Play Street Museum - Family/General/Recommendation

If you haven't been to one of these gem establishments, you are missing out! Whether you are a parent needing a bigger space for your little one to spread their wings and explore (safely in a controlled visible environment) or just needing a bigger space for your children to play and thrive, or perhaps you're a single parent working from home, or homeschooling and planning a field trip, an aunt/uncle spending a day with their niece/nephew...I could keep going but you get the idea. 

Anyway, the point is these places are great! There are more than a handful of these locations in Texas alone but there are a good amount elsewhere in the nation. These places are themed differently depending on their location. They are all typically about the same square footage with the interior decorations simple and clean (coinciding with the theme of the location), with a lovely entry area and even sometimes a nice little outdoor area as well. Then they have their toys and activities areas nicely organized and stationed with the rest of the interior basically an indoor city in - again - the specific theme of that location. There's a family friendly to the restrooms as well that allows for children of all ages (even infants still in their stroller) and the comfort of moms (and dads) alike. You do have to sign a waiver but once you create your account they keep the information on file.

My sister was the one who found this place and the one we first went to was the one in Frisco, TX. Unfortunately, for some reason that location though shut down years later. I literally can't fathom why since its location was busy (perhaps not as busy as others) and I felt it was in a prime location of the city for any mom to access. So when we first went it was because my sister (in her auntie role) wanted for us to try it out. This day of exploration was for my oldest and I had my youngest in her bassinet stroller.

Ever since that day we've gone back or frequented other locations as well as new ones when we travel. The reason why I really wanted to highlight this establishment was not because necessarily of their family friendly environment and understanding (although that's a huge plus) its because of how amazingly simple yet special they have designed these locations. Ok perhaps I lied, the main reason why I wanted to expand further on this company is because of how clean and sensitive they were for families especially during the worst of the COVID pandemic (and still even now), and their quality of sanitation and protecting families/children.

If you're in any of the states below (snapshot taken directly from their website) then take the time and head over to one. My kids love that place and so does Mommy-and yes even as a single working mother, I've managed to do work there while my kids are playing.

Sincerely,

A Distinct Woman 

Indoor Herbs/Garden - General

If you're a regular you've probably no doubt seen one of my prior posts regarding outdoors planting on a budget. For those of you as my first time reader, just peruse and you'll find it-it's an earlier post I've written. Moving along...

So in that said previous post I mentioned specifically some plants that were great for cooking as well as natural mosquito repellants during the hot season and for those plants to be placed near your main entryways or literally right next to the door that people most frequently use to enter into your home. Today's post expands on a little cool project that you can do indoors and not only can it be fun for the kiddos BUT it's still pocketbook friendly!

Back in 2018 I found some great items at Dollar Tree (a more upscale Dollar General feel and pricing) not really knowing how awesome they would have my plants turn out. First off, for any of you who are only Target or Walmart or whatever neighborhood market place you have and refuse to enter into some of those budget friendly spots-it's a darn shame because there are some great things in there I'll have you know! So taking my oldest (while pregnant again) into the Dollar Tree store we came upon some really fun items for the "spring" and "floral" section they organized at the front of the store. They had packages of "dirt-less dirt" which almost looked like a bunch of moss in a nicely packaged ziplock bag. Not knowing how much I would come to love them, I only placed six in my cart. I say six because in reading the directions you could put dirt in the flowering part you used the product in, you would just have to have more of the dirt-less product than actual dirt. Well right next to that package was the plastic flowering pots. Made a quick decision and decided to try my own take at vertical indoor herb garden.

I bought a total of twelve white plastic flowering pots, because I wanted my oldest to help me in decorating or making it an outdoor arts and crafts experience for her and I. Found some little chalkboard like signs that were on clips, so bought those with the idea to use those as my labels for the flowering pots. Then went back to the dirt-less package area and bought them out, buying and taking home with me a total of fifteen. I didn't know how they would (or wouldn't) work so I didn't want to risk wasting my time in coming back; I mean they were only a dollar a piece why would I bother leaving them at the store when I could just take them!

Well I knew that for the good stuff I had to buy at a better store, therefore there we went to Walmart to buy the white chalk paint marker, a package of paint pens, and the herbs that my oldest and I would be planting together in the house. so the total for it all: twelve flowering pots, fifteen dirt-less packages, the mini chalkboard signs, paint markers, chalk marker, four wood boards, some wood nails, the wall decals for the wall you'll see in the picture and of course the twelve plants to plant. The twelve plants consisted of lemon thyme, lavender, sweet mint, and cilantro; all of the above for the grand total of $96 and some change. It could have probably been less had ai not bought all of the dirt-less packages and started off with so many plants, but boy am I glad I did! We got home, unloaded everything onto a table in the garage and my oldest daughters proceeded in doing some arts and crafts with me while we did our project and assisted me in the planting portion of the project. When it came to setting up the wall she also helped me, in her way anyway. Below is the finished product.

I was SO shockingly surprised how well this little idea turned out and how much fun it was for my oldest and I, especially since we make a lot of sweet mint herbal sweet tea and for anyone who knows or uses sweet mint, the more you cut the faster and larger quantity of sweet mint grow in...well when you take care of your plants anyway. The dirt-less dirt was badass considering I was only watering once a week and no more than a cup so that the moisture retained (as the package explains) would work its magic. I mean I wasn't even using "plant food" it was just simple vitamin D light from the sun even though it was in a corner and the observational care. If I found that I may have missed the care of the plant and it would start to die off, I had the extra material on hand already to swap out plants/herbs and keep it all going.

The moral of the story is not only to incorporate your kids BUT that someone can not and should not dis the cheap locations and options for the category in use, such as the one used here, for gardening/planting. Are there any cool tips or creative streaks that you can provide?

Sincerely,

A Distinct Woman