Let’s try some more riddles today! 🙂
1.) Which two keys cannot open any doors? Answer: A donkey and a monkey!
2.) What did the baseball glove say to the baseball? Answer: Catch you later!
3.) What has 4 legs but cannot walk? Answer: A table!
Hope those riddles gave you something to smile about today! 🙂
Today’s fun for kids idea is going to make for a very short and sweet post! And that idea is…playing train!
The picture makes it pretty much self-explanatory too. Just line up a bunch of chairs in a row and invite all children, stuffed animals, dolls, adults, pets (even the neighbors if you’re feeling desperate) to come ride on your train! (Or school bus…or city bus…or mommy’s van…) If you have enough room, making 2 rows of seats with an aisle down the middle makes it even more realistic. Let the child be the driver and if there is a special hat for them to wear as the Train Engineer, all the better! Our granddaughter happily played train in the dining room while I was able to get some work done in the kitchen. There are all kinds of questions you can ask or comments you can make that will help them use their imagination and have a wonderful time pretending to be the train engineer and in charge of all the passengers on their train.
Here’s a few questions or comments to get you started:
1.) Where are you (we) going?
2.) Does it take a long time to get there?
3.) Are we there yet??
4.) What are we going to do when we get there?
5.) Did you check to see if everyone has their seat belt buckled?
6.) Did you punch every passenger’s ticket?
7.) Oh, no! Buddy Bear forgot his ticket! What should we do about that?
8.) If you are riding in the train…Wow! You are driving this train so fast that I almost fell out of my seat!
9.) Fall out of your seat with as much drama as you can manage. Depending on what type of personality the Train Engineer has, this could be quite hilarious to them or you might get reprimanded for not staying in your seat like you are supposed to. 😉
10.) Are we there yet??
11.) I’m hungry! When do we get to eat? And what do we get to eat?
12.) Dusty the Dog has to go to the bathroom!
13.) Can we go shopping at a toy store?
14.) It’s too cold/hot in here. Can you make it warmer/cooler?
15.) Wait! Stop! I think Mark the Monkey wants to go for a ride too!
16.) Is there a bathroom on this train?
17.) Are pets allowed to ride on here?
18.) Can we stop somewhere for some ice cream?
19.) When are we going back home again?
20.) Sing “The Wheels on the Bus (Train) Go Round and Round”.
21.) Pretend you are walking up the steps when getting on the train and walking down the steps when you get off.
22.) Can we go to the zoo?
23.) Is it daytime or nighttime?
24.) I’m sleepy. Can I take a nap on your train?
25.) Are we there yet??
If you haven’t guessed by now, yes, I can act pretty crazy when I play with my grand kids. But we have lots of fun and giggles and they still love me when we are done. 😉 I guess with all the questions I added, this post isn’t so short after all! But the idea of playing train is easy and simple and can be another fun time spent with your favorite kids or something to entertain them while you get some work done.
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day…a day to celebrate mothers of all kinds. It was very obvious today as we were out running some errands that many people were out buying flowers, gifts and cards and were excited about celebrating the holiday tomorrow. We also bought flowers and cards and will celebrate those special ladies in our lives tomorrow and I will be glad to do that. But I have a confession to make…I dread Mother’s Day now. I have dreaded Mother’s Day for 13 years now. That probably seems like an odd thing to say, but I lost my wonderful mother in June of 2006. And there’s just no way around it…Mother’s Day hurts. The first Mother’s Day without my mom was the worst…I wished there wasn’t such a day as Mother’s Day. In some ways, it’s not quite as hard now as it was then, but somehow it caught me off guard again this year. Standing in the card section at a local store, picking out beautiful cards for wonderful women in our life that I DO want to celebrate and then here it comes again…the feeling of being punched in the stomach because of the intense longing of wishing I could once again celebrate with my mom. The tears welled up, no matter how much I told myself “I will not cry in the middle of Walmart!”. Oh how I miss my mom! I look quickly around me to see if anyone has noticed my struggle…and then it hits me…how many other people, standing close by looking through the Mother’s Day cards are struggling to keep their feelings concealed too? Who else is hurting because that special someone is no longer around to celebrate? Who is heartbroken over wanting to be a mother, but that isn’t possible for them? Who might be right beside me that has lost a child? Who might not have a happy relationship with their children or their mother? I used to feel like there was something wrong with me because for a few years I hated…yes, hated…Mother’s Day. But I’m realizing again that it is a hard holiday for many people. I have many wonderful memories of Mother’s Day with my mom…picking a bunch of lilacs from our bush for her, making homemade cards, trying to serve her breakfast in bed, dandelion bouquets… And I have been blessed with 4 amazing children myself. I found it helped me today to walk through the flowers and remember how much my mom enjoyed them, pansies being one of her favorites. And so I just want to say, if you see someone tomorrow that is sad or more quiet than usual, please be kind. They may be dealing with a pain that they don’t talk about. And if Mother’s Day brings you sadness, you are not alone and you are not broken…and I will be saying a prayer for comfort for you. Much love to all of you!
Looking for a quick, but different kids snack idea? Something we made occasionally when our kids were little came from them having it as a snack while at school. We called it “Ants on a Log”. Well, in doing some research on that title, I discovered that when a lot of people make “Ants on a Log” they use celery for the log part. We use bananas. 🙂 So if your kid really isn’t that into celery, you might have a go at trying bananas. Here’s all you need:
Gather up a banana, some peanut butter, raisins and chocolate chips plus a table knife. (We also added some blueberries and dried cranberries.) Start by peeling the banana and cutting it in half and then cut each of those pieces in half lengthwise. Spread each piece with a little peanut butter. Now the “log” is ready.
Add some “ants” on top. You can use raisins…
Or chocolate chips…(probably gets the most popular vote!)
Dried cranberries…
Or fresh blueberries…quite yummy!
Another ingredient that I think would look awesome would be the small chocolate sprinkles added on top. Now THAT would really look like ants! But alas, we are out of them. Send me a picture if you make some with sprinkles! And let me know what other ideas you come up with for the “ants”. You could use cream cheese in place of the peanut butter.
One banana makes 4 yummy snack pieces. 🙂
Hey!! Someone took a bite out of one of the “Ants on a Log”! Can you spot which one?! Who did that?? Rusty? Was that you?? (Do dogs like bananas?) Hmmm…maybe there is an anteater hiding in my house!! What do you think? 😉
From time to time I’ll be sharing some apps with you that I think are fun for kids or ones that my grandchildren enjoy. Today let’s talk about a fun coloring app – Pixel Art!
Pixel Art is a great app for coloring without the mess of carrying along crayons or colored pencils, a coloring book, something solid for under the book, etc. It’s something nice and calming to do on your tablet or phone that doesn’t involve shooting anything. 😉 I enjoy using this app as much as my grand kids. Our granddaughter has been playing it since she was 4 years old. Our grandsons play it too and a couple of them are teenagers. It’s great for all ages! Once you download the app, the first thing you’ll do is select a picture you would like to color. There are a lot of pictures to choose from! Just scroll down to see them.
For this example, I went with the cute little owl. Just click on him.
You can zoom in so you can make the boxes as big as you like so they are easier to tap on. There is a button toward the top that zooms in some, but you can place 2 fingers on the screen and spread your fingers apart to make the squares bigger.
See the colored and numbered squares at the bottom? Those are the colors available for this picture. We’ll click on number 7…
Now the colored 7 at the bottom is highlighted and all the 7’s in your picture have turned a gray color. Start coloring by tapping on all the 7’s.
As you tap on each box, it changes to the color for that number. Notice the big check mark now in the box where the 7 was? That means you have completed all the 7’s. You can scroll all around the picture and select which part you want to work on. Continue selecting a color and tapping the matching numbers.
Did you accidentally tap a wrong number? No problem! The box will turn to a light shade of gray but all you need to do is tap that number, tap the box and it’s colored in too. You really can’t mess it up! 🙂 Keep going until all the numbers have been filled in.
Ta dah! Our little owl is complete! There are really easy pictures…ones that don’t take a long time…and then there are more complicated pictures, but they are all done the same way. Some have less squares and some have a larger number of squares. The more squares there are, the clearer the picture is.
There are cartoon-type characters, flowers, animals, holidays, etc. New pictures are added every day. There are even 3D pictures…which are popular with our grand kids! You turn the picture around to reach all the squares.
And there are silly fun ones to color.
Pixel Art is easy enough for really young kids to do with a little help but also entertaining enough for any age. It gives you a sense of accomplishment when you finish a picture. If you can’t finish it all at once, it’s ok to quit before you are done. It will be there waiting for you in your library when you come back. 🙂 You can even use one of your own pictures to color! Have fun with Pixel Art! Let me know what you think!
Let’s do some riddles to get your weekend off to a fun start!
1.) What has hands but doesn’t clap? Answer: A clock!
2.) What needs to be broken before you can use it? Answer: An egg
3.) I fly all day long but I don’t go anywhere. What am I? Answer: A flag
How did you do? Pat yourself on the back for each one you guessed right! If you didn’t guess right, that’s ok! It’s just for fun! Now go try the riddles on someone else! Happy Friday! 😁
Some of my seeds have sprouted! A couple of them aren’t looking too good so I might need to replant the pellets. The Violas and tomatoes haven’t peeked through the soil yet so I need to have more patience til they show up! I hope if you planted some seeds that they are starting to grow too! 😊
Aaaaaand it’s finally May!! Happy first day of May!! We’ve never really celebrated May Day here, but I’m sure some of you do. In honor of surviving the winter and the excitement of seeing new life popping up everywhere, I thought that a fun activity to do with kids would be to go outside and search for all the new flowers you can find. I’m “kidless” just now so my faithful puppy, Rusty, did his best to fill in. 😉 We live in the country so there are lots of plants around to make it interesting. Most of the flowers I took pictures of would be considered weeds…but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? A lot of them I don’t know their names, so if you do, please leave me a comment and let me know what it is!
An all time favorite and always in abundance is the Dandelion. Did you ever make a Dandelion crown? Or rub them on your hand just to see it turn yellow? Or pick a big bouquet to share with your mom? My great-grandmother used to make a Dandelion Salad. Even Rusty had fun running around biting the tops off the flowers.
I don’t know the name of this one but I like the dainty little flowers on it.
This beautiful pink one is from a large bush in our backyard. I don’t know the name of it either, but it is so pretty in the spring and Mockingbirds like to build their nests in it.
These look very much like wild violets or violas to me, but I’m not sure what they actually are. A beautiful purple that grows on its own all over the yard…until the husband mows. 😉
This is an actual Viola which always makes me think of Pansies.
We found these cute fuzzy little white flowers too…buuuut no clue what they are either! Lol
Strawberry blossoms! Which will hopefully produce some yummy strawberries for us to enjoy!
More delicate purple flowers of a different variety!
And last, but not least, Tulips in our front flowerbed! What’s popping up in your neighborhood? Kids and adults can enjoy a “treasure hunt” for what’s blooming. Taking pictures to share with someone else adds to the fun. If you’d like to take it a bit further, print the pictures out and make a scrapbook of them. Continue your search all through the Summer months and into Autumn as new flowers appear. It’s a constant changing landscape! When you go for a ride in the car, or a walk down the street, challenge the kids to find different colored flowers. Taking an interest in flowers helps get kids out of the house and outside enjoying nature!
Have you seen this floating around on Facebook? It’s pretty cool! Look at all the upside down plates…find the one that is right side up…and MAGIC! Now they all look right side up!! Hmmm…not sure how that works! Once I see them all right side up, it’s hard for me to see them upside down again! Let me know what you think of it! 🙂
The Kids Niche 