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3:22 pm by Penelope

How to Have Date Night with Kids

One of the most frustrating parts of being foster parents is that we rarely get to have a date night.  With all the stress that comes with parenting traumatized children, we NEED time together.   But due to regulations for foster homes and our child’s sometimes behavior issues, we can’t just leave our kids with anyone.

So we have to think outside the box.  We can have “date nights” at lunch while the kids are in school.

But now we can bring the kids along on “date night.”

A photo posted by Penelope Webster (@foster2forever) on Jul 18, 2014 at 10:49am PDT

How to have Date Night with Kids

Our kids love going to Austin’s Park & Pizza — they can play video arcade games, laser tag, putt-putt, or ride go-carts and rides.  And hubby and I can visit without constantly nagging our rambunctious boys to sit down. 

#familyfun @austinsparkandpizza!!! #fun4feedback @ausparknpizza A photo posted by Penelope Webster (@foster2forever) on Jul 18, 2014 at 12:57pm PDT

First #rollercoaster ride!!! @austinsparkandpizza #fun4feedback @ausparknpizza

A video posted by Penelope Webster (@foster2forever) on Jul 19, 2014 at 5:28pm PDT


We like Austin’s Park & Pizza because it’s free for our family to enter!  With al a carte pricing, we only have to pay for what we want to do or eat.  We usually just purchase full-park passes for the kids and then just the pizza buffet for us.

But now with a new renovation,  Austin’s Park & Pizza has opened a full-service bar & grill (called Austin’s Bar & Grill) and new bowling lanes.  So now there’s something for everyone – including couples, like us, looking for a unique date night experience, even with the kids.  Perfect for a family like ours that struggles to find child care.

fun-places-to-eat-in-Austin-date-night

My child has the “W-sit”

fun-things-to-do-in-Austin-bowl-date-night

The boys can play in the arcade while we eat a nice dinner. Win win!

Austin’s Bar & Grill has a new grill menu by including gluten free, organic and fresh local farm-to-market items. Check out this Organic Chicken, Kale & Spinach Salad I ordered.

fun-restaurants-in-Austin-for-date-night

How’s that for thinking outside the box for date night ideas? What date night ideas work for your family? Let me know on Facebook!

Disclosure: I was provided full-park passes to Austin’s Park & Pizza for me and the kids. (My hubby had to go out of town for a family emergency.)  But we love to come here regardless. My son insists on coming here for his birthday each year.

 

 

8:00 am by Penelope

Spring Break Activities for BIG Families PLUS GIVEAWAY

Looking for spring break activities for families? But what if you have a large family? Are you looking for things to do with all your kids without breaking the bank?

Spring Break Activities for Large Families

Spring-break-activities-things-to-do-for-large-families

DAY AT THE PARK – A cheap and easy spring break activity to do with your large family is to spend a day at a local park. You can pack a lunch, snacks, and drinks. You can make this easy kite out of a paperbag and streamers.

Make-a-Kite-500x500

HIKING – Take your big family on a hiking trip during spring break. Here are 7 great tips for hiking with kids.

CAMPING – You don’t have to spend a bundle to go camping with your large family. Here are some great camping tips you should check out!

kids-camping-tips-spring-break (2)Also, be sure and get a tent that has a tall height so you don’t have to slump over to walk inside, such as this 8-person family tent with a center height of over 6 feet!

GEOCACHING – Go on a treasure hunt with your kids during spring break! Geocaching is treasure hunting with a GPS.  Begin by going to geocaching.com to find where over 2 million small “treasures” (called geocaches). Find your location and then solve the clues to find the treasure!

Spring-break-activities-things-to-do-for-large-families

FAMILY PIZZA NIGHT – Make homemade pizza dough and have each kid in your family make their own pizzas! Let each child add as much of their favorite toppings to their own personal pizza. Great for those with picky eaters too.

Pizza-Night

FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT – With no early school mornings, enjoy a family movie night together – complete with snacks and lots of popcorn.

family-movie-nights

FAMILY ROADTRIP – There’s nothing that creates memories and true family bonding than a family roadtrip. Here are some great tips on how this family takes BIG trips on a small budget.  And check out these road trip tips for LARGE families!

littlebudgetbigtripfrugaltravel

STAYCATION – You can have a fabulously fun spring break at home by planning a staycation where your large family completes a fun “bucket list” of things to do on spring break locally.

create-a-staycation-schedule

Whatever activities you do with your kids during spring break, the important thing is that you have fun in your family bonding time!

Increasing the “family fun factor” helps build relationships: “Recent studies have found that the best predictor for good sibling relationships later in life is how much fun the kids have together when they’re young. The rate of conflict can even be high, as long as there’s plenty of fun to balance it out.” via  The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind {affiliate link}

spring-break-activities-for-large-families

$500 SPRING GIVEAWAY

spring-break-activities-family-giveaway-2015

Win one of THREE $500 cash prizes directly in your paypal account! This giveaway is open internationally. You must be 18+ years old to enter. Void where prohibited. No purchase necessary. Winners will be notified via email and have 48 hours to respond before another winner is chosen. Please see detailed terms and conditions below the giveaway for more info.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

8:00 am by Penelope

10 DIY Halloween Costumes for Families

Are you searching for easy DIY Halloween costumes for your family? Here are some cute Halloween costume ideas for groups!

best-easy-diy-halloween-costumes-ideas-family-group

Wizard of Oz Halloween costumes for family

Muppets Halloween costumes for family

Family of Superhero Halloween costumes

DIY Pirate Halloween Costume Ideas for Family

Easy DIY Care Bears Family Costumes for Halloween

DIY Family CandyLand Halloween Costumes for Family

Easy DIY Mario Cart Family Halloween Costumes

Football Themed Family Halloween costumes

Easy DIY Cops and Robbers Halloween Costumes for Family

Batman, Robin, Joker & Catwoman Halloween Costumes for Family

Check out all this other Halloween fun!

9:34 pm by Penelope

5 Ideas for Family Bonding Time

As one year comes to a close, I like to examine how I can make the next year even better! This year, I’d like to increase our family bonding time.  With my sons getting older and able to communicate better, our family life improved…some. However, there are still those times of chaos that cause family dissension.  So this year, we are working to improve our family bonding time so that, hopefully, the chaos will occur less often.

family-bonding-time-activities

5 Ideas for Family Bonding Time

1. Reduce stress in our family life. 

Life is stressful. Add Reactive Attachment Disorder and behavior issues to the equation, and life as a family can become a chaotic mess.  And some of this stress comes from ourselves. As parents, we tend to parent our children to our expectations. For instance, a 5-year-old should be able to sit still at a table in a restaurant.  But Dr. Karyn Purvis states that children can be a certain age chronologically, and up to 40% younger developmentally.  To reduce stress in our family, we have to be willing to adjust our expectations and embrace a “different kind of normal.” Being a “perfect parent” isn’t the goal. Our goal should be to love our children the way they need to be loved – the way God has called us to love  so that we can create a strong family bond.

2. Plan menus and make mealtime preparation a family activity.

“Study after study shows that the more often families eat together, the less likely the kids are to smoke, drink, do drugs, get depressed, develop eating disorders, become overweight, and consider suicide—and the more likely they are to eat their vegetables, know which fork to use, learn big words, do well in school, feel that their parents love them, and delay having sex. And that’s just for starters.” {from The Hour that Matters Most: The Surprising Power of the Family Meal by Les & Leslie Parrott} Eating dinner together is a priority in our family and has promoted bonding during difficult times. I believe our family time together is the reason that my adult stepson hasn’t gone off the deep end and some of his friends have.  However, meal preparation time can add immense stress to our evenings, and the kids may not like the foods we fix.  By planning and preparing meals together with the kids, I hope to add a sense of ownership to the food on the table and encourage the kids to eat better.  Another resolution for our family is to reduce soft drinks and red dye in our diet.

3. Make family devotion time a priority.

Our family devotion time before bed has just fallen by the wayside during this school year. Since we are in the lifestage of eliminating naps, many days the kids are exhausted and grumpy, and may even fall asleep right after dinner.  This year, we will be making family devotion time a part of our nightly dinner together. My favorite devotional for my young boys is the Little Boys Bible Storybook for Mothers and Sons (new edition to be released soon).  I love how the author actively tells the Bible stories to keep the attention of a young boy. For instance, the story of Noah building the ark is told from the viewpoint of Noah’s sons as boys with the lesson of obeying God even if you don’t want to.  The discussion section creates incredible family bonding time: “Remind your son of a time he obeyed and tell him how happy it made you.” I love how my sons can learn how to apply the Bible lessons in their young lives.

help children deepen their personal prayer life.
make it part of your weekly routine as a family to center the thoughts of the home on God. – See more at: http://www.faughnfamily.com/006/#sthash.ZYz04h6y.dpuf

4. Limit screen time and encourage more creative activities.

Our family is inundated with various “screens” — television (now with nonstop kids programming), Netflix available on multiple devices, video games on the wii, Playstation, Kindle, and iPhone.  And it becomes so easy to let the kids “entertain themselves” with the technology I didn’t have as a child.  But with added screen time, my kids are losing time in imaginative play and family bonding time.  Just being together in the same room isn’t enough for family bonding if there is no interaction.

5. Schedule family game nights.

Now that our youngest can count and identify shapes and colors, he can participate in games with the family, such as this easy Go Fish game.  The fabulous book, The Whole-Brain Child, encourages families to make it point to have fun together to help children bond with others. Children seem to immediately connect with laughter. Increasing the “family fun factor” helps build relationships: “Recent studies have found that the best predictor for good sibling relationships later in life is how much fun the kids have together when they’re young. The rate of conflict can even be high, as long as there’s plenty of fun to balance it out.”

What ideas do you have to increase family bonding time?

FTC Disclosure: The links in this post may be affiliate links to Amazon, which means when you click on a link and purchase, I receive a very small commission (at no additional cost to you). Amazon then gives that commission to me as an Amazon gift card so I can purchase from Amazon. See how nicely that works for Amazon?

7:15 am by Penelope

Our Family’s Best Halloween Costumes Through the Years

It’s hard to believe but I’ve been a mom for over five years now! My babies have grown into little boys. No longer can I just pick out Halloween costumes for my family.  My boys now are big thinkers with their own ideas for Halloween costumes.  And they now tell me what costumes they will be wearing for Halloween. Through the years, our family wore group Halloween costumes that were so much fun to put together.

Our family Halloween costumes through the years:

Long before Big Bang Theory debuted on the small screen, my sweet husband (then fiancée) and I were just a couple of nerds in love!

best-halloween-costume-ideas-couples-nerds

A few years later, we were blessed with a very special baby elephant that joined John McCain and Sarah Palin on the campaign trail.

best-family-halloween-costumes-funny-political

When the foster “twin” girl to my Mickey Mouse moved a few days before Halloween, Mommy stepped in to fill Minnie’s ears.

disney-halloween-costumes-minnie-mickey-mouse

The next year, a new addition to our family made no place like home!

best-halloween-family-costume-ideas-wizard-oz-diy

And then, the Joker and Catwoman tried to foil Batman, the Caped Crusader, and Robin the Boy Wonder.

best-diy-halloween-costume-ideas-family-group-batman

But ahoy, matey, this crew of pirates tried to take over a Disney cruse ship last Halloween.

diy-homemade-halloween-pirate-costume-ideas-family-group

Does your family dress in Halloween costumes? Which family Halloween costume is your favorite?

8:49 am by Penelope

VIDEO: Our Last Minute Vacation & Foster Parenting Update

The majority of this summer, our family was larger by 2 foster children.  A little girl that we thought would be a good playmate for our 6-year-old was a parenting challenge. Plus, I had forgotten just how HARD it is to take care of an infant, especially one that is already exhibiting signs of hyperactivity with NO napping.  We were ALL stressed out.

When the foster children left at the end of July, we realized that our family had been so busy in this chaos, that we hadn’t planned a summer vacation!  After the stress of constant bickering, we ALL needed a nice break!

After discussing our options, we were excited about a getaway to the Dallas Metroplex, and opted to stay in Arlington with all the family activities there.

Check out my video of our day at the Six Flags Hurricane Harbor waterpark! (Listen to the lyrics of the song, Gone, Gone, Gone:  “You will never be alone. I’ll love long after you are gone, gone, gone.”

http://youtu.be/2FV-A0zauHk

Thanks for watching!

Did you sneak in a summer vacation with your family? Where did you travel?

12:54 pm by Penelope

Our Disney Cruise Was Magical

After being foster parents for 3 little ones in addition to our 2 preschool boys, we were in desperate need of a vacation! We were elated to learn that Disney Cruise now has family cruises leaving out of Galveston! We wouldn’t have to travel to Florida with our young boys to experience Disney magic! In less than 24 hours, we booked a Disney cruise.

master-card-credit-accepted-everywhere-abroad

Our Disney Cruise was a magical experience for all of us!

disney-cruise-ship-magic-picturesWe loved meeting all the Disney characters up close and personal.

disney-cruise-pictures-character-breakfast

One thing we quickly learned was that the cruise ship’s gift shop did not take cash; however, they did accept MasterCard for our on-board purchases.

Our Disney cruise included a port stop in Grand Cayman, which offers a variety of excursions including Seven Mile Beach, Cayman Turtle Farm, snorkeling adventures, etc.  We booked our excursions ahead of time to ensure that we would have a reserved spot.

If you visit Grand Cayman — you MUST pet the stingrays at Stingray City! Just sayin’cayman-stingray-city-scuba-excursion

Since not everyone in my family is as adventurous as me; afterward, I met dad and the kids at Rum Point, a relaxing, quiet beachfront with a variety of eating stands in little huts, and of course, a gift shop!

disney-cruise-cayman-rum-point-excursion The currency used in Grand Cayman is the Cayman Islands dollar (CI$) which has a fixed exchange rate of US$1 equal CI$1.20. Souvenirs from Cayman include the famous Tortuga rum cakes, postcards from Hell, and anything turtle. We purchased our souvenirs (including turtle salt and pepper shakers for my in-laws) at the gift shop there at Rum Point using our MasterCard because it is accepted everywhere.  Due to some complicated IRS rules, many merchants abroad do not accept all credit cards anymore. But MasterCard is accepted everywhere!

disney-cruise-pictures-mexicoOur Disney cruise included 2 other port stops in Mexico: Costa Maya and Cozumel.  Because the Mexican Pecos fluctuates in value between 10-15 Pecos for $1US, it’s easiest to purchase with MasterCard. MasterCard automatically converts Pecos to US dollars with the best currency exchange rate with no additional fees.

We purchased souvenirs and silver jewelry in Cozumel; however, we did NOT purchase any Cuban cigars!

mexico-cuban-cigars-castro

If you’re looking for a credit card that you are sure will be accepted anywhere abroad while traveling, I would recommend MasterCard. For more Disney Cruise pictures, including dolphins, be sure to check out my Google+ Story!

As part of a sponsored post for Collective Bias®, I’m sharing my experience of how MasterCard was accepted everywhere on our recent Disney Cruise vacation to the Caribbean.

2:30 pm by Penelope

Travel Tips We Learned on Our Family Cruise

Disney-cruise-tips-vacation-activitiesWe needed a vacation! And then something magical happened! Disney Cruise Lines announced cruises out of Galveston! We quickly booked a week-long Caribbean cruise with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and the rest of the Disney gang.  I highly recommend Disney Cruise Lines! It was the best!!!

Here are a list of tips we learned when cruising with our children:

Buy Travel Insurance

You never know when your child may get sick, break an arm, etc.

Upgrade Your Room at Check-In

You can get steep discounts on available rooms. We could have upgraded from an interior room to a larger room with a port hole for $200; however, being the budget travelers that we are, we chose to spend that money elsewhere, since we spent so little time in our room.

Cash Is Not Accepted at Shops On-Board

We made the mistake of bringing cash to spend on the ship for souvenirs; however, the ship’s gift shop only took our room key or credit cards for purchases.

Bring a Carry-On Bag When You Board

Think of what activities you or your kids might want to do the afternoon of boarding.  If your kids are waterbugs, like mine, bring swimsuits and pool paraphernalia in a carry-on so you don’t have to listen to your kids whine all afternoon because they want to get in the pool.

Decorate Your Stateroom Door

Since stateroom doors are made of metal, use magnets to decorate the door to your stateroom so your kids can find your room easily among the sea of doors that are identical.

Have a Plan for Sea Sickness

I cannot even read a map in the car without feeling woozy. Although, I did get “the patch” for the cruise, if you would like a more natural (and less expensive) alternative, consider taking Ginger Root capsules.  I used it considerably when my former job had me flying in a helicopter with a former Vietnam chopper pilot.

Enroll Your Children in the Ship’s Kids Club

My kids begged to spend time in the Oceaneers Club for kids. In fact, one evening, our Kindergartner didn’t asked to be picked up until nearly midnight!!

Plan for Naptime

Our 3-year-old needs an afternoon nap!  But the last thing we wanted to do was spend two hours in our interior cabin watching our child sleep.  We had an ingenious idea and took the kids to an afternoon movie at the ship’s on-board theater.  In the dark, cool theater, our exhausted preschooler fell asleep rather quickly, regardless of the theater’s surround sound system.  We enjoyed watching DisneyNature’s Chimpanzee. (you must see this movie about adoption in the wild)

9:00 am by Penelope

How to Make Kids Christmas Photos Less Horrifying

I am ashamed! This is my Stinkpot’s first photo with Santa…santa-pictures-tips

Go ahead and nominate me for Bad Parent of the Year for terrorizing my kid – I nominate myself!  I’ve learned quite a bit in the last four years of parenting. Last year, we had a good experience taking family portraits and pictures with Santa.  This is how we did it…

1. Introduce your Children to Santa Claus Beforehand

In the picture above, Stinkpot had no clue who this scary guy in a red suit was.  A new parent, I simply handed my toddler over to this guy for a photo. Wrong tactic! I did a much better job at introducing Santa Claus to my Lil Bit. I pointed out Santa Claus on television, at parades, on items in stores, and at the mall beforehand. By picture day, Lil Bit wanted to tell Santa about the choo-choo he wanted.

2. Schedule an Early Appointment with Family Photography Studio

Make your appointment as early in the day as your family can manage.  Early enough that the photos are taken before naps or lunch is necessary. We had an 8:30 a.m. appointment on a Saturday. This also avoids the crowded chaotic waiting area of photography studios that happen as the day moves on.  By the time we left at 9:45 a.m., the waiting room was becoming quite full.Christmas-card-design-adoption-front copy

3. Take Family Portraits and Santa Photos on the Same Day

The kids are already dressed up.  A quick trip to the mall immediately after it opens hopefully guarantees shorter waiting lines to sit on Santa’s lap.

4. Dress for a Different Look in Kids Pictures with Santa

Remove the tie and jacket, then add a sweater vest for a different look.kids-pictures-with-Santa-Claus

5. Provide a Simple Snack

Since discovering my 5-year-old Stinkpot has meltdowns associated with low blood sugar, I try and have snacks readily available.  Snacks can help tie a child over until mealtime and be a useful incentive, especially during wait times.

6. Be Realistic about Pictures with Santa

Even at older ages, this may be your foster child’s first experience with Santa. Don’t stress out about having the smiling, happy Santa photo. It may not happen and that’s okay. Whatever photo you do get, could possibly be the ONLY photo your child‘s ever had with Santa. (I don’t have a photo of me with Santa)

What are your tips for making pictures with Santa enjoyable for your children?  Have they had pictures with Santa before?

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