognition.
 The bendy sticks (wikki sticks are the name brand version) stick together and you can make things with them

Hungry Caterpillar Story Shapes

Stickers and paper.

Foam Stickers and colored paper.

A magnetic book from the dollar store.

Pasta to string on to pipe cleaners.

Button Snake, practice pushing the button through the hole in the felt pieces.

How do I store all the little bags?  Well, I threw them in a tote and now I can grab it when we go out, or grab an activity at home.

How to leave a comment.

I had a few people tell me that they would like to leave comments but run into problems when they try.  The number one problem is that when you see in a g-mail account, they try to make you sign up for a blog.  Not cool.  Andrew and I looked into the problem today and could not fix it.  So if you know what the problem is let me know.  In the mean time, here is how you can comment (I love all the comments, so please do):

To leave a comment the easiest way, select Anonymous.  Then type your comment including your name (so I know who is commenting).  Then press the Publish your Comment button.  There are other ways but this the method with the least hassles.  Please comment and let me know if its working better.

Happy commenting.

Summer Time Fun

What is summer?

Summer is...

Water fights

Fun in the pool.

Cheering because your happy.

Hanging in your favorite car with the windows rolled down.

Going to a show and shine.  So everyone can appreciate your car as much as you do.

Putting your feet up when you've played yourself out.

Playing in a tent.

Relaxing together

Pouring water on yourself to cool off.

Playing outside until bedtime.

Letter E activies wrap-up.

We had lots of fun with the letter E.  Hannah has now started to request certain activities.  Warms my heart.  Today, she asked if we could chop some eggs.  Over and over she has asked to do more paper cutting.  My favorite is when she asked me the other day to make a "deduct" together.  I repeated back what she said and she got so happy.  Unfortunately I don't know what a deduct is, so I asked her a couple of times.  Finally, in a very exaggerated manner she said "Hannah and mommy make a D is for Duck".  Hahahahahaha.  This afternoon she wanted to make a bird but we made an E is for Elephant instead.

Here is what we did for E:

Explored out E box.

Hannah cut up pictures of Eggs.

Painted an Earth with water and felts.

Add caption

Chopped and pealed eggs.

Painted a cracked egg.

Did some stamping with the Tot School Printables.

Had fun with playdough and plastic eggs.

Making her elephant with movable parts.

Hannah is moving her arm like an elephant trunk.

Now on to Letter F.

Linked up to: ABC and 123, Tot School, and Link and Learn

Wordless Wednesday- Daredevil Training

Some of you may ask where is sweet Hannah?  Well, She is going through a NO CLOTHES phase and until she can keep her clothes on my photos of her just won't be posted. hehehehehe