toys Archives - Stories of Our Boys

The Way Women are Portrayed at Arcades: This BUGS me!!!

aprilmomoffour — Sun, 03 May 2015 00:34:07 +0000

Look closely.

Am I the only one annoyed by this? We try to be good parents. We monitor every single thing that comes into our house. The boys only get to play video games on the weekend, and even then, it’s Mario, Sonic, or Lego characters.

But what happens when you take your children to a restaurant/video game arcade? And not just one particular one, but pretty much all of them?

Scantily clad women waving flags on the motorcycle game. Ughhhhhhh. Why? Who is this for? Let’s look at this picture, shall we? Who is playing this game? A young girl and two young boys. Who just goes and stands around, occasionally getting to throw in a token ourselves? The grown-ups.

These games are mostly played by children, so why do we have showgirls waving flags? This is teaching this young girl “This is what you need to look like. This is hot. Aspire to this.” And this is teaching young boys, “Whoo-hoo! Women! Yeah! Don’t take us seriously.”

This doesn’t need to be set up as an accepted society standard of what womanhood means. My boys don’t need to deal with sexy images of women yet. They are young. I would never allow an image like that in my home or computer screen, so why would we want it in the arcade? Just because something is prevalent in our culture doesn’t mean it’s right, and the portrayal of women is one of those things.

This is how women are packaged in our society: as sex objects. Could we please get this out of our video games? Could we get this game out of arcades that are mostly frequented by children? Am I not the only one highly annoyed by this??

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The Year of Getting Organized

aprilmomoffour — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 11:18:20 +0000

I’ve written gobs of blog posts where I’m really bad about never going back and letting you know how that all turned out. This is my goal for tonight: lots of updates!!

Update #1: The Great Clean Out

inspired by reading Money Saving Mom‘s book:

Buy it. Read it. You’re welcome. No, you can’t borrow mine. I read a chapter, set it down for a month, read the next chapter….I’m on chapter 5. You will want your own copy. ; )

It’s sort of an odd time to suddenly be all about organizing my house: we are moving in JUNE. However, we are drowning in TMS–too much stuff–so I have been plugging away at “The Great Clean Out”. I decided to combine it with “Getting Organized”, one of my goals for the year. I’ve been a rubbermaid boxing, label makin’ fool.

Okay, really I’ve only managed to organize three rooms and a few closets, but I’m going to whip out that “4 small boys” excuse again. It works well for me. Progress is progress. Go me.

Here are my Organization tips:

1. stackable boxes. There’s nothing worse than avalanches of stuff. You know, like a giant pile of purses that falls on your head if you move the wrong way. It looks bad. It creates confusion, and it just doesn’t work. Put all that same junk in stackable boxes, and suddenly BOOM, you look–and are indeed–organized.

2. Label it! If it’s in the box, it needs to be on the label. “Office stuff” is not a label. A proper label should read: “paper clips, folders, notebooks, paper”. You get the idea. Specify!!!!

3. Toss, toss, toss!!!!

If you don’t remember the last time you used it, you don’t need it. If you’re keeping it for that day, two years from now, when you will most certainly need it, but you don’t need it now–chances are you won’t know where it is then, so unless it’s extremely expensive–toss it.

Even if it is costly, it may not work anymore by the time you finally need it. You get the idea. Go watch that t.v. show Hoarders for some inspiration. This could be you!

I am almost done with our coat closet:

Sometimes I find myself with literally only 20 minutes before I have to leave the house, and that’s when I work in mini-projects like this. All you need is 10 minutes to organize one drawer–one shelf–one cabinet. You get the idea. But first, go to your favorite “everything” store (Target), and get some of these awesome clear, square boxes.

Update #2: Keeping My Toddler Busy

Remember all the hilarious Dan photos? Dan covered in pudding, Dan and the powder- bedroom- blizzard, Dan and the baby cereal, etc. etc.??? I’m constantly on a mission to keep this little booger busy.

My friend Patti gave us these Knex blocks for him. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Check out the house he built. After I took this photo, he stuck a propeller on top of it all and called it a helicopter. Then it flew away with Daniel, and I’m not sure where it is now.

He has been much better lately. Your birthday gifts to him also have helped him to stay busy. THANK YOU! He is obsessed with airplanes.

Update #3 Snow

We have snow everywhere, every week or so. The good news is that it melts more quickly now. The bad news is black snow: GROSS. Alabama friends, you would die. Piles of plowed snow everywhere, and the street pollution turns them black. Makes you wonder about what we’re breathing.

It’s a thing of wonder and beauty when it’s freshly fallen. I will never really dislike snow. It’s just that I don’t want to be cold anymore.

Last update: #4 My Friday night dilemma from my last post

We ended up dividing up the kiddos. Alan took Joshua and Dan to the buffet dinner. I stayed home with Caleb and John David, which has actually been an extremely relaxing evening for me.

See, I kept JD out and about all day. We volunteered at the school–don’t worry, we made and sorted copies and didn’t disrupt any classes. Then we went to lunch with my friend Margret. JD ATE QUESADILLAS!!! I was so proud!

All that, plus three hours of stroller riding to get the boys from school and an hour and a half at the park left JD wiped out. He was completely sleep deprived, so he went to bed at 6pm. Yes, I will have to be up with him a little tonight to pay for that, but oh well.

Right now it’s just Caleb and me–oh the glory–the two people who love to sit here and play computer the most, and that is exactly what we are doing. I love you, Caleb!!!!

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Caleb and me, 6 years ago

Toys That Keep Our Boys BUSY

aprilmomoffour — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 03:54:00 +0000

Heaven is for Real for little ones by Colton Burpo

When I read this book to the boys, they were sitting on the edge of their seats, especially my nine-year-old. They were all so eager to hear about what Heaven is like. This book is full of hope and colorful pictures. When I finished reading it, the boys argued over who got to hold it and look at it.

I put together this list of Christmas gifts that were the biggest hit when our boys were ages 2-9. These toys kept the boys happy and engaged, and no batteries were required!

****When you order through Amazon links on this page, I do collect advertising fees.****

Alan and I were talking yesterday about what an amazing Christmas the boys had this year. How did this come up? Here it is the 15th of January already..

OH, I remember, I was doing some cleaning up in my room and came across the Toys R Us ad the boys had gone through, before Christmas, circling and initialing who was requesting what!

Alan was looking over the sales ad and said, “Who circled the princess stuff??”

I said, “Oh, one of them did that to make the other one mad. I don’t remember which one was which.”

(A lot of my stories go like that these days.)

Alan laughed. Then he said, “Wow, they actually got a lot of this stuff, so they must be happy!”

Actually, I’m pretty sure they have no idea how great they have it, but they have been seriously busy playing with all their presents, and you know who benefits the most from that??

Yep! ME!!! Busy kids = happy mom.

I can honestly say that ever since Christmas there has been no: “I’m bored.”And no, “There’s nothing to do here.”

Even Daniel detached himself from my leg the first week we were back home. That’s over now, though.

Dan is two, and he is more like a part of my body than his own separate person these days. He has this ability to wrap his little body around my leg in a way that I actually do not know how to remove him!!

In order to show my gratitude to the wonderful grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and Santa Clause that have kept my children so busy, I’m including a few photos of the stuff that frees my leg and my ears.

THANK YOU!!!

If you need ideas for toys to keep your kiddos busy, look no further!

Human Digestive System puzzle

This keeps Caleb (age 6) busy, especially since every time he works on it, Daniel runs by, steals a spleen or a liver and takes off running…..just to tick Caleb off. Then we have to chase Daniel down, make him give Caleb his pancreas back, and apologize. Every time.

And Nonna, you’ll be happy to know that I did read the “My Body” book to them, and both Joshua and Caleb really enjoyed it.

Craft gifts are ALWAYS a hit. Joshua will not touch a coloring book or even a puzzle book, but blank paper and pencils or pens is huge with Joshua.

Caleb is loving the new markers and paper, and he still likes coloring too.

Daniel is LOVING the paint book. This paint book is different than the norm. Each page has a fresh set of watercolor paints across the top of the page. Daniel doesn’t really get it, but he insists on trying. Caleb does a good job with it, though.

And, Jennings, those ‘Thing 1″, “Thing 2”, etc. cups are a life saver. No need to guess whose germ-y cup is whose!!! Love it!

And oh yes, as seen in the above photo, Caleb lives in Skylanders pajamas now.

color-by-number

another huge hit with Caleb

perhaps the most popular toy of Christmas 2013, with both Caleb and Daniel:

the paint with water book. You fill the brush with water, “paint” the pictures, then it dries and you do it all over again. It has been painted so many times it’s all warped and heavy feeling, but they still love it.

All the Duplo blocks see a lot of use as well: Caleb builds and Daniel plays with what Caleb has built him. Dan can build a really tall tower too!

This one was actually for Alan: all out battery recharger. Yes, we can definitely use this!!!

Hot Wheels Garage: This has made playing with cars popular again at our house! All three boys.

This sewing kit was given to Dan, who tried but couldn’t really get it. Caleb and Alan have done some impressive things with it though.

Joshua LOVES this book.

Then there are the obvious delights. The boys’ grandparents gave them each their own tablets. I know. They sound pretty spoiled. I gotta say, though, I can’t knock the Nabi. With this tablet, we have set a timer that tells exactly what time each day they are allowed to use it, how long, and what time it has to be turned off. ALSO, we can program it so that they can have unlimited Nook reading hours but only 30 minutes for games. PLUS, it keeps them off our tablets. PLUS, it’s more secure for them and for us. It would always make me nervous to hand a little boy my expensive computer with all of my accounts on it for them to accidentally delete, move, or ‘share’, so I think this is actually a really great idea.

We have been amazed at their advanced abilities in getting around the parental controls. One night Alan received seven emails notifying him that Joshua was trying to change his password on his Nabi. We walked into Joshua’s room, and sure enough, there was Joshua trying to log onto his Nabi after hours.

Joshua felt like he should be allowed to play it in bed, so he was trying to change the password and then change the parental controls. …..I never knew this sort of thing would start so early! The boy is EIGHT!

Joshua said, “I don’t understand. I wrote it right!” HAHA, little person. You may know the username, but you will never learn the password!!!

This doesn’t stop at Joshua. Daniel has managed to switch his from “Daddy Mode” to “Mommy mode”…no idea how he did that……plus HALF of his apps are now locked by Nabi. You can see the app, but there’s a master lock picture over it, and it reads, “Ask Mommy.” I bet he’s tried to buy stuff.

On a much sweeter note, I was looking for something in Joshua’s drawers the other day, and lo and behold, I found that Joshua has amassed this impressive collection of “Gospel Project” cards. I had no idea he had even been getting these at church, much less was saving every single one in a neat little stack, in his top drawer. We were really impressed with this!

There were so many wonderful things they received for Christmas this year. Thank you all so much. I actually still have one suitcase left to unpack!! Yes, I know, you can judge me now.

*****

Good news/bad news:

The bad news is that I took JD to the doc, and he has a double ear infection.

The good news is that he is now on amoxicillin, I think his fever is gone, and he should be all better soon!

Oh, and Joshua now also has a fever. Does sickness ever end when you have four children!!!???

Quote of the Day:

Me: Joshua, you need to eat something.

Joshua: My throat hurts. I don’t want to.

Me: How about ice cream?

Joshua: Nah…

Dan: Me! Me!! Ice cream!

Me: No, Dan, you didn’t eat your breakfast.

Dan: Me sick. *cough cough cough*

The post Toys That Keep Our Boys BUSY appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I May Never Make it to Chapter Three….

aprilmomoffour — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 04:10:00 +0000

I mentioned in a previous post: new-years-check-up, that one of my missions this year is to get back on track with our budget. With four kids in tow, we really need to chill it on the spending! I decided a great way to help me focus on this mission would be to read this book:

Here’s my only problem: In chapter two she says you should de-clutter your house. In fact, she recommends getting a babysitter and knocking out every room, freeing each room of all the stuff you no longer need. She says not to even move on to chapter three until you’ve done this.

I have four kids, and my house has a lot of rooms packed with a lot of stuff.

……I haven’t bothered with the babysitter, but I obviously should, because three days later, and I’ve finally finished the storage room and part of the guest room, and I’m not sure if I will EVER get to read chapter 3!!! Do you have any idea how much junk we have? A lot.

That’s been kind of a depressing project to deal with this week.

We send about 2 bags of cast-aways per month to thrift stores on average, so I am very much in the habit of de-cluttering. Yet somehow, things are never quite the way I want them to be.

I’ve found that one key to this issue is labeling. I hate it when I organize something, but then the kids mess it up and no one knows how to put it back the way it was because nothing is labeled.

I’ve spent a lot of time this week labeling.

We are going to end up being that family whose house looks like a toddler’s word book.

….Speaking of toddlers…..Here are my adorable, slightly exhausting companions:

Common theme: Dan is playing with an airplane in every single photo. He has been flying his airplanes all week long. Future pilot, perhaps??

If Dan is a future pilot, Caleb is a future doctor. He has come home from school each day describing to me what kind of science experiment they did in class. He said today they learned how to make soda. Pretty cool, huh? Plus, he’s been putting his digestive system puzzle together over and over again. Not kidding:

Love of science + Caleb’s social skills = possibility for a wonderful doctor!

You better believe I’ve told him that, too!

I actually had all four kids at home for a lot of the week because they kept canceling school. It wasn’t even snowing or icy! They kept closing schools because it was “cold”. We all thought that was kind of weird.

Oh! I was careful to take some snapshots of Daniel being helpful this week, to help improve his reputation.

He gets really excited about cooking, especially about baking cakes. Yes, I bake a lot of cakes, BUT don’t be too impressed.

How I bake a cake:

1. Send Alan to store for cake mix and icing.

2. Follow directions on cake mix box.

3. Cool cake and ice with the little plastic tub of chocolate icing.

Benefits:

quick and easy

You choose your kind of oil and eggs.

Less sugar than bakery cake.

cleaning the coffee table

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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