Mud-pies and Dragonflies, O my!

So I saw a post on my kids activities page on Facebook, about an awesome outdoors class that was being offered in the area about different subjects, the owner does it on the side, of her "real" job with State Parks as the South District Interpretation and Education Specialist . I asked my son if he would like to attend a class about mud, that was the one being offered at the time, and of course he said yes, every boys dream! I looked  more into this class and found that with a low cost of 8 dollars you can drop off a child that is three and up(for under 3 you have to stay)  for two hours, they play, learn, do an craft project, and make a snack! Wow you cant beat that price! 

So we found their website Here is a link. and registered for the class and checked out what Brittany( the owner) qualifications where and was it really going to be worth my 8 dollars? Well all my questions where answered quickly because I also found that she had a Facebook page, facebook page, and answered pretty promptly with questions I asked her. So the date was set and we paid our money to attend, I planned on bringing Bean who is 6 and Bird who is 3. She asks that you preregister so that she has enough supplies for every child present.

We arrived about five minutes early and walked into her backyard, which is totally fenced in and kid friendly. She had stations already ready for the morning activities. Brittany greeted us and told us to have fun playing on the playground equipment she has, until everyone arrived but please don't get in the mud yet, because we have fun activities that need to explained. I then learned Brittany was a mother herself. She has a sweet two year old who loves the outdoors too! 

Once everyone arrived we sat on wood stools in a circle time area, were she explained how mud is made, what animals love mud, how mud helps animals and explained what we would do in each center area of the back yard. 

Of course then the kids were allowed to dig in, she had a mud throwing station, a mud table, mud pool, a water pool to rinse a bit, dishes to make mud pies, and of course just mud to use your imagination with. 

The kids were able to play as long as a they liked in the mud and at the stations, the yard was pretty much free rein. Brittany was great she dug in with the children and got just as muddy, she was helping make mud-pies, showing them how to make mud balls to throw,and how to mix the mud with our feet. Once the kids started slowing down with these activities she presented the craft, which was painting with mud, she had cardboard, paintbrushes, and color sheets with the animals we learned about. The mud actually were divided into colors, that the kids could paint with ( who would have though you could make mud colors?). The kids had fun making the cardboard colorful, and once again Brittany dug right in to show and help the kids with painting. 

Finally the sprinkler was hooked up and a baby pool filled up with fresh water so the kids could rinse a bit of it off, and change into clean clothes so the end of the program could be had. The kids enjoyed this part too, they got wet in the pool, and ran through the sprinkler and had a ball getting clean. I then helped my littles to dry off and change and we headed back to the circle-time, where we were going to make mud-pie to eat! We used chocolate pudding, oreos, and gummy worms to make mud. She allows for you in registration to tell if your child has restrictions on food, so she can accommodate your child beforehand. While the kids ate, she read a few stories about mud to conclude the program. Afterwards the kids wanted to check her bunny out that is in the backyard as well, so the allowed them to pet and feed "Luna" a snack before we left. 

The kids gave this a 10 on wanting to do this again, she is going to offer different programs, she is planning on having a bunny program, and others in the coming months. Brittany can travel to you if you have a childcare program, birthday party, girls scouts, boy scouts, and any other group or you can come to her. She charges per person for the supplies. She also does private classes that you can schedule with her in her back yard, you just need a minimum of 4 children to attend, and the learning subject/theme you can pick! 

We will be attending this place again, and I plan on having her come to my preschool class sometime in the fall! She has a great personality and is great in teaching kids of all ages! Have fun and try it out dont forget the bug spray and the sunscreen! (also not all programs are this messy lol)

Cheap Getaway!

Well with summer coming to closer to the end I wanted to take the kids to the beach, we love the beach! Bird loves the sand and Bean loves the ocean, they could stay there all day and we usually do make day trips, but a friend and I decided to make it an overnight trip so we could enjoy it longer, I begin looking around, we wanted a pool, and pretty beach to spend our time at. I checked Carolina Beach, and Atlantic Beach and could not find a good deal on any of the hotels, or ones that had a pool. There is one at Atlantic that I have been referred to but its doesn't have pool but is super cheap! This is there facebook page (Oak Grove Motel) Never stayed there but I heard its great for the money. 
We ended up finding a hotel at Topsail Island (Surf City), I had not visited this place since I was younger we use to go there every spring break growing up. So I figured it would be fun to take the kids there, I started doing research on what there was to do around the area, and soon found of course putt-putt, but there was an awesome sea turtle rescue. It was recently renovated and moved said the website. It was only 5 dollars a person. Sounded like fun! It was suppose to rain early in the day in when we got there so we figured this would be great to do to while we waited for the sun. Well everyone else on the island had the same idea, but we waited it out, and glad we did because we learned stuff we didn't know about sea turtles, and met some! Here is a link to the sea turtle rescue.

The hotel we stayed at had a pool, and was a block away from the beach with a public access. The hotel had mixed reviews so I was a bit nervous about it but reasoned with myself that it was just for one night to try. Glad we tried it, it was a small business where the office closes at 9pm every night, but the rooms were huge, they offered singles, suites, and doubles. Every room had a fridge and microwave, so we brought snacks since we were traveling with 4 kids. Loggerhead Inn

We decided to have a nice dinner since we were at the beach so we plugged food places in the GPS, we drove to a couple to see what they looked like and if they had gluten free options( my travel buddy and her son are allergic). We came across a place next to the pier that was on the beach and you could eat on the deck! Great idea!  So the kids would not have to "sit" the whole meal they could watch the waves. Well we were the first to be seated on the deck, and since it was drizzling a bit we figured it would not be that crowed well as it got later the crowd grew, but we enjoined the dinner and the view. After dinner the restaurant had stairs over the dune to the beach, so we went to collect shells. Daddy Macs, where we ate Dinner.
Well it cleared enough that we could spend time on the beach so we headed there until dusk.
The next morning was beautiful so we decided we would pay an extra 40 dollars to stay until 5pm. (the hotel offers this if your room is not rented out the next day). We woke late so we could not go through a drive through for breakfast like we planned, so we asked a house keeper what she recommended, good choice it was a place on the sound with a nice view and a simply good breakfast Sears Landing, well after breakfast we headed back to go back to the beach and the rain began again! We sat it out for a while but decided we are going to get wet anyways and headed to the beach again in the RAIN. We had two beach umbrellas that were used for rain instead of sun but we made good memories.After the beach we headed to pool to swim for a bit, great little private pool! It rained the whole time but we stayed to about 2 and headed for showers and packing up, and out of town. We were sad it rained so much but we had a good time making memories with friends.

So how much was this two day get away you ask?
Hotel: 140 
Dinner: 40 
Sea Turtle Rescue: 11 
Breakfast: 25
Lunch: 20
Gas: 75
Total of :311

But we split Gas and Hotel so really...for us it was..236! 

Millbrook Exchange Park

Thursday the kids and I visited this colorful playground. We were in Raleigh to meet my mother for lunch, she works right off Falls of the Neuse road so this park was right down the road after lunch. We had seen it before, because we had went to the pool there before, but that day it was so hot out I didn't want to stand in the heat any longer, but had promised the kids we would return at a later time, and today was the their lucky day! The playground had two different play structures one that was geared towards schoolagers (5-12, this is above) It had awesome slides and monkey bars, as well as a "bouncy" bridge as my kids called it. One of the best features of this park was the rubber landing under the equipment, no worries about mulch or sand, this landing was nice and soft, and not messy! The other structure was geared towards 5 and under, it was a smaller version of the bigger piece of equipment as well as it had some musical instruments attached, such as drums and shakers. My oldest (6) loved making music on this piece of playground equipment. Also near the younger side was a sand box and toddler/baby swings. It was a great how the playground was split for the younger and olders but was easy to watch both sides as a parent. The sand box had two diggers in it, which my daughter loved to act as if she was working moving dirt. 

Finally there were some games painted on the sidewalk such as four square as pictured here. So brings a ball next time is a must because the kids were very curious of the squares on the concrete. In the middle of the two sides there were stepping stones that made a "X" in a natural area that the kids loved balancing on and walking from one side to the next.

Finally I would like to say this playground was planed to be wheelchair accessible, it had a picnic table that had a cut out that a wheelchair could roll up to, it had toys that were low enough to reach for a child that is wheelchair bound, as well as the surfacing being easy to move on. Below you can see a picture that there is also a special needs swing available!

 Well I mentioned earlier that we had attending the pool at this area park, this pool is amazing! Especially if you have younger children. There is a one foot pool that is perfect for 6 and under, we spend a good deal of time in this pool because I could sit and get cool, while the kids laid, swam, and played in the one foot water. Bird doesnt know how to swim quite yet but felt safe in this pool because I was there and a lifeguard was too! You can see the pool in the background of this picture with bird. 

Another hit as this pool was that it has an indoor/outdoor lap pool, its housed in the white building in the background. It is open year round but during the summer the walls are opened up to have access to the outdoor pools as well. 

We brought several snacks to have while swimming, coolers are allowed and there are plenty of seating at tables, in shade, in the grass and in the sun your choice. They only ask that you don't bring food into pool areas (that are fenced off and have signs that say no food or drink). We planned to stay all day because of the cost to get in, but I learned you could come and go as you want all day with the paid admission I will link the site for prices, and addresses at the bottom.Finally there was the splash pad! It also had a lifeguard on duty, the kids loved it, there were interactive water guns, and buckets that dumped on you, the ground was the spongy rubber mat to. The only down side was no running, it was hard to keep the kids from running from excitement, I understand they don't want anyone hurt, but I felt I kept saying walk please...so we didn't stay long on this side. 

*warning don't bring swimmy arms or the new ones that look like a vest that buckle in the back, they only allow life vests, and they have some there for you to use. But you can bring water toys and such for the one foot pool.

The link for info is here Millbrook Exchange Park .

Carolina Puppet Theatre

We were introduced to this fun activity by the teacher I work with. She said it was amazing, fun, interactive, puppet show. They use to perform once a week I believe at Comedy Works in Raleigh, but they had their last show there about 6 months ago. I was bummed because I missed the chance to see it when she first told me about it, and now all they did was private shows, BUMMER! 
Well she recently informed me that they had found a new location to perform and that were perform today, awesome! So I looked it up and off we went! 
We arrived at a nice place in Wake Forest, looked like a shopping center that was redone to be a venue for different events, with a box office, restrooms and a snack bar (that was not open today), and a multipurpose room that the events could take place in. I good amount of people where there but not to many to be overwhelming for my littles(or for mommy to let them sit on the floor in front). 
The environment was cheerful, and we watched as some children put pieces of paper in a mailbox that was placed at edge of the stage, the puppet curtain was decorated with flip-flops and sea animals. This lead to another discussion with my children as to what they thought this show was going to be about. Because after all we just returned from the beach. ( will be another post later). 
The show started as a lady entered the stage with a cheery voice and talked with a puppet. She was very upbeat and had a way to quite all the children with "sparkle hands". The show consisted of songs, dancing, and a good lesson to listen to what your parents say! I loved it had a message with it. We learned that the mailbox was to leave mail for one of the puppets and they read and recognize each child that puts something in it! The story was made up of kids in the audience and they helped to tell the story. Which of course my Jerzie girl was picked to be on stage as a crab! This is her saying her part, that was just repeating what the lady had said.

I think with the 5 dollars a person for an hour show was a great deal. They do this once a month at this place, cant wait to attend again! Puppet Show Webpage

A New Direction

Well, its so nice to write again for you guys I have started thinking of another way to use this blog, I have started a a facebook page if you aren't aware of Kids Activities in Raleigh,NC I started it about a year ago to share things that me and my kids are doing that others may be interested in.
 I was getting asked all the time, that's neat, how did you come up with that? or how did you hear about that place? I figured I would just make it public so everyone could have access, I also know that there was not any other interactive page for this area to find kids activities. There are other bloggers in the area that do have calendars and stuff, but none that I know that are interactive where you can put your own stuff and ideas down. 
I also wanted to start to be able to review different places that we visit, so not only would you know about it, but you will know how it went when I attended with my littles =) I look forward to our adventures, and our crazy, beautiful messy life!