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Get those kids up off their butts!

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These are the activities that get my kids off their butts and into life. Maybe some ideas will work for you and your lil ones too.

Put away the video games, turn off cartoon network, and start making some serious messes.
Browse this lense for ways to get your kids' minds and bodies active, and give the internet a break!
Each day I post a new activity on my blog - some are simple and basic, some a bit more involved, but all are sure to bring you closer to your kids and get everyone moving and active.

Play and have fun!

Look at all this good fun:

  1. Messy
  2. Our messy fun.
  3. A favorite finished product:
  4. The More to life than TV blog
  5. Cook
  6. Baking equipment so you can make really good banana bread.
  8. Some of these activities are quite time consuming.
  9. Not Messy
  10. My fabulous camera.
  11. Cameras and places to put the photos you take:
  12. Play outside
  13. Super Cool Mini Tennis Court
  14. Is it warm enough to go out and play?
  15. Tennis stuff:
  16. Cute Duds:
  17. Nothing is more important than taking care of our kids.
  18. Great Stuff on eBay
  19. Thank you ever so much.
  20. Reader Feedback

Messy

fact: kids love to make messes. just go with it and have fun.

Even if you have not one creative bone in your body, paper mache is definately something you can do. Kids love this craft, it teaches creativity, and you might just end up with something truly display-worthy for the coffee table.

My recipe for thick glue:

1 cup flour
3 cups water

add to 5 cups of boiling water and stir for about 3 minutes, until mixture thickens.

OR

If you are not up to boiling the water... just mix the flour and water together until it is very thick, and keep mixing until you have a smooth consistancy. For whatever reason, even though it works this way, your finished product takes longer to dry.

THEN

Spray the outside of a bowl with a nonstick cooking spray (very important) and layer on strips of paper. I like to use old, printed-on plain ol printer paper. In the photos below, I used old recipes I had printed out from food network that I didn't want to keep any more. You can also use newspaper. Be green, reuse.

WAIT

When the paper is finally dry, just pry off your creation. Leave it as it is, paint it, add stickers all over it, tie a ribbon around it... see what the kiddos come up with! They will be very proud of their creation.

Our messy fun.

Really, it wasn't as sloppy as you might think. Just put down a big towel.

bowl for paper mache by superwife2009
curated content from Flickr

A favorite finished product:

My 9 and 10 year old nieces did this!

The More to life than TV blog

get out there and DO stuff

Help your kids be more creative, more active and more fun.
Come get (and share) ideas for playing with and entertaining your children so they spend less time in front of the ol boob tube, and more time using their minds and bodies.
Get those kids up off their butts!
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Cook

Or bake. Just have some fun in the kitchen.

I'm all for multi-tasking. So if I can get something yummy baked, and teach the kids useful life skills, and let them have fun all at the same time, it is definately a good thing. Granted, it is way easier to just throw together my banana bread recipe myself - takes me all of 10 minutes. And it is way less messy too.

But kids love to bake, and it is the perfect opportunity to teach them about measurements. And bond. If you ever feel that you need to have a little quality time together, bake. You can even teach how to not be wasteful with this banana bread recipe - don't throw away those last few bananas that got all brown.

Try this:

Mix together 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup sugar till creamy.
Add 3 eggs and 2 really really ripe bananas (cut up and mush up the bananas) to the sugar mixture.
Stir in 1 tsp vanilla and a bag of Nestle toll house chunks.
You can add a cup of nuts of your choice if you like. (optional)
Stir in 2 cups flour and 3 tsp baking powder

Spread this in a square 8 inch baking pan and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. (baking times vary, be sure to check doneness to your liking)

Serve warm and enjoy some hot cocoa too! This is a favorite recipe of mine, and my 11 year old niece can pretty much make this all on her own from memory. I can tell it makes her feel great to serve something so yummy. She may even be the next food network star. ;o)

Baking equipment so you can make really good banana bread.

Some of my favorite baking stuff:

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“Kids spell love T-I-M-E. ~John Crudele”

Some of these activities are quite time consuming.

But its okay.

My home used to be extremely neat and organized, "BK" (before kids, that is) but now that barbies are inhabiting my bathroom and I can't keep up with the dishes, I figure if the rest of my family is okay with it, so am I.
Just so my kids know I love them more than anything in the universe.

Not Messy

For if the homemade glue was just too much to tackle.

Have a photo session.
Most kids just love this, and if you have a digital camera it doesn't cost a thing unless you print out your photos. I have taken a white sheet, used it as a backdrop and let my kids pose away while I snap photos- these ended up looking so professional, I actually received requests from other family members to take their kids' pics too.
You can even let your kids (if you trust them with your camera) take pictures of their toys in creative ways. Have them make up a story and then take pictures to tell it. The possibilities are truly endless when the kids start clicking away at the shutter button- I promise you will be surprised at what they come up with.
The photo above is the result of a recent photo spree with my daughter and her cousins, and I just couldn't get over the cool depth of field in this picture!
Photography is an art, which is essential in fostering a child's imagination. So get out there and take some pictures!

My fabulous camera.

Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Lens (Black)

Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Lens (Black)

Amazon Price: $949.99 (as of 02/17/2012)Buy Now

Taking pictures with this baby is a dream!

Cameras and places to put the photos you take:

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Play outside

Feel the sun on your face and breathe in that fresh air.

The little kids in our neighborhood seemed to think they were too sophisticated for hopscotch. "What is that?" they asked.

Oh for crying out loud.
So I showed them, and now everyone's doing it!

Get back to basics and get out there and play mother may I or simon says or hopscotch... little kids love those games, they just don't know it yet.

Another benefit of playing outside, they will sleep very soundly that night! Nothing like fresh air and sunshine to make a little kid sleep like a baby.

Super Cool Mini Tennis Court

This one costs a lil bit but totally worth it.

We love to play tennis, but we don't live close to any courts so we used to seldom play. But now with this fabulous mini court we can play all the time and its made us a much more athletic family.

This is the company that makes it:
Mini Tennis Court Inc.



It can fit in the driveway, so if you don't have tons of space, its okay. Even the back patio will work. Its great for the whole family too- if anyone in your family plays tennis, just watch thier game improve. Being able to practice at home is a huge advantage over the other players.

And who knows? You might just have a mini Martina on your mini court.

Is it warm enough to go out and play?

Tennis stuff:

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Cute Duds:

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Nothing is more important than taking care of our kids.

To me, this is a very worthy cause.

The mission of the Children's Defense Fund is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

Great Stuff on eBay

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Thank you ever so much.

Thank you everybody who has commented and favorited this lens, you totally ROCK and I appreciate it more than you'll ever know.

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Superwife

I'm a mom.
I'm a wife.
Love being me.
I cook and clean and play here at squidoo.
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