Treehouse

Whenever my husband takes our daughters on a campout I take Little Man somewhere fun to play. At this point we've tried most of the places near us so decided to venture a little further today - to the Treehouse in Lake Zurich.

It took about a half hour for us to get there but it was great!! It's a play place and cafe. I've been to a bunch of those over the years (Nibbles in Wheeling, Little Beans downtown and the now defunct Little Village Play Place in Arlington Heights) but this is by far the best. $10.50 per kid (1 and under are free) a treehouse climbing area that kept Little Man happy for 3 hours, and the food was good.  What I liked best about it was all the little details that they got right.

1. The food is made to order and good quality.  No outside food allowed but they are nut free
2. Kids menu choices are the usual plus a few more adventurous choices for the older kids, and the parents options are extensive (12 different sandwich options, salads, etc)
3. Little Man had a grilled cheese and they used a cookie cutter to make a heart shape in the middle
4. Free refills on sodas
5. Free water with a sharpie by the water cooler so you can label your kids cup, instead of taking a new one each time.
6. Wipes, napkins and tissue boxes available in lots of easy to find areas.
7. Lots of comfortable seating with full views of the play area, a well stocked magazine rack and free wi-fi (get the password from the cashier).
8. The whole time I was there I saw at least one staff member cleaning something - either wiping down tables and chairs, vacuuming floors, or wet Swiffering the floors.  Not in an obtrusive way, but enough to keep things clean

View from the treehouse

9. The treehouse is made so parents can climb around too.  I'm 5'7" and could fully stand up most places. Most of the areas have at least two ways to access (one for kids and flexible parents, another that's easy for parents).
10. There is no age maximum and when we went back on President's Day even Little Reader (almost 9) had fun.
11. There were three birthday parties happening when we arrived but it wasn't crazy crowded.
12. They allow you to come back same day without paying again.  I'm not sure how it works (maybe hand stamp) as we didn't use it, but good idea if the littles need naps or you have errands to run.

Note: As with most places socks are required and they have all the kids use hand sanitizer when they enter.  Normally I hate that stuff, but they have a friendly staff member by the gate to squirt the kids' hands so you can't really avoid it.

Little Man climbing through the obstacles

How I Start My Day

After reading lots of other Mom blogs I've often read the advice to get up and get dressed and take time to plan your day or enjoy a few minutes of quiet before your kids wake up. Makes sense. Do I do it? Hell no!

What's my morning routine? Most days, my husband gets up, gets himself ready, kisses me goodbye and leaves before the rest of us have even woken up.

650 - First alarm goes off - snooze
700 - Second alarm goes off - snooze
       - My daughters' alarms go off, they get dressed and shortly after they come in to my
         room and get under the covers and snuggle with me - one on either side
710 - Now it's time to get up and wake up Little Man if he hasn't joined us by this point,
         and then head down for breakfast.

All you early birds can enjoy your worm, I prefer to stay in my nice warm nest.  My daughters are 8 and 6 I know the day is rapidly approaching that they won't want to snuggle with me any more. I'm going to enjoy these days as long as I can.

Finding a Middle Ground

Little Reader has very definite opinions on things, and once she decides something, that's the way it is for a long time.  With her there is no in between, you don't kind of like something, you either love it or hate it. It's very black and white.  For a while I've been pushing her to find the middle ground.  Her favorite color is turquoise.  If I see her getting too obsessed with the negative side of something, I tell her to find her turquoise (since it's a mix of colors)

The other day I took the kids with me to a local mall to pick out a birthday present for their friend. We started at Target but didn't find anything we liked so walked through Sears to get to Claire's. We had barely entered the store when Little Reader asked, "why don't you like Sears?"
Me: When did I say I don't like Sears?
Her: Well, I don't know, but we never shop here.

First off I don't have anything against Sears. It's rarely my first choice when shopping, but since they started carrying Lands End I do shop there more frequently, and their toy department has saved Christmas on at least two occasions.

Second, and this is the bigger point, I realized that she's getting her very cut and dry opinions from me. For example, I loathe Walmart, but love Target. I know some people love Walmart the way I love Target and Costco, but around here Walmart sucks and I avoid Walmart at absolutely all costs

She's getting to the age where she takes other peoples opinions on things very seriously and how you feel about something affects how you fit in. I need to encourage her to have a more open mind.  I need to start adhering to the old adage of if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Little Ears hear everything, and they really tune in to the negative stuff.  While I do feel I should be honest with her about my views about the important stuff, I need to work on showing her that everything is not black and white, yes and no, good or bad - that there are many shades of gray.

Back To It

Yes, I guess I kind of cheated a little yesterday but that's because as much as I planned ahead I ran out of draft posts that I could just hit publish on, and I was having a good day with Little Man so didn't want to ruin it by spending time on the computer.

After dropping his sisters off at school, we ran a quick errand and then came home and played. He had decided that morning that he wanted to wear a bandana on his head so we played Jake and the Neverland pirates in our jungle gym for a while and then went into the playroom and played with Legos and then built a train track.

We had grilled cheeses for lunch (and amazingly he ate the whole thing - well minus the crust) and then headed off for his basketball class. It was the last day so the parents got to come in the gym, and the kids played with us so we could see what they learned. We practiced dribbling, passing, shooting, and finally had a game parents vs kids. The kids beat us 18-2. The coach helped the kids but admittedly none of us parents did that well shooting. I had one airball. Little Man got two baskets and legitimately stole the ball from me twice (and once I kind of let him take it). The kids all got ribbons to take home, which he is very excited about.

After basketball we stopped by the library for about an hour, and then to the playground while Little Reader has her dance class. It was a perfect fall day. Sun is out so even though it's breezy, not too cold.

Once we got home the kids made a big pile of leaves in the backyard and took turns jumping in it til it got dark and they had to come inside.  A good day.

Screen Time for children

I don't watch a lot of TV, but I am trying to really cut down my other screen time to set a better example for my kids. We don't have Wii or DSs and I don't have any real kid friendly apps on my phone or iPad. And yes, that's all on purpose. I'm a firm believer in the habits you gain as a kid (good or bad) stay with you forever. Or at least are very hard to break later.


I hardly ever watch TV during thr day. My iPod is always playing though as I do need some background noise. I let my kids watch one show a day (after homework is done and piano practiced). With after school activities 2 afternoons a week, it's not often that they actually get to watch a show.

Sometimes if my husband gets home early he'll turn the TV on and they may watch with him for a few minutes before dinner is ready. So what do my kids do when they have down time - they play, they read, they color. All thr things kids are supposed to be doing. Are there days I wish I had more time to focus on the things I need to do, of course but I would never give a 3 years old her own TV.
If so that's a little different. I mean don't you have different rules for an 11 year old than a 3 year old. You probably let your 11 year old walk home from school without an adult, would you let your 3 year old. Don't think anyone would say yes to that.


A while back a Facebook friend of mine posted that she was looking for a small TV and was hoping somebody had one they were willing to give away or sell cheap. Even though I dodn't have anything to offer up, I checked the comment section as I was curious why she wanted the TV. As I suspected it was to put in her daughter's room. Her daughter is 3 years old. WTF does she need a TV in her room for? Sure kids are more tech savvy these days. I'm sure she can figure out how to turn it on/off, change channels etc. But why? Yes, this particular kid does have a much older brother (I think he's 11), so maybe he has a TV in his room, and therefore she wants her own too?   You know what my response would be, too bad he's older, maybe when you're his age you can have your own.  Well actually, my 11 year old wouldn't have a TV in his room either.

A different friend recently posted asking for app recommendations for her 4 year old to use whole they were at activities for her 6 year old. Really? You know what I do with my younger ones (6 and 3)? If the weather is good, we go outside, if not I bring books, coloring stuff, paper to play games (dot game, hangman), if all else fails, we play ispy. I mean really most of these classes are 45-60 minutes. Are you telling me you can't interact with/entertain your kid for that amount of time?  Ridiculous.

Fall

I love fall - definitely my favorite season. I love the colors of the leaves (as you've probably noticed from my recent photos), the sound of crunching leaves as we walk to/from school, the smells of fall in our house - baking pumpkin muffins, apple pies, bringing some of my heartier recipes into the dinner rotation.

Really the only thing I don't really like about fall is Halloween. Don't get me wrong, I love the candy, I like carving pumpkins but I never really liked dressing up, I don't enjoy scary/horror things, and have a severe phobia of spiders - even the fake ones. Put all that together and well, I'd just as well skip it altogether - or stay home eating fun size Hershey bars.

But of course we have kids, so that's not going to happen. Lots of people in our neighborhood decorate their yards and our kids wanted to too.  I told them I wouldn't decorate the outside, but inside we hung up some Halloween crafts they've made at school through the years, and helped them make a few more. Compromise.

This year we were invited to a Halloween party which thankfully my husband is on call for so we're skipping that. This weekend we have a kids birthday party to go to. Since the birthday girl loves to dress up, she has asked that the guests dress up (parents encouraged too). Normally I would skip it, but then yesterday I was playing with Little Man and he had me put on a cape I had made for Little Hugger when she was a witch. I had also made her a matching skirt. I tried that on and since it had an elastic waistband it fit too. So I'll wear some black put on the cape, skirt and hat and for once not be a total stick in the mud ;).

But no, I won't be dressing up for Halloween.  I'll talk a quick walk around our block with the kids, and let my husband take them all beyond that, while I stay home and hand out candy. 

So in this case balance comes in compromising enough to not stick out like a sore thumb, but still not beyond what I am comfortable/willing to do.  

Hoarding vs Being Sentimental

Last weeks weekly project was organizing the kids' rooms. Not a really tough project for Little Reader and Little Man. First of all I don't let the kids keep toys in their rooms. Toys belong in the playroom and for the most part they do stay there. They really just have books, clothes and snuggle buddies and a few other special things in their rooms. Little Man was the easiest. In about 5 minutes I went through his room and got rid of some nursery items he no longer needs, and he let me throw out a couple of old or broken crafts.

Little Reader is extremely organized, she enjoys trips to the Container Store as much as I do.  I told her early in the week that their rooms were the weekly project, she glanced around and decided that her nightstand (overflowing with books) and a small pile of books on her bookshelf were her problem areas.  She easily tackled those on her own.

Little Hugger, however, is another story.  She is my hoarder.  As I've mentioned before she has numerous collections and saves anything sparkly that she finds.  She loves drawing and creating things and keeps her creations for a long time.  She also keeps half completed projects with the intention of finishing them someday (she's probably about 50/50 on whether she finishes them so it's not a complete waste.  However when I told her that I needed her to go through her stuff too, her big brown eyes started to well up.  I told her she didn't necessarily have to throw things out, just find appropriate places for them.  The only thing I want on the floor is furniture, not piles of papers, collections, etc.  Her dresser was covered with kid jewelry despite the fact that she has 3 jewelry boxes - yes she's my girlie girl.  Since she has recently gotten some nicer necklaces I recommend that she weed out the old stuff and make room for the new.  Often that doesn't end well as she'll find something that she forgot she had and fall in love with it all over again.  She surprised me by getting rid of a fair amount of stuff and now everything fits in the boxes she has.  While her room still borders on cluttered she did what I asked.  Nothing but furniture on the floor.  I gave her binders to save her favorite drawings that she still wants to keep, for the things that she didn't consider special enough to keep but still wanted to remember we took pictures of them and put them in a photo album, and I gave her an expandable file for some of those incomplete projects.   At least now I can get around to clean while she's at school without having to worry about vacuuming up some treasure. 

Now don't get me wrong, I am not a total minimalist  I keep some of their things myself, and Little Hugger thought it was hysterical the other day when she found my bin of special kid items and saw that I had all their first pairs of sneakers in there.  She asked why, and I said it was required of parents to keep their kids first real shoes.  I also have favorite drawings that they made, locks of hair from the first haircut (and the certificates from the salon), letters to Santa, and a few other odds and ends that would probably only make sense to me.  So I understand her sentimental side and don't want to squash it - I"m just trying to teach her the difference between saving something because it's useful or special and saving it just to save it. 

Independence

As I have mentioned before Little Reader is in third grade and technically old enough to walk to school on her own (according to the school rules).  She is also allowed to escort her sister who is in first grade.  Some of her friends walk to and from no problem and she often asks me if she can too.  We only live 3 blocks from school and I will admit it would be nice to just say goodbye at the front door and send them on their way (instead of rushing to try and get everyone ready and me showered and out the door in time).   Still, I'm not ready to do it yet.  So far I've mostly used the reason that since I do stay home, there's really no reason why I can't walk them to school, so I just do it.  I tell my daughters that I trust them, but I don't trust the crazy people in the world.

Some mornings there is a police cruiser parked on a side street by my daughters school. I'm not sure if they are there for traffic safety assistance or what since the officer usual stays in their vehicle.

Thursday morning as I was turning the corner where the officer was parking his car, we saw a woman approach the car and ask to speak with him. I couldn't hear the conversation, but noticed the officer enter the school through a side door after he finished talking to the woman. I thought that was odd, but figured it was really none of my business.

That afternoon I was looking something up on the school website and noticed an alert regarding suspicious behavior. It mentioned that a student had been walking to school when a car pulled up next to him, asked if he attended the school. When the kid answered yes, the driver asked if the kid wanted a ride. The kid said no, kept walking then stopped into a friend's house that was between the car and school, and told his friend's Mom what had happened. I assume the woman I saw was the mom in that house.

So the good news is the kid is fine cause they did the right thing. We've gotten these kinds of alerts before but this is the first time I actually told my kids about it.  We have talked about strangers before and how to respond if approached.  I recently found this post on Pinterest and thought it did a good job of explaining how to talk to your kids, about strangers and "tricky people".  I've read the ten rules with my kids before but a refresher is always a good idea.  Even though we do live in a pretty safe area, a healthy dose of fear is a good thing.  It helps give you street smarts.

I'm all for raising confident and independent kids, but a parents number one job is keeping their kids safe, and for now and at least for this school year, I will be walking my kids to school.  We'll revisit it next year.

Apps

As I was thinking of things I would write about for this series, I was planning a post about apps and the ones that help me stay organized.  For what it's worth these are the apps I have.  I love Cozi for the calendar but don't use any of the other features.

Sunday when I was planning my menu and grocery shopping for the week, I decided to go old school and use paper and pen. Ironically at some point while I was out 3 apps were accidentally deleted from my phone. I don't know how since it's a few step process. The worst part was it took me a while to figure out which ones they were. I took it as a sign from Steve Jobs that while I rely a lot on my phone, it's really not helping me.

After about an hour I realized the missing apps were CNN, Our Groceries, and a ToDo app. I reloaded them and of course all my data is gone.  I came up with a new ToDo list system which is working really well (I'll share that tomorrow), and I'm working on a better system for my shopping list and just plan on using Our Groceries for the mid-week stuff. Once I get the new system nailed down I'll share that too.

The big difference I have noticed though is my phone addiction has gone down drastically in just a couple of days. Before if I needed to check my todo list or add something to my shopping list, I'd end up checking Facebook, email or some other time suck as well. Now I'm not doing that, and it feels good. I used to run through my to do list while walking my kids to school, the past couple of days I purposely left the phone at home and made my list when I got home. Instead I talk to my kids or listen to them talking and enjoy the walk. This could be the start of something good.

Personalities

Parenting is tough, no question, but for me the hardest part isn't the schedules, the homework, it's the challenge of being a family is existing and dealing with different personalities. I'm just talking about the people in your household, I'm not even going to get into extended family of parents/inlaws/aunts/uncles/cousins.  We  have 3 kids, Little Reader (8 years old), Little Hugger (6 years old), and Little Man (3 years old).

Little Reader is a smart kid, she obviously loves reading, enjoys school, is compassionate but also extremely hard on herself. She is generally a happy kid, but also a perfectionist. She knows she's smart and will beat herself up if she doesn't understand something, or makes a seemingly stupid mistake. She will brood about anything negative said about her. She relishes her role as the helpful big sister, but sometimes oversteps the boundaries and bosses her siblings around (which they do not appreciate). I try to be careful when I have to critique something she's doing, but at the same time not sugarcoat things so much that she never learns to accept criticism.

Little Hugger is a loving girl, enjoys more of the stereotypical girl stuff than her sister. She is extremely creative and finds the beauty in everything. She has numerous collections and is definitely more on the messy side.  Actually that's putting it mildly, she borders on hoarder tendencies.  When we go through her room to clean up she is often on the verge of tears as she gets rid of things.  This week's weekly project is cleaning up the kids' rooms.  Her's will not be easy or fun for either of us. She cries easily, but gets over it quickly. Having been the same way as a kid myself, I realize that most of the time she's probably bottling up some of the feelings and something seemingly little tips the scales and makes her cry. 

Little Man is a very happy guy. He does have a stubborn streak especially when it comes to food. He's doing much better with the eating and has basically progressed from being a problem eater to just a regular picky eater. I think we're close to finishing up with his feeding therapist.  He is getting to the independent stage of toddlerhood, which I do my best to encourage. He enjoys spending time with his sisters, and is always trying to keep up with the big kids. 

The hardest part is making sure they each get good one on one time with their Dad and I.  I had a great time with Little Reader on her Brownie campout last week and it's rare that we get to do something like that.  Little Hugger is now on the same school schedule as Little Reader so aside from when I take her to her dance class on Saturdays and the others stay home with Dad we don't get a lot of one on one time either.  I'm trying to expand that time to include other fun activities or errands so it's not just time spent in the car.  As far as Little Man, he's with me most of the time, and he is actually pretty good company and I try to balance our time together between fun stuff and getting the things done that I need to do.  

Post Sale

We had a very successful sale.  The kids behaved well, never got lost, and didn't whine about getting anything beyond what we got, and stood nicely in line for 20 minutes to pay.  So here's what we got.

My apologies for the pixelated pictures

For Little Man

1 Sweater

1 Flannel Button Down Shirt (possible Christmas shirt)

1 button down J Crew shirt

1 button down NWT shirt from Lord & Taylor

2 Long sleeve shirts

1 Gap long sleeve polo

1 pair pjs

1 pair pants

6 turtlenecks

3 books

1 R2D2 toy

For Little Hugger (she didn't need anything)

Red Velvet holiday dress

Ariel toy

Barbie toys

For Little Reader

1 book

Black holiday dress

Black shoes to go with dress

4 long sleeve shirts

1 skort

1 jacket

1 sweater

1 nightgown

Grand total : $83.46!!!! I also sold some stuff so after deducting my profits, it really only cost me about $25 bucks for all that. At this point the only things I need to buy to get my kids through fall and winter are some pants for Little Man and maybe a pair of shoes for Little Hugger to go with her dress. 

Consignment Sales

The leaves are changing, temperatures are getting cooler. T shirts are ok on some days but shorts are probably out of the question at this point. It's time to get the fall/winter clothes for the kids if you haven't already.

I have spent the last week going through my kids closets having them try pretty much everything on as we prepare for a sale this weekend. It's run by the women's group I belong to so I am both a seller and a buyer.

I have about 75 things tagged and ready to be dropped off tonight. Clothes, Hallowe'en costumes, some nursery items, and a few toys. For the past few sales I let my kids keep the profits of any toys they choose to sell. They definitely purge a little more this way.

Usually I leave the kids at home when I shop the sale, but unfortunately my husband is going back to the Ryder Cup (he's already gone Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday) so I'll have to bring them with me. Since my kids are getting older I think we'll be ok. Also clothing sizes are less accurate as they get older so it'll be helpful to have them there to try stuff on Luckily we don't really need a lot either, so don't need to get there right when it opens.

The timing of this sale is perfect too, as the weather has still been relatively warm so I haven't had to buy any new clothes at full price yet. I did buy a winter jacket and snow pants for Little Man just in case I don't find them at the sale.

Here's a picture from last years sale - this is just the boys clothes and toys there's a ton more.  I look forward to finding some great bargains and hopefully selling more than I buy. I'll post the results tomorrow.

5 Things About Little Hugger

Little Hugger also had to bring 5 things to her class.  Here's what she brought

Sketch pad - since she loves to draw

Stuffed cat - she loves cats and has been lobbying hard to get one as a pet.  Right now we're sticking with stuffed "pets".  One of these days we'll get a real pet, but for now we are debating dog vs cat.

Stuffed elephant - elephants have been her favorite animal for a long time

Kitten's First Full Moon - her favorite book (partly due to loving cats, but also a very sweet book about a cat that thinks the moon is a big bowl of milk).

Mac & Cheese - her favorite food. She'd eat it for every meal if I let her, thanks Kraft for adding the cauliflower so she gets some extra vitamins. Yes, the teacher chuckled a bit when she pulled this one out. Most  of the other 1st graders agreed they like Mac & cheese but she was the only one to actually bring it to class ;)

5 Things About Little Reader

Both of my daughters were asked to bring 5 things into class to help the other kids get to know them. A photo or two were ok, but not only photos.

Here's what Little Reader brought:

The stegosaurus because she loves dinosaurs. She wanted to be a paleontologist for a long time, but then found out that there are often scorpions in the desert and is now scared. I've told her they have fossils in other parts of the world but she's since decided she wants to be a grade school teacher who will spread the word that there is no such thing as a brontosaurus/

Simba figurine as her favorite movie is Lion King. Her room when she was 4 and birthday party were Lion King themed - thank God for EBay.

A picture of her and her Dad at Tivoli in Denmark as she is Danish and wanted to show a cool place in Denmark.

A picture of the mountain on Mars that Curiosity is slowly making its way to - she likes outer space. After the Lion King theme, she switched her room to outer space.

A coin from the Pirates House in Savannah GA where we stopped last year for lunch on our roadtrip thanks to a couple of recommendations from bloggers. She had wanted to bring a ship in a bottle she had gotten in St Augustine (while we were in the next stop on our trip in Jacksonville) but unfortunately dropped it.

Thank Goodness for Lazy Sundays

We had a busy weekend.

Friday night we were invited to a neighbors house for a "Back to School" get together. They projected a movie - Spy Kids - on to their garage for the kids (and had popcorn and other treats), while the parents hung out. The Bears were playing a preseason game so all the guys were inside watching that while the Moms hung out outside in the backyard living room. By the time we went home (about 1030) Little Man crashed pretty hard after a brief meltdown.

Saturday morning I left before everyone woke up to go to the run.  I came home pretty shortly after I was done to get ready for our block party - filled water balloons, finished making the cookies, and finished our playlist for the iPod.

At 3pm we closed the street, the bounce house was set up shortly after. We strung Christmas lights in a big square across the street and little by little neighbors started to come out. We also set up tie-dyeing for the kids. Families were supposed to bring their own whites but we did have a few extra shirts just in case.Luckily we have enough big girls on the block who are experienced tiedyers so they were able to help the younger kids make some cool designs.  

We had a pretty good turnout - about 15 families including a couple from a block up and down.

We had water balloons and plans for musical chairs (even set the chairs up at one point), but never got around to doing any games as the kids were having enough fun just hanging out with each other and rising bikes in the street.

We had bought hamburgers and asked people to contribute sides, but one of our neighbors stepped it up a bit and rolled his smoker to the end of the driveway and made pulled pork for everyone. It was awesome - only a few kids ate the burgers, everyone else had the pork.

Around 430 the local fire department came by with their ladder truck.  They stop by every year (assuming they don't have a fire to put out, of course).  I think a lot of the kids had a been there, seen that attitude, but Little Man loooved it.  He got to climb up in the drivers seat, and check out all the equipment.  He's been wondering for a while how they get the water out of the hydrants, and one of the guys was nice enough to show him.  

Once it got dark we set up a projector and showed a movie (Megamind this time. We all ended up staying up til about midnight when we finally decided to call it a night. Overall a fun night. The kids went to bed tired, happy and filthy (after 2 nights without showers). My husband and I went to bed right after we got them tucked in.

Little Hugger still woke up at 7 am but had the decency to stay in her room quietly reading until 845.

Sunday was a rainy day, so after getting everyone showered and sheets changed we just stayed in, which was perfect, everyone got to chill and catch up on the homework that was ignored the past two days.  I'm glad that next weekend is a long weekend and we have absolutely nothing planned.  After the past two weekends, that's exactly what I need.

Back to School

School started for my daughters last week. They started Tuesday afternoon bringing all their supplies to school and getting settled in their classrooms. They had so much stuff we had to use the stroller to bring everything to school. Little Man and I walked behind them.

Our school has a different door for each grade so we dropped Little Reader (now 3rd grade) off at her door and then took Little Hugger (1st grade) to her door and waited for the bell to ring. It seemed like the first graders had the most supplies and the teachers didn't want parents coming in with their kids - trying to keep the tears and paparazzi to a minimum I guess. She went in happily and then Little Man and I went home to run some errands before coming back to get them. Wednesday was a full day. Thursday was Parents Night for 3rd grade. I had to bring my kids as my husband was removing appendixes all over the Northwest suburbs but since it was only a 30 minute group meeting with the teacher it went fine.

All the kids are excited to be back in the swing of things, and this week piano lessons start and the following week dance/soccer/basketball start up. Back when I only had one kid in school I thought the slow/spread out start was annoying. Now I like it. It always takes a couple of days to get back into the routine so it's nice to slowly build up to our full schedule.

Luckily I have a couple of things that are making things easier this fall
1. Little Man can and will dress himself
2. Little Man is starting to eat more regular food.
3. Running in the morning means three days a week I don't have to shower before dropoff, just throw on my running clothes and shower after.

Now I just need to work on my schedule for the time I am kidless. My plan is to run right after drop off, come home and clean some part of my house, shower, pick up Little Man, home for lunch and then whatever.

The cleaning is the main thing I need to work on. Since we let our cleaning lady go, I haven't been very good about cleaning. Time to get back on track.

Weekend Wrapup

Saturday morning I made blueberry pancakes with Little Hugger. We used a new recipe that I found on Pinterest and they were very good.

We went to the pool to beat the heat. It was surprisingly uncrowded. I think some people thought it would just be too hot. We stayed about 4 hours camped out by the kiddie pool, with my husband taking the kids one at a time over to the big pool to work on real swimming.

Sunday morning I made banana chocolate chip muffins with Little Reader from a recipe she got from her baking class. They were really good and very easy.

Since it had cooled down a bit I went for a run while my husband watched Wimbledon. I made it further than earlier in the week, since it was about 10 degrees cooler. Unfortunately there were only a couple of people running their sprinklers - running through them is a great way to cool off along the way. Still, I managed to get a good run and felt good after. This was the first time I had everything working - Endomondo, my playlist, my heart rate monitor.

Later that day I got all our grocery shopping done and then we headed to the beach. Unfortunately the water was closed due to rip currents, but the kids still had fun. They played at the playground and my husband and I took turns watching them, or soaking up the sun and listening to the waves. 

After volleyball we went to dinner at Hackneys with our friends. I ordered a grilled cheese for Little Man (the first time I've gotten him a restaurant meal). He took a couple of tiny nibbles, but swore he wasn't hungry. Despite that he ate all of the comp ice cream the waitress brought ;)

We got home pretty late, got the sandy dirty kids straight to bed, watched Newsroom and then went to bed ourselves.  A good weekend, but it's amazing how draining it is just to be out in the sun, even when you're not doing anything.

Purging

I love getting rid of things. I don't know what it is, I'm not into Feng Shui or anything like that, and I don't have an extreme minimalist house, but whenever I can get rid of something we no longer need it just makes me happy. Recently we've gotten rid of a lot of things - changing pad and Diaper Champ now that Little Man only wears diapers at night, the extra toddler mattress - since Little Hugger does not roll out of her bed, and of course the big one - the crib.

Ok, I didn't entirely get rid of it. I kept the springs to use as a pin board (like this one I found on Pinterest from Iheartorganizing.blogspot.com). I kept one of the sides to hang fabric on after I've ironed it in case I have to stop working on a project. I would have loved to have made a crafting desk for the kids like this one (here's the original site) but I don't have the room. A friend of mine cried the entire time she was taking apart an hauling away her sons' crib when they were done with it. I don't get that. I understand it's a symbol of a part of their life that has passed and never to return again, but it's also a sign of the beginning of a new stage of life.

It's not that I'm not sentimental. I do keep things that the kids make for me (but not every one). I keep cards, have a ton of photo albums. Tons of the songs on my iPod bring back
memories of one kind of another. I just don't feel the need to keep a lot of stuff.

Little Reader is like me. She often asks me to help her organize her stuff and she weeds through papers and things on a regular basis. Actually her room is neater than mine was when I was a kid.

Little Hugger definitely is more of a hoarder. She'll keep little scraps of paper for a craft she has in mind, but often never gets to. Whenever I ask her to organize her stuff and throw some away she often ends in tears. We finally came up with a compromise. She has binders with sheet protectors in them that she can store her assorted crafts and drawings in. Anything too big (or something that is slightly less important but she still wants to remember, I take a picture of it and we put it in a photo album she has.

Twice a year I have them go through their stuff (toys, clothes, books) to find things we can sell at Kid's Sale. If they outgrow things at other times we put it in a bin in the basement until the next sale. It's become such a habit now, even Little Man came up to me with a baseball hat yesterday that no longer fits and asked me to put it in the bin for Kids Sale.

I'm not going to lie and say my house is devoid of clutter, but it's in pretty good shape, and unlike a lot of my friends homes, things have a place and even my junk drawers are pretty well organized.

Busy & Fun Weekend

Saturday Little Reader had a birthday party at a friend's house. It was scheduled to be a 2 hour party according to the invite, but when I rang the doorbell at the pick up time, my daughter told me that they hadn't had cake yet do asked if she could stay. The birthday girl told me that they were waiting for her father to get home before they had the cake, and he wasn't supposed to get home for another half hour. So I left and told her to call me when she wanted me to pick her up. 45 minutes later, I still hadn't heard from her, so I went to go get her. Party still didn't seem to be over but a couple of the girls had left so my daughter was ok to leave.

Later that night, my husband went out to see Rock of Ages. We hadn't been to a movie in ages but our main reason for going out was our neighbor's son's CD release party, and since they weren't going to be going on until 1045 we had plenty of time to kill before then.

The movie was a lot of fun. Any fan of 80s hair bands should see it. The plot is pretty thin, just something to tie the songs together and it basically works. The main characters are unknowns (at least to me), but the supporting cast was great. As much as I think Tom Cruise is a wacko, he was great as Stacie Jaxx - an over the top washed up rock star.  Catherine Zeta-Jones was great too as the conservative wife of the LA mayor.

After the movie we cabbed it over to the bar to see the band play. There was another duo playing when we got there, who weren't very good, and we talked to our neighbors until their son went on. They played for about an hour and it was a good set. They have two guitarists, a drummer and a standup bass player. Overall they have a cool sound, old school rock, with a folk influence. We bought their EP after their set and headed home.

Sunday of course was Father's Day. The kids came in around 8 with their present for Dad - a version of this that I found on Pinterest. 
It turned out pretty cute. I had them write their own signs (well except for Little Man since he can't write yet). We also got him this wireless meat thermometer for the grill that one of his friends had told him about.

Once everyone was dressed we headed out for breakfast which we haven't done in a while, then to the pool since it was so hot. The kids had a great time splashing around and despite the heat the pool wasn't that crowded. We left mid afternoon as my husband wanted to watch the end of the US Open.

He wanted to try out his new grill thermometer so we grilled some Greek Chicken. The recipe wasn't that great but the chicken was cooked perfectly. It's a pretty cool gadget.

But the best part of the whole weekend was that Little Man FINALLY pooped on the potty (I think I already mentioned that in a previous post, but obviously I'm excited)

Page It Forward 2.0 Book Drive

This week the United Way of Lake County kicked off their second annual summer long Page it Forward Book Drive. Last year they were able to collect over 154,000 books for kids from low-income families. 
United Way of Lake County’s kindergarten readiness assessment of incoming kindergartners’ skills in Waukegan found that 76 percent of Waukegan 6-year-olds had no knowledge of books.  I don't really know what they mean by no knowledge of books.  Does that mean that they never read/touched a book/ had a story read to them?  Whatever it means, it's depressing. 

We've read to all our kids pretty much from Day One.  They each have a ton of books on their bookshelves and we go to the library about once a month.  As bloggy Moms we all appreciate the written word, so it's fair to assume that you all read to/provide books for your kids.


This year's goal is 200,000 books.  


We recently went through my kids book shelves and of the books they have we found about 30 that they were willing to part with. Now I just have to figure out when I'm going to drop them off. It's only about a half hour drive for me to any of the locations, but I just want to combine it with something else.

If you are in the Chicagoland area, please consider going through your kids' old books and see if you can find a few to donate. There are dropoff locations all around Lake County, check the website for listing
United Way website. If not, please like their FB page.  Every like gets a donation from their corporate sponsor.  You can also text a $10 donation. All the details are listed on the website and FB page