First Day of Summer

Rain, rain and more rain. For the first few days of summer vacation it just rained. So we did what any fun family would do and played in the rain, hung out in pajamas, watched movies (Harry Potter marathon), played video games and built forts. It was awesome. I am so grateful that I get to be home with them this summer. I think they really needed their mom back.

Jack is super serious about pillow forts between the couch and ottoman. 

Last Day of School Fun

I'm not sure who was more excited for school to be over this year, the kids or me. I think maybe me this year. You see, we didn't get into the Pre-K next to our elementary for Jack. We had to drive about 8 miles round trip twice a day. I know, its not much, but we live within walking distance to the elementary. Just a pain. So next year the youngest will all be at one school!! I am so excited for next year.

We celebrated by going out for donuts at a local doughnut place. I love their donuts. We ran into Ellie's teacher which I think kind of made Ellie's morning. She adored her teacher this year. I did too. The doughnut shop has a neat chalk board corner inside and the kids usually get in some coloring time.

I am ready for summertime and they are too. We tried to get a group pic, but gave up in favor of eating the doughnuts. Good choice.

The Cave Tour at Silver Dollar City

The Cave Tour at Silver Dollar City is hands down one of my favorite things to do at Silver Dollar City. I love the excitement and the accomplishment I feel every time I finish it. Here are some tips to make it fun for your kids and easier on you.

• Get in line and then go to the bathroom. I know this seems counter intuitive but it works. Tours leave every thirty minutes. Your goal is to get there 5-10 minutes after a tour leaves (assuming you don't make the first one). You should be able to get in line and then go to the restroom before the next tour starts. This way there is minimal wait time in the line. 
• It's okay to let them play on your phone while you wait. I would love to say that the scenes that they have filled with history and facts kept my kids entertained, but they didn't. Four and five year olds just don't care about history yet. 
• Don't refill your drinks before you get in line. In fact, make sure they are empty. You won't be able to take them on the tour and you will be less likely to drink them right before the tour. There aren't any bathrooms in the cave. You also won't be sloshing them around either.
• There are a lot of stairs and a lot of walking, this is not the time to wear the cute shoes.
• Be at the back of the line. This way you aren't holding it up. It also frees you to take pictures that don't include photo bombers. 
• Have fun. Enjoy the beauty. Ask them questions along the way. 
• I save this for the last day. This is the only thing we do in the park. We get in, do they cave tour, refill our cups for the car and get any last minute snack for the car. I promise it will make them tired and they will take a really great nap in the car!

Lego Advent Calendar {and the life lesson it brings}

As a child I celebrated Advent every year with my mother. She had a sweet little set from Unity that we would listen to (on a cassette tape!) and we would light the candles on our wreath. The memory is a dear one and I wanted to recreate that feeling of closeness, reverence and gentility that my mother had with me. I had really considered doing a cute little one that I had to fill myself (ha maybe next year) but when we visited the Lego Store last month in OKC with Girl Scouts I found two Advent Calendars there and opted for easy and fun. Something I knew that would entice them into this celebration. You could make a cute one and fill it with Lego's though and that would be pretty awesome too!

So far, it's love at first open! They had two options in store and I picked both so that the boys and girls can take turns opening one each day. As they opened their first one (littles got to go first) the excitement was palpable. It was then that I realized the main lesson it was teaching them, patience. Patience, something we are not born with but must learn and practice.

It also teaches so many other things. In our case, there was graciousness of the older kids, allowing to let the younger ones go first. It teaches them that they do not always have instant gratification and that its okay when you don't! They will also have to share the sets once they are complete, which isn't anything new when it comes to Lego's, but a good lesson to reinforce nonetheless. I also love that it fosters the anticipation of something and then having to be patient in order to get it. The lessons all tie together and are interwoven. They may not realize what the tradition is teaching them right away, but what they learn from it will spill through in their daily life for the rest of their lives.

You can check out all of the Advent items The Lego Store has to offer here. I could spend all day looking at Lego's, shhhhhh don't tell the kids though!

My Black Friday Deals and Steals

I love Black Friday. I get the best deals and steals! I'm going to share with you my secrets. First, I stay up late on Thursday night. I put on the comfiest pajamas and watch movies late into the night with the oldest kids while the littles fall asleep around us. This year we discovered a ton of new/old movies (which I listed at the bottom). We all fell asleep in one big slumber party. Friday morning I don't get up until I have to pull together a leftover piece of pie and cookie breakfast for the kids. Or whatever is easiest to get to in the fridge that is stuffed full of leftovers. I chose a roll and a cup of coffee. Then we snuggle up on the couch again, fireplace still going and we watch movies, eat leftovers, laugh, nap, joke, hug and enjoy the entire day just like that. I get the best deals. I spend the entire day with my kids and husband.  I stole hugs and kisses and stroked their cheeks and ran my fingers through their hair.They don't need a new toy or for me to get all my shopping done, they need me. Sleepy me in my pajamas snuggling them and making memories.

If you go all out for Black Friday, I support you 100%. Live and let live or in this case nap and let shop :).

Movies we suggest: The Burbs, The Man With One Red Shoe, Romancing the Stone, Maidentrip (it is half Dutch/English with subtitles and she used the F word once, which didn't need subtitles) and we started PBS's National Parks: America's Best Idea by Ken Burns. Everything is on Netflix. Enjoy! Oh and 80's PG is like today's PG-13, just sayin'.

Little House on the Prairie

Did you know that the Little House on the Prairie was on the way from Topeka to Tulsa? How in the world did I miss this? Sunday I decided (along with some help from my mother-in-law) that our run around and wiggle stop would be there. We took a potty break about 30 minutes prior but I wish we would have waited. The bathrooms at The Little House on the Prairie were far superior to the gas station we had stopped at. The admission was $3 for adults and $1 for the kids. I would have paid that just to use the bathrooms there. It makes a great rest stop.

I think that Ellie and Jack loved it the most. Jack talked to the donkeys nearly the entire time we were there. Ellie loved all the little details. The school, the post office and the little house all were perfectly put together. We even found a little turtle crossing through. My mom would have loved it. It reminded me of her. Such a fantastic learning opportunity. We talked about homesteading, why the post master would have lived at the post office and all sorts of things. I think it will be really neat to do some research, reading, maybe a couple episodes of the show and then visit it again in a few years. It is just far enough off highway 75 that it's nice and quiet, giving you that 1870's feel.

Take a detour and make your rest stop here. You won't regret it! Stop at the gas station for drinks and snacks or bring your own. We got butterscotch and peppermint sticks at the gift shop 10 for a dollar.

Love when I get them all together in a pic. 

Jack LOVED the donkeys. That was his favorite part.

The mail boxes were a big hit.

Ellie was really in her element!

Anyone ready for school?

A little adventure

Last fall we drove from Oklahoma to Oregon to pick up a 1978 Argosy Airstream from my dad. We traveled through Denver, Yellowstone, beautiful Pacific beaches, downtown San Fran at rush hour hauling the airstream and Disneyland. We pushed hard on the way back to just get back in time and stayed extra at Disney so we missed The Grand Canyon. We crammed a lot in, which simply made us hungry for staying in one place and really exploring on our next little adventure. 

We visited Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful while basking in the most beautiful smell of real pine trees. The kids saw the ocean for the first time. My ocean, with cool water on a wonderfully cloudy and foggy day (in true Northern California/Oregon style). My kids got to see part of the not so little town I grew up in just north of the Bay in San Fran. I really missed mom when I was there, something fierce.We went to Disneyland and managed to surprise the kids. It was magical and I can't wait to go back and really spend some time in each place. Now we are busy remodeling our little Airstream to get it ready for our next adventure. 

I will really introduce our Airstream in the next post. Since she really wasn't stay ready we used her as a giant portable bathroom for us in the middle of nowhere. I highly recommend keeping those training potties...it came in so handy! Take lots of snacks but in lots of varieties, have packs of wipes and plastic grocery sacks for trash. Take a cooler so that you can save money on drinks (crystal light and water bottles y'all). Plan out stops and expect to have an accident. Pack your kids extra clothes for the car, some gallon ziplock bags in case they have one. You'll be prepared so you won't get upset and it will be less stressful, oh and some extra towels.

I planned out our Disney trip knowing we only had 2 days at the park. I studied the maps until I knew it nearly by heart. I chose one must do ride for each kid and then we were free to explore the things that were neat and caught our eye. We did do a character lunch at Ariel's Grotto...worth every penny. We also got the photo pass and we will get it every time we go from now on. I have great pictures of ALL of us. The photographers are really great and really do know how to get the best shot wherever you are. It was truly two days of magic!

I could have stayed at Yellowstone for forever. Breathtakingly beautiful. I cannot wait to take our Airstream and have some awesome little adventures with the kids. We stayed at The Yellowstone Hotel. It has been beautifully restored in the lobby and dining areas, and they are working on the rooms. It was a little Shining-esque, but only for Dale and I :). I want to really camp next time. I spotted lots of animals and it was fun looking for them while we drove. 

It was fun and exhausting...worth every second!

Halloween 2012-The most original title ever.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and it also happens to be Dale and Ellie's birthday so the house is always hopping on October 31st.  This year I am back at work so I bought (gasp, this was really hard for me for some reason) Ethan and Jack's Spiderman costumes.  Although if you can make a homemade Spiderman you are one bad ass Momma!  Regan was going to be a pumpkin and I had plans of making one of those super cute orange tutus that are floating around Pinterest.  However a few weeks ago she did a 180 and wanted demanded to be a ballerina AND she wanted to wear stuff we already had...super bonus.  Regan is the winner.  Ellie wanted to be Barbie originally, until I brought up being a zombie and she was begging to be a "walker".  I watched a lot of YouTube stuff on The Walking Dead make-up, which was pretty awesome and I probably would have watched them all anyways because I'm slightly obsessed with the show.  The fake blood was super fun and I did her make-up in about 10 minutes.  We practiced doing it last week which really helped and if you are going to do makeup I highly suggest doing a practice run.  Oh and it was fun to boot.  I got her dress at Goodwill so that we could tear it up, dirty it up and blood it up and then toss it.

I think I'm going to start taking blog pictures with my phone from now on so excuse the lack of quality.  They go straight to my Picasa Web Album and at this point I'm too lazy to put that memory stick into my computer at home, when I'm there.  And I miss you guys, I miss writing and that web connection to the rest of the world, so from here on out its phone quality okay?  So take a look at my cutie pies.  Oh my how I love them!

This was their stash.

Spiderman plays with Barbie.  Love it.

Jack flexing his muscles.  He does it to the front and not to the sides!

I didn't even have to tell her to put her feet that way!

Oh my how I love that this is what they did when I told them to pose together.

Cheese for Mommy!  Ethan's muscles are adorable.

Mom lets go the candy is out there!

Ellie post blood.  Nevermind the mess in the back.  Yes that is a beer can, I'm pretty sure  you need one before and at least one after taking 4 kids trick or treating.

I used tattoos, fake blood and make-up.

This head wound was my favorite.

We did some claw marks on her back too.

Ellie was the only one that went through the haunted house in our neighborhood.  It was pretty scary.  She got really scared by the zombie at the end, but he was a cool teenager and said "oh we're bro's lets go eat them together!" and she laughed and told him how great his makeup was.  Oh my do I love her and how brave she is, my little Halloween baby!