The other morning, Wolfman asked if we could play Simon Says. He must have learned at preschool because he's pretty darn good at leading it. We played long enough for everyone to have a couple of turns as leader. Then we played some old family favorites: Fruit basket tip-over and Hide the Thimble. The kids had a blast and have been begging to play daily! (rules at the end of post)
Instead of drawing or painting for art the other day, we decided to sew. Big brother sewed a supergirl/princess cape for BittE, while the Princess and her friend V made super cute dresses for their American Girl Dolls. The dresses ended up being a two-day project, but they turned out great! We were sew busy, I forgot to take pictures! I'll try to get them together and take a picture of the finished dresses soon.
Our family pool pass has been the best thing EVER! The middles have been swimming almost daily! Hallelujah! They go swimming, I put the littles down for a nap, and I have a couple of hours of peace and quiet.
Once again we bought tickets for Harkins Theatres Summer Movie Fun! For $7 each, you get to see 10 awesome kid movies! We love it and it's so much fun to look forward to a day out each week. Last week was our first movie - Space Chimps. Wolfman was totally into it and has been dragging his knuckles on the floor for days and fighting space aliens constantly.
Fruit Basket Tip Over: You may have played this same game with another name. We all sit in a circle with one person in the middle. But there is no chair for the person who is IT. Everyone, including the person who is IT, chooses a fruit (no repeats). The person who is IT calls out two or three fruits, and those people have to change seats, while IT tries to get a chair. Whoever is left standing is the new IT. IT can also call out "Fruit Basket Tip Over" and everyone has to change seats! We get wild with it - lots of bumping, running, whooping and laughing goes on. It's a good one for kids because there is really no skill involved!
Another really fun game that we learned from my friend is called "I have a Little Birdie". Everyone sits in a circle. The person who is IT is in the middle. They are holding a spray bottle or squirt gun. First, they have to silently think of a color. Then they go around the circle and ask everyone the question, "I have a little birdie, what color is yours?" If the person guesses a color that is not the one they were thinking of, IT just says "No, or that's a nice color" or something. But if the person says the color they are thinking of, the person who guessed correctly gets sprayed with water. Then they get to be IT and control the spray bottle! We also shoot them if someone guesses a color that's already been said. (any opportunity to spray someone is fun). Plus, with my big kids, we all try not to guess it - so we're naming every outrageous color we can think of: magenta, burnt umber, chartreusse, etc. It gets a little boring to be IT at our house. But another great game for little kids! (If they are really little, I always make IT whisper their color in my ear, so I know what to listen for, or else sometimes they forget what their color was or don't stop at the right answer.)
Hide the Thimble = Hot/Cold Game - IT leaves the room. Someone hides a small object (we use a thimble or whatever we can find about that size) somewhere in plain sight. IT is called back into the room and looks for the thimble. The others in the room, can only say hot (you're getting closer = warmer) or cold (you're getting farther away). When IT finds the thimble, he chooses someone else to leave the room, and then hides the thimble.
Instead of drawing or painting for art the other day, we decided to sew. Big brother sewed a supergirl/princess cape for BittE, while the Princess and her friend V made super cute dresses for their American Girl Dolls. The dresses ended up being a two-day project, but they turned out great! We were sew busy, I forgot to take pictures! I'll try to get them together and take a picture of the finished dresses soon.
Our family pool pass has been the best thing EVER! The middles have been swimming almost daily! Hallelujah! They go swimming, I put the littles down for a nap, and I have a couple of hours of peace and quiet.
Once again we bought tickets for Harkins Theatres Summer Movie Fun! For $7 each, you get to see 10 awesome kid movies! We love it and it's so much fun to look forward to a day out each week. Last week was our first movie - Space Chimps. Wolfman was totally into it and has been dragging his knuckles on the floor for days and fighting space aliens constantly.
Fruit Basket Tip Over: You may have played this same game with another name. We all sit in a circle with one person in the middle. But there is no chair for the person who is IT. Everyone, including the person who is IT, chooses a fruit (no repeats). The person who is IT calls out two or three fruits, and those people have to change seats, while IT tries to get a chair. Whoever is left standing is the new IT. IT can also call out "Fruit Basket Tip Over" and everyone has to change seats! We get wild with it - lots of bumping, running, whooping and laughing goes on. It's a good one for kids because there is really no skill involved!
Another really fun game that we learned from my friend is called "I have a Little Birdie". Everyone sits in a circle. The person who is IT is in the middle. They are holding a spray bottle or squirt gun. First, they have to silently think of a color. Then they go around the circle and ask everyone the question, "I have a little birdie, what color is yours?" If the person guesses a color that is not the one they were thinking of, IT just says "No, or that's a nice color" or something. But if the person says the color they are thinking of, the person who guessed correctly gets sprayed with water. Then they get to be IT and control the spray bottle! We also shoot them if someone guesses a color that's already been said. (any opportunity to spray someone is fun). Plus, with my big kids, we all try not to guess it - so we're naming every outrageous color we can think of: magenta, burnt umber, chartreusse, etc. It gets a little boring to be IT at our house. But another great game for little kids! (If they are really little, I always make IT whisper their color in my ear, so I know what to listen for, or else sometimes they forget what their color was or don't stop at the right answer.)
Hide the Thimble = Hot/Cold Game - IT leaves the room. Someone hides a small object (we use a thimble or whatever we can find about that size) somewhere in plain sight. IT is called back into the room and looks for the thimble. The others in the room, can only say hot (you're getting closer = warmer) or cold (you're getting farther away). When IT finds the thimble, he chooses someone else to leave the room, and then hides the thimble.
Also - 
Happy Birthday to my AwESoMe sister, Maria!
8 comments:
YOu inspire me! and Ha! I have that cape!! thanks lady!
wow..fab ideas! i am totally going to use those games for J's next sleepover!
You seriously have the best ideas!
♥ Sounds like a fun day! Such a cute picture of your sisters family! :)
Sometimes the boys watching TV is more for me than it is for them. But it sounds like you're doing great without it. I've actually cut down on TV time in the last couple of weeks and it is nice. Thanks for the game ideas.
Fun games! We've been going without tv in the mornings too. It's been interesting to see what they do!
these are really awesome ideas! I only let my kids watch tv a couple of hours a day and the rest of the time they play just fine- I wonder if I eliminate the tv for the summer how they would do!
That sounds like a lot of fun! I love all of these activity ideas. What a great start to the summer :)
Post a Comment