Summer Travel Series: Mexico

This week the boys wanted to go to Mexico. Jett took a turn being the pilot and Cruise kept his job as flight attendant. We got to Mexico and got our "stamp" and then we talked about Mariachi bands and listened to some music. I had the kids listen for different instruments and quizzed them. Then we talked about the pinata and did our very own. The boys cheated and kept looking over and under their blindfolds, so I just removed them all together. I think they had fun beating the donkey to pieces. It's hard to do these "trips" and leave out so much information about history and culture, but with short attention spans, you can only highlight so much.

Summer Travel Series: Hawaii

Yesterday we started something new per Cruise and Jett's request: traveling the world in our living room! It all started when I purchased a couple maps from Costco last week and hung them in their playroom. They have been so fascinated with geography lately, so I thought they would like looking and studying the maps. They then started asking me where certain countries/states were like Hawaii, Texas, New York, Mexico, China, etc. So we made a list of places they would really like to visit and then I made them some awesome passports that I found here. The first place on their list was Hawaii.

While I was out grocery shopping, I stopped by the PartyLand and picked up a couple leis and grass skirts for the boys. In the evening before dinner, I told them it was time to go to Hawaii! So we got on the "plane" and Cruise not only played pilot, but flight attendant as well.

My in-flight snack.

Our pilot told us we landed in Mexico, so we needed to get on a boat to Hawaii. We finally got to Hawaii and the boys got stickers in their passports. I then whipped out the leis and grass skirts and they reluctantly donned them. I put a video up of Pearly Shells for them to learn. Cruise was the only one who really got into it.

Finally, we talked about Hawaii's volcanos and made a volcano in the sink. Then they got to watch some video footage of an active volcano. 

I forgot to get a pineapple, but they wouldn't have eaten it anyway. 

And that was Hawaii!