Theme Days

Yesterday was Hawaiian night. This is a really fun thing for kids and grownups too! (This was one of those ideas I mentioned earlier when we did an Enrichment for kid's activities. I will try and feature more ideas and will post them under the "Fun for Kids" label. So stay tuned. I would love any ideas any of you have to add too!!)We looked up all of our names in Hawaiian and had to call each other by it all night. Hudson's name was Hudokonu. We decorated with Hawaiian decor and decided to eat on the "beach." We watched a movie filmed in Hawaii (Blue Crush) but you could watch Lilo and Stitch if kids were watching too!
We dressed up in Hawaiian shirts and bare feet or sandals. We didn't have leis but that will be an improvement for next time! We also didn't get around to this but you can wrap your ironing board in a beach towel to make a surf board to take some candid shots with! Then you could always Photoshop it onto a beach scene.
We had Hawaiian Haystacks, fresh pineapple, Hawaiian punch, Ocean water and Hawaiian shaved ice for dessert (which is really just frozen fruit cocktail and the juices from fruit cans frozen. Then we used a shave ice machine to make it into shaved ice!) There are lots of other fun Hawaiian things you could do too! This was a lot of fun and created what could have been just another night into something really fun!Here are some other fun theme day activities that you could do:

Indoor Campout
Smores, Tin foil on a stick dinners, set up tents/forts inside, use lanterns & flashlights

Pajama Day
Make pillowcases, eat breakfast for every meal, bedtime stories, wear pj's all day, have a big sleepover in the living room

Christmas
Get pictures ready for Christmas cards (all dress in red and green and take photos), make Christmas treats you never get around to making in Dec or just your faves, do a Christmas project, listen to Christmas music, watch Christmas movies, wear red and green or Christmas clothes all day

Movie Day
Be a movie character and use their name all day and dress up like them, eat food from the movie, watch movies all day

Rock Day
Listen to rock music, print off rock bands and decorate with their album covers or names, make pet rocks, make rock bugs, go on a rock hung (find the sparkliest, smallest, looks like a heart, sharpest, etc), make rock necklaces, go to a Geology Museum

King/Queen for the day
Let them choose what to do (within reason of course!), what to wear, what to eat, call them king/queen all day, make a crown and let them wear it, could always learn about kings/queens in history

What a "Storey"

We had a fun little picnic at Storey Park last Friday. Hudson ate a little and then was all about playing. We did not eat fast enough for him apparently! He kept walking by himself over to the swings. Guess the fear of grass has been overcome!He used to like swings okay but now he LOVES them! He laughed and laughed and didn't want to get out.He also loves to slide. I love the look on his face in this one! Mike took him down the big, bumpy slide first. They had a great time and it looked like fun so I decided to get in on the fun too!
I must have caught some serious air going down that slide because I couldn't stop us! We went over the last bump and I couldn't use my arms to slow us down and my shoes were falling off so my feet were useless too! We flew right off the slide and landed like this! I couldn't stop laughing and I think everyone around me couldn't either! Sometimes it is kind of fun to crash and burn!Grammy decided to take him on a less crazy slide. Who can blame her after seeing what happened to me?!Hudson enjoyed driving the ship even with all the pirates (aka teeny boppers) chucking fruit at each other. Luckily, we survived the attack and Hudson had a great time!

BoDo

BoDo
\beau-doh\ noun
:Downtown area of Boise Idaho with lots of trendy fun places to eat, shop and be entertained

All is Well

I finished Work and the Glory 9 today. This has been a long time coming but I finally settled down and read most of it yesterday! It was a great book and an exciting ending to the Work and the Glory series. Definitely a LONG read for the entire series but so well worth it! It was so interesting to read about all the work and effort that the Saints made to get to the Salt Lake Valley in this last book. I learned so much reading not only this one but the whole series. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the church's history as well as pioneers and the hardships they faced.

Sandy Point

Hudson had a great time at Sandy Point. It is a state park just below Lucky Peak Dam. The water comes from a reservoir so its like river water but it is super fun to swim in! Hudson loved digging in all the sand and playing in the water! His Uncle Bry took him way out in his float tube. Hudson had a blast! We took a picnic and ate lunch and then tested out the waters!His teeth started to chatter (must take after his mom!) so I took him out and snuggled him up warm. When I was a kid, I had a traumatic near drowning experience here so Mike and Bryan made me go out to the fountain and face my fears (there is a shot of the fountain in the first picture)!! It was fun and not as freaky as I remembered it as a kid! The water in the fountain is ICE cold though so when it hits you, you only stay under there for a short time!
Then Hudson built a sand castle with Bryan. He had fun getting sand all over place and knocking down the castle. Hudson kept trying to drink the water from one of his toys and licking all the rocks. Hopefully he didn't get some strange bacteria!

Strange zoo animals

The Zoo has some of your typical zoo animals but it also has a lot of really strange ones. There was this animal that is a member of a gerbil family I think but it looked like a cross between a bunny and a dog.We got there about lunch time so we were "lucky" enough to check out their food. It was probably the most disgusting looking thing I have seen in a while!
Gotta love this hairdo!! I voted it the coolest bird at the zoo. (Well besides the Bald Eagles!)I loved this turtle. It is probably one of the biggest I have ever seen! It really didn't move or do anything but Hudson got a kick out of it! They also had a kimono dragon and some Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches by this. Made me think a little too much about Fear Factor. Not really a fan of those!They also have the most beautiful tigers. It is amazing how huge tigers are. It was fascinating to just sit and watch them. I know that sounds lame but their paws are like the size of a baby's head! They had these tiger replicas outside of the tiger exhibit and Hudson couldn't get enough of sitting on it. He loved that! He seriously did not want to leave that part of the zoo. We put Tanner on it with him which Hudson was not a huge fan of but at least we got a few good pictures with them on it!It was a great time at the zoo. Zoo Boise has so many different things for kids. They are currently working on an African section that is going to be an awesome addition too!

Zoo Boise

On Wednesday, Hudson, his Grammy, my Aunt Jody and her two boys (Zach and Tanner) and I went to the zoo. It was a lot of fun and wasn't too hot so it was a great day to go. There are so many cool things for kids to climb on and through at the zoo. This was a cool tunnel with skylights that Hudson was cautiously walking through.Tanner enjoying his sun shade! They have this awesome giraffe slide that we took turns taking Hudson on. He is a little daredevil. He loved it!!

Linen District

We went to the Linen District on Tuesday. It is a really cool area downtown that they have fixed up. They have a great "white trash" like place to eat, Donnie Mac's. It is a trailer park cuisine. I love the decor they have with shower curtains, old tablecloths and old car parts.
This is some art work on the outside of the building. It is a pretty cool tag. I am not sure about this, but I think they did it themselves. This is the outside waiting area that has old ghetto couches. It is such a cool ambiance in this place!Hudson did not want to drink his apple juice. He kept taking over his Grandma's Diet Coke. No worries, he did not drink that whole cup! Just about 1/3 of it! He also enjoyed his mini corn dogs and french fries. Gotta love a trailer park cuisine!I liked this shot of Bryan. That cup looks huge in the picture. They had these cool watercolor originals on the walls that they sell.Here is the old '44 Chevy that is in the center of the restaurant that you can actually sit in while you eat. There were a bunch of young boys eating in there that kept checking out Hudson. He was enjoying watching them play around.