Wordless Wednesday: Up the Creek

It's creek-wading season!  Luckily we have one within a few blocks of our house.  And my two water bugs couldn't be happier.

{this moment}

Soren and his friend playing on the pirate ship at a local farm and ice creamery.  Fun times!

I'm linking up to Soule Mama's this moment today.  Happy weekend!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Currently Enjoying

So that risk from February in the garden paid off. We've been enjoying fresh greens and radishes for over a week now.

I made a fantastic spinach and pea soup for dinner tonight

Simple recipe: saute onion and garlic, add stock, a potato and boil. Then add a bag of frozen peas and any garden greens you have. Puree when the peas have just cooked.

and there are plans for salad, salad and more salad tomorrow.

We have quite a few volunteer tomatoes and cilantro plants coming up, as well as peas, carrots and arugula.  I'm hoping to get some peppers and larger tomato plants in the ground this weekend.  I can hardly believe it's garden-time!  I meant to get some photos, especially of the potato bin that Chris built.  Here's a pic from Easter Sunday to suffice.

It's an ugly thing, but apparently one can grow 100 lbs of potatoes in it.  Find the instructions here.

So how does YOUR garden grow?

Opening Day at Sesame Place

This weekend is the kick-off for another season at Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and I'm thrilled to be a blogger Ambassador again this year.

Though we can't make it for opening day, I'm eager to take my boys there throughout the season.  We MUST finally try out the water features, since last year's visits were either too cold or I was too pregnant to chase Soren around.

This season brings back favorites like the Neighborhood Street Party, Nighttime Parade, and the new "Let's Play Together" show at Abby's Paradise Theater.  I'm eager to try out the new Sesame Place app, which will allow me to access the park map and the "Take Me There" feature, showtimes, and food selections with a tap of the finger.

Enjoying the Monster Maze with Soren (while pregnant with Jude last April)

You can now find Sesame Place on Pinterest, as well as on their familiar Facebook and Twitter presences.

Look for more upcoming posts here about Sesame Place as well as some ticket giveaways.  Sunny days ahead!
Disclosure: As a Sesame Place blog ambassador, I received a complementary season pass for my family and I, which includes discounted purchases and free parking at the park.

Cafe Play

I'm thrilled that Soren has hit the stage of pretend play, as in dressing up and play-acting "real life" scenarios.  Other than the ones that involve pretending to be me ("I said No!!"), I really enjoy watching him and his friends play pretend and dress-up in costumes.

We've gotten hours of play this week from our own mini cafe, tucked into a corner of our laundry/mud room.

Over the years, I've collected various things for such a space, the table and chairs having appeared one trash-day in our alley (ah, the joys of living in town), the vintage spice tins came from Gigi's kitchen, and the kitchen was a birthday gift from a few years ago. It's gotten lots of use from boys and girls alike.

Soren and I created a special menu for the Cafe, and though the prices are a bit high, the place has been a hit right from the get-go. 

I highly recommend the Salad Stew and Sugar Spices.  Apparently, the menu is a seasonal one, and changes frequently. That in itself is a fun activity to imagine with children.

I find that the kids really like playing with real things, like ceramic cups, a fresh flower arrangement on the table, water for drinking and snacks like fruit, vegetables, and popcorn for the tiny plates.

It's a great way to get your kids to eat their veggies! Soren must have had a dozen baby carrots.

Even if you don't have all these props at home, you can still fashion some pretend kitchen items from boxes.  There are lots of options via an online search for "cardboard box kitchen".  This one from Family Fun magazine is adorable and do-able,

as is this one from Parents magazine.

The best part about our cafe--it's always open and ready for play.

Hope you're enjoying some imaginative play on this lovely Sunday.

Bringing the Aquarium Home

Last week, you might recall that we visited a local aquarium.  Naturally we had to purchase something in the gift shop, since in modern museum fashion, all exhibits exit through the gift shop.

Soren picked out some resin sea creatures, and has been playing underwater adventure over the last week.

While it's not really noteworthy, it's just proof that some of the most engaging activities are the simplest, and most involve water at least in our house!

A little food coloring helps set the mood too, if you don't mind stained towels or fingers.

These toys are now destined for the bathtub, where hopefully they'll inspire some new adventures.

Easter in Photos

We enjoyed a relaxing day with family and too much delicious food.  Hope your day was lovely too!

KidZone at Adventure Aquarium

Ever since I was a girl, I've been a fan of aquariums.  There's something about those vibrant underwater scenes paired against the dark rooms that is so magical.

My parents took my brothers and I on frequent visits to the amazing collection of aquatic life in Baltimore, and now as a parent, I'd love to make the aquarium a yearly pilgrimage with my own boys.

If you're an East Coaster like myself, you should make it a priority to visit Adventure Aquarium, just across the river from Philadelphia in Camden, New Jersey.
We visited this week along with my bestie and her kids and had an enjoyable time.  Adventure Aquarium is designed for kids of all ages, and most recently opened a new area for the 6 and under set, called KidZone.

With lots of hands-on exhibits, KidZone is a sensory experience for kids (and adults!).

From areas where children can touch starfish, shrimp, and other sea creatures,

to interactive play areas

to colorful underwater displays that appeal to young children.

I love the concept of this "bubble" that you can view the tank from below.  Really cool!

The size of Adventure Aquarium makes it easy to see everything in one day, even at a leisurely pace, including the outdoor penguin and sea lion exhibits.

I think all three kiddos liked the Sting Ray Beach area best. 

Not only could one touch actual sting rays, but there was a separate area just for little ones that included its own sandcastle water area, sting ray "beach" and access to a less-mobbed part of the sting ray pool.

My friend and I appreciated the ability to bring a packed lunch as well as the ample seating available, both indoor and out, for eating.  There is a large food court and some kiosks throughout the aquarium as well.

Adventure Aquarium is a wonderful place to visit, both to learn about sea life and to just stroll through the exhibits. Of course there are great photo ops around every corner.

And great views of neighboring Philadelphia as well.  I for one am eager to visit again.
Disclosure: I received complementary tickets to Adventure Aquarium to promote the KidZone exhibit.

Robot Birthday Party

I've spent snippets of evenings and weekends during the last few weeks getting ready for Soren's 4th birthday party, held last Sunday, and in my mind, a successful fete!

While most of our friends and relatives probably think I'm nuts putting so much time and effort into a kids' birthday party, I assure you all that I really really just enjoy creating these kinds of events.  More than one person has said that I should go into business as a party planner, and I've definitely given it some thought.  Maybe once Jude is a little older and I have more time to devote to such employment.

Rather than having our small house destroyed by a stampede of kids, we opted to have our party at a local community space.  This gave the kiddos plenty of room to spread out and run around, and also came with both and art room and a bounce house that we set up in the larger room.

Bouncing and painting certainly occupied the kids for the majority of the time.  Hopefully parents appreciated the opportunity for their children to burn off all that sugar via jumping.

My mother-in-law made this fabulous robot cake and cupcakes for the party.  It turned out so cool, and you can find out how to make it Betty Crocker (it even includes an instructional video).

Though it was a little tricky finding robot-themed items, I managed to pull it off by making some homemade stuff like the banner (which is a little hard to read here, since it kept saggin in the middle).  You can find my tutorial for a similar banner here.

Using decorative paper and cardstock, I made some cutesy signs like "battery cells" for drinks

"Cheese Ball Bearings", "Nuts and Bolts" and "Computer Chips."

I served the snacks in aluminum tins to give it more of a metal robot look. 

I found the treat bags in the dollar section of either Walmart or Target way back during the back-to-school shopping season.  They're actually reusable (the orange ones) and paper lunch bags.

 

It's great to have a theme way ahead of time so you can scout out supplies months before the event rather than scrambling to find them at the last minute.

I stuffed the goodie bags with some snacks and robot t-shirts that I had screen printed for the kids.

I like that it was something non-junky to include in the bags and that they'd definitely use instead of ending in the trash. I'll post a tutorial in the next few days.

Another fun thing I made was a cardboard robot with a cutout in the head for the kids to pose in. I used boxes, electrical tape, and other stuff we had around the house. Soren enjoyed helping me with this.

I downloaded the Pocketbooth app for the iPhone and had the kids pose, photobooth-style. Fun stuff!

I wanted to take advantage of the art room in the space, as well as my art teacher skills, so for the creative part, I found these cool paint-able ceramic robot banks online (cheap too, under 20 bucks for a dozen) and had the kids paint them. They loved it!

Soren said painting the robot was his favorite part of the party.  That melts my heart.

I bought some special paints for glass and ceramic, which should hold up well on these ceramic banks.

We had the usual birthday fare, pizza, cake and ice cream, and FOUR candles this year.

What a happy happy birthday for my robot boy!

If you'd like to use make your own banner and tags, I used the free Tombots and Homemade Robot fonts. Here are the images I designed for the food tags, which you can right click and save, then mount onto colored paper or cardstock: