Mariannes Motifs

Funny Things I Have Heard My 4 Year Old Say Today

"I'm playing Star Wars Clown Wars."

"We're playing Hide and Seek Ninjas!"

Free Fun for Kids - Lowes Build and Grow

Lowes home improvement stores have a great kids program called Build and Grow.  Hubby too our older son yesterday and they made a beautiful pirate treasure box. 

The url to sign up is lowesbuildandgrow.com.

The first 50 kids to register and be present at the store at 10am get the project  kit, aprons and goggles.  Ben also got a patch for the project he did, so you can collect the patches and put them on their apron. 

It's recommended for kids in grade 1-6 but hubby saw kids that looked a bit younger too.

What to Buy a Six Year Old Boy for a Birthday Present

Ben's 6th birthday is coming up and his Grandma asked me to put together a list of books and toys he would like.  Ben and I did some online shopping and came up with this list.

Ben wants this pontoon plane.  He is very good at following the instructions and putting his Legos together.  He and Dad have their "boy time" putting together Legos.  Mom is ok at it too.

LEGO City Police Pontoon Plane

This is the "Dolphin book" that Ben really wants.  They have it in the school library but not the public library and he was disappointed when summer came and the school library was closed.  He was super excited to see it on Amazon.

Whales and Dolphins (Kingfisher Young Knowledge)

This looks like a fun game that makes use of the DS touchscreen if you want brain rotting video games.  Hey, don't knock it, they teach patience and problem solving.

Yoshi Touch and Go

Since Ben will be starting 1st grade...
Junie B., First Grader (at Last!) (Junie B. Jones, No. 18)

This looks good. Ben loves reading about animals.

The Kingfisher First Encyclopedia of Animals (Kingfisher First Reference)

I found this on the summer reading list.  "This innovative book invites readers to look for colors in a whole new way, while introducing 14 masterpieces of art by Picasso and others."

I Spy Colors in Art

Also from the school summer reading list for 1st graders.

Max & Mo's First Day at School (Ready-to-Read. Level 1)

July 4th Freebies: Coloring Pages, Music, and More

Need to entertain the kids on July 4th?  As usual I have pored through the chaff and separated out the wheat for you.

Free Patriotic Music from Amazon.  Download America the Beautiful, The Star Spangled Banner, and God Bless America on MP3 format for free.

George Washington Connect the Dot from .calvarywilliamsport.com.

Cute and nice 4th of July Coloring Page from LeeHansen.com

July 4th Capitol and Flag Coloring Page from Crayola.com.

4th of July Wordsearch from kidsdomain.com

Hidden Pictures 4th of July Parade from Highlights for Children (fun - find the hidden stuff and color too)

*** Also see my Memorial Day Coloring Pages post for more patriotic coloring pages.

Best Swag Ever

My favorite part of blogging is when companies allow me to review their products.  I have gotten some sweet freebies through blogging, everything from coupons for frozen veggies, to protein drinks, to free pearls!

However, this week's totally cool freebie is seriously the best ever.  I simply love my sock monkey from genuinemonkeez.com which is run by the folks from Colonial Candle.  (They sent me a yummy lavender candle too - Thanks guys.)

They sent me Izzy, the purple striped sock monkee.  He is so cute!  Fun too - he has magnets in his hands and feet and also a magnet to keep his cute little hat on.  Also his scarf connects with velcro. My kids went nuts for this guy, and so did I.

Here is a picture of Adam with Izzy the sock monkey.  I can't believe these are only $15.00 either since it has great construction quality.  Beats  Webkinz any day in my book.

Father's Day Coloring Pages and Projects

The Fathers Day 2009 date is June 20th.  Help the kids honor Dad with these great coloring pages.  As always, I wade through the junk to focus in one good quality free coloring pages.

Dad is King Father's Day Crown Coloring Page from leehansen.com

#1 Dad Coloring Page from akidsheart.com

Cute and Simple Father's Day Tie to Color via coloringsheets.blogspot.com 

Crazy Father's Day Bunny from Crayola

Father's Day WordSearch from sunniebunniezz.com

Father's Day Dot to Dot Connect the Dots page from schoolfamily.com

How to make easiest paper airplane

I am not sure how I got to age 40 without knowing how to make a proper paper airplane, but I did.  My son needed me to make one for him so I used my google-fu to find good instructions.

Here are the easiest instructions for a simple, yet well flying paper airplane.  They call it "The Basic Dart."  It is "full of win."

Can't Handle The Cuteness

I had a nice Mother's Day.  The kids helped me make pancakes, and then we went to the river park for some playground action and a nature walk.  Jin kept them busy in the afternoon and I took a nice nap.  Jin made dinner and then he had to go into work and move around some servers and racks.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids.  As you can see they got their haircut(s) on Saturday.  They are rockin' some Spiderman sunglasses.

P.S.  Typos abound on this blog.  Just ask me about home slarm systems.

Valentines Day Coloring Pages and Activities

Time for another installment of Marianne's Coloring pages for kids, Valentines Day edition.  I always scour the web for QUALITY coloring pages so you don't have to wade through the yucky ones.

Valentines Day Coloring Pages

Beautiful Be My Valentine Coloring Page with Heart designs from ColoringCastle.com  and there is also a blank version of the same

Heart and Love Mandela from Milliande.com

Funny Fish in Love from PreschoolColoringbook.com

Fuzzy Bear with Heart from RaisingOurKids.com

Bee My Honey page from PrintActivities.com

Hugging Kitty and Doggie from PreschoolColoringbook.com

Other Printable Activities for Preschoolers and Elementary

Valentines Day Word Search and Easy Word Search from Qualint.com

Heart with Arrow Dot To Dot Connect the Dots from Printactivities.com

Mega Fun

Speaking of fun with 5 year olds, Ben and I checked out the MEGA Brands Kids Zone today.  These are the folks that make megablocks plastic building blocks, and lots of other cool building toys.

The Mega Kids Zone has a bunch of online games ranging from little click and drag games for the younger kids, to complex multi-player games for the older set.   We played MagNext Virtual which was a cool virtual world on a similar vein to Webkinz, but rather more oriented towards gamer boys.  You could challenge other players in the arena and have battles with them as well as comminicate with the messaging and emoticons built in.  Like most kids sites, they have made the communication safe for kids.  As you play you collect points and then can "purchase" vitual goodies in the store, similar to a webkins or build a bear-ville experience.

All in all, since a lot of the cool virtual world sites are very cutesy, this one is nice for boys who might not be into stuffed animals.  (Although my boys love their stuffies and don't have any problem with girly stuff either)

The Kids Zone site also has nice extras such as wallpapers you can download and lots of information on all the cool Mega brand toys, like Pyrates, Dragons, and Legends of King Arthur.