Tag Archives: Recreation

July 13, 2018 · 8:43 pm

Mom Camp Day 16: NBA all day! (Or should I say 5 hrs)

When the NBA Summer League comes to Vegas and you have kid who will watch any and all sports, you head to the Thomas and Mack!

The Princess spent the day with Queen Gram while Cinco and I went to check out a few basketball games. For the price $35 you can stay all day and watch as many games as you want!

We arrived just before the 1:30pm tip off and watched the Knicks vs Pelicans. I, of course, routed for the Knicks given my suburban New York upbringing. And, yes the Knicks won 102 to 81!

After a giant ice cream cone for me and an Oreo blizzard for Cinco, we headed to our next game– Wizards vs. Mavericks. This time it was harder to pick a team (having lived in both DC and Dallas). But I went with Dallas. And again, my team won!!

Our final game of the day was Timberwolves vs. Nuggets. We’d already watched 2 games and this game didn’t start until 5pm. While watching the event, I did stand up and start dancing trying to earn Cinco a foam #1 hand… I didn’t get the hand– but did make enough of a spectacle to get on the Jumbotron…. so you know, that’s something!

I agreed to watch it for 1 hour and see how it was going…

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July 11, 2018 · 8:41 pm

Mom Camp Days 14 and 15: Jurassic Park Dino Days

In honor of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s release earlier this summer, Cinco and The Princess had a few days full of all thing Jurassic Park and World related.

dinosaur evergreen figure garden

Photo by Mikes Photos on Pexels.com

Over the course of three days we watched all three of the Jurassic Park films AND the first Jurassic World movie.

We also “hatched” our own mini dinos, which I purchase in the Target dollar section.  (NB: The Target dollar section is responsible for at least $200 a year in dumb purchases of junk I do NOT need.)  While at Target we also purchased Cinco the full set of Jurassic World, dino themed, Hot Wheels.  (Because, you know everyone needs a Triceratops shaped Hot Wheel.)

The best part of our Dino Days was Cinco’s idea to make our own Dino themed board game!!!!  Drawing the game board was Cinco’s project while The Princess and I worked on the game board pieces.  Each player chooses a tiny dino egg which she and I hand painted.

The basic rules are as follows:

  1. The oldest person goes first and rolls the dice.   (Get doubles and roll again!)
  2. Depending on which square you land on, you choose a corresponding card. (Red=Danger, Yellow=Challenge, Green=Lucky Day, White=No Card).
  3. Then you follow the directions on the card.
  4. When your turn is over the next person rolls.
  5. First person to escape wins!

As you can imagine, the Danger cards are bad luck, Challenge could go either way, and Lucky Day is, of course, something good.  Here are a few of the cards the kids came up with:

Danger:

Rescue mission gone wrong.  You are forced to move back a space.

        Eat a poisonous plant and skip a turn.

Challenge: 

Power goes out.  All dino cages open.  Roll the dice.  4 or better move forward 1 space.  3 or lower go back to start.

Who can make the loudest roar?  1st places gets a Lucky Day Card. Last place gets a Danger Card.

Lucky Day: 

You found a map of the island.  Move forward 3 spaces.

Catch a ride on a Triceratops. Move forward 3 spaces.

All of us worked on coloring the board and typing the cards.  Then it was time to play…

We recruited The Captain to join us. And, in an intense game I WON!!!!

Pretty sure The Princess earned her games Fun patch!

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October 7, 2013 · 11:07 pm

Star Wars meets William Shakespeare meets Bookymom!

Star Wars - Darth Vader

Star Wars – Darth Vader (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I love, love, love the idea of Star Wars written as a Shakespearian play.

I originally checked the book out of the library. (When you through as many books as we do at The Booky Mom’s house you make a lot of trips to the library!). I started reading the hard copy version to Cinco (2nd grader) and he seemed interested by the idea. (We read a children’s version of mid-summer night’s dream for our mid-summer fairy festival! Fairy Day I, Fairy Day II, Fairy Day III. So he knows who Shakespeare is and he knows the language can sound rather funny). Immediately, Cinco told me he wanted to listen to a dramatized version of the play. We waited until it was available on Audible.com and bought it.

By doing this we missed the drawings in the book, but had the added fun of multiple narrators acting out the parts. It’s a fun concept and it’s an enjoyable listen for a little bit. It’s fun to hear Darth and Han speak in Shakespearian language. The author also does a nice job of using iambic pentameter.

But after about 90 minutes, the novelty of the idea wore-off. The audio version took on a been-there-done-that feeling. Plus with audio, having the stage directions read aloud is distracting, particularly when characters enter and exit frequently!

Finally, the movie is only 2 hours, but the audio story is more than 3. Really? It takes that much more time to tell the same story?

All and all, it’s a silly fun concept and if you love Star Wars or Shakespeare and want to try it out– Go for it. But, I think the book would be better because you get the pictures and you can skim it.

 

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June 15, 2013 · 3:55 pm

Well Intentioned Disaster I

A circus tent from behind

A circus tent from behind (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is my first well intentioned disaster since I started the blog.  You see, I always planning things that seem to somehow go slightly wrong– not on purpose or anything. It’s just I have a talent for messing things up.

The latest disaster involves a trip to the circus.  I bought five tickets– one for me, one for each kid, one for The Captain and one for a friend.  I THOUGHT I purchased them for today June 15th Saturday!  It turns out, I somehow managed to buy them for TOMORROW– June 16th Father’s Day.  Now, the problem is The Captain hates any and all things to do with child centered activities– this includes birthday parties, kids entertainment shows, Disneyland, Legoland, any child theme park.  I have learned this is not atypical when it comes to dads.  None-the-less, I somehow or other got The Captain to say he would go to the circus on the 15th.  But now, that I bought the tickets for FATHER’S DAY…well that’s another story.

Just another of my well intentioned disasters.

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