For our recent trip to Indiana, I packed each of our boys a backpack full of activities and books. I expected the boys to be responsible for their backpacks but thought I would carry everything for my 3 year old in a big bag.
That was not the case.
Caroline insisted on having a “pack pack” while we were getting ready and continued to insist on one throughout the trip.
She adores her two older brothers.
Whatever these big guys do…
she wants to be a part of it.
Have a wonderful weekend!
I’ve been away for the last 10 days with my family on vacation so I’m officially worn out.
Who knew going to the beach could tire out a person so much?
I’ll be back tomorrow.
The end of the school year always means tons of paperwork.
Notebooks. Folders. Projects.
All of which contain paper and lots of it.
And while everything my children make is precious and dear to me, cough, I needed a way to get some of it out of the house.
Instead of doing what I normally do – stand at the recycling bin and chuck the papers – I had the boys go through their papers and choose some of their must keeps.
It was a large pile.
I then brought out 4 envelopes and told them we were going to send some of the work to family. (My family members are now shaking their head).
The boys divvied up the papers among the grandparents while deciding to keep a few.
Tomorrow will be a trip to the post office where they can send their school work off.
And don’t worry Mom, I won’t mind if these papers end up in your recycling bucket.
But your grandchildren might.
đŸ™‚
Parenting can be a delicate balancing act.
Whether you are guiding your children in friendships, school, or at home, parents are always looking for this balance.
This past holiday weekend, my husband and I decided to take our family on a short “staycation” in town, visiting local attractions and spending one night in a hotel.
Our first stop was the Dallas Museum of Art – a fine institution in the art world.
There we contemplated. Observed. Pondered.
Found what the art meant to us.
We were one with the art.
At this point of our trip we were enlightened and philosophical.
And oh so bored.
We decided to change things up for our second stop.
Yes. We. Did.
We went to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum!
Want to broaden your children’s horizons and redeem yourself in their eyes as a satisfactory trip planner?
Go here. Nothing like a few shrunkin’ heads to help with that.
As our day ended my husband and I reviewed our two museum stops and felt like we had done our job as parents and found some balance for our children.
Refined and freakish all in one afternoon, in terms of parenting, you really can’t beat that.
I was cleaning off my desk today when I uncovered my sons’ bags they decorated at their Valentine’s party.
Appears to me that they already have conflicting views on love.
the 7 year old
the 10 year old
Looks like I’ll only have one romantic on my hands.
In an effort to have my boys try more food I took them to the grocery store to choose something for dinner.
My rule was the food needed to be something neither of them had ever tried.
We walked past the fruits and vegetables and nothing caught their eye.
The seafood department was different. I blame it on the worker who offered to take out a lobster for them. They were fascinated, getting to touch it and ask questions about the animal.
So they lingered in the seafood department and chose fish as their item to try.
Alex picked out some tilapia fillets while Andrew decided on catfish.
They decided to make their own fish sticks so we bought a fish fry mix as well.
Once we were home, the boys were very involved. Alex made the batter and they both dipped the fish.
Doesn’t quite live up to the Pepsi vs. Coke taste test hype but it worked.
Everyone had to taste both kinds of fish and give their vote as a favorite.
Alex loved the tilapia and ate several pieces. Of course, anything covered in tons of ketchup is always good. One vote for tilapia.
I chose the catfish as my favorite. One vote for catfish.
My husband chose the tilapia. Two votes for tilapia.
The deciding vote was all Andrew’s. Either a clear winner was about to emerge or he would declare a tie. This was his moment.
But …he was convinced we were trying to poison him.
“I can’t eat it.”
Eyes begin to water.
“It tastes terrible!”
At this point he’d eaten roughly one millimeter of the fish fry coating.
Cough, gag, cough.
“I can’t do it.”
“I hate this!”
Suddenly our fun experiment had come to a screeching halt. Just to be clear we were taste testing FISH STICKS! It can’t be that bad.
Maybe I should have just poured some Pepsi into a cup for them and called it done.
And so…the tilapia won by default.
I will call this experiment a success still and bring them to the store to choose something new to try. I’m not sure what item they will choose next but I can assure you when we walk past the seafood section Andrew will say, “There’s the catfish that I tried. It was gross. It made me cry.”
My good friend Melissa and her husband Ryan surprised me with a guest post – yes, people, my friend wrote a guest post out of the kindness of her heart. Or maybe she noticed the quality of my posts slipping and wanted to remedy the situation. Either way, enjoy a little humor and craftiness from my dear friend Melissa as she writes about making a birthday present for my son…
Thank you Melissa and Ryan! Andrew loved his bracelet and was super impressed his friend Alex made it.
If you would like more instructions on making survival bracelets go here.
I received many adorable handmade gifts from my children for Mother’s Day.
Apparently they were quite busy in school this past week making things.
But I do have to wonder what my 7 year old’s teacher thought when he turned in this acrostic poem…
Did you see the second M?
The teacher probably mistakenly believes Andrew and I could be on the cover of TIME magazine now.
For our recent trip to Indiana I tried a new technique for packing.
You see, when packing for 5 people who are going on a 4 night trip with 3 hotel stays, things need to be as organized as possible.
Our clothing needs ran the gamut, from graduation clothes to traveling clothes to caving clothes so I decided to pack all of the kids clothes into gallon sized Ziploc bags.
I first wrote out a label for each bag with the name of the day/event the clothes inside the bag would be for.
The kids and I then chose the clothes and included a pair of socks and some underwear into each bag.
I ended up with 5 bags for each child and found this system perfect for all of our late nights. It was easy to just grab a bag, hand the kids their clothes, and yell, “Oh my God it’s 10:30! Hurry up and shower!”
Now if only I could get my husband into littler clothing all of our packing dilemmas would be solved
Rub-a-dub dub, 2 kids in a tub!
Have a bubbly weekend!