Category Archives: Home: Family Activities

Mar 27 2012

Tiki Party Decorations

The kids wanted to throw their daddy a “Tiki Party” for his birthday. We already have a lot of tropical decorations, so that was easy, but to make it more “tiki” we made our own funny tiki heads.

This was a fun craft project for the kids. I let them get creative with colored pencils and crayons.  It added an extra festive touch to the party!

Here’s how to do it:

1. Gather up some cardboard boxes, empty cereal boxes, shirt boxes. Take them apart along the seam (flatten out) and cut apart into rectangular shapes.

 

Large cereal boxes work well.

2. Do a Google image search on “tiki faces” to get some ideas. Draw the basic face shapes on the cardboard.

 

You can make them jolly or menacing!

3. Color in with crayons, markers or paint. Cut out shapes and place on walls with tape (use blue painters tape to prevent damage to painted surfaces).

The kids had fun helping to color them in.

4. Listen to your kids sing “Welcome to Squidward’s Tiki Land” (from Spongebob) as they help you hang them up!

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Mar 7 2012

The Next Generation of Gardeners

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One of the fun things I do with the kids is letting them help me garden.  They LOVE playing in the soil and watering the plants.  It’s a great hands-on activity for them and I get to share my knowledge of plants. See, that agriculture degree is coming in handy even when I’m not employed.

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Oct 7 2011

Time To Buy Gilroy Gardens Season Pass for 2012

Do you love Gilroy Gardens? We sure do.  It’s not too far from our home (a little more than an hour) and is perfectly suited to young children.  My kids are 3 and 4½ right now and they think it’s the greatest thing EVER!

If you are not sure about it, consider this: The entertainment is aimed at the 12 and under crowd, so you are not bombarded by teenagers and young adults the way you would be at other theme parks.  It’s a small park, but has plenty to do and see for small kids.  We generally can only do about three hours per trip before the kids get tired, and we never make it to all the rides.  The park has a botanical theme and is filled with lovely gardens. It is kept clean and the staff is friendly.

Season passes may seem a little expensive, but we get a lot of value out of them. The dollars and cents of it all:For $70 perperson, we get admission all year-long, free parking (normally $10 per car) and 20% off concessions in the park.

We also get admission to the Holiday Lights event during Christmas break.  The decorate the park in lights and Christmas decor and have a Santa available for the kids to meet.  It’s a very different experience being there at night, and makes it even more magical.

For a family of four the Season Pass cost is $280.  Yes, that’s a lot of money for most of us, so let’s break it down.

  • Regular admission (per day) is $30, which is $120 total for the family of four. That’s the advanced ticket price when purchased online. At the door is even more, at $35 for kids and $45 for adults.
  • Regular parking is $10 per day.
  • If you go to the park 3 times in a year, the cost at the gate is $390 ($360 for admission, $30 for parking).
  • Pay separate admission if you want to go to Holiday Lights
  • To top it all off, the Season Pass is 100% TAX DEDUCTIBLE!  The park is a 503(c) non-profit organization, so your membership is fully tax-deductible.
To me, it’s an absolute no-brainer.  You only need to go three times to save money over the gate price. This year we’ve been five times, including last year’s Holiday Lights.  I’m definitely willing to pay the $280 for an entire year of fun.  There is nothing like Disneyland, but this place is a fraction of the cost and travel time!

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Sep 15 2011

Fall Activity: Leaves Nature Walk and Craft

It was a beautiful autumn morning so I thought it best to get the kids outside early for a walk. We strolled around the neighborhood with a gallon size zip-lock bag collecting fallen leaves.  We have a nice variety of trees and shrubs in the neighborhood, so we quickly filled our bag with green, red, yellow and orange leaves.

A few varieties in our neighborhood:

  • Sycamore
  • Ornamental Plum (purple plum)
  • Ornamental Pear
  • Liquidambar (Sweet Gum or Red Gum)
  • Poplar
  • Podocarpus (Fern Pine)
  • Honeysuckle

We came back and got out the construction paper and white glue. I had a few popsicle sticks in my junk drawer for the kids to spread the glue.

Audrey is ready to get crafty.

Literally seconds after I took this he tried to poke himself in the eye with the scissors.

Of course, it was not a picture-perfect mommy craft day.  Sean insisted on using his scissors to cut up the construction paper.  He immediately opened the scissors up as far as they go and then brought them up to his eye. I think he barely touched his eyelid with one of the points, but that was it for me, NO MORE SCISSORS FOR YOU, MISTER! Then he  had a tantrum when I refused make him some cut-out Angry Birds shapes.  So Audrey and I did our craft while Sean sat in time-out for a while.  Yessiree, a lovely fall morning, almost. Here is our finished craft:

One is by Audrey, and one is mine. Bet you can't tell which is which. Oh, did the huge globs of white glue give it away? Darn.

 

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Sep 9 2011

New Uses For Duct Tape

I was scanning my Facebook news feed tonight when I came across a post from Pioneer Woman.  It was about using duct tape to make crafts.  I’d never heard of this before, so I clicked over to her article to check it out.  Her daughter is decorating pencils with duct tape and it creates a little flower at the eraser end.  How cute!

If you hadn’t noticed, duct tape now comes in  an array of colors. Duck Tape brand in particular boasts over 20 colors and patterns including tie-dye, sports logos and zebra.  It also comes in sheets which would be great for crafting. People are using the tape to make crafts like wallets, purses and even shoes.  Who knew?

Then I saw a promotion they were running: Duck Tape prom dresses.  They have a contest called “Stuck at Prom” where high-school kids make their prom outfits out of the tape.  You have to see these creations.  Many took more than 50 rolls of tape and over 100 hours to create. The winners receive$5000 scholarship money, which is awesome.

They also have a Halloween promotion, “Stick or Treat” where contestants decorate a pumpkin (real or artificial) to win cash prizes.  Decorating pumpkins is right up my ally. I’ve always been artistic, but I rarely have the time to do anything crafts or artsy these days.  I’m actually considering entering.  Even if I don’t win it will be a lot of fun to make and using an artificial pumpkin I will be able to keep it for future years.

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