Disc Golf

 

I mentioned last month that as part of Paul's birthday gift I bought him a set of discs for playing disc golf - I had several people mention that they loved this idea and I fully intended to write more about the subject. Then when Clint from Disc Golf Station sent me an email asking if he could send me some discs in exchange for mentioning his store I had to say yes - disc golf is seriously a cool sport!

I think it is a great social sport. As I said in the first post I don't see myself ever playing it as I lack the skills to throw a Frisbee even a short distance to another person let alone into a basket far away! However the courses I have seen are scenic and beautiful and there is a lot of walking involved, therefore a lot of opportunity to be social and have fun, even if you don't play.

Disc Golf Station has some great resources available on their site that I highly recommend you check if you are interested in purchasing discs for yourself or as a gift for your husband, brother, father, uncle and every other hard to buy for male. For under $20 you can get a couple of discs needed for the game.

Clint recommends a mid range disc and putter disc and he has a great piece written up for disc golf beginners here that really explains everything you need to know.

 

Another excellent resource is the disc golf videos available on the site to help improve your game. Watching those will give you a much better grasp of the game than I could ever do explaining!

 

Disc Golf Station offers a large assortment of discs, including floaters - I never knew regular discs didn't float until a friend saw the floating disc I was sent and commented on it. We tested in out in the local pond and it does indeed float.

 

My favorite thing about Disc Golf Station is that they offer free shipping on every order within the continental US- no minimum purchase! I love when online stores offer this. Not only that, but they ship the orders out same day if the order arrives before 3pm. Nothing beats free and prompt shipping when shopping online!

 As an added bonus you can sign up for the newsletter on www.discgolfstation.com and get a code for 10% off your next order.

Disc Golf and Mens Birthday gifts

 

Paul's birthday falls a couple weeks after Christmas which makes the challenge of finding him nice gifts extremely hard - he's tough enough to buy for just one occasion, but two occasions back to back? It really has been a challenge for me to think up gifts he would really enjoy. 

For his birthday this year I bought Paul the basic discs for Disc Golf - he had done it once before and really enjoyed it and I thought it would be fun for him to have his own set and maybe it was something we could get into doing together. A friend picked out the right discs for me and the boys and I gave them to him as part of his birthday gift. Paul loved them... and now I have 11 months to think up his next round of gifts!

Living in the South Disc Golf is a great sport to play as you can play year round - wind and rain are really the only reasons to not play. We live about 5 minutes from a really nice park that has the disc golf course and a couple weeks ago the 4 of us and a friend headed out to play. 

 

I quickly realized disc golf wasn't an activity I could ever really get into. Throwing a Frisbee isn't a skill I have ever acquired and in this game that skill is kind of the point of the game. Judah and Wesley lacked the skills too.
 

Wesley turned his disc into a hat. 

 

Judah was happy to just chase it. 

Paul, however, enjoyed it. 

And got better at it than his first game.

And I enjoyed lagging behind and taking pictures. 

 

 Like of this little pond. Isn't it gorgeous? The park where the disc golf course was set up was gorgeous. I'd totally learn to play just as an excuse to walk the course again - but I have a camera, and that is a good enough excuse for me to walk it again!  

If you want to try this gift for your husband, brother, father or mailman it cost about $25 for the first three discs - which is what is recommended as the minimum for playing- and they should be available at your local sports store.

Judah's Car Mat - Christmas Gift

I am so excited about this Car Mat for Judah.

I have been working on it for a couple of months now, but it's been going a lot quicker since I got my sewing machine!! It is possible to make this if you don't have a machine - it'll just take a long time to hand stitch everything.

I wanted to make him a car mat with lots of different scenes that he could rearrange the order of everything depending on his creative mood.

I found bags of red, white, black and green felt at the Dollar Store - $1 for 10 or 12 pieces. Each piece is about 5x7. On top of 4 bags of that felt I picked up a few other pieces at a craft store and used some scraps I had on hand. Some of the scenes still need a few details, but here they are up close:

 

Starting with the top scene:

A city (with a clothes line between two apartment buildings)

Fishing pond, apple tree, garden

Christmas tree, sled, snowman

Parking lot (the black line will be a light post, just need to add the button light!)

 

From left to right:

Rain clouds and puddles

Train station and train tracks

Sun, telephone pole with bird, stop sign

 

From left to right:

Tent, snake

Forest

Fence, barn

I will probably end up adding on to this if he plays with it as much as I am hoping he will. He has seen me working on it, and at the beginning I let him test it out just to see if he would play with it, and he totally loved it! I think it would be fun to let family and friends design a scene for him too.

Easy Birthday Gift for a boy

Judah's buddy is turning 5 and he entirely has my sympathies.

Being born anywhere close to Christmas kind of stinks.

I decided we'd try to make his gift a bit more fun, somewhat functional and... well, make it more than 1 gift to open.

I took mini matchboxes that I picked up at the Dollar Tree for $1. (There were about a dozen for $1)

I only need 5 boxes.

The boy is turning 5.

So 5 boxes it will be.

I took all the matches out of the matchbox. As certain as I am that a 5 year old boy would love 5 boxes of matches, I still want to stay friends with his mother. So out go the matchsticks.

Then I cut out 5 pieces of paper that flowed together. I wasn't looking for matchy-matchy.

Two prints got used twice. My favorite line says;

Boy, n. a noise with dirt on it.

 

I wrapped them all up fancy like and used some rub on numbers to put 1-5 on the front of each box.

That's the easy part.

Deciding what to put in these manly man boxes is a whole 'nother challenge. Seeing as it's from Judah I thought we could try putting Judah's things in it - each box would hold 5 of the treasured item.

But after coming up with rubber bands, pretzels, balloons, paper clips and quarters I thought his friend might just cry when he saw the gift.

And Judah might cry when he realized he was GIVING those items away.

So I thought a bit more. And am going to use money inside of it instead.

5 nickles

5 dimes

5 quarters

5 $1bills

And then 1 $5 bill to end it all off .

Judah still might cry when he realizes that when you give gifts you give for keeps.

But at least his friend won't be crying because he doesn't understand WHAT the gift is!

And a special note to all givers of gifts to my children: they truly would be overjoyed with a rubber band ball, a big jar of paper clips, some shiny quarters, pretzels - stale or not - and balloons.

Be warned: If you gift them any of those items you must stay to watch their full enjoyment of the gift. They are hysterical.

Yard Sale Finds

I only went to one yard sale this weekend, but I picked up two more Christmas presents for the boys. If you missed my post earlier this week you can see the post here on some of the gifts I have picked up for the boys at yard sales so far this year.

This weekend I picked up two large Magna Doodles (the magnetic boards you draw on and then slide to erase.) They were in good shape and the pens are attached by string to the board - so no loosing the pens! YAY! I didn't get a picture of them and they're currently stashed away in my Gift Box.

The second item was two wooden Thomas the Tank Engine train whistles.
I didn't really like them as they were.

This is one of them before:

And this is the after:



I recovered it with scrapbook paper, Modge Podged it and *voila*! I think I am going to put their names on one each, and perhaps some other text if I can think of something.

Check out all the other thrifters finds at Rhoda's!

Yard Sale Finds - Present Edition

As promised, here is a sneak peak at a few of the items I have picked up and am saving to use for Judah's birthday or Christmas gifts:

Our new favorite book. Check out the image below - one of the bad guys in the book is a fruit fly! How cute is that?!



I have also picked up a collection of Dr. Seuss books at .25 cents a piece.
And I was THRILLED to find this Bill Peet book at a yard sale. I loved Bill Peet growing up. Highly recommend his books!

I got two veggie tale dvds for .50 cents a piece.

We picked up this bike with training wheels for $5. We need to clean it up a little bit, but it was in great shape!
I think this horn will be his favorite part of the bike :)

We need to find a better hiding place for it! Everytime he sees it in the garage he asks to sit on it - he is pretty close to being able to ride it right now - his legs are long enough to peddle and he puts in a good effort to make it move! I think it'll be perfect for him at Christmas!


This is my favorite item - I even played with it while taking pictures! It is a Melissa and Doug item, and it came with a wooden car garage, which I didn't take pictures of. It was .50 cents.
A large collection of road signs:


There would have been a serious accident if that yield sign hadn't been there to save the day!

The trees didn't come with the set, but they work well, and so I have added them to the set to give him at Christmas time.

You CAN get nice gifts at yard sales.
The total for these gifts brand new would over $150.
The total I spent on these gifts was $9.
All but the Dr. Suess books are in like- new condition (or will be! once we clean the bike :)

And you can get more than just kids gifts in brand new or like brand new condition at yard sales, but I can't get into that here. Certain family members read this :)

Busy Bin Idea for Boys

Just before we moved in here I saw someone mention on their blog that you can buy clean paint cans at Lowes for fairly cheap (about $4 each). That thought stayed with me, and the idea grew to buy some and use them to house activities for the boys.
I am not a huge fan of kid-ish looking containers and bins, and at the same time I am not a fan of my children destroying my baskets, so using paint buckets to hold art supplies, flashcards and other things like that both looks fun and boy-ish and is pretty much indestructible :) I have 5 paint cans, and they are lined up on a shelf in our family room.

This one holds stickers and paper and string.

This one has alphabet, counting and word flashcards.

This is my favorite bin! He hasn't quite gotten into it yet - he'll play for a few minutes at a time, but just rubbing it, not really creating anything yet.

All crayons and pencil crayons are called "colors" by Judah, so I thought I would label the bin that... it would drive me nuts to have it labeled "crayons" and have pencil crayons and markers in there too, so by labeling it "colors" it solves that problem! :)

The final one is still blank and is empty - I haven't decided what to put in it yet, but I am sure it'll come to me eventually!

Freezer Meals - Part 4

The Essentials

The Supplies In order to preserve the meals there are some essential items that you should keep stocked in your house. I try to keep a surplus of these supplies;

1. Aluminum Foil.
2. Plastic Wrap.
3. Freezer Bags.
4. Disposable Dishes - I don't generally use these for our own meals. I like to keep something in the freezer just in case a friend is in need, or for Paul at work. Having it in a disposable dish means the friend can just toss the dish when the meal is gone or that Paul doesn't need to worry about keeping track of dishes on the road.
   

You will also need a permanent marker, and labels can come in handy for writing special instructions on, but aren't necessary. When you prepare a meal you have several options to choose from for freezing and storing.

• For individual items, such as cookies or a burrito, consider assembling or forming the item and freezing it on a plate or tray, not touching any of the other like items. Once the items are frozen you can transfer all the like items to a freezer bag. This makes it easy to pull out the desired amount when you are ready to cook.
• If you choose to use a freezer bag make sure you get out as much air as possible from the bag.
• If you use plastic wrap and/or aluminum foil make sure to press it as tightly as you can against the food. A great dish-saving idea is to line a casserole dish with foil and then plastic wrap, making sure to leave plenty hanging over the edgers. Pour your meal into the dish and then secure the plastic wrap and foil tightly around the food. Freeze the meal, and once solid remove the food from the dish. The food will go back in the freezer and your dish will be freed up for other purposes.

You will want to consider portion sizes when you prepare your meals for the freezer. Do you want to freeze in sizes just right for your family? Freeze individual portions? Or freeze enough for company too? I work with all three portion sizes on a regular basis.

Freezer Meals - Part 1; OAMC Why It Isn't For Us
Freezer Meals - Part 2; Freezer Cooking Why It Is For Us
Freezer Meals - Part 3; What's In Our Freezer

Next: Freezer Meals - Part 5; Practical Tips From Mimi Wilson

Thursday Thirteen #24

Have a baby shower coming up that you need to shop for? Here are thirteen gift ideas to help you out! My Thursday Thirteen:





1. Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder, available at Amazon.com This is perfect for a baby starting out on solids. You stick a piece of fruit, meat or vegetable inside the netting and snap it shut and then let the baby at it! The baby gets to chomp away on something without the risk of choking!
2. Diapers! You can NEVER get too many of these! But try to pick up the bigger sizes, or make sure the parents can return them if the baby outgrows that size. 3. A Restaurant Gift Card for the tired new parents!

4. A Baby Sling, like this one, available from Babies-R-Us. 5. A book for mum - but not parenting books! Something light hearted that is easy to put down, maybe just a magazine.
6. A certificate for a free night of babysitting so the parents can get out on their own!
7. Shower gel and loofa for the new mum!
8. A book or candy for the new dad - just so he knows it's about him too!
9. A months subscription to Netflix for the first month that baby is home.
10. Books for baby - look a little harder and find some that dad and mum will enjoy reading! There are some funny ones out there!!
11. A music cd for baby that mummy and baby can dance and sing to- like one by Laurie Berkner
12. Swimmer diapers, sunscreen and a baby beach towel. Add a cute baby swimsuit to the mix too if you want! =)
13. A fun stuffed animal that will make the parents smile, like this skunk. (We don't own that, but we've got a red horse that makes me laugh!)

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