PB&J Theme Night

I have an amazing friend with an amazing mom, and when they last went berry picking they spent the day making jams! They were then kind enough to send me some! Planning for a PB&J testing night  began. Finally we did it, picking a movie, and discovered all the new flavors!

We had 6 different flavors! StrawberryRaspberry, StrawberryPeach, Strawberry, Peach Marmalade, Apple Marmalade, and Cranberry Marmalade.

One each of the sandwiches. We wanted just a taste of each so that we could figure out which ones we liked! 

Cut them in quarters so they are bite sized samples and add some Cheetos (or Cheez-Its in Jareth's case) to help cleanse the pallet in between flavors!

We watched this cute movie about a high school junior that discovers that he has the super power to create food from his hands. 

It turned into a fun little night! And my picky eaters discovered some new flavors they like. Jareth just loved the StrawberryRaspberry and plain Strawberry Jams and he liked the Apple but was not a huge fan of it. We both discovered we are not Peach or Cranberry fans. And while I don't particularly like apples unless they are whole, I am now a fan of the Apple Marmalade! 

This was a great chance for us to discover new things, including a cute movie! And it was all thanks to some wonderful friends! I encourage everyone to try something like this! When given a lot of choices the kids were more comfortable with trying new things because they knew that it was ok to not like one thing. And now I have knew things I can feed the kids once more!

Another Theme Night success!

Blanket Fort takes over the living room!

List Item #7 - Build a blanket fort

After a long day at A-Kon we decided to have some family fun time at home! With snack foods for dinner and an afternoon of Fairy Tale to end our Anime day, we knew just the item to knock off our Summer List! Blanket Fort!

I don't know what the rules are for a blanket fort, but Gary and I decided early on that since it needed to be big we would need a little help. We got the supporting poles for our tent out and used those to create the structure. Draping a sheet over most of it we had plenty of room for the whole family, yes Brewster was included, to sit, eat, and enjoy some of Natsu and Lucy's adventures! We are proud of our large creation as it held together through the night and all of Livia's antics! And the kids loved being able to chill on the floor with Mommy and Daddy under the canopy. It was a great ending to this wonderful day! Here are the pics!

This adventure was definitely worth the hassle it took to get it just right! And it is another item off the list! Tell us, have you ever built a blanket fort? What did you use? Maybe we can do this again with your ideas! Have an awesome summer!

A-Kon Dallas: Random Nerdy Fun!

So friends of ours own this cool little comic shop, SuperVillain Comics, and they decided to set up a booth at A-Kon, one of the most awesome Anime Conventions, which was celebrating their 25th year. We decided to go see them and take the kids on their first nerdy adventure. The whole day turned into so much awesome it was hard to contain! We saw people from all our favorite animes as well as some other fandoms! Even my father, a nerd at heart but an old fashioned kind of one, had some great fun seeing the costumes and some characters he recognized. We also came away with some awesome goodies! Here is a look:

Right off the bat we got to see Spirit, Toad, and Mouse from Soul Eater! Right in front of our booth!

NoFace, from Spirited Away, was walking around with a handfull of gold just trying to make friends.

We found a cute little hat shop! Too bad these cutties were too small for the beautiful creations. Maybe next time!

We were very impressed with Maka and Soul from Soul Eater! She was very beautiful and very sweet. This was when we began to really see people and feel confident about asking for pictures.

The hubby was very happy to see Madara Uchiha from Naruto: Shippuden.

Other fandoms were welcomed too! The boys were terrified of this very awesome Dalek from Dr. Who!

Death the Kid! This Soul Eater character was very nicely done and impressed Jareth.

Natsu and Grey may fight a ton on Fairy Tale, but they were more than nice when it came time to take a picture with Happy and Jareth!

With Sailor Moon making a comeback next month, I was so excited to see this excellent costume! And love it when the people are as nice as the characters!

PawPaw, who was a bit out of his element, was all grins when he saw someone he recognized. The man dressed as Snake Blisskin was glad to take a picture with him!

PawPaw found more things to be excited about, although I thought he looked a bit sinister!

Another surprise! Legolas and Gimli really made Jareth smile, nerds all around!

Luffy from OnePiece was seen in a booth with some awesome items, but he stopped his looking long enough for a quick picture with a fan.

I think this Ash was a little suprised to find a Pokemon fan that was so young! But Jareth couldn't be more excited to get a picture with her and Pikachu!

A very impressive costume for this Halo soldier. He was spotted many times without a helmet, though, with it being so hot! But he was nice enough to put it back on for our picture!

Another very impressive costume from Silent Hill. He had a very large crowd just waiting for pictures in awe!

We were on our way out when we finally found a Kirito! With Sword Art Online coming out with a season 2 next month, Jareth was eagerly looking everywhere for this particular character. His day ended on a high note!

A bit of adorable advertising! Liv walked around with a SuperVillains Comics monkey in her hands! And she was not letting go!

While it may not look like it, Jareth was excited about his new Power Rangers shirt!

Our loot! I am thuroughly in love with my new Asuna (Sword Art Online) wallet! And our new book marks will come in handy as we take on the Summer Reading Program!

And of course we had to try something new. As lovers of Pocky, we could not pass up the green tea flavor, and it was amazing! These little sodas were a big hit since you have to push a glass marble down into the jar to open it. I think Ramune is our new favorite drink!

Over all we had such an amazing time walking around seeing everything! All the booths and people were so incredible! Definitely a great first experience in our geeky convention adventures! We can't wait until the next opportunity to show the kids around the nerdy world! Have you been to a convention? What was your experience like? To what geeky fandoms do you belong? Let us know so we can share fan tales! And have an awesome time at your next convention!

Random Movie Trip

List Items #62, #35, and #11

It started out as a simple trip up the Jareth's school to give his teacher a gift our favorite GiGi made for her. And since we were already in the car and talking about wanting to do something fun and check something off the list, we started thinking. Of course it had to be something cheap since we don't have much money right at the moment. Dollar Movie! So we took ourselves into town and picked a movie. Since it was Livia's first time in a theater we saw a movie the boys had already seen, allowing Daddy to miss parts of it to go entertain Livia when she got antsy. So we saw:

The LEGO Movie - #62 Go to a dollar movie

And of course since we were already in the area we had to stop in at Yogurt Story for some of the best dessert available!

#35 Frozen Yogurt

Mommy - Espresso/Chocolate/NY Cheesecake with mini M&Ms and cherries
Jareth - PeanutButter/Chocolate/Strawberry with mini Reeces, gummy bears, and sour gummy worms and 1 cherry

Livia stole Bubba's and made a nice little mess!

And thanks to 102.1 The EDGE we had some great music to turn up and sing to!

#11 Sing loudly with the car windows down

Livia dancing in the front seat (as Jareth and I got our yogurt) really entertained a girl walking along so much she put down her bags and began dancing along. It started and ended with Bastille! Our line up on the way home included Pompeii, No Rest For The Wicked, Safe and Sound, and Bad Blood!

All in all the trip cost us about $10 and we had so much fun! 3 more items checked off our list and a little randomness for the kids! This is what our summer is supposed to be about! I am so glad we got the chance to enjoy it!

Camping Trip

List Items #5, #17, #19, #53, #58, #69, #98

It was the first official weekend of summer! We made plans to take this camping trip about a month ago thanks to my father, who is big into geocaching, and his plans to be at the State Park already. It turned into a great couple of days of fun with some friends who were able to join us for this trip! We were able to check off quiet a few items on our list and the whole family had tons of fun!

#98 - Go Camping

My son loves to camp! Him and my husband go at least once every summer with some friends or family, but we have thought Livia to be too young and I will admit that I shy away from it unless I have no other choice. However, this summer is about family time! So we packed everyone into the car, including Brewster our dog, and we drove just down the road to the Ray Roberts Lake State Park - Isle du Bois Unit. We invested in a State Park pass which will get us into any State Park for free for unlimited visits for anyone in our vehicle. With this card we also get discounts on camping, park store merchandise, and other benefits which we will be taking advantage of this summer! We recommend that everyone look into this for their state as I believe it is an untapped mine of fun for the family! If you are in Texas, here is where you can find more info: texasstateparks.org .

Of course, the boys did most of the tent building, but us girls tried to do our part to help!

#58 - Go to the lake / #5 - Go to the beach / #19 - Go swimming / #53 - Build Sandcastles

The Ray Roberts Lake has some amazing spots! We were fortunate enough to have a campsite that had a nice little pathway straight to the lake with a large beach area for the kids to have fun. And they weren't the only ones! Brewster had never been to the beach before either and he had so much fun, on leash, wading through the water with us.  And all of this of course led to swimming in the beautiful water! And for a short time we tried our hand at sandcastles.

#69 - Go berry picking

Originally we were going to try and go to the berry farm in the area, but news of their being closed this summer really put a damper on the Summer List. Fortunately for us a friend who had stayed at the site the night before had discovered a patch of wild blackberries! So we took the kids over and, after some mishaps with the thorns, we collected a large handful of blackberries! Not everyone liked them, Jareth being among those that didn't like the slightly tart berries. But they all had fun finding the bramble and searching for ones that had reached maturity.

#17 - Make s'mores

And of course no camping trip is complete without S'mores! The kids had so much fun, of course, roasting the marshmallows over the open fire and watching them ooze out of the sides of the graham cracker and chocolate sandwich. Of course, Livia went straight for the marshmallows, having no patience for letting it cook. Leaving everyone happy with the night as they ate their sugary goodness in the dark!

Of course the night didn't end there. Just before some of our party had to go home we went out in the dark for a small hike to do some night time geocaching. For those of you that don't know, this is an adult-type scavenger hunt utilizing the Global Positioning System (GPS). Geocaches can be found all over the world in all kinds of shapes and sizes. It was mentioned that I didn't include it on my list and that is for 2 reasons: 1) It wasn't on the two lists I used to compile mine, and 2) it is something my family does often enough that I didn't find the need to put it on the list. But I will mention it to anyone else making a Summer List, because it is a fun, family adventure that costs nearly nothing to participate in! So if you have never heard of or really looked into the fun, check it out! Geocaching.com will give you more information and get you hooked on the adventure!

Also on the way out of the park, as we were talking over all the fun we had, we were lamenting the fact that all we had seen was a small rabbit run across my path as I took Brewster for a walk. That was corrected as we came to a stop to see a young doe grazing at a patch of grass on the corner of two of the roads. Everyone was able to stare and admire her as she slowly made her way back into the woods, adding a little something special to the whole trip!

We had so much fun on the first trip of the summer! And it has made the family more eager to check off more of the items on our Summer List as we have fun and enjoy family time together this summer. I hope others have chosen to take on the challenge that is the List. If you do, please tell us about your adventures! I look forward to telling you more stories of our days and hearing about yours!