Showing posts with label Corolla 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Corolla 2013. Show all posts

6/12/13

30 EASY Things to Make & Do On A Beach Vacation with Kids (Besides Make Sandcastles)

This is a VERY random list, full of things that worked for us, most of which involved very little parental involvement.

If you're feeling the heat, perhaps it will give you a few ideas. And in the comments, please include your own EASY ideas. I'm always looking for suggestions . . .

Happy Wednesday, and don't forget to enter the Lensbaby giveaway!


I. OUTSIDE

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1. Set Up A "Clubhouse" (aka, Sun Tent) - Put various buckets and shovels inside. Let them think it's their own secret place.

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2. Fly a Kite

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3. Go Fishing


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4. Look for Sand Crabs. For extra fun, bring a dog.

5. Fill a Baby Pool with Water - Have the kids fill the pool, which requires numerous trips back and forth to the ocean. All while you sit in a lawnchair. Lazy wonderfulness.

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6. Check out the Sunset
(or, If You're Motivated, the Sunrise)

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7. Learn to Bodysurf - I use the term "learn" loosely

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8. Fly a Paratrooper

9. Search for Mermaid's Purses - The beach is always full of these, but they didn't seem that cool until we learned that some of them contain shark's eggs. Then the kids couldn't stop trying to find more and more.

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10. Make a "Bad Guy" Trap - I'm not sure how this works, but T spent over an hour putting it all together. Apparently the nets are key.

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11. Sandcasting - Instructions here.

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12. Cartwheels - P basically never stops doing cartwheels. Just watching her exhausts me.


II. INSIDE

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13. Burpee Contests (or Yoga) - Don't know what a burpee is? Click here. Try for as many as you can do in 10 minutes. I promise this will EXHAUST most children. If you're feeling more Zen, then yoga also works. I like the easy-to-follow routines in Morning Yoga Workouts

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14. Karaoke - Be careful, this becomes annoying fast.

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15. Categorize Seashells - I checked out Smithsonian Handbooks: Shells from the library. So when the kids became bored, we'd go through the bucket and try to figure out what we had.

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16. Dance Party - Taylor Swift seems to have replaced Katie Perry. Poor Katie.

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17. Swimming Pool/Pirate Boat - Sort of like a box. But better.

18. Tell Ghost Stories in the Closet - P informed me that this works best if NO ADULTS are present, so just hand them a flashlight and bolt.

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19. Become Pirates - Watch for bad guys out the window, use poker chips for booty. Count your booty, defend your boat, repeat.

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20. Read Books

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21. Celebrate - Kids love a party. Buy a cake. If you don't have an occasion, then make one up.

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22. Mad Libs - If you ever want to hear F laugh at the top of her lungs, this is the trick.

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23. When At Your Wits End, Take Out the Electronic Devices
- Laptops, Kindles, Ipads, Iphones, Roku . . . this is why you own them.

I. ARTS AND CRAFTS:

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24. Paint Seashells - My friend set up this activity and all the kids LOVED it (aged 3-8). I thought it would bore them after awhile, but all week more and more seashells became technicolor. If you don't feel like setting up paint, markers also work.

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25. Melissa & Doug Paint With Water Books - The pages come with paint already on them. Just add water. Easy peasy.

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26. Make Beach Art - We brought along Land of Nod's Everyday Art Kit (the gift that keeps on giving) and when the kids complained of boredom we asked them to create beach souvenirs for our walls.

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27. Paint & Decorate Mini-Beach Chairs (or anything else three-dimensional) - My friend bought the beach chairs at a craft store. All of the kids loved decorating them.

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28. Sticker Art Mosaics (similar to these) - Always a sure thing.

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29. Line Drawings - Take a blank piece of paper. Use one marker to draw a frame. And then, using only one marker and never lifting it from the paper, make a continuous line drawing. Color in the different spaces when you finish.

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30. Rely on Various Other Store Bought Activities - Here are photos of some of our emergency supplies (all of which are also great for car trips). The invisible ink books were a huge hit, as were the Barbie paper dolls. For additional ideas, check out the Island Bookstore in Corolla, which has one of the best kids' sections I've ever seen - lots of wonderful stuff, including doodle books.

6/10/13

Places to Go (Vacation) - Estuarine Nature Walk (Corolla, NC)

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We decided to take a few hours off from the beach for a family nature walk. Corolla's Estuarine Research Reserve contains two wonderful trails - a boardwalk that ends at an overlook of the wetlands and a short 0.75 marked walk through the forest. Dan and I ambitiously hoped to see both. The kids ran down the boardwalk all the way too the marsh overlook, so things seemed like a go. But the kids quickly tired of the nature trail and we never made it to the end.

Oh well, we tried. The area was gorgeous. Maybe next trip we'll even catch a glimpse of Corolla's wild horses. One can hope.

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The great thing about forcing nature on your kids - mutual complaints directed at parents promote sibling bonding.

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE. DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE LENSBABY GIVEAWAY!!

6/7/13

Things to Do - LENSBABY GIVEAWAY (oh, and pictures of our week at the beach in Corolla, NC)

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One house, eight kids, six adults, and two dogs = lots of opportunities for photos.

Lensbaby sent me their Composer Pro with Double Glass lens to try out and I must admit, I'm a little in love with it (some of my favorite lensbaby photos are posted above). Lensbabies work incredibly well for beach photos, in that they create a defined focal point and a dreamy/surreal look. Plus, Lensbabies are fun to work with, so many opportunities to be creative.

The Composer Pro lens comes with a series of aperture rings, perfect for trying out different effects. I spent most of the trip at 4.0, because the focus on the 2.8 proved too narrow, even for me. I never ventured higher than the 4 because I never usually venture higher than 4 on my go-to lens (I'm normally a 2.8 girl, but with the Lensbaby I needed a little more wiggleroom).

Luckily, Lensbaby has offered to GIVE AWAY A BRAND NEW SPARK LENS, which is a great opportunity to check out their product and see if it works for you. In order to enter, either (1) Comment to this post, making sure to include your email address in the body of the message or (2) Like No Monsters In My Bed on Facebook and write on my wall that you're entering the giveaway (also, please make sure that your facebook account allows you to receive messages from non-friends).
Easy Peasy.

I will close the contest and randomly choose a winner two weeks from now at 5 pm on FRIDAY, JUNE 22nd.
Also, the Spark lens only works with Cannon and Nikon DSLR cameras, so please don't enter if you don't own a DSLR (and click here for more info on the lens).

[THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED, A RANDOM WINNER HAS BEEN CHOSEN AND NOTIFIED!]

Oh yes, so onto more beach pics . . .

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The sand dune in back of our rental house provided almost as much entertainment as the beach itself. A bumpy sandbox that the adults could supervise through a window. Pretty nifty.

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Duck Donuts is on my list of top 10 best restaurants ever. They're positively addictive. I couldn't stop.

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I think the last photo might be my favorite ever - milk, corn, hamburgers, and a gun. Seriously, you can't get more American than that. Especially when the plate belongs to a Mongolian.

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The beach is exhausting (and, yes, I'm actually posting a photo of myself, such things happen rarely, but I'm so happy there's a picture of T sleeping by my side).

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!! HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE LENSBABY GIVEAWAY!!

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