Halloween 2020 Ideas

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays!  We go all out with decorations, we usually have a party and invite the girls' friends, we have our favorite Halloween movies that we watch throughout October -- from Boo to You, Winnie the Pooh to Hocus Pocus!  We make it a month-long celebration.  Fall is my favorite time of year, the house is cozy, the weather is cozy, it's the start of the holiday season.  Our little New England town sets 2 hours for trick-or-treating on Halloween -- usually 5:00 to 7:00pm.  We have the kids come early, we have pizza and munchies, then head out for trick-or-treating.  We have no sidewalks on our street, and our town basically has 2 big streets that kids trick-or-treat on.  One is around the corner from us and there are some houses that give out candy along the way.  The 2 main streets go ALL OUT.  I mean, haunted houses, fire pits out front, hot cider, donuts, hay bale mazes, ghosts that fly out from the top of someone's barn, one man even adjusts all of his shutters on his 2 story home to make it look haunted and he dresses as Dracula.  It's so much fun for the kids -- and adults!  

Things are a little up in the air, to say the least this year.  It would not be a surprise if towns did not have trick-or-treating.  Or, if parents decided it was just safer to skip it this year.  There certainly are safety measures that can be taken - wearing face masks, hand sanitizer after each house, kids opening bags for homeowners to drop candy into with no contact. 

 

Last year's brownies!

Our plan for this year is what I'm calling "Reverse Trick-or-Treating."  The girls are still going to get dressed up but instead of trick-or-treating in town, we are going to put together goody bags and drive to friends' and family and drop our treats off to them.  The girls are excited and it will be something fun and different to do.  And we are still decorating, we'll still carve pumpkins, we'll still watch our Halloween shows all month.  The girls want to reverse trick-or-treat and then come home and have the party foods we would usually have.  My youngest, an avid baker, wants to have a cookie decorating contest, and she wants to watch her first "scary" movie.  My eldest is on board with all of that but also wants to watch Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Good thing it's on a Saturday this year -- it's going to be a BUSY day!!

Whatever you do, try to make the best of these crazy times we are living in and try to make it festive for your kids but also yourself - these are stressful times - have some fun!

Trampoline

Back in March, we heard that my youngest's school year was switching to remote learning and all of her end of year activities were cancelled.  No 8th grade trip to Washington DC, band competition & trip to Six Flags, softball tryouts, end of year concert, 8th grade graduation, and likely the summer musical that she's enjoyed being in the past two summers.  We anticipated that a "bummer summer" was looming ahead with no visitors, no trips, no sleepovers with friends, no annual '80's party, no beloved cousins coming to stay and the town pool closed for the season.  I gathered the girls and we made a summer wish list and a summer to-do list -- all things that we thought we could still do, in spite of the pandemic sweeping the globe.  The top of the list for my youngest - something she's been asking for for ages - a trampoline!  I took some of the money that we were refunded from the Washington trip and I found a trampoline on Amazon - searched all around but in addition to a run on toilet paper and sanitizing wipes, TRAMPOLINES and actually KIDDIE POOLS were also pretty darn hard to find!  I placed an order for both items in April and they arrived around Memorial Day weekend!  The pool was not a big success, some fun was had but it was a hard summer to keep a kiddie pool going - a run of cool days led to little use and a need for a lot of scrubbing and chlorine shock - and with so little rainfall (we must be in a drought this summer!) it was hard to justify constantly emptying and filling the pool.  But the trampoline...  BIG hit!  My youngest is out there a ton (pictured above) and my eldest enjoys it too - to bounce on but also she has spent quite a bit of time just lying on it and reading this summer!  And my husband, the biggest kid of all, loves to jump on it!  Summer is winding down, this will be enjoyed into the fall and then we'll tackle how to store it this winter - yikes.  But much loved and used this summer - well worth it!

Summer Garden

We tried our second garden this summer!  This was a trial and error year which was prompted by the Coronavirus global pandemic.  Back in April, supermarkets seemed to be clearing out - in addition to toilet paper, sanitizing supplies and even bread and baking supplies running out, locally we were low on things like eggs.  We know lots of people in our town that have chickens or ducks for eggs and I was deeply regretting not having our own chickens!  (Although, truthfully, I've heard some stories that make me think YIKES... the term "egg bound" springs to mind...)  But a conversation with my bestie about the value of being more self-sufficient got me motivated to start our first garden here!  And, with a long "pandemic summer" looming ahead of us I thought a summer garden would be a great project to keep the girls entertained.  (I was half right...)  My friend told me that seeds were also hard to come by this year, but we had a canister of (old) heirloom seeds that I had been holding on to for years.  We decided to build raised garden beds on the sunniest side of our house.  That side of the has a light layer of gravel on the ground (the former homeowner kept a camper over there) so this was an easy way to plant a garden without having to use a roto-tiller.  My husband built two simple wood framed boxes and we had a load of dirt delivered to fill them.  All of the time and effort to prep this year is done and next year will be a piece of cake!  We planted our seeds after doing some internet research about what each plant would need (amount of space, sun, etc.).  We also tried planting a few cut up potatoes with eyes, some green onions that we had used and started in a jar of water until roots had grown again.  

And we planted some already started mint and tomato plants.  The girls were able to watch the plants from their bedroom windows this summer which was fun for them and my eldest turned out to be quite the farmer!  The garden ended up being HER project this summer - her younger sister did a lot of cooking, which she enjoys, but she is not terribly interested in gardening.  But differences make life interesting!  Anyway, our old seeds were...too old.  But we got a few little potatoes, lots of mint, TONS of tomatoes, some basil...  All in all, not a bad harvest!  Of course our family farmer, happens to be a vegetarian who does not like tomatoes.  So I tried some new recipes that transformed tomatoes into things she would eat.  We tried fried green tomatoes which were delicious, Half Baked Harvest Easy Sheet Pan Tomato Herb Pizza which was a big hit (my husband liked it better than take-out!), roasted tomato pasta sauce, and tomorrow I will try my hand at fresh salsa.  We look forward to next year's garden, trying some new things (getting new seeds!) and learning from this year's experience.  

At Last, Spring?

It was a beautiful day here in Southern NH, and while Daddy was working, the girls and I were feeling like we should be out enjoying the fresh air and sunshine!  What a lengthy process to get us out the door (into our own yard...).  First, we had to find appropriate warm weather clothing.  That took longer for my little girlie, because I thought this would be the perfect time to go through her piles of shorts from last summer to see which ones still fit!  Hilarity ensued, as it seems to, when my two girls and I spend any amount of time working on project together.  More on that in another post.  We finally found an outfit!

Now, lunch -- we'd decided on "munchy picnic-style" food for lunch.  I pulled out two plastic serving trays -- went searching for the one large one that I like to use for just such an occasion.  In the kitchen, no.  In the laundry room, no.  In the storage closet, no.  Then I remembered -- it's in the playroom with every large Lego creation my little girlie has made!  Moving on to find something else...  Got my trays, pulled out pita chips and hummus, pulled out dipping pretzels and fancy mustard, sliced up cheese, pulled out crackers, grapes, beverages...  Finally, we are ready to walk out the door!  We rearrange some furniture to allow everyone a seat near the food.  We sit, and start to eat, and enjoy the sunshine!

And two minutes pass...  And my girls are ready to go inside because there are bugs outside!  Oh the horror!  Seriously?  We've been prepping for over an hour and you give it two minutes!  Somehow we pushed through had a bite to eat and then we moved onto outdoor projects.  My husband is having back surgery soon and he must avoid any lifting for 4 - 6 weeks, so I told the girls we are going to have to pitch in more than usual.  They worked together to put out our pretty collection of painted garden stones, and I worked on trimming up my hydrangea and raking leaves leftover from the fall.  My little one pulled her bike out of the shed.  It was a fun and fairly productive day!  I was very happy that my girls were able to find their inner outdoorswomen and "tough it out" in spite of the bugs!  (Although, they both abandoned me when I moved out front to rake...  Baby steps!)

How are you enjoying the nice Spring weather?

Re-Organizing a Child's Room

Here's the "After"

It is February recess here and we have friends traveling to Florida, friends traveling to Africa -- what exciting locale did we travel to?  My youngest daughter's bedroom!  Woo hoo!  ;)  I work part-time from home and still needed to get my hours in, and my husband had Mon & Tues off, so we had hoped to do some fun things while he was off.  Unfortunately, he got a 24-hour flu bug and we quarantined him away from the rest of us all day on Monday!  While he was in quarantine ;) I got a burst of Spring (overly optimistic at this point) cleaning energy, and talked the girls into tackling my youngest daughter's room! I had a flash the other night of a different furniture set up in her room that I thought might give her more space.  We moved here almost 3 years ago and her room was the first one painted and one of the first to be set up.  At the time, I thought I was arranging her furniture in the best way possible with the configuration of door, windows, closet.  It worked for a long time, but lately I've been feeling like it was getting cluttered and feeling tight.  

Previously, when you entered the room, the bed was placed opposite the door, horizontally.  There was a small area to the right of that (where her bed is now) that was open floor space for her to play.  Recently I had a thought of, "I wonder if I can fit the bed in between the windows?"  I measured it out first -- ALWAYS a good idea before you start moving heavy furniture!!  It looked like it would fit and so we got started!  My eldest daughter, bless her heart, was up for helping Mom with the heavy lifting!  The worst thing to move was her little white dresser (right side of the picture).  It was awkward to move and HEAVY!  The carpets were also a pain to move!  Ideally, you would take everything out of the room, lay down the area rugs, and then bring the furniture back in.  But, there was no way that I was taking her bed apart -- that would have been a project in itself!  So, we moved as much stuff out as possible, leaving the bed (largest item) and the dresser (heaviest item).  We rolled the carpets up and moved the bed first -- piece of cake!  It is a beautiful, sturdy bed, but thankfully it is also super easy to move!!  Then we rolled out 1 area rug and vacuumed it thoroughly and then did the same with the second area rug (the rug is actually 2 identical area rugs that I bought at Target for $100 each.  We've had them since before she was born (she's 9) and I still love them!  Thankfully, so does my girlie!  She likes to try to play hopscotch on the squares...).  We slid one into place under the bed -- not too tricky, just had to lift up one corner of the bed.  Then the second rug...  In our first attempt, we had the HEAVY dresser on the wall to the left of the picture, facing the bed, and so all of the dresser legs had to be on the rug -- VERY difficult to maneuver!  We left it that way for the night, and in the morning I still did not love the way it looked and thankfully my husband was up and feeling better and he moved the dresser to where it is now.  That made a big difference!  

"Before"

The biggest change in the room was the bed -- just flipping it to the opposite side, I cannot even tell you how much larger her room looks now!  My "before" picture is from the first week we moved -- I think it looks roomier here due to a combo of the camera angle and the fact that over the past 3 years she's accumulated a lot more -- including a big toy box!  In addition to rearranging her furniture and giving her room a good Spring cleaning, we also took the opportunity to go through everything to de-clutter!  My eldest daughter was so helpful with this -- the 3 of us sat on the floor and started with the stuffed animals.  My youngest LOVES stuffed animals and they seem to multiply quickly in her room!  We went through all of her stuffed animals and made piles of things that we are keeping in her room, things that we want to keep in her "special box" as a keepsake, things that are broken and could be thrown away, and things that we don't need and we can give away to someone else.  We followed the same process with her closet, in particular with her box of dress up things!  With both groups of items, my eldest would hold something up and ask her little sister, "Do you need this?"  Immediately, "YES!"  And if it was something that was in good shape, we know that she loves it, have seen her wear or use it, we would put it in the "keep" pile.  There was a large number of items in both groups that my eldest and I knew right away could go in the trash or giveaway piles, but still, my little girlie's first answer was KEEP!  My eldest would then say, "Really?  You really need to keep (fill in the blank)?"  Yes!  "But I never even see you playing with it!" or, tease her gently, "Really?  You need to keep stuffed BAT?"  The 3 of us had lots of laughs during the process -- watching my eldest grab various crazy dress up items and put them on -- light up sunglasses, boa, you name it!  She reached in her little sister's toy box and then screamed when her hand laid on a stuffed rat!!  (Beanie Baby)  But at first glance she thought it was a real rat!  We laughed hysterically over that and it went right into the giveaway pile!  We got everything de-cluttered and organized and into place on the first day and by the end of the second day we also had everything re-hung on her walls,  

It was not a relaxing, tropical vacation, but we all felt like we had accomplished something, my girlie loves her "new" room, has a fresh start when school is back in session, and we all had a surprisingly fun time with lots of laughs!!  Now my eldest wants us to work on her room next!!

Make Time for Quality Time!

Every year I have the best intentions for what I think will make a special holiday season for myself and my family.  Newsflash -- nothing ever works out the way I plan!  This year, one of my big goals has been to try not to get too caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday and make sure that we are making time for quality time together.  For example, while I would love to get my gift wrapping done as soon as possible, I am choosing to NOT lock myself up in my room wrapping while my kids are downstairs playing.  (That happened last year...)  So I still have wrapping to do, BUT, I had fun yesterday afternoon baking with my littlest cutie pie!  And then last night, after dinner, we all sat down as a family to watch "A Christmas Story" which we watch once a year and we all find it entertaining (my little dolly relates to the boy who can't bend his arms because his mother has him so bundled with snow clothes to keep him warm!).  While we did that, my little one and I sat at the coffee table and colored in a Christmas coloring book that she found in her book case -- I always love to color, and we don't do it as often as we should!

Our town does a lot of fun things this time of year and sadly, we seemed to miss most of them this year!  I was sick the day the town did their annual tree lighting, and we were out of town celebrating an early Christmas with family when the town had caroling, hay rides with Santa, a holiday tree festival and activities for the kids.  But, the weekend before that we took a drive up North to meet my aunt and to go to a Holiday Stroll!  The girls and I went and it was fun to see the live nativity scene, the lights and our favorite -- a tiny horse!  So adorable!!  Lots of people there, so my little one opted not to see Santa, but we were all glad that we made the trip to spend some time with our aunt and just to enjoy a nice night of Christmas music and Christmas lights and holiday cheer!

It's good to stop and remind ourselves that the season is not about the gift giving, and that long after the kids have forgotten what is under the tree, hopefully they will still remember the special times shared with loved ones!

    

Earth Day - Fairy House!

 My husband was off work today and he and our littlest girlie spent a busy Earth Day going to the Recycling Center (we do not have garbage service - we take our garbage, MUCH less than we used to accumulate! - and our recyclables -- MUCH more than we used to accumulate! -- to the town's Recycling Center!), then came back to work on cleaning up the yard.  They also worked together on setting up our daughter's sweet little fairy house!  This is year 2 for the fairy house, and she has gathered quite a large number of adorable items -- some from gifts, lots of natural materials, some recycled materials.  It's such a fun project! 

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day?

Encouraging Your Children to Try Different Activities

Are you a parent that gives a gentle nudge to encourage your child or are you a "shover?"  My husband and I are definitely more nudgers, but that nudge can go from gentle to firm depending on the situation.  (Speaking metaphorically of course, not advocating actually physically nudging or shoving your child...)

When our teenager was younger, she was not necessarily interested in any activities, but my husband and I both feel that if it is at all possible, we want to encourage our kids to try different things to see where their interests and passions lie.  When her younger sister was born, we wanted our elder daughter to have something special to do that summer and not feel like the whole world revolved around the new baby, so we signed her up for a dance summer camp.  Week-long summer camps are a GREAT way to try things out -- they are not as big a time or financial commitment and it gives your child a chance to test the waters and see if they would be interested in doing something long term.  Our daughter loved dance camp, made a friend who ended up going to elementary school with her, and both girls signed up for dance in the fall.  Our girl loved dance at first, but then she seemed to find it a drag and she was not as interested.  We "nudged" her (firmly) into staying through the year (she had been in for months) because we explained that there was a recital and they were counting on her to be there.  It was mildly torturous for all of us because she did not want to be in dance and frankly, we did not want to hear her whine and complain, BUT, we are sticklers about honoring your commitments and we all suffered through.  The recital day arrives and lo and behold she LOVED it -- had a great time, wanted to do dance again!  She stuck with dance for two more years and then decided she was no longer interested and ready to try something else. 

She became a Girl Scout and loved that and stuck with that until we moved, and now she helps out her sister's Brownie troop when she can. Thanks to the generosity of Gramby and Grandpa, she (and our little one) took swimming lessons for a number of years, and she also thanks to G & G took a couple of years of sailing lessons which she really loved until the last day of the last year she did it and some boys were really nasty (with comments) to her and made her cry.  There was no getting her to try again the next year. 

In the 4th grade in NY, it was time to pick an instrument and have the opportunity to learn to play and join the band.  She wanted to play and we nudged her toward clarinet because I had one already.  She got into band but hated to practice and there were some fits and tears and again she wanted to quit but again, we firmly nudged her into sticking it out because of her commitment to the band concert.  In 5th and 6th grade in NY she was in band and jazz band and enjoyed that more than she had in 4th grade.  When I researched towns in NH for our move, I made sure to look to see if the schools had band and in particular jazz bands because she really enjoyed that!  Before we moved to NH, she was a little hesitant about starting up with band here, but we gently nudged saying that's the best way to make friends -- you instantly have something in common with them!  She joined band here last year and impressed everyone immediately, because she started school here one week before the holiday concert but she was ready (the band director - now her very favorite teacher - said she was more prepared than some of the kids who had been here the whole year!).  We nudged and nudged to get her to try out for jazz band this year and guess what?  She got in, she loves it, and her very best friends (5!) are girls in the bands!  Sometimes we parents know what we are doing!  ;)  

One thing that she has always done, is write.  She is a very talented writer (teachers have told us for years -- it's not just a mom's bias...) but since we moved, she had really gotten out of writing.  I had a long talk with her last week about picking it up again.  She had wanted to be a writer since 3rd grade and then this past year switched her goal to screen writer and was saying that she doesn't like writing any more because scripts are easier, she sees things in her head of how she would film them, etc.  I told her that she's a talented writer and it's like a muscle that you should keep exercising and that regardless or what type of writer she wants to be, the best thing is to write, write, write -- anything!  I told her that we've never been the type of parents to shove our kids into things (I used the example that her dad would never force sports on the girls if they weren't interested), but when things are important for them we will give a gentle or firm nudge if need be.  I reminded her about band and how we nudged and how well that turned out.  I also reminded her that her dad is an excellent skater -- played hockey for years, used to teach "Ice Babies " (skating for little kids), ice skates and roller skates / blades -- but when he had tried to get her on the ice or on roller skates she adamantly refused, so now she does not know how to do those things.  And she wishes that she COULD do those things.  I wish my parents had pushed me to continue to take piano lessons -- I took them for  awhile, hated to practice, whined, and they (Dad?) let me quit (after the recital!).  I would dearly love to really be able to play!

After that conversation, my girl grabbed a notebook and started writing about the daily happenings at school.  She wrote and wrote that first night and the next night she decided to type all of that up on the computer and she's been writing just about every day since, adding to her original story.  It's quite entertaining, and she's really excited about it!  I'm glad I nudged!

We're parents, we know our kids, we know what it's like to be a kid, and we know what life brings as an adult.  I have no problem nudging a little to make sure my girls get opportunities to discover what is really important to them, and where their interests lie.  Being a well-rounded individual will only benefit them in life.  And my little one?  She's in Girl Scouts now, and in two years she will be nudged into trying an instrument (doesn't have to be a clarinet -- that one's occupied these days!  Did I mention she's first chair, first clarinet?  ;) or joining the chorus, or trying out for a sport!  Nudged with love and the best intentions for a full life! 

Easy Make Your Own Manger for Kids

Last weekend, my Sunday School class and I made these adorable little make your own mangers - a craft that I found on Pinterest!  I teach Sunday School to 8 third graders (my own third grader included!) and I am always looking for easy, not too messy things for us to do during class!  This craft only involved brown paper lunch bags, newspaper (1 piece crumpled in the bottom for stability and space filler!), yellow tissue paper cut into strips, a print-out from the website that originally posted it (link below), scissors, tape and crayons.  The website has the picture of the star and the baby Jesus in color, but my class likes to color, so when I printed, I chose to print it "grayscale" so it came out in black and white and then my class added their own colors!  This came out so cute -- we made enough for each child to take one home, and we left one extra on the table in the rectory for our pastor to enjoy!

 

Click here to get the full directions and to print out the star and Baby Jesus for your own manger! 

Pumpkin Fairy House

We carved pumpkins on Sunday -- beautiful fall day!  We were able to do most of the messy stuff outside on the table in the backyard -- no fuss, no muss!  ;)  My husband helped my 13-year-old, and she chose a "tri-force" (3 triangles that make up 1 large triangle -- it's from Legend of Zelda, if I'm not mistaken!) and I carved a pumpkin fairy house for my little one!  As my 13-year-old said, "Mommy, I think your inner child is coming out in this one!"  True story!  I saw a picture of this online (Pinterest?) and I had kept it in mind for this Halloween, as my 8-year-old is ALL about fairies!!  It was quite simple, actually. 

First, I carved the top, as you would with most pumpkins.  Then I carved a "door" on the front side of the pumpkin -- as you can see in the picture, I tried to be artsy and I kind of angled the top -- totally up to you what shape you want to use!  This "door" is really just the opening to the fairy house -- can be any shape and you can just throw that piece out -- no need to keep it.  Then I carved 2 windows, one on either side of the door.  I cleaned out all of the "guts" and seeds -- saved the seeds to roast, of course!  My little girlie found some sticks in the backyard and I used those to make panes in the windows -- simply cut them (broke them) to be a tiny bit bigger than the windows and then stuck them into the flesh of the pumpkin.  They fit perfectly! 

I had purchased some of the battery-operated candles for our pumpkins this year -- safer than lit candles -- and I put one of them inside as though it were a little campfire for the fairies.  I also added some acorns and small pine cones that I found around our yard (use whatever you think fairies would decorate with!).  I also made a little ladder our of twigs, twine, and some pony beads, just for a little bling!  ;)  As a finishing touch, I put some white glue on the top of the pumpkin and dusted it with white glitter so that it would look snow-capped or fairy-dusted -- use your imagination! 

After I was all done, Tinkerbell and her sister Periwinkle moved in and my daughter could not be happier!

"A Law on Chores"

My 8-year-old came home with a "What's Your Opinion?" essay that she had to write in school regarding an article her class read about "A Law on Chores."  Apparently Spain might pass a law saying that kids have to do household chores and my daughter's class was supposed to write about their opinion on whether the United States should follow suit.  Here's my little darling's response:

"I don't think the US should pass the law for kids.  First, if the kids are doing chores what are the parents doing?  Second, kids need time for playing and other activities like going outside or going to the park.  Finally, some chores are too dangerous like dusting something that is glass that would hurt.  Those are three reasons why the US should not pass this law."

Now, she does make some valid points -- it is very important for kids to get outside for fresh air and exercise, and really, dusting glass can be very dangerous!  ;)  She lost me a little at "If kids are doing chores, what are the parents doing?"  Why, outside playing at the park!  ;) 

But in all honesty, I feel that chores are a good thing for kids -- at least simple, age-appropriate ones -- but I think this is something that parents should enforce, not the government -- in my opinion!  

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Summer Planning

So usually I try to make a "What we did this summer" recap list at the end of summer vacation.  It helps the girls to remember what they did before they get back to school and face the inevitable first week of school "What did you do this summer?" questions.  And, it is a nice keepsake for us to look back and remember the fun times we had.  Some summers fly by and I feel like we didn't get to do much, and then I am surprised when I sit down and type up my list.  This year I want to try something different and create a pre-summer list of all of things that we are hoping to do this summer and then I'll compare it at the end of the summer and see how well we did!

Here goes:

- Work in the garden / yard
- Swim in our new pool (got one of those 15' round inflatable ring pools to help us deal with leaving our beautiful in-ground pool back in NY -- the one thing they couldn't get on the truck!)
- Campfire!
- S'mores!
- Visit the town playground
- Go see a play at our local theater -- planning to take the girls to see "The Emperor's New Clothes!"
- Sleepovers for our eldest daughter
- Playdates for our youngest
- Paint the living room (ok, that's a Mommy & Daddy project...)
- Paint the outside doors (again, Mommy & Daddy...)
- Paint rocks with the girls -- saw a cute craft we want to try!
- Visit the town library
- Try a new-to-us diner in the next town over
- Visit Cathedral of the Pines
- Lobsters at Brown's Lobster Pound  (ok, so we just did this with Grandpa last week, but I'm sure we'll go again!) - my eldest discovered crab cakes and loved them and my youngest discovered the little lobster legs and loved them!
- Swimming at Hampton Beach (NH's ocean beach)
- Swimming & a picnic at Newfound Lake
- 4th of July weekend "up country" at my aunt & uncle's house
- Fireworks
- Visit with my sister-in-law and her family when they come out in July (yay!)
- Nana's visit!
- 8th birthday celebration for Kenzie!
- Clean out the shed (Mom & Dad -- have to hold myself accountable for some items, might as well put them here!)
- Girls & Daddy play street hockey in the driveway -- one of their favorite outdoor pastimes!
- Swim at the town pool - beautiful with a splash park and water slide into the pool!
- Swim at the town's swimming pond
- Swim at the little lake that we found nearby - one of the girls' favorite places to go!
- Visit the NH State Park that is just down the road from us
- Go to see a movie - Planes 2 is coming out on Kenzie's birthday - she's very excited!
- Go to Kimball Farms for ice cream
- Find the Girl Scout store -- have to get my little Brownie a sash!  (Oh, and then sew everything on to the sash...)
- Go to see the summer production of "The Little Mermaid" musical at the high school (one of Liv's BFF's is in it!)
- Laura Ingalls Wilder Day at the Genesee Country Village & Museum - of course!!!  Wouldn't miss it!
- Trip to NY to visit Grandpa, Gramby, friends & family
- Trip to Long Island to visit Grammy & the LI relatives
- Girls to have an overnight with Grandpa & Gramby on their sailboat
- De-clutter toys in the girls' rooms and the play room -- not necessarily a fun activity, but important!
- "Street Name" project -- if Liv and I work on it this summer, I promise to share!
- Start playhouse project?  This one will be a LOT of work, so we'll have to see - again, if it gets done, I'll share!
- Buy a new car -- fun for the whole family!  ;)
- Bake with the girls
- Have Auntie Pam over to visit
- Try new recipes -- 1 a week?  Let's see if we can stick to this!
- Work on family scrapbook project
- Vacation Bible School -- Liv is required to do 20 hours of community service in 8th grade and has the opportunity to help out with our church's Vacation Bible School -- she can earn 15 hours!

Ok!  Sounds like a busy summer!  We'll see how far we get with all of this -- wish us luck!!  I'll let you know how it goes in September!

Brag Book for Child's Schoolwork

We are in the midst of the last week of school before summer vacation, and the girls (and teachers!) are cleaning out their desks and lockers and bringing home all of that great end of the year stuff!  All of that stuff that I look through and then think, "What do I do with all of this?"  Most years I put it into the girls' "special boxes" aka 20 gallon plastic tubs that are now stored in my big storage closet (because our new house doesn't have a basement).  I always think that I should pull those tubs out to make more room -- at the rate that I am going, by the time these girls are in their 20's they will each have no less than TEN "special tubs!" 

My littlest girlie came home with the most wonderful thing that her 2nd grade teacher - bless his heart - put together!  It's called a "brag book" and it's a 1" 3-ring view binder with plastic sleeve protectors inside and inside the plastic sleeve protectors are various things that my daughter did in school throughout the year!!  A few pieces of artwork, a few pieces of writing, a memory booklet that she made to remember 2nd grade, a birthday book filled with handwritten letters from her classmates -- those were wonderful!  What a FABULOUS idea!!  Anyone who worked with me at my former job knows how much I ADORE view binders!!  I had a floor to ceiling bookshelf filled with them -- all white, all with labels on the spine in the same style font -- a sight to behold!  I think this is a great solution to my schoolwork storage issue!  I can put together snapshots of my girls' schoolwork for each grade - nice and neat!  And I should be able to get all of their binders in ONE tub -- woo hoo!  An even less expensive, greater space-saving idea would be to put the work into 10" x 13" envelopes - one for each year.

If I were starting this with them when they were in Kindergarten or Preschool (because I have TONS of preschool stuff too...), using the view binders I would have had my girls draw a picture to slide in the front of the binder and write their own name and age -- what a sweet keepsake I think this will be!  I'm late to the party (as my 13-year-old would say), but I can still have the girls do that from here on out.  For the early binders I'll just find a piece of their artwork from each year that I can use.  If you use the envelope idea, you can do the same thing, having the child draw on the front of the envelope. 

Can't wait -- great summer project for us!

What do you do with all of the school stuff that your kids bring home at the end of the year?

Enterprise City

Today my eldest, Livvie, is off to Enterprise City with her fellow 7th graders.  Enterprise City is an amazing program where students get to apply lessons they've learned in a real world setting.  It's a great part of the 7th grade curriculum here, and they have been preparing for this trip for about a month now.  In school they've been learning about things like banking (filling out a checkbook register, writing a check -- things my husband and I never learned in school!), creating a resume, filling out a job application, and interviewing for a job.  The program incorporates aspects from a number of standard classes such as math, language arts, social studies, as well as finance, civics, and creative arts.

The kids got to learn about different jobs that were available, create their own resume, fill out an application, and interview for their desired job.  They are hired for a job and learn about it in preparation to actually DO the job when they are at Enterprise City for the day.  Jobs ranged from police officer, postal worker, banker, retailer, newspaper staff - they even have a little Dunkin Donuts in there (it IS in New England -- we LOVE our Dunkin Donuts here!).  Our daughter was interested in being the co-editor of the newspaper and applied for and interviewed for that job.  After her interview she was optimistic that she would get it.  A couple of days later, my husband and I picked her up from school and she was NOT a happy camper!  She said she'd received her job assignment but didn't get the job she applied for -- instead of co-editor of the newspaper, she was hired as Managing Editor, which means she runs the show!  The kids receive "paychecks" for the job and get to deposit them at the bank and use their "money" at the other businesses in Enterprise City.  Our girl is apparently the highest paid person in the City!  Who wouldn't be happy with all of that?  Who goes on a job interview for one job and gets a promotion before even starting?  Her irritation was because with this job (given to her by her teacher who thinks the world of her!) she has to give a speech in front of everyone at the beginning of the day, AND at the end of the day!  She's not a fan of public speaking, but my husband and I think it's a great experience for her and we're thrilled that our girls will both have the opportunity to participate in a program like this one!  (I wish I could be there to tape her speeches and take pictures, but of course she's 13 and that would be so embarrassing to her...)

If you are anywhere near the Southern NH area and home school your children, they have a home school program as well!  They also have summer camps.  Check them out -- www.enterprisecity.org!

What We Did This Summer - 2013 Version

I had promised myself that I was going to do a better job of keeping up with posts on my blog this year -- and this summer pretty much went by without a single post!  :(  It has been a busy summer - one for the record books, for sure, but not with our traditional summer activities.  My eldest daughter is struggling with anxiety over having to go back to school and how quickly the summer seemed to slip by.  She has asked me twice if I would post my usual list of what we did over the summer, so hopefully this will help her out by reminding her of some of the fun things we did!

- One of the last days of school, early in the summer, Daddy picked the girls up from school and took them to the zoo
- We had our end-of-year Girl Scout ceremony, bridging the Daisy troop to become Brownies
- We had a fun Lalaloopsy birthday pool party for our new 7-year-old (my youngest)
- We went on a vacation to New Hampshire to visit with our family
- While in NH we went to Newfound Lake, one of our favorite places to spend the day at the beach, and we had a picnic lunch with the family, spent the day in the water, and made sand castles
- Also while in NH I went to my favorite country store with my aunts and brought my two girls shopping with the ladies for the first time
- We went to Hampton Beach, NH and enjoyed a day at the beach, swimming in the ocean
- During our trip to Hampton, we went to Brown's our favorite seafood place and the girls tried lobster
- We went to Funspot "the world's largest arcade" in NH and played skee ball, air hockey, video games and then mini golf outside (and my little one desperately wanted to try ZIP LINING.... (daredevil!) but settled on swinging on a swingset until she fell off and scraped her knees big time!  (Barely a tear though, bless her brave little heart!)
- We went out for another seafood dinner with the whole family to the Weathervane in Weirs Beach, NH and then walked on the boardwalk, went into an old-time arcade, and got an ice cream
- We enjoyed time with family and I got to see a cousin that I haven't seen in years and the girls got to meet her daughter who is around their age - my girls always love adding new cousins to the fold!
- We went to the Genesee Country Village with Daddy one day for my 12-year-old to have a fitting for her costume for the Independence Day celebration on the 4th of July
- We volunteered as a family at the Lifetime Assistance Airport 5k - a charitable event that the agency I work for holds every year.  We all had fun and we got to see special guest, Abby Wambach speak right after she broke her world record for most goals scored!
- The girls and I went to the Genesee Country Village Independence Day celebration and my eldest once again represented Rhode Island (tallest girl, smallest state - go figure!) as a maiden for the day, walking in the parade and being at all of the special events
- The girls and I went back to Genesee Country Village in August and enjoyed Laura Ingalls Wilder Day - we have gone every year since it first began (5 or 6 years ago?).  The girls went in costume (of course!) and this year's special guest was Allison Arngrim, who played Nellie Oleson on the tv show. She is so funny and entertaining -- we had a great time as always!
- For my birthday we went out on Grandpa & Gramby's sailboat, sailed around the bay and then over to an Italian restaurant on the bay for a lovely birthday dinner!
- We also had a special birthday dinner for my 7-year-old and Gramby who share the same birthday!
- The girls spent a lot of time with Grandpa, who watched them in the afternoons while Daddy and I were working - lots of lunches out, some visits to Great Gram, and at least one trip on the sailboat with Grandpa & Gramby
- My littlest girlie spent one week at Princess Dance Camp this summer (her 3rd year, I believe) and she had a great time and we all enjoyed her recital at the end of the week!
- She also spent two weeks at the yacht club taking swimming lessons -- she did great this year!  Next year, level 4!
- My eldest had a fun day with a friend that started as a "couple of hour visit" and turned into an all-day, stay for dinner affair!
- My little went to 2 birthday parties for 2 different friends
- Nana came to visit last week from Monday to Sunday and the girls enjoyed getting to spend every day with her!
- Shopping sprees for school
- Dinners out on a few different occasions - Red Robin, Shogun Palace, our favorite diner, Applebees
- A couple of visits to local playgrounds
- A fun trip to the zoo with a friend and her mom
- A fun afternoon with Gramby - lunch, playground, and creating beautiful pottery pieces at Color Me Mine!
- Probably some more things I'm forgetting...  like swimming in our pool!

Pretty long list, lots of stuff going on!  And that isn't even the half of it -- the biggest thing we did this summer was Daddy went on a couple of interviews for a new job in New Hampshire, which he got, and we decided to take it and move our family to New Hampshire!  Yeah, that was pretty big...  We're actually still in the process of that "activity" right now -- getting the house ready to put it on the market and now keeping it spotless for unexpected walk throughs by our realtor and potential home buyers is keeping us pretty busy!  More info on that to come!

Hope you enjoyed your summer and best wishes for a great new school year!

Girl Scout Daisy to Brownie Bridging Ceremony

Tonight was the last meeting for my Daisy Girl Scout troop!  Tonight the girls (and myself and my co-leader) all bridged from Daisy Scouts to Brownie Scouts!  It's been a great year and it was wonderful to celebrate with the girls and their families.  I told my co-leader the other day that all year I find that I stress and worry getting ready for every meeting, trying to get loose ends tied up, make sure everyone knows about the meeting, what they need to bring, what I need to bring...  And then I get there and the girls are so much fun and things happen the way the happen -- either smoothly or not, but we always have fun and enjoy ourselves, and I always leave feeling so thankful that I have had this opportunity to share Girl Scouting with my daughters and their friends.  I highly recommend it, if you have the chance -- go for it!  Even if you aren't up for being a leader, leaders always love to have parent helpers and your daughter will love to have you help out her troop!  I've been particularly blessed this year with a wonderful co-leader, some really helpful parents, a great troop of girls, and also my 12-year-old daughter who helps at my troop meetings.  What a truly lovely thing for my two girls and I to get to do together!

For our bridging ceremony, I typed up the "inside" of an invitation on the computer and then printed copies out for the girls to decorate the outside covers.  They took these home to invite their families to our big ceremony.  We worked on learning two songs to sing to the parents -- "Amazing Daisies" an adorable little song we found on iTunes -- and "Make New Friends" a Girl Scout classic that I remember from when I was a Girl Scout (about 100 years ago...).  My little one made up a few hand movements to go along with "Make New Friends" so she taught them to the rest of the troop and they performed this little dance while singing.

We were able to borrow an actual little bridge for the girls to walk over to symbolize their journey from Daisies to Brownies.  We read a story -- another Girl Scout classic -- "The Brownie Story" and we had the girls cross the bridge and peek over to see their reflection in the "pond" (full-length mirror on the floor).  We handed them each a bag with an adorable certificate that we found on Etsy.com, the badges they earned this year, and a sweet dvd that my 12-year-old made on Windows Movie Maker.  It starts with a video clip of the girls singing "Amazing Daisies" (so cute!!) then there are still pictures from throughout the year and video clips of the girls individually telling what Girl Scouts means to them, all set to the Selena Gomez song, "Fly to Your Heart" from the first Tinker Bell movie.  At the end of the dvd she listed all of the girls names, the troop # and the year -- it's about 4-1/2 minutes long, but something I know I would (and will) definitely cherish as a parent!  I briefly thought about borrowing my dad's screen, projector and laptop to be able to show the dvd at the ceremony, but I decided simpler was better for a one hour meeting!  Aside from that we had certificates to thank our volunteer parents and everyone brought a snack to share. 

All in all, a really nice end to a really nice year of Scouting!  Now we can rest up and gear up our energy for next year!

Busy Bees!

I'm sure any of you that have children can relate to this being one of the busiest times of the year!  School is winding down and so are some of the kids activities, while some others are just gearing up! 

We are done with religion classes for the school year, there was an end-of-the-year bike drive that my eldest participated in with her class -- in one hour they received over 35 bikes for a wonderful local organization that collects bikes, fixes them up and gives them to people in need in the community.  She had a great time with that project! 

Early morning runs to drive my eldest to school in the morning for band is also done for the year - yay!  Her school band season ended with a concert for a week ago last Weds for the 5th and 6th grade bands and then this past Weds we were back for the 4th grade band and jazz band concert (my girl plays clarinet in the 6th grade band and the jazz band).  Oh!  And I almost forgot about our trip to the ball park to watch our girl play "The Star Spangled Banner" with her school's bands!  And thus we come to the end of band for this year.  While we were at her concerts, I was struck by the thought that this is it for her at this school -- next year she'll be in junior high at another school -- my how time flies!!

Girl Scouts is wrapping up for the year and as a leader of my little one's Daisy Girl Scout troop, I feel like I've been running a lot to wrap up the year for the girls.  Literally running last week when I had a GS troop meeting from 6:15 - 7:15 and then my other daughter's last jazz concert that started at 7:00 at a different school -- my little one and I ran in during their first song, a couple of minutes late, but thrilled that I had made it and that my daughter saw me and knew I was there.  It's hard to make it to everything all the time, but we do our best not to disappoint our girls!

This week I have a chicken bbq for over 300 people at work and we're getting my eldest ready for her 6th grade camp-out -- I still remember mine -- doesn't seem THAT long ago...  Next week is my last GS meeting for the year -- we're planning a bridging ceremony for the girls to bridge from Daisies to Brownies.  Lots of little details to plan! 

Looking forward to the week of 4th of July -- I'll be home with the girls, hopefully relaxing in the pool a little!  Whew...

Happy Easter!

This year we had a quieter holiday than usual – our usual plans changed and we decided to do something a little low-key for a change of pace! We tend to run from place to place trying to make the rounds to visit all of the family, and while we are blessed to have so much family to get together with, this year for Easter, we thought it would be nice to do something on a smaller scale. On Friday, the girls and I had our weekly visit with Great Gram at the nursing home – we brought her some sugar-free candy, a calla lily, and a couple of bunnies to decorate her room. We had a nice visit with her – my 6-year-old read two books to us and Gram was so pleased to hear her read. 

Saturday we did some house-cleaning (my 12-year-old even voluntarily cleaned her room!) and Saturday night I did some last minute prep for Easter – I made a cute “Peeps” candle that I saw on Pinterest (where else?) and I filled eggs for my husband to hide for an Easter morning egg hunt. The girls got up early and searched for their baskets and eggs, and we went to church, had a little brunch, and spent a quiet afternoon coloring our Easter eggs and watching Easter videos. We normally try to do both of those things before Easter, but we had a lot on our plates this past week and it was actually quite fun and very festive to do it on Easter! My mom is coming up from Florida this week – we can’t wait to see her!! – and I’m planning to make a ham for a belated Easter dinner with Nana!

Family Tree Scrapbook

This past weekend we went out of town to visit my husband's family.  On our way to dinner at his uncle's house, he took us on a little tour of the area that his parents grew up in.  He drove us by his mother's schools, the church his parents were married in, and both of his parents' childhood homes.  My mother-in-law was with us, and she definitely enjoyed the drive down memory lane, and the girls -- particularly our 12-year-old -- enjoyed seeing where Grandma grew up.  I have always tried to instill an interest of our family history in my girls.  They love visiting relatives, they love seeing old pictures, they love hearing old stories.  On the way home from dinner that night, I had an idea for a new project that I'd like to work on.  We have various family trees from different "branches" of our families, and while those are wonderful treasures, to my kids they are just names and dates on paper.  I have been wanting to create more of a family tree scrapbook with pictures and stories about our family members.  Before we left my mother-in-law's house yesterday, I went out into the street and took a picture of the house -- this is the house that my husband grew up in -- I'd like to add that into the book for future generations to see.  The next time we go to visit, we are going to take the same little tour and stop and take photos of all of the places that we saw the other day.  We'll also stop by my husband's high school which is in that area and take a photo of that.  We plan to do the same thing here in town, where I grew up, and when we go to visit my mom's family in New England -- hopefully this spring or summer. 

My daughter (12) is so excited about this project, that she went through two drawers worth of pictures today on her school vacation to pull out pictures of our family for our scrapbooks.  In her estimation, we're going to need 7 scrapbooks...  She will definitely carry on the role of family historian -- I have no worries there!

"Art-y" Party w/ Artist's Palette Cake

My eldest is turning 12 this year (sniff, sniff!) and for this year's party she decided to have an art-themed birthday party.  As you can probably tell by my recent posts, I've been all about Pinterest lately!  I wanted to find a creative cake for my daughter's birthday, so I went to Pinterest and found lots of ideas, but this was my favorite!  I bought this great artist palette for $4.99 at Hobby Lobby.  I baked cupcakes yesterday (even found paint-splattered cupcake wrappers!) and then this morning I took 1-1/2 tubs of vanilla frosting and in 7 bowls I added different food coloring and mixed up 7 different colors of frosting -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple -- and pink for my littlest girl!  I arranged the cupcakes on the artist palette to look like paint and put a paintbrush in the middle to finish it off.  Then I placed the whole thing on this mirror that I have on my dining room table.  It was an inexpensive wall mirror and one day I decided to put it on the dining room table with all white candles on it for a centerpiece -- and I decided I like it better on the table than the wall!  Everything looks better on it!  Candles reflect on it, flowers in a glass vase look beautiful, and this cupcake palette looks like it's on the frame of a painting - perfect! 

And the extra cupcakes are in my new cupcake holder (I've been longing for one and my husband bought it for me for my birthday)!   

We found some really cute invitations on Walmart.com, and for $0.28 a piece, I customized them with a picture of my girl and I ordered 8 cards -- 1 for each girl and an extra for me!  I love getting photo cards -- they are personal, they are a great keepsake for my girls' scrapbooks / baby books, and you'd pay more for a regular package of invitations! 

"Bright Circles" card from Walmart.com

To keep the girls entertained, and of course, to go along with the art party theme, we came up with three craft ideas.  My daughter had the idea to use black craft paper and to have the girls dip the end of a toilet paper or paper towel roll into paint and use that to create different designs on the paper.  We also bought each girl a little wooden easel and little canvas (3" x 3") from Joann's so that they could each paint their own little masterpiece.  And for the third art project, we bought a wooden letter for each girl's first initial (about 6" tall) and had them paint them with acrylic paints. 

Tiny canvas & easel - "Sunset" by the birthday girl!

Pink & Orange Polka Dot "M" - by my 6-year-old!

My girl loves art and this year we cleaned out our basement and rearranged it to make an art studio for our girls.  She wanted to host her party down there, and I decided that since I have off-white carpet in the dining room, where the big table is, that the art studio was a better idea with all of the paint!!  My husband set up a long folding table next to the little round table in the art studio.  My daughter covered both tables with newspapers which made for super easy, super quick clean up after the party! 

The "Art Studio"

We're still working on the art studio -- at some point when we have time, we'd like to paint the concrete wall and the floor.  For now though, we are extremely happy with the huge berber remnant that our friend Michael gave us from a job he was doing -- it covers a huge area of the floor! 

One of my favorite elements of the art party?  My daughter's outfit!  Never one to shy away from a theme, I suggested that she take an old pair of jeans and paint them to wear to her party!  She had fun doing that on Friday night -- I think she did a pretty good job!

My daughter had a great time -- she had fun with her friends, and I think they had a fun time too.  I loved that she is old enough that this year we just set everything up and she took over -- my husband and I relaxed in the living room until they called us for cake and ice cream.  Even our 6-year-old was like one of the big girls today -- she hung out with the girls and her sister never came up to complain about her once!  (Amazing!)