10 Ways to Make Today Magical

Happy Monday!

I hope you and your kiddos have been having a magical month.  I was quite sick for all of March and am finally beginning to get a little better.  I think the April weather is playing a part.  How sick can you stay when the grass is finally green and there are puddles to stomp?  🙂

Everything is progressing well with the pregnancy.  We got to see our little jumping bean on an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago.  It was too soon to tell gender, but he or she is the bounciest little thing we’d ever seen!  The kids were in stitches watching.  There was bouncing, arm waving and there may have even been a somersault.

I was so hoping to get to do the little girl thing again (I still have little boys to play with but my little girls are so grown up now!) but after seeing just how much energy this little one has, we all strongly suspect it’s a boy.  Not that we don’t have energetic girls in this family, but the boys have always been record breakers.  😉

I’m going to try to get much better about posting during the week this week.  We’ll see how it goes!  In the meantime, here’s a few ways to add a little magic to the week…

1.  See if you can get chickadees to eat out of your hands.  This one takes a lot of patience but what a treat it would be to accomplish!

2.  It’s that time of year again!  Make up some seed bombs of lovely wildflowers and toss them into empty lots and other unloved spaces in need of some prettying up.

3.  Make a list of your favorite children’s books from your own childhood and go on a search for them at the library.  Read them to your kids and see if they adopt any of your favorites.

4.  Send your child a postcard telling him how much you love him.

5. Hold a carnival in the back yard.  Rig up some easy contests (knock over pop bottles with bean bags, toss the ball into the bucket and so on) and gather extra toys or stuffed animals that can be passed on.  Invite friends and ask them to contribute their own games and prizes too.

6.  Make up some bathtub puffy paint.  Chalk in my Pocket tells you how.

7.  Pick up some kind of wacky or exotic (to you!) international snack food from the grocery store.  Daddy is in charge of this activity at our house, as my stomach is just not made for octopus flavored potato chips or grass jelly drink — and I am one of those nutrition snobs who says “Ew, have you read the ingredient list?”. 😉

8. Make a garden sculpture.  Scavenge around in the garage or basement for assorted odd parts that nobody wants.  Add some wire, electrical tape or anything else you fancy to hold your parts together and have the kids create something wild and wonderful.  If the kids like, they can spray paint the final masterpiece.

9.  Go hunting for hats with character.  Hit thrift shops, ask friends and relatives or search the attic for fun hats that the kids can adopt to suit their moods.  Anna has a black velvet cap that looks perfect on her, my friend Tiffany rocks her pink cowboy hat and we think this “Greek fisherman hat” particularly suits Victoria.

10.  Write a song together and record yourselves singing it.

I started this post early in the morning but had to take off with the family for a dentist appointment two hours away.  Fast forward to the evening and Monday is nearly over, but luckily there’s still most of the week to make some magic.

Kiss you kiddos, count your blessings, and don’t forget to take care of you!

~Alicia