Syncopated Mama: family fun

Showing posts with label family fun. Show all posts

Pure Flix Family Camp Fun!

Strengthen your faith and family this summer by joining in on all the Pure Flix Family Camp fun!

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Many thanks to Pure Flix for providing this product/product information for review. Opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

I actually had never heard of this faith-based video streaming service before:

Pure Flix

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Fun, Free Staycation Idea

It's time for summer vacation! Do you have big plans for the next few months, or will you be sticking close to home?

Whether you're hitting the road or not, this fun "staycation" idea will be one that your whole family will enjoy!

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commission at no cost to you. Thanks so much for supporting my efforts with this blog!

Maybe you don't have time this summer to head out on a big trek -- or maybe you have the time, but not the budget -- or maybe you are planning to go somewhere, but all those weeks with no school have you breaking out in a cold sweat as you wonder what in the heck you're going to do with a houseful of kids all day...

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Passport - Scotland

Travel the world from the comfort of your living room with this Passport to Fun series! Whether you use these ideas as a date night, family fun night, or homeschool study, you'll be sure to have some fun and bring a bit of Scotland's culture right into your own home!

You'll remember that I came up with a pretty awesome idea for G's Christmas gift last year.

If you're new here and don't know what I'm talking about, then feel free to wander on over to this post to read all about it.

I'll wait.

Even though we spent all of 2016 traveling to new countries each month, we had so much fun I decided to extend this series indefinitely - so many cool places to learn about and we've even got a list of places we want to return to in the future!

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Passport to Fun - Epic Real-Life Road Trip

Travel is an integral part of our family's life, even with an extremely limited budget.

Each month, we "visit" a different country to explore all that it has to offer, but this past summer, we hit the road and experienced new locales in person, instead!

One of the benefits of being a Teacher Family is having a giant chunk of time off each summer to travel.

The drawback to being a Teacher Family is that the income it provides means we have only a teeny, tiny budget to do it with.

Over the past years (since Gv's been born), we've managed to actually spend summers away for free through some extremely creative budgeting as well as taking advantage of frugal camping options.

We love our "summer home" in the mountain forest, but now that Gv is getting a bit older (and I'm itching to really travel again), I wanted to begin exposing her to new things, as well.

By combining the cheap camping tricks we've learned over the past years with some major research into the different parts of the country we wanted to visit, we actually managed to take an epic, real-life road trip this summer and finish things up with a week at our "summer home" in the mountains, all within our meager budget!

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Passport to Fun - Mexico

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The Shepherd on the Search's Amazing Journey Around the World!

Looking for a way to keep the focus on Christ this Christmas, but still want all the fun build-up of something like the Elf on a Shelf phenomenon?

Then get your hands on these fabulous resources - you'll have the best of both worlds!

I received a free copy of this product in exchange for writing a review. All opinions are my own.

OhMyGoodness, I was super-excited when I wrote this post telling you all about the new Shepherd on the Search tradition I'd discovered, but now that we've been actually using him for days, I'm even more excited than ever!

If you haven't read the background post, pop on over here and get up to speed, then come back to find out how "Hezzie" has been bringing extra faith-filled fun to our house this year!

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Passport to Fun - Thailand

Travel the world from the comfort of your living room with this Passport to Fun series! Whether you use these ideas as a date night, family fun night, or homeschool study, you'll be sure to have fun and bring a bit of the Thai culture right into your own home!

You'll remember that I came up with a pretty awesome idea for G's Christmas gift this past year.

If you're new here and don't know what I'm talking about, then feel free to wander on over to this post to read all about it.

I'll wait.

Click here to keep reading!

Shepherd on the Search - A New Christmas Tradition You Won't Want to Miss!

Looking for a way to keep the focus on Christ this Christmas, but still want all the fun build-up of something like the elf on a shelf phenomenon? Then get your hands on this fabulous resource - it's the best of both worlds!

I received a free copy of this product in exchange for writing a review. All opinions are my own.

Next week, after you finally emerge from your turkey coma, you'll probably start thinking about pulling all those Christmas decorations down from the attic (unless you're one of those people, who's so on the ball that you can flip your decorating scheme over in the blink of an eye!)

If you have kids, you'll most likely be pulling out something special to help count down the days or follow certain traditions, as well.

Many families use an Advent calendar, some put up a Jesse Tree (did you ever see this fabulous version that I wrote about?), there's Truth in the Tinsel, or you might even follow along here with our Celebrating the Season fun.

Perhaps you're already wracking your brain to come up with the antics that your Elf on the Shelf will be up to this year, or you've started your RAK lists for your Blessings Buddies or The Kindness Elves, instead?

All of those activities are such fun to revisit each year. Some years, it's fun to just continue with the old traditions and others, it's fun to change things up a bit and switch out the old for new - or just add a new tradition to your holiday list of standards.

That's what we'll be doing this year and I am SO EXCITED about it - I can hardly wait!

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Passport to Fun - Germany

Travel the world from the comfort of your living room with this Passport to Fun series! Whether you use these ideas as a date night, family fun night, or homeschool study, you'll be sure to have fun and bring a bit of Oktoberfest right into your own home!

You'll remember that I came up with a pretty awesome idea for G's Christmas gift this year.

If you're new here and don't know what I'm talking about, then feel free to wander on over to this post to read all about it.

I'll wait.

Click here to keep reading!

Passport to Fun - Ireland!

You'll remember that I came up with a pretty awesome idea for G's Christmas gift this year.

If I've never met you before, or you just have a memory like a sieve, then feel free to wander on over to this post to read all about it.

I'll wait.

Click here to keep reading!

Passport to Fun - Switzerland!

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Passport to Fun - A Unique Approach to Date Night

It was only a few days until Christmas and I still hadn't come up with this year's "special" gift for G.

Oh, I'd found him some things that he'd wanted or needed (& pretty much used gift cards or cashback money for all of them, so they were free!), but I was still wanting something fun for us - like this calendar of dates gift from a couple years ago or last year's amazing Year of Fun box...

Desperate for the perfect solution, I headed over to one of my favorite blogs (specifically this one) for some inspiration...

That's when I landed on this idea. It sounded just perfect for us, and I loved all the great printables that went along with the set.

Front of gift envelope

Card and passport within

Of course, I had to tweak things a bit and add my own spin to it all, but I did use everything but the tickets to help create his special present.

First, I filled out the destination list in a general way, because I knew G would rather have things be a surprise every month. By only listing the locations, he got to see some of the places we'd be "traveling" at the moment he opened his present, but then I knew he'd forget all about where we were heading when it came time for our first date.

My plan was to set his passport out (with the new stamp added) the night before our "departure," so that he'd be greeted by it first thing when he got up for work the next morning.

First passport stamp: Canada

By not writing down the specific dates of travel, I could be more flexible with things (like if he told me his tutoring would be canceled one night later in the week) and also give him a surprise to anticipate coming home to throughout his long day at work.

Also, I came up with so many ideas for places to go, this fun gift will keep on giving for at least two years, not just the one that the original idea suggested.

Finally, even though this gift was created for couples to use for a romantic date night, I knew that we'd enjoy the idea even more if it was family-friendly and we could include Gv in all the adventures, as well.

It takes a bit of preparation (most of which I'll be doing for you!), but this gift really is a lot of fun for everyone (I just love gifts for others that turn out to be a bonus gift for me, too!)

I'll be sharing all the details of each month's trip with you - starting with the first month:

January: Canada

What to Decorate With

You can easily go crazy with this (just Google "Canada Day decorations" if you want a ton of ideas), but I decided to keep things simple most months - and also to try and create a decoration that Gv could make, to involve her more with the whole process.

We decided to make a flag for the wall next to our front door, which would greet him as soon as he got home:

This was super-easy to do: just add strips of red construction paper and a red handprint to a sheet of white paper!

Gv still loves anything that involves tracing her hand, so I knew this would be the perfect craft for us to do this month.

What to Dress Like

I'm not sure we'll be dressing up for every trip, but I figured it would add to the fun atmosphere if we happen have just the right clothes hanging around the house to piece together an appropriate outfit. (Bonus: Frugal Halloween costume ideas!)

Although I'd briefly considered such get-ups as a Mountie or hockey player, after looking through our closets, I came up with something else.

For him, a lumberjack ensemble, complete with red & black-checked flannel shirt, a warm hat, and hiking boots.

I donned a "Canadian Tux" - jeans, denim shirt, and jeans jacket along with a pair of hiking boots and my warm "Canada" hat.

Gv just wore red.

We took fun photos under our flag, to commemorate the event:

What to Listen to

I'm a huge fan of Natalie MacMaster, so of course the iPod playlist I'd created included plenty of her tunes, as well as loads of Bare Naked Ladies and Celine Dion songs (most of which were in French). Of course, I had to include this singable tune from Epcot (#5 on disc 2), as well as the Canadian anthem (take your pick of versions here), too!

What to Eat

Ah, food. I have to confess, this is pretty much the main reason I got excited about this gift idea in the first place - one of our favorite aspects of travel is eating all sorts of amazing food around the world, so it only makes sense that our monthly "trips" would focus on food, as well.

I knew I wanted to fix my delicious recipe for Le Cellier's (Epcot restaurant) beer cheese soup, so that's a big reason I chose Canada for the month of January - a time when we're slurping up soup just about every other night!

I also knew I had to include poutine and something that featured bacon, and a maple syrup-based dessert made sense, so that pretty much comprised our menu.

If you don't want to go to a lot of trouble, you could always just fix Kraft dinner, but if you want to get a bit more adventurous, try out some of these dishes:

Beer Cheese Soup

What You Need

1/4-1/3 pound of chopped bacon

1 finely chopped onion

3 Tablespoons flour

3 cups milk (I used almond)

2 cups chicken stock

12 ounces shredded cheddar

3 dashes of hot sauce

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup warm beer

salt & pepper to taste

What You Do

1. Cook the bacon over medium heat until wilted, but not browned.

2. Add onion and cook until translucent and the bacon is crisped.

3. Sprinkle in the flour and stir constantly for 2 minutes. Stir in the milk and stock - a little at a time - blending it all well to make sure there aren't any lumps.

4. Bring the pot to a boil, then cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.

5. Remove pot from heat and whisk in the cheese, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and beer. Season with salt and pepper and fill up your tummy with the bubbly deliciousness.

Bacon-Potato Roll-Ups

For this, I chunked up bits of potato, threw them all into a bag along with 2 Tablespoons of hot sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon onion powder, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic, then shook everything up really well to get the tater chunks all nice and coated.

I cut my bacon slices (2/3rds of a package) in half or thirds (depending on the size of the potato chunks), wrapped a slice around each tater, then placed them on a baking sheet so that the weight of the potatoes would hold the bacon wraps closed (I just wasn't in the mood to mess with toothpicks!)

I slid it all into the oven and baked it for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.

Maple-Glazed Apple Blondies

I wanted to make something new, so I found this recipe and just made my usual substitutions of whole wheat flour, homemade baking powder, and honey (for all the sugar except the maple syrup). They were a different type of treat, which we enjoyed.

Poutine

This is just a mess of french fries (I ran potatoes through my food processor with the "french fry" blade, then baked them until they were done) covered with brown gravy and cheese curds. I was actually planning to make some cheese and add the fresh curds to this dish, but then just got lazy and sprinkled on some shredded mozzarella after adding the gravy.

For the gravy, I just went the super-lazy route and threw everything into the pot at once. I was actually dubious that it would turn out, but it worked just fine and I know I'll be taking this same shortcut in the future. Dump 1 1/2 cups beef stock, 1/4 cup flour, 1 finely chopped onion and 1/4 cup butter into your pan and then cook it all down at a medium-to-low temperature until it's nice and thick. You'll want to stir it as often as possible to keep it from getting lumpy, but I honestly didn't do this very often and it was still great.

Ah, potato-and-grease overload...just what I remember from my meals traveling through Canada...

What to Do

I created this free printable so that you can play the game, "Who's More Canadian?" Just fill in each player's name and then give tally points throughout the evening for every "Eh?" or "Aboot" that each player says!

We also played a crazy game of sock hockey.

We ditched our shoes for stocking feet, set up goals (plastic step-stools) on either end of our kitchen, grabbed our brooms and a rolled-up sock "puck" and laughed until our sides hurt as we batted the puck back and forth to score (G won).

The bonus was that it cleaned up our floor at the same time!

What to Watch

I'd gathered quite a collection of shows for G to choose from that night: Strange Brew, Canadian Bacon, SCTV episodes and Dudley Do-Right and Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons. You could even just watch a hockey movie, if you're so inclined.

And that wrapped up our first "trip" together for the year. It was a great success and we're already looking forward to next month!

Travel all over the world, without leaving your living room! Come back each month to see where we head next. Can you think of any other ideas to add for a trip to Canada? I'd love to hear! Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

Also, if you don't want to miss a single minute of great tips like this and all the fun around here, be sure to sign up for free updates and then look forward to having each post delivered right to your inbox.

Want more? Check out some of our other trips:

Italy - India - France - Africa - Ireland - Switzerland - Greece - England - Germany - Thailand - Russia - China - Jamaica - Egypt - Mexico - Japan - Brazil - Cuba - Scotland - Australia - Scandinavia

Love this idea, but want the easy, made-for-you-and-all-you-do-is-print-it version? Click here to get your own pack and see what inspired me to create this series!

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Pure Flix Family Camp Fun!

Fun, Free Staycation Idea

Top 10 Posts of 2017

Passport - Scotland

Passport to Fun - Epic Real-Life Road Trip

Passport to Fun - Mexico

The Shepherd on the Search's Amazing Journey Around the World!

Passport to Fun - Thailand

Shepherd on the Search - A New Christmas Tradition You Won't Want to Miss!

Passport to Fun - Germany

Passport to Fun - England

Passport to Fun - Greece

Passport to Fun - Italy

Passport to Fun - India

Passport to Fun - France

Passport to Fun - Africa

Passport to Fun - Ireland!

Passport to Fun - Switzerland!

Passport to Fun - A Unique Approach to Date Night

January: Canada

What to Decorate With

What to Dress Like

What to Listen to

What to Eat

Beer Cheese Soup

What You Need

What You Do

Bacon-Potato Roll-Ups

Maple-Glazed Apple Blondies

Poutine

What to Do

What to Watch