Nana's Pacas

Our Cub Scout den had a field trip to Nana's Pacas in Flower Mound.

Nana's Pacas is actually at a residence in Flower Mound. It is owned by a couple, Ellen and Tom Floyd, who fell in love with alpacas. They care for them like children. They breed and sell alpacas but also sell the fibers from their wool.

The taller alpaca is Rosemary. She was the first female alpaca that the owners bought. Goldie is the other alpaca in this picture and she is one of Rosemary's daughters.

This is Sky Dancer. He is a beautiful alpaca and quite a stud (literally!)

We learned that the alpacas with white fur and blue eyes tend to be deaf.

Alpacas are very friendly animals. I was amazed that Rachel wasn't afraid of them but she did really well the whole time.

She even fed several of them by hand! I was so proud of her!

Nicholas fed several of them too but he may be more skiddish than Rachel because if the alpaca even barely tickled his hand he would giggle and spill the food from his hand.

The alpacas are cute but some are definitely "wilder" looking than others. This little guy was nice to us but I heard that he doesn't get along well with the other male alpacas.

Rachel forgot all about the alpacas for a while when the dog came over to visit her.

The kids and alpacas wandered around in some of the same areas together. The alpacas are larger than the boys but they are easily frightened so they simply run away from the loud, fast-moving boys.

In South America, they eat alpacas and make things with the alpaca pelts. This is a beautiful and very soft Mickey Mouse blanket made in South America from alpaca pelts. They different colors of fur each have different textures and different levels of softness.

We also looked at several items made from wool sheared from alpacas including some that the owner had made herself.

Nana's Pacas are located at 6504 Orchard Drive in Flower Mound. Their phone number is 817-490-8899. This weekend is National Alpaca Farm Days. The farm will be open to the public Saturday, September 25, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM and Sunday, September 26, 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM. Stop by and tell Ellen and Tom "Hi!" for us.

Talk Like A Pirate Day

September 19th is the official Talk Like A Pirate Day - AARRGGHHH!

What? You landlubbers never heard of Talk Like A Pirate Day? Walk the plank!

Stuart first told me about this cool day and I found a website that explained the whole story. There are some great pirate activities for kids on here as well as some fun pirate things for adults too.

Today we've talked like a pirate and we've worn pirate costumes. We even played some pirate games.

But I think the kids most enjoyed my Talk Like A Pirate Sensory Bin!

A sensory bin is a great resource for preschoolers. It can have a base of rice or dried beans or really just about anything that is fun to run your hands through, scoop, and pour. Nicholas had a rice box and a bean box when he was at Montessori for preschool and it was his favorite thing to work on. There may also be things added to the box that have different textures, weights, sizes, etc just to add some different things for little hands to dig for, grasp, and play with.

I decided to make a blue rice to be the ocean and then add a pirate theme to the other things in the box.

To make colored rice, you will need rice (the whiter the better), rubbing alcohol, and food coloring. I used liquid food coloring but paste food coloring will work too.

Mix 2 teaspoons of rubbing alcohol with about 10 drops of food coloring. Add more food coloring if you want a darker, richer color. Then pour the liquid into a cup of rice and mix.

The rice will quickly absorb the colorant but it will need to dry out overnight. If you are impatient or wait until the last minute like me and don't want to wait overnight, you can spread the rice out in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and warm it in an oven at 200 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Let the rice cool then pour it in your bin.

I found some "Toobs" that had little plastic ocean animals and pirates. I got these at Michael's so I could use their regular 40% off coupon!

I buried some of the sea creatures deep into the blue rice. Sneaky Mama!

Then I covered them with rice and the pirate characters as well as some fake gold coins and large rocks for islands.

Both of my kids went crazy for their pirate bin!

I spread out a tablecloth on the floor and put the rice box in the middle of it. I told the kids that they had to keep the rice in the box at all times and the toys had to stay on the tablecloth. Somehow we still got a few grains of blue rice sneak their way around the room but overall it wasn't a very messy activity.

And it was good practice for Rachel to scoop and pour the rice.

But you really can't leave a two year old alone with a box of rice for even a few minutes or else they will feel compelled to squeeze their little bodies into said box and sit right down in it!

I plan to do more of these themed sensory bins throughout the year. They are great for Rachel to work on her fine motor skills but they are also just plain fun!

Easy Recipe for Kids: 5 Cup Salad

When I was little, one of the first recipes I can remember my mom teaching me was 5 Cup Salad. It is so easy for kids to make that I even brought the ingredients to school and made the salad for my class as part of show and tell!

There are 5 simple ingredients and you need one cup of each:

Mini Marshmallows
Pineapple Chunks
Mandarin Oranges
Sour Cream
Coconut
(and we sprinkle a few maraschino cherries in it at the end just for a punch of color)

Nicholas was in charge of measuring all of the ingredients.

Rachel didn't get left out of this fun. She was in charge of pouring the cups into the big mixing bowl.

Of course, the stainer looked like so much fun that they both wanted to use it. It's fun to watch them get so excited over things that we use daily without a second thought.

Finally you mix all of the ingredients together and try to keep the drool out of the bowl.

Yum! We even added a few more cherries after I took this picture because we love maraschino cherries!

I really love this recipe. Not only is it sweet and refreshing but it always makes me think of my mom and my childhood. It was nice to be able to share it with my kids.

Pepsico Night at Six Flags

Yes, it's Six Flags time of year again!

Every year, Pepsico rents out Six Flags Over Texas for their private party to thank their employees. They are really a good company to work for and the CEO puts a priority on work-life balance and taking care of your family.

Of course, the kids love it since it's the only time we ever go to Six Flags.

The kids found souvenirs to beg for so conveniently located at the entrance to the park.

Rachel found these nifty glasses.

And Nicholas is sporting this classy mustache at the age of 7.

I was amazed that Rachel didn't cry when she saw the big giant Foghorn Leghorn rooster guy.  We've come here for years and when Nicholas was Rachel's age and older, he would cry and cling to us before getting anywhere near one of these big characters.  Rachel is so quiet and shy that I expected the same from her.  But with Daddy's coaxing, she actually shook Foghorn's hand!

Ah, the truck ride.  Another thing we have done for years and years.  It is always the first ride we come to and we usually ride it several times.  It's great for little kids...but also fun for big brothers and even a Daddy or two.

Throughout the park are Pepsico stations with tables and tables of Frito Lay products like Lays, Fritos, Doritors, Sun Chips, and Funyons as well as buckets and buckets of iced down Pepsi products like Pepsi, Sierra Mist, Gatorade, and Aquafina Water. You can just go up to these tables and help yourself to a snack and a drink.

Cheetos Puffs were the big hit of the night for us.  Anytime we headed to the snack station, one of us always seemed to grab more Cheetos Puffs.

The Little Diva especially likes Puffs.

I only wish they didn't turn everything they come in contact with this lovely shade of neon orange!

Rachel was excited about riding the Teacups.  She rode it last year with Nicholas and got a little scared when Nicholas got the car spinning really fast. 

This year, Nicholas was told that he couldn't spin the car because we weren't sure how Rachel would react.  The ride naturally spins the cars a little bit but poor Nicholas didn't understand this so he spent much of the ride trying to make it stop spinning.  But Rachel was actually wanting it to spin this time!

They rode this swing ride in the Looney Tunes (little kid) area.  Rachel looked down the whole time and I'm not sure that she enjoyed it.  Nicholas was just bored and couldn't wait to get the big rides.

We had fun on some rides but way too early in the night the rain clouds moved in.  It was just a drizzle then it got a little harder.  Some of the rides were able to continue for a while in the drizzle but there were episodes of lightning that would start and stop suddenly so the Park decided to turn the rides off for a while.

With most of the rides shut down, we let Nicholas play on the Midway games and both kids got to use our free Daffy Ducks to get a souvenir.

We were all disappointed about the rain and ended up leaving much earlier than usual. But at the same time, we are all getting over being sick and didn't need to spend the evening hanging out in wet clothes for rides that may or may not come back on. But we still had fun for a while. And of course, there's always next year.

Model of the Ear, Homeschool Style

Konos Unit: Attentiveness
Theme: General Attentiveness/Ears and Other Senses

We built a crawl through ear to help the kids really experience the ear and see all the working parts up close.

Stuart worked on cutting and taping to build the outer ear. Why is he laughing so much about a box?

Surprise! Oh, there were two little munchkins hiding in the box! They seem very excited about our crawl through ear.

With some kid wrangling, Stuart was finally able to finish his project. Here is our ear and ear canal. It's amazingly quite sturdy for being just two boxes taped together. I tell you, Stuart can build an ear!

I drew the ear on the front of the box and Nicholas labeled it with the correct term, "Pinna", which is the visible part of the ear that we all see.

Next Nicholas gathered various parts from around the playroom to use in assembling the middle and inner ear and labeled them.

We have a water frisbee for the Ear Drum, a baby toy hammer for the Hammer, a part of a Star Wars ship for the Anvil, a Nerf gun support stand for the Stirrup, and a styrofoam pool noodle for the Cochlea.

I opened up two more boxes to use for the walls of the inner ear. However, they are significantly more flimsy than Stuart's part of the ear.

I added a big sheet to cover the entire ear and it was time to explore!

Is that an eyeball in our Pinna?

Yes, that was Nicholas' eyeball!

Oh, the kids are having so much fun with our ear. And amazingly, this has really helped Nicholas to learn the parts of the ear without even trying to memorize anything. What a fun way to learn!