Lego Fun for Everyone

  This past weekend we were given tickets to check out Brickfest Live.  This event was in Richmond VA which is a nice ride for us.  The kids didn't know where we were going because I like to provide random surprises!

  When we walked into the Richmond Convention Center we were immediately greeted and directed to the appropriate room!

Surprise!

  They knew where they were going and now it was game time!

  Upon entering you are immediately excited at the endless Legos in sight.  The only question is where do we start?

  We checked out the giant mosaic area first.

  People were lined up on the other side of tables making prearranged tiles. Color-coded cards were used to make the specific tiles.  2 individuals were adding the completed tiles to the mosaic on the floor.

  The kids started out with making their own tiles.  They could choose to make one from a card provided or make their own design. 

After you were finishing you got to put it up on a wall along with other micro works of art!

Have you heard of MeeperBots?  

You could give the robotic cars a test drive! 

They were controlled by an app on your phone!

I think our favorite Legos were the one under the black light.  Not that everyone had a playroom with a black light but now after this show it makes a cool option to have.

Legos stimulate the imagination and creativity.  

My son thought it was so neat to see the Lego cars line up for a race.

This whole setup would be super easy to set up in the house compared to a black light. 

Legos are not just about building.  They are so versatile!  Look how they can be used to embellish! We had fun playing 9 holes of golf! 

Did I even mention how easy it was to spend hours at this event?  I never heard I'm bored, not even once!

We did skip the Lego video game section as my kids are a little younger.  This station had about 6 screens and the game looked action packed and entertaining.

 Animated Legos in a black lighted room was pretty neat.  Mom, can you make that? Um, no our Legos don't move unless you make them move.

If you can dream it you can build it. Architecture lane.  A row of famous buildings Lego style were neat and maybe the closest I will get to these landmarks.

A pool of blue just in case it's your favorite color.

Last stop before we left was to check on the giant mosaic but we had to take pictures with some groupies first.

Our day was complete and now the last stop was to see the progress of the mosaic.

It was coming along nicely!  It was neat to see how everyone was working together to make this.  My son thought it was neat as he is a Star Wars fan!

I was provided this trip for review.  All opinions were my own.

Have you checked out Brickfest Live?  I saw adults have just as much fun as the kids!  Have you seen the glow in the dark Legos before?

Weekend Fitness

  It's Friday and the weekend is almost here.  You have worked all week and you can't wait to take it easy on the weekend.  That's completely understandable but your workout doesn't have to be canceled.

  I knew I would have a busy weekend but I am motivated to stay active all 31 days of October so I planned ahead.  Saturday I was going to be gone but based on my plans I was going to be walking a lot so that was my fitness for the day.

It worked out great.  I would have liked 25,000 steps but we had to go to another place at 6 and it started to rain so my plans were not quite 100 % attainable.

On Sunday I knew again that my fitness routine would be interrupted so I set my alarm a little earlier for jog before my 'official' day started! 

  Most of my cardio routines are in the morning so that's nothing new to me.  It works best for me because after noon I lack motivation for the most part.  3 miles for me!  The weekend didn't slow me down!

  Well at the end of my weekend. I feel good! My fitness was not compromised based on the weekend or busy plans.

  I still managed to get a complete week of fitness done!

  1 week done 3 weeks and 3 days to go.  This is just a view of my steps.  I didn't necessarily walk or jog to get fitness but sometimes I did both. Thursday and Friday I rode my bike and those miles don't get calculated with my app. Monday I also did Yoga.

  Do you have a goal for the month?  How are you doing so far towards that? 

School with Letter D

  Moving along on our alphabet journey we have finished with the letter D. Letter  D was fun.  We played games, played with food and got outside.  We are continuing on learning sight words, reading and identifying the letter of the week when we are out and about.

D is for dog.  We don't usually walk the dog but this day we walked him. Poor dog walked miles with us.

He likes to write his letters in the sand on the sidewalk.   He will do this without any prompts from me.

He says, "I spy with my eye a letter d!"  Good job little man. No D is off limits.

Each week he gets new words.  It took us more then a week to have some words figure out.  Here he is writing: is, and, my, the and look.

He can even write dad now based on letters he knows.

Pulled out the clip cards.  Here he clips the lower case letter.  Each clip also has the letters on them.

Food fun was not skipped!

I made some yogurt d's with chocolate chips sprinkled on it and frozen for a cool treat! 

You may think I could have done more I could have played a game with him and to that statement I say...

D is for dominoes! 

Another week down! Another week of learning! He is busy with art and crafts throughout the day and I can't wait to share a project we just finished! 

We as adults are learning everyday or at least something once a week.  What did you learn or teach this week to someone?

Wholefood Store Experience

  When in the right spot at the right time we check out Wholefoods! Wholefoods is a not just a grocery store.  It's an experience.  Wholefoods offers a huge variety of food from organic fruits and vegetables to products without artificial dyes and preservatives but, it doesn't end there.  They have grass fed beef in the meat department.  Plus there's even a restaurant to grab a meal before or after your shop! The pizza looked amazing but so did the salad bar!  A beautiful bounty of fresh cakes, donuts, bagels and cookies got my son making birthday cake demands.

  When we walked in we came in by the product area and my son loved looking at the fruit and vegetables and telling me the prices (everyday is a learning experience).  There were a lot of things I have never cooked with but, have seen mentioned before.

The Jack fruit had our attention.  I had never seen this before.  A nice customer told us a bit about it.  She said you can use it as a meat substitute!!! We looked at a piece sliced open and I guess the store sells some BBQ that you wouldn't even know was made from this! 

Little man loves honey so he asked to make a bottle of honey!

He also likes peanut butter and thought we needed some fresh peanut butter!

I tried to deter him to some crunchy, healthy snacks. 

We stopped and checked out our senses on the soaps and scrubs! We agree that Orange Vanilla Scrub was the best!

Momma likes the smell of coffee even if it's not a hot cup of Joe!

To finish off our tour we ended with a treat!

This was our first introduction to these little ice cream balls!

There were a variety of flavors from traditional chocolate and strawberry to mango and pistachio.  At least 9 flavors to reach everyones taste buds.

We didn't know what we were getting into so we choose just 2! 

We choose chocolate (his) and I got the pistachio!

The outside has a soft dough consistency and then you have a ball of ice cream in the center.  The rice dough wrapper was a little chewy but it blended into the flavors nicely.

We had a nice time and I can't wait to explore Wholefoods again pickup some Jack fruit and see what else we can try!

Have you been to Wholefoods?  Have you heard of or ever eaten Jack fruit?

Wordless Wednesday (sand sculptures)

  I have lived in VA for over 10 years and have gone to the same handful of festivals each year.  This weekend I couldn't wait to go to my favorite event of the year. The Neptune Festival! This festival takes place in Virginia Beach and that's the perfect place for some sand sculpture making!

  There doesn't seem to be a theme or an obvious theme.  I however don't care because they are all such beautiful works of art. The variety of each one makes it better.

  This year I went at a different time then I usually do and uggg all those people were in my way.  Plus my phone was picking up the sun for all angles.

  My favorite this year accompanied the bear in the first picture.  Here's the front and back!

  

  What's your favorite annual festival that you refuse to miss out on?  Have you been to a sand sculpture contest?

It's OK (by me)

  I'm going to play along with airingmylaundry today as I tell you what items/events/activities I missed but didn't lose sleep over.

  You can see her current post here.

  It's OK that I stopped everything for 2 hours to watch the new Grey's Anatomy last Thursday.  I swear sometimes it's so long between a series finale and a new season!

  It's OK that I grabbed my free cup of coffee from 7-eleven on Friday for National Coffee day and a chicken biscuit from Chick Fil A for my breakfast.  I like an app that's rewards with free food!

  It's OK that I also ate at Red Robin twice this week today because of their member privileges.

  It's OK that between 2 kids and myself we finished off a 1 lb bag of Twizzlers together. I say it was a bonding moment.

  Lastly its OK that my new goal for the month is 31 days of fitness.  I like the gym, outside cardio gives me a nice dose of fresh air and I'll be making myself check out some new to me gym classes.

  Today was yoga but, I am already up to 10 miles of foot power in 3 days.

  It's a new month so what are you starting the month out OK with?