Happy 4th of July (and a belated Happy July 1st for everyone in Canada)!
Hope you are getting to spend some time relaxing at the pool!
Category Archives: family
Backpack
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!
Superheros
I have blogged before about my love of Katie Moon’s art and today is the same but with a fun twist.
While Katie offers free downloads each week on her blog, she also has a business illustrating families.
Back in March I entered our family into a contest for her to draw our family. I had to give a little bio about each of us and hoped she would choose our entry.
Well, the good news was that Katie chose our family to illustrate!
I requested that we be drawn as superheros since that’s what the kids are often dressed up as and here’s the drawing…
Click here to see the post Katie did about us and our bios.
I especially love the way she was spot on in her depiction of my thighs 🙂
Thanks Katie, we love the illustration!
Cleaning
I’m taking the day off from blogging today to clean.
When your SON tells you he thinks it’s time to clean the bathroom,
you know you’ve ignored the task for too long.
Drowning in Paperwork
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.
🙂
Intellectual Balancing Act
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.
LOVE
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.
Poem
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.
Packing Tip
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
Back
We just got back last night from Indiana where I was attending my little brother’s law school graduation.
Yep. Little brother’s LAW SCHOOL graduation.
Pretty impressive I know.
Ryan was 6 when I went to college so this accomplishment is all the more impressive to me considering I still think of him as being in elementary school.
But alas, he’s not 6 anymore.
Instead, he can consult with us on wills and trusts, oh and wildlife law too (apparently he thought that would be helpful).
We’re so proud of you Ryan!