Chuck E Cheese's Outing

Santa brought my daughter a Chuck E Cheese gift card and some tokens (left from a previous visit). She has periodically been asking to go, but we have been busy and have not had the chance to go. Last year, the Easter bunny hid Chuck E Cheese tokens in a few eggs and may repeat that with some leftovers from today.

Sunday afternoon, I decided that we could go this morning and for lunch before school. Chuck E Cheese is always more fun with friends, so I invited some friends/classmates via Facebook. We had 4 friends join us.

Do you know that you don't have to buy food? Chuck E Cheese opens at 10a, so you could easily go for 2 hours before lunch. However, arriving early is a bit inconvenient when you have a coupon that includes tokens with your food purchase. I wish you could order your food with a specified delivery time. For example, we arrived at 10:30 and wanted our food around noon so we waited to order around 11:45.

Coupons are readily available for Chuck E Cheese. You can register for their e-mail coupons and these typically provide the best deals. I has the email coupons and my friends also had coupons from the newspaper, but my coupons were either cheaper or offered more tokens for the same price.

We ordered two large pizzas for 5 four year olds and 4 moms. (One mom opted for the salad bar and no pizza). There was one slice left that I grabbed on my way out the door, so it was the perfect portion.

Our kids had a great time and several hit jackpots on games. My daughter is 4 now, and I found she was much more independent with many of the games than she has been in the past (we probably have not been in 6 months).

Easter - Egg Treasure Hunt

My daughter loves treasure hunts. I know of people who hide the Easter basket and the kids have to find them. We have never done that and I did not grow up that way. Instead, I think we are going to hide a treat that would otherwise be in her basket and send her on a scavenger hunt to find it.

We typically do our egg hunt in the family room. I am going to put clues in eggs and hide them in the basement play area. I like to do cute rhymes that tie into the holiday theme and take her from toy to toy until she finds the actual gift:

• "Hop, Hop, Hop goes the Bunny, To the Tree of someone who likes Honey" (My Friends Tigger & Pooh Changing Tree)
• "The bunny Hopped to the Food to be Chopped" (Melissa & Doug Food Slicing Set)
• "Here Comes Peter Cottontail, Hopping down the Bunny Trail, Right to the Potato Pail"(Her Mr Potato Heads are kept in a Pail)
• "Easter Bunny is my Name, Hiding Eggs is my Game" (In the closet where we keep the games)

I have not yet figured out all of the rhymes I will use, but some other ideas I have are 

• Egg to Leg, Beg, Egg
• Tail to Rail, Sail, Pail, Trail
• Bunny to Honey, Funny
• Ears to Dears, Fears, Gears, Tears
• Grass to Lass, Pass
• Chick to Pick

Have fun creating a treasure hunt for your child. 

See other posts on Easter.

Easter - More than just candy in the baskets

Traditionally Easter baskets were a big candy fest. However, from a health perspective, that is not the best of ideas. My daughter was only 3 months for her first Easter, so we had no option but to start with non-food items.

I will typically include a movie. Conveniently, Disney usually has a spring release movie. This year, Princess and the Frog. Other recent releases include Monsters vs Aliens, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and a few others. There are also Easter themed DVDs like It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown.

We also use Easter as an opportunity to give outdoors toys as spring is starting. We often do small items like chalk and bubbles. I was planning on a jump rope, but she asked Santa for one, so she got it then. My daughter will also be getting a new bike helmet as I discovered last night that hers is too small. This fall, I found sidewalk paint and 3D chalk sets from Crayola on clearance, and have those put away for her Easter basket.

For my daughter's first Easter, I found Candy Land board books at the Dollar Tree so they replaced actual candy. In continuing the candy theme you can give Candy Land game, Candy Land Castle, or Candy Land Sweet Celebrations. I gave my daughter Candy Land Castle last year at age 3, and it was very easy for her, so I suggest it for younger children. For girls, you could also give Strawberry Shortcake dolls continuing the idea of treats.

So, what are you putting in your child's Easter basket?

See other posts on Easter.

Easter - Group Egg Hunt

My playgroup is having an Easter party on Friday, so I am starting to plan activities. I am planning an egg hunt as one activity. I am hoping that the weather will be nice and we can do it outside. I usually fill the eggs with treats. If I am using food treats, I make sure to wash the eggs in soapy water and leave plenty of time for them to dry before filling them.

Since our playgroup is mixed ages (15 mos-4 yrs), I need to have eggs with treats appropriate for different ages and also some eggs at different hunt difficulties. A great tip that I am going to use is to color code the eggs, reserving one color for the youngest children.

Food Treat ideas include:

• Cheerios
• Raisins
• Goldfish
• Gerber Puffs
• Jelly Beans
• M&Ms
• Hershey Kisses

Non Food Treat ideas include:

• stickers
• temporary tattoos
• Mini erasers
• Coins
• Mini-bubbles (depending on the size of the bubbles and the size of your egg)

Each year after a holiday, I keep my eyes open for clearance sales on holiday merchandise to stash away for next year. However, last year's Easter purchases were eggs and craft supplies so I don't have any treats to use. I wish I would have thought of it earlier so I could order some treats.

For a craft project, we are going to decorate bags to use in our egg hunt. I have foam stickers that I bought on clearance last year and also have paper bags left from Valentine's Day.

See other posts on Easter.

March Madness - Brackets for a Preschooler

March Madness kicks off later this week with the brackets having been announced last night. Every year, my parents run a family bracket. A few years ago they even purchased a trophy to go to the winner each year. Of course, transferring the trophy can be a challenge since we have been spread coast to coast. My brother created the first automatically tallying Excel sheet for us to use. Of course, his two sisters (with a computer science degree and minor), had to improve the spreadsheet with conditional formatting, calculating maximum potential scores, and sort options.

So when my daughter was a baby, there was not any question that she would have an entry in the bracket. The question was how to pick her bracket. I had always been curious as to how a bracket picked strictly by seeds would fare, so for three years this was the bracket that she entered. She never won, so I guess it was not that scientific of a method.

Last year, she picked her bracket herself, with a little guidance. For example, we know she tends to pick the last thing you say, so we would give her the higher seeded team last. There were some exceptions to her picks - Michigan, Michigan State, and some "fun-sounding" schools. We did overrule her when she picked a 16 seed to upset a 1 seed. She did as well as with the "expert" picks, but still has not won - of course neither have I in the past 5 or 6 years.

Another idea I thought of is doing a weighted drawing for her bracket. Draw the winner for each game, giving each team the number of entries equal to its opponents rank (ie a 1-16 would yield 16 entries for the 1 seed and 1 entry for the 16 seed). This just seems like a lot of work (unless I did it in a spread sheet with a random number generator.

After picking my bracket and helping with her bracket, the next challenge will be actually watching the games. My husband is the only non-participant in the family pool and he has no interest in watching the games. I think I have finally convinced him that the most important part of the game is the last 5 minutes and that I really don't care about the first 5 minutes of a game. Fortunately with multiple TVs and DVRs, we should be able to come to a peaceful resolution. I also have found that my daughter will have a limited attention span if I tell her she is cheering for one of the teams.

Do you fill out a bracket? Does your child?

Monsters Vs. Aliens Movie Review

Today with a friend we saw Monsters Vs. Aliens at a local theater as part of a spring free matinee promotion. The movie is currently available on DVD.

We enjoyed the movie. They had an intermission about half way through the movie which was nice to provide a bathroom break. However, it seemed like my daughter had a hard time getting back into the movie. Also, I felt like the initial setup was a little slow, especially for preschoolers.

Prior to seeing the movie, I had read reviews online about the appropriateness of the movie for young children including one that recommended it for children 7 and older. We still decided to go. I did not find the movie bad at all for my 4 year old. Of course, she regularly watches Scooby Doo & Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoons. There is some violence (it is a battle between Monsters and Aliens after all), but none of the heroes dies and even the villains are mostly bounced off screen (presumably to die). Actually during one scene, our kids found the the way the heroes were defeating the villains to be funny and were laughing at it. There was some very mild implication of sexuality/nudity. What was actually shown was very mild with an implication that went above the kids head.

Overall, this was a good movie that the kids enjoyed. I definitely recommend renting the DVD or otherwise seeing the movie.

St Patrick's Day - Green Treats

St Patty's Day reminds me of green, so filling out a meal with green is a great way to turn anything into a festive meal. A few green options

• Green Grapes
• Green Apple Slices
• Green Salad
• Green Beans
• Broccoli
• Asparagus

Dessert is another great way to introduce green. It is easy to dye frosting green or green sugar crystals. You can also find shamrock chocolate molds and I am sure there are St Patrick's Day sprinkles around.

So gear up for a St Patrick's Day Irish Menu and add a few Green Treats to fill it out.

See the previous blog posts in this series: St Patrick's Day Leprechaun Mischief and St Patrick's Day Hunting Rainbows.

St Patrick's Day - Irish Menu

Creating a St Patrick's Day menu with my 4 year old in mind is quite the challenge. Obviously, Guiness is out. None of us are very fond of corned beef or cabbage so we will be passing on that.

A definite for the day will be the milk that the leprechauns turned green (see Leprechaun Mischief). Breakfast is also fairly easy with Lucky Charms cereal.

I am leaning towards grilled cheese and soup for lunch. I'll get some Irish cheese, make grilled cheese sandwiches and use a shamrock cookie cutter to make them shamrocks. My preschooler loves soup, so I may try making this potato bacon chowder.

Ideas I have for dinner are: Irish stew, pulled pork, shepherd's pie. I may even consider making spaghetti "snakes". St Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland, so I can tie in something my preschooler loves to St Patrick's Day. Of course she will gladly settle for fish and chips if I use fish sticks.

What are you planning to serve for St Patrick's Day?? Share your meal ideas here.

See the previous entries in this blog series: St Patrick's Day Leprechaun Mischief, and St Patrick's Day Hunting Rainbows. Stay tuned for the next blog post: St Patrick's Day - Green Treats.

St Patrick's Day - Hunting Rainbows

Everyone knows that leprechaun's leave a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. For St Patrick's Day, my 4 year old is going to be going on a rainbow hunt culminating in a pot of gold.

Since we are going to be searching for the end of the rainbow, we will have color clues for each color of the rainbow. For example, the first clue will be for something red - in our case a red sofa in the family room. Hidden under the sofa will be the second clue, for something orange. I have not finalized what the clues are yet. For orange, maybe carrots or oranges in the refrigerator. Each clue will be on a shamrock. The clues will be for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and the pot of gold.

For the pot of gold, I found yellow Easter grass at Target. The Easter grass will allow me to fill the pot with a prize and still have it look like a pot of gold.

See the previous post in this blog: St Patrick's Day - Leprechaun Mischief. The next post in this blog series is: St Patrick's Day - Irish Menu followed by St Patrick's Day - Green Treats.

St Patrick's Day - Leprechaun Mischief

St Patrick's day is fast approaching. This blog will be the first in a series of St Patrick's Day Activities over the next few days. Each year, in the wee hours of St Patrick's Day, the leprechauns visit our house to make mischief. My daughter loves finding the mischief they have made. My daughter usually wakes up after my husband heads to work, so we have started the tradition of the leprechauns returning the next night to set everything right so she can show it to Daddy & anyone else who stops by.

First and foremost, we have green milk. A few drops of green food coloring into the milk. I hope to have only part of a gallon so we can finish it in a day or so, but have been known to dye only one glass worth for my daughter.

Other ideas we have used or plan to use:

• Swap throw pillows between living room and family room
• Move chairs between dining room and kitchen
• Move place mats around the table
• Hang things upside down - pictures, things on the refrigerator
• Move refrigerator magnets to the front door or the washing machine
• Park cars on the opposite side of the garage, even swapping cars for the day
• Move the car seat to a different position in the car (still in a safe location)

When she was young, I marked each bit of mischief with a section of green streamers to make it easier for her to find. You could also leave a small treat at each location (a shamrock sticker, a piece of "gold"). For pieces of gold, you can use yellow M&Ms or jelly beans.

What type of Leprechaun mischief is done at your house?

See the subsequent entries in this blog series: St Patrick's Day - Hunting Rainbows, St Patrick's Day - Irish Menu, and St Patrick's Day Green Treats.