Thinking Thoughts on Thursday...

As I sit here surrounded by maps and guidebooks and train schedules along with flight information, I am realizing how quickly time is passing. We are headed to Philadelphia, New Jersey & New York in September and are very excited but also very exhausted with planning. There is so much we want to do, that there is no way we can squeeze it all in to 1 week. So of course my mind begins to wander and I am all over the place, because of this, today's post will be all over the place with a few topics that are here and there.

Don't have the time or funds for a vacation? How about a staycation?! Head to a local hotel or museum in your town/city and in the lobby they tend to have free brochures all about your area. Put together a fun itinerary for the weekend, exploring new places and if you have extra funds or plan ahead, stay in a local hotel with a pool, to add on the fun of it all! Can't do that? Make a day of fun experiences and then head home and have everyone bunk together in one room for the night watching movies and chatting or a living room sleepover with some fun, family activities!

 

Thrifty Thursday craft tip is to make an angel out of an old hardcover book, these are a dime a dozen at bag sales and so easy to do! Once you've folded down a triangle of EACH page, just use a hot glue gun to bunch ribbon and glue to the left and right side where the book covers are exposed, these become the angels wings. Do the same at the bottom, so that it defines her dress. Add a styro-ball head and yarn or something similar for hair. Making a triangle pouch up front is perfect for holding a rosary or gift card.

I have a large notebook that I keep with me when I read, along with post-its and pens and highlighters. I like to jot down notes and or quotes that speak to me as I go along and in the case of books where authors feel the need to toss in 100 different characters, then I need to keep track of them somehow. As I read I use the post-it notes to mark areas of the book that I want to look at again or what I think is a pivotal part of the story. Am I the only nerd that reads like this?

Break free & enjoy every minute my friends!

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Virtual Destinations and Beyond! Brazil and Ecuador

Wow, we have had an excellent week in Brazil and Ecuador! I cannot believe how much there was to do and see! We started in Brazil where learned about the animals of the Amazon Rain Forest and Even took a boat ride through the Amazon waters!

We learned about the dangerous beasts that reside in the waters of the Amazon. We watched a MOVIE all about the Deadly Animals of the Amazon and learned so much more! 

After watching the movie, we went to the Shedd Aquarium to explore their Amazon exhibit. It was awesome to see them explore this exhibit after learning all we had discussed before arriving. They were able to name the names of some of the fish and also locate them in the tanks.

Next it was Carnaval time (Carnival), where we listened to SAMBA music and even took a small lesson!

In order to properly Samba during Carnaval, we needed to make our feathered masks!! We made them out of paper plates!! I will share this lesson in another post!

After we were done with creating them, we decided to have our own Carnaval at home! We listened to Samba Music and danced our hearts out! What fun we all had with this lesson! Before we knew it, it was time for a 5 hour flight to Ecuador! We were going to explore more of the rainforest, a volcano and the Galpagos islands!! 

We made Tamarin Monkey Bookmarks and Anaconda Keychains, using the colors of the Brazilian flag. We took this time to listen to sounds of the Rainforest on the radio and try to identify the animals we heard in the recording!

We studied the animals of the rainforest with a game I created, using Toob animals and a fun fact sheet I put together. (I will explain this in a future post too!) This was very popular and is still being played with often!

We toured the Andes mountains and Cotopaxi, one of the worlds most active volcanoes! OH WOW, this was so much fun! Check out my photo gallery HERE for instructions! We even put our rain forest animals on there as decoration AND made our own rain forest trees!! All around a truly memorable trip that even had us pricing tickets to Ecuador for real!!! My husband just wants to wait until the youngest is a bit older and can handle all the walking required! We cannot wait!

Today we flew for 18 hours from the Galapagos Islands off to Tanzania in Africa! WOW, what a flight! This week we will be spending in Tanzania trekking up the Highest African Mountain of Mount Kilimanjaro! Did you know that this mountain is right near the equator as well?! Just like in Ecuador! We will learn all about this mountain and the Kalahari dessert as well!

As we head on over to South Africa, we will be going on Safari!!! How exciting! We cannot wait to see what we come across!

Lesson learned will be: African Wildlife, Mountains and Mountain Climbing, Flags and languages and other various facts.

Crafts: Make a camera out of of a mac and cheese box, toilet tube binoculars for safari, Paper Beads for jewelry making and some painting of the flag will be done too!

Cooking: In the kitchen we will grill kebabs of meats! The kids have been wanting to eat food-on-a-stick for awhile now! hahaha!! Much better than corn dogs too! Yay!

Please join us on our travels!!!

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