Summer Fun

I am part of an awesome, local mom's group on Facebook. Those ladies are really some of the sweetest more helpful ladies I know. Even when we don't see eye to eye on parenting issues it is, for the most part, a low drama group of women who genuinely seek to lift one another up. The past few weeks there have been a LOT of posts about things to do with kiddos that are free or low cost.  I thought, to make life easier for them, I would compile the ideas here so there are all in one place. If you aren't local a lot of these may not work for you, but this may at least give you an idea of things to look for near you!



Low Cost:

Morning Movies at Movies Ten. Their movie list can be found here.

Morning Movies at Regal Movie Theater. Their movie list can be found here.

Free Kids Bowling at AMF bowling ally. (I have this on the cheap list since you still have to rent shoes).

Sheetz for slushies. (You can get the small ones for $0.99 with a sheets card)

 



 

Free (or close to free depending on what you have around the house)

Splash ground at Riverside Park

Interactive fountain at River Front Park.

Sprinklers in the yard.

Kiddie pool in the yard.

Squirt Gun Fight.

Make Popsicles

Construction paper, a magazine, and a glue stick will keep kids busy for HOURS!

Glow stick bath.

Play Dough out side (way easier to clean up)

Make a tent in the back yard (or front yard, or basement)

Make no bake (or preacher) cookies.

Barnes and Nobles has a children story hour every Wednesday at 11:00 am and Friday at 7:00 pm.

Go to the Library.

Pick a topic and learn everything you can about it.

Finger paint in the bathtub.

Fill up buckets with water and let them splash around/paint the side wall or deck ect.

Draw with Chalk.

Blow bubbles.

Make cards to send to family.



 

Special Occasion Ideas

If you are looking for something a bit more exciting, but still some what reasonable, most of these activities can be done for less then $10.00 per person.

Splash Valley Water Park in Roanoke.

Amazement Square in Lynchburg. (Hint check out The Clutch Guide for a 2 for 1 coupon!)

Hill Cats Game. (Their web site if FULL of discounts including kids club which allows kids to attend all 70 home games for free, as well as dollar pizza nights and Half Price Tuesdays.)

Mill Mountain Zoo.

Fun Center Putt Putt.

Funquest (Has tons of specials on roller skating, the indoor jungle gym, and laser tag all summer including a Christian Music night and $1.99 Mondays)

Bounce About.

 

*Be Sure to join Groupon. Typically you can get



 

READ!!!!

Join the Dig Into Reading program.

Read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and make cookies.

Read If You Give a Moose a Muffin and make muffins.

Read a book about Johny Apple Seed and eat apples (or color apples or something with apples).

A great list of books to read to your daughters this summer from Virginia Sole Smith. (I must also add the Betsy Tacy books to this list if you haven't read them to your little girl yet it MUST go on your summer reading list)

Ten books to read to your 4-7 year old by Sarah Bessey.

Check out Our Cultivated Life for a tutorial on how to make you own summer reading board game!

 

Pinterest

Here are just a few links I discovered on Pinterest that sounded like fun!

Sewing Cards by Handmade Charlotte

My entire pinboard of printable paper dolls.

These Sponge Balls  by One Charming Party so sound much better than waterballons!

 

Make Your Summer Bucket List

These are few of my favorite fill in yourself bucket lists available for printing at home to fill out with your own ideas.

Bugs Bucket List

Simple Bucket List

Summer Schedule Ideas

Color Your Own Bucket List

Summer Bingo Board (Great for vacation)

 

One other thing I always do is give my kids each a note book at the start of the summer. For older kids this is a great way for them to keep track of their summer adventures. For mine (4 and 5) it turns into more of a place for them to put stickers and glue stuff, but it still helps keep them busy.

I'm still working on setting our summer schedule and bucket list. Abi just got out of school and most schools don't get out till tomorrow so I'm giving myself a week or two to figure it out. But once I do, I'll be sure to share what we are doing this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

30 Before 30.

 

 



So tomorrow is my birthday and I finally finished making my 30 before 30 list. It was harder than I thought. Trying to come up with 30 things I wanted to do in the next year that were PRACTICAL and DOABLE. I mean sure there are a TON of things I would love to do but for various reasons (money, baby coming this summer) it's just not possible. But eventually I did it! The interesting thing is, without meaning to I ended up picking a LOT Of things that fit well with my new years goal.

2013 Goals:

To be more intentional...

*In relationships

*In finances

*At home

*In memory keeping.

Not everything fell into one of these four categories but a lot did. So without further ado....

30 Before 30

Personal:

1. Memorize 30 verses.

2. Read, finish, or get rid of all MY unread books.

3. Fill up my half-used journals/smashbooks.

4. Sew the Super Tote pattern by Noodlehead.

5. Do one Show.

6. Make 500 things.

7.  Cook a recipe a month off of my pinterest boards.

8. Visit Bush Garden's again.

9. Submit an article to be published in a magazine.

10. Plant SOMETHING.

11. Learn How to drive stick shift.

12. Try at least 6 tutorials off of my pinterest boards.

Relationships:

13. Invite our neighbors over for a cook out.

14. See one of my far away friends again. (Missy, Amber, Mary, Andrew, Laura, Colleen)

15. Go away with Josh for a night.

16. Send 30 snail mail letters.

17. Go away with friends/sister for a weekend.

Finances:

18. Pay off 3 debts.

19. Save $1,000.

Home.

20. Establish some of my favorite childhood traditions in my family.

21. Purge 100 things from my house.

22. Plant SOMETHING.

Memory Keeping/Blogging:

23. Attend a class/seminar/conference to improve my blogging.

24. So SOMETHING with all my photos.

25. Learn how to really use my camera.

26. Post a tutorial on my blog.

27. Write/Finish a list of 1,000 gifts.

28. Spend a day taking a photo every hour.

28. Take the same photo once a month for a year.

29. Take a photo a day.

30. Blog every day for a month.

I am great at  making lists but not very good at sticking to them, so we shall see how it goes. I've actually already broken a lot of the goals down into smaller ones, like how many verses I need to memories each month and how many cards I need to write so that I don't get to next April and realize I'm really behind. As always with me one lists leads to another so I am already making a decent dent on number 3 as I make list after list.

What would be on your list for the next year of your life?

Noticing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is so easy to look around at our life and think "This isn't what I signed up for" or "How did I get here?"

We look at our big plans. We look at our facebook feed. We look at our favorite blogs. We wondered what happened. We wonder why we don't have the life we so desperately want when every one else makes it look so easy.

The funny thing is, I think if most of us slowed down and looked around we would realize that we are in fact living the life we wanted. Our lives, for the most part, aren't that different from the blogs we drool over. We bake, we take walks, we go for ice cream, we do special activities with our kids. The difference between our lives and the lives of the people on the other side of the glowing screen and polished blogs is documenting. The ONLY way that "other" woman is different from us is that she taking the time to notice, document, and dwell on the little moments. She takes time to make much the life's small celebrations.

Like ice cream for dinner on a hot Thursday night.

Baby's in diapers on hand-made quilts.

A big jar of pop beads.

A baby dedication.

The first watermelon of the season (even if it is a bit early).

Hot dog fingers.

So here is to noticing my life more. Lifting up prayers of gratitude for simple moments. And capturing the beauty in the mundane.

Traveling Goodies

Last week I pulled Bear out of school and loaded her and Maddie up in the van with my in-laws and we headed to Gatlinburg, Tn. I grew up going to Branson Missouri so it feels so much like "home" to me I love it. Downside is the drive. It's not THAT far but 5-6 hours with preschool age kids can feel like forever. So, I packed them goodie bags. I thought I would share what I packed for them in case any one is look for ideas. Sorry for the bag photos they are camera pics at 4:00 am!





For starters I took them to Barnes and Noble with me so they could pick out their own book ect. Once we bought the books we took them home and I let them look at them but not actually play with them (They are activity books). By the time the trip came around they were super excited to use the books.



Of course I couldn't leave without a couple goodies for myself. Even big girls like sticker books and this doll house sticker book is such a fun way to be creative without any real work. The book on the other hand was a major disappointment. While it had a great concept it felt really trashy and I ended up throwing it out after three chapters. :(



Ok so it's a horrible picture, but here's what I put in each bag.

*Sticker Book. I really prefer ones that are more like paper dolls or scenes as apposed to just random stickers and blank pages. I feel like it allows them to be creative but still follow directions.

*Magnetic book. Same idea as the sticker books but magnetic paper dolls.

*A 31Bags fold and go organizer with new mini coloring book, wind up crayons, and stickers.

* Their LeapPad/Leapster with fresh batteries.



*In side pockets they each had a full sports bottle with juice and the other side pocket was full of snacks. Front pocket had a ziplock bag for their trash.



Front pocket also had an extra specials surprise for each. I have been participating in doll swaps online for the past year and I saved two special dolls for this trip. They loved their "trip buddies".



And of course Mama's bag with snacks, lap top, nook, book, sticker book, head phones, iPhone, 3DS. Lol yeah I may have a technology problem!

Hope this gave you some idea for traveling with kiddos. Another essential for us is Kids Dramamine. No one got sick the entire time!

Weekly Five

1) The office is mostly done. Just need to move the futon in, take down the paint along the ceiling and put on some finishing touches. But all in all it is done and usable and I am loving it as is Maddie. It's currently her favorite room. As I type this she is walking runaway across the room singing what I think is supposed to be "Ta-da" but is coming out "tana".

2) The first full week of school went great. Bear cried when I picked her up on Monday because she wanted to stay like the rest of the kids. Thursday I let her stay and realized while it may be fine once a week we are not ready for full day all the time yet. She took a nap at nap time and Mrs. Roberts said she had a hard time waking her up. You could tell and she was crabby for me the rest of the day. Goose is going to my friends house two days a week. Leave it to me to find some one else to home school my kid. Angie enjoys having the set schedule, Maddie enjoys doing flash cards, and I enjoy having a few hours a week all mine to write and work on shop stuff. Actually getting some custom orders wrapped up and out the door!

3) Josh sold quite a few Mazda 3s in August which meant a nice bonus and he showed up Friday night with a new lap top for me!!

4) Josh and I have been talking a lot lately about the miscarriage and how so many people stories end with "but then I got pregnant with so and so...." While that is beautiful and I know all things work together, that isn't turning out to be our story. And that is ok. We have a but then, but for now any ways it doesn't include another child. It's more like "But then God filled our lives with good things. We still are sad we don't get to meet that child. But life is good and so is our God." and it's a place we are ok with being, for now.

5) We went to Busch Gardens on Sunday. Just a day trip which was a blast till the three hour drive home at 8 pm. But all in all so glad we went. We took his parents and were able to spend some good time together as well as all doing our own thing. A pretty good end to summer!

Weekly Five

1) The drama of the past few weeks has not only ceased but look as though it is all resolved. The money is back in our account, the insurance check came int he mail, the new debit cards arrived, and the brick guy is on his way to fix my house as I type.

2) I started working on my office/studio space this week for real. I am so in love and can't wait to finish!!

3) I won a $100.00 Coach gift card from Coach themselves this week. Hoping it shows up in the mail before I head to Gatlinburg Tennessee and the Coach outlet!!

4)Abi has now completed bother her first and second day of school. First day she cried hysterically when I left. Today she threw a fit when I came to pick her up at half day because "She wanted to stay and rest like the other kids." We may be looking into full day. Thought it was a bit sad to see her take this first step, there is a large part of me that can't help feeling that it all felt so RIGHT!  Abi and I are both so very ready for this stage. She is ready to stretch her wings a bit and I am ready for the freedom and routine that comes from having her in school.

5) I am a bit in shock at how busy and popular my shop has become this season. I actually have people seeking me out to be part of shows ect and it looks like we will sell out of custom spots before the October 15th deadline. I am humbled and encouraged by this. :)

Weekly Five

1. It has been quite a week. The insurance adjuster came out. He approved the higher estimate. (YAY) and supposedly a check was mailed out Thursday. Friday we received a called that some one had stolen both our debit card number and pin number. If it's not one thing it's another.


2. I finally realized just how much stress all this has been causing me when I broke down while out with friends. Good news is I have amazing friends who love me and have been walking through this with us with so much grace.

 


3. The Goose Beary Shop is growing and changing and stretching. As is this Blog. Lots of growing pains as I work through where I want to go and branding myself. So much to think about.

 


4. I took the last of the wall paper off of the guest room walls and it is all ready for primer and paint. I am so excited we moving forward on this. :)

 


5. I really haven't been feeling like myself lately. So much stress and so much is going on and changing. I am trying to take time to slow down, unplug, process, and have a bit more grace with myself.

More Growing Up

More proof that my little gals are growing up way to quickly. Maddie Goose has started on solid foods. She's been having cereal for a few weeks. But, we just recently started "real" food. Yesterday it was bananas and today was sweet potato. I'm trying something with Maddie I never did with Abi Bear, making my own baby food. If you can call pureeing bananas and bake sweet potatoes "making" baby food. Even Bear got in on this big event and helped feed Goose her lunch. So how about you all? Any favorite baby foods store bought, or made at home?

Bitter Sweet.

A bitter sweet moment when, instead of asking to be carried down stairs, she offered me her up-turned palm.

"Mama, come on, hold my hand."

Photo courtesy of Sarah Abbott Photography.