Things to Tell I Guess

In today's edition of "I'm done with parenting..."

I don't want to cut grapes up anymore. I mean, I will but mostly because if one of my children did in fact choke on a grape I would never forgive myself for skipping the step that adds about a minute to the routine. But still. I don't want to cut up grapes anymore.

And then there's this. Except let's throw in mom instead of dad then shall we?

We are going to be dog sitting this upcoming week and seriously, I am the most excited to not pay for air conditioning for a week! 

We went to the zoo last night for member's night. It was the best. Seriously, I have never enjoyed our zoo so much. But it was just perfection. The animals were so active. Like even the sloth was moving. 

Seriously awesome. We loved it. All of the fine places we have a membership for close at 5:00 in the summer (and most of them year-round if they're open at all so it's not often that Husband gets to come along for the fun. So thank you members night! 

This weekend is girl's weekend. It got moved up a weekend this year but hot diggity I am ready. In 2015 it was something I really needed. In 2016 it was a refreshing breath of fresh air. And even though it's local this year I am so excited. I picked up one gal from the airport yesterday... it's going to be the bee's knees. Actually, maybe I am especially excited it's local because all of the fun with none of the travel. 

I wish you all wonderful weekends!

Read All The Things

Once upon a time there was a little girl. She had good generous parents, a love of reading and deep appreciation for golden birthdays. That is to say, the birthday where you turn the age of the date of your birth. (Apparently not everyone celebrates or even understands the concept of a golden birthday she has found.)Okay so that little girl is/was me. And wouldn't you know everyone that this year, is finally the year in which I get to celebrate my golden birthday. (Not until next month mind you, but still, the excitement looms.)

I haven't built it up in my mind at all. Except I totally have. There is little chance at all it could be the most magical birthday of my entire life up to this point but I am sure as heck going to try. I declared years ago that all I wanted was to go to Disney World. While we will be traveling earlier than the actual day of my birth because of school (which turned out to be a non-issue because it's not even real kindergarten and who cares if he missed a week) we have made that part happen. It's in my birth month which is close enough right?

Also important to this story is that I love read. I was the kid who got in trouble in school for being too far ahead in the book we were reading aloud in class.

I just love reading. Like it's July and I am already at 35/24 of my Goodreads Challenge for the year. Reading is my jam. Specifically I like to read in bed, but even with a book light it is hard to do while Husband sleeps.

In January 2011 I bought a 3rd generation Kindle that looks like this:

And I loved it. I know that ereaders are one more thing that millennials have embraced that has "ruined the world" and all that, but gosh darn it, it is just so much easier to hold, and read and carry than a bunch of books. I loved my Kindle but as the technology improved it wasn't as wonderful. Sure it works and there's nothing wrong with it, but that whole requiring light thing still put a damper on the situation. 

So I have done almost 100% of my Kindle reading on the app on my phone for the past year or so. Which worked. But it just wasn't as awesome a reading experience as it could have been because all that blue light science or whatever. Oh and the fact that eight times out of ten my phone is DEAD at bed time and I'd have to lay awkwardly to have my phone charge while I read. 

Well since the whole theme of my upcoming golden birthday has been "celebrate early" my parents somehow got on board and last week I received the most wonderful Kindle Voyage with just an absolutely stunning origami case. It is leather and magnetic and it feels so good in my hand. And reading on it is such a joy. Well and it smells great because it's leather.

Oh my goodness, this Kindle is a game changer. I can read outside in full sunlight. (Really hard to do to on my phone, a lot of headaches ensued.) I can read in bed in the dark. And my new Kindle does it all. It's AMAZING. Plus has the added bonus of looking like I am reading a book instead of ignoring my children with the internet. Because no one knows you are reading on the Kindle app on your phone you know?

TOTAL AND COMPLETE SIDE RANT If I hover too much while my kids are outside I am a "helicopter parent" and that is bad. If I sit down and read a book (or even just surf the internet) I am "neglectful" and that is bad. Someone make up their minds already! I safely fall into both categories depending on where we are and how I feel about the situation. END RANT 

I love my new Kindle. It is amazing. I took some pictures that were *cough* not at all staged *cough cough* to show you. 

Though if I was going to take the time to stage the picture I maybe should have tried a little harder because nobody really needed to know the catch all mug in our bedroom contains an adjustable wrench, scissors and measuring spoons among the assortment of loose change and pens. But... that is the reality of my life. I gave you staged real life. 

Don't worry, whether the case is opened or closed it says Amazon on the back. Which I have no shame in, since Amazon and I are in a deep and loving relationship. I just love this little Kindle of mine. Maybe too much. I need to start practicing just a little more self control as I have come upon a healthy dose of this disease: 

But I think the only prescription is more reading, you know, just in case you need me... 

Happy Friday Everyone!

A little snap shot from our week... 

It's been a hot week. So we've been finding things to do to keep cool. We busted out our super fancy inflatable pool and did some backyard swimming. It was a ton of fun. 

Of course we ended up with half the lawn in there too floating around, as you do. 

Yesterday we went to Burger King to play in the morning. Slides and tunnels. Burning energy in the air conditioning. We were going to try out the new trampoline park this week but after reading about the little boy who broke his leg... we decided BK was a better bet. 

Then after we used up some energy we went to see Despicable Me 3! 

It was M's first time going to a movie theater and she did amazing. I was so impressed by here. We got there early to scope out good seats. You know, on an aisle in case we need to sneak out, up a few rows for a good view but not too high. But then there were SO MANY previews. 

Going early turned out to be a good idea because there was a field trip group there and the theater was filled up pretty much, but man. We were in our seats for 45 minutes before the movie even started!! So the fact that M made it through the whole thing quiet and calm, I was really impressed. 

Last night I hosted book club and we read Wonder. If you haven't read it, you should. Then go see the movie this fall. We saw a preview before Despicable Me 3 and I got a little teary so I can only imagine how I will be at the movie. Anyway, read the book!! 

Because a lot of the action goes down at a school, I went for a school lunch theme. Sort've. The lunch box has baggies of pita chips for the spinach dip. Then fruit and dip and Rice Krispie Bars. In the milk crate are juice boxes, bottled waters and little cartons of orange juice. (I didn't figure anyone really wanted milk...)  

Want to Play a Math Game?

Kindergarten Math. I am not a math person. And I sure wish I was British and could say maths because it just seems better and maybe I wouldn't have disliked it so much...

ANYWAY. So I found this game  on the interwebs and this is a great version on Teachers Pay Teachers but I just kind of stole the idea, made my own and didn't pay for the sheets. 

This was the first time I introduced C to Base 10 Blocks but he took to them right away and he really loved the game. Instead of using the ones cubes I decided to have him color. Mostly because M was around I didn't want the ones to be scattered. But I had him switch every other row to help exaggerate the groups of ten. 

So basically we took turns rolling the die and coloring in our squares. Every time we filled in ten squares we earned a "tens" block. And then practiced counting by "tens." C also wrote the numbers he rolled underneath his square. Well most of them anyway... clearly the excitement caught up with him and he missed a few. Also clearly we need to work on writing the number 3, since I was upside down and didn't notice he was writing it backwards the whole time.

Then obviously, when he got to 100 he earned a "hundreds" block. He won mostly fair and square but I think I got skipped once or twice while I was redirecting a rambunctious two-year-old. But we got some good math practice in which is awesome! We'll play again soon with the "ones" blocks, probably while someone else* in our house is distracted or napping. 

Mondays

Monday is nearly over. It was a good one. Honestly, in this last little bit, the "good ones" have greatly outweighed the "bad ones." Not just Mondays. But all the days.

I could go on and on about the family adventure we had on Saturday.

We rode the water taxi across the Mississippi to "Illa-noyd" as C calls it. We took in the "tractor museum" which was fun-ish but there were a lot of grown adult men walking around playing with the machinery. I know that it is a museum for everyone but they were face-timing in the combine etc... anyway. It annoyed me. We walked a bit further for lunch out and rode the water taxi back around to our stop.

So there it was in a nutshell. I could also tell you about book club on Saturday night.

We got together at one of my family's favorite restaurants at my recommendation. We enjoyed pizza and calzones and chatted about everything. And I left feeling full both physically and intellectually. Even of the book sucked. (Which it did. Luckily it was not my pick.)

I didn't take any pictures because I was in the moment. But I wasn't even going to write about it so there you go.

I am well aware of the fact that every note my kid writes isn't actually that interesting or impressive to anyone but his parents and grandparents. But daily I am impressed by what comes out of the end of his pencil. He got a hair cut yesterday. I didn't take a picture but he looks so grown up and it's hard to not think that he actually is getting so grown up.

Bringing us to our ever returning Monday. After a slightly annoyed start to the morning, I opted to make lemonade and we accomplished a lot. We went to the post office, the park (and then had to switch playgrounds due to an onslaught of big kids from a summer program) and the grocery store.

I got my kitchen cleaned during rest time including cleaning out the fridge and the top of the fridge. I mopped. The dishes are done. I also got dinner into the crock pot which essentially took care of that. God bless the inventor of crock pots. (And rice cookers/veggie steamers which took care of the other part of the dinner.)

So what I am saying here is that life is normal but good. Errands mixed with fun outings. Chores mixed with play. The kids even got postcards today from my parents which made it a good mail day. Mondays are a rare breed, they really aren't always fun, but there they are. This one wasn't bad. This one was pretty good. And I am thankful.

These Kids

Hooray! It's Friday! It's also pay day at our house. Does anyone else feel like July is the tightest month financially? I mean, we are blessedly and wonderfully fine. But I feel like the "fun budget" is practically non-existent right now, just at the time I would like to go do fun stuff! On the list for sure is to take C to see Cars 3 and Despicable Me 3. Maybe on Tuesday I can make that work for one of them since it's $5 day. 

This kid. Grandma and Grandpa sent some "Write Your Own Books" books and he is loving them. I also got the brain quest workbook for him and he is just going to town. He loves it. The other day when we were at Target we picked up a composition notebook for him to work on writing on lines. 

We started a summer journal. After dictating the date for him to write, I told him to write his name and one sentence and this is what he wrote! So it's a run on and there's some capitalization shifts but he made it all the way to salad before he asked me to help him. 

"Today I got a book and I got to play Legos I got frog e salad." (Froggy Salad aka Frog Eye Salad that we call Froggy so as not to dissuade the picky eater from trying what is a conglomeration of his favorite food groups: pasta, fruit and sugar.)

He was writing about our trip to the library yesterday where he got to pick a book for completing the summer reading challenge. There's also a Lego table at the library. He just cracks me up. He has such a thirst for knowledge. We got a Brain Quest workbook in the mail and he will not put it down.   

Then there's this kid. 

My stubborn little spitfire. She has been playing so hard and she is really testing pretty much any boundary that she deems a boundary. What to eat, how much to eat, should she sleep, potty training... you know all the things. She is currently going through a "mom phase" and loves me the most. Which kind of infuriates her dad, but I *think* that's the point because she only likes me when Husband is home. She will not sleep without 105 stuffed animals in her bed, two blankets, and a hug, kiss and love from me. Love is when you hug and make that annoying "hmmm" noise in case you don't have quite the specific bedtime routines in your house. 

What a goose. She was refusing to sleep last night so she was laying like that looking at the monitor because she's no fool. Then fell asleep anyway because she was tired. She has very little patience for the learning time her brother wants but she also doesn't want to miss out on anything. It's a hard balance to keep. 

My kids are strange little beings who keep me on my toes that's for sure. Happy Weekend everybody!

Let's Talk About Plates

I know what you're thinking. (If you read the name of the post that is.) Plates? Like... plate plates?

Yep.

You see, of all the household chores, the one that I absolutely just detest is the doing the dishes. Pretty much anything to do with dishes. Washing them, drying, putting away, loading or unloading the dishwasher. I am not a fan.

Which brings me to my obsession with paper plates. I even gave them up for Lent a few years back which was not a good idea. I do not think I focused on the Lent of it as much as I just counted down the days until I could use them again. But this isn't about my terrible Lent of paper plates.

It's about that Husband kind of loathes paper plates. So I am sure you can see where this is going then? I love them. He sometimes tolerates them. It's a crossroads.

I narrowed in on a bonus reason for paper plates a while back, and it was that all the plates in our house aside from the kid plates are breakable. We have our nice Pottery Barn ones from the wedding. Some smaller plates from Ikea but still porcelain. And sometimes one just doesn't want to risk broken plates. (That would be me. All the time. Unless we are having roast. Or it's a holiday.)

PLUS our kids are going through this dropping things and knocking things off the table period. I don't really understand it but we cannot get through a meal without at least a cup or a fork landing on the ground.

Basically, we needed some plates that don't break! So we started the hunt. Last night at Target we found some and not only are they the exact plates we were looking for, but they were a steal! $0.79 a plate! For both the adult plates and the kid version with separators. They match our kitchen, they are microwave and dishwasher safe... and we are happy campers. But not like actual camping because I would rather do dishes than go camping.

Pretty much, I am excited! And the moral of the story is, if you are reading this and you're a single gal or engaged,  when you create your wedding registry add some plates that don't break. It doesn't have to be a lot but there will come a time where you want to eat a snack in the living room without worrying about your future toddler knocking the plate off the coffee table and breaking it. 

I still probably won't like doing dishes. But, short term I am excited about these plates!