Dress Up Sparky Game

 I'm always on the lookout for more creative, cooperative, fun games for Sparks.  This year I saw a game on Oriental Trading for dressing up a character in the armor of God and thought, that would make a great Sparks game!

Several hours of work later and here it is - the Dress Up Sparky Game!

The concept is pretty simple - each kid gets a Sparky guy card, on their turn they roll to discover the category they will pick from to add a costume piece to their card.  If they roll a category they already have, they have the choice of swapping it out or keeping what they've got.  The game ends when all of them have dressed their Sparky guy.  I'm hoping it will be a hit.

Since I have a pretty large club, I made enough for 10 kids to play at a time on each team.  If you have a smaller club you won't have to print or laminate as much as I did.  I printed these from my local UPS store and it only cost me $5 per team, which I thought was pretty good.  I cut out, laminated, and cut out again for everything so it should last for years of play.

Want a set for your Sparks?  All the files I made are linked below :)

Sparky Guy Cards

Sparky Dress Up Outfits

Game Spinner

pigtails and kittens

I was going through old pics this past week and ran across this picture of me when I was seven or eight:



I am posing (of course) and holding my kitten (he was at max 3 months old at that time, yes he was a big cat!) that I got for Christmas when I was six. I LOVED that cat. He was the best. Since I got him for Christmas I was going to name him George Bailey, but my dad said I watched too much TV. So I settled on Crockett because he looked like the coonskin cap that Davy Crockett wore.
Crockett was smart. We put a bell on his collar because our PETA-fanatical neighbors came over to complain to mom that he killed a bird in their yard. Well, Crockett learned how to walk without ringing the bell! The only time he would jingle it was when he wanted my dad to let him outside - and dad would get out of bed (fast asleep) and let him out! Another thing Crockett could do was open doors. He would stand on his two back feet and use his two front feet to jiggle the knob until it opened. I got in trouble for leaving the door to the garage open a lot before we figured out it was the cat :p
The best thing about Crockett though was that he was GREAT with kids. My twin brothers were toddlers and my sister was a baby when we got him and Crockett would let my siblings do ANYTHING to him without biting/scratching/hurting them at all! They pulled his tail, sat on him, picked him up around the middle, etc. If he didn't like what they were doing, he would just get up and leave.
He even moved cross-country with us when we moved from Colorado to Virginia. He sat in the back of the car with me and moaned the whole trip. We drugged him, but it didn't put him to sleep - it just slowed down his meows :) We also had him declawed before moving cross-country. He learned how to catch birds/mice/whatever without claws.
He was a great cat. I hope that my kids will someday have a pet as wonderful as he was!
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Valentine Mailbox

When I was a kid my mom did a great job of making every major holiday special. Each holiday had its own traditions and surprises. Valentine's Day was no exception.
On Valentine's Day my mom would make beef burgundy. It was the one time a year she made it ('cause it was a lot of work). Always delicious!
Another tradition we had was the Valentine Mailbox. I can't remember a Valentine's without the mailbox. It has always been a part of Valentine's Day for me. Our mailbox was a simple cardboard box that my mom covered in paper and decorated. Each year she would get it out a couple of weeks before Valentine's and we would get to make and fill Valentine's to put in the mailbox. There were always surprises that showed up from Dad and Mom at the last minute as well. The anticipation of opening the mailbox and passing out the valentines that evening was almost as good as Christmas!
Since I have my own family now, I made a Valentine Mailbox for us this year. Like my mom, I got a plain cardboard box and covered it in construction paper (red, white, and pink). I decorated the top and cut a slit for the valentines, then I brainstormed to remember how my mom decorated the sides of the mailbox.
One side had our "family tree" on it - my mom drew a tree and wrote all our names in it. Another side said "Happy Valentine's Day". One side was blank, and the last side had hearts and arrows saying "Daddy loves Mommy", "Mommy loves Daddy", Daddy loves CL", etc. I decorated my box sides similarly to the way my mom decorated her mailbox. Why fix it if it ain't broke?
My handsome hubby offered to help me, so I had him color some conversation hearts for the blank side of the mailbox.
All in all, I think our family Valentine Mailbox turned out pretty well!



I'm hoping that as our boys grow up, they will be able to have fond memories of a great tradition continued into a new generation.

Old Pictures

After reading on We are THAT Family I felt like joining in on their bloggy carnival. Great blog, btw. I subscribed after reading a total of one post - it's that good.

You know when you were a pre-teen and going through that "awkward" stage in life?
I had a particularly bad awkward stage. I was an all-out nerd. You know, big glasses, no fashion sense, shaggy bangs. Yup, that was me. What's the only thing worse than having a bad awkward stage? Having pics of it posted on Facebook :p
At least all my friends in the picture hated how they looked at the time too :) (I'm the one in the blue top...yeah, the frumpy librarian look.)



I look WAY better now...honest!
The sweetest part of the picture? I knew my darling husband at that time and when he saw this pic he said he thought I was cute even then :)