Our Reading Challenge, Week 6

Week 5 might have been a bit of a struggle, since we were really trying to keep busy, which meant everyone kept falling asleep early. The kids finally finished their books between yesterday and today and I still have a bit to go on mine, but hopefully I can stay up a bit later and get it done.

Even so, I'm going with a shorter choice this week, since we've got two day camps (morning and afternoon), along with two nights of swim team.  If no one else ends up tired, I certainly will be!

Our Picks for This Week:

   

Me: The Colossus Rises - Shaun picked this for me at Sam's a few weeks back.  It reminds me, in a way, of the Percy Jackson books, and I love anything to do with the Ancient Seven Wonders.

Faith: Little House on the Prairie - Faith is continuing with the Little House series this week.  I so enjoy being right, even though Little Miss Stubborn doesn't agree.  I knew she'd like the books if she'd just give them a fair shake.

Ben: Jack Stalwart - Secret Agent - The Escape of the Deadly Dinosaur - Ben found this series at our $4 Book Store and got the first three, he says it is quite awesome so far!

Penny Arcade {Manitou Springs}

The boy had a birthday party for one of his friends yesterday over in Manitou Springs.  We met up for pizza and cake at Soda Springs park, then headed over to play games at the Penny Arcade.  For as much as we love Manitou, I hadn't really discovered the arcade before, and it really was the perfect little boy birthday party!

The Penny Arcade is tucked away in downtown Manitou Springs, in a little alley with storefronts that joins the two sides of the main street (east and westbound).  Since it is not an actual street, it was great for the boys to be able to walk to the different areas--Skeeball, the rolling RaceHorses, contemporary games, and the classic ones at the Penny Arcade.  There were also outside consoles and assorted ride-ons for the little ones.

Ben & his buddy with an old fashioned dime hockey game

Ben and his friend checked out several of the areas, but the one labeled Penny Arcade really caught their eye.  It was filled with old fashioned games, all still with the original pricing, so they were able to play games for nickels and dimes as well as the standard quarters.

Ben trying a very old "football" game!

The boys tried out a ton of the old sports games--hockey, football (or per Ben "This is soccer, Mama"), along with pinball machines, a crane game that they absolutely adored that involved scooping gravel, and a shooter game where they tried to knock down monkeys while firing balls at them.

Ben knocking down the monkeys

The boys also played a few games for tickets, and Ben's friend hit the jackpot on one, earning over 100 of them.  Ben was more interested in the non-ticket games, so he came out with 15.  We stopped at the prize area on the way out and Ben got a pack of chocolate covered raisins which made him quite happy.  His friend got a kazoo, which I'm sure was less than thrilling for his parents.

The crane game, Ben's favorite!

It was awesome to see how much they enjoyed the older games that weren't so screen related!  Ben has decided that we absolutely must take Daddy and Faith with us the next time so they can play more games, and since I love Manitou, I can see that being a plan!

Wordless Wednesday - Puppy Dog

My furbaby

Linking up to 5 Minutes for Mom, Marvelous Mom,

In the Moment With, Project Alicia

Summer Bucket List

The kids and I decided we needed to create a good summer bucket list.  Since this is our second of (hopefully) three summers in Colorado Springs, we also wanted to be sure we included some local attractions.  We are hoping for one more summer here, but there are no guarantees right now.

Either way, we made two lists--one of specific places to go and see in the area and one of activities we want to do.  The activities are more generic and easier to do whenever, whereas most of our specific places to go need Daddy home to join us.

I'll be editing this all summer, crossing off the ones we've done, adding new ones if they come up, and sharing the links to ones that are complete.

Places To Go:
Denver Museum of Nature & Science (purchased on Living Social)
Manitou Cliff Dwellings (purchased on Living Social)
The Space Foundation Discover Center (purchased on Living Social)
Sky Sox Game (free ticket vouchers for military night)
D-Day exhibit at the 4th ID museum (free, just off post by us)
Focus on the Family play area (free, north side of COSprings)
Buell Children's Museum Superhero Exhibit
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
North Pole Amusement Park

Things to Do:
Barnes & Noble Reading Challenge
Geocaching
Plant hanging baskets of tomatoes and peppers
Sidewalk chalk paint
Cub Scout Bike Rodeo
Family movie night
Family game night
Family puzzle night
Bowling
$1 movies at the theater
Lowes Build & Grow
Make origami
Make & send happy mail

Our Reading Challenge, Week 5

Week 4 was a big reading week for both kids.  Not only did Faith finish the All-of-a-Kind family book she chose, she also finished the other 3 she had remaining in the series.  Ben read Balto and three of the Dr. Roach's Monstrous Stories I had just bought for him.  I loved my book as well, but unlike the kids, I only made it through my pick as the week got away from me.

But so begins another week and another set of books to read.

Our Picks for This Week:

  

Me: Lost in Shangri-La - This was another of my random Amazon finds, suggested based on other books I've purchased.  I thought it sounded quite good.

Faith: Little House in the Big Woods - This was my favorite series growing up, and a certain stubborn child has refused to read it thus far.  No idea what changed her mind, maybe the fact I suggested All-of-a-Kind Family and she loved it?

Ben: The Tale of Despereaux (graphic novel) - He found this in a stack of books I had bought and has already started it.  I'm sure he'll finish by tomorrow, but for now, it's this week's first pick. I also found the missing Star Wars book in the basement, so that may be pick #2.

Lowes Build & Grow - Monsters University Scarers

Back in Dallas, when we had a Lowes just blocks from our house, I used to take F&B to the free Lowes Build & Grow kids' clinic to make various crafts on Saturday morning.

Since moving to Colorado, this has kind of fallen by the wayside, as Lowes is no longer in a plaza with SuperTarget next to my house.  (For the record, I highly miss both of those places being in close proximity.)

On a forum I am on, someone posted that this weekend started a series of Disney Pixar projects, beginning with Monsters University, so I decided to sign the kids up.  Lowes still offers Saturday morning clinics, but they also offer a second time, on Sunday afternoons!  Since we are not get up & go in the morning people, I signed us up for Sunday.

 

The kids had a blast, still, again, whichever way you look at it.  It is definitely different attending one of these clinics with kids who are now 10 and 7, instead of 6 and 3 like when we first started going. At this point, they are able to build things almost entirely on their own.  Other than the original glance at the directions, I'm just the one who holds the pieces for extra support while hammering, and occasionally helps affix the stickers straight.

We also signed up for the Monsters University Chest one in two weeks, and our Lowes showed really cute Toy Story and Pixar's new movie Planes coming up in the next two months.

Under the Big Top: Math & Art {Buell Children's Museum, Pueblo}

I was looking for something else entirely whilst online a couple of weeks ago when I came across a teeny little button ad for the Buell Children's Museum in Pueblo.  Of course, I had to click on it and see what it was all about, knowing that Pueblo is all of about 30 minutes from where we live on Fort Carson.  So I clicked.  And saw this:

It sounded perfect for F&B to check out, but with only one small problem.  The exhibit in question closed on June 1st and it was already the last week of May.  Thankfully, the kids have been out of school since Memorial Day, so we decided to go on May 30th just to make sure we could see it.  It was definitely a worthwhile decision.

The outside courtyard at the museum was quite lovely in its own right.  The kids fell in love with the carousel horse, the tall flower windmill, and the parade of children statues, before we even got into the museum.  Had we planned ahead, we would have brought a snack to eat outside as the weather was cooperating with us too.

After exploring the courtyard for a bit, we headed inside, to check out the exhibits.  The museum is two floors, with a large part of the lower floor being a great open room that housed the math exhibits.  There is also a theater on the lower floor, then upstairs is another large area that held plenty of art activities.

We opted to check out the main exhibit first, which is based on the Toymaker's Math Carnival.  The whole room was decorated as a carnival theme and the kids both took off to see what they could find.  Despite a whole room of exhibits, Faith discovered the dress up corner and immediately dressed up as a clown.  Put a stack of costumes in front of the girl and she'll be content for hours.  Ben, however, decided to take a much better look around and found the Picky Parrot fraction game, which he spent quite a bit of time with.  The Grumpy Monkeys were my favorite, mostly because I have my own two little grumpy monkeys, and we were all a bit partial to the Puppy Party, since puppies are quite popular around here.

The kids spent close to an hour in the downstairs area exploring the Math Carnival, then we headed upstairs to check out art areas.  For my two, we hit the jackpot on the arts and crafts options.  There were many small set ups, showing types of art, artists, samples of their work and ideas for how to create your own (i.e. how to draw a Tim Burton scene).  There was also a huge open room with art supplies galore--craft pieces, collage materials, markers, paints, glue, just about everything you could want to create with.  The three of us decided to spend another hour and a half just crafting.  Both kids made a few different projects, and I even got in on the act (see yesterday's Birds post for my creation).  Faith made a couple of collages, Ben made some cards, and we just enjoyed the crafting without messing up my kitchen part!

By the time we finished our art, we were getting low on time, so wandered down to the theater area where the kids built block mazes with the big foam block pieces and raised balls through them until it was time to go.  They did love the blocks, think large foam Tinker Toys that the kids could maneuver without assistance.  I really think they could have spent yet another hour in that room alone.

The verdict?  We loved the museum and are so glad we went when we did, since this particular Math & Art exhibit was scheduled to be over as of June 1st.  The bonus?  The next exhibit is "Calling All True Blue SuperHeroes" so we know we will be back again soon!