Remember when I posted this back in March, promising to follow up on the other cool things that we did while in Las Vegas (namely a certain chocolate factory, yum!).  Well I am finally delivering.

(And in the interest of full disclosure, we did not choose to take our kids to Las Vegas just for the fun of kids experiencing Vegas.  We were in the city on business, and tried to find things that would help us avoid the filth and focus on the fun.  This is not a place we take the family to without a really good reason.)  So without further ado, here are a few things that we did in Vegas with our kids!

Our business necessitated us to be on the strip.  And while there are a ton of pretty ridiculous things about the strip (crazy traffic, inappropriate ads, more traffic, more inappropriate ads, etc), there are also some really cool things to distract wandering eyes as well.  I snapped the above picture out the Jeep window as we sat in some (you guessed it) traffic, but there are some other great architecture and themed resorts as well that the kids were fascinated with (like the MGM Lion, roller coasters right above the sidewalk, the Statue of Liberty replica, etc).  The Bellagio Dancing Fountains were on our to-see list (they play every 30 minutes from 3PM – 7PM, and every 15 minutes from 7PM – midnight) as well as the Mirage Volcano (which plays on the hour from 6-11 PM).

We ended up staying at the Circus Circus, which is on the “non-cool” side of the strip, but that was JUST FINE with us.  We decided on this hotel because it was well reviewed, it had kid friendly entertainment, and because the price was one of the lowest we could find (because we’re cheap like that, lol).  The price was ridiculously good (just $24 a night! yes!) but be warned that there is a small resort fee when you check in.  If I remember correctly it was $7 or so a day.  I think that this is pretty common among hotels in the area, though.

As you can see above, our room was clean and well updated.  The walls are well decorated (loved the art!) but are super thin (you get to know your neighbors by name since you can hear them so well, lol… or not so lol as the case may be…).  The housekeeping was great and while the carpet was slightly worn in high traffic areas (such as near the doorways), it was well maintained and much cleaner than I expected.  I let Zu roam the floors without much worry at all.  The room floor was one of my high priority items when choosing a hotel, because we had a crawler.  :)

And speaking of Zu, the poor kid got sick on the drive to Vegas.  He was a trooper though!  We spent most of the first day in the hotel room, and we had to find ways to occupy ourselves.  Since he was slowly getting better, I finally let him indulge in a lollipop.  He loved it and got it all over his face.  As I first took it away to get him cleaned up, I got this sad puppy dog face.

Which was soon followed by an all out wail.  Stupid me, taking candy from a baby.

He soon forgave me though.  Thank goodness! ;)  But back to the hotel…

I’m really glad we chose to stay at Circus, Circus since we ended up spending so much time there.  The kids loved the circus acts on the main level (you do have to walk through”green areas” of the casino to access this level, just as a heads up if that bothers you) and seeing the other exhibits like the Chuck Jones Experience (we didn’t pay to get in, we just did the free stuff outside) and meandering through the Adventuredome, which is the hotel’s indoor theme park, complete with rides and midway games.

After spending WAY too much time on hotel property, we were finally well enough to venture out.  We checked out the Cactus Gardens, which I talked about earlier, and the adjacent CHOCOLATE FACTORY (!!!!) by Ethel M Chocolates.  I’ll be honest, I was expecting a bit more of an “experience” (like the Jelly Belly factory in California- I totally recommend that tour!) and less of a “viewing hallway,” but it was still interesting nonetheless.  They had some super good info on the walls and the staff was extra friendly and nice.  And you can’t complain about free chocolate, right?!?

I was excited to see this information on the first wall of the “tour.”  It fit along perfectly with the Magic School Bus episode we watched in preparation for our excursion, “The Magic School Bus in the Rain Forest,” which helped us learn about chocolate in the real “making of” sense- straight from a rain forest bean.  They also had maps of where each type of chocolate bar is made (3 Musketeers v. M&Ms, etc) and other interesting trivia along the way.  Two educational thumbs up from this happy mama.

And to keep with our chocolate theme (and to search out the ever elusive “M&M Lightsaber” for J-Zee, which they did stock, thank goodness!) we headed back closer to our hotel and toured the impressive M&M’s World back on Las Vegas Boulevard.

We had missed the free 3D movie, but did get to see the wicked awesome Wall-o-M&Ms, the personalized M&M printing machine, and the M&M Nascar Car they had on the top floor.  Not too shabby for a gift shop, lol.  :)

Overall, a pretty awesome field trip!  Check out Life’s Adventures for other ideas from around the globe!  And be sure to leave other ideas of things for us to do in Las Vegas with little kids, as it seems like we might just be making it a habit of going there.  Yay?

So I finally got around to getting the pictures off of my phone.  It’s only been about 8 months, but I did it!  When looking through all the goodness that I had saved on that smart little thing, I realized that we really do have a random, RANDOM life.  So here’s to that random life of ours- “Mundo Classroom Life in 20 Cell Phone Snapshots.”  It is random, but it is oh so good!

Mini Us

  

Creepy Baby In The Pantry

  

Family Basketball Jam

  

Zu in a Basket

  

San Francisco Story: Traffic

  

Can You Spot the Spider?

  

My Zu

  

Rocket Computer!

  

General Conference in a Tent

  

First Timer!

  

Map Skills

  

Shopping Cart Art

  

Inspecting Pumpkins

  

Playing Piano

  

Do-It-Yourself Mechanical Bull

  

Simply Ice Cream

  

I Love Utah!

  

Marriage Material

  

Plant Identification

  

Ela’s Artwork

  

Unschooling is Fun!

One day I found these two next to the back door, with Zu excitedly jabbering about something and pointing out the window. Ela had her arm around him and was nodding and playing along, while pointing to the same things as a way to say, “Yep, Zu, that is pretty cool.”  Ela has taken on her role of big sister so well, and loves to interact with and teach Zu just about everything.

And on another day, I glanced back at J-Zee, to find him reading one of his Star Wars books to Zu, while they were both wielding their lightsabers. And not only that, but he let Zu have the biggest one!  Brother bonding time. I love it!

And even when they are playing independently, I love it when they just stop and get good and distracted by a great book in the middle of the chaos

or when I find them cuddled up with a book in the strangest places.

These are definitely some Moments to Remember!

We were able to go to the Church History Museum in downtown Salt Lake City last month for our group field trip. The exhibit that we attended was called “A Book of Mormon Fiesta: A Latin–American Celebration.” The kids had a lot of fun learning about various aspects of modern Latin American culture within the framework of the gospel and various scripture stories.

The Man of the House even got into some of the exhibits.  Here he is (above) copying ancient looking writing on a gel-type pad (it seemed like a thinner, more professional version of these).

They were also able to fish from the side of Nephi’s boat (this was probably J-Zee’s favorite)

and build temples with larger than life building blocks.

Ela really liked the wooden dolls with the velcro and felt clothing.  We might need to pick up a set of these for her.  She was in love!

The overall group favorite was probably the food section of the exhibit.  They had a shape matching garden area where you could sort by shape, color, or food type.

There was also a table where you could feed the missionaries

and a chicken coop out back where you could gather fresh eggs.

My personal favorite was the sound mixing station.  It had several Primary Songs to choose from that were being played with traditional Latin American instruments.  You could have the song play with just one of the instruments, or you could add in as many instruments as you wanted.  It was pretty fun, but a bit confusing for J-Zee.  Looks like we need to focus on music a bit more before we try something like this again.

Ela’s favorite part of the exhibit was getting to dress up and dance to the Latin music.  They had two big screens set up with simple dance instruction- one side for boys and the other side for girls.  She loved twirling in the large skirt (and having a flower headband to wear was just icing on the cake).

J-Zee didn’t really get into the dancing, but he loved driving the delivery truck with his trusted sidekick

and he really got into the tortilla toss.  He only hit the sister missionaries twice, lol.  They soon moved out of the tortilla flight path, though.  After that, he was much more successful.  :)

And then we finished up the day by embossing special necklaces for everyone to take home.

It was a fun, wholesome adventure that was definitely worth the drive downtown.  If you are in the area, you should check it out!  This exhibit is open through the end of the year and it’s FREE!

While we were in Las Vegas, Nevada a few weeks ago, we were able to check out a Botanical Cactus Garden adjacent to the Ethel M Chocolate Factory (more on the chocolate factory later- it’s pretty cool place!)

The Cactus Garden was pretty awesome, and is actually one of the world’s largest of its kind. If you have an extra hour or two while in the area, I highly recommend stopping by! The groundskeepers do an awesome job, and the variety is amazing!

One of the workers went out of their way to show us this cute little bunny rabbit that was hanging out near the entrance of the garden.  The kids loved it!

And how fitting that the rabbit was chilling right next to the “Rabbit Ears” cactus.  It must have known- what a smart rabbit!

And while we were looking at this cool cactus (above) I thought out loud, that looks like an aloe vera plant. Turns out, it is in the aloe family! I was so very, very proud of myself. :)

There were tons of really interesting cactuses (did you know that cacti, cactuses, and cactus are all accepted plural forms of cactus?) This one looked like it had long gray hair hanging off of it, and was aptly named “Old Man of the Andes.”

And this one above is dedicated to my brother. The Argentine Toothpick!

The kids thought this one was “silly” because it looked like strawberries were growing all over it, but it is called a Prickly Pear. I wonder why?

The gardens were beautiful,

but apparently a little scary too. J-Zee now claims he is afraid of cactuses. Silly boy.

It was a great (and much needed) nature break after spending a couple days surrounded by the concrete and neon lights of Vegas.

You can see what other cool places people are field trippin’ at all over the world here.

January’s Book Club was based on the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr and illustrated by Eric Carle. I picked this book because of the repetition and fun illustrations.

We started off book club by rereading the book as a group and talking about our favorite parts. We talked a bit about the illustrations and then watched the end of this clip:

We skipped the first part of the video and started at 1:42, since we were most interested in how he creates his interesting illustrations.

Next up, we talked briefly about our 5 senses. We pointed out how Brown Bear, Brown Bear was about sight and then read another book in this “series” that was about another one of the senses- hearing!

I really liked reading Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? with the kids because they were making all the sound effects for us. I don’t know what braying like a zebra or flirting like a flamingo sounds like, but they sure do! It was a fun read aloud.

We spent the remainder of our book club time (and then some- this was a marathon of sorts, lol) doing some fun, messy art projects.  The goal was to collect a group of pages that each had a different texture and feel so that we would have our very own animal book focused on a different sense- touch!

The kids really liked each of these projects, but two of the favorite parts of the day were melting the crayons and using q-tips to spread glue (more on that later in the post). It’s the simple things in life sometimes, right? :)

We started by coloring a few pages as a group, and then I pulled them one at a time to create their bat page. I set up a candle warmer (I got the idea from this pin) and held the paper for them as they colored and watched the crayons melt onto their page, right before their eyes! This made for a fun waxy pool of color, that hardened within seconds to create an interesting bat-ish texture for their page. The candle warmer was just the right size (less hot pad to touch) and reached a warm enough temperature to melt the crayons without being too hot.

Next up, the second novelty of the day- a community plate of glue.  Wow.  I had no idea this would be so very popular!  We first used the glue to attach our toothpicks to our porcupine.

And then made a mess with it as we put short hair onto our bull.

And when I say we made a mess, we definitely made a mess!

Our other pages and projects for the day included gluing feathers on a duck

and ripping tin foil sheets into little pieces to make scales for our fish.

We also had to do a cotton ball sheep

and the messiest project of them all- glue and glitter on dragonflies!  Oh me, oh my… what an innocent thing- glitter.  I had no idea glitter was so evil!  That stuff might not come out again for awhile, lol.  I was cleaning that glitter out of our dining room area for weeks.  In fact, there might still be some there, hiding.  And mocking me and my naïveté.

After we were all done, I tied all the pages together with some string (I had pre-punched the pages with a hole punch before we started) and, voila!  An instant, personalized, touch and feel animal book.  The plan had been to talk about adjectives and narrate the book to each other in true Brown Bear-esque style, but we were so very done at this point.  Instead, we finished up with an animal cracker and string cheese snack and called it a day.

You can check out our other Book Club books here or see what other book inspired art projects people have going on over at stART.

It’s that time of year again! Time for the annual Train Show at Thanksgiving Point! We had the opportunity of going to the model railroading show last month, and the kids loved it! Thanks so much for the invite, Dad!

Most of the displays were roped off so that they wouldn’t be destroyed by people touching the delicate details, but a few displays were open and supervised so that the kids could try their hands at operating the trains all by themselves.  My kids have done this before, but it’s always fun to try out new trains!

This layout was landscaped just like popular areas around Utah. My favorite was seeing their rendition of the Purple Turtle! It was amazing the amount of detail that these train enthusiasts put into their work. I grew up around trains, so I DEFINITELY know how much time it takes to make something with this amount of detail. Pretty cool!

And one of the most popular draws for the kids is the Lego layout. While this isn’t a traditional form of model railroading, it is a fun one!

Ela loved seeing the tower from Disney’s Tangled.

And J-Zee liked the Lego Star Wars corner the best.

And lest you think that we left poor Zu at home to fend for himself, here is his cute little patient face. You’ve got to have a good dose of patience, especially when he’s dealing with these two crazy siblings!

I believe that those smiles show that the train show was a success!  Kids get in for free and adults are just $5, so if you are thinking about heading out to one, this is a great one to try out!

The Fire Station! What a cool place!

We were able to check out the inside of an ambulance

and then they gave us some of our very own fire hats

while we chatted with a fireman up close

and then we even got to sit in the front seat of the big, long fire truck!

After that, the firemen showed us all the cool compartments in the fire engine

and some of the really big tools that they use

and even let us try to hold up the “Jaws of Life!”

They had lots of cool stuff to tell us about, and told us how to be safe in a fire too.

And now we know what firemen look like in case they ever come to help us at our house

because they let one of us dress up in their fire gear!

They also showed us their silly mask that helps them breathe so we wouldn’t be scared and hide from them.

Thank you fire fighters! We had a lot of fun!

Here it is… February 2012 already! I’d say that means that it’s about time to get 2011 caught up and recorded. This isn’t a full review of all the learning we had going on last year, but it is a good sampling of what I was able to take pictures of and haven’t yet blogged about (since I am blatantly bad at taking pictures, there are obvious holes here, but you get the idea).

The Man of the House (a former balloon artist for those of you that weren’t aware) taught our two oldest to make a simple balloon dog. You can learn so much from making balloon animals! It’s crazy!

We also started a “Kitchen Wednesday” routine before Zu was born (it has since fallen away, but I hope to resurrect it again soon). The kids would join me in the kitchen to make something simple. J-Zee would do our fraction measuring, Ela could count the amount of cups we had already added, etc. There is a ton of math going on in the kitchen!

And of course, a bit of alphabet recognition too. The kids loved the week we made these Jello Letter Jigglers. Thanks to my mom for passing along these Jello molds. They were a hit!

We also did a TON of reading aloud this past year. We are so lucky to have family close that love to read to our kids! Thank you family!

We do A LOT of math in our house, probably more than any other subject. Math is an integral part of our lives- from our family businesses to counting orange slices at lunch- it is EVERYWHERE! My love for math (and the kids eagerness to consume it) leads to math overload sometimes, but in a very good way. Here we sorted legos by color, and then estimated which color had the most.

In order to figure out if we estimated correctly, we made them into a giant lego bar graph!  This was completely spontaneous (as are 90% of our learning activities).  The kids predicted white had the most (I think because the pile was more spread out and had a bigger visual area).  They were close, but yellow had a few more this time.

J-Zee has had a very strong attachment to shields this year. So we pulled out some of the math manipulatives that my mom was able to pass along to us and made up our own game with these knight flash cards. Since I don’t believe in flash cards just for the sake of flash cards, we had the knight hold up a math problem on his shield that represented how many dragons he had to defend.  J-Zee would then figure out the answer to the math problem (he can do these in his head really quickly) and then place that many dragons out for the knight to fight.  J-Zee is great at math, but we hadn’t ever presented it on paper to him before this day.  He would do it verbally or in real life, but never saw it written like on a worksheet (ie with a plus sign, etc).  He caught on with the very first shield!  I was super impressed with his ability to transfer from life to paper (much easier than the other way around, in my opinion).

He loved the game, so we made up another one with some astronaut cards. This time we had a stack of cards in the middle face down. He would draw a card and tell me the answer. If he was right, he got to keep the cards. If he got it wrong, I got the card. At the end, he counted both of our piles to see who the winner was. Instead of simply counting, he spread his pile out in a long, curving line. He obviously won (I had 4 cards, I think). And he celebrated by contorting his leg in this super awkward position. It makes my legs hurt just looking at it, lol. It still makes me smile. =)

We also utilized our new pattern blocks a few times. J-Zee used them the most, by making free form objects like the truck above, but also by filling in the blank shapes in a pattern book we were given (thanks again Mom!). These are some of my favorite math manipulatives- they are similar to tangrams, but a little bit more versatile and easy for my youngerish kids.

Once it warmed up a bit, we spent time learning outside. J-Zee learned how to make a fire from Grandma at one of our many cookouts in her backyard.

We also harvested berries from her yard late in the year. Uncle J helped us with this one.

And to add a bit of excitement to a Father and Sons camp out, life flight made an appearance. (The boy is fine, thank goodness!) This started several conversations about community helpers (paramedics, etc) and helicopter mechanics.

Ela received a packet of multi-color water beads for her birthday (like the floral beads you often see at weddings), and the kids loved watching them expand and change from tiny hard beads to big squishy (bouncy!) balls. Awesome science! The Man of the House even got in on the action by performing some impromptu experiments while they sat beside our kitchen sink for a few days. It was pretty fun!

And we even experimented with some BIGGER balls. These giant marble balls are found in lots of places (my kids have recently seen and played with them at Disneyland, the Zoo, and at this local park). They never cease to get tired of these.

We also started a multi-year project of collecting postcards from all 50 states and as many countries as we can. Many thanks to the family and friends that have helped us so far. We already have a good handful of states crossed off our map, and several countries too! The kids love to run to the mailbox to get their postcards (when one arrives, I like to leave it in the mailbox for them to find). We’ll probably do a big post on this later.

And yes, he is pointing to Nebraska with a pirate sword.

The kids learned a lot about Japan (here and here) and asked to learn how to eat with chopsticks. We first tried our hand at it at one of our favorite Hawaiian places (via a youtube video in the middle of the restaurant on my brother’s phone- people probably thought we were crazy!).

And then later got a first hand lesson at a yummy Korean restaurant with some friends (not pictured).

We also watched several (if not all) of the Republican Presidential debates. Zu liked it (but he likes anything with lights). J-Zee and Ela insisted that the candidates were getting ready for church (in suits and ties). Once we explained the significance of what they were trying to do (lead the country) that argument went down, just in time for J-Zee to loudly announce that they needed to be taught the Word of Wisdom because they kept talking about going to a “tea party” (as they were talking about the Tea Party movement).

The kids have actually liked listening and watching the debates with us. I am amazed at how much they understand and learn each time. I am so glad we decided to involve them with us, even though they are pretty young.

J-Zee started a business this year! It’s called “[J-Zee's] Laundry Business.” He learned how to fold laundry and once he was able to do it independently he contracted with me to fold all the kid laundry at our house. If he fails to fold a load in time, then he has to pay me to do it. He sure is lucky that my price is 20% less than his price. What a bargain!

J-Zee was also able to go to a Primary activity where all the kids decorated cardboard boxes to look like cars. Once they showed up to the activity, they all sat in their “cars” and watched a “drive-in movie.” J-Zee of course had to make Mater (from Disney Cars). He helped me make the outline and rough details, and then colored and finished it up himself. It still sits in his room today!

My kids both love messy art, but I have been a bit hesitant to break out the paints for my kids. I was afraid that they might paint each other, the walls, etc. but I finally got brave enough and skipped the watercolors and went straight to acrylics. We made these canvases as gifts, and the kids loved it! I need to be a bit braver more often. Nobody died. And the walls are still intact.

First the kids helped me make a design on their canvases with painters tape.

Then they painted the white space in solid colors (Ela gave hers a bit more artistic license, but the idea was the same). After painting, we pulled off the tape to let their masterpieces dry! Super easy, super fun, and I really like how they turned out!

Speaking of gifts, we were the lucky recipients of a brand new Kindle Fire for Christmas this year. We weren’t expecting it, but the kids have had a lot of fun playing with it. There are a ton of great preschool apps out there that are F-R-E-E!!! I like free! And the kids love, love, love the Kindle.

Other than that, we’ve just been working, hanging out, and spending time with family. One of the fun places we were able to go to at the end of the year was Boondocks in Draper.

The kids loved the 4 story tall indoor play structure. I was surprised with how clean it was, and I especially liked that the sides and floor were open mesh so you could see exactly where your kids were the whole time. I get nervous in those icky McDonalds ones where the tubes are solid plastic and you have no idea what is going on inside. Two thumbs up for this one!

And we capped off the year with a bit of firework play. Here’s the Man of the House lighting them out of his hands. He is a crazy, crazy man. But I love him, nevertheless. Happy New Year!!! (from February it doesn’t quite mean the same, but it is still relatively new, right?)

And here’s to a great 2012!

Our last book club of 2011 was based on the book The Knight at Dawn by Mary Pope Osborne (it’s the second book in the Magic Tree House series, which made it a perfect follow up to our previous book club, which was book #1, Dinosaurs Before Dark.)

It was Skyler’s turn to host book club this month, and she did a fantastic job!  It was like we entered the storyline of the book as we jumped from activity to activity.  We started out with some map skills.  The kids were given a map of the house to read and decipher.  They made quick work of it as they were able to successfully guide us to the next point of our adventure.

We tried our hand at sword balancing at our first stop

followed by a bit of juggling (or ball throwing, as the case may be).

We then put together a giant suit of armor puzzle, which allowed us passage to the upstairs…

where we came face to face with the three dungeon guards

who had us build our own dungeon to gain access to a flashlight, which we used to escape through the tunnel to

the moat! Here we fished out the first letter sounds from some of the book vocabulary. This was J-Zee’s favorite!

And to wrap up the afternoon, we colored a castle image and map of the different parts of a castle.

The kids had a lot of fun with this one. Success!!!