One Day Only: Culver's Frozen Custard Scoop $1

We live near a Culver's restaurant, that we drive by on our way home from most destinations.  My 4 year old son is always asking me what the "flavor of the day" is!  He likes to dream through flavors of the day apparently. Ha!  If you too are a fan of Culver's frozen custard you will want to keep reading!

Culver's is hosting Scoops of Thanks Day on Thursday, May 2, 2019.  You can stop in store on Thursday and grab a scoop of frozen custard for $1. 

Your $1 donation will go to a local area FFA Chapter or other agricultural organization, with each scoop purchased on May 2.  

You can read more about Scoops of Thanks Day on the Culver's website.

Yankton's Culver's is participating.  If you are located elsewhere, you can find your closest participating restaurant here.

Summer Movie Camp: AMC Classic Yankton 5

Select AMC Movie Theaters offer a fun Summer Movie Camp, that consists of several kid-friendly movies.  Each scheduled movie costs just $4 + tax to attend and comes with a KidsPack.  The KidsPack includes a kid's size popcorn and drink and a pack of AMC Frooti Tootis. Tickets are available at the box office.  Yankton's AMC Classic 5 Theater is a participating location.

Here is this summer's line up of movies shown each Wednesday morning (time of showing TBD):

June 12
Wonder Park - rated PG

June 19
Hotel Transylvania 3 - rated PG

June 26 
Rascal Rebel Rabbit - rated PG

July 3
Smallfoot - rated PG

July 10
LEGO Movie - rated PG

July 17
Teen Titans Go to the Movies - rated PG

July 24
The House with a Clock in it's Walls - rated PG

July 31
Trolls - rated PG

August 7
How to Train a Dragon: The Hidden World - rated PG

Find more information and showtimes on the AMC website.

Yankton Bowl - Summer Bowl Pass

Yankton Bowl is part of the Summer Bowl Pass program this summer.  You can grab a couple different passes that cover your bowling fun for the summer. Bowling is a great activity to do at any time, however is a great indoor activity for those rainy or too-hot summer days!

Check out the pass offers!

The prices shown are only good through April 30, 2019.  Prices will go back up after this date, so be sure to grab your pass now so that you can save an extra $30!

Half Off Wild Water West Day Tickets!

Wild Water West is a fun water and entertainment spot during the summer months!  From a lazy river, wave pool, baby pool, activity pool, water slides, go karts, bumper boats, mini golf, batting cages and more, there is sure to be something fun for everyone!

Through Keloland Spotlight, you can grab half off Wild Water West day tickets through April 22, 2019 at 11:59 PM - so if you want them, be sure to grab them now before time elapses.

Day tickets are usually $26.45 for those 48" or taller or $15.85 for those under 48" inches and those 60 or older.  You can grab day tickets now for $13!

You may purchase an unlimited number of tickets, however vouchers must be used by September 2, 2019.

To read more about the deal and to purchase your tickets head here now.

Kids in the Kitchen: Best Cookie Bars

I have never been a patient cookie baker, so when the kids are asking for cookies I am tempted to take the easier way out with cookie bars.  Make the batter, put it all in a pan and wait one time for the oven to beep and you are done!  Anyone else with me?

Recently I found the following cookie bar recipe and it is now our go to recipe!  This thick battered recipe truly does turn up the Best Cookie Bars!

The recipe is easy enough you can get the kids involved in the kitchen, even if a stool is needed.

Cracking eggs, mixing the batter, dropping in the chocolate chips and more.

The bars are great for throwing in the school lunch box, taking along for a quick snack at sporting events, car trips and more.

May you find this to be one of your favorite go-to recipes as well!

Best Cookie Bar Recipe
1 cup Butter, room temperature
1 cup Brown Sugar
3/4 cup White Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla
2 eggs
3 cups Flour
3/4 tsp Salt
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 cup Chocolate Chips

Directions:
Cream butter, sugars and vanilla together.  Add eggs.
Mix in flour, salt and baking soda until well combined
Fold in chocolate chips (can add nuts if desired)
Spread in greased 9x13 pan (batter will be thick, so may need to use hands to gently spread evenly)
Bake at 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until lightly brown on top

Spring Cleaning 10 Minute Challenge: Kid's Books

This is the third of the 10-Minute Family Spring Cleaning Challenges, as I partner with Lisa Soma, Sioux Falls organizing expert and owner of Organizing by Lisa.   A Spring cleaning challenge will be provided, to spend 10 minutes in the designated challenge area.  Together, Lisa and I will provide some guidance, support and tips.  Maybe 10 minutes is all you need, or maybe 10 minutes will provide you a great start, where you can come back and truly transform your space.  Completely up to you!  Grab the kids to help or head in alone, the call is yours. Have fun with it!  If you missed the previous challenges you can find the Entryway Challenge here and the Board Games Challenge here. 

This week the challenge is....

Challenge: Spend 10 minutes on kid's books

How to Spend 10 Minutes:

*Remove all books from the shelf 

Remove all books from the shelf that they are stored on.  To assist with this challenge, you can place all books in a small laundry hamper in case you run out of time while organizing and you come back to them at another time.

*Discard Books

Determine which books your child no longer uses or has outgrown and place these in a discard box. Organizing expert, Lisa Soma, suggests that reducing the overall number of books on hand for your child to approximately 20 books will reduce the mess and allow your child to feel like they can keep up during pick up time.  She further suggests setting up a book rotation system to rotate books in and out when kids get bored with their current set.

*Store Books

If there are seasonal books, such as Christmas books, you can remove these and place them in storage until the season/holiday rolls around again.  Lisa Soma suggests that holiday books can easily be stored along with corresponding holiday decor!

*Organize Books

I find it helpful to organize books by size and favorites.  I place all favorites (the ones that your kids pull off the shelf more frequently) in one pile and then organize the rest by size.

*Place Books On Shelf

Now that you have spent a few minutes discarding books that are no longer needed and organizing the remaining books by size, it is time to place them back on the shelf.  Placing larger, more bulky books laying down will make it easier for kids to grab and return these books.  Also, I find that placing the favorite books at the center for easy access helps kids in finding them (instead of digging through all the others to find them - we know what happens then). 

Additional Tips:

*Board Books

Lisa Soma suggests putting board books in with toys, as "they are sturdy and can withstand being tossed around".

*Storage Ideas

If you don't have a shelf to designate for book storage, Lisa offers a couple additional book storage ideas.  Try a basket for storage, or a wall shelf.  A "wall shelf is a cool way to decorate with books".

*Discarding Books

If books are ripped or binding is broken, you can toss them.  However, if books are in good shape, there are several options for re-purposing instead of tossing.  Find more information about donating to REACH Literacy or your child's school here or Lisa suggests considering donating to daycare providers, church nurseries and doctor offices.  You can also find opportunities to sell your discarded items here via a rummage sale or the Just Between Friends of Greater Sioux Falls sale coming up in May and more.

That's it!  By now, you are probably finding what an amazing difference just 10 minutes of decluttering and organizing can make!  Look at your newly organized kid's books, awesome!  Providing a more functional space for little hands will hopefully reduce the time needed to step in and help place books away, or even helping locate special books.  Congratulations on your hard work!

*Like the tips that organizing expert, Lisa Soma shared?  Be sure to follow her Facebook page, as she shares more organizing tips and provides encouragement to declutter.

Easter Egg Fillers

Candy, candy and candy!  The kids enjoy finding candy in their plastic Easter eggs, however, there are so many other things they would enjoy finding in their Easter eggs as well.  Candy is great and my kids will definitely get some, but it is also fun to fill those eggs with some other fun items that they will enjoy!

Tip: When we hide plastic Easter eggs at our home, we typically assign one color to each child.  Blue to one kid, green to the other and so on.  There are some great advantages to this: 1) We can gear the items tucked into their eggs to their likes and age as 2) They each get the same number of eggs, because we fill and hide the same number of each color 3) We can make the older kid's eggs a little harder to hunt.

The list below is in no particular order of egg filler ideas!  I have tried to include items that touch different age groups and gender.

*Pony tail holders

*Scrunchies

*Cord hair ties
*Barrettes
*Plastic dinosaurs
*Water balloons
*Key chain
*Ear buds
*Bath fizzies
*Mini bath bombs
*Lanyard
*Punch balloon
*Bouncy balls
*Stickers
*Tattoos
*Eye blacks
*Arcade tokens
*Rings
*Earings
*Necklace
*Dog tags/chain
*Mini nail polish

*Stampers
*Cord and beads to make a necklace
*Balloons
*Nail stickers
*Slap bracelet
*Coins
*Dollar bills (a $2 bill is special!)
*Foam animal growing capsules
*Legos (could do small sets in multiple eggs or do single legos)
*Barbie doll outfits/shoes/accessories
*Redbox promo code written on paper (movie or game rentals)
*Band-aids with fun characters (you know how many of these they go through! 😄)

*Culver's ice cream token
*A piece of paper with a number on it to match a corresponding bigger "prize" that doesn't fit (butterfly net, sidewalk chalk, a gift card to an adventure, etc)
*Clues that help them find their hidden Easter basket
*Paper coupons (activity of choice, an ice cream cone when they choose, extra screen time, etc)

For the bit bigger eggs:
*Army guys
*Toy cars
*Expandable washcloths

*Lip glass
*Eye shadow singles
*Blind bags (so many different ones to choose from at the store)
*Undies (great for kids who are potty training!)
*Seed packets for the garden
*Small slinky
*Bubbles in small bottles

Other food item ideas:
*Sunflower seeds
*Fruit snacks
*Yogurt covered raisins
*Pretzels
*Teddy grahams
*Animal crackers
*Goldfish
*Crystal Light drink mix packet
*Gum

I would love to hear your ideas as well, leave a comment!

Happy Easter!

Giveaway: Mead Cultural Educational Center Tickets!

Has your family been in to visit the Mead Cultural Education Center since it's opening in Yankton?  So much history to learn and explore, including in the Children's Transportation Museum where children of all ages can climb on and experience the different types of transportation of years past.  For a little extra fun, kids can dress up in clothing from the time period as well. How fun is that!

Lots of great things going on at the Mead Cultural Education Center and lots of great things yet to come.

You can visit and help support the Mead, Saturday and Sunday 1-4 PM and weekdays (closed on Wednesday) 10 AM - 4 PM through April 30, with new hours starting May 1.

The cost is $8 for Adults, $5 for Kids (3-17) & Seniors, Free for Kids under 3.  Or check out an Annual Family Membership for $50, which includes 2 adults and up to 6 children.  Find additional membership offers here.

Guess what!  Thanks to the MEAD Cultural Education Center, I am giving away 4 tickets for one lucky family to enjoy a visit.

Here is how to get entered for a chance to win:
1 - Completely fill out the form below by April 4, 2019!
2 - Want a 2nd entry?!  Head over to the Your Next Adventure - Yankton Facebook page and follow the steps on The Mead giveaway post!

Good luck!