Five Favorites – Little Moments

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Amy

My five favorite little moments of this week.

1. Watching the girls play in this tall grass:

I took the next picture thinking I was going to capture a total “Little House on the Prairie” moment as they were running, slightly downhill, through the grass. Laura and Mary for sure:

2. Our “Secret, Special Snack” up on the platform of the swing set. They thought this was pretty awesome, and kept talking about all the animals that wouldn’t be able to “get us” or take our snack because we were up so high. My arm wasn’t long enough to get a selfie of all four of us:

3. My eldest in a nice display of sisterly love and helpfulness.

4. The other night after I put the girls to bed, I saw several deer right near the house drinking from the pond.

I could hear that Miss was still awake, so I ran downstairs to get her so she could see them. The first thing she said, when I told her there were deer right by the house and I wanted her to see them was, “I can’t believe I’m up so late!!!!” She giggled like she was getting away with something and ran back up the stairs with me. She said the same thing over and over. “I can’t believe I’m up so late!”

Clearly it was much more exciting to be up out of bed five minutes after I had tucked her in than to see four deer up close.

5. The fishing tournament weigh-in.

My husband and our brother-in-law won the tournament.

The girls kept grabbing his plaque and telling their cousins, “My Dad won this.” The pride in their voices was priceless.

Happy Father’s Day to my BFF.

For more favorites check out Five Favorites at Moxie Wife.

New-and-Improved Summer Fun – A Family Tradition

Posted on June 5, 2014June 6, 2014 by Amy

I’ve been working on our Summer Fun List again for this year (see last year’s list here). My kids loved doing it last year and they enjoyed the Fall and Winter List too, so we’re going for it again. I guess we’re making it a tradition.

I have the list pretty much done, but I haven’t yet put it on our big poster for checking off each thing. Through discussing it with them, I’ve discovered that doesn’t seem to matter much to my kids that most of what’s on the list is the exact same as what we did last year. Things like Go to the Iowa State Fair, Go to the Zoo, Ride a Horse, and Go to the Beach are the same and probably always will be.

We got rid of some things that didn’t work last year. Get Ice Cream from an Ice Cream Truck never worked because I never saw a truck on our street all summer. Not gonna try to do that again. I got rid of the bubble activities from the list, because the “special” bubble solutions and contraptions we made were pretty underwhelming. My kids blow very nice, perfectly fine bubbles all summer long with the cheap concoctions and bubble wands we can get from the store, thank you very much.

I got rid of the glitter firework art that I had on there last year. After having lots of Thanksgiving and Christmas and Valentine’s Day projects planned for winter, I determined it’s not awesome to put holiday-specific crafts on the list. Sometimes other holiday plans get in the way or things just don’t work out as planned and you end up making snowflake Christmas ornaments in February as “winter art.” Ahem.

I’m trying to plan ahead, and realizing that we may not be able to make it to a fireworks display for the 4th of July this year, so that’s out, but I did add in Play with Sparklers. I also remember last summer how disappointed Miss was that we didn’t really complete the item “Sleep in a Tent,” since the girls decided to come in and get in their beds at around 10pm. So this year the list just says, “Camp.” No sleeping or overnight shenanigans required. They “went to bed” and spent several hours in a tent with their Dad when we visited my parents last week. I’m calling it “Done,” though Miss wants to try again to stay out all night.

I just love having and doing the list, though a few months ago, I briefly questioned my use of The List for our must-do seasonal activities. I read a post called “I’m Done Making My Kid’s Childhood Magical.” It’s a great piece, though a little heavy-handed on the “when we were kids” references. I agree with a lot of what the author wrote and with her opinion that parents nowadays can sometimes go overboard trying to make every moment magical for their kids. I’m all about just letting my kids play without needing to make a big experience out of everything.

The author of the post really poo-pooed all the Pinterest-y lists of summer things, and winter things, and birthday themes, and crafts that start with Q, and so on. And since my word for the year is “Open,” I usually try to think about it, at least briefly, when I come across ideas that might seem to contradict something I’m doing or the way I’m thinking about something (my list in this case).

So I thought about it. For about five minutes. I reflected on our list and whether I was going overboard. I asked myself if I was micromanaging all of my kids’ activities or hijacking their free time with my own agenda. I thought about whether I was just stressing myself out trying to do all of these activities because of perceived pressure to do all things Pinterest.

I decided nope. I’m not. My kids spend the vast majority of their play time doing their own thing. Even when we do an activity from our list, sometimes the outcome isn’t what I planned, because they do it their own way, and that’s okay too. And I don’t’ feel any pressure at all to do certain activities with my kids. I actually like doing crafts with them and going on outings that we might not do if I didn’t have that list staring me in the face saying, “DO IT!”

See, I’m sort of a homebody. If left to my own devices, I often tend toward thinking, “That might be fun, but I’m so comfy here at home, and this is so nice and easy, and I’d just like to stay right here.” And so I sometimes avoid outings or adventures, even though when I get off my butt and go do them, I love them and so do my kids. The actual activity or outing is never as stressful or difficult as I sometimes make it out to be in my head while contemplating it.

So having our fun list is actually good for me. It actually doesn’t stress me out at all. Even when I think that we might not get all the things done (I was pretty unsure about whether we’d make it on that skiing trip on the winter list!), it isn’t a source of worry or distress. I did 50 out of 51 things on last summer’s list with a four, two, and one-year old and it was great. There’s nothing on the list that I am forcing myself to do when I really don’t want to (except maybe the glitter craft projects). My kids love it and seeing how excited they get about making the list, doing the activities on it, and checking off the items as we complete them, is totally worth it. So it’s on.

Anyway, back to our list. We already started to complete several of this year’s items while visiting my parents. I mentioned the “camping” above, and you can guess from the photos that we already rode horses, went to the beach, swam in a lake, and built a sand castle. We also went to a park (at the beach), planted our garden, and played barefoot in puddles (a new item this year inspired by the ridiculous amount of water in our front yard this week).

But the best activity we have completed? By far it was the one thing that we did not manage to do at all last year.

The girls absolutely loved catching fireflies. We went out at dusk and waited for what seemed like a really long time. But once those little guys were finally lighting it up, the girls started squealing and screaming and running and laughing like it was the best thing ever. We caught plenty of the glowing bugs. Miss even caught a few by herself. The girls were simultaneously terrified and ecstatic when the bugs got caught in their hair or when one danced on Miss’s nose for several seconds. Though we’ve barely begun, I know this will be one of the best memories of the season.

Summer is so short for us and so glorious. We have to wring every last bit of goodness out of it before the looong cold months arrive again. I’m so excited to do the list again.

In case you’re curious, here’s what’s on the list this year.

Copied from last summer’s list:

Catch lightning bugs – DONE
Camp – DONE
Go fishing
Ride a horse – DONE
Go to the Iowa State Fair
Make Ice Cream
Make popsicles
Hunt for bugs
Go to the beach – DONE
Pick wildflowers
Roast marshmallows and eat s’mores
Raise caterpillars into butterflies
Go to the zoo
Go on a treasure hunt
Swim in a lake or pond – DONE
Go to a splash pad
Run through a sprinkler
Visit a butterfly garden
Put our sprinkler under the trampoline
Play hopscotch
Play with water balloons
Catch tadpoles
Go to the Dirty Weird Zoo
Have a picnic lunch in the yard
Go for a bike ride
Read books outside
Have an outdoor scavenger hunt
Go for a boat ride
Go to the farmer’s market
Go to the park – DONE
Go to an outdoor concert
Visit a farm
Have a cookout and movie night with friends
Plant a garden – DONE
Make lemonade
Pick berries
Go to some yard sales
Complete the Summer Reading Program
Make a fairy house
Have a dance party in the yard
Make an art project with outdoor found treasures

New this year:

Go to a walk-up ice cream stand (the alternative to the truck)
Play with sparklers (an alternative to watching fireworks)
Play with moon sand
Paint with ice paint
Make a worm habitat
Make sun catchers
Make tin-can lanterns
Play barefoot in puddles – DONE
Paint with flower-dyed paint

What will you be up to this summer?

Skiing, Valentine-ing, and Birthday Prep

Posted on February 18, 2014February 18, 2014 by Amy

I promise I’m not going to make this another post about how sick we have all been. Everyone is really feeling better now.

But, I would like to update in order to amend Friday’s post. The one in which I said we were most definitely going on our ski trip because no one had been puking all day and nothing was stopping us. I think I said, “We’re. going.” Note the extra period in there for emphasis.

Well. Ha. Ha. I remember as I typed that thinking, “I’m totally jinxing myself.” And then thinking, “No. No way. How could anything else possibly prevent us from going??”

So, when my husband got home from work on Friday, everything was packed. We were ready to go. He was about to start loading stuff into the car, but then he looked at Miss, who was lying on the floor, uncharacteristically sluggish, wrapped in a blanket. She had taken a nap that day, which was unusual for her, and woke up still saying, “I’m so tired.” She had come downstairs after her nap and barely moved from her spot on the floor.

Hubby said, “Did you take her temperature?” I said, “No” as I was walking over to put my hand on her forehead. The moment I did, I knew. She had a fever. I knew it, but I went to get the thermometer anyway. 101.7. I turned to my husband and silently mouthed some choice words before tending to her and then sending a text to Super Friend (who was already on her way to the skiing place with her family) that we weren’t coming.

But, amazingly and happily, Miss started to perk up almost right away. So much so that when I called to cancel our reservation, I only cancelled Friday night. By the time she went to bed, her temp was already below 100. I texted Super again, “There’s hope!” Saturday morning Miss woke with no fever, no other symptoms, happy as can be. I said, “Quick throw everything in the car and let’s go before something else happens to stop us!”

Okay, I didn’t really say that, but we did get on the road first thing Saturday and made it to our little condo in time for lunch and afternoon skiing and hot chocolate with Super Kids.

The girls went to Wee Ski school in the afternoon. My husband wanted to teach them himself, but knew he couldn’t take both of them at the same time, so we thought that would be the best option. I was able to watch them from Super Friend’s condo, which was right across the street from the area where they were having their lessons. They were so darn cute all bundled up and wobbly on skis. I wanted to give them a few minutes to get comfortable before going over and watching and taking some photos. But they were only out for a very short time before going back inside to play in the little daycare area. So much for skiing.

They did say that they had fun, and they loved going tubing that night. The dads took the four older kids tubing while Super and I took the three little ones and went into town to get pizza and ice cream and beer. We had the best pizza ever, delicious treats for after the kids went to bed (we did let them have some ice cream too), and wonderful company. So, even though the trip was short and the skiing was minimal, we had a great time.

And yesterday we had our little Valentine’s Day make up. Red heart-shaped pancakes, flower arranging, tea party, and more. It was lovely.

Today we have a birthday. Our big girl is five today. Five!

I’m having a little bit of a hard time with five. Five is so grow up. Five is school-age! Even though I won’t be sending her off to kindergarten in a few months, still, I could be! I just got a bunch of paperwork from the elementary school she would be attending if she went to public school, so I called them to say she won’t be attending. It felt so strange to do that. Five is so big.

Anyway, I have been party planning for this Merida party we’ve got happening tonight. A little preview:

The party will be here at our house, so the guest list is small, small. But Miss is so excited and I can’t wait for her to enjoy her day. Details to follow.

Disney Trip Take 2 – Success!

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Amy

Last year we went to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom for the first time with the girls. I remembered going as a kid and just doing it, with no major advanced planning or strategizing. I vaguely noted that lots of people nowadays seem to devote a lot of time and energy to mapping out every moment of their visit, but I didn’t think too much about it. I pinned a few things and scheduled a princess lunch for Miss’s birthday. I got a few suggestions from Super Friend who had been there a few months before we were to go. I figured it would be no big deal.

What I didn’t know is that we were going to Disney during one of the busiest weeks of the year. I had no idea that the third week in February is a peak time because some places have their spring break at then (in February people??). So, I got a great big smack in the face of Disney reality last year.

Last year we went on only four rides, Prince Charming’s Carousel, Tea Cups, It’s a Small World, and Dumbo (we only managed this one because some kind people gave us their Fast Passes as I was wandering aimlessly trying to figure out where we could get our own).

I had really wanted to take the girls on the Peter Pan ride, but I couldn’t find it. Seriously. Super Friend had told me to ride it first thing in the morning, because it gets busy fast. She also said that we could go straight there if we went left after walking through Cinderella’s castle. Good tip. I could do that. I was on a mission. As soon as we got to the park, we walked quickly through Main Street, cruised past Cinderella’s castle, and then I confused my right and left and we went the wrong way. Of course we couldn’t find it and but the time we did the wait was ridiculous, so no Peter Pan ride last year.

This year I redeemed myself. This year we went on all the rides we did last year

and we made it on so many more. We even did a few of them twice. The first day alone, even though we didn’t even get there until about 2pm, we made it on all the above rides plus Ariel’s Under the Sea thing and the Winnie the Pooh ride.

The girls loved meeting the princesses last year during the lunch I reserved, so I made sure to schedule lots of princess meet and greets for them this year too. I learned last year that Fast Passes are key. This year Disney has a new system so, since I bought my tickets in advance online, I was able to schedule three Fast Passes for each day ahead of time. I highly recommend doing this.

Unfortunately with the new system you can only get three Fast Passes per day period (I think it used to be unlimited, but you had to find them in the park), but scheduling them in advance at least allows you to pick the best times and make sure you get the ones you want. For the first day, I scheduled Ariel’s Under the Sea ride (which the girls loved so much we went on it again the second day), meeting Ariel in her grotto, and meeting Rapunzel and Snow White. The second day I scheduled the Peter Pan ride (I was not going to miss it again this year!), meeting Cinderella and Aurora, and Enchanted Tales with Belle. I’m so glad I scheduled this last one, because it’s fairly new and very fun and the lines for it were loooong.

The girls really enjoyed meeting the princesses, especially Miss. I thought it was funny that she got so excited, because as we were walking in on day one and I was talking about them being able to meet the Disney ladies, Miss said, “Yeah Mom, but they aren’t really the princesses, they’re just people dressed up like the princesses.” You wouldn’t have known she thought this from her expressions when getting to meet these “people dressed up.”

The girls’ favorite princess was Ariel. They insisted on standing in line to see her a second time on day two, and didn’t even seem to notice that the second Ariel was a different woman.

^^ Ariel #1

^^ Ariel #2

Not all the princesses were equal in their rapport with the girls. The Ariels were fine, but my favorite (and my husband’s) was Merida, for the time she took and attention she paid to the girls.

She especially took some time with Miss who told her about her plans to have a Brave-themed birthday party. I was very glad that I took the few minutes to find out where and when to meet Merida (you can’t schedule a Fast Pass to meet her). We went to her area (which is around the back right side of Cinderella’s castle, she starts meeting and greeting at 9:15 am) first thing on day two and only stood in line for a few minutes. It was so worth it.

My second favorite princess for her ability to connect with the girls was Rapunzel.

The Belle experience was fun.

I thought it was funny that Sis would have nothing to do with Cinderella (we couldn’t even get her in a picture)

but she loved this Aurora:

This Snow White was my least favorite. She didn’t even get down on the level with the girls, and barely even smiled. Maybe she was just having an off day.

On day two during nap time my husband and I took Miss back to the park by herself while her sisters slept and my in-laws stayed with them. This was such a fun experience. She really wanted to go on the magic carpet ride. So we made our first journey into Adventureland, and on our way to that ride we went up in the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, which my husband and I both have fond memories of. She thought it was fantastic to go up so high in what she initially thought was a “real tree.”

Overall, this trip was so much better than last year. It helped that I was able to plan more things in advance and that I figured out where and when to do specific things, like meeting Merida beforehand. The biggest thing in making it better was probably the fact that we went during a slow week. Plus it was cold and rainy, so the crowds were much smaller than last year.

We aren’t planning to go back to Disney again for several years. But I’m so glad we had a great experience this year. I know my girls had fun and made some memories. I did too.

P.S. I am trying out using Pic Monkey and Drop Box for my photos. For some reason some of them have been disappearing even after I’ve saved them in the post, so if they aren’t showing up, sorry, I’m trying to fix it (and probably won’t use this system again).

It Was Worth It

Posted on February 2, 2014February 2, 2014 by Amy

Last week we were in Florida, busily trying to soak in as much decent weather as we could, while folks here in the north had negative-gazillion-degree temperatures again. If you aren’t a member of my family, you might want to skip this post. It’s overloaded with photos of my kids doing Florida stuff.

But, I needed to put these photos up to remind myself that the trip was worth it in spite of having sick girls for several of the days we were there. That it was worth the beating I took at the hands (and feet) of my not-quite-two-year-old who didn’t want to sit on my lap on the plane ride home yesterday. And that it was worth the overly-tired craziness of my three-year-old who had the biggest exhaustion meltdown I’ve ever seen from her earlier today. Thankfully she is taking a nap as I type this.

So. For all who want to hear about our travels, and for myself to remember that it really was worth it, our trip in photos (and a few words, because I just can’t help myself):

We went to the bird sanctuary, and then the girls played on the playground and beach just outside. Based on how crazy my girls went running around on the playground, you’d think they’ve been cooped up inside because of sub-zero temperatures all winter. Oh. Wait…

This is the way to do the beach:

Just outside the bird sanctuary there is a small beach area. You can’t actually get to the water because of a retaining wall, but there’s super soft sand, and that’s all my girls really care about anyway. My in-laws pulled their sand toys out of the back of their vehicle

and we had a perfect beach trip. No long drive to get to the awesome beach. No excessive wind. No shards of shells digging into my feet.

No overload of sand or attempt to eat lunch while keeping it out of everyone’s food. Lovely view.

Perfect.

^^ Miss’s sand pyramid, of which she was quite proud.

After a short time in the sand, we all brushed off and got lunch at a nearby restaurant. And that’s my idea of a good beach trip (with kids).

The next day we ventured to a children’s museum where they had sting rays the girls could touch and feed, along with lots of other animals and science-y stuff.

And no Florida vacation would be complete without some time in the pool.

^^ Those pool photos were taken on Tuesday. Wednesday was pretty cold and gloomy, and the girls still begged to go swimming. I was so tempted to just let my hubby take the two older girls in. But Sis really wanted to swim too. So we all swam in 50-degree weather. Total and obvious northerners.

Unfortunately the crummy weather continued through our last couple of days when we went to Disney World. But that’s a post for another day (nap time is over). Before I go though, I’d like to toot my own horn for a moment and just say that I did redeem myself after my huge Disney fail from last year. I’ll tell you all about it soon.

Treasure

Posted on November 9, 2013November 9, 2013 by Amy

Yesterday we took the girls on a long treasure hunt. It was cold and windy. We ended up with one shell, one piece of shell, and two pieces of hickory nut husk as our “treasures.”

Not much in the way of take-home booty.

But, it was really one of the best treasure hunts we’ve had. The real treasures just weren’t things we could put in our pockets. My favorite was this deer carcass:

It had decomposed enough that it wasn’t stinky or gross. Granted, I didn’t want to touch it, but my Mother-in-law, bless her heart, took care of that when the girls asked to look more closely at different parts. They were fascinated by the ribs and spine and jaw and pelvis, and came up with various hypotheses about how the deer died.

My Mother-in-law showed them the teeth and discussed how old the deer may have been. We talked about the circle of life and how other animals had eaten the rest of the doe’s body.

It was a fantastic science lesson, without really being a lesson.

Then we had “gym class” climbing on this old fallen tree. They have been captivated by this tree since it fell over in the early summer.

The adventure turned out to be a bit of a disaster, because the girls were scared half to death by trying to balance on the tree trunk in slightly floppy rubber boots.

It was cool anyway.

Next stop was the beach. They enjoyed splashing in the water a bit (the whole reason we wore the rubber boots).

We went for a walk along the shore.

And found some deer tracks.

We explored some beaver handiwork too.

Though we ended up with just a couple of small in-my-pocket treasures, the real treasures of the day were the findings and experiences of nature.

One of my favorite things about homeschooling the girls is that I think it has made me focus on and cherish these kinds of occurrences even more than I did before. I enjoy having a new appreciation for how much learning there is to be done out in the world.

Louisville – A Little Walk Down Memory Lane

Posted on October 8, 2013October 8, 2013 by Amy

I took the girls to Louisville this past weekend. 18 hours in the car, by myself, with three children under five. Nine there (Thursday), nine back (Sunday). Whew!

We made it, and it really wasn’t bad at all. The trip down to Louisville had a few rough moments as the girls learned that Mom couldn’t reach and do everything for them like I can when Daddy is driving, and I learned some tricks for how to help them as best I could while keeping my eyes on the road.

Both ways we only made one long stop. They enjoyed the treat of eating in restaurants and watching lots of movies.

They saw a big-city skyline for the first time as we drove through Chicago, and on a smaller scale when we reached Louisville.

I just love Louisville. It warmed my heart to drive into view of that skyline.

^^ Not exactly the skyline, but the most distinctive building.

On Friday we spent the day with some dear old friends at a pumpkin patch/farm/apple orchard/farm market/winery. It was intense, and warrants its own post in a day or two.

Friday night we went out to dinner with the same dear friends at a pizza parlor I went to from time to time while in graduate school. I have such fond memories of that place. I even went there on a date with my husband when he visited me in Louisville at the very beginning of our relationship.

Part of the reason I chose to take the girls there was that it was the only one of the places I frequented as a student that I thought would be somewhat family-friendly. But, I wasn’t entirely sure it would be, so I called in advance to make sure they would have a high chair and kid-friendly drinks. They did have high chairs but didn’t have anything but pop and tea (and alcohol) to drink. They said I could bring in my own milk though, so it was all good.

Lass actually said dinner at this restaurant was her favorite part of the trip.

There were fun Halloween decorations all over, and she has talked about the big spiders and ghosts she saw there since we left.

And the pizza was delicious. Brought back happy memories.

While I was getting all nostalgic, the girls were appreciating all the little things about the vacation.

They called this their “Fancy Breakfast” because of the french toast and milk in glass goblets.

They got to watch TV in the mornings.

And of course they had lots of goofy fun with Grandma.

On Saturday afternoon we had lunch in a beautiful park that I never went to when I lived in Louisville. I don’t know why, exactly, except that I lived nearer to a different (and less pretty) park.

We had a fun picnic.

It was pretty much entirely prepared by these ladies:

Love them.

I had seen a weather forecast that said it might rain on Saturday, and my friend who determined our meet-up spot in the park said it was near a fountain, so I figured the girls would get wet. I brought changes of clothes and their raincoats/boots.

They were disappointed that I wouldn’t let them play too much on the play structures (they were kind of slippery, and honestly, though I didn’t mind them getting wet, I didn’t want to stand in the rain to supervise Sis on them) or at all in the cool fountain/splash pad area. I would have let them run in the fountain to their hearts’ content, except that there was another little girl (around 4 or 5 probably) running in the fountain for most of the time we were there. And she had no clothes on. None. She was naked as a jaybird. I had to explain to my girls why they couldn’t also run in the fountain without clothing, “Well, Honey, it’s just not appropriate to take your clothes off in public, so no, I’m sorry, we’re not going to do that.”

But they did get wet and had a great time playing in the rain and puddles.

I’m so happy I brought the rain coats and boots and the changes of clothes. Unfortunately, I forgot towels, so I had to dry them off with some spare fleece blankets I keep in the car. Not too effective, but we managed. It was worth it.

Saturday night I had a bit of difficulty getting out of the hotel to meet my friends for dinner. Sis chose that night to learn how to climb out of her Pack’n’Play. I put her down to sleep and was completing my preparations to leave when I heard my mom say, “Is she in her bed??” I said “yes,” of course. To which she replied, “Well, it sounds like she’s right on the other side of that door…”

She was.

She thought climbing out of that Pack’n’Play was just about the neatest. thing. ever. She did it two or three more times for my Mom after I left. And then I-don’t-know-how-many times between 4 and 6 am.

I was extremely panicked thinking she was going to start doing this at home as well, but she hasn’t so far. I will need to come up with a new sleeping arrangement for her for our upcoming deer-hunting trip to the Farm though.

I did manage to make it to dinner roughly on time and had a delicious meal with wonderful company.

I was even in bed before midnight, which is a personal record for a night on the town in that city.

I lived in Louisville for four years, from the ages of 22 to 26. While I lived there I made many great friends, I earned a Ph.D., and I (amazingly) met my husband. I moved away from Louisville 11 years ago, and my life has changed immensely since living there, but the city remains very close to my heart as do the friends I keep from those years.

I was happy to experience it from a different perspective this time, with my kids.

And now I’m thrilled to be back home with my husband, doing our day-to-day thing, making memories in our family’s home town. It was really fun to walk down memory lane a little bit, and experience and old place in a new way, but I’m happy to cherish the little moments here and now with my family.

Fall Fun and a Girls’ Road Trip (Gulp)

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Amy

Oh, how I love fall.

We’ve been making yummy stuff.

^^Check out my budding chef grating nutmeg on the microplane.

They were so proud of their creation.

I had a lot of fun making the caramel apples with them.

I unwrapped the little caramel cubes into a bowl and showed them to the girls. Immediately Miss knew we were going to make caramel apples.

I asked them if we should go ahead and dunk the apples in and they immediately said “Yes!”

So, we did. And naturally the “dunking” didn’t work out with the cold candies just sitting in the bowl.

I asked them what we should do. My favorite part of the process was this:

Miss’s eyes lit up and she said, “Mom! We could put. it. in. the microwave!”

Everyone got very excited, and there was some jumping and shouting about the brilliant solution. Miss was so proud of herself when we took it out and it had begun to melt. She kept saying, “Mom, I had a great idea, didn’t I?” Love.

Later today we are leaving for a seven-hour girls’ road trip. We’re going to my old Kentucky home, Louisville. I lived there for four years while in graduate school and it remains one of my favorite places in the world. I’m meeting some of my dear old friends from my years there for a reunion, and we’re going to the St. James Art Fair. Can’t wait.

I must admit I’m kind of nervous about the trip. My husband has to work and can’t come with (my mom is meeting us in Lou to help me with the girls). I’ve never done a road trip of any length with them by myself. For inspiration, I’m reminding myself of my husband’s Aunt J, who drove an RV, by herself, with her five daughters to every state in the continental US when they were kids. I can do this.

Look out Louisville, here we come!

60 Kids’ Activities for Fall and Winter – The List is Done!

Posted on September 30, 2013September 30, 2013 by Amy

Our Fall and Winter Fun List is done!

60 fun things we will be doing in the next six months:

Draw faces on leaves
Make an apple pie
Make fall leaves spice art
Go to local apple orchard
Make a leaf book
Play in a pile leaves
“Marble” painting using an apple
Drink hot cider
Leaf printing
Go to a pumpkin patch
Leaf rubbing
Make Thankful trees
Hay ride
Caramel apples
Melted crayon leaf sun catchers
Deer hunting (really just watching this year)
Hand print turkeys
Go trick or treating
Carve pumpkins
Roast pumpkin seeds and use them to make a pumpkin craft
Make an autumn sparkle tree
Children’s museum
Girls road trip
Donate food to the food pantry
Build a fort (in the house)
Treasure hunt
Have a pajama movie night with Super Friend and her family
Bake a cake
Go to open swim at the YMCA
Make a bucket craft to go with this book
Make muffins
Have a picnic in the living room
Go to story time at the library
Have a family slumber party
Make a pinecone garland
Write a letter to Santa
Buy Christmas gifts for needy children
Bake Christmas cookies
Drive through the park to see the Christmas lights and visit the reindeer
Set up nativity
Have a Christmas music dance party
Decorate the Christmas tree
Make salt dough ornaments
Visit Santa
Sing Christmas carols
Make hot glue and glitter snowflake ornaments
Catch snowflakes
Make snow angels
Go Skiing
Make paper snowflakes
Blow ice bubbles
Make a snow fort
Drink hot chocolate
Read books by the fire
Make a snowman
Have a snowball fight
Snowman ice cream sundaes
Make Valentine hearts with handprints (something like this, maybe even with glitter)
Make kid-friendly tiramisu
Make Valentine flower arrangements

Of course there is a lot more crafting and cooking on this list than there was on our summer list. Something about fall gets me in a super crafty mood. Leaves, apples, pumpkins, turkeys, Halloween… It’s all just so perfect making stuff. We already did marble painting with an apple (#7) and the girls loved it.

And don’t even get me started on Christmas crafts… I’m a little giddy thinking about it.

I decided to put more projects that involve glitter or other loathesome materials on the list so I will have to do them (for example see #3, #15, #21, #46 above). I really detest glitter, but the girls LOVE working with it. We made glittery firework art this summer (only because I put it on our list and we did it outside) and it was such a treat for them. So, it’s on there. Multiple times.

It will be fun.

I will meditate prior to doing crafts that involve glitter or other finely powdered substances (Spices? Sounds awesome for crafting. And a little bit horrible).

I didn’t make separate fall and winter lists because around here it’s usually hard to tell where one season ends and the other begins. Winter weather typically starts long before the solstice. Plus, plenty of the activities could be done in either the fall or winter, so I just combined them.

If you want to use some of this stuff for separate lists, the items are organized like this:

Fall #1-21
Either Fall or Winter #22-34
Winter/Christmas #35-46
Winter/General #47-57
Winter/Valentine’s Day #58-60

I can’t wait to get into the activities with my girls.

What fall and/or winter activities are you looking forward to?

So, We Tried a Little Camping Last Night

Posted on September 10, 2013September 10, 2013 by Amy

My hubby and I have been meaning to put up our tent and let the girls “sleep” out in it all summer. It’s one of the few things on our Summer Fun List we still need to do.

We had the tent up and ready when we went to the Farm back in June, but my husband got sick with a bad sinus infection, so we (he) didn’t do it then.

When we went to the Farm in August we forgot the tent. And at other times my Hubby has been working nights or working weekends or we’ve been traveling. We haven’t had many free weekends at home, so the tent has not been up, and we (they) have not “camped.”

This week my Dad happened to bring a very small and I think kind of old Army tent with him. He thought the girls would enjoy playing in it, so he put it up for them yesterday morning. He had no intention of anyone actually sleeping in it. It didn’t even have a floor.

But I saw an opportunity and decided to take it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really plan the whole adventure out very well. I had my first RCIA class last night and didn’t get home until after dark. I did pick up flashlights and cookies on the way home, but that was the extent of my preparation.

Fortunately, my Dad had grabbed a tarp at the hardware store yesterday afternoon, so I threw that down, flung a couple of quilts on top of it, had the girls grab their blankies and pillows and books, and out we went.

They thought it was pretty great.

We had a “Special Secret Camping Cookie Treat.” I called my Mom to ask her to bring out our water bottles (like I said, zero preparation).

We read some stories by flashlight.

We made two trips into the house to go to the bathroom.

The most frequently uttered phrase of the evening was, “No tooting in the tent!!”

Each time we went inside I thought for sure they were going to decide to stay in and go to bed.

See, part of the reason I wasn’t very prepared was that I didn’t really believe they would want to stay out more than about an hour or so. I figured we’d eat our special cookies, read a few books, snuggle and be silly for a bit, and then they’d be ready to go inside and go to sleep in their comfy beds.

Lass actually was ready to come inside after our stories were read, but each time she’d say she wanted to come in Miss would say, “I want to stay out!” and then Lass would say, “Yeah, me too.”

I was getting nervous that we might actually stay out there all night! That ground was hard. And I kept thinking that critters could crawl under the sides or in through the big gap in the front of the tent where I couldn’t get it snapped (yes, snapped, not zipped!!) all the way to the ground. And it was hot and stinky in there (from all the tooting).

Happily, a little after 10:00 Lass said, “I think sleeping inside would be better.” I asked her if she wanted to go in, and she said she did. I quickly and cheerfully said, “Okay! I’ll take you inside.”

To my surprise, Miss said she wanted to go in too. So I scooped them both up and hustled them into their beds before they could change their minds.

I thought I was going to be in for a looong night (though I would have stayed out there!). Instead, we had a lot of fun, rolling around and laughing and pretending. And I still got to sleep in my own bed.

Miss did ask if we could “camp” again tonight though…