2013: Spring Break Opportunities

March 26, 2013 by Tracy

Photograph Credit: iClipart

An early Easter means an early spring break this year. The air is still chilly, but there are still lots of options for a fun-filled spring break.

Whether spring break is upon you or coming very quickly, the following list contains our favorite spring break opportunities:

Inexpensive Outings

Chuck E. Cheese: We eat before arriving and use a coupon to purchase tokens where each child gets between 15-20 tokens. We play the arcade games, and then save the remaining tokens for another day.

Zoo: Though we have an annual zoo membership, the reciprocal program gives us a 50% discount at our local zoo. (We get free admission to the zoo where we purchased the membership.) With a less than $8 fee per adult, a day at the zoo is a reasonable family outing.

Daily Deal Vouchers: Purchasing admittance into venues through daily deal sites offers 100% fun with at least a 50% discount. Without our annual memberships, we would seize more of these deals for spring break fun.

Free Outings

Park playground: Our parks and recreation department invested their resources into updating a number of playgrounds in our area. My children enjoy testing as many as possible. 😉

Play Date: Invite a friend or more to your home or park to play and build relationships.

Free Outings for Members

Jump Zone: To get the wiggles out, my children love to go bounce for a few hours. We gain free admission with our annual membership, and entrance for our friends cost around $7 per child.

Science museum: Using our annual membership for free admittance, we enjoy a day browsing and learning about the world around us.

Inside Outings

Game day: With a love for games, my children are content to remain at home playing one game after another.

Movie: Picking up a Red Box movie (use promotional code F2AMA8TG3 for a free one-day rental – valid through May 8, 2013) and snuggling in bed with a bowl of popcorn equals perfect bonding time.

Baking: Making an Easter surprise or whipping up chocolate chip cookies offers opportunities to learn while warming our home.

Easter crafts: Coloring eggs, creating Resurrection eggs, making cards, painting, an egg hunt, or any other Easter activity or tradition makes memories.

With so many options, we might need a two-week spring break. Oh, won’t that be nice – although, I might not want to return to our normal school routine. Knowing that our fourth quarter starts the week we return shows us the light at the end of the tunnel. Only two more months of school until we get summer break. This year, I need that vacation more than my children. 🙂

In using time wisely with your children, nieces, nephews, cousins, and grandchildren enjoy an activity or outing with a little planning and a day of fun. Happy spring break!

Question: What are your plans for spring break?

Mother’s Day FREEbies – May 12, 2013

May 7, 2013 by Tracy

Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

Bombarded by opinions on Facebook surrounding Mother’s Day, I disagree with many individuals regarding their disapproval of setting aside a special day to celebrate motherhood.

Yes, we have a holiday for everything, but that doesn’t mean you have to celebrate every holiday or special event. Agreeing that I prefer not to be the center of attention, I do like the special treatment naturally presented on Mother’s Day.

I appreciate my mom and I express my gratitude to her often, but I join others in celebrating the special moms in my life and making them feel special this Sunday, May 12, 2013.

Celebrating being one of the girls, I like the community of Mother’s Day because we are not alone as we raise and invest in the lives of our children.

To honor the special moms in your life, celebrate with these Mother’s Day FREEbies:

FREE Mother’s Day Card

I love giving and receiving photo cards. At Treat.com, you can create your own FREE Mother’s Day photo card. Use promotional code MDAYFREE at checkout for a limited time.

FREE Mother’s Day Collage

Walgreens is offering a FREE 8×10 collage through Saturday, May 11 when you use promotional code COLLAGE4YOU at checkout and pickup in the store. To add more pictures to your collage, just select your uploaded pictures from an album. The collage will adjust to fit your selections.

FREE Mother’s Day Coupons

Mommy’s little helper can offer services via coupons. Kayla at Somewhat Simple posted FREE instructions and a template for creating a coupon booklet. Though the posted instructions require some time and energy, one can just print the template and place the coupons in an envelope.

Leap Frog published a FREE printable fill-in-the-blank page about mom and FREE printable mom-redeemable coupons for children to print and give. My favorite coupon is the one FREE hug anytime.

FREE Zoo Admission

Over 60 zoos will grant FREE admission to moms on May 12, 2013. Check with your local zoo. Our local zoo will admit mom for FREE when accompanied by one or more children paying full-price admission.

FREE Dessert

O’Charley’s will give every mom a FREE slice of pie on Sunday, May 12, 2013. (Thanks, Erin!)

With a purchase of a meal or entrée, Shoney’s will give every mom a FREE slice of strawberry pie on Mother’s Day.

TCBY will honor moms on Sunday, May 12, 2013, with a FREE 6 oz. cup of frozen yogurt with the flavor and topping of their choice.

As you plan this weekend’s Mother’s Day activities, these FREEbies for mom offer options for honoring the special ladies in your life. Whether you like or dislike the holiday, value motherhood this Sunday while using time wisely. Happy Mother’s Day!

Question: Do you know of additional Mother’s Day FREEbies?

Mickey Mouse Birthday Party – Part 1 of 3

May 14, 2013 by Tracy

This year is very strange for me. Dates and holidays seem to spring up suddenly. I know they are coming and have them noted on my calendar, but I just seem to run out of time preparing for items. Finding myself grabbing a card on the way out the door or waking up a tad early to wrap a gift, I just feel out of balance.

Working around illnesses and friends’ schedules just added to the delay to my daughter’s birthday party this year. I appreciate her so much as we celebrated her birthday on the day she turned 3. Then we waited until we found a non-soccer, non-event running, and non-illness Friday evening to host my daughter’s Mickey Mouse birthday party.

Though choosing the party date ended up being more challenging than choosing the theme, we started the birthday party process with choosing the theme.

Part 1: Choosing the Theme

Long are the days when I could ask, “Do you want a princess party?,” and get an immediate, “Yes!” Now, the process must begin months in advance to weed out the list compiled during brainstorming.

Discussing the Theme

When the question was first posed to my youngest daughter, her siblings were present. Of course, they wanted to “help” choose her birthday theme to something they wanted. Let’s just say, the first session was unproductive.

The next time we discussed her birthday party, brother and sister were at school. In chatting with my daughter, she needed some choices. Going back to party ideas we have hosted for other family members, I suggested Strawberry Shortcake, princess, Mickey Mouse, or Good Night, Gorilla (party based on the book by the same title).

Choosing the Theme

As an avid Mickey Mouse Clubhouse viewer, she excitedly chose Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daisy, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto because they all get included. I was thrilled with her response as my son chose the same theme for his 3-year-old and 4-year-old parties and my oldest daughter had a Minnie and Daisy party for her 3-year-old party.

Reinforcing the Theme

Realizing that I had most of the supplies, I fed my daughter’s excitement in the weeks prior to her party by asking her which games she wanted to play, allowing her to choose the colors for her cake, and helping to remind me to look for Mickey Mouse items at the store.

By keeping her focused on the party elements, my daughter never wavered in choosing the theme for her 3-year-old birthday party. As the days approached for her party, I worked with her to prepare a party itinerary which I will share next week in Part 2. The last installment of this series will reveal the execution of that itinerary.

In using time wisely to create a special memory of my daughter’s third birthday, we started by choosing the theme. Knowing where we were going allowed us to find party favors and ideas to add to our celebration. Though I needed to start earlier this year in choosing the theme, we did decide which gave us direction to plan her Mickey Mouse birthday party. Happy theme choosing!

Question: How do you or your children get through the process of choosing the theme for a birthday party?

Mickey Mouse Birthday Party – Part 2 of 3

May 21, 2013 by Tracy

M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E! Replacing the Mouseketeers with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, magical moments are still alive in the world of Disney.

With numerous toys, multiple television episodes, books, and a video game, my children play and keep Mickey Mouse and friends popular in our house.

To celebrate turning 3, my daughter chose a Mickey Mouse birthday party. Last week, I shared the process we took choosing the theme.

As each child is different, I talk through party elements to see how interested my child gets with helping. Just thrilled with the theme and wanting her friends to come to eat cake, I decided to plan the itinerary for her this year.

Part 1: Choosing the Theme
Part 2: Planning the Itinerary

Part 2: Planning the Itinerary

Knowing how important it was to my daughter for her best friend to attend, we arranged our schedule to accommodate her friend’s family. Hosting the Mickey Mouse birthday party weeks after her actual birthday, we kept the guest list to grandparents, my daughter’s best friend’s family, and our family.

Rather than working around Saturday soccer games, we opted for a Friday evening party. With a dinner included, I chose the following tentative itinerary for my daughter’s 3-year-old Mickey Mouse birthday party:

Mickey Mouse Birthday Party Itinerary

Greeting

Welcome each guest and allow the children to play.

Activity

Allow each child to create his or her personal pizza from Papa Murphy’s and bake them.

Let the children continue to play while the pizzas bake.

Dinner

Eat pizza and salad.

Games

Pin the Ribbon on Daisy: Repeating this game from prior Mickey Mouse birthday parties we have hosted, I brought out the supplies. Based on the classic Pin the Tail on the Donkey game, I had printed a coloring page of Daisy. After coloring the picture, I laminated it and place it on the wall. Using purple ribbon, I write the names of the invitees and hang them on the wall with sticky tack. I then use a bandanna for the blindfold.

Finding Pluto’s Bones: Another repeat game for which I had the supplies was a game of hide-and-seek. I printed a sheet with bones titled with Pluto’s name, cut them out, and laminated them. Using sticky tack, we “hid” the bones around the room close to the floor. A dog dish is placed in the center of the room with participants crawling around, finding the bones, and placing them in the dog dish.

Mickey Mouse Bingo: My hubby spent lots of time creating this game for our son’s Mickey Mouse birthday party. Paul used clip art to make multiple Bingo cards with the larger pictures for the Bingo drawing. (We cut out the cards and pictures and laminated them before use.) We then place marshmallows into cups for each participant to mark their cards.

The prizes for all who participate in the games consist of the following:

Mickey Mouse ears headband

Mickey Mouse blowout

Flying discs toy

Cake

Sing, blow out the candles, and eat the cake.

Presents

Open gifts.

Goody Bags

Thank guests and give goody bags. Since we have children different ages attending, we have three different types of goody bags:

Girls – Age 3

Minnie and Daisy notebook

Mickey Mouse figurine

Girls – Age 5

Minnie Mouse notebook

Mickey Mouse coloring roll with crayons

Boys – Age 8

Mickey Mouse notebook

Mickey Mouse word search book

Play

Allow the children to play and explore until they go home.

Having hosted this birthday party three times prior to this one, I only needed to tweak and adjust the plan to fit my daughter’s personality and the flow of the party. Next week, I will post details of our executed itinerary in the third part of this series. Happy planning your next party!

Question: How do you decide how many items to include in your goody bags?

Mickey Mouse Birthday Party – Part 3 of 3

May 28, 2013 by Tracy

All the planning was complete and ready for the party to begin. Learning from past birthday parties, I did not make a big deal of the day.

We planned and talked about the games and presents and goody bags; however, I did not press her to follow the planned itinerary.

Before jumping to the results of my daughter’s 3-year-old Mickey Mouse birthday party, a few items were set into motion to make the day special.

Part 1: Choosing the Theme
Part 2: Planning the Itinerary
Part 3: Executing the Plan

Part 3: Executing the Plan

Thankfully, all the invited guests arrived. We had delayed this birthday party until all the guests could attend. Everything else could have fallen apart, and my daughter would have had a great time with her friend in attendance.

The Friday night came, and here is how the events played out:

Greeting

When the doorbell rang initially, all three of my children went running for the door. The birthday girl waited in the hallway for her grandparents to enter and dote on her.

As they began to play, my older daughter heard the doorbell the second time it rang and let in the rest of the guests. All were warmly greeted when they entered the party space. Upon seeing her friend, the birthday girl’s face lit up, and giggles ensued.

Activity

Using the Mini Murph pizza kits from Papa Murphy’s, each of the children made their own pizzas.

While the pizzas baked, the boys played a game on the 3DS consoles, the older girls watched their brothers play, and the younger girls pulled out many toys.

Dinner

Sitting at the birthday table, the girls enjoyed their pizza. The boys and adults enjoyed pizza at our dining room table. For the adults, I baked a Chicago-style stuffed pizza from Papa Murphy’s. Yum!

Games

As usual, the children finished eating first. After a little play, we began the games. Asking the birthday girl to choose the order, she decided on Finding Pluto’s Bones for the first game.

Finding Pluto’s Bones

With some of the bones hidden just for the boys, they raced each other. They were fast, and my son ended up with rug burns on his knees.

The girls enjoyed tripping over one another and helping each other find the bones. The game finished when all the bones were found, and my daughter asked to give out the Mickey Mouse ears headbands which she did.

Pin the Ribbon on Daisy

All geared up, the older children wanted to play Pin the Ribbon on Daisy. Since the birthday girl was starting to act shy, I informed all the children that the birthday girl would choose the next game. If they had a preference, then they needed to ask the birthday girl. Well, my daughter loved having all the big kids ask her, so she chose Pin the Ribbon on Daisy.

Though she did not want to play alone, we let the other children play first. Then Daddy picked up the birthday girl, and they played together which she absolutely loved. Getting a bit tired, the birthday girl allowed me to distribute the Mickey Mouse blowouts as prizes for pinning the ribbons on Daisy.

Mickey Mouse Bingo

Needing a bit of rest, we completed the games section with a few rounds of Mickey Mouse Bingo. With eating marshmallows and laughing at the pictures, all the children enjoyed matching the pictures revealed with the pictures on their bingo card.

This game was so popular that we played 2 or 3 times. The children took turns pulling cards from the pile which kept them excited about their next pull. For participating, the birthday girl distributed the flying discs which we quickly put away since we were ready for cake.

Cake

With the 3 candles lit, we sang as the birthday girl blew out her candles. Then we cut the cake and ate it.

Presents

All sugared up, we moved back into the party space to open gifts. As our daughter missed her friend’s birthday party, we started by allowing our birthday girl to give her friend the gift she picked out.

Taking the attention off of herself, she relaxed and enjoyed the giggles and thrills from her friend. Then the birthday girl opened her gifts without shyness or embarrassment. (For some reason, this part of the party seems to be difficult for my children. But with the change in giving a gift first, my daughter did just fine.)

Goody Bags

After opening her gifts, my daughter was grinning from ear to ear as she thanked each of her friends and gave them handpicked goody bags which they each adored. In fact, each of the children began to play with their items and show each other. The birthday girl spontaneously gave Daddy and Mommy hugs which was a touching moment.

Play

The remainder of the time together was spent playing, laughing, and picking up. As their friends left, my older daughter asked if we can have this party again next week to which all the children agreed. This answer confirmed that they all had a great time.

Having an itinerary and all the supplies gathered, we adjusted those plans as needed. Though we had other outfits for my children to wear to the party, none of them wanted to change. So, they wore their school uniforms and the birthday girl wore her reading shirt. The outfits were a minor detail that paled in comparison to the memories they made having a great time celebrating my daughter’s third birthday.

As you plan and host parties, try to focus on the guest of honor. By doing so at this party, all the participants had a great time and wanted a repeat. Wishing you success with your next event as you adjust your plans to accommodate the guest of honor. Happy planning!

Question: What have you let go from the ideal plan that had a great result?

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