Disney's ABC Halloween movie line-up

We LOVE Halloween in our home and all of the autumn goodness that comes with it.  When the California weather finally decides to cooperate, nothing is better than the doors open on a cool evening, chili in the crock pot, apple candles burning, a blanket and movie to cuddle up with.

I love Disneyland at Halloween-time (heck, I love Disneyland anytime when it isn't crowded).  We have taken the kids down a few times for the Halloween party and spent our 6th anniversary there as well, where the hubby and I dressed as Mary Poppins and Bert the chimney sweep.  

When we cannot go to Disneyland, the next best thing is Disney at home.  Halloween movie nights are a tradition in my home and I love the movie line-up that ABC puts out.  They play all of your favorite Halloween movies and often have encore presentations in case you miss them.  

These are not all of the movies that will be playing.  I just focused on the night's main feature.  Go to their website to get the full line-up.  Enjoy!!!

Free Summer Fun!

Every summer to curb boredom, I pack our schedule with a variety of fun activities to keep the kids busy and entertained.  Otherwise we get one of two scenarios: 1. Kids stare at the video games or tv all day - or - 2. "Mom....there is no one around, nothing to do...can we play video games?"  My kids do not seem to have the same scope of imagination that I had as a kid.  I remember inventing this one game where we would throw these large, colorful toy coins all over my lawn and race each other to pick up the most.  Sounds thrilling, right?  Hey, at least it kept us entertained.

Well, instead of throwing things around your yard, here are a bunch of free activities you can take the kids to to keep them happy (and keep you sane!)

Home Depot offers FREE workshops that are great for kids ages 5-12 and they run the first Saturday of every month from 9 am until about noon.  These activities are first come, first serve, so make sure you arrive early to ensure your child gets a kit.  You can also register here   Kids will receive a kit, apron, and pin to show that they participated.  

Lowes also offers their Build and Grow clinics for kids on select Saturday's at 10 am.  You can see their full schedule here.  Classes are typically every other Saturday and are usually focused around a recent DreamWorks movie.  Apron and hammer are provided and the kids receive a badge for participating.   You must pre-register and parents must sign a waiver for their kids to use a hammer. 

Disney Store is hosting daily Summer Play Days from June 3-September 1st.  Each week a new button is given out for free.  Check your local store for times and details.  These fun days are for ages 3 and up.

Pottery Barn Kids is hosting a Summer Reading Challenge.  Kids can read books from their list to earn a free book.  PBK also offers Story time from 11-11:30 on Tuesdays.  Certain days are themed, like the July 1st Hero Day.  Check your local store for more information.

Learning Express offers Story time every Tuesday and Friday at 10 am.  Story time is followed by a fun craft and a snack - all for free!  Check your local store as times may vary.  

Kids Bowl Free This is something we look forward to every summer!  Register your children and they can play 2 free games each day during the summer, shoe rental not included.  

Kids Skate Free This is the same idea as the bowling, preregister your kids and let them have a great time roller skating.  This is for kids ages 12 and under, skate rental is not included, but is not expensive.  

Westfield Malls - If you are lucky to have a Westfield Mall near you, check their events schedule as they offer a host of fun activities for the family.  My local mall sets up an outdoor "theater" with free movies and snacks for purchase.  

Barnes and Noble Kids can earn a free book by logging the 8 books they have read, and returning the list to their local B&N store.  The prize?  A book!  It is the gift that keeps on giving. 

Local Library - check your local library for story times and other events.  Our's has many fun, free activities to participate in and even hosts a reading program with prizes.

Many cities also offer free movies in the park and concerts throughout the summer.  Check your city calendar to see.  Just last Saturday, I took the kids to watch "A Bug's Life" at a local park and halfway through the movie the sprinklers came on!  It definitely made for more adventure!

Check with your local zoo and museums as well and see if they are having any free days.  Places like the Exploratorium in San Francisco offer several free days throughout the year.

I am so thankful that businesses provide events and activities like these to help my boys stay busy, entertained, and learning while they are out of school.

What free or inexpensive activities does your family do during the summer months?

{365} Challenge: Create our Summer Bucket List

School is out in 4 days, well, 3 days and a couple of hours.  This year, the boys have season passes to the local water park, so hopefully that will quell some of the boredom around the house.  Inevitably though, there will be days when we just need to do something else.  

Not only do we have plans to hang out with friends to swim, bowl, skate, and play, but I have been working on my own set of plans for the kids.  We scheduled the free summer movies into our calendar, they have summer camp, we want to do a yard sale, and then there is a huge surprise party for my husband's grandpa who is turning 80 this week!  I also have a few themed movie nights in the works.  Stay tuned!

What activities are on your summer schedules?

You can catch up on my challenges here.

{365} Challenge: Try a New Activity

Today's Challenge: Try a New Activity

Part of my birthday bucket list, and partly because I am working on getting fit - I am trying to find new activities that I can attempt.

Thanks to the suggestion of my friend, Christina, I woke up early (okay, normal time, but still early in the day) and headed off to try babywearing yoga with my babywearing group.  I have done yoga, maybe twice, ever.  It's not really my thing.  Originally I thought yoga was about stretching and feeling relaxed, but a quickly learned it is about getting deep stretches that hurt and give you an amazing workout.  I am not knocking the activity or those who do it, but it was not as fun as I imagined.

Even so, I figured I would give this variation of yoga a try and see how it went.  Despite my daughter giving up after 20 minutes, I did get some great stretching and relaxation in.  Baby B was pretty good and spent the time playing in front of me.  I would say this was a win.

Babywearing yoga allows parents an opportunity to bond with their baby in a relaxing environment.  Babies are continually monitored so that they are safe and secure.  It is very important to check and recheck the carrier during the class.  In our class we were able to do warrior pose, tree, and some other stretches that I never learned the names of.  Typical me!  

If you are interested in learning more about babywearing yoga, here is a good start, thanks to Ergo. 

{365} Challenge: Learning toys for the baby

How often have we heard it said that giving a child a cardboard box would be better than the toy inside?  

There is so much truth in this.  Babies and children seem to love containers and textures and random items and engage with them with more curiosity than the electronic toys we put out for them.  Don't get me wrong, we have a few electronic baby toys that Baby B loves like her Fisher Price Vanity and Learning Table.

To help Baby B explore the world around her, we have filled her toy basket with items to allow her to learn textures, work at problem solving, build creativity, and work at hand-eye coordination.

With the weather getting warmer, we have been spending some time outdoors in the beautiful weather.  I was able to score a turtle sandbox from another mom for $10 to start off our outdoor play area for Baby B.  She really seems to love the sand and watching it go between her fingers and toes.  I will end up putting some "treasures" in the sand (plastic animals and other like items) for her to unearth and discover.

I created a sensory basket for Baby B to play with.  In it are bits of different types of ribbon, lace, felt strips, a Christmas bow (with the sticker-tag removed), bits of fabric, and a toilet paper roll that I reinforced with duct tape.  I figured this would stop her from chewing through it, and so far my idea has been successful.  She can run the ribbon through the roll and as she gets bigger, may be able to start threading the ribbon through the holes in the basket.

Providing Baby B with a variety of textured balls will also help her learn and play.  Just gather up a variety of different types, sizes, colors, etc.  I really need to find a small football!

One of the best toys I have found, was a basket of vintage wooden blocks.  These are played with more than anything else in our home right now.  They were a great thrift store find and they will be staying with my family for years to come.  I have also learned that babies who play with blocks with their parents for at least 20 minutes a day, score higher on language tests and are less likely to watch tv.  Score!

I also like taking random objects around the kitchen and letting Baby B just play.  We give her wooden spoons, cups, bowls, utensils (without sharp edges!), measuring cups, and anything else clean and lying around.  Sometimes it is fun to put a little water and ice in the bowls and cups and let her splash and play on the kitchen floor.  You can take empty Crystal Light containers, fill them with just about anything, glue the top on, and presto - instant rattle!  I used some tiny chip clips that we never use.

Surprisingly she left the animal water bowl alone

Lastly, I wanted to share our new favorite books.  The Indestructible books are amazing!  Baby B LOOOOOOVES paper and these books offer her the pleasure of crinkling and biting on them without destroying anything or getting some extra fiber in her diet.  I recently scored a few at BuyBabyDeals.com for just a few bucks each.  I have also seen them on Amazon and at Buy Buy Baby.

This post is linked up at Inspire Me Wednesday's

You can catch up on my challenges here.

{365} Challenge: Take Hubby Dinner

My husband is always asking for us to bring dinner to his work and eat together there.  For some reason, I was always skeptical if it was safe, allowed, ....clean.....

Well, Sunday night I cooked up jambalaya, made a salad, picked up drinks, packed up the kids and drove the few blocks to his work.  It was pretty windy so we went into the break room.  The boys were excited because they were able to see the "underbelly" of the trains and railroad.  I was right though, the break room was not clean.  Men.  

My husband was thrilled we came to join him and we had a nice time eating together and chatting over good food.  I am actually looking forward to doing this again.

You can catch up on my challenges here.

Regal Summer Movies

Throughout the summer, in theaters all over the country, Regal offers $1 summer movies for kids!  We have been attending this since the boys were little and are looking forward to another summer with a lineup of great choices.

When summer heat gets brutal, this is a great place to escape with the kids!  We typically arrive an hour early to ensure we get good seats.  The theater can sell out, so plan on arriving early so you aren't shut out or down in those front rows.

Movies are played on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 10 am.

Each theater plays the same pair of movies, but start times are different.  You can go here to get information for your local theater.  

Here is the list of movies they will be playing:

You can also find out what fun things are happening in the Roseville - Sacramento area this summer right here.

Bliss & Bows

In my spare time (I actually do have some, even with 3 kids, believe it or not!) I make hair accessories and bow-ties for babies and children.  

Last fall, I opened my new shop, Bliss & Bows, on Facebook.  It has been such a stress-reliever to create fun, adorable accessories for little boys and girls.  I started out by just making hairbows, but was quickly asked to supply some bow-ties for the fellas.  

Let me know what you think and please, check out my Facebook page.  The items are listed with their prices, if they are still available.  If there is something you like, but would prefer in a different color or mounted differently, let me know!  I can also do custom orders if you see something you like - and I have even made wedding garters on request.

Here are just a few of some of my creations.  Enjoy!

Sweet Strawberry clips

Mice are not the only ribbon sculptures I can do!

A pink crown clip is just right for a little princess

This beautiful piece was recently sold :)

A fun, Cupcake Pony-O

Girly grey and aqua headband

Safari Minnie Mouse headband

Satin, peacock-inspired headband

Show some patriotic spirit

a playful headband

Simple Easter Egg bow

Aqua Satin flower with rhinestone and pearl center

{365} Challenge: Frozen Movie Night

Yesterday was the DVD release of Disney's Frozen, to the delight of Disney fans everywhere.  My kids had no idea that I pre-ordered it months ago and have been eagerly awaiting its arrival in the mail.  If you have not yet ordered it, you can get it here.

Because of Baby B, we never made it to the theater to watch this new classic, so I made this movie release into a fun, themed, dinner night.

To start things off, I wanted to set the mood with the proper decor.  I found some light blue tablecloths at the dollar store to hang as bunting in our dining room.  To add to the look, I added some glittery flower-shaped bunting that kind of resembled snowflakes that I had in my party supplies.  Glitter was everywhere.

I also found some cute printables to slip into a few frames over at Paging SuperMom.

I set up the table for the boy's return from school with snacks to start the afternoon and evening off.  I even found a cute board book for Baby B.  I thought about picking up some of the figurines or dolls, but since Baby B is so young and the boys don't care about dolls - I passed on this.

I found some cute carrot "eggs" from the dollar store that I filled with some carrot-shaped chocolates.  

For drinks I put out blue Gatorade with carrot straws I also found at the dollar store.

Just like at a restaurant, I provided the boys with some table entertainment by printing out some Frozen mazes I found at Mom Endeavors.  She has a lot of great Frozen printables on her page, but my boys are old enough that the coloring pages don't catch their interest much anymore. 

For dinner I served "Troll Stone" Sandwiches (the sandwiches being a reference to the song "Love is an Open Door" and "Forest Trees."

Even Baby B joined in with dinner with some of the asparagus.  We are doing Baby-led Weaning .  I do not think she cared for asparagus.

To top it all off, for dessert I made cake pop snowmen.  This was messy to make, but fun and tasty.

I am sure most of you know how to make cake pops by now (there are tutorials all over the internet), but just in case, here is a quick run-down of how I made these.

First, bake a cake according to package directions.  After it is done and cooled, crumble it and mix it with a tub of cake frosting.  For the snowmen I did a white cake with vanilla frosting.

Form the cake mixture into balls.  I made 4 sets in three sizes to form the snowmen.  There was still a lot left over so I scooped a bunch more with a cookie scoop to make "snowballs."  Then place in the freezer on a cookie sheet for a few hours until hardened.

Once they are frozen, melt some chocolate coating (I used Bright White Candy Melts) and dip the cake balls into the melted chocolate.  Keep the cake balls that you are not working with in the freezer.  If they start to thaw, they will just fall apart in the melted chocolate.

Here is the important part to make the snowmen: as you place the cake balls on a wax-paper lined tray to set, sprinkle them with shredded coconut.  This is also the time to build your snowmen.  I found out the hard way that this is very difficult to do once the chocolate has set.  I used the cake pop sticks (cut short) to keep the three cake balls in line with each other.

For the carrot noses, I sliced up a baby carrot.  Then I took a meat thermometer (it has a sharp end) and poked holes where the nose goes and then inserted the carrot sliver.  I used frosting for the eyes.  Had I not waited for the chocolate to set, I could have inserted pretzel arms into the bodies, but I didn't want to chance breaking the snowmen by doing it after the chocolate had set.  Even armless, I still think they are cute.

After dinner we settled in for the movie.  Everyone enjoyed it and my husband was laughing loudly most of the movie.  This is definitely a Disney classic!

What is your favorite scene from Disney's Frozen?

Are you planning a Frozen movie night?  If so, what are your plans?  Share your links if you blog!