{"id":227,"date":"2008-08-28T22:23:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-28T22:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/08\/shameless-pitch-574.html"},"modified":"2008-08-28T22:23:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-28T22:23:00","slug":"shameless-pitch-574","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/08\/shameless-pitch-574.html","title":{"rendered":"Shameless Pitch #574"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I felt like a pretty good Mommy.<\/p>\n

I started bringing the boys’ crafty stuff out of their closets, starting with Moon Sand. If you remember my previous gripes<\/a> right after the holidays about Moon Sand, now I can set them out on the back patio and cleaning up is an absolute minimum!<\/p>\n

Yay!<\/p>\n

(The loss rate is still about the same, though.)<\/p>\n

I also discovered a new craft addiction: Perler Beads<\/a>! You’ve probably seen these around, they’ve been around for years. It’s a great exercise to improve fine motor skills. I first saw Perler Bead crafts actually being made during Jake’s ice skating camp back in June\/July. It’s one of the activities the kids could do before\/after camp actually started. Jake wasn’t that interested, though.<\/p>\n

I was browsing our local Hobby Lobby<\/a> on Tuesday and saw an area featuring little starter kits for $7.99 each. I had a coupon (of course) so it was more like $5 for a transportation-based kit<\/a>: about 2200 beads and 3 assembly trays.<\/p>\n

I brought it home and it was instantly a big hit with Timmy. He and I worked on vehicles for over an hour — together! With no TV, computer or other distractions. I was VERY impressed with Timmy’s attention span and even more impressed with his dexterity. Those beads are LITTLE….<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

…and they get everywhere. I bumped a tray full of beads earlier today and spilled them all over our living room! I was able to gather up most of them, the rest can come up when I vacuum.<\/p>\n

As for Jake, he was less impressed. To be honest, not many things are impressing him right now. He used to be so happy about everything. Now he’s blase’, unless it’s Star Wars…<\/p>\n

Anyway, between Timmy and me, we’ve made a bunch of items…he’s really enjoying it! Mostly I will outline a particular color — such as the bottom of the sailboat — and he fills in the rest.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

After school today, Jake, Timmy and I made this satellite<\/a> (Jake’s choice). We downloaded the pattern from the website. Jake did the body of the satellite, Timmy and I did the solar panels. We ran out of gray beads.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

So there’s my shameless pitch — Perler Beads are quite cool, and I’m pleased to have found an activity that’s commanding Timmy’s attention besides TV and Webkinz on the computer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I felt like a pretty good Mommy. I started bringing the boys’ crafty stuff out of their closets, starting with Moon Sand. If you remember my previous gripes right after the holidays about Moon Sand, now I can set them out on the back patio and cleaning up is an absolute minimum! Yay! (The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[26],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-3F","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":286,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/12\/pixo-monium.html","url_meta":{"origin":227,"position":0},"title":"PixO-monium!","date":"29 December 08","format":false,"excerpt":"The boys received PixOs starter kits from Grammy Vollmer for Christmas. It was something they wanted, they asked her for it and she delivered! Thanks Grammy! The boys love it!For those who might not remember, Pixos are a \"new formula\" of craft bead developed in response to the massive Aqua\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"christmas\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":228,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/08\/more-perler-bead-fun.html","url_meta":{"origin":227,"position":1},"title":"More Perler Bead Fun","date":"29 August 08","format":false,"excerpt":"I did this while the boys were playing outside...Timmy thinks it's great.Pardon the poor quality, this is an iPhone picture.","rel":"","context":"In \"crafts\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/moon-sand-mayhem-mitigated.html","url_meta":{"origin":227,"position":2},"title":"Moon Sand Mayhem…Mitigated!","date":"31 January 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Timmy received a Moon Sand set for his birthday from our friends, Julie and Doug and their kids Evan and Kate. Julie recently had her kids over to play and we broke out the Moon Sand -- as we saw the 7% fall to the floor (read more about my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"crafts\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/moon-sand-mess-pardon-me-while-i-vent.html","url_meta":{"origin":227,"position":3},"title":"Moon Sand Mess — Pardon Me While I Vent","date":"14 January 08","format":false,"excerpt":"My boys love Moon Sand. I'm not Moon Sand's biggest fan, but I'm willing to accept the risk for the sake of happy kids who are exercising their creative muscles and (above all) are sitting still being good. I suggested to Grammy Vollmer that Timmy receive a Moon Sand play\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"crafts\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":351,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/05\/can-we-say-true-love.html","url_meta":{"origin":227,"position":4},"title":"Can We Say "True Love?"","date":"14 May 09","format":false,"excerpt":"Timmy REALLY loves his little Webkinz puppy, named Thomas. This was Timmy's first Webkinz, we got him at the end of the boys' preschool year, about a year ago. Thomas has traveled with Timmy all over the place: Timmy sleeps with Thomas, takes him to child care on each day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"crafts\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":562,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/05\/hiking-stick-project.html","url_meta":{"origin":227,"position":5},"title":"Hiking Stick Project…","date":"09 May 11","format":false,"excerpt":"When we were in South Dakota last May, the boys picked up branches to use as hiking sticks. \u00a0There was ponderosa pine all over the place, and it wasn't hard for the boys to find something in their sizes.The boys begged to bring home the sticks as \"souvenirs\" from their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"camping\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/_yz59FVsseJY\/TAWCDoLSB3I\/AAAAAAABBnM\/5lJBm94bkb4\/s640\/IMG_1176.JPG?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}