He is Special

We celebrate special days in our house. The kids really look forward to the privilages that go along with that day, but no matter what we manage to forget to celebrate on the exact date sometimes. It really doesn't matter - in fact when we forget I don't even tell the kids - I simply announce that "tomorrow is your special day!" and go with it. This month we were a day late for both of the kids so it all worked out.

We didn't do anything fancy today, but it was still special. Sam chose cereal for breakfast, pizza in his lunch, and waffles for dinner. Daddy even put strawberry sauce and powdered sugar on top! He's going to be talking about that meal for months! He asked to go to the library after school. I picked out a new dinosaur book for him to check out. We played outside for over an hour when we got home. Sledding, 'snowboarding', climbing the mountains of snow that surround our yard, and throwing snowballs - kinda the last hurrah before the rain comes and washes away all our snow (hopefully!)

After dinner Sam and Daddy played dinosaur and then we played two rounds of the board game "Camp" per Sam's request. We had a fun evening together as a family and for the first time those last two hours before bedtime flew by. He never asked to watch TV. He didn't ask for a treat after dinner. It was a special night! We read their devotional and their Jesus Storybook Bible in Julia's room as has become our tradition and as I finish this up he's curled up in my bed for a sleepover.

I pray that the reason behind our special days (to fill up their love tanks) was successful today - I know my heart is overflowing with love for both of them!

What do you do to give your children the individual attention they crave?

I couldn't resist

Julia and I made a pit stop at the grocery store today right after preschool. It was the worst time of day for us to be doing such an errand, but the alternative (pb&j for dinner) made it it worth it. As she fussed and moaned down the produce aisle I did my best to move quickly and get only what we really needed. I had compassion and empathy for her empty tummy so her whimpering didn't grate on me like it has the potential to do.

As I contemplated buying full sized oranges since they were out of the little sized Cuties we like best, I stood next to a boy (about Julia's age) who was completely unattended. (read: no adult within 25 feet).

He was taking oranges from the front of the row and tossing them to the back of the pile.

Over and over again.

I didn't say a thing. What wast he point? I didn't feel it was my place, but when he asked, "why is she crying?" I couldn't help but reply,

"She's sad because the oranges are getting wrecked?"

"Huh?"

"Well when you toss them around like they they won't be any good."

Cue - parental figure from the tomato aisle who calls the little twerp over to her.

I know I shouldn't have lied to the kid, but man, I couldn't resist!

What would YOU have done in that situation?

A New Frontier -

- Otherwise known as Kindergarten begins today.

Five days a week.
Seven hours a day.

It will be a new experience for our Sammy Sam, but like getting up on that big horse, I know he can do it.















I know that he'll be in good hands. and that it will be a chance for us to make the most of the time we have.







I'll hold on a little tighter, linger a little longer at bedtime, and love on my little boy who before I know it will be riding off on his own.






Sam,
Mommy is so proud of you and all that you've learned in your short five and half years. I love watching you soak up facts like your daddy and can't wait to see what kind of things you learn in Kindergarten. I know that I'm not always very patient with you and I'm sorry for that. Mommy thinks the world of you and will miss you like crazy while you are at school learning about Jesus and how to read. When you curl up in your new nap blanket I hope you think of me and our snuggle time before bed. I love you to the angels Sammy Sam! - Mommy

Help Yourself

Whenever the kids ask for a snack when it's only been an hour since the last time they ate I calmly say, "Sure. There are carrots in the refrigerator. Help yourself." It's a win-win. If they are truly hungry and not just bored as is usually the case, they will get that snack they asked for - in the form of something healthy. If they are only asking because they are bored, the option of carrots usual stops the repeated requests.


One of my children takes me up on my offer almost every time. This particular time she helped herself to the whole bag.


I've been thinking a lot about kid's meals lately because Sam starts kindergarden on Tuesday and will be taking his lunch to school every day. I ordered a lunch box and a 4 pack of containers from Easy Lunch Boxes and will be sending our freshly homemade applesauce, a veggie of some sort, and a protein and grain with five.days.a.week. He is my picky eater and I thought it would be helpful to hear what things work in your lunch boxes...you know, besides carrots :)

Weeping Willows

They may be called weeping willows but I assure you there was no weeping going on under our willows yesterday. Quite the contrary....swinging from the branches produced HUGE grins



and perfect light gave me a reason to smile as well.


Maybe my favorite picture of Julia ever?

The wind blew in a pretty bad storm to the area but thankfully we only had some rain and wind. The upside was that I cleaned up the garage enough so we could get the vehicles parked inside in case of hail.

Yesterday was our last day home sans PapaBear. He's been up north with high school friends all week so I've been on my own. Parenting on my own was the easy part. I didn't plan to make the routine changes but I'm so glad I did - we skipped naps and played hard all day, stayed up almost 2 hours later than usual and then in the morning they slept in like they've never done before. Most mornings I didn't get out of bed until 9! We even adjusted our meal times since breakfast was two hours later than usual. Lunch became 2pm and dinner 6pm.

I missed PapaBear terribly and am so glad he's HOME now. Speaking of which, the office is closing now so I'm headed home to see my man.

Have a great weekend everyone!

to a *T*

Sam has been playing T ball for a few weeks now. First three practices and then last night was his second game. The weather has been PERFECT every time (unlike this very moment with heavy downpour and high winds). Did I mention we only came to the office with umbrellas? They aren't going to do us much good with sideways rain. Anyway...back to yesterday's how we spent our summer vacation post....we spent the early afternoon at the beach until I couldn't stand the misbehaving kid that wouldn't leave Sam and Julia alone. I know I shouldn't judge, but his mother had no clue how to handle her child. None. I know kids have bad days, I KNOW BECAUSE MINE HAVE BAD DAYS TOO. But. This kid was ripping toys out of other children's hands, throwing sand at people, and splashing little kids. All of those things happened after she threatened to make him leave 7 different times. Ugh...

It was much safer and calmer at home on the slip-n-slide. Julia has more fun puttering in the garage and in the flower beds than scratching herself up on the slip-n-slide so for once they aren't fighting about something. Going to VBS next week will be good or them. They haven't been apart in a week. We're on a modified schedule through tomorrow that doesn't include rest time (if it's nice outside) so they are together every.waking.moment.

After a quick dinner we headed to Sam's game. Conor is old and grumpy and absolutely HATES it when we leave the house without him. We have to let him out and then coax him back to his cord so I can make him come in. This time he pulled his collar off so I said forget it and let him jump in the van. Other than a Christmas here and there, he never gets out so it was fine that he came with. I like the challenge of getting Sam and his gear, a 3 year old, a purse, a camera, a chair, and a hyper dog to a T ball game in one piece. Yeah right. Thankfully my SIL joined us so I had an extra pair of hands.

Sam played first base for the first time so I took lots of video to show Daddy. He hit the ball on the first try and ran as fast as he could while dodging the other team who swarmed to every ball that was hit. Made me thankful that Sam's coach has the kids spread out more and they (for the most part) stick to their own area.

I had 'one of those kids' after the game when Julia flipped out about not getting fruit snacks like Sam did. She wailed all the way through the grocery store where Sam decided to pick out his check mark reward. We stopped at the library to drop off coloring entries and to request a few books for me. I've read most of the historical christian romances that I know of in our library so the librarian helped me find some new authors. My criteria are Bethany House Publishers and historical christian romance series. Know of any good authors that fit that bill let me know! I'm trying a new author, Stephanie Grace Whitson right now.

Across from the library a baseball game was being played so we grabbed the dog and wandered over. It isn't very often that we get to do stuff late at night like that but the weather was so nice and I've been letting the kids stay up later this week.

Yet another sign of summer!

A no picture day

But that doesn't mean we didn't do anything yesterday! Just didn't stop to take pictures....so what did we do?

more wrapping of shower gifts
more shower games.
more yummy shower food
more funny stories told
great gag gifts
more funny stories told
back home to clean the house*

outside to catch more bugs
and to water the new flowers

back inside to deal with a crashed reservation system
to eat frozen pizza
and to call the owner of a stray dog

back outside to photograph the progress of our garden

back inside to send wedding proofs and make blog book pages until midnight.

*with all the summer stuff going on our house isn't staying as clean as I normally would like it to be. We are outside a lot and when we do come in, things get dropped and left. If I don't put my foot down, it just keeps getting messier. When I came home from Sunday's shower I started cleaning up from all the mess I'd made getting ready the day before. I was beat but knew that if I didn't clean I would only get grumpy having to walk past everything until I made the time to pick up. I don't want to be the bad guy that makes the kids stop playing to pick up. I also don't want to be the maid. I think I need to be more intentional about family clean up time every night. It's hard to be consistent though. How do you keep up with housework during the busy summer months?

Alphabitty Moments - The letter A

Welcome to round three of Alphabitty Moments! A little over a year ago I came up with the idea to share a picture a week that corresponded to a letter of the alphabet. The idea is to record the every day moments of childhood that right now might seem like no big deal but before we know it, we'll look back on those moments and realize they were in fact the very essence of childhood. Sometimes I'll create a scrapbook page to go with the letter of the week and other times I'll only post a photo. How elaborate you make this meme is completely up to you, but I gotta tell ya if you can be disciplined enough to do the scrapbook page the end result is well worth it. Need a little inspiration? Check out the first book I made out of this little project here.

This time around I'm going to give Picaboo a try. I found a theme that I think I can make work for pretty much any word/photo combo. I really like the colorful yet simple layouts. (click on the image to see it bigger) Speaking of colorful...this was a pretty memorable painting experience. Normally we use paper, but this was one of those times of discovery; of letting them be little.



There are plenty of opportunities for teaching them the 'right' thing to do, but it was SO worth the mess to let them paint each other.

Now it's your turn...what "A" moment do YOU want to remember?

reaching for the goal

The first day of soccer he put the ball in the net five times. That-a-boy!

The last game of the season was this past Saturday. He scored 7 goals.


My goal? To support him in whatever direction his interests may lean.
It's gonna be tough for this former center forward to see her son as a goalie, but have you ever seen such a big face? He L.O.V.E.S to play goalie even though at the preschool level they don't really have a goalie position. We play a lot at home and he makes some pretty amazing saves - especially considering his parents are the ones shooting at the goal.


The ultimate goal? To teach our little sports star good sportsmanship wherever he ends up on the field.

Alphabitty Moments - The letter X

We have lots of maps in our house. I'm a geography major after all. ( Just don't ask me to navigate using any of them!) They are of South American countries, the Inca Trail, National Parks, and of the Boundary Waters. They are stored in large pottery jars that flank our fireplace.

The kids love to pull them out and look at all the places that PapaBear and I have traveled over the years. They also love to sword fight with them, use them as guns, and use them as walking sticks - all activities that we discourage of course. But...at least they are using their imaginations right? Some day our maps won't be torn and crumpled because of their childhood games. So I am trying to let up a little and let them use the maps more.

One of our favorite ways lately is to read the names of the lakes out loud. Kiwishiwi River? That names begs to be changed to Kawishi-wishi-wishy-washy. Makes them giggle every time. And that friends, hits the spot!

In the case of Julia's Alphabitty Moment book...it's X marks the spot.

Now it's your turn! What X word do YOU want to remember about your children? Don't want to jump on board at the end of the alphabet? That's OK too - we'll be starting back at the beginning of the alphabet real soon!

Alphabitty Moments - The letter V

This time I chose Valentine for my Alphabitty Moment.

I don't want to take for granted the relationship Sam and Julia have with each other. She calls him Sammy more than Sam. Sure they have their moments, but they love each other very much. So much so that I can't seem to get through to Sam that no, he can't marry Julia. He continues to insist that he can and will.

When he is teasing her and she is screaming bloody murder or when she breaks his latest Lego creation, I will remember sweet moments like this.

What V moment do you want to remember this week?

Our Responsibility Chart

We've implimented a new responsibility chart in our house that is just as much for PapaBear and I as it is for the cubs. It isn't fancy and the reward is very simple. A penny for each sticker they earn. We are trying instill good habits and a sense of accomplishment in doing things for themselves. We've been at it about a week now and the kid's {loudly} announce before bedtime that it's time to PUT ON THEIR STICKERS!!!! Here's our list:

Pick up room
Make bed
Pick up playroom
brush teeth A.M.
brush teeth P.M.
pick up downstairs
read Bible
schoolwork*
stay dry at nap (Julia only)
stay dry at bedtime (Julia only)
stay in room (Sam only)
sleep in bed (Sam only)

They get a special jar for putting their pennies in, separate from their three allowance jars. They love counting their money each night and I love the opportunity to ask them questions about their day and ask them how it feels to accomplish their goals.

* schoolwork in our house means anything that is educational focused. I am well aware of the benefit of incorporating learning into every day activities, but we are also trying to be more intentional in preparing the kids for school. We keep it fun and we keep it short (only one activity in a day unless they ask to do another).

Here are some of the 'schoolwork' activities we do:
We have a few workbooks that the kids complete a few pages in.
We sit around our globe in the library and look up the locations they pick off of their geography cards.
We read through our Usborne Telling Time Flashcards.
Playing with the calculator on my phone.

A new school work activity we'll be adding to our routine is a game that helps with math (something Sam is VERY interested in right now). When I was contacted by the promotion team at CSN Stores about doing a review of one of their products I was very excited to find the Piece of Pizza game on one of their 200+ online stores. Most everyone has done some shopping online by now and I have to say CSN's websites were very user friendly. I loved how I could narrow down my search by price range, type of item, style, brand, and even how quickly I needed it shipped. Sometimes too many choices can be a bad thing, but the Toys and Games Online site made it a piece of cake....er pizza in this case.

While the point of visiting their site was to blog about it and pick a product to review, I have to say that I'll be going back on my own to their kids furniture to shop for bedding for Julia's room soon. She's really close to being ready for a twin bed and I want to find the perfect bedding for her. The "Narrow Your Search" option on the left hand side is going to make it a breeze! Now if only if getting her to stay in her bed will be that easy!

Hopefully the responsibility chart will be old hat for her by then that the simple joy of getting a sticker and a penny for staying in bed will be enough!


Do you use a responsibility chart? What kinds of things are on your chart? Are there other educational activities that you are being intentional about doing as often as you can?

Do share!


Oh, and to satisfy the legal folks who want to know: I will be receiving compensation for writing this post in the form of a Piece of Pizza game and my readers will be given the opportunity to enter to win one as a part of the product review post compliments of CNS Stores.

Monday Musings

It has been so long since I wrote out my thoughts that many memories I had hoped to preserve are lost in the recesses of my mind. More times that I can count I've had great intentions of writing on a certain topic and then never have the time to do it. And now that I have carved out a few minutes, of course my mind would go blank. I can't remember what I wanted to say. Figures.

I was going to say something about the fact that I have 328 unread items in my Google Reader, something about how I've lost control of Twitter, and have to stop following so many people, something about the series I found at the library on Saturday, something about how I dropped Sam off for his first school friend birthday party over the weekend....oh wait! that I remember:

It was at McDonalds. The day after I watched Food, Inc. Nice. The McDonald's employee asked Sam if he wanted a hamburger, cheeseburger, or nuggets to eat. Of course he jumped at the cheeseburger since I only ever get hamburgers. She asked him what he wanted to drink and my little man said "water". OK, at least I haven't lost all my influence! I tucked a baggie with a couple of wipes into his pocket so he could wash his hands before he ate. He forgot to use them. He did eat apples instead of fries.

The McDonald's party was one of two parties we attended on Saturday. Thankfully both were local. PapaBear's cousin and his wife turned 50 this year and their children threw them a giant surprise party. 150 people were invited and nobody sent their regrets. It was packed in there! Julia fell asleep in my arms at 8pm. We're wild and crazy like that. Sam couldn't stop talking about the Olympic skiers he saw on the TV in the bar area. They go 60 miles an hour Mama! he exclaimed while we were visiting the ladies room. Mom - this isn't the men's room! I explained that there was no way I was sending my 5 year old into a bar men's room by himself and he quickly changed the topic back to the skier who crashed.
He had gone skiing earlier in the day and was so excited to tell me about the hills he went down. We don't have big hills in the park, but the ones we do have are plenty adventurous for him.

Speaking of Sam....he got to go ice fishing for the first time this season. He goes more for the treats Grandma sends with than for the act of fishing, but when it comes time to eat the fish, then he's 100% on board. He's his father's son. He loves to eat fish. Lake trout, salmon, walleye, sunfish....he loves it all. I think I see a trip to the Boundary Waters in the near future for him.

What else is happening in BearCountry? Well let's see....I took a weekend off for the first time in forever. I turned my computer off at 3pm on Friday afternoon and didn't log back on until I was done with a taste test I participated in this afternoon. You know when I was contemplating getting a smart phone and I wasn't sure if it would be a help or a hindrance? No doubt that it's a huge time saver. I can make sure I'm reading emails in a timely manner and can return the urgent ones on my phone. Not feeling the need to keep my computer running keeps me from getting sucked in.

The kids have been on their best behavior lately and I'm sure having an attentive mommy helps. We've been playing board games, restaurant, and hanging out with friends. We are still renting skis on the weekends and it looks like that won't be wrapping up any time soon. We get more skiers on one weekend this year than we did all of last winter. At this rate we'll be lucky to get a 4 week break before the camping season begins, but at least our friends and coworkers, Dennis, Maryann, Jo, and Howard will be here to lend a hand. It is such a blessing to know that the camp hosts from last year will be returning. We miss our summer family during the long cold winter months.

Speaking of family....our family has grown by one with the addition of a brother-in-law. PapaBear's sister got engaged this month and wedding plans are already under way. While weddings are always fun to plan - knowing that she's found 'the one' and will be settling down a mere five miles from us brings tears in my eyes just writing about it. Sam and Julia loved him from the get-go and don't see what all the wedding fuss is about. Little do they know that their wedding attire has already been the topic of of discussion on more than one occasion.

I'm about out of time and don't really feel I've gotten even half of the stuff tumbling around in my head out, but this is as good as it gets for now. Bible study starts in an hour and I have some more homework to finish up. (I'm meeting with some local women that met through Kristina to do Beth Moore's Fruit of the Spirit study.) I've really been blessed by the women in my life lately. Women who I cherish even if I haven't known them that long. Remember the dinner with girlfriends I tweeted about last week? Raw, funny, encouraging, real women who I admire and can't wait to see at our next gathering. Don Pablo's here we come! And then there are my friends Jenney and Susan. I can't think about girlfriends without their faces popping into my head. They listen when I need to vent. They email me when they haven't heard from me in a while. They encourage, they trust, they are my friends and I am blessed to have them in my life.

And there you have it - my Mundane Monday Musings. It's Life in BearCountry. It's full of coffee, work, play, job searching, pizza, movies, board games, laughter, skiing, co-sleeping, baking, sledding, & hustling to meet deadlines. One of these days I'll get caught up on my blog reading. I miss you all and hearing what's new in your corner of the world. Thank you for sticking with me while I do mostly photo posts and Alphabitty Moments. I did manage to get a post up on my Blog Book site if you are interested in seeing what a travel book looks like. I've also been cooking up an idea to host a digital scrapbooking gathering for those of you who would like to set a whole day aside to work on your scrapbooks and/or blog books. I am thinking of hosting it here at our CommunityRoom sometime after we are done renting skis for the year. Let me know if you are interested in such a get-together by leaving a comment on this post or emailing me directly. Another direction my brain is going is towards New York City - yes I'm considering going to BlogHer in August. I have proposed a Blog Book making seminar in the Geek Lab, but it requires enough votes in order to be asked to participate. If you are signed up for BlogHer would you consider logging in and voting for my room idea? I love teaching and sharing the {God given} talent I have with others and what a treat it would be to do it in NYC!

OK, Bible study awaits....

Have a great week everyone!

A heart to change the world

Last night I had the life changing opportunity to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children. My friend Kristina and I made the trek to the East Metro and filled bags of food for starving children. FMSC packages millions of meals a year and makes a difference in SO many lives around the world, but little did we know that when Missy organized the event weeks ago that an earthquake would devastate Haiti....the very place our 64 boxes of food is headed based on their distribution schedule.









Kristina and I donned our hairnets along with a roomful of volunteers....




Jerry gave us our instructions and we got to work packaging meals.












Jen did a great job explaining the production process in her post about the event, but here are some pictures I snapped after I gave up my job of dumping in a container of soy (lower left hand picture)



Our shift was over before we knew it. There were many comments of "but we could do so much more!" The camaraderie and feeling of contributing in a tangible way was almost electric. I didn't even notice that it was after 10pm when we left the building.




Before we left the staff at FMSC shared some statistics about what we had accomplished in the short time we were volunteering. I did what any girl with a terrible memory does - I wrote on my hand so I wouldn't forget the numbers. They weren't just numbers though. They were lives. Lives saved because of a simple cup of food. (Liz talked numbers in her post and she did it very very well.)



It was an honor to be a part of this group of bloggers - most who had never met before, but who came together with a heart to change the world...one meal at a time.



What was the best part of the whole night?

We had the privilage of praying over the 64 boxes of food we had packaged.

As Jerry closed the prayer I couldn't help but think of the children's CD that I grew up listening to called A Heart To Change The World. It's the 6th in a series by Psalty the Singing Songbook and will be the subject of an upcoming (give-a-way) post about how PapaBear and I are teaching our kids to be grateful for the blessings we have here in America, especially in light of the recent tragedy. Stay tuned!

Spreading the Good News

A while back I entered a contest to win a box of Jesus Storybook Bibles and while I didn't win, my friend Tina did. Bless her heart - she sent one to my kids for Christmas. I have heard nothing but great things about how well Sally Lloyd Jones weaves together the Bible stories that I want my children to hide away in their hearts. What I love is how she makes The Truth understandable for little ears. The first night we sat down to read the Jesus Storybook Bible we read 40 pages. That's a whole lotta Truth in one sitting!!!
I could go on and on about how I think this is one of the best books you could buy for the little people in your life, but I'll let Sam's words speak for themselves.


"Yes, let's read extra pages in my Bible tonight instead of reading a different book first!"

"Can you read just one more Mommy?"


One of the things we're doing differently in this new year is to not watch TV as a method of unwinding after school. Sam get's SO worn out from all the stimulation that he needs to eat and do something that doesn't involve other people as soon as he gets home. I've started playing the audio CD's of the Storybook Bible instead and it works like a charm.

Is there a product or book that you are excited about using in 2010? I'd love to hear about it!

Alphabitty Moments - The letter E

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! I created this carnival as a way to record the little things my kids do. The special occasions get enough attention in photographs, blog posts, and storytelling. These keepsake book pages are meant to take a closer look at the ordinary and every day moments of childhood. Some day we will look back on all the little things and realize they were really the big things.

This week using Mixbook I put together this page for the letter E.
I think the picture speaks for itself. The kid can (and does!) run circles around me. He's always been an active little boy but thankfully has a calm side and can play for hours by himself with only a few toys. I love that we can go on long hikes without him asking to be carried. When Julia was a baby we'd walk 2 miles a day and he was only 2 years old!

Now it's your turn. What little moment do you want to remember about your kids?
Don't forget to try out Mixbook and enter your page in this mcklinky to be entered to win a $50 Mixbook gift card - today is the last day to enter!




***I've decided one way I can make my already hectic schedule a little less complicated is to only post one page per week. Feel free to continue to post as many pages as you'd like for your children, but I will probably only be posting one page a week for a while. ****

The Big Questions

You never know when or where your kids are going to throw out those big questions. The ones about the birds and the bees. The ones about dying. The ones about Heaven.

Tonight Sam asked them all.

I was driving around Lake Minnetonka at the time, lost after a birthday party at a friend's new house in Wayzata.

It's a night I won't ever forget.

My answers weren't eloquent, but he didn't notice.

He listened intently and then asked his next question....


I had to stop and ask for directions from a stranger at the gas station in the middle of my talk with Sam, but he didn't skip a beat.

"When are you going to have another baby Mama?" (for the record he wants two siblings)
"How are babies made?"
"Where do babies come out?"

I know our conversation tonight was only the first of many more to come. I pray that the seeds of faith that were planted in his little heart will grow as his understanding of these big concepts do. Our life this side of Heaven is curvy and unpredictable.

Sometimes we could all use some help navigating our way through.

A bump in the road

Except today I'd call it a boulder in the road.

Trying to get past it is like trying to remove gum from the bottom of your shoe. The more you pull at it the stickier you gets.

I hate being sticky.

I hate that we are experiencing so much defiance from our almost 5 year old.
He said that if I made him do "insert generic request here" he would trip me.

Nice.

He's out of control and I'm sick of being pummeled by boulders at every turn.

We tell him we love him no matter what but his behavior is not OK. There are consequences. Tonight he has to spend some alone time in his room.

He says he doesn't know why he gets so out of control.

I said I forgive him. We pray together then we exchanged forehead kisses - our favorites.

I feel responsible for the negative change in him.

I pray for smoother roads.

The price of fun

Have you been to your county fair yet? Or how about your town's summer festival? If you have I'm guessing you've noticed that fun ain't cheap these days!

We went to our old town's ***** **** Days last week with plans to buy dessert at our church's Ice Cream Social and then people watch in the park. Apparently the kids didn't get the memo because from the second we arrived they were begging to go on the bouncy thing that cost $4 for 1 time through. Not that I blame them...look at it!


We let the kids pick whether they wanted to do the bouncy thing or purchase a small toy. We explained that they could have the toys forever, but the bouncy thing would only last for 5 minutes.

They chose the bouncy thing.

Maybe I can learn a thing or two from my kids. Things aren't what matter - it's the experiences we share with those we love that matter!

The next day we happened upon a local gardening center's Family Fun Day. The price of fun here was ZERO because they didn't charge for any of the games/activities. The kids played on the playground after face painting and games, made new friends, and I scoped out raspberry bushes.

The balloon animals have since faded away, but the price was right and my heart is in the right place.


(Look for a new discussion in my blog frog community about visiting the Fair this summer)

Dear Julia,

Today you are exactly two months shy of your third birthday, yet it feels like only yesterday that you were 8 pounds, 15 ounces. I used to think I would be sad to see you grow up. I wanted you to stay little longer. Now I know that if that were the case, I would miss out on the joy of watching you become the person God wants you to be.

Thank you for understanding in your own way why Mommy has to 'go to the office?" so much lately. I hate that we don't have as much down time together as we used to - maybe that's why I let you crawl into our bed more than I should...

I am so proud of the little girl you are becoming - outgoing and kind to strangers, loving and generous to your brother (most of the time), and so affectionate with Mommy and Daddy. You always greet us like we haven't seen each other in weeks by wrapping both your arms as far around us as you can.

Your brother's smile says it all - to be loved by you is a gift that brings a smile to our faces every single day.

We love you JoJo!