Category Archives: Videos
Fun Slides Carpet Skatepark Pittsburgh
This is a local post, but for my non-local readers I’m going to post the goods for you right away. You may not be near Pittsburgh to experience Fun Slides Carpet Skatepark firsthand, but you can be absolutely anywhere to watch me make an idiot of myself, get broke, and bust up my knee cap. Enjoy! (Watch video here)
My family was invited to visit the VIP Grand Opening of Fun Slides Carpet Skatepark in Pittsburgh last Friday and we had so much fun!
The new facility is located at Pines Plaza Shopping Center on Perry HWY behind Shop N Save.
ABOUT THE SKATEPARK
The 33,000 square foot black light facility, located in the space under the Shop N Save in Pines Plaza Shopping Center is divided in sections based on skill level and every new skater, regardless of age or ability, is assigned an instructor for basic lessons. With ramps ranging in height from six foot tall down to short beginner ramps just about anyone can learn and have fun.
The COOLEST Birthday Party and Family Fun Spots! Whether you’re celebrating a birthday, looking for a unique group outing or just dropping in for some public skate time, you’re sure to experience wholesome family fun like you’ve never had before!
*BLACKLIGHT Environment
*Positive, Hi-Energy Music
*Learn to Carpet Skate CONFIDENTLY in Minutes
*Ramps, JUMPS, and Grind Rails
*Instructor-Taught TRICKS and Stunts
*Birthday party packages for ages 4-7 and 8-teen.
*Groups: Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Sports Team Banquets, Clubs, Home/Cyber School, Physical Education, Team Building, Pre Lock-Ins, Church Youth Groups, Field Trips
Super cool party rooms…
Fun Slides, a multi-award-winning product from Simtec, Co., are plastic sliders that attach under athletic shoes. They provide the sensation of sliding on a hardwood floor with socks on. At Fun Slides Carpet Skatepark and Party Centers, kids and adults slide on the skatepark’s carpeted ramps, jumps and slide rails for an easy to learn thrill.
Athletic shoes must be worn in the park at all times! No FLIP FLOPS!
Adaline is 4.5. She had difficulty mastering the standing slides, but she still had a lot of fun using the butt slides. (See video above)
Everyone who skates at Fun Slides Park, must have a signed waiver.
*Anyone under 18 must have a parent or guardian sign the waiver.
*18 and over may sign their own waivers given that they produce proper ID.
Fun Slides Park requires that helmets be worn by children under 8. Elbow pads, knee pads and wrist guards are recommended in all areas especially for novice skaters.
We brought our own helmet and elbow and knee pads for Adaline, who is 4.5 years old.
(If you watched the video I posted above you’ll see me take a spill and smash my knee with no pads on. It’s only banged up now, nothing serious, but I’d still recommend using knee pads! Ouch!)
We all thought that Fun Slides Carpet Skatepark was really cool. Adaline had a blast going from slide to slide and even my husband enjoyed sliding around. We’ll definitely visit again.
The World’s only carpet skate parks!
*Pines Plaza Shopping Center
1130 Perry Highway, Pittsburgh PA 15237
(Behind Shop N Save)
*Greensburg Shopping Center
410 E. Pittsburgh Street, Greensburg, PA 15601
Behind Family Dollar (the old Bobby Dales)
Helpful info: Facebook / Website / Hours / Parent Info
Do you skateboard or roller-blade?
Would you ever try a carpet skatepark?
Let me know in the comments!
Disclosure: My family received free admission to the skatepark as part of the VIP Grand Opening for bloggers and other media. I was not asked or required to blog about my experience. All opinions are my own.
If you are local to Beaver County PA or the Greater Pittsburgh Area, please like my local Facebook page Beaver County Family Fun for updates on local family friendly activities.
Celebrating Memorial Day: Patriotic Traditions!
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Here are some great family traditions for celebrating patriotic holidays: Memorial Day (May), Flag Day (June 14), Independence Day (July 4th), and Veterans Day (November).
Attend a local parade or other event
Many towns hold parades, fireworks, or memorial services on certain patriotic holidays.
If you live in Beaver County, PA or the Greater Pittsburgh Area you can find local events posted here or on my local Facebook page: Beaver County Family Fun.
Display and/or carry a flag and wear poppies
Wear red, white and blue
(Video here)
Make a patriotic themed craft
Teach the kids to salute servicemen/women and veterans
Teach the kids the Pledge of Allegiance
Here’s a video of Adaline reciting the Pledge of Allegiance when she was 3 years old.
(Video here)
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Need more inspiration? See how other bloggers celebrate patriotic holidays…
*Flag Tag Relay Race: @ Spoonful.com
*Flag Day activity for kids: Flag Hunt!: @ No Time for Flashcards
*4th of July Neighborhood Bike Parade: @ Busy Kids Happy Mom
*Making Memorial Day Special and Fun For Your Kids: @ Disney Family
Patriotic Balloon Volleyball, Patriotic Color Race, Plan a Patriotic Party for Memorial Day
*10 Kids 4th of July Celebration Ideas: @ B-Inspired Mama
Have a Kids 4th of July Party, Decorate the House, Play with a Sensory Bin, Make a Kids 4th of July Treat, Dress Up, Have a Picnic, Do a Craft, Learn about Independence Day, Have a Kids 4th of July Parade, Decorate Your Bike
*Our Family Flag: @ Beauty and Bedlam
”What better way than the 4th of July to create your own Family Flag? Use construction paper, felt, or fabric. Select…symbols that represent each member of your
family.”
*Activities to Teach your Child about Memorial Day: @ Premeditated Leftovers
Have a History Lesson, Observe the Moment of Silence at 3 PM and Important Tradition, Learn About Your Military Relatives, Gather for a Family Cookout, Learn a Patriotic Song Together, and More Patriotic Activities for Kids
*10 Ways to Celebrate Memorial Day with Your Child!:
@ Super Coupon Lady
Go to your local cemetery, Fly your flag high, Find out about Memorial Day events in your city, Bring donations to your local veteran’s hospital, Enjoy children’s Memorial Day books together, Make a patriotic themed craft, Wear patriotic colors, Take a moment of silence, Attend a Memorial Day parade, Teach your kids to place their right hands over their hearts when they see the flag go by
*Memorial Day for Kids {A Few Ideas}: @ Fun-A-Day
A Simple American Flag Craft, Drawing Pictures for Marines (or other servicemen/women), Visiting a family member’s grave
*Memorial Day Activities for Kids: @ My Kid’s Guide
Make bouquets and wreaths, Make flags, Visit the local veterans hospital, Memorial Day Activities for Kids: Visit Veterans, Read stories on Memorial Day, Everyone wears red, white and blue
*10 ways to say thank you on Memorial Day: @ The House of Hendrix
Use your phone, Tweet use the #wearegrateful hashtag, write a letter, Fly a flag, Attend a parade, Make patriotic cookies, Pray for the families, give a discount to veterans, offer to do yard work, Do something
*10 Memorial Day Traditions That Are More Meaningful Than a BBQ:
@ The Stir Cafe Mom
Visit a veterans’ home, Visit the local veterans cemetery, Attend a parade., Attend a memorial service, Raise your flag, Honor the National Moment of Remembrance, Hoist a POW/MIA flag, Visit a battlefield, Watch/Listen to the National Memorial Day Concert, Share a photo of your beloved fallen soldier/airman/etc. on Facebook or Instagram.
*Discover and Share Memorial Day Traditions and Activities: @ PBS.org
Displaying the Flag, Visiting Gravesites, Participating in the National Moment of Remembrance, Visiting Local Veterans Homes and Hospitals, Attending Memorial Day Parades, Experiencing the Nation’s Memorials, Brushing Up on Family and American History, Wearing Memorial Day Poppies
*5 Family Activities for Memorial Day Weekend: @ Parent Society
Get out and grill, Watch a parade, Watch the fireworks, Snag some savings, Root, root, root for the home team
*Celebrating Memorial Day with Children: @ No Twiddle Twaddle
Honor a soldier’s grave, Read books that honor soldiers
*Sharing Memorial Day with Kids: @ The Educator’s Spin on it
*Memorial Day Books for Kids: @ 3 Boys and a Dog
How does your family celebrate patriotic holidays? Let me know in the comments!
How to Make Easter Bunny Paw Prints with Free Printable Template
Learn how to make DIY Easter Bunny paw prints with a free printable template and video tutorial!
To create your own Easter Bunny paw print trail you’ll need to print out a template online or create your own template. Pick a white powder (baking soda, flour, baby powder) to sprinkle inside the bunny paw print stencil.
Watch the quick video tutorial below to learn how to make DIY Easter Bunny tracks using my free printable Easter Bunny paw print template!
(Watch video here)
For the past few years I’ve used other free printable templates to create a more whimsical looking Easter bunny footprint. This year I decided to create my own template and I wanted to try to make it look like a more realistic rabbit paw print. I’ve never seen rabbit tracks in real life (I’m not very outdoorsy) but after looking over some photos online, I think I came up with a decent version.
I also created a version that includes front paws. In my opinion, the Easter bunny only hops on his back paws because he’s carrying the Easter baskets, but the front paws are included if you want them. There are three files below. You can print out the version with just the back paws, the version with front and back paws, or the last file which contains both of the other templates in one file. Click on the photos or links to download, or right click and “save link as” to save the pdf to your computer.
Easter Bunny Paw Print Templates are for personal non-commercial use only.
Attention pinners and bloggers:
When sharing please link to the original post, do not link directly to the pdf file url. Thank you.
Free Printable Easter Bunny Paw Print Template: Both versions in one document
Free Printable Easter Bunny Paw Print Template: Back Paws Only
Free Printable Easter Bunny Paw Print Template: Front and Back Paws
Print the template out on card stock as regular paper tends to be too flimsy to use as a stencil. Although I didn’t show this trick in the video, you can use a damp cloth to wet around the edges of the stencil to catch the powder that might otherwise creep outside of the template. Or you could use the damp cloth to dip in the powder first and then dab around the inside of the stencil rather than sprinkling. I’ve never needed to use either of these methods and always just sprinkled the powder the way I demonstrated in the video.
*EASTER TRADITION: MAGIC JELLYBEAN PRAYER and LOLLIPOP GARDEN
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2011
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2012
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2013
*50+ EASTER EGG DECORATING IDEAS
*NATURAL DYES FOR COLORING EASTER EGGS
*APRIL HOLIDAY TRADITIONS
This post is linked to…
SITS Sharefest / Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop / Mama Kat’s Vlog Prompts
Easter Tradition: Magic Jellybean Prayer and Lollipop Garden
Confession: I kinda hate jellybeans. I think they’re gross. Not only are they way too sweet (in a not good way) but they always sink to the bottom of the Easter basket and then you have to dig around for them inside of that disgusting plastic Easter grass that feels gross and smells horrible. Some kids might’ve found digging for their candy to be fun, but it just got on my nerves. And who wants to eat candy that was just floating around loose rubbing all over that yicky Easter grass? Not I, says Jenn. Not I.
But, jellybeans are mandatory in Easter baskets otherwise the Easter basket police will come take me away and shove jellybeans down my throat until I agree to feed them to my children. Or maybe not. But my kids (who clearly have very poor taste in candy) love jellybeans.
All that to say…hey, people, have you heard of the Magic Jellybean Prayer and Lollipop Garden? For the past few years I’ve taken a basic Easter Egg Hunt, The Jellybean Prayer, and the Magic Jellybean Lollipop Garden Easter traditions and put them all together.
(Watch video here)
The first year that we tried this we were going to plant the jellybeans out in the yard but it ended up being too cold to have the kids outside for that long. Instead I grabbed a random pot of dirt at my mom’s house (because who doesn’t have a random pot of dirt sitting around) and planted the jellybeans in the pot inside the house first and then we set the pot out on the porch.
If the weather is nice enough we have an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Nothing fancy, I literally just toss eggs filled with pennies out in the yard moments before the kids come out. Mixed in with the other Easter eggs are 5 special jellybean shaped Easter eggs.
When the hunt is over the children give me the jellybean eggs that they found and gather around for the Magic Jellybean Prayer. Inside each jellybean egg is a part of a poem and several jellybeans. I open the eggs in order and read the rhyme and give each child a jellybean to eat and one to plant.
How to grow a lollipop garden from magic jellybeans:
-Read the Jellybean Prayer
-Plant the jellybeans in a pot of sugar or directly in the ground.
-Set the planted jellybeans in Easter Eve moonlight or Easter sunlight and wait for them to grow.
(Magic jellybeans will need all night to grow when using moonlight, but they grow in only a few short minutes when put in Easter sunlight.)
-Your magic jellybeans will become a tasty lollipop garden!
I found the poem I use for The Jellybean Prayer at Happy Home Fairy.
(By the way if you like all of the holiday ideas on my blog you’ll love Julie’s blog. Not only does she blog way more regularly than I do, but she’s super nice and sweet and not cranky and sarcastic like me 😉 It’s a breath of fresh air compared to what you normally get around these parts. Shut up. < see?)
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The Jellybean Prayer (Free Printable) @ Happy Home Fairy
There is another version of The Jellybean Prayer that is all over the internet but I’m not really fond of it because I think the rhyme is cheesy and hardly has anything to do with Easter (orange is for the edge of night…whaaa?). So, because I’m picky I really prefer the prayer shared on Happy Home Fairy. I think the rhymes and colors make more sense and it’s sweet and simple for kids to understand.
I really try to avoid giving the children artificial colors and flavors when I can so I used Hammond’s Natural Lollipops (available on Amazon). The flavors you see below are Cherry (Pink, White, Red) and Peach Mango (Green, Orange, Red)
(They also have Butterscotch (Cream, Gold Stripe), Pomegranate (Red, Orange, White Stripe), Lemon (Yellow, White Stripe), Root Beer (Brown, Tan, White Stripe), Cinnamon (Red, White Stripe), Orange (Orange, White Stripe), and Mint (Red, White Stripe).
In the photo from 2012 I used YumEarth Organic Lollipops.
If you don’t mind the artificial colors you can find lots of colorful swirl lollipops on OrientalTrading.com
The jellybeans that I gave the kids to eat were vegetarian Green Beans All Natural Jelly Beans and Surf Sweets Organic Jelly Beans.
The jelly beans we planted were just regular ones from the dollar store and since we don’t eat them I save the bag for planting each year.
I got the Dudley’s Jelly Bean Filler Eggs at Hobby Lobby years ago. Good luck finding them anywhere online, I haven’t had any luck.
The kids have enjoyed planting the Magic Jellybeans for the past few years and this year Jonathan will be old enough to join in the fun with his sister and cousin.
Have you ever planted a Magic Jellybean Lollipop Garden? Is the Jellybean Prayer part of your Easter traditions? Let me know in the comments!
**DISCLOSURE: This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links. If you purchase something using these links I may get a small amount of money. This does not change my opinion of the products recommended, all opinions are my own.
*FREE PRINTABLE EASTER BUNNY PAW PRINT TEMPLATE
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2011
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2012
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2013
*50+ EASTER EGG DECORATING IDEAS
*NATURAL DYES FOR COLORING EASTER EGGS
No Bippity-Boo!
When I saw the Mama Kat vlog prompt “Things kids do that I don’t understand…” a million things ran through my head, because, seriously, kids do the weirdest things. But this one moment with my daughter when she was just shy of 21 months old stuck out in my mind so much, I had to share it with you…
Adaline wants me to sing Bippity-Boo…or does she? (Video here)
This post is linked to…
How to Make Leprechaun Footprints: Video Tutorial
How to make leprechaun footprints: video tutorial
Here’s a quick video tutorial showing you how to make the leprechaun footprints that you see in these posts:
*Leprechaun trickery is afoot! and
*St. Patrick’s Day Tradition: Leprechaun Footprints.
I also included some footage of Adaline discovering the mess the leprechauns made in 2013.
(Watch video here)
To make leprechaun footprints:
-Put green Crayola washable fingerpaint on a plate, piece of paper, or thick paper towel
-Make a fist and dip your hand into the paint (dab off the excess)
-Press your fist onto your surface of choice
-Use your pinky finger to make toes
-Repeat using other hand
More details:
-It takes me about 45 minutes to make the mess.
-I do ALL of the prints for one foot/fist at the same time so that I don’t have to keep switching hands.
-It takes about 5 minutes to clean up the footprints.
-The footprints wipe off easily with water. You may want to use some soap if the paint was on long enough to dry.
-My daughter enjoyed cleaning up the footprints.
Has a leprechaun ever visited your house? What kind of things have your kids thrown in the toilet? Let me know in the comments!
*March Holiday Traditions
*Leprechaun Visit 2013: Little green footprints!
*Leprechaun Visit 2011: Magic green milk, footprints, and more!
*50+ FREE St. Patrick’s Day Printables (Links)
*The time that Buddy the Elf stole a picture from my blog!
*30+ April Fools Pranks You Can Play on Your Kids!
Great for Leprechaun tricks and Elf mischief as well!
*Easter Bunny Tracks: Paw Print Trail!
*Santa’s Magic Sooty Bootprints!
This post is linked to…
SITS craft link up / SITS Sharefest /Kids Activities Blog: St. Patrick’s Day
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