Mom, I'm bored...

I have lots of children. They have lots of toys. 

They still get bored. 

So every once in a while I whip out some stale cereal and pasta and set them to work. 

Yes, that is my son doing yoga on the wall. 

Painting is optional and probably best for the 5 and up crowd. Assuming, of course, that they're doing this so you can get something else done. Like laundry, or schoolwork. 

Or Facebook. 

Whatever. 

TV Picks for Preschoolers

Recently I posted on how TV effects kids and why they shouldn't watch it. Just in case you need a more authoritative figure to tell you about TV and kids, here's one and here's another.  Now I'm going to break my own rule and tell you the shows we watch regularly.

Yep, we watch TV. I see it the way I see dessert - a nice treat on occasion. (A caveat - I would never feed my kids rat poison, no matter how much they wanted it. I feel the same about certain television programs)

Sometimes (especially in summer) it really is fun to curl up on the couch together and veg for a while. And there truly are some gems out there - shows that encourage good character and are simply fun. Here are our favorites for the preschool crew:

Charlie and Lola. These are also a book series. Charlie is big brother to a charmingly pesky sister, Lola. Her antics are frustrating but not malicious and he is a model big brother, exhibiting patience, understanding and self control. Family values are spotlighted but not in a saccharin way - the two get into some very real disagreements that kids relate to. 

Peep and the Big Wide World. I love Peep! She and her friends Chirp and Quack wander their world making discoveries. This science-based series is entertaining and educational, and includes videos of real kids testing out the 'discoveries' the animated characters have made. Bonus - Joan Cusack narrates and the theme song is super catchy. 

The Original Thomas the Train. Based on the books by Rev. Awdry, Thomas and his friends help each other, striving to be 'really useful'. The stories manage to teach morals without being obvious about it. The original series was done with absolutely beautiful miniatures; newer ones are computer animated and don't have quite the same gentle tone, but are still good.  

Little Bill. How can you not love a show by Bill Cosby? Brightly colored "paper" animation, engaging characters and relatable plotlines engage kids. The parents are wise and kind, and Alice the Great is the perfect grandmother. Even the older siblings get along well and enjoy being with their baby brother. Lovely. 

Little Bear. Delightful characters, delightful drawings, delightful music. This program is just delightful. It's a good one for just before naps, and it's best for the youngest crowd.

A little later I'll share our favorites for the older elementary kids. I don't, however, have teenagers and I'm wondering if anyone could recommend some good shows for that age group?

A Year of Fun at the Happiest Place on Earth

Yes, you heard right. I caved.

I turned my back on all my frugal, crunchy-granola, classical-educating ways.

I bought Disneyland annual passes.

I have lots of excuses, don't you worry. And yes, I do feel the need to justify my purchase. After all, spending that kind of money on entertainment goes against just about every principle I hold dear. You might remember this post, in which I explained exactly why I did not want annual passes to the happiest place on earth. But then...

1. The Amazing Husband really wanted some. And it was his birthday. His 30th birthday. And people do crazy things for love, kids.

2. You only live once. And we're only getting these passes once. One year of Disneyana and then it's back to real life. I realized when we left Vegas that we never really know the plans God has for us. I'd hate to end up leaving here after a few years of thinking we'd be here forever and regret not going.

3. They didn't end up costing as much as I thought. I mean, they did cost a lot. I nearly hyperventilated when I hit "Buy Tickets". BUT. Annual passes including parking ended up costing us less than we would have spent to come for a long weekend. (We bought the cheap ones.) So this year, instead of a family vacation, we're doing Disney.

3a. We were able to pay cash. I note this because everyone I talked to around here about it said, "Hey, don't worry about the cost because you can make payments!" Now I really like these folks, but no way am I buying Disney passes on credit. We happen to believe that if you don't have the money for something, you can't afford it. If you can afford the payment you should save that money until you have it all. The only exceptions to the cash only rule are houses and medical bills. And maybe cars but there would have to be some extenuating circumstances to that one. Which is why we still drive our old blue van.

Anyway. We bought our passes last weekend and spent the whole day Monday, then we went after school on Thursday. And it has been a real blast. It's nice to go not worrying about getting it all done. It's relaxing. The kids love it. And next time we go we'll have paid for the passes.

So that's my confession for the week.

Going Green: Crafting Something Green

Let's face it, I'm pretty lame when it comes to arts and crafts. I like to do them, I just have no talent. So I left the green craftiness to Leslea, who pulled off this stunning number.

Materials:

One old white t-shirt.
A few bottles of green paint. One of these was fabric paint, the other was acrylic. Whatever.

Directions:

Let loose with your inner fashion designer.

Happy Very Late St. Patrick's Day!

Halloween

Well, it's that time of year again. Lights are up on houses, everyone is preparing for parties, excitement is in the air...

No, it isn't the birth of our Savior I'm referring to, it's Halloween!

Halloween is a pretty big deal in my neighborhood. I mean it when I say people put lights up on their houses. A good third of the houses in my neighborhood are decorated for the holiday, complete with skeletons, cackling witches and smoke machines. So, as a Christian, what do we do?

We celebrate, that's what.

I know Christians aren't supposed to celebrate Halloween. Years ago when I was a children's pastor I read up on the subject and those who say we shouldn't do Halloween have some very valid points. So why do we choose to participate in such a blatantly pagan holiday?

The very first command in the Bible is to love God, but the second is like it; love your neighbor. Get your neighbor into Heaven if at all possible - everything else is secondary. Avoiding traditions with shady pasts isn't even in the top ten. And my neighbors love Halloween.

I could make a stand and refuse to participate. I could hand out tracts instead of candy. I could tell people about the devil worshipping roots of the day. But none of those things would win a single one of my friends and neighbors to Christ. In fact I'd probably completely alienate them if I did those things. So we enjoy the parts of the holiday the rest of my neighborhood enjoys. We eat candy, dress up, go on hay rides and jump in the bouncy house at the block party. We get to know our neighbors and they get to know us. We build relationship, and relationship is the key to introducing them to the Jesus I know they'd love if they got to know Him.

Practically speaking, here's what we do for Halloween:

* We do dress up, but we don't allow our kids to be witches, demons, mummies, bloody ax murderers or anything else blatantly evil or scary. This year they are a soldier girl, Darth Vader (ok, maybe he's evil), a princess and a giraffe.

* We do carve a pumpkin (in a happy face) but we don't decorate the house.

* We do our neighborhood block party and our church's party. We don't do haunted houses.

* We don't make a big deal out of it. We don't tell our kids it's evil, although I did have a discussion with my oldest this year about how it got started (she asked). We also don't get our kids hyped up about it, the way we talk about Christmas or Easter. It's got the same 'excitement scale' ranking of a friend's birthday party.

So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go hand out candy to the neighborhood kids. For Jesus.

The Home Economist and Family Friday

I've decided I need a new title. "Stay at home mom" just sounds so... lame. Like all I do is stay at home, changing diapers and wiping noses and cooking and cleaning. Of course, that is what I do, but we don't need to be so blatant about it. So I'm making a change. I'm going to be a "home economist".

Doesn't that sound nice?

I stole the idea, actually, from another blog, but I like it so much I think I'll keep it. After all, running a home is no easy task. "Home economist" makes me sound smart and important.

One of my first tasks as Home Economist has been to start the tradition of Family Friday. (Another lovely title, yes?) Family Friday is the day (Friday, to be specific) on which the family does no schoolwork, housework, or workwork and instead spends the day blissfully enjoying one another's company.

There are several challenges to this. The first being that withoug housework, even for a day, we might lose something important under piles of laundry and dishes. Like the keys, or a child. So we must do as little housework as possible so that the house remains uncondemned and we feel like we have the day off. Scratch that, everybody else already feels like they have the day off. It's just me who needs to feel it.

The second is the issue of bliss. We like each other, we really do, but an entire day without quarrelling children? We'll see.

The third is the expense. I'm pretty sure we could all be happy eating ice cream at Disney on Family Friday, but that ain't gonna happen, folks. So my goal is to do Family Friday as cheaply as possible. I'll let you know how it goes.

Here are some pictures of this past week's Family Friday. We used some free passes the kids had earned in the summer reading program at the library as well as our local discount to get everyone into Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef for $27.

See what I mean about the bliss part? For the record, Alese had a great time. I think she was upset about leaving. (This was taken as we exited.)

Leslea at the ray tank. They got to touch them. They're very soft and slimy. Like underwater Jello.

They gave us remote controls to listen to at each exhibit. Owain was really into them.

These are some of the fish we saw. I let Leslea and Owain use my phone to take photos, so I've got about 200 shots of water with blurry shapes, and these two of fish.

Shark Reef was amazing, a really spectacular exhibit with alligators, piranhas, fresh and saltwater fish, stingrays, jelly fish, and of course, sharks. We had a great time and it took us about 2 hours to go through it. I'm not sure I would pay full price (it would have been $71 for all of us), but it was pretty awesome.

I love hating television.

This really isn't as fun without pictures, but until I either get my phone fixed or find the cord to my camera, there will be no pics. :(

Westyn went in for his 4 week check yesterday and tipped the scales at 6lbs 7 oz! All the other kids got weighed as well. Judah is 25 lbs, Alese is 34, Owain 45 and Leslea 46. I told Leslea she'd better start eating more, but it looks like they all need some protein shakes or something.

The last two days I pulled the plug on our TV. I had gotten really tired of it being on 5 or 6 hours a day since Westyn was born. Can I just say that I love not having the TV on? Since I said no more screen time the girls drew a bunch of pictures and opened an art gallery in the pool room, Owain caught ants in a jar in the yard, we played with Unifix cubes and Tangrams, put up posters in the school room, cleaned out the craft closet and made mini pizzas. Amazing how the kids can get along when there isn't the distraction of the box. And when we did watch an hour of TV (Wipeout!) we really enjoyed it since it was something we really wanted to see, as opposed to searching for a decent program to numb our minds to. I'm moving back to 1850. Only with toilets. And A/C. And Starbucks.

Keeping busy

Now that Westyn is home we can't do much outside, and since school is out for the summer (!) we're getting a little bored. I've been trying to come up with things to do for the kids. On Friday, Alese, Judah, Westyn and I checked out the new Gibson library. Our good friends the Westerfields took Justyn, Leslea and Owain out on Lake Mead on their boat. (Pics of that to come) So here are the kids at the library. There were books there, too. Promise.

Yesterday was a full day, too. We set up the slip and slide then hit In N Out for lunch, the (usual) library and Golden Spoon. I would have pictures of that too, but Judah dropped my iphone in my glass of water and it's in a coma right now.