Monday, February 28, 2011

Walgreens Toys for $2

Went to Walgreens to return and exchange something and ended up buying things I was not planning to buy. I have the store manager to blame for pointing me in the direction of the $2 dollar toys that were on clearance. I did buy a puppy shape sorter for my nephew's Easter basket and a decorate your own water bottle kit as a gift for my 6 year old.

I went to a Walgreens in North Hills; so not sure if all Walgreens have the $2 discounted toys.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Dr. Seuss Party

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday at our 2nd annual Dr. Seuss party at Lakeshore Learning. This year, they decided to skip out on the face painting and birthday cake. They girls had fun making a few crafts such as a Dr. Seuss bow tie, hat and book. They listened to a story, played a bean bag toss game over and over and over again and were entertained from all the floor display toys.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Fire and Ice

Went to see a Mad Science show at the Valencia library. It was entertaining and the girls enjoyed it. He experimented with fire and special paper, Low and high air pressure with balls, and used dry ice with "potions" to create science experiments. My 6 year old was excited because he was using science terms of gas and liquids that she's learning in school.

Monday, February 21, 2011

President's Day

The Ronald Regan Library normally has a couple good free events during the year; so we thought we check it out for President's Day. It was not a good event in terms of free activities for kids. I guess that was not the emphasis though. The main attraction was the museum; which we don't visit. Because what 6 & 3 year old want to visit that?

If you don't get there when the event starts, then you will have to park down the hill and wait for a shuttle to pick you up. Well, we got there about an 1 1/2 later and we had to park at the adjacent park. It took about 25 min. for the shuttle to pick us up. Luckily, we were at a park, so the girls could just run around. They were also entertained when the family in front of us found a caterpillar. Finding a caterpillar is very exciting when you're waiting in line that long.

Finally, we get there and there is a huge line waiting to get into the museum.
I think some people thought it was free; but it wasn't. We found the activities for kids and were disappointed. There were 2 crafts to make a president's hat and a penney necklace. There was also a table to make a Lincoln log cabin. The girls had fun making the 2 crafts and then we sat and ate our sack lunch while listening to George Washington tell his life story, followed by a jazz band. The highlight was making the Lincoln log cabin.

I could have just bought some Lincoln logs at the store and used some construction paper to make the crafts at home. If it wasn't as far, I wouldn't have minded because I like to just get out of the house and do something different. Now, I know for next time, that the museum is the main attraction on President's Day. I'll stick with coming back for their 4th of July event.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Candyland-Japanese American Museum

The Japanese American Museum's Target Free Saturdays have not failed us yet; so we had to check out their candyland event. No, not the candyland board game - just a bunch of free candy to help celebrate Valentine's Day.

We got there and immediately stood in a line to get to the candy buffet table. They had an assortment of candy from different countries around the world. The girls got to pick 3 pieces to put in a box. If they wanted more, they could get back in line. As the line got shorter, we went back a couple times so they could get candy that is not very common to get in US stores. It was fun to try candy from the different countries. A favorite was the Taiwan(I think)Jello type candy.

The girls had fun making candy leis using 8 pieces of candy, a long cello bag and some yarn. They also made a cupcake flower using paper cupcake wrappers and a pipe cleaner. Last, was the sweet message box, where they took a wooden circle to decorate and wrapped it like a piece of candy, put it in a box to decorate to give to their Valentine.

They snuck in something healthy among the candy fest. How dare they! A table to make your own fruit kabob lined the wall. It was full of bananas, apples, strawberries, and pineapple. My youngest, who loves fruit, put everything on her stick and gobbled it right up. My oldest, who is not a fruit eater, just made hers from apples, took a couple bites and gave the rest to me.

Another highlight was the photo chocolate lollipops. We stood in line to have the girls picture taken, then we could watch as they printed their picture with edible ink onto chocolate lollipops. They girls have not eaten their faces yet. They look to cute to eat.

The last treat of the day was a Japanese dessert called Mochi. He demonstrated how they make it and gave out samples. It is made from rice and looks and tastes like a rainbow marshmallow. But unlike marshmallows, I could only handle eating just one. The 1st one tasted good; but not so much after that.
The girls only had one complaint with their fun filled candy day. Which was, I want more candy!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Jam Packed Day

There were a lot of little things that I wanted to do which made for a jam packed day. To start the day, Barnes and Noble had story time for kids. Biscuit the puppy made a visit to the kids. My youngest loves dogs and Biscuit; so she was very excited to see him. They also listened to Biscuit stories and colored a Biscuit page.

After story time, we went to Home Depot to do their monthly Kids Workshop. They were making heart shelves. My oldest loves hearts and she was very excited to build her shelf and paint it when we got home.

We ate a quick lunch and back out again to go to the Animal Presentation at Placerita Canyon Nature Center. This did not appeal to my oldest; but my husband was interested in checking it out. It is an hour long presentation and brought out and talked about some kind of bird, a snake, taranchilla, and a skunk. It was interesting; but both the girls were bored and wanted to leave. We didn't stick around for the last animal.

After the animal show, we went to McDonald's to get the girls a chocolate fudge sundae treat. We are doing 'Kids of Character' at home to be kind. My oldest got enough stamps to pick a treat; and she chose ice cream.

Once the ice cream was scarfed down, it was time to go to Castle Park for a birthday party, where the kids had fun playing skeeball, eating pizza and cake and golfing.
After all the days activity, the girls still had a ton of energy in the evening. I guess all the sugar they ate didn't help any.