Father's Day Championship 2011

In honor of this handsome man:

*swoon*

For Father's Day this year we had a championship competition with this bad boy of a trophy at stake:


Yeah, it is a beauty.

Whoever wins the most mini games, wins the trophy.

LEGO BINGO:
Such concentration.
And I appear to be suspicious of BBD, not sure why, but chances are, it was well founded.

Anyway,

I won!

Want your own Lego Bingo? I got it here from Big D and Me.

ZOO RACE:
When Daddy saw the commercial for this he wanted it. Badly. We watched the commercial over and over.

We each made an animal and took turns racing. The first animal to "escape the zoo", wins.


Sub par video of only the last little bit of one race:

The race I should have recorded...

Things got a little intense at the end.

That's right. Me, again.

FOOT RACE:

The best part, by far, is the warming up.

Daddy is victorious.

HORSE SHOES:
Or as it shall be known from this day forth: Shoe Horses.


Turns out I do much better with a more frisbee like approach. Wish Daddy would have let that little gem of advice drop earlier...

No matter where BBD's horse shoe landed, including the roof, he would say good naturedly, "Oh, sooo close!"

Little devil,

he won.

SWIPE:
BBD lost interest in Shoe Horses way before Daddy did. He entertained himself with the cold pool and a ball.

I threw in a butterfly net. From that a new game was born.

We played Swipe two ways. 1) how many balls can you swipe in a set amount of time and 2) how long does it take you to swipe ALL of the balls out of the pool.

Daddy won both ways.

Next year, I am thinking that we will each have our own net so things can get really spicy. The ample opportunity for elbowing will give BBD the advantage.

Heads up, I will be refining my swipe (and elbowing) skills.

PRETTY, PRETTY PRINCESS:

I am not allowed to post this picture in all of it's original glory. So you get fierce dragon glory, which is the next best thing.

VIDEO GAME:
We lit it up with Mario Party 8.

BBD won.

It was well deserved. He was definitely the most dramatic.

He is actually laughing in that second shot. Not to mislead you, there were plenty of tears too, I just didn't get a picture of that.

PIE EATING CONTEST:
This event was Daddy's idea, of the chocolate cream variety.

Hands were not allowed to touch the pie. This raised no eyebrows in our household, but I had a hard time swallowing because it gave me a case of the giggles. Not so good when you are going for speed.

I looked up while trying to breathe better to see that this girl had polished off her piece and was in the process of licking the plate clean:

That is her second piece of pie in the picture. Like a victory lap.

And somehow, her face is the least messy.


At dinnertime, BBD asked, "Can we eat like animals again?"

The score sheet:

So Daddy got to rightfully claim the trophy he had already been claiming for awhile now.


And planning for next year's competition has started.

Daddy has already asked me what games we will be playing next year. CB has appointed herself to a more active role on the planning committee. "I have lots of plans for this competition. I just shared one opinion." At last count she had 5 new activities.


While this idea was perfect for our Daddy, it was not my own. I got it here at Make and Takes.

Here Be Booby Traps

It may look like she is simply running across the lawn, but if you listen carefully you may note that she is in fact traversing some pretty complicated booby traps.

She makes it look so easy doesn't she?

This led to a more visible, tangible, extensive booby trap obstacle course:

I enjoy CB's sound effects and dramatic "Nooooooo".

I admire BBD's ability to multitask. Eating a bagel and negotiating your way through perilous booby traps = impressive.

Playtime at

Gluesticks: Summer Fun Link Party

A sappy gift

This is a gift full of elite inside jokes, so don't feel bad of you don't "get it" on a deeper, hilarious level.

But I thought the ideas could work for other people with outstanding senses of humor.


The awesomeness of the mustache pen was accomplished with hot glue, a little bit of felt and clippings of yarn.

The best suggestion box evah is made following this origami post it note boxes tutorial, cutting a teensy slit in the top, and by adding a little strip of self stick magnet on the back.

Spray Bottle Savvy

Spray bottles are better than squirt guns for water fights. Just sayin'.

They are also fun to paint with. A little liquid watercolor added to plain old water goes a long way.

PS-this is totally about the process, the paper turned out totally warped and unappealing, but they sure were fun to make.

WATER PLAY link up at NurtureStore

Mother's Day Garden Pictures

These are what we made at preschool for Mother's Day.




I love them because they are beautiful, personalized, and hit a slew of developmental skills such as dictation (when you write down your child's words to show the connection of meaning and print while showcasing how important their words are), showing appreciation, fine motor (tracing, cutting, using a dropper, gluing), and vocabulary (object and color naming, parts of a flower).

The dictations were so sweet. Here are a few of my personal favorites:

* She gives me a kiss.
* She feeds me.
* My mom gives me Spongebob, and pizza, and cake, and board games, and soda, and bubbles! Yeah! Lots of stuff!
* My mom is going to take me to...{dramatic pause} the bouncy house!
* Builds me cookies.

The stem is made by tracing the child's hand and forearm.
The petals are made by folded up coffee filters which were painted with liquid watercolors with droppers.
The children can add details such as leaves and grass by tearing or cutting scraps of paper.
Die cuts of various garden bugs and flowers were available for added embellishments and as backgrounds for the dictations about what we love about our mothers.

Story Stones

The eggs for our more traditional hunt were each filled with a hand drawn story stone. To make the pictures I used fine tip Sharpie markers. I look forward to adding to our collection over time. I already see a need for a ninja and cyclops to join the crew.


At first, CB thought the stones told one set story. She recovered quickly and was soon off and running in telling her own tale which involved the rain putting out the dragon's fire. BBD joined in with a story about a train running into a mountain.

Check out Valerie's post for her inspiring take on story stones.

Scavenger Treasure Hunt

I made a treasure map, ripped it into sections, and put each section in an egg. Each clue led to the next, with the last stop being their baskets.

I also made a duplicate map on regular paper and used color coded stickers to help me hide them in the correct order.