Day 11-Arizona Science Center

Our Arizona Science Center membership expired last week. Lucky for us, we bought a voucher for a new membership on Groupon a couple months back, so we went to redeem it today. You can read my review about the Arizona Science Center here.

Busy, loud places drive me crazy! If we come to the science center on a busy day, I've got a headache and am ready to leave after an hour. When we go out, I like to be gone for a while, so I need to avoid the crowds and save my sanity.

How to Avoid the Crowds

• Go in the Afternoon. Most school and day care groups do their outings in the mornings. Most people that came earlier in the day have left to have lunch. You also lose the families with napping children in the afternoons. And those moms who didn't plan ahead and put a meal in the crock pot need to get home to get started on dinner.
• Call Ahead to Check for Scheduled Field Trips. Some days museums get slammed with field trips. I hate being places with field trip groups because the kids are less supervised and way more rowdy. If you call ahead, you can save yourself from going at the same time as 5 school groups.
• Avoid Holidays and Weekends. Yep. People like to do stuff these day.
• Avoid Free and Discount Days. I love a good freebie, and so does everyone else. If you want to go on a free/discounted day you will have to deal with the masses. But if you have a membership or if the crowds aren't worth it, you'll still want to know when these discount days are so you can avoid them. I prefer to make my own discounts using coupons and groupons.
• If you have planning a short visit, you could get there right at opening time. Usually places don't start to get busy for about an hour after they open, but this isn't always true.

So what I guess I'm basically saying is go when no one else wants to be there :)

How do you feel about crowded attractions and what lengths do you go to to avoid them?

Day 10 - Heart Attacking

We are super lucky to have great extended family living close by. The only problem is, our schedules have been off for a while now. We haven't been able to hang out with them for a bit so we wanted to let them know we still love them and miss seeing them. So today, we decided to give them a heart attack.

Heart attacking someone is the best because it combines showing someone they are loved with the fun equivalent to toilet papering someone's house. You get to be sneaky and sort of a vandal, but you know whoever your victim is will love it.

How to give someone you love a heart attack

The simplest way is just cut out a bunch of hearts and use them to decorate someone's yard. Throw them across the lawn and stick them around with tape. We like to get a little more creative, though.

• Use chalk. Decorate the driveway and sidewalk with drawn hearts and sweet messages.
• Decorate with streamers. It's almost toilet papering, except it's decorating so it's cute. 
• Use plastic forks. This is the coolest trick. Stick plastic forks in the lawn, prong side up. Then you can use the prongs to hold things up; decorated paper plates, cut out hearts, nice notes, balloons, etc.
• Use pictures. You can cut out pictures of things your "victim" likes out of magazines (in heart shapes of course). Today, we printed pictures of the kids cousins in black and white, then colored them in silly ways.
  
• Write nice messages. Today we wrote something we liked about each member on the family on the back of their pictures.
• Leave a treat. Make cookies or brownies and leave them on the doorstep. Sweets are the best way to show love, right?

Day 9 - Chuck E Cheese's

We survived our first full week of summer. The kids did a pretty good job with their chores and earned some tokens (refer to my token reward system here). That meant today we needed to go spend them. We decided to try the new Chuck E. Cheese location in Chandler, AZ. You can check out my review of this location here.

I think of myself as somewhat of a Chuck E Cheese expert. We love to visit Chuck E Cheese around home, when we are traveling with Daddy on business trips, or going to Grandma's house. My kids even got a ton of CEC tokens from Santa this year. I love that all the games are only one token. I also love that I can get great deals on tokens.

Tips for Visiting Chuck E Cheese's (CEC)

• Never play $.0.25 for a token. The most you should ever pay for tokens is 20 cents, but I usually wait until there is a deal that makes tokens around 15 cents each. 
• There are always coupons on the CEC website (although not the best ones). Our best coupons come in the newspaper inserts. My favorite one is 150 tokens and a large 1-topping pizza for $22. 
• Our CEC also has weekday lunch specials when school is in session. One of these deals is "Buy 30 tokens, get 30 free." You don't have to use the tokens right when you buy them. I usually have a stash saved up of cheap tokens that I bring with us on vacations.
• Another was to get discounted tokens is to use CEC rewards calendars. You can print these reward calendars from the CEC website and redeem them for 10 free tokens. The drawback to these is they require a food purchase to redeem. I haven't tried it before but maybe you could just buy a drink?
• Play online CEC games for free tickets. The CEC website has fun games that reward you
  
  with real tickets you can redeem at CEC. You can use one printed ticket reward per child per day, so print one for each child. Again, these now require a food purchase to redeem (lame!).
• If you have a choice, choose a CEC with a playground. It is nice to have something for the kids to do that doesn't cost tokens. Right now, since my kids have an uneven amount of tokens to spend, some finish sooner than others. Having tubes to crawl around in keep them entertained instead of complaining. 
• Don't give your kids all their tokens at once. Parcel out a few and then they have to return for more. This has a few benefits. They have to keep checking in, they don't spill and lose their tokens, and they don't waste all their tokens on games that don't require any play besides dropping in the token.
• Try some of the games yourself. If I bring my husband, I know beforehand I'm going to have to set some tokens aside for him. It's fun to take a trip back to the old days and play skee ball. And the kids love getting all the tickets you earn.
  
• Save a token for the picture machine. Almost all CECs have a "sketch your portrait" machine. It is so fun to take a family portrait every time we go to save as a souvenir. 
• Help with ticket redemption for little ones. When we just had the kindergartners and under, everyone would turn in all their tickets to me. Then they would all tell me one thing they wanted within certain ticket categories. If there were still enough tickets left, I would let them choose one thing more. Everyone got the same number of prizes, regardless of ticket worth. If we had leftover tickets, I would save them for next time. Now that I have older kids getting varying amounts of tokens, they manage their own tickets, but I still help with the littles and have a ticket stash of my own for days when they don't quite earn enough to get the prize they want. (It has been my experience that CEC employees round up your total tickets)
• Visit on a weekday morning. Saturday mornings are usually very busy with birthday parties. Evenings also tend to be busier. To avoid crowds and have younger playmates, arrive as close to opening as possible. 

What are your Chuck E Cheese tips?

Day 8 - Mesquite Groves Aquatic Center

The public pools here are pretty awesome and cheap. Apparently, that's no secret because Mesquite Groves Aquatic Center in Chandler, AZ was filled to capacity today. Even with all the new friends playing nearby, we had a wonderful day.

Read my review about this great aquatics center here on Trekaroo.com

Day 7 - i.d.e.a. Museum

It's starting to get hot. That means we need more indoor activities. My oldest daughter hadn't been to the children's art museum, the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa, AZ and had been begging to go. We used my membership I bought with a groupon deal ( admission for up to 4 people) and Kid One's Pogo Pass (discount pass for multiple Phoenix attractions) for a free, fun outing. Read my review of the i.d.e.a. Museum here.

Why I Love Children's Museums

My kids love to craft, but I hate the wasted glue, tape, and paper and even more, the mess. That is why the I.d.e.a. is so great! The museum provides all the craft supplies and the glue and scraps don't get on my table. My kids can make all the junk they want and we can leave it on the table for other visitors to admire instead of bringing it home to clutter up the house.

Speaking of messes, I love that the employees are wandering around picking up stray trash and toys while I just get to play with the kids. I don't need to worry about the clutter around me when we are at a children's museum. I can enjoy my children without the stress of household responsibilities right in my face.

Another thing I love about children's museums is that everything is a novelty to my kids. We don't have a light bright wall at home so they think it's extra special and sit and and stick pegs in holes for half an hour. The toys are all new to them so it takes longer for them to get bored.

I like that there are areas specifically for babies. Kid Five gets attached my her brothers all day at home but in the baby zone, big brother's aren't even allowed. I know she is safe from bigger kids who do t know to watch out for little hands. I also know she has age appropriate toys that she can't hurt herself on.

Last but not least, I love that I can have fun too. I also like to create things out of old scraps of cardboard, but I don't have time at home. I enjoy putting on a puppet show with my son or doing puzzle on a giant touch screen while the kids play around me. I like interactive museums as much as my children.

What do you love about going to children's museums? 

Day 6 - Bleach Print Shirts

My kids have loved doing tie-dye the past few summers, but since one can only have so many tie-dyed shirts, I decided to try something new. I've had friends do these type of shirts in the past but I followed a basic guideline from here.

How-To Make Bleach Print Shirts

Supplies

• Colored t-shirts (ours are from Dollar Tree)
• Spray bottle
• Bleach
• Gloves (to protect hands from bleach)
• Cardboard boxes (cereal boxes work fine)
• Scissors
• Tape if you want

We thought about sponging the bleach solution on but decided against it (that's why we had sponges and a cake pan)

1. Cut shapes out of cardboard. We just used cracker boxes. Most of the shapes we did free-hand, but I did print a silhouette of a car that I traced. 
   
2. Mix a solution of half bleach, half water inside your spray bottle. A stronger solution might work well too but since I'm working with kids, I decided to go with a 50/50 mix. 
3. Put a sheet of cardboard inside your shirt. This protects the shirt from getting image bleached through to the other side.
4. Arrange shapes on your shirt. I just set the shapes onto my shirt, but for the kids we did tape them down so they wouldn't blow away.
   
5. Spray with bleach/water solution. From about 2 feet away, spray around all your images, but avoid soaking the shirt. If it's too wet the bleach will bleed under your stencil.
   
6. Allow image to develop. We removed the stencils and let the bleach sit until the surrounding area was a light as we wanted.
   
7. Rinse shirt. To stop the bleach from doing its job, give it a quick rinse with the hose.
   
8. Wash before wearing. You want to be sure you've removed all the bleach. 
   

Tips:

*Use simple, clearly defined shapes without too much detail

*Wear clothes you don't care about in case of bleach spills

*Make sure you give the bleach enough time to develop before rinsing

*Darker shirts work better (we really like the rust color the bleach produces on the black and navy blue shirts)

*Spray from above as opposed to from the side. This prevents the bleach from going under your stencils. 

*Don't over-saturate your shirt. It seemed to work best doing a light but completely covering spray from about a 2-feet above the shirt. (also, make sure your spray bottle lid is on tight so it doesn't spill on your shirt like it did for kid 4)

Have you done bleach print shirts? Share your images in the comments.

Day 5 - Swim Lessons

It's important for kids to know how to swim at a very young age in Arizona. Even though we don't have a pool, most of our friends and neighbors do. Much of the summer fun here revolves around a pool. Although most of my children are already swimming, they could stand to improve their technique. These next two weeks, we will all be enjoying swim lessons through the town's recreation department.

City Swim Lessons

Gilbert offers great recreation programs for a good price. Swim lessons for all levels (except Tadpoles which is 3 students to 1 teacher) is only $25 for 8-1/2 hour lessons. The city of Phoenix has the same swim program for only $15 a session. I love that they have a variety of lesson levels to choose from. The baby and I are in a parent/tot class together. Kids over 5 have the opportunity to take diving lessons. Our aquatics department also organizes swim and dive teams. Check out what your town's recreation department offers.

Private/Semi-Private Swim Lessons 

Semi-Private Lessons 2014

I do have to say, if your child needs to learn how to swim, it is best to start with private or semi-private lessons. They do cost quite a bit more, but the difference in how quick a child learns is huge. Teachers are able to work on your child's specific needs instead of following a standard lesson plan for a class of 7 or 8 students. Usually, private teachers have more experience than city swim teachers. They know how to combine the right amount of play and learning. Sometimes it's necessary for a child to go under the water and an experienced teacher isn't going to be afraid to make them do it. When finding a teacher, ask for recommendations from friends and look for class sizes no larger than 4 students,