Fun Activities with the Kiddos

Tuesday night, as most of you know now, is Daddy/Kiddo night in our house. The Wifey has a night class at the college and it is one night a week where it is just me and The Kiddos. Most of the time we have all kinds of fun. We play, we run, we ride bikes, and we eat junk food until I ears pop off. Okay, maybe not that much junk, but we live like, well, KIDS!

One thing I have enjoyed with this recently is coming up with different activities to do with the little ones. Making silly videos on the computer, making sock puppets, and making paper hats. There is always so much fun stuff to do with them and it can be done very easily.

Below I have just listed some fun activities you can do with your children at home. It is good fun, and a great way to spend quality time with them and be engaged. Arts and crafts are not only fun activities, but stimulating and helps them learn new skills. I hope you get a chance to try these someday in your own house!

• Sock puppets are the most play items in the world! Well, to me they are anyway. Simple to take one of your own socks, and one for the kids, draw eyes and a nose, and let the fun begin. Simple and exciting. Putting on a play is a bonus!
• Paper Towel Roll Binoculars – Need I say more? Tape to paper towel rolls to each other and have the children looking at everything in a different view. If you are like me and have more than one, cut the tubes in half and bingo! You now have two sets. Have the kids go on a hunt for different toys while looking through the binoculars and watch them learn to love exploring!
• Cup Phones – The old school classic. We don’t use a lot of tin cans so paper cups are the next best thing. You know what to do right? Poke a small hole in the bottom of each cup. Use a measurable amount of yarn between the two and slip the ends into the small holes in the cup. Tie a knot on the inside so the yarn doesn’t pull through and PRESTO! Phones! The children will enjoy “talking on the phone” from room to room or just across the couch. Have more cups and yarn? Tie them all together and enjoy a conference call with the kids!
• Paper Plate Masks – Now this takes a little bit of patience especially if your kids are crayon happy. Draw two circles for eyes and whatever shape for the mouth you wish. Let your children color the plates using crayons or markers if they are old enough. After they are done coloring, cut out the eyes and the mouth. Poke two small holes in each plate, one on each side. Using yarn, make a strap slipping the ends of the yarn through the plate. Use a piece of scotch tape to secure the ends to the mask. Then let the fun begin. Don’t forget to make yourself a mask so you can join in the fun as well!

What kind of activities do you like to do with your children at home? Share them in the comments and help spread the good ideas with different activities to do with your children!

Holiday Shopping: Avoid the Stress

Oh yes, it is that time of year again. Black Friday is over and it is time to get down to some serious shopping. This time of year can be a very big stress inducer as the shopping days left seem to disappear. FYI: as of the writing of this post there are only 26 shopping days left before Christmas. DON’T FREAK OUT! Here are a few tricks to keep the stress level down and complete shopping on time without too much hassle.
Typically I am the kind to wait until the last minute to get everything done. Over the last few years I have decided that this is not the best way to go. Especially now that I have kids. Thankfully The Wifey takes care of making the lists and figuring out where we are going to get everything. I just help decide what we are getting everyone. Still though, I always dread the day that the shopping actually has to be done. So what can one do to bring the stress level down?

• Be Prepared – One of my biggest problems in years past was not knowing what I was going to get. Make a list, know exactly what you are getting and for whom.
• Set a budget – oh no, there’s that word. B-U-D-G-E-T … Allow yourself a certain amount of money to be spent and do your best to stay in that range. If you are on a tight budget like us, there are plenty of great buys out there at great prices that will allow you to stay within said budget.
• Window shopping and online shopping – It is always a good idea to price shop before you buy. Many retailers sell the same products, but there is always that one that will have it cheaper than the rest. Online shopping can provide some monetary relief as a lot of online retailers offer free shipping or great discounts and special offers. Take the time to browse around and see what you can find.
• Coupons – This is not a shock. Online and through sales papers. coupons are a holiday shopper’s best friends. Great bargains, great prices, and sometimes free stuff. Come on, who loves free stuff? THIS GUY DOES
• Calm down – Remember, it is just shopping. Treat it like any other time you go out shopping. Don’t let the stress of the word “holiday” get you in a panic. Have a fun and enjoyable experience and watch as the people you are giving to light up with excitement.

Do you have any more tips to make the holiday shopping season less of a stress inducer? Share in the comments and let’s all have a great holiday season!

Sock Puppet Fun

Thinking Back and Moving On

I originally posted this some weeks back. I was watching it again this morning and decided to edit a bit and repost for today as I could not have come up with anything better to say about the last year. How do we measure the last year? The last 365 days, 525,600 minutes, have almost completely expired now. Ever since I had kids, I have found that time has just flown by. It didn't take but the blink of an eye for 2010 to ring in and tap out again. Where did it go? What do I treasure? And where do we go from here?

I would also like to thank Andrea Krick for her amazing photographs of the family. We had such a great time and I hope we can do it again!

Social Media: A Family Connected

Okay, I am going to do something a little out of the norm for The DaddyYo Blog and talk about something today that isn't strictly fatherhood related. Normally I would do so on my other blog but seeing as how this is about family and staying connected, I felt that it would fit right here. Let me back up a little and lead in to this post a bit.

As you may, or may not know, I met The Wifey online in January 2005. Three months later I would leave the place I grew up for 22 years for a place I never even looked at on a map. When I moved up here I was able to call back home and talk to my family on a regular basis. Then I got introduced to Facebook and was able to connect with all my family there. 

Fast forward 5 years. I have now been married for 4 years, and I have been a dad for three. Through Facebook, Twitter, and the blog, I have been able to stay connected with my family members and share what is going on in our lives through social media. My mom, dad, and my sister are all on Twitter and we talk to each other there all the time. Yesterday, we used it and shared in watching the Macy's Parade together that way. 300 miles apart from them now, and thanks to social media, we were still able to share in a long running family tradition. I was posting about The Kiddos going nuts when new balloons were shown, my sister was talking about watching it with her daughter, and my parents were enjoying knowing what the grandkids were thinking about the parade.

My mom posted to us that it was great that though we were that far apart, we were all enjoying the same thing, and sharing in the moments. That's what family tradition is all about. The ability to stay connected outside of the normal phone call and text message really adds another fun aspect to being a connected family, and brings more fun to the table. I know this much is true: My family is pretty tech savvy, and we all get involved. I am grateful that my family reads my blog and is very supportive of what I do. Social media will grow by leaps and bounds. There will be new platforms and new outlets of getting information out. And through it all, my family will stay connected, and our tradition of love and fellowship will continue, no matter the miles in between.

Happy Thanksgiving Kiddos

To my children:

Today is Thanksgiving. I know your are too young to understand the meaning of Thanksgiving and the reason we celebrate it. I am very thankful to have the two of you in my life. Without you my world would crumble. But today, I want to actually say "Thank You". You hear me say it all the time when you do something I ask. When you do something without me asking I say it. And when you give me random sugies and hugs, I always say thank you.

Today, I say thank you for bringing such light to my life. I say thank you for always making my day better with your smiles. I want to thank you for being you. Your personalities are amazing, eccentric, and full of life. Your laughter is music to my ears and a sweet sweet sound to my soul. I want to thank you for being a living reminder that sometimes, I just need to lighten up and not take life so serious. I would like to thank you for making me feel like a kid again during our Daddy/Kiddo nights.

You do so much for me that you will never know about. I could never put these feelings into words (although I try sometimes). I thank you most of all for your love. For the love you have for me, and the love that pours out of my heart for you. I will never lose sight of the meaning of that love.

I love you with all my heart!

Daddy

On behalf of my family and myself: I would like to wish all of you, my followers and readers, a very Happy Thanksgiving and a blessed start to this holiday season!