When We Were Young

These were my favorite games to play growing up! Read on for more classic activities of a childhood without video games

Today I was watching an episode of the Brady Bunch whilst enjoying a steaming mug of hot cocoa during this lovely Winter Vacation from school. One of the scenes cut to Peter and Bobby having a contest of who could cast a fishing line and land the lure in the target (which was a bucket). I began to think to myself how innately creative children are, and yet in modern times, their minds are not exercised to use that creativity to its full potential. A conversation that I was having with a dear friend and colleague (yes, you, Theresa!) sprang into my mind: so often children have the thinking done for them in play, that they rarely get a chance to think for themselves. With the widespread use of batteries, electronics, screens, and buttons with very specific and very limited buttons in toys, playtime is becoming less and less developmentally helpful. I'll be the first to admit, I'm a tech junkie! I'm in front of a screen more than I should be during any given day...yet I wasn't brought up that way. My creativity and brain flexibility survived, and I believe it was because of my lack of video games throughout my childhood.

Wow, that was a long rant. Anyway, this is NOT supposed to be a scholarly post, but a fun one! That Brady Bunch episode inspired me to compile all the fun games I used to play when I was little into a list for a rainy day...or a power outage! :) I remember being entertained in the same game or dramatic play literally for hours as a child...whereas these days, kids are involved with an activity for a half hour and then they're bored. Actually, that reminded me of my last (or maybe not) scholarly point: I heard on the radio recently that the heavy use of technology actually lowers attention span! Think about it: Are you on your smartphone often? When are you most commonly on your phone? Waiting in line? Commercial breaks? Dare I ask, at a red light? We are so used to being occupied by something that we, as a society, are finding it harder and harder to just do nothing. Go ahead, try to do nothing for one minute, I bet you'll want to pick up that phone after about 20 seconds.

ANYWAY here is my list, broken into categories. No more tangents for me!...Yet... :)

Wait, one tiny side-note: worried your kids won't be into it? Make it into a mini Bucket List to complete over a power outage or school vacation! Do it with them! And while you're playing with them, don't forget to act as immaturely as you acted 30 years ago ;)

Artistic
*Draw
*Paint
*Clay- For the multi-talented artist, make some salt dough so their creation can bake and then be painted
*Design clothing- so fun for your little Fashionista or Fashionisto!
*Writing songs: Let me tell you. My 3 best friends from Middle School and I were in a band. It. Was. The. Sh!+. Kathryn, Molly, Sam, and I were the Ice Girlz (obviously inspired by the genius 90s band the Spice Girls). We would take popular songs and rewrite our own lyrics to them. We wrote them, practiced them, choreographed them, and preformed them. I am shocked that we are not sitting in our Ice Girlz mansion because we were fantastic. Just saying.
*Teach your kids to crochet or knit: This just leads to MORE hours of handmade, creative fun

Dramatic Play
--These are such great ways to practice social interactions!
*Trolls!! (Thanks Jen!) Or any other action figure/doll you can think of
*Play House
*Play School
*Play Store
*Play Doctor
*Playing Salon: I mean...the possibilities are endless. M, J, and I used to play this at the No-Electronics-Allowed Yacht Club they belong to. They would give each other manicures, pedicures, hair styles, massages, and they would have done make up, I'm sure, if we'd had it there. Who doesn't love free spa treatment?! I was always ready to play salon! ;)
*Raft Game: I have no idea where I got the idea for this game, but it's a Christie Millar Original. I would spread a blanket out on the floor, get all my beanie babies and a couple pillows. The blanket would be the raft, the beanie babies: the crew, and the pillows: the cabin. We would sail stormy seas, discover uncharted islands, and go weeks without eating anything but fish! Not sure why that was such a fun game for me because in real life it sounds almost dreadful, but it was my favorite!

Indoor Movement/Outside Games
*Water gun fight: I'm not talking, let's get in a line and spray water...I'm talking military tactic, hunt you down and soak you, water gun fight.
*Bike adventures
*Red Rover
*Capture the flag
*Manhunt (Thanks Niki, Molly, Tom, and Gerri!)
*Go for walks-I feel like this was our original chat room since it was more of a social event than an exercise event
*Host your own Olympics Games (Thanks Sarah!)
*Street Hockey (thanks Dad!) or any other organized sport...but probably not taking place in the street these days, depending on what kind of road you live on.

Indoor Games
*Slinky Races (provided you have a staircase)...need I say more?
*House- wide hide and seek (this would be REALLY fun in a power outage)
*Board games- any good ol' classic board games!
*Create your own game! For example, the first game I'll create will be to upcycle a Monopoly board to Harry Potter Monopoly!

Scientific/Nature
*Building a fort
*Building SOMETHING (Legos, blocks, LINCOLN LOGS!!) Architecture at its finest.
*Making fairy houses...No! Not the kits! I mean go into your back yard and scavenge for items like a REAL fairy would do ;) No manmade materials! You need something stuck together? Get some sap. You need to tie something? I hope you have long blades of grass in your yard.
*Climbing Trees: Thrilling and an immense feeling of accomplishment! Also, good exercise :)
*Scavenger hunt
*Experiments (just please don't harm any animals!)

There are millions of other things to do, I'm sure. And if you've read this blog and you would like to contribute I ENCOURAGE you to email me, leave a comment, or find me on Pinterest and comment there.

Thanks so much for reading, and may your New Year be filled with love, health, happiness, and a good dose of creativity!

xo Christie


**Disclaimer: I am not responsible for the safety or well-being of any people participating in any of these games in their personal lives. It is a sad truth that some of these games are not as safe to play as they once were, so please be smart and safe in every choice you make!**

Scratch Ticket Bouquet

Hello my friends! Today I'm going to show you how to make a Scratch Ticket Bouquet! My mom looooves her scratch tickets and I end up getting her some for almost every holiday or occasion. I wanted to spice it up a little bit this year and made this:

My inspiration from this project came from this post of a Nip Bouquet (I also have a picture of one I made that I will put up at the end of this tutorial)

Here are your materials: 

- 2 bags of craft sand

- Small tin bucket (found mine at Michael's for about $3

- BBQ Skewers

- Clothes pins from the dollar store

- Acrylic paint (works best on the skewers and clothes pins)

- Glue gun

- Paint brush

- Ribbon

- Scissors

Fill the tin with as much sand as you see fit. I wanted to make sure the "stems" of the "flowers" would stay up so I put about a bag and a half

Not Shown/Optional: Break the skewers...this depends on the size of the bucket and how many scratch tickets you are putting in the bouquet. Just use your judgement. You could break them so they stagger in length, but I just bought different sizes of tickets.

Anyway, whether you broke the skewers or not, you hot glue the non-broken end to the side of the clothes pin that you would pinch to open or close it.

After you've glued them, recruit your boyfriend who is SUCH a good sport ;-) and have him paint the stems. Nice job, Tom!

Now you get to put them in!

I started with the biggest ones and put them toward the back of the bucket

Voila! 

Don't forget the finishing touch!

There you have it. Your own little Scratch Ticket Bouquet! Definitely better than flowers ;-)

Don't worry, I didn't forget! As promised, here are a couple of pictures from my sister's 21st Birthday Nip Bouquet I made for her this week!

If you decide to make one of these instead of the Scratch Tickets, MAKE SURE you use extra skewers! I DID stagger the length this time and I used 3 on each nip. Don't be stingy or your nips will fall over and they will not look good.

Uhh, this apple pie liquor is delicious, just saying.

Did you notice I just re-used the tin and ribbon from my mom's? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, people!!!

That's it for today! Thanks so much for stopping by and reading. I have a very special post coming within the next few days...and guess what? It is my long-awaited first post that has everything to do with Harry Potter! Very exciting stuff, folks, so stay tuned!!

xo Christie

Belated Christmas Gift

My mom is a great person. She goes above and beyond to take care of everyone, but she doesn't really have anyone to take care of her. I wanted to get her something really special this Christmas: an Eden bracelet.

You might know them as "Cape Cod" bracelets...they're pretty widespread across the Cape, where we've lived for 20 years. The original ones, however, are handmade at a local jeweler's shop called Eden Hand Arts. I could have bought her one of the copycats but my mom is a very special person, and she deserves the best.


The only downside was that I didn't have enough money this Christmas as I originally planned. I was heartbroken because I've wanted to get her one for years...I REALLY thought this was the Christmas I'd be able to do it since I've been working my bum off with two jobs. Then I got an idea. I decided I would get her one as soon as I could after Christmas. I wrote her a letter from "Santa" and, well...I'll just let you read it :)

*Names omitted for privacy

I got so choked up writing that! I wanted to include a picture of the bracelet too, so here it is with the letter. She should be back from lunch any minute...I'm waiting on my sister, Courtney, to call or text me so I can find out her reaction!

This gift was my very favorite thing to give this Christmas, even though it was late. My mom deserves it more than anyone. I can't wait to hear from Courtney!

The main reason I wanted to post this was because it was a really fun surprise. For the record, I did get my mom a Christmas gift, so the best part is, she has NO IDEA what's coming!! Feel free to use this idea and any wording in my letter, I don't mind. I just want people to be happy, so if you could use something like this, USE IT! Happy Holidays! Don't forget to Follow me on Pinterest

xo Christie

UPDATE: Mom loved it :)