The Joys of Sleepovers

If you come here often, you know I write about food... where to find it, what to do with it when you do... but this time it's not really about food at all.  It's about sleepovers at Grandma & Poppa's and |I'm sure you're curious as to what that's a photo of...

well it's a constellation in a jar and one of the many fantastic projects we did a couple of weeks ago during our latest sleepover.

Yes... we are THOSE grandparents... the ones with iPads with not only Angry Birds, but tons of educational, creative and very fun apps.  One of our favorites is Toontasitc which is absolutely brilliant.  A voice guides you through the process of building a story - from set up to conflict to challenge, climax and finally, resolution.  Once you choose your background for the scene - you can choose one ready made or draw the background yourself - and if you have a new iPad with camera, you can take a photo and make your own that way.  Next step choose your characters. and on to animating the scene - which you can edit if it's not perfectly to your liking.  On to choosing the appropriate music for each scene based on the emotions you want the scene to convey. Create the title for your moving and get everyone to watch.   Boaz (age 6) has been creating his own very awesome films for a couple of years now.  Dov (age 4) loves to add sound effects.

And then there are low tech toys like Zoob - think Lego meets Transformer with more mobility, or better yet, here's the company definition:

ZOOB’s shape is inspired by the nucleotides (the basic structural units of nucleic acids) that make up DNA. Based on the way things connect, move and transform in nature, ZOOB captures dynamic movement, unlike traditional “stacking” or “hub & spoke” construction sets.

We made all sorts of creatures and robots and spent tons of time creating our own universes with heroes and villains.

And yes, we did read lots of stories, because, quite frankly, little boys have way more energy than Grandmas and Poppas, so we build that into the games.  And yes, we do watch a movie or two - Netflix, where would we be without you!

As for food... the boys love to cook and bake, the photo is from an earlier visit.( Boaz in 2011), although we didn't do any of that this weekend... this time the boys were too busy doing other things.  As for eating, well that's another story. Apparently, the only "good" food Grandma cooks - hot dogs, chicken nuggets and... well, occasionally Spaghetti and Meatballs.  And I thought sliders would have been a hit!   What was I thinking?

I'd love to know what your fave adventures with children are.  And I plan on trying some great recipes in the coolest looking family focused cookbook I recently received called Real Food for Real Families. I promise to share my review and some recipes, which BTW all look fantastic.