Chuck E Cheese

On Saturday, can you believe I let the kids talk me into going to Chuck E. Cheese on a Saturday? Well, I did. Yes, it was loud. Yes, it was crowded. Yes, it was fun too.

After lunch I took the three kids to visit the big mouse. We all had a great time. We really like playing these video games in which some are competitive and some are cooperative. Most are fun.

The only problem we had was another kid stole Alex's tickets off of a game while he was still playing! What nerve! I told Alex that all he could do was tell an employee what happened. Alex did and to his surprise the employee gave Alex a whole bunch of tickets to replace the few stolen ones.

Frank joined us there after he was done with the church's outreach.

Marie-Anne

Grand Opening of the Lego Store

Alex was beyond excited to attend the Grand Opening of the Lego Store. As part of the ceremony the kids got to help a Master Builder build an 8 foot tall R2D2.

As you know, Alex wants to be a Lego Designer when he grows up. So for him to meet a Master Builder was meeting a hero. (This is the scale model of the R2D2 they worked on.)

The store was almost as fun. Sabrina and Chrissy built a tower that was taller than one of the workers.

Alex got to build his own minifigs and he let Sabrina build one too.

Marie-Anne

Lego Club at the library

Alex was thrilled to be part of the Lego Club at the library. It was a whole room filled with kids who love Lego just as much, or almost as much, as Alex! The free club meets monthly, but we have to sign up in advance. Not only that, but Alex got free Lego bricks to take home!

Sabrina, Chrissy, Frank, and I waited in the children's section of the library while Alex was in the club meeting. If I knew in advance that Chrissy would be with us I would have signed her up too.

Marie-Anne

Grapevine Springs Park

I babysat Chrissy this past week. The kids wanted to take her to Grapevine Springs Park. While we were there our friends who originally took the kids there came. The kids really enjoy this park and want to go almost every day.

Alex and Angel had fun teasing the girls.

Marie-Anne

Grapevine Springs Park

 

We took the Park Challenge and took the kids to the park they visited with our friends. The kids kept going on and on about what a great  and awesome park it is. They are right it is a great park. They particularly like the two story playground and

When visiting a new place don't rely on directions from kids who have only been there once. Not only were their directions wrong, but so was the name of the park! Good thing we had technology to help us find the nearest park.

Marie-Anne

Barnes and Noble storytime

The kids really enjoy going to Barnes and Noble for story-time. We try to go almost every week.

Marie-Anne

Easter

The kids were very excited about Easter. They each got some toys and Christian DVDs in their baskets. We also had a small egg hunt in our house before church. The eggs were filled with small toys that I knew they would like and some had money.

They also got new church clothes- aren't they adorable!?!

I still teach the younger kids' Sunday School class. I got a stuffed animal and a copy of the Beginner's Bible- The Very First Easter for all of the younger kids, not just those in my class. We had so many visitors with little kids that I ran out.

Following the evening service, we had a potluck and the kids had an egg hunt. They had a lot of fun.

In the weeks leading up to Easter we read lots of Children's Bible Stories about Easter and watched a few kids' Christian Easter movies. We watched The Passion of the Christ on Good Friday. We also got to take part in the Lord's Supper during the morning service. I am trying to work out ways to keep Easter fun for kids, but also meaningful as a Christian family.

Marie-Anne

Veteran's Memorial Park

On family day we had a picnic at Veteran's Memorial Park in Boulder City.

The kids had a lot of fun playing with the other kids there.

Marie-Anne

Railroad Tunnel Trail at Lake Mead

For family day we hiked the Railroad Tunnel at Lake Mead. The Railroad Tunnel Trail has a lovely view. It was a bit hot and we should have brought more water with us, but we still had a good time. It was fun to listen to the bats in the tunnel and try to locate them. It was too dark in there to see them, but it was fun trying to pinpoint their location.

It was free National Park Weekend so it was more crowded than we've ever seen it. We planned on having a picnic at Lake Mead, but we changed our minds because of the crowds. We went to a park for our picnic.

Marie-Anne

Stephanie Lynn Craig Park

Several times recently we have met up with some other SAH (Stay-At-Home) moms from church. Although they bring their younger kids it is more for us moms than for the kids. Both of the other ladies have two year olds and the one has older kids who are in school.

During spring break we met at Stephanie Lynn Craig Park. I was a bit surprised that the older kids didn't really play together. They still had a good time though.

Marie-Anne

Baking With kids

Several times lately Sabrina has helped me make cookies or cupcakes. Alex also enjoys helping sometimes. It is a good bonding time and helps them learn important skills at the same time.

Marie-Anne

Neighborhood friends

The one thing I miss about our old neighborhood is all the kids Alex and Sabrina had to play with. Most of the boys Alex's age here are more into sports than he is. We still haven't met any little girls in our new neighborhood. We sometimes let the kids bring some of their toys out to entice the other kids into playing with them. It works!

Marie-Anne

Foxtrot Park

After we left Mountain View Park we stopped at KFC then had a picnic at another park! Sabrina especially likes picnics and it is such a fun and easy way to make her happy.

Of course, the kids also got in some more play time. I am so glad that we have so many nice parks around here. It's cheap family fun that's healthy too.

Marie-Anne

Mountain View Park

A couple of weeks ago we took the Park Challenge. We visited Mountain View Park. It is a nice park that is connected to a baseball field. Both kids really liked the rock climbing wall. The kids had a good time while Frank and I walked.

They also brought their scooters.

Marie-Anne

Date

Frank and I trade off babysitting with another couple. It works great because the kids also get a playdate. The kids got to visit a playground near our friends' house. We got to go for a walk and then out to eat.

Marie-Anne

Barnes and Noble Storytime

Sabrina loves going to story-time at Barnes and Noble. She also loves having her coloring pages hung up on the wall there.

Marie-Anne

Arroyo Grande Sports Complex- Park

We had family day after Alex's class. We planned on going on a hike, but that didn't work out so we made up plan B as we went along. Plan B was to hit several parks we haven't been to in a long time and a new park.

Our third park was Arroyo Grande Sports Complex. This is a park that I didn't even know existed that is only about a mile from our house, in a way I had never taken. This is an unusual park. The play ground looked like the tunnels a hamster uses- the kids were even claiming to be hamsters. It also has a dirt bike trail, basketball courts, horseshoe pit, baseball diamond... It is pretty big.

Alex rode his scooter on the trail because his scooter just happened to be in the car.

We were actually looking for another park, but we couldn't remember where it is. So as I was saying we could stop at the next park; we saw this one. We will be going back to this park.

Marie-Anne