Summer Bucket List 2015

Making conversation during meals with a six year old and a three year old is not always easy or appealing. A few weeks ago, in an attempt to avoid potty humor the kiddos and I came up with an idea to list all of the things we wanted to do over the summer. Here is our list, which took several meals to complete and allowed me not to hear tooting noises for the duration of the creation of our list!

1. Picnic on the property

2. Roast marshmallows

3. Camp on the property

4. Sleep outside

5. Sleepover at Mima and Poppis

6. Plant flowers

7. Start a garden

8. Make the ponds on the property pretty

9. Go for bike rides

10. Go star gazing

11. See fireworks

12. Go for four wheeler rides

13. Play on the playground

14. Have a pic in at the playground

15. Go to Gilbert Lake

16. Blow bubbles

17. Go on a water slide

18. Take swimming lessons

19. Go for long walks

20. Have family game nights

21. Have movie nights

22. Go to Wildwood, New Jersey

23. Build a sand castle

24. Go to the drive-in

25. Try to plan a trip to Disney World

26. Go swimming in a pool, a lake, and the ocean

27. Have play dates with friends - outside

28. Eat outside

29. Go on a hike

30. Have an outside dance party

31. Get ice cream from the ice cream man

32. Play boardwalk games in Wildwood, New Jersey

33. Catch lightning bugs

34. Make S'mores 

35. Fly kites

36. Go climbing

38. Go berry picking

39. Play outside

40. Go to the zoo

41. Visit Auntie

42. Move!!

43. Build a new house

44. Try new foods 

45. Go flower picking

Halloween 2015

Happy Halloween 2015! I love Halloween; I always have. This year everything is a little crazy because we are still waiting for our new house to be done, so we are living in limbo! Luckily, I knew right where our decorations were stored - well, some of them. We decorated with what we had on October first, like always. Pumpkin carving was definitely lacking this year, since we spend very little time in our "apartment" (which is a half a house attached to my in-laws). Normally I go crazy with the pumpkin designs, but we really only had one night available to carve. So, Mad Man wanted Chase from Paw Patrol which was fun. T wanted something Descendants, which I didn't figure out, so she carved her own! It was so much fun watching her figure out how to work the carving tools and the determination she had to get it just right was awesome!  As always I try to squeeze every drop of fun out of the month of October. We trick or treated at the mall, a retirement village, the college, and two neighborhoods. Fun!!

Fact or Fantasy

I don't like change. At all. It is not something I embrace and it is not something I am comfortable with. So, I try to keep my babies as babies in spite of the fact that they are now six and a half and three and a half. I also have always been a fan of some of the blurred lines between fact and fiction. There was a TV show I loved - I think it was called Fact or Fiction? To me it didn't always matter if it was actually fact or fiction, I liked the entertainment value. Recently, watching Inside Out (awesome by the way if you haven't seen it!), and I laughed so hard when the boxes of facts and opinions got dumped and mixed up. There was a great line to accompany that - something like "it happens all the time." So my ability to answer all of my little ones questions is sometimes quite challenging. 

My T Bear is quite intuitive. She consistently asks questions about God and Heaven, the afterlife, and if certain things are real. I want her to maintain her childlike innocence for as long as possible. Tonight, after watching one of her favorite shows Sofia the First she asked me if wee sprites are real. Umm... There certainly is no manual for how to answer that question! I said, "yes, I think they are." Her response was, "no, they are fantasy." Wow. Okay. What does any 2015 mom do?? Google it. Thankfully the first response we found confirmed that they are in fact real but you cannot see them unless you have some crazy ability to see through their "curtain." Wow. Who writes this stuff anyway?? That answer was sufficient for now. Then I feel guilty for hiding the truth of the world from her. I want her to believe in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, wonder, magic...everything an innocent little girl should believe in. At what point is that wrong? Does it matter? I mean, I believed  in Santa until my parents had to literally show me that they were the ones leaving the presents. I turned out okay, at least in my own estimation!

High: Realizing just how intuitive my T is. 

Low: Facing the reality that my babies will not be innocent babies forever. 

Our Elf on the Shelf 2014 Adventures: Day 12

Both kiddos loved this one! Eli was in his own bathtub filled with marshmallows (of course - what else would an elf bathe in?) in our bathroom. T Bear thought it was funny; Mad Man just wanted the marshmallows!

Our Elf on the Shelf 2014 Adventures: Day 13

I'm so bummed I didn't get a picture of this one! We have an outdoor decoration hanging inside on our stairway. It has a Santa, a reindeer, an elf, and a snowman on it. Each is climbing a different part of a ladder. Eli made himself at home on the reindeer's antler. The kiddos loved it!

Our Elf on the Shelf 2014 Adventures: Day 14

Oh Christmas tree! T found Eli right away. She has been waiting for him to be in the tree! 

Our Elf on the Shelf 2014 Adventures: Day 15

My grandfather carved and painted a few of my Christmas decorations. I hold them dear. It is fitting for Eli to be hanging upside down on one of the Santas that my grandfather created. He loved Christmas and was a fun-loving man. I bet he would have gotten a kick out of this whole Elf on the Shelf concept!  He would have been seriously creative. Here's to you Grandpa.