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Children’s DVD Review: Barney on the Go Pack

Karlynn Johnston — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:44:02 +0000

Just in time for summer traveling, your favorite purple dinosaur now comes in a great multi-disk set of entertaining tales. The live episode was especially entertaining, my daughter loved watching the stage show Barney’s Colorful World Live! and was absolutely entranced.

The travel case for the disks seems to be very good quality and allows children to pack up to 12 disks in it to store safely while traveling. Perfect for car trips!

Synopsis:

Red, Yellow, Blue – Sing and dance through a color-filled day of learning as Barney and his friends search for red, yellow and blue objects in a celebration of primary colors. With Barney, this celebration of colors is primarily fun!

Special Features: Read-Along Story – “Barney’s Book of Hugs”
Languages: English and Spanish
Run Time: Approximately 35 minutes

Barney’s Colorful World Live! – Barney has your ticket to adventure as he brings the magic of his colorful stage show to your very own living room! Join the purple dino-star and his friends on a magical, musical trip with 24 Tee-Riffic Songs!

Special Features:

“Barney’s Jukebox” – 22 Super-Dee-Duper Songs
Read-Along “Tour Guide”: Take a tour of Barney’s colorful world with all his friends
”People, Places & Animals Adventure”: Mini-featurettes on each topic to learn more about your world

Five bonus episodes from Bob the Builder™, Rubbadubbers™, Angelina Ballerina™, Kipper™ and Pingu™!

Languages: English and Spanish
Run Time: Approximately 69 minutes

Happy Mad Silly Sad – Love makes Barney’s world go ‘round and the huggable dinosaur encourages his friends to understand feelings and emotions – manners, sharing and caring. It’s always a happy day of fun and learning when you spend it with Barney and his friends!

Special Features:
Read-Along “Barney’s Book of Hugs”
Games: “What’s Different?,” “Make-a-Mask” and “Barney’s Heart Maze”
Languages: English and Spanish
Run Time: Approximately 45 minutes

Rainbow Salt Bottle

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:02:25 +0000

Not only does this activity finish with a beautiful product it has the child practicing several skills in the process, spooning, grinding, pouring and learning about colour mixing. The finished bottle can also make great gifts for grandparents.
What you will need:
*small glass bottle with a lid
*funnel
*salt
*sidewalk chalk (small chalk pieces will break too easily)
*spoon
*jug
Have all the equipment set out on a tray, working on a tray will help with clean up. First measure 2 spoons of salt into the jug – you can adjust the amount to suit.Take the chalk and grind it into the salt, the salt will change colour. Using the funnel, pour the salt into the glass bottle, then repeat with another colour of chalk, keep going until the bottle is full. You can suggest to the child that try mixing two colours to see what happens.
One tip when colour mixing – this or other mediums, suggest that the child starts off with the weaker colour, so in this case he coloured the salt yellow first then added the blue (you only need a bit of blue to make it turn green).
Then when you have finished you will have a pretty bottle like the one pictured.

This post was submitted by jo ebisujima.

My Morning With a 3 Year Old

Karlynn Johnston — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:16:48 +0000

Please note that capital letters are screaming.

When I tell her nicely that she can’t have hotdogs for breakfast:

” Mommy, we don’t yell in this family” *and she walks over and hits my leg. Timeout upstairs.

When I tell her we can’t go to sports day because she is yelling at me and we can’t go and be grumpy all day:

“Then I am not going to love you and I am going to call you BAD! ” (this must be the ultimate insult)

When I tell her that she doesn’t have to drink from her new Disney cup as she’s melting down about it:

*sniffles with big wide,hurt eyes* “Then you are going to THROW IT IN THE GARBAGE?” (yah, cause that’s what I said. WTH. Seriously) And then “You are going to take it back to Disneyland and I will HAVE NOTHING!” (well now, that is a capital idea!)

INSANE 3 YEAR OLD : “Wheres my underwear mom?”

ME: “On your bum, silly!”

INSANE 3 YEAR OLD : “DON’T SAY BUM!!!” Throws herself on me crying.

Add in about 5 confrontations with her brother, 78 meltdowns with crying for no apparent reason, 14 slaps doled out indiscriminately to her brother and myself, and now we are ending with her crying under the table at my feet telling me that she can’t get hugs from me anymore. And she won’t get dressed but is screaming that she wants to go play outside and she HAS TO HAVE HER SHOES ON.

O-M-G.

My Holy Grail!

export — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:45:05 +0000

Yes, I am a nerd. I spent the day phoning garden centers in the area searching for what has been my Holy Grail for a couple years now. Its not that it is especially difficult to find, but by the time I remember I should be looking for it, its sold out. Ok, well I just lied a little. This year the actual number of garden centers that had it to begin with were small, Holes never actually had it on their 2009 list, ones who had it advertised on their websites didn’t have it in stock. And to the greatest irony, where do I find it? The garden center that is the closest to me, yet I have never checked it out. I phoned them up this afternoon, crossing my fingers and they had one left. And at the beautiful price of $15! Can’t beat that with a stick! So even though they don’t do holds usually, the girl could tell that I was excited and she set it aside for me to pick up after getting the kids from school and dinner.

So its in the ground, and I can’t wait till next year, I hope it starts producing, its the sweetest cherry that we can grow here on the prairies, there are many others, but this one has the highest sugar content out of the “sour cherries” which is why I had to have it over any others. I am sure I would love to make jams and pies and preserves out of them, but I mainly want them for fresh eating during the summer. (ah, one can dream). So its a Crimson Passion Cherry bush in the picture that you see. Looks less than impressive but crossing my fingers for a cherry laden tree in 2-3 years.

I am also heading back there this weekend, they have amazing apple trees (for $59.99!) of every kind you can imagine, and that is what is going in the front ASAP. I am so excited to finally aquire some of my fruiting trees!

Ryan Reynold’s Gets Verbally Spanked

Karlynn Johnston — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:59:40 +0000

Ah this is too darn funny..and a language warning for those who might be watching with children around, or are at work.

Video is courtesy of Funny or Die.

Sandra Bullock & Ryan Reynolds: Behind the Scenes of The Proposal from Betty White

Giant Allium

export — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:00:24 +0000

They bloomed, of course, while I was gone on vacation as I knew they would, but I did get to see them when I returned! The first thing I looked for was them in my front flowerbed, yes, I am a garden nerd I know. Who cares if the house is still standing, as long as my allium have bloomed, its alllll good.

I must admit, I thought they would be larger! A few years ago I saw some in a garden in my city and they were gigantic, and obviously, if the bag I bought says Giant Allium, I assume that mine are giant as well. I would label them medium, compared to the ones I saw and lusted after. I don’t have a really good picture, because as I was preparing to take a picture, my lovely little daughter managed to rip…off…most of the blooms on my most beautiful set of 5, only to throw them into the water fountain. I almost cried lol, waiting all these weeks, only to see them for 5 minutes and not even get a picture to remember them by. Sigh. Every time I see those little flowers floating in the fountain, I reminisce. Also reminds me that I should clean my fountain. So enjoy the picture of the lone survivor of the carnage.

My globeflowers are gorgeous, everything is green and growing in my backyard so lovely, with the exception of my pumpkins which shriveled up and croaked. My brother did try, I am sure, but they didn’t make it. I do, however, have seedling coming up of all the three vines (cukes, pumpkin and zucchini) I was experimenting with which would do better, started early or started in the ground after the last frost. Good thing I did, because now we might have a chance of pumpkins still!

And I think I killed my 4th scarlet honeysuckle, the one in the front is very, very sad with me.

Surf City USA : Huntington Beach

Karlynn Johnston — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:05:39 +0000

I had no idea that the beach we were headed to was the literal Surf City USA, I guess the waves there are the best for surfng, as well as an 8.5 mile white sand beautiful beach to find a spot to sit and watch. We took the kids to the ocean for the very first time while in California, the first time we weren’t prepared with swim attire, the second we were ready for action! Kade absolutely loved it, was in there like a dirty shirt, Ivy was more reticent of course, she’s not that fond of water to start, and with the waves being so unpredictable, she wasn’t a huge fan. The sand,on the other hand, was a hit with both of them, and they played endlessly with only their hands and a couple small glasses from the hotel. Who needs fancy sand toys, I ask you?

Ivy was also adorable when the waves were coming, she was yelling to Papa ” The ocean is coming, the ocean is coming!” and running up to where the sand was dry. The second trip she was so tired and grumpy that she wouldn’t set foot in the ocean at all, at least she tried it the first time. She just sat there making sure the surf didn’t reach her and her sand castle, and was happier than a toad in a hole doing so. Kade, on the other hand, was a wild man, running in the waves with his dad, splashing everyone and everything in sight and loving every minute of it.

We were obviously off season, the beach was dead quiet except for surfers, and I really enjoyed watching them, it fascinates me how they manage to stay upright on those boards. We went in the early evening, and it looked like everyone was coming down for some board time after work, it got busy,or at least the waves did, around 6 o’clock. There are some fantastic hotels along the strip and I would love to spend more than a few hours there, more like a few days just chilling on the beach and checking out the local spots.I am sure they are a pretty penny, but I think in late June before it gets too smoking hot out there, would be perfect. I hate roasting on the beach and having to worry about sunstroke, give me a nice 26-29 Celcius and we are great for the beach and swimming. It was only about 24 degrees when we went and being the good ol’ Canucks that we are, we were in that surf without a whimper.

My only regret is that we didn’t get to spend enough time at the beach, I really would have loved to stay a lot longer. Next time!

Oakland, California: Dunsmuir Historic Estate

Karlynn Johnston — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:00:15 +0000

I was so glad to have my dad along as my partner in crime, he loves checking out historic houses as much as I do, and when I stopped to think about it, we managed to get three of them under our belts this trip, no wonder I am exhausted! We visited San Jose for the Winchester Mystery House (awesome), then on the way to Anaheim we stopped in at Hearst Castle (amazing) and while we were in San Francisco we popped over the Bay Bridge to Oakland and went to the Dunsmuir Estate. That is three extra cities that we visited on our trip!

The Dunsmuir tour was only available for one tour a week, 11 am on Wednesday and we were lucky enough to find this out in time to attend. We actually took the kids with us on this one while Mike was at his conference. Kade of course, was great, asking questions and listening, and Ivy was, well, she was three years old. Actually, she was pretty great for an hour tour of a house, how interesting could that be to her?

The mansion itself is over 16,000 sq feet, with a grand total of 37 rooms, most of them absolutely gorgeous, with the exception being, of course, the servants areas. Though I must admit, even the room off the kitchen where the servants ate/relaxed was pretty nice. It was really neat to see how they had their own stairs so they could be unobtrusive and not be seen by the family,as well as that room on the other side of the kitchen where the family would never set foot in, I am sure. The rooms upstairs were amazing, the bathroom fixtures were so cool to see, Kade was fascinated by the funny toilets and tubs, while I myself just wanted to take one of the large claw footed tubs home with me.

I don’t have many good pictures due to not being able to take flash photography (hard on those ol’ antiquities) but also I had to use my dad’s camera which I am not as familiar with. I wasn’t able to capture how beautiful the wood in the games rooms was, and how open and airy and pretty the bedrooms were.

To give you a good perspective of how huge the house is, look closely at the picture I posted, and notice that on the left of the stairs, the left pillar at the base, there is a little dark spot, that is Ivy standing where she shouldn’t be standing! I have a few pictures that are postworthy, so here they are…..click to enlarge them.

Here is the dining room….

A bedroom furniture piece, but you can see not only myself and Kade, but some of the bedroom reflected in the mirror.All except 2 pieces are not original to the house, unfortunately.

The original kitchen stove and light fixtures, very neat.

Disneyland!

Karlynn Johnston — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:24:17 +0000

Yip, we cruised through LA to Anaheim and checked into our slum, er, I mean hotel Friday night. Yes, I kinda meant slum, we are in a older type motor inn, and I knew what we were in for, but the hotel in Burlingame was SO nice, that this is beyond a step down! Its going from the Hilton to the street. No hot breakfast buffet with coffee 24/7 (oh yah baby, was that ever nice) just some stale pastries and coffee from 7-9. Ok, its not that bad.I was too cheap to spend a lot of money to sleep here, and that’s what it is. We are out all day, and crashing here for rest, then back again in the morning. But there is a fridge and a microwave, so I won’t have to buy a microwave, use it, then return it to Walmart. (a trick I learned from a co-worker, bless her smart mind).

We hit those main gates with that famous little mouse Saturday, and were the kids ever excited! Our very first ride was the Jungle Cruise, while we waited for our FastPass with Indiana Jones. The kids were enthralled, but Kade was completely over the moon on Indiana Jones. He has never watched the movies, of course, but saw the ride preview on the website when we were planning and has be fixated on it (and a few other rides) since then. It is a scary dang ride, but the only part that scared him was a giant snake, and he was over that. It was a crashing bashing helluva ride and he was thrilled! And that set the tone for him, the crazier the better! Thunder Mountain Railway (which Ivy went on, she’s tall enough for that wild ride, and now she talks about it constantly) and another little coaster are his other favorites.

My favorite is the Buzz Lightyear, you take little laser guns and hit the targets while in your little buggy, which swivels side to side with a joystick, its awesome!

We are having a hoot, the weather is amazing, 22-25 Celsius, so just perfect. We just had naps and are off to California Adventure Park now, to try that one out for the first time, as no one has been there yet out of us.

San Simeon – Hearst Castle

Karlynn Johnston — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:23:28 +0000

On our way driving down the coast to get to Anaheim, we made a detour so we were able to visit the Hearst Castle. My dad and I are both lovers of old house tours, Mike would go just to humor me, but my dad really enjoys them as much as I do! We also visited the Dunsmiur House in Oakland, but those pictures will be posted when I get home, they are on the other camera. Kade came with my dad and I, and he is just like his momma, completely interested in everything in the house and did the whole walk (stairs and all!) without complaining. Mike took Ivy down to the state beach where they watched whales and saw some sea lions and gathered shells, so it was a pretty good alternative for them!

We did the experience tour, which was started with a movie that you watched on the building of Hearst Castle, a must see! I am very interested in the fact that not only did Hearst hire a female architect Julia Morgan, (she was an oddity in those days, first female to graduate from the École des Beaux-Arts, and of course, had to fight tooth and nail to attend) but he was also never successful in politics because he believed in womens suffrage. Which was something I learned after the movie on the tour, but made sense with his choice of architect.

We then loaded ourselves onto the tour bus, and proceeded up a crazy, windy, terrifying-to-someone-who-hates-heights drive for 5 miles up to the castle. It was really unnerving, and I didn’t look at the scenery much at all, but I heard that it was gorgeous *winks*.

When you arrive, you travel up sets of stairs to right beside the Neptune pool, which took 3 attempts at building it before Hearst was satisfied. There are also old columns and a ancient “front” transported wholesale from Europe and reconstructed at the site to look like a Roman Temple.It is not all one piece, it was several put together to make a facade of a Roman Temple, but beautiful nonetheless.

We then saw the guesthouse, followed by a walk around the gardens to the main floor of the castle, the dining room, the huge living room with art pieces galore, finishing at the beautiful indoor pool called the Roman Pool that I want to swim in one day.

There are other tours to go on to see the rest of the house, and I will definitely be going on my return to California one day. They do other areas like his private living quarters that I would love to see. This tour was an hour and forty-five minutes alone! You could do it all in one day, but we had to get to LA.