christmas in vegas

Every year we fill our giant advent calendar up with activities and fun. This has been such a fun tradition! I thought I would share what we have done and what we are doing this year. So many fun activities to do as a family at Christmas time in Las Vegas. All of these activities are throughout the season. I'm sure there are more, but these are our favorites!  I also added LIGHT the WORLD activities to make the world a brighter place. Learn more about it HERE.

• Bellagio Fountains
• Bellagio's Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
• Holiday Cactus Garden Lights at Ethel M Chocolate Factory
• Winter PARQ at the LINQ Promenade (free holiday show on the fountain)
• High Roller at the LINQ
• Ice Skating at The Park
• Tournament of Kings Holiday Dinner Show at Excalibur (we have been to the regular show, but not the holiday show)
• Sleep under the Christmas Tree
• NUTCRACKER at the Smith Center
• Henderson Winterfest (More Information HERE)
• Watching Jocelyn dance in the production of CHRISTMAS ANGELS (ask me for tickets)
• Snow in the Square at Town Square Mall (Monday – Thursday 7 p.m. Friday – Sunday 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.)
• Photos with Santa at Town Square Mall (By appointment Only)
• Mystic Falls Winter Wonderland at Sam's Town Hotel and Casino
• Scuba Santa at the Silverton Aquarium
• North Pole Experience at Tivoli Village
• The Ice Rink at The Cosmopolitan
• Springs Preserve Holiday Express
• Santa Train in Boulder City
• Santa in the Shipwreck at Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef Aquarium
• Glittering Lights at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Magical Forest at Opportunity Village
• Downtown Summerlin Ice Skating (This is our favorite place to skate)
• Family Christmas Movie Party
• Decorate Gingerbread Houses
• Paint Ornaments
• Gondola Ride at the Venetian
• Grinch Movie Night with Grinchy treats
• Make Christmas Candy and Cookies
• Make your own Snow Globe from Seedling. Here is the link: SNOW GLOBE
• Get the Candy Cane Bamboozled Shake at Holsteins restaurant at the Cosmopolitan
• Make your own Nativity scene from Seedling. Here is the link: NATIVITY

aviat aircraft

Last week when my family was together in Afton, Wyoming we were looking for something fun for the kids to do. We decided to go look at the aircraft at Aviat. It was so cool. I loved telling them that my grandma helped build the planes for 22 years and that while working their she got her finger smashed by a fork lift. Thats why she shakes her crooked finger at you when you are in trouble! My cousins and I would always steal peas out of her garden. Pom Pom (it's what we call my grandma) would shake her crooked finger at us and yell, "you dang kids get out of the peas!" We always thought it was hilarious. Love our Pom Pom. It was so fun to share some history with the kids and to just look at the amazing planes. I LOVE my hometown and love creating memories with my family.

If you would like more information about Aviat Aircraft got to their website HERE.

Side note: Kai's outfit is hilarious to me. His obsession with animals is at an all time HIGH! His outfit confirms it. I was talking to Dustin and I was telling him that I think about 90% of his clothes have some sort of animal on them!

balloon festival

Last night we went to the Balloon Festival at Southern Hills Hospital and had so much fun! It was really cool to see the balloons up close and to watch them get ready to launch. At the festival they had carnival rides, games, balloons and food. Every kids perfect Friday night! One of the games was a hula hoop contest. Jocelyn won round after round and was the hula hoop champion of the night! She won a lounger bag. She has ALWAYS excelled at the hula hoop and she took this so seriously. I love her. As great as winning the hula hoop contest was, that wasn't even their favorite part of the night. As we are walking around they see a couple kids with a bag of fish. They HAD to find the game that was giving out fish. My kids are very good at negotiations. I told them I wasn't going to pay for the games. $5 each for a game. Nope. SO, I could see them talking to this guy and they knew I wasn't going to pay for them to play. All of the sudden they come rushing towards me. They are yelling, "he said if we help him clean up the ping pong balls we could have a fish". Oh, good grief. Well, I caved. So now we have two goldfish. One named Fatso and the other Fishy. Our first pets, and probably our last. Kai said, I would rather have a dog, but I am happy about our fish. I am happy to report that they made it through the night!!

The balloon festival is going on the rest of the weekend. Tonight they are doing another balloon glow show from 5:00-7:00 p.m. Tomorrow starting at  6:00 a.m. they will have the hot air balloon launch, carnival rides, kids crafts and balloon rides. Go check it out.

Hope you have a great weekend!

wild kratts

My kids love for Wild Kratts is STRONG!! Animals, jokes, science, adventure and fun. Perfect combination for my kids. One of my favorite things about being a parent is seeing their faces while they experience things they love. It was like someone gave them a million dollars when Martin and Chris came onto the stage. They were FREAKING out! Kai said, "all of my Wild Kratts dreams came true!!" We got to watch Wild Kratts live at the best venue in Vegas, the Smith Center. Here are some pictures from our fun night! Kai even said that it was his sixth favorite night of his whole life. It must have been a good one.

playing in the "mud"

I am always on the lookout for fun activities my kids can do indoors. With Las Vegas summers you can't spend as much time outdoors as you would like. So for everyone else that doesn't live on the sun, this would be a fun winter activity for your kids. The kids and I made "mud" for their farm animals. This stuff is really cool! It was crazy because if you slowly put your hands in it runs everywhere, but if you punch the "mud" it hardens! My kids were LOVING this. We made our "mud" a couple times this summer and it was a hit every time. To get it to look like mud I added cocoa powder. This makes it VERY tempting to eat. Of course Kyler tried it, but quickly realized that it is disgusting! Haha.

On another note, have you guys heard of GATHRE mats? We are obsessed with ours. You can see one of ours in the pictures. We use them at the beach, for picnics, crafts and so much more. They make cleanup so easy and you don't have to worry about the kids destroying the floors. Check them out HERE.  

I hope you enjoy getting messy with your kids!

"mud"

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups cornstarch

1 cup water

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

DIRECTIONS:

Mix together until it forms the consistency that when you pick it up and squeeze it it forms a solid, but when you open your hands it turns to liquid!

summer book list for your book worm

Today I am sharing our favorite books we have read this summer.  We are constantly searching for new books to read. My daughter is a major BOOK WORM! I love it, but she always needs more books. So, if your kids are anything like mine then you will need some new ideas. Here are our top 10 favorites of the summer.

1.  The BFG- Roald Dahl

2.  Wonder- RJ Palacio

3.  Ella Enchanted- Gail Carson Levine

4.  The Tales of Beetle the Bard- J.K. Rowling

5.  The Princess in Black Series- Shannon and Dean Hale

6.  Where the Sidewalk Ends- Shel Silverstein

7.  Mickey Meets the Giant- Walt Disney Company

8.  Pippi Longstocking- Astrid Lindgren

9.  The Witches- Roald Dahl

10.  Hello Nature- Nina Chakrabarti

We are the most excited about our Hello Nature book. This book is amazing. If you only get one of these books, I highly recommend this one. It has information and art projects all about the outdoors. Perfect for your summer travels. I bought one for each of my kids to fill out and so far they LOVE it. Hopefully this list gets your kids excited for reading.

Happy summer reading!

playdate with jesse...the dog

It's no secret that my kids are animal lovers. So when our neighbors asked us to come and swim with their dog, they were beyond excited. It might just be the first ever playdate with a dog in history, but it needs to happen more often! They played catch and swam with Jesse and I don't think they stopped smiling the whole time. Kai said he could have played with Jesse all day. Their love for dogs increased dramatically after today. So much fun!

oobleck

Dr. Seuss is amazing. EVERY book we read of his sparks imagination, fun and adventure. Today we read Bartholomew and the Oobleck. What a great story. It made us want to play with our version of oobleck. After making the slimy oobleck, the kids were attacked, just like the King and his Kingdom in the book! This stuff is awesome. My kids play with it for hours and hours. After you make the oobleck it will become your families favorite as well. Here is our recipe!

OOBLECK

INGREDIENTS:

2 bottles of Elmer's Glue

1 tsp Borax

Water

Food Coloring

DIRECTIONS:

Emtpy the bottles of glue into a disposable bowl. (Easier cleanup). Then fill the glue bottles up with warm water and shake. Empty into the bowl.

Add food coloring. I use Americolor gel paste food coloring.

Add 1/2 cup of warm water to a cup. Add the borax to the water. Stir until dissolved. Pour this into the glue bowl. Start stirring and you will notice it become stringy. When this happens start mixing with your hands. After a few minutes it will come together. The more you play with it the better consistency it will become.

springs preserve strikes back

Yesterday we checked out the Springs Preserve. The Springs Preserve in Las Vegas is a fun place to explore nature and learn about the history of Las Vegas through science and nature exhibits, gardens and hiking trails. This week Springs Preserve is doing a Free Week called Springs Preserve Strikes Back: A Star Wars inspired affair. Star Wars and a free activity? We had to check it out.

At the event they had crafts. The event is free, but you had to pay $3 to make a craft. The kids made light sabers and Jedi robes. They also had a few characters roaming around to hang out with the kids, which was Kyler's favorite! He also didn't take his mask off the whole time. Love that kid.

The main attraction that we checked out was the Playing with Light exhibit. This place was so cool! Laser lights, giant kaleidoscope, telescopes. They learned about how science and physics create light. Our favorite part of the Playing with Light was making our shadows. We could have stayed all day.

Since this was a free event and Star Wars themed there were SO MANY PEOPLE! haha. It is worth checking out though. This event ends this Thursday, so if you need an idea to get you out of the house, this is a fun one!

it's so hot you could fry an egg

We have all heard the saying, "its so hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk". So we thought since we basically live on the sun, we would give it a try!

When we tried it was 111 degrees outside. We thought FOR SURE it would work. Sadly it did not. Apparently the egg needs to reach a temperature of 158 degrees to become firm. I think we only missed it by a few degrees. The kids had a great time with their experiment and learned a lot about eggs. We might try again in July when we have a few 120 degree days!

So instead of munching on a fried egg the kids ate fried egg candy.  Much better choice!