Three Cool Things: 05/15/14

Guess what!? I have three very cool things to share with you! I know you're so excited, so sit back and enjoy.

First up is the Water Gardens movie theaters.

from ksl.com

Water Gardens have four locations: three in Utah and one in Hawaii and they boast a few unique characteristics. First, they are closed on Sundays (which we Mormons appreciate-- maybe some other Christians do, too?) Second, they only show G, PG and PG-13 movies. No Rs. (Parents appreciate this, I think...) And third, the movies only cost $3.50 per ticket, and snacks are all under $5. Most items are $1, $2 or $3.

Granted, the films shown are not first run movies, they are in transition between first run theaters and dollar houses, but these are still nice screens, comfortable seats and at these prices, we can actually afford for the whole family to go to the movies and get snacks. 

Second, in thinking about Summer Vacation Planning- use Tripadvisor and mapquest

from todaymade.com

If you are planning a vacation, make sure to check out reviews from other travelers for hotels and venues on Trip Advisor. Although they aren't always 100% accurate, it's good to have an idea about what you might be getting in to before you arrive. In addition to reviews, there are forums where people share tips and favorite places to visit and restaurants that are great for any event. It's a great resource. I use Trip Advisor along with Mapquest to plot the traveling, gas station stops and print maps before we go. Planning a vacation, even just a short weekend away, is a lot of fun, so get to it!

from apptweak.com

Third: Speaking of vacations (how's that for a segue?), when we recently took our kids to Disneyland, we saw a lot of people in lines playing this app game where they would hold their phone up to their forehead and the other people in their group would give them clues to what word appeared on the screen. It looked like fun, so when we got home and I remembered, I got it on my iPad. Basically, we play it like Catch Phrase, trying to get each other to guess a word without saying any part of the word. We don't do the hold-it-on-your-forehead way, though, because for some reason the iPad has a hard time scoring correctly. You are supposed to tip the screen one direction for wrong answers and one direction for correct ones, but the iPad doesn't like to tally correctly. We still enjoy this game, though, even just for the fun of giving clues and guessing words. 

Children's Games

My daughter and I watched "Annie" yesterday, which, in a sideways way, brought to mind a game my siblings and I played when we were young. But this is how we played.

To begin with, there are 7 kids in my family, and I'm thinking everyone participated in this game. The youngest was probably not older than 2 years old, and the oldest somewhere between 12 and 14. My memory is a bit fuzzy about such details. But I digress...

No, the photo is not my family, but it could have been! One dad, three brothers and four sisters. Only they lived a long time ago. And we're much cuter. :)

We lived in a large-ish house with a long hall on the main floor and in that hall was a long linen closet, with two accordian-style doors and 3 or 4 long shelves. Not having much money, we didn't have many linens, and I remember the shelves being empty except for a few folded sheets and maybe a tablecloth. We would take turns, but usually our oldest sister would be "Miss Hannigan" and she would yell at us to get to bed and we would run screaming to climb up on the shelves-- I don't recall how we all fit, maybe the smaller kids laid two to a shelf. I loved this part, though. Then Miss Hannigan would come and close the closet doors, telling us we had to be silent (if I recall, I think she had a "date" coming and didn't want him to know about the orphans??) We giggled and laughed and tried to make each other talk loudly so they would get in "trouble". I can't remember exactly what the penalty was, but we would try to listen for her to come down the hall, and she would try to sneak up on us and open the doors in a flash to catch us talking. I mostly remember laughing and really enjoying my brothers and sisters.

Any childhood made-up games you remember?