Sort of...or maybe not so much. But what we lack in talent, we more than make up for in enthusiasm!!! The kids were hamming it up tonight.
Here's some Micah action for you (his is long...but the ending is cute if you want to fast forward):
And a little Liliana love:
Monday, April 23, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Micah J- Soccer Star!
Soccer season is upon us! This is Micah's second year of soccer, and my second year as an official soccer mom! Mini-van? Check. Travel mug? Check. Lawn chair? Check. Ridiculous amount of photos of my son running up and down a field without actually touching the ball once? Check.
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| Making him pose for photos before we left. |
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| Yay soccer day!!! |
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| Running drills. He's such a perfectionist that he's a slow dribbler because he wants to hit it just right every time. |
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| He bent down and moved the ball to line it up right first and then got reminded of the most important soccer rule: no hands! |
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| Yes, this would be my son body-checking his own teammate for a chance at the ball. :-) It was his one moment of being aggressive the entire game. The rest of the time he was too polite to get in there and kick it. |
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| He was totally stoked about his turn to be goalie. Ask me how I felt about people kicking balls at the direction of my baby's head!!! |
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| Liliana was so proud to cheer him on! She's old enough for soccer this year, but doesn't have the discipline for structured activities yet as we discovered through our attempts at dance, gymnastics and swimming. (Yes, it took us three different attempts before we finally realized she's a free spirit.) |
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| If I take this picture Mom, will you hand over my waterbottle?!?! |
Friday, April 20, 2012
Our Summer Must-Dos
We are getting totally pumped for summer! The kids keep making requests of things they want to do: trips to the beach, sprinkler time, parades...they don't want to miss a thing!
So we decided to list all of our Summer Must-Dos! But rather than just writing them out on paper, we put each one on a card and the kids illustrated it.
Micah had a really great time drawing all of the pictures and talking about the fun stuff we're going to do this summer!
Then we clipped them all together on a ring. Easy for the kids to flip through and look at, and small enough to be tossed in my purse. As we do the activities, we'll remove the card and put it with a picture of us having fun in a little summer scrapbook!
Here's what made our Summer Must-Do List (in no particular order):
So we decided to list all of our Summer Must-Dos! But rather than just writing them out on paper, we put each one on a card and the kids illustrated it.
Micah had a really great time drawing all of the pictures and talking about the fun stuff we're going to do this summer!
Then we clipped them all together on a ring. Easy for the kids to flip through and look at, and small enough to be tossed in my purse. As we do the activities, we'll remove the card and put it with a picture of us having fun in a little summer scrapbook!
Here's what made our Summer Must-Do List (in no particular order):
- Pick Strawberries
- Mini Golf
- Drive-in Movie
- Sleep in a Tent Fort
- Go Out for Ice Cream
- Catch Fireflies
- Run a Lemonade Stand
- Play With Our Cousins
- Go Fishing
- Sleep Outside in a Tent
- Family Bike Ride
- Go to the Beach
- Make Homemade Ice Cream
- See a Parade
- Blow Giant Bubbles
- See Fireworks
- Go to a Waterpark
- Cook Dinner Over a Campfire
- Build an Awesome Sandcastle
- Play on a Slip and Slide
- Make Our Own Waterpark
- Go to the Zoo
- Go to a Baseball Game
- Shop at the Farmers Market
- Visit the Arboretum
- Have a Picnic in a Park
- Go Tubing!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Family Organizational Binder
In seminary, you move a LOT! The worst part about moving so many times, is not the packing as most would think. It's the paperwork. Every time you move, it's finding new doctors, getting new auto/renters/health insurance, transferring records over, getting library cards, finding schools, not to mention changing your address on everything! It's exhausting!!!
I've been meaning to make a family organizational binder for awhile now. It's recommended by a lot of people for emergency preparedness...everything you need should disaster strike, all in one spot. Disaster struck in the form of Liliana's preschool registration. :-) "Where's her shot record? What's our doctor's address? Don't we have her physical form somewhere? Shoot, now I need her birth certificate!" Jeremy has all of this stuff "organized" in our file cabinet (sense the sarcasm). He has some weird system that makes perfect sense to him, but no one else could ever find anything. He actually has folders unlabeled because "if someone broke into our house, then they couldn't steal our identity. Because they couldn't find it." Nice. I can't find it either.
Now I can!
Individual-
Copies of things like our driver's licenses, teaching certificates, etc. List of previous addresses. Resumes...and so on.
Financial-
A list of all of our bills, how we pay the bill, when it's due, what address it gets sent to, etc. Jeremy takes care of this stuff and should anything ever happen to him, I wouldn't have had a clue where to start...now it's listed out for me. Also, most recent retirement account statements go here. When we get a new one, we file the old one and put the new one in the binder.
Household-
Inventories (pantry, freezer, kids' clothes, etc.), Menu ideas, Cleaning schedules/checklists, anything I need to make our house run smoothly.
ALL Schedules-
If Jeremy gets a schedule (preaching, committee meetings, confirmation, etc.), he is to immediately make a copy of it for me. I enter the dates into my planner as well, but sometimes I think something isn't important, and then later want to reference it. Same with things like the kids' Sunday School schedule. I probably don't need to enter into my calendar what they are learning about each week, but a situation might occur where I want to reference it.
School Information-
Class handbooks, school policies, copies of preschool contracts, etc.
Health-
Shot records, growth charts, physical forms for everyone
Emergency-
List of all of the numbers in our cell phone contacts. Should we ever be stuck without a charged phone, I can still find the numbers I need. Username/Passwords list. Should we get organized enough to make a detailed emergency plan, it would go here.
Misc.-
Take out menus, random paperwork I'm not sure where else to put but I feel I need at my fingertips anyways.
I've been meaning to make a family organizational binder for awhile now. It's recommended by a lot of people for emergency preparedness...everything you need should disaster strike, all in one spot. Disaster struck in the form of Liliana's preschool registration. :-) "Where's her shot record? What's our doctor's address? Don't we have her physical form somewhere? Shoot, now I need her birth certificate!" Jeremy has all of this stuff "organized" in our file cabinet (sense the sarcasm). He has some weird system that makes perfect sense to him, but no one else could ever find anything. He actually has folders unlabeled because "if someone broke into our house, then they couldn't steal our identity. Because they couldn't find it." Nice. I can't find it either.
Now I can!
Our binder is organized into the following manner:
Copies of things like our driver's licenses, teaching certificates, etc. List of previous addresses. Resumes...and so on.
Financial-
A list of all of our bills, how we pay the bill, when it's due, what address it gets sent to, etc. Jeremy takes care of this stuff and should anything ever happen to him, I wouldn't have had a clue where to start...now it's listed out for me. Also, most recent retirement account statements go here. When we get a new one, we file the old one and put the new one in the binder.
Household-
Inventories (pantry, freezer, kids' clothes, etc.), Menu ideas, Cleaning schedules/checklists, anything I need to make our house run smoothly.
ALL Schedules-
If Jeremy gets a schedule (preaching, committee meetings, confirmation, etc.), he is to immediately make a copy of it for me. I enter the dates into my planner as well, but sometimes I think something isn't important, and then later want to reference it. Same with things like the kids' Sunday School schedule. I probably don't need to enter into my calendar what they are learning about each week, but a situation might occur where I want to reference it.
School Information-
Class handbooks, school policies, copies of preschool contracts, etc.
Health-
Shot records, growth charts, physical forms for everyone
Emergency-
List of all of the numbers in our cell phone contacts. Should we ever be stuck without a charged phone, I can still find the numbers I need. Username/Passwords list. Should we get organized enough to make a detailed emergency plan, it would go here.
Misc.-
Take out menus, random paperwork I'm not sure where else to put but I feel I need at my fingertips anyways.
Plus...how pretty!!!
Want to make one of your own? Here are some sites with more ideas and FREE printables for your binder!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Hatching Chicks (with video)
We are the proud family of three new baby chicks with a few more on the way!
21 days ago, we got 12 eggs from a local vet and an incubator from a farm supply store. Every day since, we've been rotating the eggs three times a day, checking the temperature and humidity and dreaming of what fun we'd have once they were hatched. Yesterday, when we woke up, we saw two of the eggs had "pipped." Then last night, around 10 pm, we had our first chick hatch.
It was incredible! I thought about waking the kids up, but Liliana had dental rehabilitation surgery today so I knew they needed their sleep. But wow were they excited this morning!
While we were at the hospital, two more chicks hatched!
I'm so excited that our family was able to experience these little miracles together! It's given all of us a deeper respect for life and all of creation! Plus, OH MY GOODNESS CUTE!!!!
21 days ago, we got 12 eggs from a local vet and an incubator from a farm supply store. Every day since, we've been rotating the eggs three times a day, checking the temperature and humidity and dreaming of what fun we'd have once they were hatched. Yesterday, when we woke up, we saw two of the eggs had "pipped." Then last night, around 10 pm, we had our first chick hatch.
It was incredible! I thought about waking the kids up, but Liliana had dental rehabilitation surgery today so I knew they needed their sleep. But wow were they excited this morning!
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| They're cuter when they're all dry and fluffy anyways! |
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| It was hard to get a picture through the glass but I didn't want to lift it up since there is another chick currently in the middle of hatching. |
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Easter Fun!
If a picture is worth 1000 words, then this is my most verbose post yet. :-)
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           And that was our Easter...how was yours??? |
Monday, April 2, 2012
Riding in Cars with Kids
The kiddos and I headed back to see our family for Easter. Daddy got left behind because, apparently when you're an (almost) pastor that means you work on Easter. Who knew?!?! ;-)
I was terrified about making the 14 hour roundtrip with the kids and no husband to help. Two background things to know about me:
So I did what anyone does when they have a problem (or a random thought or just a really great lunch)...posted about it on facebook. Turns out my friends are kind of geniuses...another who knew?!!? :-P Just kidding. I knew. That's why I asked them.
My friend Jealaine had an awesome idea of spreading out the car activities based on time or distance, so the kids don't do everything right away and then get bored. Genius! I made a map for the kids of our route, since they always like to follow along anyways. Then I color coded towns along the way that were about an hour apart. (I made myself a cheat sheet too so I could give them estimates if they asked how much longer until the green town).
I put together ziploc bags with different car-friendly activities in them and put color coded labels that corresponded with the map on each bag. So when we got an hour into our trip, they received the orange bags, which had alphabet match-up puzzles for Liliana and time match-up puzzles for Micah. Make sense?
My mom had purchased these trays for the kids awhile back and they are AWESOME for long car trips. Because we had the trays, we were able to do some things with smaller pieces. Here's what I came up with for car activities (with many of these ideas coming from my awesome friends!)
It went great!!! The idea of spacing out the activities seriously helped! And they loved having their own maps. Zero whining. Zero fits. From the kids or from me...impressive, huh? :-)
So next time you're traveling with kids, give it a try!
I was terrified about making the 14 hour roundtrip with the kids and no husband to help. Two background things to know about me:
- I grew up in a town of 400 people. We're talking gravel roads and no traffic lights.
- Jeremy and I have been together since before I could drive, so he's always driven us everywhere.
So I did what anyone does when they have a problem (or a random thought or just a really great lunch)...posted about it on facebook. Turns out my friends are kind of geniuses...another who knew?!!? :-P Just kidding. I knew. That's why I asked them.
My friend Jealaine had an awesome idea of spreading out the car activities based on time or distance, so the kids don't do everything right away and then get bored. Genius! I made a map for the kids of our route, since they always like to follow along anyways. Then I color coded towns along the way that were about an hour apart. (I made myself a cheat sheet too so I could give them estimates if they asked how much longer until the green town).
I put together ziploc bags with different car-friendly activities in them and put color coded labels that corresponded with the map on each bag. So when we got an hour into our trip, they received the orange bags, which had alphabet match-up puzzles for Liliana and time match-up puzzles for Micah. Make sense?
My mom had purchased these trays for the kids awhile back and they are AWESOME for long car trips. Because we had the trays, we were able to do some things with smaller pieces. Here's what I came up with for car activities (with many of these ideas coming from my awesome friends!)
- Simple match-up puzzles
- Lacing cards
- Small figures (My Little Ponies for Nah-na and firemen figures for Micah)
- Finger Puppets
- Rush Hour Jr.
- These picture Car Bingo sheets on clipboards
- Jumbo beads for stringing
- Pipecleaners
- Magnet activity sets
- Matchbox cars
- Coloring books and new boxes of crayons (Is there anything in the world better than a fresh box of crayons???)
- Dry erase boards/markers
- Look and Find books
- Homemade Wikki Stix
It went great!!! The idea of spacing out the activities seriously helped! And they loved having their own maps. Zero whining. Zero fits. From the kids or from me...impressive, huh? :-)
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| Ignore the mounds of stuff in the car. We travel prepared! :-P |
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