Friday, June 28, 2013

Tomorrow is International Mud Day

International Mud Day • June 29
In our first home, my oldest son had what he called "my hole."  It was a hole in our backyard. Probably about a foot deep and a foot and a half wide.  I don't know how it got there, it just was.  He would play trucks and army guys in that hole.
He'd dig in it.
He'd plant random things in it.
It was his hole.

Now we have a different house and another son, and he's at the age now for his own hole.  And I'll be darned, he has one.  Part of our side yard doesn't drain real well and there's a natural hole that collects rain. And therefore mud.

And our 3 yr old loves his hole!  He asks to put on his boots and go stomp around in that muddy hole.  Yes, we let him.  :-)

Are you ready for some mud?  Even if your kids don't have holes of their very own (we may be the only people with random holes in the yard)...you can celebrate International Mud Day tomorrow, June 29th!  World Forum International says  "International Mud Day is children and early childhood professionals all over the world celebrating nature, outdoors, and mess by getting really muddy."

4 Ideas from Growing A Jeweled Rose blog:
-Make a mud pit
-Throw a MUD party
-Paint with mud (pic from KinderCare pinterest)

-Mud sensory bin (pic also from Growing A Jeweled Rose blog)


Other MUD Day Ideas:
-"Mud" Dessert---pudding, crushed oreos, and a gummy worm
source


















-Read about worms!  We have this book from For Small Hands and our little guy loves it!
Wiggling Worms at Work
-Write a poem about mud
-Use plastic toy animals to make prints in the mud and then have your child match the animal to it's tracks.

Whatever you choose to do, happy Mud Day!


Thursday, June 27, 2013

Elements of Summer Fun (20 ideas)

This year we joined the crowd and made a summer bucket list!  

Inspired by this one I saw on pinterest and blogged about, we went with a geeky science theme.  Each summer fun event is listed on a post it note and designed to resemble (humor me) the periodic table of the elements.

science of summer, summer bucket list, what to do with kids in summer, summer bucket pail, summer fun, summer ideas

Some of our activities include:

summer fun list, summer bucket list, science style bucket list, nerd summer bucket list, geek summer bucket list, nerd summer funzucchini summer blog, summer bucket list, science themed bucket list

*Make a water blob (directions found here)
*Visit Bounce Houses
*Bubbles
*Splash Pad in nearby town
*Bowling
*Sidewalk Paint (recipe and below pic from this blog)
Homemade Sidewalk Paint Recipe
*Go to a baseball game
*VBS
*Soccer Camp
*Golf Club
*Library Story Hour
*Go to a Movie
*Chuck E Cheese's reading program
*Barnes and Noble reading program
*Mail a letter to Grandma
*Mail a letter to a soldier
*Toothpick Sculptures (idea and pic below from here)
building with toothpicks and marshmallows
*Paint a birdhouse
*Visit the skate park
*Ice Bowling (idea and pic below from this blog)
water bottle bowling, summer ice bowling, summer bucket list, summer fun, kid fun, kid party games
Remember to follow with BlogLovin since Google Friend Connect is leaving!
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I shared the fun at Serenity Now , A Beautiful Ruckus , I Can Teach My Child  , 3 Boys and a dog,   Tutus & Tea Parties , and Cheerios and Lattes.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Keep It Real Moms

Fake moms annoy me.

I prefer Keep It Real Moms, don't you?  The moms who show up somewhere with some spit up on their shirt.  The mom who walks out of a church service with a screaming toddler.  The mom who shoves a cookie at her child to get just THREE SECONDS OF PEACE, please!


Here's one Keep It Real Mom: Tina from MamasLikeMe.  Yesterday she posted about why kids do not need a Disney World vacation. Which by the way was a great post and you should totally go read it.
But what really won me over was her posting this picture of her child:

source: Mamas Like Me
Ha!  YES kids will have a meltdown.  Kudos Tina for being a Keep It Real Mom!
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ID-10055496 (1)You can tell by this blog's title that she's going to be upfront: Experienced Bad Mom.  She posts about all her misadventures in parenting and you'll find yourself laughing and nodding in agreement!  Take for example her post: "5 Ways Having a Baseball Player is Like Having a Newborn"
"1. Both can wear white outfits that NEVER. COME. CLEAN.
White onesies or white baseball pants. Both are disasters."
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Props to both of these moms for being honest!


Claiming my post for blog lovin

just ignore, this is a placeholder so I can claim my blog!
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Bye Bye Google Friend Connect

Poop, darn, and dang.

Why mess with a perfectly good thing?  I don't know. But the people at Google have decided to shake up how you and I can follow blogs.  Google Friend Connect, which many of you use, is going away.  I know, right?!  I love GFC.  It's how I read all of my favorite blogs.

So we've gotta find something new.

There are a couple ways you can still keep up with posts here at Zucchini Summer (I mean who wants to miss out on a Friday Funnies?  Or the 25cent yard sale picture frame redo I have coming up?):

-Email
You can follow by email----look to the left where it says "follow by email" and enter your email address.
yellow arrow, left facing arrowIt's that easy!  All it does is email you when a new post is up. I don't have access to your email address and won't be sending spammy emails. Only new posts get sent.

-BlogLovin'
This is new to me.  Because I live under a rock.  Evidently this is kind of the NEW go-to thing for following blogs. I joined.  It imports your reading list from GFC so you won't lose any subscriptions.  If you join BlogLovin' and import, you'll still be able to read here and won't miss a thing!


-Facebook
You can like Zucchini Summer on facebook because of course I will link to new posts.  And the benefit to liking on facebook means you also get to see little gems like this pop up:
zucchini summer, nailed it, can opener fail, dollar store can opener

-Feed Burner
To the right is the little buttons where you can follow me on pinterest, etc. The orange one is for feeds, click that and you can choose how you want to read Zucchini Summer (yahoo, pageflakes, and more are choices).


*Thanks to Serenity Now for keeping me updated and for the new ways to follow!*


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Friday, June 21, 2013

Friday Funnies

Proving once again that the entire purpose of the internet is to give us all a good laugh.

SNL nails it:
False

Better beware of The Little Mermaid too:
False

Chef Gordon!
False

Enjoy your weekend!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Home Tour

Not of MY house, silly!

One of the bloggers (Angie at The Country Chic Cottage) I follow just posted this

 Summer-Tour-of-Homes

And apparently there are 26 home tours this week!  Some are bloggers I read like Infarrantly Creative and Just a Girl


Day2_bloggers

And then some of the bloggers I didn't know until now but am glad to have found!  

For example: All Things Thrifty and her clock makeover. 
how-to-stain-oak-darker

Their blog hop tour of homes starts tomorrow so if you need to reach me, that's where I'll be! :)