Thompson Family-Life

For the love of puppets. And Muppets.

I found these plush Muppet dolls at a thrift a few weeks ago. I just couldn't pass them up. Rather, the Muppets-loving-70's-80's-child that I am couldn't pass them up. They were in perfectly faded colors. I of course immediately washed them once I got home. Plush anything from the thrift is always a bit scary. But they didn't smell to begin with so I think we're safe.

I wasn't sure if the boys would be into them and they were so cheap I could always re-donate them, but they got pretty excited when they saw them. They've never really been into Sesame Street (sadly) but did see the new Muppet Movie and loved it. I really want to watch some of the old Muppet Show episdodes with them. That has been on our to-do list for a while. (note to self: buy the DVD asap!)

Not long after I found the dolls, I thrifted this book. It doesn't get much better than Sesame Street Muppets, don't you think?

We also watched the amazing documentary Being Elmo last month on recommendation from one of Ethan's work friends. Admittedly, we've never been fans of Elmo, but I guarantee you, once you see this film you might change your mind. It's such an incredibly beautiful and inspiring story. A must see.

And speaking of puppets, did you know it's National Day of Puppetry this Saturday? Well it is! I have to brag because we have the amazing Center for Puppetry Arts here in Atlanta. We've been seeing puppet shows there even before we had kids (they have shows for adults as well!) We've actually been puppet fans ever since our first trip to Prague, Czech Republic many, many years ago. They have a rich puppet history there. We have a little marionette collection of our own that we've accumulated over the years and have seen some incredible puppet shows (more like grand performances!) around the world including places like Prague and Salzburg, Austria (at the Salzburg Marionette Theater).

Our Center for Puppetry Arts serves as the American headquarters for UNIMA-USA, the American branch of the international puppetry organization Union International de la Marionnette, the oldest theater organization in the world.

If you're ever in Atlanta, I highly recommend this center. Your kids will LOVE it (and so will you). They have an incredible museum that features long-term exhibitions centered around none other than puppet genius himself, Jim Henson. For me, it never gets old seeing actual puppets from some of my favs like Labyrinth and Fraggle Rock. Many puppets that Jim performed and created including Ernie, Rowlf the Dog, the La Choy Dragon, Dr. Teeth, The Swedish Chef are on display.

(puppet from Labyrinth, photo source)

Gotta love those Fraggles.

They have all kinds of performances you can see and classes you can take. Such an inspiring place.

Are your kids (or you) into puppets? Be sure to check around your city to see if anyone's having a special event for National Day of Puppetry this Saturday. You might be surprised what's happening in your own town!

geocaching on the coast

I know I've mentioned geocaching several times here over the past month or two. If you'd like to learn more about it you should check out this website dedicated to it. I'd heard about it randomly in the past year or so and at some point Ethan started researching it and got completely hooked. It has become his main hobby! Which is nice because it's a very inexpensive hobby (we always seem to choose the most expensive hobbies... beer brewing anyone? doll collecting? photography? remote control cars? can you guess which ones are mine? ; )

The exciting part about geocaching is that it's truly an activity that every single person in our family LOVES. That is rare my friends. Especially me being the Mama surrounded by boys. And it's something you can literally do anywhere! There's probably a geocache right around the corner from you. We knew we wanted to find some on our trip to St. George so we hopped on our bikes, road around the island and went treasure hunting! It feels like this great adventure. : )

(now you know where Campbell gets his ear-holding-habit. I caught Ethan in the act above.)

So, here's my very first geocache! It turns out that I have quite the eye for finding them! Ethan was totally impressed. I think it's because of all the practice I've had from shopping at thrift stores and junk shops - I'm able to spot gems instantly (I know you treasure hunters know "the eye"). This one was super small, inside a film cannister tucked inside the bark of a palm tree.

Each geocache always has a log where you sign in. So cute. This is what geek dreams are made of. This little one was rolled up inside the cannister.

There are usually little treasures left behind inside for the kiddos (and for the big kiddos). The rule is that if you take something, you have to leave something! So we have a little stash of fun things we keep on us when we're geocaching. There are always things for girls and boys which reassures me that girls like to do it, too!

The log books are the most fun to look through. Some go back many years! Some people have stickers they use as their "sign in" or even stamps like the one below. Ethan started telling me about all of these cool customized things that serious geochachers have made to leave behind and I'm totally geeked out to make some that represent our family! We have an anniversary coming up and I told Ethan I'm theming out his gifts all about geocache. I'm totally doing a custom stamp.

And some have custom business cards. Love it.

This one behind the sign was pretty cool. They had decorated the plastic container with shells. Um, cute.

This one was a special geocache because it had a "travel bug" inside...

It's a little plastic whale toy with the travel bug attached to it. If you take it, you're supposed to take it to another geocache location, so we brought it to Atlanta! I'm really excited to do one of these when we go to the Netherlands and Belgium this summer. I'd love to take one over there. You enter the code in so that the person that put it out into the world can see where it is! You can set a goal for your travel bug by stating where you want it to end up.. how great is that? We want to create a travel bug and see if it can make it across the world.

This one was under a boardwalk.

Check out this guitar pick with a geocaching logo on it that we found inside.

One can always use a Lord of the Rings bookmark.

Another one under a boardwalk.

  Here's the little gadget we use to find them. It was a little steep on price, but that is the most expensive item we've bought for this. You technically don't even need one, you can use google maps, etc. But it definitely makes it easier! I love this girl's business card tagline.

I saved the best for last, this one was amazing! Cooper and I drove over to Apalachicola by ourselves so we had a Mommy-Son adventure, just the two of us. Ethan was totally jealous because he stayed back at the house with cranky-pants Campbell and missed out on the best geocache of our entire trip.

 

Cooper and I must have walked a few miles to find this one. We walked and walked and walked! It would've been a better idea to drive at some point, but we were both determined to find it. That really is the funnest part of the whole thing, the hunt! We first stumbled onto this...

It was a replica of a Vietnam memorial that is in D.C. Cooper actually recognized it from the trip he took with Ethan last year. It was really amazing. The cool thing about lots of geocaches is that they often have a history lesson to go along with them, or something new to learn.

We thought it must be hidden near the memorial, but the GPS took us over to the historical home right beside it.

This one had a dollar bill inside. Which was pretty dang cool in the eyes of an 8 yr. old. : ) I feel like I'm already storing away all of these great memories that I'm creating with my boys. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it for a great quality family experience.

I'll be posting again about a little survival-geocaching-kit we're putting together and I'll keep you posted on those customized items I'm going to design. We're trying to think of a family "symbol" we can use. Ethan visited an Army surplus store today and came home with some ammo boxes that we're going to turn into our own geocaches to put out there. To say we're excited is an understatement.

Do you geocache? With your family or alone maybe? Tell me about your experiences! Any tips?

Funland: Arcade in Florida

We decided to take a break from the sun one day on our vacation and take a road trip to Panama City Beach. Yes, I know.. the armpit of Florida (that place is hell on Earth especially during Spring Break. Gross.) BUT we knew there would be fun things for the boys to do like putt-putt golf, etc. We passed by an interesting looking arcade when we drove through Panama City Beach last year so we decided to check it out this time around.

I googled it and learned that it originally opened in 1953. I've never been to an old school arcade so I was excited! It had definitely seen it's fair share of action (kinda grungy) and they'd updated it in the 70's and 80's it looks like, but it was still pretty awesome and retro. The boys loved it and I had fun taking photos.

I've got more pics if you'd like to look here. Have you been to any cool old arcades around the States? I'd love to check them out! Link me up! : )

geocaching treasures, kawaii-style

I bought a bunch of cute kawaii stationery items for the boys for Valentine's day from an amaaazing shop, Yozo Craft, a while back, but I underestimated how loooong the package would take to get here (it shipped from Tokyo I think). So they got here after Valentine's but oh my goodness, it was worth the wait!

I bought a bunch of stuff that I'll have to share with you one day. I'm a sucker for anything Kawaii. When we do make it over to Japan, I'm not sure I'm going to make it out of there alive being weighed down by all of the cute stuff I won't be able to resist buying.

These little mailable tear sheet / note pads ended up being *perfect* for geocaching! They fold up into tiny little letters so they fit in the geocache containers perfectly.

The boys wrote these little letters and decorated them with stickers for their first geocache adventure. They found their first one on a drive to Chattanooga for the day with their Dad. I'm not sure who had more fun, Ethan or the boys. ; ) He's totally into it! He got one of these and they've since been on even more geocaching adventures. I'm going on the next one and I'll take photos. We also went to Party City and stocked up on some little treasures to leave behind for fellow explorers.

See more Kawaii Corner posts here.

Vintage Kiddo Style

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you've seen many a photo in front of this old red shed we have in our backyard. I keep saying that when we do move on from this house, I'm going to put together a photo montage of the photos I've taken of our family in front of this thing over the past 14 years.

It's a great backdrop, that good 'ole red shed.

 Anyhoo...

Here's Cam in his best vintage shirt gifted from my friend Heather and (fabulous kids' vintage shop owner!) I love the colors of this shirt. Just a simple shirt, but unmistakably vintage. Definitely something he can easily wear to school without looking over-the-top retro. The pants are also from Heather (gee I have a nice friend!) and the shoes were thrifted. I need to find some new vintage shoes for my boys. All they wear are those ugly sneakers. sigh.

See those beautiful curls? We lopped them off last weekend. :*( I know, it just seems wrong, and I love his hair long so much. But with the temps rising, it just seemed cruel to keep his hair long and all in his face. My boys' are sweaters. Meaning they sweat. A lot. So the hair had to go. The curls don't come out til it gets hot, so usually during the winter, his hair's kind of a hot mess. As much as I'd love to see a head full of curls this summer, I just can't do it! They don't call it HOTlanta for nothin'.

But I do have to admit, he looks two years younger with the hair gone!

Lately there's been a lot of this...

But when Mr. Grump is around I try to remember to do this...

Patterned papers from my digital kit here.