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1 Comment Posted on November 23, 2014 parenting, Storytelling, toy reviews, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: Dressing Yourself As A Super Hero To Open Your Gifts From Family

4 years.

Dear Jack,

A week ago was your actual 4^th birthday, though your birthday party with your friends was the day before on Saturday.

That meant you had already opened your presents from your friends by the time Mommy and I let you open your gifts from us the next morning at our house.

Sort of half-jokingly, I suggested that before you got started opening our gifts to you, that you should dress up in the super hero costume that your friend Madison had given you. (We actually let you open your gifts in front of your friends at your party; even though that’s nearly considered weird these days!)

You didn’t hesitate.

To make things even better, you happened to already be wearing your Batman pajamas, which had served as your Halloween costume just a few weeks ago.

So by the time you put on your costume, it apparently made you Super Captain Batman Jack!

It’s like you honestly believed that the red cape made you fun faster, because you were trying it out right, getting into super hero character before you sat down to open your presents.

I want to be clear, you did not remove one item of the costume the entire time, including the mask.

Even if you never wear the costume again, which after seeing this, I’m pretty sure you will, it was worth Madison picking out this outfit for you just for this event alone.

It was a relevant gift for more than one reason. Turns out, one of the gifts Mommy and I got for you was a Spiderman sleeping bag.

Not only have you been using it to sleep on this week, given that everything is moved out of our house now since we’re moving out to live with some friends as our new house is being built, but I also envision your new Spiderman sleeping bag to be what you sleep on when we “go camping” in our backyard of our new house next summer.

And fortunately, your mechanically-minded Uncle Andew was there to help put together a Techno Gears Marble Mania Quest maze; it took him only 2 hours, whereas the box warned it would take 3 to 4!

You provided great entertainment for our family as you opened your “Mommy and Daddy” presents. You really did make the best Super Captain Batman Jack that I have ever seen!

Love,

Daddy

3 Comments Posted on November 22, 2014 parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: We Actually Let You Open Your Presents At Your Birthday Party

4 years.

Dear Jack,

These days, it’s apparently become the standard not to open your presents at birthday parties; especially if it’s in a rented facility and especially in a bigger city.

I figure part of it is a time restraint issue for the 2 hour time limit… and then perhaps part of it is a new cultural take on it; that it’s somehow rude or showy for your child to open his presents in front of all the other kids and their parents.

So naturally, I assumed that’s how we were supposed to do it too, at your 4th birthday party last weekend– to refrain from opening gifts during the party; this was your first birthday party you’ve had that hasn’t taken place at our house.

However, around the middle of your party, some of your friends began asking when you would be opening their gift.

Having eaten the cake and snacks 45 minutes into the 2 hour time slot, it still allowed for plenty of time before and after the food, so that there was still a solid 20 minutes remaining for opening gifts.

So… even if it may have been breaking the rules or social taboo or something, Mommy and I let you open your gifts in front of your friends!

And I am so glad we did! I am so glad it worked out that way.

I was sort of sitting in the middle of all your friends as I was taking pictures and I saw the look of excitement as each of them gradually realized that their gift was in your hands and about to be opened.

Some friends even stood right next to you or behind you to get the equivalent of a backstage pass.

Granted, there were only about a dozen kids there, so it didn’t take all that long; maybe 15 minutes to open all the presents. And of course you helped hand out the party favor bags with the crayon Lego men we made.

I am now convinced: Opening the presents at the party is the way to go! The party attendees demanded it and were happy to see it happen.

Not to mention, you were happy to oblige!

Love,

Daddy

1 Comment Posted on November 2, 2014 Nostalgia, parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

3 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack,

In addition to making you feel special by taking you to go get tater tots at Burger Republic back in September for the “The Great Food Truck Festival”, you also had a lot of fun that same weekend by helping Mommy and me make some of the party favors for your upcoming birthday party in just two weeks.

For your appropriately themed Lego party at Bricks 4 Kids (A Lego-themed party place), we are giving out homemade Lego Man crayons as part of your party favor bags.

Mommy found the Lego Man mold on Amazon. From there, we found a few boxes of old crayons; some of them having been baking in our cars for the past couple of years!

My main job was to take the knife and cut off the paper wrappers. Your job was to organize the crayons by color (which you did with great pride) and throw away the wrappers for me after I cut them off the crayons, which was actually very helpful for me.

From there, Mommy crushed them and fit them into the molds, baking them for a little while. After that they went into the freezer to cool off.

Too bad we only had one mold tray, which yields 8 Lego Man crayons at a time. Mommy was basically baking batches for about 6 hours straight in order to produce a total of about 64.

So as you can see, as long as you use as least 2 different colors of crayons, each Lego Man crayon is guaranteed to look unique, like a snowflake or a fingerprint.

My favorite one looked like the Earth. I named him Captain Planet.

Without surprise, you immediately chose your favorites to put in your own goody bag.

Making those Lego Man crayons was definitely a fun family activity for us. Granted, Mommy’s role was the most tedious.

But we all a great time. It was such a unique and “Pinteresty” thing for us to do.

I guess we get cool points now or something…

Love,

Daddy

1 Comment Posted on October 27, 2014October 27, 2014 parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Walden Farm (Pumpkin Patch): Family Friendly Review

This past weekend my family visited Walden Farm in Smyrna/Nolensville, Tennessee. (It’s a 30 minute drive from downtown Nashville, TN.)

I have a feeling I could pretty much type anything I wanted to and no one would notice, because obviously, the pictures really tell the story here.

In the process of seeing these 14 picture collages below, you’ll get a good idea of why your family would have a great time if you were to visit Walden Farm.

But in the event there’s actually anyone actually reading the words to this story, not just checking out the fun pictures, I’ll do a quick narrative.

Parking is free and so is admission, but you do pay a couple of bucks per activity. We spent a total of $18 on all you see below, including the pumpkins.

I think my son Jack’s favorite activity at Walden Farm is the hayride.

It’s sort of like a mobile scavenger hunt, as your family tries to find all the semi-hidden spooky objects; like an eyeball, Frankenstein, a spider, etc.

There is also Toddler Town, a place that I am convinced Jack could hang out at all day and never even think about food.

It’s basically like a backyard, equipped with a gravel-filled toy table. Jack enjoyed scooping up the rocks in bulldozers, alongside dinosaurs.

There is also a dirt hill that he enjoyed rolling the bulldozers up and down.

Like any good pumpkin patch/farm, there are animals to see and feed.

And a tractor pull…

And those cut-outs where your family can transform into farm-themed characters.

Don’t forget the hay maze!

Jack wanted some pumpkins, so we paid just $1 and he was able to choose 2 really strange-looking ones; which he used as “lasers” the whole ride home.

As we were loading up back into the car, I pointed out to Jack a hedgeapple tree.

In case you’re unfamiliar, hedge apples (also known as Osage oranges) are basically a prehistoric fruit that no longer serve as food for animals today.

Hope you enjoyed learning about Walden Farm. Maybe your family can check it out in person!

3 Comments Posted on September 16, 2014 parenting, reviews, Uncategorized

Arrington Vineyards: Family Friendly Review

I’ll go ahead and point out that it might seem a tad bit ironic that I would do a “family friendly review” on a winery.

But as you hopefully will discover, this particular winery is different.

The way I see it, Arrington Vineyards makes for a perfect hang-out spot for both parents and children.

It is located about 30 minutes south of Nashville, on a giant hill. The view is beautiful, the atmosphere is classy, and that enormous (and extremely steep) hill provides the ideal playground for kids.

When my sister and I were kids back in the 80s, we were always excited to play on the hill in our Italian grandfather’s yard. In more recent years, we realized that “hill” was only about 3 feet high.

However, the hill at Arrington Vineyards is the largest and widest I have ever seen for what could constitute for an unofficial play area.

Parking is free- and a plethora of picnic tables are provided as well. Therefore, Arrington Vineyards is naturally a wonderful location to host a picnic.

The only cost would be if you choose to try or buy wine. There is no fee for just “hanging out.”

Obviously though, I’ve noticed most people who go to Arrington Vineyards end up buying a bottle of wine, which explains why the vineyard can afford to keep from charging any kind of entrance free or table fee.

So, let’s talk more about that monstrous hill: Kids love it!

I had my son Jack pack up a book bag full of balls before we left the house; as well as monster trucks. (It helped serve as a lesson in sharing since we met his friend Jake’s family there.)

He and I had a blast playing a game we made up where he kicked the soccer ball down the hill to me and I kicked it back up to him.

His goal was to get the ball all the way down to the bottom of the hill; my goal was to get it to the top.

Arrington Vineyards is also naturally a good place to take pictures. I’ve noticed that the abnormal horizon line (because of the hill) and the easy expose to sunlight make for good photography.

So there you have it. I say this is a great place to take your family to hang-out. And if you, the parent, appreciate good wine, it’s all that much more of a reason to go.

FYI: Arrington Vineyards was unaware I was writing a “family friendly review” on them. I was simply a paying customer who happened to be taking a lot of pictures of my son. In other words, I did not “work for free wine.” I simply have always enjoyed going to Arrington Vineyards and thought they deserve a shout-out.

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fun

Dear Jack: Dressing Yourself As A Super Hero To Open Your Gifts From Family

Dear Jack: We Actually Let You Open Your Presents At Your Birthday Party

Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

Walden Farm (Pumpkin Patch): Family Friendly Review

Arrington Vineyards: Family Friendly Review

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