Family Fun

Favorite Thanksgiving Traditions (and a $50 JCPenney Gift Card Giveaway!)

November 22, 2013 by Sandra 36 Comments

This is part of a sponsored collaboration with Latina Mom Bloggers and JCPenney.
However, all opinions expressed are my own.

Thanksgiving is almost here.

And I can’t help but think about what Thanksgiving was like last year and the year before that and when I was a kid. Memories flood my mind, and they’re good memories filled with recollections of happy times that I shared with my family when I was a kid and that I share with my own kids now.

What was Thanksgiving Like When You Were Growing Up?
I thought that today we could reminisce and talk about some of our favorite holiday family traditions growing up – the good ones and even the embarrassing ones, if you have any. 😉

I’ll go first.

As many of you know, I’m Mexican, and I remember my mom and dad always keeping Thanksgiving very traditional. We ate turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie.

Christmas, on the other hand, that’s when my parents would make loads of tamales, and we’d visit my cousins’ house for their yearly Christmas party. That was so much fun!

Going back to Thanksgiving growing up, I remember that after eating until we could no longer breathe without pain, we’d stay home (no shopping!) and play games, watch TV, or simply talk to each other.

Those were the days…

What Thanksgiving Traditions Do You Keep Now?
Now that I have my own family, I’ve tried to be more intentional each year about keeping Thanksgiving simple yet meaningful.

Here are 3 of our current Thanksgiving Traditions:

We intentionally talk about what and whom we’re thankful for, and we have the kids write their thoughts down ahead of time.

We make a craft or two.

We choose one or two new recipes to try for Thanksgiving dinner.

I’m looking forward to keeping these traditions and building upon them for many, many years to come.

Real Latino Holidays
To give you an idea of what a Real Latino Holiday is like, watch this video. It definitely reminds me of what Christmas was like growing up! 🙂

And now for the Giveaway!
Because JCPenney understands latinos and wants others to get a peek into what holidays are like for latino families, they’ve generously offered to give ONE of my readers a $50 JCPenney Gift Card!

How to Enter the Giveaway

Simply enter this giveaway using the Rafflecopter below. I’ve included options for extra entries, too!

This giveaway will run from now until – December 7th at 12:00am. The giveaway is open to US Residents only, ages 18 years old and above. The winner will be randomly chosen. I will promptly send the winner an email notifying them that they’ve won, and the winner must respond within 48hrs. of the giveaway’s end, otherwise I will have to draw a new winner.

Enter Below
a Rafflecopter giveaway

What’s one of your current or past favorite holiday traditions?

How We Encourage Our Daughter to Play Like a Girl – a Strong Girl

November 21, 2013 by Sandra Leave a Comment

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Verizon. The opinions and text are all mine. Comments submitted may be displayed on other websites owned by the sponsoring brand.

Breanna is my oldest daughter. She’s eleven.

She’s thoughtful, helpful, crafty, and beautiful inside and out. She also loves to run. No, she’s not on a track team, and she doesn’t compete with anyone other than her family members at the moment. But still, she loves to run.

Playing and Running Like a Girl
Breanna is obviously a girl, and while we want her to “play like a girl” — which to me means giving it her all while being respectful and careful at the same time, we also want her to be strong and confident in herself and her abilities.

I grew up with four very tough brothers who loved to play sports. I learned how to adapt to the challenges and play sports right along with them. Basically, I learned to play and succeed in sports at home, which gave me the confidence to later on play sports in school – on a team.

I’d share pictures, but this is the internet after all, and I’m afraid they’d never disappear. 😉

Anyway, here are 5 Ways We Encourage Breanna and How You Can Encourage Your Daughter to Play Like a Girl – A Strong Girl:

Cheer her on.

Give her opportunities to do what she loves.

Share words of affirmation.

Do what you can to motivate her.

Provide inspiration.

Looking Ahead
I’m so incredibly blessed to be Breanna’s mom, and I’m looking forward to watching her run and cheering her on for years to come!

A Visit to Kuipers Family Farm

November 9, 2013 by Sandra 3 Comments

My family and I had a special time at Kuipers Family Farm thanks to the tickets I received to facilitate this review.

A few weeks ago, we drove to a local family farm and spent the day enjoying pumpkins, fall treats, and so much more.

I took a superabundance of pictures to remember the day. It was great.

Kuipers Family Farm
The farm we visited is named Kuipers Family Farm, and it’s located in Maple Park, Illinois. I could describe everything Kuipers has to offer, but I think it’s best to show you.

Picture Places Everywhere
To start, there are plenty of areas around the farm where you can snap fun pictures to remember your day. Isaac, my six-year-old, is not camera shy and getting to take pictures with all the different displays was fun!

David had to keep his mask on most of the day to protect himself from germs, but he loves to be in pictures when he’s feeling well.

It was cloudy on the day we visited the farm, but we managed to get tons of fantastic pictures anyway.

Fun for Older Kids
At the farm, there’s a looong slide that put grins on the faces of my older kids. This slide is known as “Slide Mountain.”

Seriously, they loved the slide and went down a few times before we had to move onto something else.

A short distance from Slide Mountain is “The Maze” — also known as the corn maze. On this particular day, we decided not to try the corn maze. 😉

Instead, we opted for the beginner maze (perfect for us).

The kids loved it.

And rather than getting lost in a corn maze with five kids, we let them play in corn instead. Corn is so much easier to get out of your shoes and clothes than sand.

Next to the The Maze is Squeelington Park where you can watch pig races (not something you get to see every day) or a cowboy roping show. Show times are posted outside of the park.

If your kids want to test their own roping skills, they can do that too.

Fun Things to do All Around the Farm
My kids also enjoyed playing on the huge tractor tires. If you can believe it, we used to have a tire like this in our backyard when I was a kid. Don’t ask me where my parents got it from. I have no idea. But these huge tires at Kuipers Farm certainly bring back childhood memories.

Next to the tractor tires, you’ll find an actual tractor where kids can use their imagination.

Besides everything I’ve already mentioned, at Kuipers Farm, you can also pass the time tossing bean bags, getting to know farm animals, picking pumpkins and a whole lot more.

We wrapped up our time at Kuipers by searching for the perfect pumpkin and then headed across the way to buy a dozen of their awesome donuts.

Overall, it was a day to remember.

Have you visited a pumpkin patch or family farm this year? Does your family have any Fall traditions?

You can find a coupon to visit Kuipers Family Farm and coupons for corn mazes, pumpkin patches, and farms across the country in my blog post here.

The Wondrous 1893 World’s Fair Exhibit at The Field Museum in Chicago

November 2, 2013 by Sandra 4 Comments

Lately, life has been full of hospital visits and unexpected trips to the ER to get blood transfusions.

If you’re new to reading my blog, I’m not kidding. There hasn’t been a whole lot of fun going on around here — mainly because we have to be careful that my four year old son, David, doesn’t bump his head or get a fever. A bump in the head could mean a ride in the ambulance and a hospital admission. A fever means a hospital admission AND hospital isolation, which is one of the worst things that could happen to you if you’re four years old. When you’re in isolation in the hospital, you aren’t allowed to leave your room, and you aren’t allowed to visit the playroom. It’s terrible.

All that to say, we’ve been living life pretty low key when we’re at home.

However, this week, since David has been fever-free for awhile and his energy level has been up, I decided to plan on making a trip to The Field Museum in Chicago. We had heard about a new exhibit at the museum called, “Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair.” Then we found out that The Field Museum was born out of the 1893 World’s Fair.

Apparently, if it hadn’t been for the 1893 World’s Fair, The Field Museum would not exist.

I had no idea that was the case. The Field Museum was founded to commemorate the World’s Fair. Now I’m all the more thankful to have been able to visit the fair exhibit because of its history and connection to the museum and the city of Chicago.

1893 World’s Fair Exhibit Highlights
The exhibit itself was amazing, but before I even stepped foot in the exhibit, I installed The Field Museum Tours Mobile App on my phone and had the chance to get a feel for what I’d be experiencing. The mobile app also allowed us to view a spectacular interactive 360 panorama movie of sorts, and it was awesome! Here’s one of the phone screenshots I took of the 360 panorama video.

It’s hard to put into words just what this video is like. I keep telling everyone about it, but you really have to experience it for yourself to get the full effect. The video was wildly popular with my kids, too. They could hardly wait for their turn to experience it…over and over. I love how The Field Museum is using technology to help us understand history!

Besides the app experience, there was a lot more to see in the exhibit itself.

Oh, and if you look up, you’ll see this.

This really is an exhibit for people of all ages.

There’s something for everyone to experience and learn about.

Overall, it was a great day. I’m thankful that we were able to experience the 1893 World’s Fair exhibit as a family, and I’m thankful that it’s a part of Chicago, a city we love a little more with every visit.

Have you ever visited The Field Museum in Chicago? Did you know about the 1893 World’s Fair? Or, what’s your favorite thing about visiting a modern-day fair?

I was selected for this opportunity by Clever Girls Collective, however all content and opinions expressed here are my own.

Family Fun

Footer

Categories