100 Summer Ideas To Do - Part One: Out and About

Summer is rapidly approaching, as I am sure everyone is aware!
I am notorious for having lots of ideas and never doing most of them so this year I am taking a different approach.

I am making lists on different themes and each family member will choose one idea from each list. That way we will have done a variety of activities and everyone will get a say in what we do. I have subdivided the lists into sections, that way it is easy to tell what are full day outings, and which ones the kids can do on their own when they are driving you batty!

Over the next week my plan is to share my ideas with you. Hopefully they will inspire you to try some yourself. I would also love to hear your plans and ideas for making summer memories.

Part One - Out and About
Quite simply, this section of the list is everything that requires us to leave home. Pretty broad definition, eh? LOL

1. Go to the beach.
2. Take swim lessons.
3. Hit the ocean at low tide and explore the intertidal zone.
4. Got wheels? Go for a bike, trike, or roller skate.
5. Rent or borrow a sailboat, canoe or paddleboat.
6. Go to the water slides.
7. Go to the spray park.
8. Swim in an outdoor pool.
9. Visit a new park.
10. Go for a hike.
11. Play tennis.
12. Play golf or hit balls at a driving range.
13. Go for a picnic.
14. Walk a dike.
15. Go fishing.
16. Play tourist in your hometown.
17. Go camping.
18. Pick your own berries.
19. Play a game of softball.
20. Check out a museum or art gallery.

Encouraging Right Behaviour

One of the ongoing challenges in our home and lives is how to encourage and reward right behaviour instead of just disciplining inappropriate behaviour. Ultimately we came up with a goal sheet as a way to refocus our home and help improve the general atmosphere.

We found the most important thing was to create a system that was easy to use and with a reward that the kids really wanted. For us that was computer time. Each day the kids have 6 checks they can earn, each worth 5 minutes of computer time. If they have a perfect day they earn a bonus checkmark. Also, bonus checkmarks can be earned sparingly for exceptional behaviour (and by sparingly I mean about 1 week). Any day a child earns less than 4 checkmarks they earn 0 minutes of computer time for the day as they have not met the minimal standard. The minutes earned one week become the free computer time (as opposed to computer time for school work) the next week. We have found it to be a simple and effective system that helps to encourage right living and reduces the begging for computer at the same time.

Over time the goals we use have changed, with a mixture of home and behaviour goals. The current chart represents our focus on attitude and respect, and that home and school completion are more expectations than goals.

A couple people have asked me for my chart lately so I thought I would share it with you here.

Having said that, I have found it has not been very helpful with my seven year old. It is too overwhelming for her, and she gets discouraged. Instead I have given her a blank chart and one goal - obedience the first time she is asked. When she obeys right away, including completing the task (she is highly distractible) she earns a checkmark or smiley face, depending what she feels like putting on. Once her chart is full, she will redeem it for a prize from my prize box... you know, the one I need to start by the time she finishes her chart! LOL

Magic Cake

We held Tanner's 13th birthday party this weekend. Hard to believe he's going to be a teenager already! He is totally fascinated by magic, so we did a magic theme for his birthday which, of course, necessitated making a magic cake!

Here is what we came up with and how we did it:

Sorry our picture quality is still developing. Our photography was a bit off this time as the boys decided they want to make a youtube video of this cake being decorated, and got so busy recording that they kept forgetting to take photos! I'll let you know once the video is edited and posted.

In the meantime, here are the instructions for the magic cake:
1)Base - 2 9" X 13" cakes stacked and iced with chocolate icing died black
2) The top hat is made by baking a cake in an empty tin can; we used a diced tomato can (apparently you need to make sure your can is not lined, so don't use one with a white inside). Set it aside for now.
3) For the brim of the top hat melt chocolate chips and spread them in  a circle on wax or parchment paper to form a slightly larger circle than your can. We traced a slightly larger bowl onto the paper then filled it in with chocolate. Freeze it to set.

4) Magic wand - I couldn't find plain breadsticks so I ended up using cherry Nibs. Pocky would also have worked but I couldn't find them at the time. Turns our I was in the wrong aisle! LOL Dip most of your wand in the melted chocolate and place it on the paper to set.  Put it in freezer to set completely before adding the white chocolate.

I found the wand melted when I picked it up, then melted even faster when I tried to dip it in the white chocolate, so I resorted to spooning the white chocolate onto the ends of the wands and that worked much better. Return them to the freezer.

5) Playing cards - dip tea biscuits in white chocolate then freeze them. Spread more white chocolate on the back to make a better looking and more even card surface. Return them to the freezer.

Pipe red or black icing on them to make the card faces. We used red icing and made aces and twos to keep it simple.

6) Dip mini ice cream cones in melted chocolate (we used blue) for the cups and ball trick. We couldn't find mini ice cream cones so we just cut sugar cones down to size then dipped them. For the balls we used mini gobstoppers, no prep required!

7) After assembling the cake base decorate it it with red buttercream icing to make it look like a magician's table. Tanner took the opportunity to practice his newly-acquired cake decorating skills!

8) Finally assemble the cake. I did this a few hours before the party but if I had it to do over again I would do it later. The brim of the hat softened too much (see how much nicer it looks here than in the first picture?) which made it change colour, droop, and eventually break. Also the weight of the top hat sunk that corner of the cake a bit - not badly, but not perfect.
Oh, and the bunnies were leftover Easter candy we found on clearance.

Tanner loved his party, especially the fantastic magician we had, Steve Dickson. Tanner also loved his cake, I love creating these memories for my children, and another successful party was had by all!

Let's Not Eat Lasagna After All...

I decided I should share this week's lasagna story as I am sure it will give someone a laugh!

We invited my sister over for a nice Easter dinner this weekend. We chose lasagna for an entree as she is vegetarian. Besides, it's one of our kids' favourite dishes, especially since we figured out to make two - one with regular cheese and one with goat cheese for my guys with dairy challenges! Anyways, I digress.

My sister showed up at dinner time to the sound of hubby and I arguing over the lasagna, which wasn't cooking. In fact, the sauce wasn't even made. I was cutting the first veggies as she walked in. Oops! So we threw the veggies back in the fridge and my sis took us out for a nice dinner. Thanks Sis!

Monday we tried again. Our day went haywire and at 6:30 we still hadn't started the sauce so we ate something else. Tuesday I made the sauce and left it to simmer. By dinner time it had tried to burn on the bottom of the pot several times, and was the consistency of watered down tomato juice. Not a good start to dinner. We dumped the lasagna for dinner idea AGAIN (can you hear my inflexible son ramping up at the idea of his beloved lasagna being delayed for the third time???) and poured it in the crockpot to simmer. We let it simmer all day Wednesday and it was still way too runny, and not tasting very good to boot. Michael and I had date night, so the kids ate spaghetti with some of the sauce on top, with extra sugar added to make it palatable. We doctored up the sauce some more then left it to simmer all night Wednesday and all day Thursday in the hopes of making it taste better. We got home ready to finally have lasagna for dinner, and the sauce had turned black. It was still too runny, except now it was black and tasted worse than ever.
Guess what? We still didn't have lasagna for dinner!
Tomorrow we are going to do up a fresh batch of sauce and try again. Wish me luck!

Picnic Time

The warm weather has hit, or at least hit for a couple days. This being the Wet Coast, we never know when our sunshine is going to liquefy! It is important to grab the sunny moments while we can!
Tonight we packed up all the sports gear and a picnic dinner and met Michael at a park after work.
We had a fabulous time eating in the fresh air, being eaten by killer mosquitoes, and playing and relaxing in the fresh spring air.
For those of you who don't go because it is such a hassle, I challenge you to change your tune! I read something this winter that challenged me. A mom of 11 kids (8 of whom are adopted special needs kids) wrote about how they do picnics - keep their basket and blanket packed, and if it is picnic weather, they go, just taking whatever is dinner with them.
I know for us tonight, there was whining and complaining about it being too cold, too hard, and the bike pump was broken, but once we got over the hurdle of getting there, everyone relaxed and enjoyed themselves.
And in that fresh air and family time, memories are created, and that is truly what it is all about!
My goal for this year - at least one picnic a week! (in the warmish months)

Nicolas Creates

Today we finish up our look at what the kids made for Hobby Share Day.

Last, but not least, Nicolas chose to do electrical circuits. Originally they were going to do their names, but realized how slow and finicky it is (the wires are TINY) so instead they made the Big Dipper.

Here is what it looks like in the dark:

 And here is a view of the back, although you can't see most of the little wires as it is sealed up to keep them from being bumped:

That's a wrap for this year's Hobby Share. My kids were so blessed by the parents who took time to share a bit of themselves.

Amanda Creates

Hobby Share Round 2

Amanda took the baking class. Her group was primary students and they learned to make biscuits. According to Amanda they were so easy to do as you mixed them up with your spoon, then your hand, then cut them into pieces and baked them. She was very proud as she was able to do everything by herself. Apparently most of the kids needed help measuring and stirring but she didn't, probably because she bakes a lot at home.

She actually made a lot more than are shown in the picture, but these are the only ones we were able to keep out of people's mouths long enough to take a photo of!