Movie Night

Last Thursday, Isa wanted to "buy" her movie night with popcorn. I agreed, so after dinner, we packed Teo into the stroller, walked to Walmart (see, I'm serious about this walking stuff), and she picked out a movie from Redbox, which she has named Bluebox since it's blue.

We returned home with Gnomeo and Juliet in the basket of the stroller and with Isa too tired to walk, so I pushed both of them home.

Once home, I parked momentarily in front of the A/C to dry my sweaty body cool off and popped a bag of popcorn while Isa got the movie started. I pulled the recliners together so Jose and I could be side by side, and the kids crawled into our laps. About a quarter of the way into the movie, Jose was snoring. About halfway through the movie, Isa decided to lay down on the floor. About ten minutes later, she moved to the couch. Immediately after, she was asleep too. So, Teo and I stuck it out and watched the entire movie, then they headed to bed.

It was nice. I honestly don't remember a time when we stopped what we were doing here at home, put down the laptop and the cell phones, pulled together and spent time with one another. It was awesome!

I am loving the "No Bummer Summer" concept. And it has helped (slightly) with her attitude and mouthy ways. We'll keep working at it. What's your favorite family together time activity?

Sock Monsters.

One of the items on Isa's "No Bummer Summer" list was to make sock puppets.

So, we chose to make them last Wednesday.

We also were blessed with guests: 

My bff, Jamie, and my sister, Jillian, joined us in the sock puppet making.

Teo and Jose even joined in, momentarily.

Here Teo shows me how the buttons are eyes...

And here is my beautiful sissy, working on one of her puppets. 

Jamie taught Isa the dangers of squiggly scissors. 

And here's Teo's completed puppet... 

Jose made puppets too, but he didn't use a hot glue gun at all.

He just doodled. (He's so handsome though!) 

Isa drew on a sock for her puppet too.

She glued hair and stuff on though, so she is still more creative than her daddy... 

Ahhh! These two sock puppets, who were lovingly named after family members, were on attack. 

And they. kept. kissing. me! 

Isa's princess puppet gets to know Teo's puppet, who has been determined to be a prince. 

Here's one of Jose's creations... 

Jamie and Piggy Princess pose for a photo op.

(Sorry for the sweaty Jamie...did I mention that we don't have central air?) 

Here's Piggy Princess' close up. 

And my sister made a dancer from Vegas... 

This was my table during the festivities.

We are not organized crafters! 

This is Baby.

She's a baby puppet, in case you didn't realize... 

Here Jill attempts to match the facial expression as the puppet... 

And the award for coolest hair goes to this guy... 

It was super fun and I strongly encourage anyone to save their matchless socks

and spend a day making sock puppets!

Isa is already asking when we can do it again.

She has found a home for all of her puppets and is wanting me to create a stage of some type for them.

It was so cool...

No Bummer Summer!

First, let me apologize for the mental breakdown this weekend. Combine stress with PMS and that's the result.

And when you combine kids that are misbehaving and extra hyper, that was basically my day today.

So, by this evening, I was reminded of some blogs that I love and their summer lists/projects/crafts. So, I took that and gave it a twist. And we created Isa's Summer Bucket List...which has been named the No Bummer Summer list.



Many of these items, as you can see have a price attached to them. These are the costs that Isa has to pay in, what she has acutely named, "Mom Bucks." We have a second document that has the process to earn (or lose) money.

There is always the addition that needs to be remembered that Mom and Dad can add payment or fines at any time. For example, I was running around crazy this evening and told her that she would earn a dollar if she helped me find something I needed to leave. She found it. And she earned a dollar.

The dollars are actual tangible slips of paper. The one dollar bill has a cartoon of her mama on it. The five dollar bill has a cartoon of her dad.

I fully intend to make her a "wallet" out of duct tape. Hehe. But until then, she has found a metal pencil holder that I used to have on a desk somewhere to hold her dollars. Today, since implementing this project, she has earned $14. She also lost $2 for being mouthy. Overall though, it shows great potential. She had better dinner behavior than we have seen in months. She helped clear the table and do dishes. She helped clean up the living room and throw laundry downstairs. It will also be a great way to keep her working on her math skills throughout the summer.

Do you have any type of system in place like this at your home? What have you found that works? What doesn't work? What do we need to be careful of?