kandas-adventures

Zucchini Races!

What to do with all that extra zucchini now that summer is finally here?  Make Zucchini cars!  

What you need:

wooden wheels (available at craft stores)

nails

washers

beads

optional for decoration: pipe cleaners, feathers, toothpicks

Place the wheels on in this order for best results:

nail + washer + wheel + bead + zucchini

Having a racetrack is good, too, or you can use anything you have handy to make a ramp.

Besides the creative aspect, the kids have the challenge of physics.  You have to place the wheels just so, or the car will drag.  Too much angle one way and it will be too slow, make it more aerodynamic and it will go faster, watch the alignment or it will go off to one side...

What a great way to celebrate summer!

Playmobil Mania!

This past weekend we finally met someone who has more playmobil that we do.

It was supposed to be a train show, but here the train was lost in all the detail of the many playmobil scenes.

What was scary was that much of it we recognized, as elements we also owned and had set up at our own house.

There was so much to see that we came back a second day, this time bringing a photo of our set up for the owner to see.  The man who owned it was probably in his 30's, no kids yet, and had been building this collection over 10 years' time.  He recognized us as budding addicts like himself, and spent a lot of time with the girls, showing them all sorts of hidden elements and special surprises.  They even got to hear the sound effects, like church bells ringing, on some of the pieces we don't own.

That's him on the right, resetting a scene that a kid reached across the rope and scattered.  Only about half of the pieces are glued down, as he likes to rearrange things regularly.  As usual, I'm always appalled at the behavior of some kids, and even more disturbed when the parents look away as if they don't see anything wrong.  The owner admitted having pieces stolen regularly, and says it takes him 10 hours to set up the scenes each time he does a show.

 

I've warned my husband, "Watch Out!" because the girls and I are now really inspired. We currently have two 6 foot by 3 foot tables set up at home, but it holds only 1/2 our collection, so we may be adding another table.  Maybe someday the girls will be on the road at train shows, showing off their collection and indoctrinating the next generation of playmobil addicts.

 

GEOWOODSTOCK VIII

This past weekend we participated in Geowoodstock, a giant annual gathering of geocaching fans from around the world.  We've had fun at other events leading up to this, such as this one, that celebrated 10 years of the sport of Geocaching.  But Geowoodstock is a "Mega Event," and we joined 6,000+ other people in the celebration. 
We knew we'd be in the company of thousands when it took half an hour just to get to the parking area.

 
At least we were in the company of friends.  Lots of 'em!

 
 
Once we got parked we had fun "discovering" as we walked toward the venue.  When we found a "travel bug" code, we wrote it down, and then later we'd go online and the code would take us to that person's web page, where we could leave a note that we "saw" them.  We could also read their "story," and there were some funny ones! 
Being a "Woodstock" there were some amazing art cars to be found.

 
Lots of "Caching" plates to be seen, too.  We found plates from as far as Florida. 
This photo is before we went in...

 
To the crowds of cachers!

We signed in on the giant logbook.

 
Found a giant ammo can

 
Spied lots of "Kilted Cachers" (and the answer to the eternal "what do you carry in your sporran" question is: "a GPS unit").

 
Traded "Travel Bugs" in the bug swap tent

Played a GPS accuracy game (above, the judges measuring the closest winners on the green field)

Placing our flag on the pink field

Getting the final clue for the scavenger hunt (we had to solve a puzzle after finding lots of clues just to get the combination for this locked cache)

Playing "Bingo" with other festival goers.  It was fun getting to know other people, hearing where they were from, and what adventures they'd had

 
Our completed Bingo sheet, ready to turn in for a ticket for the prize draw

 
The girls had cotton candy and kettle corn, and made some new friends from around the US and Canada

The big kids played geocoin poker (I didn't, but I watched)

 
After 7 hours we were beat, and had to catch a ride on the wagon back to our remote parking spot.  What a great event! 

Still time for fun and games

One thing we did a lot of this summer was play games.  I added some vintage titles, such as Avalanche (above) from the 1960's.  We find these oldies at thrifts and garage sales, and of course, at my mom's house.
Even though school has started, the homework isn't coming yet, so our afternoons are still free.  I've been teaching the girls to play Carcassonne with all it's expansions, and they're really getting good!  I'm so happy that the girls are growing into strategy games, and away from games of pure luck (like Candyland).
Most board gamers would agree that the best games come to us from Germany.  However, Seattle has its own den of creativity and we are on the "playtesters list" for several firms that design games.  Above, Little K eagerly awaits her turn to playtest a new game prototype at Cranium.  We've playtested at Cranium for 2 years, and when I read in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that Cranium had been aquired by Hasbro (a major mainstream toy company), and promptly laid off most of it's employees, I was worried our playtest days with Cranium were over.  Well, Cranium still exists in Seattle, but the office is like a ghost town.  Only a few designers remain in what was once a bustling office of at least 50 people.
After the playtest the girls are compensated with a free already-published game of their choice.  We have most of them already, but can usually find one we don't have, or a favorite we love that we can use for an upcoming birthday gift.
 This is a different company we gametest for  -- they design for several different toy manufacturers.  Here's A with a designer playing the final iteration of a new game called "Spy Wire" by Wild Planet.  I can show you this photo because the game has been released.  In the forground of the photo are two earlier prototypes.  It's great fun to visit this company for a release party, because they show you all the different versions of the game leading up to the one that lands on store shelves.
I'm so grateful that my daughters and I have the time to play games together.  If I were working full time and the girls were in childcare, they might still play games, but not with me.  I could sign the girls up for soccer and ballet and piano and be "on the run" every afternoon, like so many parents, but for me it is so important to have this time with my girls.  When I was little my mom had to work, and I came home to an empty house after school (no money for childcare), and watched TV.  When my mom got home, she'd watch TV in the other room.  She had little idea what was going on in my life, since we had no reason to talk, because the TV was talking to us.   I love sitting around the table with my girls, or stretching out on the floor, and hearing about my daughter's views on life as we take turns.  It's a special time that may pass all too quickly.  

Thank you to all the game designers and game companies out there who are giving us a reason to gather 'round and spend time together.  And thanks most of all to my husband, whose long hours at the office makes it possible for me to stay home with our kids and listen to their deepest feelings while we PLAY.

2006 Combined Birthday Party

A & K get to have a birthday party every other year and then they have it together and each invite a few friends. Mommy's not the best in the party hosting department and once every two years is about all she can manage. This year we rented the library administration building and had the party in their giant conference room. In order to keep the chaos to a minimum, we had only 9 kids (including our two). That made it easier during the various games as no one had to wait too long for their turn. We also encouraged parents to stay by providing a nice lunch spread.

Two years ago we had too many kids, and quite a few were just dropped off and picked up later. Several of the older boys broke off by themselves and got into mischeif, and some pushed, shoved, and crowded other kids. There were definitely a few who needed a strong reminder about manners, and I hated having to be the disciplinarian.

So thankfully this year was a lot better!

Enjoy the photos below of this year's Wildlife Safari party. The girls are already talking about the theme of their next party, two years from now...

Five tables held crafts and activities the kids could do at their own pace with little supervision. Great for the begining of the party when people are trickling in early or late.

Blank paper bags, a zillion stickers, a few crayons, and each child is an artist, making their own treat bag.

Jungle Explorer Paper Dolls: kids glued on felt clothes, wiggle eyes, yarn hair, hats, etc. Even the boys loved this one.

The coloring table: Pictures of Curious George downloaded from:  pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/printables/

 

Dig for animals: a container filled with rice and 5 dozen plastic animals. Each child got to dig around until they found 5 animals they wanted to take home.

Prize Tree: The kids lined up by height/age (youngest first) and each took a turn pulling a vine (yarn) to pick their prize bag, which dropped down when they pulled the yarn. The bags contained a finger puppet and japanese jelly-filled marshallows.

Stuffed Animal Safari: 

Finally, a use for those dozens of stuffed animals!

Scattered around and slightly hidden are various stuffed animals. They have escaped from the wild animal preserve and need to be loaded into a "truck" to return safely to the preserve. The "explorers" are sent out five times: first to each find a monkey, then each find a bird (robin, duck, owl), a cat (lion, tiger, leopard), etc. I made sure there were enough of each animal so each child could find one.

The kids loved finding the animals hidden in the outdoor garden.

What Food is This? A box with two holes cut, onto which I glued the sleeves cut from an old shirt. One kid sticks hands through while the other passes them a fruit or vegetable and has to guess what it is, just by feeling.

Even the older kids loved this food guessing game.

Owl Eyes Game: one player is owl eyes, who looks closely at the animals on the tray, then turns around while the other player removes one. Owl eyes then turns back and looks to see which is missing.

Elephant Marionette: Grammy made this by hand 40 years ago.

The Food!

A little bit of everything:
roasted veggies
hummous and artichoke dip
pita and lavosh bread
chicken salad
shrimp with coctail sauce
fresh vegetables
mini bagels and cream cheese
cut bananas
corn chips and fresh salsa
japanese "asparagus" biscuits (salty-sweet cracker)
tray of assorted cheeses

Costco $14.99 chocolate cake with real cream cheese filling, onto which I set a playmobil tree filled with monkeys.

The girls got some great gifts despite the short guest list. Two years ago we had a party with nearly 20 kids and it was utter chaos. Last year I was still recovering from that fiasco so there was no party at all. This year I really wanted to keep it under 10 kids including my two. It was hard to decide who to invite. In the end we had a cousin, close neighbors from our street (whose parties we're always invited to), and each girl got to invite two special friends from school. It was just the right size, no one had a meltdown, and I survived with my sanity!