Monday Moments: "In all the land Roundabout"

One morning last week, we were reading our scriptures (so far our plan is going pretty well).

Anyway, Ken was reading and came to this part:

"...and the Lamanites who were in the land of Amulon, and also in the land of Helam, and who were in the land of Jerusalem, and in fine, in all the land round about..."

Katrina turns to me and seriously says, "I didn't know they had roundabouts back then!"

I love these girls and getting to have a glimpse of what's going on inside their minds! :)

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September 2014 Sharing Time - Week 3

Welcome to September's Sharing Time Linky!

First, our week in review:

I started the week with a funny misunderstanding that Katrina had about a sheep..


Tuesday I shared a review of a new family movie. Wednesday was all about our #FitMadeFun Party. Thursday I shared some thoughts about Parenting by Setting Expectations.



Yesterday I shared my kids' entrepreneurial efforts this summer ;)

My Shutterfly Giveaway is still open, so don't miss your chance to enter! 

Follow the link to enter the Giveaway!

Now, on to the link party- I can't wait to see what you share! :)

Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!

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If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!

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An InLinkz Link-up

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Sidewalk Paint & Freezie Stands

It all started when we made sidewalk paint. The girls were having a great time playing with it and the next thing I knew they were painting rocks with plans to sell them! Katrina did some special drawings and they put signs up about painted rocks and drawings for sale. They actually had a couple of customers!

The next day they set up a juice & cookie stand and had some more customers. After that it was a jumbo freezie stand, and then the weather got cooler and the entrepreneur life died down ;) It was fun to watch them and help them with these little endeavours. I don't think they'll ever forget them!

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Parenting by Setting Expectations & Boundaries

Have you ever noticed your kids doing something that you really wish they wouldn't do?

(trick question.. of COURSE you have!)

Maybe you've thought to yourself, "I should probably tell/ask them to stop doing that."..
and then you haven't bothered because

a. they probably won't listen
b. they'll probably complain/wine and you just don't want to listen to that
c. you're just too tired and worn out to talk (ha!)

[I think this is exactly how kids' bad habits begin...
We, the parents, don't bother to say anything when it
starts to happen and before you know it, that behaviour
has become normal/expected/"okay" in their minds.. and
it becomes difficult to stop it.]

...and by the way, I've come to this conclusion by experience ;)
As the school year started, it didn't take more than 2 school days for me to notice that my girls were coming home from school extra tired, worn out from their day, and less patient in general. This easily led to them fighting with each other.

Coming off of a summer of having them with me pretty much 24-7, I could see a distinct change very quickly and I knew that this was not something that I wanted to become the norm. I guess I was having a good parenting day (maybe I had some stored up patience and energy from my first couple of days sans kids?) because I decided on the spot that I was going to set some expectations for them.

So, on the way to the library after school, I stopped them on the sidewalk and said I needed to talk to them. I told them that I understood that after a long day at school they would probably feel kind of worn out and that it is easier to get frustrated or upset when you are tired out. Then I told them that even when you are worn out, it is still not okay to be unkind to each other. I told them that we needed to be kind to each other because we love each other and our home and our family needs to be a happy place for everyone in our family.

They nodded their heads as if they understood and I felt like from that moment on, I could easily remind them to stick to that.
...and guess what... It has been working!

They are not perfect (I am not perfect), but we are working on it. Because the expectation has been set, it is far easier to try to keep them in check!

Have you noticed this in your parenting?
Anything you've tried recently with your kids that's working well?
I'd love to hear about it in the comments!
Seriously guys... it makes my day when you take a minute to comment!

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Fun Fitness Party with Leapfrog & CLIF Kids #FitMadeFun

We were excited to get the chance to host a fun "Fit-Made-Fun" party on September 6th to inspire kids to get up and active. We were provided with supplies for the party by LeapFrog and CLIF but all opinions here are my own.

When the day of the party came, I was sick, so we had to put our party off until the next week. The kids had such a fun Saturday because they went to their friends' birthday party in the morning and then they had this party at our house in the afternoon!

It was too bad that we couldn't have it on the actual "Fit-Made-Fun" day when LeapFrog, CLIF Kids, and a couple of other partners helped to gather over 300 people to set some Guinness World Records! Fit Made Fun day was all about encouraging families to get up and active in creative ways while having fun together and that's what we focussed on at our party!

Colouring

As our friends arrived, we started with colouring (we found these cute printables on Leapfrog's website). The characters are Leapfrog characters and each page had a little fitness tip on it.

After colouring, we played a fun game we have that gives the kids actions to perform. We played that until all of the kids arrived and then we got started on a fun game we found on the Leapfrog website.

Bingo

This game is called Pet Pad Action Bingo. There's a deck of cards with actions on them and as they do the actions, they fill in their bingo cards.

They loved this game! After someone got a bingo they wanted to keep playing until everyone's cards were full!

Taste Test

Next it was time to stop for a snack and some water. We had some CLIF Kid Z Bars (protein bars) to try out, so I cut them into small pieces and used tooth picks to serve them. We divided everyone into two teams and they took turns being blindfolded and seeing if they could tell us which flavour of the Z Bars they were tasting.

We had chocolate chip, peanut butter, and mint chocolate chip.. my family's favourites are peanut butter and mint chocolate chip!


Relay Game

Our last game was using LeapFrog's new LeapBands (activity trackers made for kids that encourage active play and healthy habits with 50 fun challenges.). Each team had a LeapBand and the kids took turns using the band, pushing the buttons, and everyone on the team did the challenge (a fun activity).

There were some jumping, hopping, crawling kids all over the living room for a while until everyone was ready for a "cool down" activity- more colouring ;)


LeapFrog and CLIF Kids have provided a bunch of free resources and Printables on their website so that you can throw your own Fit-Made-Fun party or just play the games with your kids at home!

Disclosure: I received free products in order to host the LeapFrog and CLIF Kid sponsored MommyParty. The opinions expressed here are my own.

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Dreams Are Within Reach When You Believe

There's a new movie that's just been released by Excel Entertainment and Deseret Book, called "Believe".

What's It About?

It's based on a true story, taking place in 1984. The story of a legendary soccer (football) manager who helps a young boy fulfil his dream. The two of them find out they have more in common than the love of a game and help each other through.  I hate to tell too many details about books or movies because I don't want to give anything away!

Here's the trailer for the movie, I'll let it give you an idea of what the movie is like :)



Can I Watch With My Kids?

We watched the movie with our girls (aged 5 and 8) and they liked it. The only thing that was in it that made me nervous (for the girls to see) was a flashback (a couple of times) to a plane crash. I wasn't sure if it would scare the girls but they seemed to handle it fine.  The other thing to consider when watching with children is that the movie takes place in England and sometimes the accents are a little difficult to understand.


The film was released in select theatres on September 12th and is available to order through Deseret Book's website.

Disclosure: I received a DVD screener copy of the film for review purposes.  I was not compensated in any way for my review and all opinions are my own!

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