10 things to do in a hotel room with a toddler.

So being that we have been in a hotel for about 3 weeks and still have a little more than 2 more to go has brought me to search for things to do with a toddler. I haven't had much luck finding any sort of helpful lists. The few lists I was able to dig up were silly and basically pointing towards, there is nothing to do in a hotel room. I was determined not to give up! There has to be SOMETHING. These days with technology you end up playing a lot of games or watching movies. That's all fine and dandy until you are sitting still so much in one room and slowly losing your mind. The internet may be vast but sometimes you can stare at the screen thinking, "I don't know what to look up" or "What site should I visit now?" all while drawing a blank. Plus these activities aren't good for your toddler who is so pent up with energy that he/she won't stop bouncing off the walls.

If you were smart enough to bring toddler friendly board games along on your trip that is a great alternative to TV and movies. I was not smart enough to pack any games. I did however pack some of my sons preschool workbooks. Those workbooks are great...unless you have a toddler who wants to run/play because he hasn't been able to therefor is only able to focus on the workbooks for about 15-20 minutes! So here are the ideas I came up with that my son is able to focus on and enjoy.

     1. Play with toys in the bath. Luckily my son got some sea life toy animals before we arrived at our hotel so he has had those to throw in there. This is a great pass time for a few reasons. First your toddler gets to use their imagination, second they get nice and clean, and third it keeps him/her in one spot SITTING for a little while.

     2. Color in a coloring book. If you have a toddler, you probably got crayons and coloring pages or a book somewhere along the way to your hotel or from a restaurant. I know this is similar to the work book but it doesn't involve them to focus or answer questions as much as a workbook. My son likes to ask me what to color each spot, which kind of turns it into a learning activity since he is correctly following my directions (example: color the hat red and the boots blue).

     3. Play outside. Most hotels have a court yard or outdoor area of some sort. Our current hotel has a small field next to the parking lot. In the summer/spring you can play tag. In the fall you can build big leave piles, and in the winter you can make a snowman/snow fort. There are so many different ways to play outside no matter what season.

     4. Play hide and seek in the room. This can be a great alternative to going outside if it is raining or just bad weather. There is usually plenty of furniture to hide behind and luckily with toddlers and young kids you don't need to hide well. Take turns hiding and searching. This can also be educational by adjusting what number to count to. If your child counts to 10 no problem up the count to 15, then 20. You can show them how by counting first and then let them try. I had to tell my son to count to 20 but count SLOW because he was counting so fast I couldn't even get behind a door before he was coming after me.

     5. If you have a computer or access to some kind of music, have a dance party. Even little boys enjoy jumping around to music. BONUS, it wears them out!

     6. Make/play with sock puppets. You don't need to own puppets to do this. Simply get some socks and get creative for the faces; use washable marker, use stickers to make the face, and if nothing else make a toothpaste face!

     7. Have a ball? Roll it back and forth or make a course to roll it through. If it's a soft ball you can play an gentle game of catch.

     8. Take silly pictures. Chances are that you probably have something to take pictures with whether it's a camera, your phone, a laptop, or a handheld game system of some sort. Get the silly's out by taking goofy pictures together.

     9. Build a fort. Go back to your childhood. What did you do on rainy days, at sleepovers, or just when you were bored? Build a blanket fort! Use pillows, sheets, blankets, cushion seats...whatever you have available. BONUS, this could make nap time fun.

     10. Explore. Have you looked to see what your hotel has to offer? Go check things out. If you've explored your hotel thoroughly then head outside and explore your surroundings. You might get lucky and find a park or a neat store. Plus it gets your toddler and yourself burning a little energy in the process.

Well that's all I've figured out so far, like I said before we still have a little more than 2 weeks to go so it's possible we could find more hotel room activities. Good luck with your adventure and I hope this helped!

Ashley

Reisen nach Deutschland

Hallo!

Brot, Zucker, Bitte, Auf Wiedersehen, Teller, Tische, Obst, Tasse, Glas, Tschüs, Orangensaft, Apfel, Die Frau, Der Mann, Das Kind, Das Mädchen...

Okay, okay...if you haven't noticed those are all German words. I am working on learning German. Why German you ask? Well, my husband, son, and myself are now living in Germany for the next 3 years. It's exciting, yes! It is also a culture shock. Learning another language doesn't seem like such a big deal until YOU are the one who can't speak the language of the Country. Now just to clarify, the words above are not the only ones I know. I just figured that was enough to get my point across. :D

So I realize it's been quite awhile since I've updated this blog. I really am HORRIBLE at this. However, I am here now and will explain...

My husband requested to be stationed in Germany so that we may see some of the world while we can. It has been quite an interesting and stressful few months. We had to go to a bunch of appointments and make sure we did everything we needed to in order to be able to come to Germany. We drove cross country (West Texas to Central Florida) to visit family before we flew to the airport where we would board our flight to Germany. Once we arrived in Germany it was errand after errand trying to situates ourselves here. You don't realize everything that needs to be done until you arrive just because it is within a different Country. A different bank account to use with local German businesses, new phone companies you've never heard of, getting a P.O. Box and then figuring out how to forward mail to an APO address, taking the proper driving test, getting around and trying to FIND your way around, learning to interact in a different language...really the list goes on and on! Just like anything else though, with a little practice (and the occasional help from good 'ole Google) you will learn and adapt. There are still things we are trying to do and accomplish but some of them, such as learning a language, will take time and continuous effort.

On the bright side we are in a beautiful Country, we get to experience the seasons again, see a different culture, and travel. There are so many places to go and see that I don't think we'll be able to see it all even in the 3 years we'll be here. We sure will try though!

For now we are still in a hotel while we wait to move in to our post housing. Luckily we have a kitchen to use so that we can cook our own meals. The downfall of still being in a hotel is that there is not much to do. I haven't put a lot of thought into it yet but it is very likely that my next post will be; Things to do in a hotel with a toddler. Trust me I have searched Pinterest for ideas with no luck. So I am off to make my own list, wish me luck!

Bis Bald!

Ashley

Crash! Bam! Ka-pow! Zap! Prepare for Mason's 4th Birthday!!!

So my son, Mason, will be turning 4 next month. With him reaching this age begins him choosing his own birthday theme and having age appropriate games. Since I gave him the choice of what he wants his birthday to be he decided that a Spiderman birthday party is what he wanted. My first thoughts of course were "Spiderman?! Geeze how am I going to make this fun?" Well!! Tell you what, even though this wasn't originally what I thought of as a 'fun' theme I have really gotten into it and I'm getting more and more excited for his birthday! First off when I thought Spiderman all I could picture was the party store supplies like plates, cups, and napkins. What else can you do to bring Spiderman to the party in a fun way? Well I have found a few cool things to do thanks to the internet!!I found an idea to turn old t-shirts into capes! Now that's cool! I also made some custom signs to hang around the house and have began to make a list of Spiderman colored foods to have at the party. Along with those ideas I have got all kinds of goodies for the kids and am in the process of figuring out how to do something that will be fun for everyone (parents and kids)! I've got all kinds of ideas all of a sudden and now I need to prepare them for the party. Here's a peak of what I've made for the party.

Masons cape :)

The signs I made.

Needless to say I'm keeping myself busy and having fun with this. I hope Mason likes it as much as I do when it's all put together!! :)

Green Smoothies...

Hey all,

So I have heard a lot about green smoothies and I love smoothies so I figured I'd try it out. I bought some fresh kale and spinach and used a bit of both in my first green smoothie. I added some frozen peaches, a whole banana and orange juice to start. Once it was blended I didn't think it was thick enough so I added some frozen pineapple and a few frozen strawberries (we like to eat frozen fruit as a snack instead of ice cream). Well it was good but I really wish I could completely purify the greens. I think next time I'll try purifying the greens with the juice first before I add anything else. Maybe that'll help take the texture down. The texture wasn't bad just different haha. Any ways all in all the flavor is still good and even better for you. So it's worth continuing to find our favorite combo (Mason tried some also). I also made Popsicles with the leftover smoothie...Masons not a huge fan of them but we'll keep trying. :)

Six Dollar Click??

First off I want to start by saying that I am extremely skeptical of any online money making opportunities you see. Don't get me wrong I'd love to sit at home and click a few buttons and make money!! That would be awesome right? Well that brings me to this, Six Dollar Click. Well I saw this and thought it sounded too good to be true. I decided to check it out since a Facebook friend introduced it to me. I pull up the site, fill out some basic information and BAM. I'm ready to click some adds. You click on a link and stay on the page for the 60 seconds (it counts down for you) then when you are done it will tell you to Click a specific number so you choose that number from the selection and, whoola, you have completed a $6.00 click. Now you are supposed to only get 5 a day so that means 5 minutes of your time which equals out to $6,000 every 200 days. A long time to wait? Well for 5 minutes a day and it not being your sole income than I think that's pretty awesome. Who can't use an extra $6,000? It's like a tax return! On top of the $6.00 for every link you click you also get another $3-$5 for every person you refer. Technically the 200 days comes from assuming you will only make $30 dollars a day. I however am already at $52.20 for one day. I almost have 2 days work in one! If I keep up like this i'll be able to cash out my $6,000 in a little over 100 days. On top of that the company uses Paypal to pay you which makes me happy because I like Paypal and always feel more secure going through it than anything else. So what are you waiting for? I say give it a shot and if it doesn't pay off well hey, it's no worse than playing the lotto. At least this is free and you don't have to waste gas! ;)

Corn on the cob...the easy way!

Hello Everyone!

I haven't posted in a day or two which I know isn't too bad but if I want to keep up with this I need to keep posting this frequently. Any who, since I haven't done or found any new projects yet I thought I'd post about my experiment tonight. I first saw this idea for microwave no mess corn on the cob on Facebook. I was amazed, it looked so simple and I LOVE easy meal ideas. Plus corn on the cob is one of my favorite veggie sides. Well I didn't know where the original post for the corn on the cob was so I Googled it and found this one from Deep South Dish. It's so simple! Basically you take some corn on the cob, stick it in the microwave, cook for 4 minutes (microwaves vary mine took 6 minutes), take the corn on the cob out of the microwave, cut off the big closed end, and squeeze the corn out. Voila, no mess, quick, and delicious! I was so excited when this worked exactly as I read. Yay! Now I can have corn on the cob without the mess (which I hate). So who is as excited about this as I am??? Try it out! I promise you will enjoy it. The only down fall to this is that you can only do 1-2 pieces at a time. If you need specifics go on over and check out Deep South Dish with their step by step directions and comments.

Have a great night. :)

Nightstand into Kids Work Bench

Hello again!

Okay so I told you that I was making a tutorial on a project I was doing that I found on Pinterest. The specific idea I found came from The Frugal Granny. It's a wonderful idea for a kids work bench made from an old nightstand. While I was looking at this on Pinterest I realized that I had a nightstand in Masons room being used for storage that was almost identical to the nightstand The Frugal Granny used. I instantly decided I had to do this! I mean I have the nightstand, it's for toys, AND it was in a little rough shape. So why NOT do it? Here is how I went about creating Masons tool bench.

What you'll need:

- An old nightstand

- Sand paper

- Paint (I bought what I call 'booboo' paint from Wal-Mart in the most fun color I could find)

- Painters Tape

- Chalk Board Paint

- A few paint brushes

- Yard Stick

- Peg board

- Peg Hooks

- Nails and a Hammer

How I did it:

This is the nightstand I started with. Nothing special.

I first sanded down the surfaces that would be painted just to give it a rough enough edge for the paint to stick. I was lucky enough to have a nightstand that had already been repainted once so I didn't need to sand it too much to get a good painting surface.

After I finished sanding it I gave it two coats of my fun colored 'booboo' paint (the kind of paint that was mixed incorrectly so they put it on clearance to sell the color).

Here is the painted nightstand.

I did the yellow painting on one day and everything else the next day to ensure the paint was dry. So on the 2nd day I first started by using my painters tape to mark off a section to paint the top of my work bench.

I then filled the middle with Chalk Board Paint so that my son can 'mark' his measurements.

I did three coats of this paint to be sure that I had a good surface. Once the paint was pretty much dried I removed my painters tape to see my chalk board surface.

I then took a yard stick that I found at Lowe's for .62 cents (score!) and cut it. I cut the yard stick to the length of the drawer so that it fits between the ends of the nightstand.

To attach the yard stick it would probably be best to use wood glue or something of the sort but I didn't have any so I used Super Glue and it worked perfectly for me .

Now comes the part that I am no good at. Nailing the peg board onto the nightstand. At Lowe's you can buy the smaller sheet of peg board and it just so happened that it was the perfect height from floor to how tall I wanted it. That way it is able to be nailed onto more of the nightstand so that it has more stability. The piece was a little too wide but not worth me messing with cutting it (that would of been scary! lol). So I just centered it and went to nailing.

 Now the one flaw I had when I did this project was a crooked nail. I have no perfected the art of hammering nails yet but luckily it doesn't affect the whole work bench so it's okay!

The most difficulty I had with this project was finding the peg board hooks at Lowe's! It wasn't in hardware or in the closet organization aisle (which is where I was directed to find them). Nope, they were in an electrical aisle in a random section of bike hooks and tool organizers. I found them after circling the aisles multiple times. 

\

So much searching for these! Anyways, after I had the peg board nailed onto the nightstand I got to organize Masons tools.

I think that this is the cutest thing ever if I do say so myself! :)  I couldn't help but smile at the finished product. It honestly was not difficult to do and I enjoyed doing it! Hopefully I can find some other awesome idea's that I am successful at and share them with you again! 

Here's Mason using his tools to fix his little car. :) As soon as I put it in his room he was using it! Hopefully he keeps up playing with it!!

That was my adventure for the last two days. I hope you enjoyed it and got a few idea's yourself. I will now go back to hunting Pinterest for my next projects.