{"id":187,"date":"2009-08-03T01:57:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T01:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.wordpress.com\/2009\/08\/03\/10-ways-to-make-today-magical-18\/"},"modified":"2009-08-03T01:57:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-03T01:57:00","slug":"10-ways-to-make-today-magical-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/03\/10-ways-to-make-today-magical-18\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Ways to Make Today Magical"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. <\/strong><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/strong>Have a movie matinee day at home.  Close all the blinds in the middle of the day, turn off the lights, pop some popcorn, put out some tasty munchies, pull up some chairs or pillows and watch a new-to-you movie together.  Better yet, borrow <\/span><\/strong><\/span>this idea<\/span><\/a><\/span> and make a drive-in at home with decorated boxes!<\/span><\/span><\/strong>

<\/span><\/strong>2.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span>  <\/span><\/strong>Host a tea party in the yard.  Invite participants to dress up (hats are a must!).  Serve tiny cookies, finger sandwiches and tea with cream and sugar.  Even tea for two can be a magical time!<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
<\/span><\/strong>
3.<\/span><\/span>  Visit an art museum and look for inspiration for neat art projects this week.  Bring a camera and have the kids take pictures of their favorite pieces.  Make up stories of what was going on when the piece was created.  Why was the model smiling?  Did the artist just tell her a bad joke?  Was someone holding up rabbit ears behind his head?  Did she have a really great morning?  How was the artist feeling when she made this sculpture?  See if you can find art made by happy, sad, curious and angry artists.  Try having the kids do art when they’re in different moods to see how it changes their work.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong>4.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span>  <\/span><\/strong>It’s meteor season again.  Take the kids, a blanket and a thermos of something fun to drink and head to the back yard (if you’re in the country) or to someplace away from bright lights to see if you can wish on some shooting stars.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>

5.<\/span><\/span>  Go to a farmers’ market or roadside stand and buy up a bunch of something at a great price.  Prep and freeze it together for later in the year as a memory of summer.  Right now our freezer is stocked with bags of picked-by-us strawberries, green beans from Grandma, rhubarb and banana peppers from the farmers’ market, our own homemade pesto and lots of other neat stuff we bundled up together.  It’s sweet time together when we prep it and also later when we gobble it.  \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong>6.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span>  <\/span><\/strong>Give the kids blank new journals and ideas on how to fill them <\/span><\/strong><\/span>like this<\/span><\/a><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/strong>

7.<\/span><\/span>  Have dinner by candlelight.<\/span><\/p>\n

8.<\/span><\/span>  Do the <\/span>Mentos & Diet Coke experiment<\/span><\/a> in the park or backyard.<\/span><\/p>\n

9.<\/span><\/span>  Host a Back-to-School Fashion swap.  Invite families with kids the same size as yours to each bring a set number of clothing items in good condition that they no longer want.  Give everybody a shopping bag and take turns "shopping" from the piles.  Donate anythingleft over to a local homeless shelter or family crisis center.<\/span><\/p>\n

10.<\/span><\/span> Make pancake paintings for breakfast.  Cook a platter of pancakes and serve with small bowls of concentrated fruit juices, jellies, jams and other toppings in many colors (orange juice for orange, grape juice for purple, apple raspberry juice concentrate or strawberry syrup for red, etc.).  Give each child a paintbrush and let everybody paint the pancakes with the colors.  Take pictures and chow down. <\/p>\n

**************************<\/p>\n

Have a magical week, chickadees!  Don’t forget to take care of you!
~Alicia<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1.  Have a movie matinee day at home.  Close all the blinds in the middle of the day, turn off the lights, pop some popcorn, put out some tasty munchies, pull up some chairs or pillows and watch a new-to-you movie together.  Better yet, borrow this idea and make a drive-in at home with decorated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[253],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}