This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Kissimmee Tourism. All opinions are 100% mine.

As many of you know, my family and I visit Kissimmee, Florida frequently. We spend most of our time at Disney World, but also trek about to visit other theme parks, eat at fun and delicious restaurants and go shopping. We’ll be spending a weekend at Kissimmee for Labor Day weekend and have a bunch of exciting things planned this time around.

We’ll arrive Friday night and probably have dinner at AppleBees, which is a place that both my husband and I enjoy as well as our 11 year old daughter. Although we’ll be staying at Walt Disney World (at Old Key West Resort), we are going to visit Universal Studios to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter all day Saturday. This has been my daughter’s dream since the park opened.

I’m not sure where we’ll eat lunch, but I know we’ll go to City Walk for dinner. We’ll choose between the Nascar Sports Grille or the Hard Rock Cafe. Two restaurants that have fun themes and delicious food. I bet that our daughter will be asleep in the van on the way back to the hotel!

Since we’ll only be spending part of the day in Kissimmee on Sunday, we’ll have to fit in some shopping of course, at the Orlando Premium Outlets. We plan our trips to Kissimmee, but if the weather changes or we change our minds, there’s always lots of things to do as a family. No need to worry about being bored!

When you plan your trip, be sure to visit Kissimmee, The Heart of Florida website at http://bit.ly/dlBGMu.

I found these Summer Boredom Busters to share with you. You may be in the same boat as me… it’s summer and school is out.  Soon I’ll be hearing those dreaded words, “I’m bored!”  There’s so much to do outdoors. So many books to read, friends to hang out with even online and other types of games to play, but without the structure of school, lots of children find themselves bored.

Thanks to Dr. Z and Me and Primrose Schools, here are the 11 Summer Boredom Busters I’ve promised you:

1. Boredom Buster Jar: At the beginning of the summer, sit down with your family and brainstorm a list of activities that can be done alone or that you can enjoy doing together. Encourage your children to share their own ideas and help you decorate and label a simple jar as the family “Boredom Buster Jar.”  They’ll feel more involved in the project and more likely to think this is a “neat” idea, if they participate in the creation and idea generation. Next, write everyone’s ideas down on slips of paper and as a group decide which ones should go in the jar. Anyone in the family can pull any idea out of the jar to fight the summertime boredom blues.
2. Stories Alive: It sounds too simple, but reading is one of the most important ways to keep young minds engaged during the summer. Make reading even more fun by finding ways to bring the stories to life. For example, in the book Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran, children create a make-believe town in the desert out of rocks, boxes, and their imaginations. Read the book with your children and then challenge them to create their own town with materials they find in the backyard.
3. Art Start Box: You’ll need to gather basic art supplies-child safe scissors, glue, markers, tape and construction paper. Put them in a special box along with empty oatmeal boxes and paper towel rolls, colorful magazines and bits of aluminum foil. Occasionally add a special surprise like chalk, stickers, or stamp pads so there’s always something new for the children to find. Even if you normally have these supplies around the house, it’s fun for children to know that the Art Start Box is just for them. They’ll probably have some good ideas of other household items that can be recycled to fuel their creative energies.
4. Family Performances: Break out old clothes or costumes and encourage children to make up characters and create a play to act out.  They are the directors, actors, and producers.  They can also make musical instruments out of pots/pans, wooden spoons, empty canisters and have a parade; or everyone can play along to your family’s favorite songs. Record or video the performances, and enjoy the replay.  You’ll also be capturing a bit of family history everyone will enjoy for years to come.
5. Family Dance Party: Crank up the music and encourage your entire family to boogie down. Dancing gives children a great outlet for self-expression through their own motion and helps build self-esteem. It also enhances motor and coordination development by incorporating skills like jumping, landing and leaping.  Dancing is a great activity that can involve the whole family and doesn’t take very much preparation.
6. Fort Building: Children love to build all kinds of structures–from small towns to large towers. Constructing forts or tents is an activity that can keep children focused and problem solving for hours. All the items you need can be found around the house- some chairs, cushions, blankets, and of course adult supervision.
7. Cookbook Fun: Have you ever shared your favorite cookbook with your children?  Take it out and ask your children to choose a recipe to try. Measuring can be a fun and easy way to keep math skills fresh.
8. Summer Scrapbook: All you need for this project is a spiral notebook. Encourage everyone in the family to draw pictures of favorite activities and collect mementos from special events throughout the summer.   Children love to go back through scrapbooks and albums and tell about what happened at each occasion.  They will also be building their storytelling skills at the same time.
9. Listening Game: Lie down in the backyard, in the den or at the park and listen.  What do you hear? Do you hear what I hear? Can you imitate the sound? This is similar to watching the clouds and naming the shapes, and it encourages everyone to slow down and focus on listening.
10. Camping Out: Pretend to camp out in the backyard. Plan a meal, pack a backpack and set up a campsite. You might even decide to spend the night!
11. Scavenger Hunt: Make a list or picture cards of common household items and have your children find the items on the list. Invite friends or neighbors to join in the fun to make it a competition.

My daughter and I have been doing some crafts for the first time in almost forever. It’s been fun and gets her creativity going (as well as mine).

Disclosure: I am entered for a chance to win a gift card in exchange for this post.  No monetary exchange took place.

I used to be crafty, really. I did all types of needlework, created crafts after reading about them or being taught them one time, and even came up my own craft ideas. I enjoyed creating things with my children and even sold some of the items I made. I’ve lost it though. I’m not sure what happened, but I’m a non-crafty mom now.

Then Twitter Moms gave me samples of Glue Dots, which are adhesives that are easy to use. They need no drying time and work on items like paper, photos, wood, plastic, metal, fabrics, foam, etc. I received dispensers and perforated sheets in various sizes and for various uses.

My daughter and I wanted to do something special for Father’s Day. We decided to make a centerpiece for the ice cream sundae bar to make it look perfect. The theme for the day was cars, so we chose to make a Drive In Ice Cream Restaurant. We used foam and added toy cars. I had tried foam glue in the past. It’s messy and very hard to use especially when you want to make a tube shape.

This time we used Glue Dots and it turned out awesome! Making this with my daughter was so much fun. We bonded while bonding the foam And my husband was so happy to see the finished product.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Glue Dots blogging contest to be eligible to receive a $30 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hampton Hotels Chain of Friends Sweepstakes is open to residents US, DC, Canada (excluding Quebec), UK and Mexico. The Grand Prize is an entire hotel for a weekend, that’s 100 rooms for 2 nights! There are also 100 First Prize Winners, which are daily prizes of Weekend stays for the winner and three of their friends.

If I won the Grand Prize I’d throw a party by the pool. We’d cater food, set up an iPod and speakers with different types of music, get toys for the kidlets and set up video games and pool games. Since we’d have the hotel to ourselves there’s no need to worry about people complaining about noise so the party would go on all weekend! We’d get ice cream, cakes and tons of other desserts, plus whatever kind of drinks were wanted. This would be the the time for everyone to have fun with no worries. No need to be concerned about breakfast, since hot breakfast is included with our hotel stay.

The Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes Grand Prize also provides $5000 to the winner to help pay for taxes. The heck with that! I’d use it for the extra food and crew to clean up and serve. Maybe we’ll even have some people come in to give us massages and makeovers.

Doesn’t this sound amazing? Well, go ahead and enter for yourself!