Spring Break Travel Arts + Crafts Activities!

The count down to Spring Break is on and we are over at the OOLY blog today sharing some of our favorite travel arts + crafts projects today! Easy ideas to help keep things creative wherever you're headed or just to freshen things up at home if you are staying put too. Check it out! 

Hanukkah Dreidel Decorating

The winter holiday season is one of my most favorite times of the year. I love how each year we create and celebrate all sorts of family traditions. We celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas in our home so there is a lot of celebrating! One of the kids' most favorite ways to celebrate Hanukkah is by decorating new dreidels each year. And they love to go through our collection and remember what we've done in the past. This year we decided to keep it simple and sparkly. Head over to Honest to Nod to see what we're spinning this season! 

California Day 2: San Francisco -- California Academy of Sciences + de Young Museum

Every family vacation, the kids seem to come up with one or two annoying and never-ending games or activities. In Italy, it was rocks, paper, scissors and virtual hangman. Last year in Scotland and Ireland, they added staring contests and photo bombing. On our California trip, they chose to bombard us with random Presidential trivia questions (Kane is obsessed and brought three books with him on the trip—did you know that Calvin Coolidge had a pet raccoon named Rebecca!?) and their total inability to take a normal outdoor photo because they "could not look into the sun."

Between the latter and my continuing allergy/sinus issues (I finally got my dr. to call in a prescription for me the next morning and things cleared up quickly!), I just didn't get a lot of photos on our second day. Now had they brought sunglasses as I suggested, we could have avoided ridiculous photos like the one above. But what fun would that be?! Plus, I just might make that our holiday card because it's hysterical. Nevertheless, we managed to have a great second day.

We didn't want to do a big, sit-down breakfast so we walked to nearby Fillmore Bakeshop for great coffee and delicious quiche for the kiddos. After meeting up with Uncle Steve, we headed over to Golden Gate Park for some museum time. I somehow totally overlooked the fact that the enormous music festival Badlands was going on in the park that weekend, but we stuck close to the museums and didn't have a problem. It also meant though that we didn't get to explore a ton of the park itself (including missing out on the buffalo), but again, we'll just have to go back!

Our first stop was the fabulous California Academy of Sciences (included in our CityPASS), which is an aquarium, natural history museum, and planetarium all in one. It's all topped off by an amazing living roof too. We wandered around the aquarium first and took in a diver show for a while. The kids loved the hands-on area where they got to explore local sea life too. But, we were  all still adjusting a little bit to the time change and everyone was a little cranky and hungry. So we did a quick trip through the rainforest and decided to skip the planetarium this trip. I had a feeling some chips and guac would set everyone straight, so we took a quick walk to Nopalito for lunch. It was deeeelish. Food (plus a few margs for the adults who were not battling a sinus infection) helped immensely!

The de Young Museum was on my agenda for the afternoon and we walked back through a bit of the park to get there. Our CityPASS gave us general admission, but I really wanted to see The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll. So we shelled out a little extra for that. Street signs outside the museum set up some nice parallels between important issues of the 1960s and current times. And the kids played while we waited for Aunt Leslie to meet us.

We went straight to the special exhibit and had a hilarious time trying to explain all the psychedelic art to the kids. I finally stopped beating around the bush and explained what psychedelic drugs were and how they played a role in everything they were seeing. It was a pretty funny conversation. They didn't quite get that part of it, but they did seem to understand what people were protesting about. Sadly, while we've made great strides in some things, others haven't changed all that much.

Cam loved the fashion and was into the art. Kane was a little creeped out, I think. I was all in to see the rest of the museum, but I was losing everyone else. They wanted outside, they wanted to rest, they wanted to chill. So we parted ways for a bit and went back to the hotel. A little down time plus some showers got everyone back on track and we headed over to the Presidio Social Club for dinner with Steve and Leslie. Presidio is actually a National Park (we didn't have our National Park Passports with us and I was kicking myself! I made sure to carry them with us everywhere for the rest of the trip) and a former military post. Presidio has a bunch of hiking trails and scenic overlooks (Crissy Field has amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge), but we were really there to eat. The Social Club was once part of the military barracks and has been converted into a super cute and delicious restaurant.

After dinner we strolled through the Marina district and through the Palace of Fine Arts, which is an amazing place to visit during the daytime but was beautiful lit up in the evening as well. Everyone was tired and we had hiking planned for the next day, so we called it a night!
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Easy Summer Art Activities

We're headed into that home stretch of summer: August. Sometimes I feel like the season is dragging,  but this year I feel like it's been going way too fast! Nevertheless, when August hits I always find myself in need of a few good, simple art projects that the kids can handle on their own. Head over to the OOLY blog to catch a few of our favorites! 

2017 Summer Bucket List Update #1

We're a little late with our Summer Bucket List update this year, but we've been knocking things off in a somewhat more random haphazard way this year. The weeks the kids have been home from camp or we haven't been traveling had been filled with absurdly hot weather and other extracurricular  activities, so we simply haven't had a whole lot of down time to really get at our list. Plus, now that the kids are older and more independent, it's easier to just kind of putter about. We don't seem to need our bucket list to spur our every day activities. But, we've still tackled a good number of things so far this year ....

1. Summer playlist -- the kids are killing me with our playlist on repeat. Despacito needs to die. But we can cross that off our list!

2. Unplug for a day -- ironically the kids have had a lot of technology-free days this summer as a result of losing technology privileges for what feels like constant squabbling. They currently have audiobook privileges only, but they're always hopeful.

3. Buy lots of peonies -- I got a big bunch of beautiful peonies for my birthday -- thanks fam!

4. Cook together -- the kids have really bumped up their helping around the house game this summer and have actually been helping me cook quite a bit. I think their chocolate chip cookies were insanely good.

5. Go running together -- they are both into cross-training and strength and conditioning for their various sports, so we've been running together a bit (although not so much now that it's hotter than hell in DC!).

6. New hike -- when they are home from camp, they must assist in Penny duties. So we picked up a Rock Creek Park trail map and have been discovering all new hiking trails.

7. Water balloons -- easy fill water balloons are a total game changer. We had an epic water balloon fight over July 4th.

8. Sparklers -- the kids' grandparents put together a stunning display of sparklers and fireworks for the holiday. Penny was not happy.

9. New art museum -- we LOVED our visit to Artechouse.

10. 1 new science experiment -- we had a blast using saline solution to make a whole new kind of slime last week!

11. Family olympics -- our friends returned for another epic family olympics over July 4th. This year we had a bucket-filling contest, an unwind-a-streamer race, a shaving cream head/cheetos toss, a three-legged race, and the water balloon fight. And everyone cheated.

12. Swim club cookout -- the kids love our new pool and the swim team! Every Tuesday the pool lights up the charcoal grills for you, so that's when we grill :)

13. New sewing project -- Cam has been taking sewing lessons and made a quilted pillow and is working on a backpack now.

14. 1 new service project -- the kids accompanied their grandfather on one of his Meals on Wheels deliveries and got a big kick out of helping him. I hear they were a big hit too.

15. Chase fireflies -- we had a great dinner with the kids at our friends' house and the kids spent a lot of time debating the best way to catch but not kill fireflies. They caught at least a few when they stopped talking.

Summer Workbook Fun

We haven't been crushing our Summer Bucket List in our usual fashion this year (although I promise an update next week!), but I am so proud of the fact that we've managed to make time to get a little math, reading, and writing in almost every week day. Sure, summer is about not-school, but also we really needed to be better about avoiding the seasonal slide. In any event, we're sharing our ways to make summer workbook time more fun over on the OOLY blog today -- check it out for a little colorful inspiration! 

Saltwater Taffy Slime

We've seen all kinds of recipes lately for "fluffy" slime. Mixing up mysterious compounds and potions is always really high up on our kids' fun lists. And, as I mention in Banish Boredom, I love how much we get out of sensory play -- from the making to the playing to the cleaning (everybody and everything else) up, sensory activities are always a good solid chunk of play time. Plus, I really love any activity that incorporates both science and art. Anyway ... we decided to try out a fluffy slime recipe ourselves (thanks to Little Bins for Little Hands!).

After watching the kids mix, shape, and play for the better part of a morning (including taking a break to shower up!), I decided that we'd have to call this Saltwater Taffy Slime! Watching saltwater taffy being made along the New Jersey boardwalk is one of our fave summer vacation activities and this reminded me so much of the sweet treat. And since the recipe we followed uses saline solution, the saltwater idea really stuck.

It was an incredibly messy activity, but the kids loved every single part of it. The slime we made ended up being really, really sticky for much of the mixing process. But the kids actually been bickering a lot that morning, so I got a huge kick out of them two of them being literally stuck together while they worked to make the slime. It was perfect!

They let the slime sit for a bit while they cleaned up and it got less fluffy, but also less sticky. It turned much more like flubber than slime, but they loved that too. They popped air bubbles, rolled it out, and even bounced it.

If you're in need of a good mid-summer activity, give this one a try!

XYZT: Abstract Landscapes Exhibit at ARTECHOUSE

D.C.'s art museums and galleries are among my favorite city destinations, but we've never seen something quite like ARTECHOUSE -- a new, interactive digital art gallery located just off the mall. If the gallery's first exhibit, XYZT: Abstract Landscapes, is any indication of what's to come, ARTECHOUSE's large scale interactive exhibits almost guarantee an amazing art experience for families.

DIY Ice Candles

One of my most favorite art projects is candlemaking, but my supplies have basically been stashed away since Kane was born. I was so excited to find them old enough now to start making simple candles. Head over to Honest to Nod to get the goods on these super cool Ice Candles they made! 

Kids Creative Journals

As I'm guessing you saw yesterday, we recently set up a maker area for Cam in her room. To help keep her organized and her creativity flowing, we've been encouraging to try out different methods of creative journaling. Head over to the OOLY blog to see what she's been doing! 

5 Ways to Keep the Kids Cool This Spring

We just returned from a fabulous spring break trip where every day was gorgeously sunny and 85 degrees. While D.C. weather hasn't quite hit that stride yet, the temperatures here are starting to climb, and I couldn't be happier about it. But I also know that before long the kids will start whining about it being too hot.

It happens every year. One minute everyone is complaining about winter going on for forever, and the next, the kids are claiming that it's too hot to go outside. Fortunately, I keep a running list of ways to keep the kids from overheating while entertaining themselves. Here are my five favorites.

Experiment With Cool Science

Kids are always up for science experiments, and taking a messy project outdoors is always a great way to sneak in some education. I love to add in a cool-down element to spring and summer experiments. Try making some icy goop for a lesson in physics or a potions station that includes cold water and ice to let the kids come up with their own experiments.

Set Up Simple Water Play

Put out the kiddie pool, turn on that freezing hose, and add a bunch of simple kitchen toys. I'm always amazed at how much time our kids, even now that they are older, will spend just futzing around with water. If you have a little extra time for something more complicated, try using cold water to make a giant sensory squish bag. It's worth it!

Art Outdoors

You know that I'm not mess averse, but for those of you who can't stand art exploding in your living room, use the opportunity to let kids do art outside while staying cool. We love to mix up a batch of liquid sidewalk chalk or frozen playdough. Sometimes I even roll out a big piece of paper and let the kids make a collective mural. Whatever the activity, I put them in their bathing suits and hose them down after!

"Cook" Something Cool

Our kids love to cook, and making something cool is such a fun way to spend time together. We love to make popsicles and smoothies, both of which are easy for kids to make and help keep everyone cool.

Take Indoor Cool Downtime

It sounds oxymoronic, but I always make sure to plan some downtime indoors when the weather starts to get warm. We spend the time reading together, playing a game, or just lounging around. A little bit of time in air conditioning makes everyone happier. Just make sure that you program your thermostat correctly so that the downtime doesn't overwork your air conditioner and send your energy bills skyrocketing.

Each of these takes a little bit of parental setup time, but I find that the more often we do them, our kids become more independent at seeking them out and entertaining themselves. So you just might find time for yourself to cool off, too!

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Roberts Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. Thanks for helping to support the sponsors who support us!

Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the Hirshhorn Museum

If you live anywhere near D.C. and haven't heard about the new Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum, I'm not sure what you've been doing. Hopefully not trying to make sense of the insane, daily political saga that is Washington right now. Or, if that is what you have been doing, then I highly suggest getting to Infinity Mirrors to immerse yourself in another world.

Angular Art Project

It feels like it's been forever since the kids sat down and did an art project together. But they both spent the good part of an hour working on this simple watercolor and permanent marker activity. Sometimes it's the simple things that work out the best! Head over to Honest to Nod to see how we made these pretty paintings.

The Friday Five!!

Yay for March!! I'm pretending that means it is spring. Well, at least that means spring break is closer. We have parent teacher conferences this week, so the kids had the end of the week off. It's been so nice to take family field trips and get into projects that have been on our lists for months. Months! Here's how our week went ....

Making -- I've been working on a new Maker Area in Cam's room and one of the things she has really needed is a place to keep all her designs and ideas. We just tried some creative journaling for her and she loves it! OOLY's Color Pop All-In-One Notebook and colorful gel pens have been the perfect fun supplies to get her started.

Playing -- Kane became re-obsessed with Monopoly this week. And he is crushing everyone. He seems to have a fail-safe strategy and a serious good luck streak.

Cooking -- I loved this Loaded Taco Soup! The kids and Joel seemed to wish it was thicker like a chili, so I might let it simmer for longer next time or use less cooking liquid. Either way, it was delish.

Wanting -- I finally just finished my Whole60! I am so used to eating like that now, I'm just going to keep plugging along (except for vacation). But I added back in some alcohol, dairy (cheese!!), and occasional treat. I love these Larabar Bites for a bit of sweet without a lot of added sugar.

Reading -- the next Masterminds book isn't out until next week and we are all kind of losing it about waiting! To chill everyone out, we picked another series by the same author about Hypnotist kids. It's not told from multiple viewpoints, which is one of the things we love about Masterminds, but it's a great book so far. I'm also reading I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual. I needed some comic relief and to hear another person's smart snark this week.

Multimedia Collage on Cardboard Art Project

This winter has seemed like a total time warp for some reason. And I just realized that I haven't done much from my book, Banish Boredom: Activities to Do with Kids That You'll Actually Enjoy, lately! One of my most favorite projects in the book is multimedia collage on cardboard. Collage is such an awesome open-ended art project for kids of all ages, so it's one of my go-to projects. I actually did this version at one of our book events last summer at Little Loft. In case you missed out on any of our maker workshops last summer, I've got one coming up April 9th at DC's Tenley-Friendship Library -- mark your calendars!

Northern Lights Landscape Art Project

It might have been almost 80 degrees in D.C. tomorrow, but we're still pretending it's winter a wee bit longer with our Northern Lights Landscape Art Project over on the OOLY blog. It's a great project that incorporates science and art together. Go check it out -- it's the most snow we've seen all season!

Fave DIY Valentines Printables

We spent a significant portion of our the kids' free time this weekend working on valentines. Our school asks that the kids make the valentines themselves or at least add a custom touch to each. And they have to be candy and food free. I am 100% behind both ideas! (Although, don't get me wrong, I would be just as fine with store bought directives). Cam was in charge this year and decided that they would make a personalized bracelet for each classmate along with a little card (we used the You're a Real Gem printable below!). Kane was all for that until the beads showed up and then he decided he didn't want to make the bracelets (of course!). Cam offered to make all of them, but Kane ended up hand making each a card instead and then adding a positive message rubber band bracelet. In case you're about to embark on the valentine journey yourself, I rounded up my fave DIY valentines printables—all are easy to do at home, candy free, and Amazon-accessory ready. Gotta love the love!

You Light Up My World Valentines // Finger Lights

I Can Always Count on You Valentine // Play Bills and Play Coins

You Are Out of This World Valentine // Bouncy Balls

Pencil Arrow Valentines // Cute Pencils

Watercolor Valentines // Watercolors

You're a Real Gem Valentines // Gem Rings

Funny Glasses Valentines // Funny Glasses 

You Make My Heart Race Valentines // Race Cars 

You're the Balm Valentines // EOS Lip Balm 

Fancy Paper Crowns

We've all been needing something to make ourselves feel a little better lately. So I dug out one of our favorite go-to crafts and we all made each other fancy paper crowns! Determined to get ourselves in a good mood, we made some sparkly lovelies. Head over to OOLY to see how!