Fun with Perler Beads

A while back I decided to buy some Perler beads so Charlie and I could have a fun craft to do together. We work on this while Emmett naps. I like doing crafts, and I'd like to share that hobby with my kids. Creating is awesome! Also, fine motor skills have never been one of Charlie's strengths, so I figured this would be a good craft to help him work on that.

I started out with buying a bucket of a variety of colors, like this. Charlie doesn't really care about what colors he has, and he's not quite ready to really follow a pattern or create a pattern of his own. I've been able to make a few things with the color selections we've got, but for projects that use a lot of the same color, I'll probably need to buy additional beads. I'll also need to buy some bigger pegboards. Here are some patterns that I want to make for Charlie:

Captain America & Batman

Superhero or other brand specific toys (like Nintendo) are typically expensive, and this is a good, cheap alternative. And Charlie gets very excited when I make him something like this. And by very I mean that he will be thoroughly entertained for at least the next hour playing with it. At least.

The first time Charlie and I sat down to do this, we spent some time sorting the beads by color, and he did pretty good with it. Then we started putting the beads on the pegboards. He did ok, but he didn't understand what the end result would be, so he lost interest and didn't really have enough beads on his pegboard to make anything. I made a rainbow heart.

The second time Charlie did much better. We sorted some more before we got started. Charlie put a good amount of beads on his pegboard. I still had to help him finish his project, but he did very well on his own. And I made him a Pokeball. He was thrilled!

The next time we invited a friend and her mom over to do beads with us. Also a success. We had a good time and both kids were pretty successful in making theirs--still needing some help to finish.

We did some more yesterday, and I made Charlie a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Michelangelo at his request. While I was looking back and forth at the pattern, Charlie took a look, dug around for some beads, and said, "You need two pink for his tongue!" And handed me two pink. I was surprised and impressed. I think next time I'll have him help me build one from a pattern. Maybe he's closer to being ready for patterns than I thought.

The word of the day while working with the Perler beads yesterday was "loseable." Charlie kept saying, "These beads are loseable." Over and over and over. It was a little annoying, but I didn't know a word to teach him as a replacement. After all, these beads definitely possess the ability to be lost. What other word for that is there?

Summer Fun

We've had a couple adventures this summer and had some good times, so I figured I'd share.

The Living Planet Aquarium

We went to the aquarium on a rainy day with my sisters and their husbands and kids. Overall it was pretty fun, but the building was PACKED. And frankly, how busy it was pretty much ruined it for me. There were a lot of cool things for the kids, including an open tank to pet stingrays and sharks. But there were people two deep and shoulder to shoulder, so participating meant waiting forever or shoving your way in. There is also a really cool tunnel under a large tank, so you can walk in and be surrounded by sea creatures. But again so many people it was a little claustrophobic. Charlie liked seeing the sharks, sea turtle, jelly fish, penguins, otters, giant snake, and more. Emmett was also really fascinated with watching all the fish. They had a good time. I'm not sure it was worth the $26+ for me and the boys to go, but if I could get a discount and get in on a day/time that is less crowded, I'd do it again.

This Is the Place Heritage Park

This was so much fun! I was a bit of a grouch the day we went, but overall I had a great time. It was easy to spend all day here with all the cool things to do. We didn't do everything, but we did get around to the petting zoo (which wasn't too impressive, but the boys loved it), pony rides, train rides, and doll making. With each ticket, you get a wristband with three punches for the special activities, so we had to pick and choose anyway. But I was able to let the boys use my punches, so they could do more. There was also Indian jewelry, panning for gold, and some kind of printing craft (which I wanted to do but didn't figure it would be child friendly). There are also a couple areas for the kids to run and play: a play city with kid-sized pioneer buildings and a splash pad (not a pioneer experience, but great for cooling off). You can even minimize walking by taking the train around the perimeter of the park; it has about five different stops. This was totally worth the $19 for me and the boys to get in. I want to go back.

However, I was a bad mom the day we went there. I figured we'd be in and out of buildings enough that sunscreen wouldn't be necessary. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Charlie and I were fine; a little pink the next day but it wasn't a big deal. Emmett got burnt to a crisp--literally. My boys get red faced easily when they're active outside, but when Emmett's face was still lobster red after his bath that night, I knew he was burned. Then he had a rough night's sleep that night waking up several times. One time when he woke up I took him to the kitchen to get him a drink of milk, and when I turned on the light, I realized the skin of his face was falling off. It was like his burned cheek had turned into a giant blister that popped; it was oozey and gross. Eventually it turned into a nasty scab. He's all healed up now, but his cheek and nose are scarred. I'm hoping the scarring will go away to with time, but we'll see. I'm never going to assume sunscreen is unnecessary again.