Farmer's Market

Today’s adventure took place after 2 hours of yard work and buying a really nice new ladder. I just had to add that last part because our new ladder is really cool. Maybe I will go into the details on that later.

Currently, my husband is doing a “Biggest Loser” competition at work, and I am weaning the kids off of the fast, fattening snacks that they got used to when I was too tired to cook anything. This has resulted in my family eating a lot of fruit… and some vegetables.

One of our favorite places to buy fresh produce is at the DeKalb Farmer’s Market. Most would think that I am crazy for trying to enter that place on a Saturday. It’s always extremely busy, crowded, and the produce isn’t always perfect.  I just can’t help myself though. I have my husband with me, and I see it as killing two birds with one stone. Not only do I get the produce that I want, it doubles as a live aquarium for my kids to get excited about.

When I told Ali that we were going to get produce today, she was hesitant because she wanted to finish her cartoon.

“No mom, I will stay home today.”

"Ummm…no, you are coming because both mom and dad are going. There will be no one here to watch you. Plus, this is the place with the fish.”

Ali suddenly got excited and rushed upstairs to get dressed. That took about 3 minutes, and then she spent the next 20 minutes staring at her socks and shoes. I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was annoyed by the time that we finally got the family loaded up.

The kids were pretty good on the car ride once Matt put a stop to their screaming, and I threatened to take away Ali’s Netflix if she kept provoking her little sister. After that, it was pointing out things that they saw through the window.

Once we got there, we parked and let everyone out.

“Where momma. Where MOMMA!”

“She’s on the other side of the car,” said Matt.

Erin proceeded to walk around the front of the van until she could see me and hold my hand. This seems to be the most current hardship with Erin. She will accept no one’s help except for her beloved mom’s. This makes it really hard if I need Matt to take over for a while. It just ends up in tears and a two-year-old tantrum.

I grabbed Erin’s hand and started walking to hear, “Where my dinosaur? I need my dinosaur.”

It took a minute, but I convinced her that her orange stuffed dinosaur would survive in the car for a few minutes while we went shopping.

“Let’s go see the clams first mom because I like clams, and I want to see the clams before anything else. Okay mom. We need to see the clams first,” says Ali.

I breathed in and out and continued to walk as Ali rambled on and on about the clams and other fish that she wanted to take a peek at.

Once inside, Ali ran to the different glass windows to look at the chopped up sea food. She asked questions excitedly and seemed to skip along at her own pace. Erin demanded to be picked up (by me, of course) so that she could see inside the big fish tanks.

By the end of it, both kids were happy and laughing their heads off. They thought that the lobsters were particularly hilarious.

Once the kids got their fill of watching the sea, we headed over to the produce area to pick up fresh fruit and some bread.  Erin finally let me put her down, and we walked out with plenty of yummy items to snack on during the ride home.

In the future, I will do this activity several times. It’s free. The kids get excited, and it motivates us to eat much better.

Strawberry Picking and Bird Feeders

Today was the first official day of summer. I would say it was full of laughs, activities and bonding exercises, but let’s be honest with ourselves. I’m human, and I get tired. So do my children. There is a point that all of us need down time.

The day started out great. I told Ali that we were going to go Strawberry picking today; so, she got ready at super speed and was shoving ME out the door. It was kind of a nice change from our normal routine of me constantly pushing her to even get dressed.

Erin wasn’t quite aware of what was going on and tended to prefer to stay naked while she watched her morning cartoons and ate waffles. To get her to join in with the excitement took a little more coaxing.

It wasn’t long before we finally were all piled into the car. Since the drive was only 40 minutes, I thought that a movie would be enough to entertain my children. I was wrong.

“MOOOOOOOMMMMM…I’m bored! My seat belt is tugging on me. Where are my crayons?”

“Waaaaaawaaaawaaaa….(an assortment of babbles that I didn’t understand)”

“Ali, watch the movie. If you are calm, Erin will stay calm.”

“I love to sing. I love to sing. It is pretty outside…lallalalalalala,” sings Ali at the top of her lungs.

I rolled my eyes and kept driving. Only 32 more minutes, and we would be there. With 20 minutes left to the ride, I got desperate and bribed the kids with a box of fruit snacks if they were good for the rest of the trip. That at least kept Ali quiet.

When we arrived to the pick farm, there were already plenty of people picking berries. I got the kids out of the car and handed them each a bucket.

“Moooooommmm, it’s cold!”

“Ali, its 70 degrees outside. What you are feeling is the wind, and you are going to appreciate it once we get into the hot Georgia sun.” She didn’t believe me, but at least I convinced her to leave her jacket in the car - one less thing to carry.

When I started this adventure, I thought that my kids would help me pick considering Erin proved herself to be an expert at it last time, and Ali had been multiple times. I was wrong. Both kids handed me their buckets and got mad at me if I didn’t put the strawberries in their bucket verses their sisters. Needless to say, it was a long 40 minutes of picking strawberries, and my back hurt by the end of it.

I paid for the strawberries and headed to the car. Ali, with her excellent memory thought it pertinent to remind me 500 times that I promised her fruit snacks. I gave her the box to share with Erin. The snack that I thought would last the entire car ride home lasted about 6 minutes. Ali gave Erin two packs and devoured the rest of the box. This is why I don’t buy fruit snacks very often.

After that, Ali started singing and screaming at the top of her lungs. I finally put her into time out because she was making it difficult to concentrate on the road. Erin quietly sat and watched her cartoon.  Once home, I washed strawberries so that the kids could get a taste of all of “their” hard work.  Then I went upstairs to unwind and take my nap. I know. I am so spoiled that way.

The kids ate lunch, watched TV and ate snacks while I took an hour nap.

When I got up, I played for a while with them until Matt got home. Then I forced Ali to get off the computer and move for a while. With Matt being home, the kids went into full play mode with wrestling and all sorts of high energy games. I had to think fast.

“Ali, want to do something cool?”

She stopped instantly and stared. “What?”

“Get dressed. Go outside, and find me two of the most beautiful pine cones that you can find.”

She followed my instructions quickly and found a pine cone for her and Erin. I tied a string to the top and looped it. Then I had the kids roll it in peanut butter and bird seed.

“I want pine cone. I WANT PINE CONE!” said Erin as she messily rolled her pine cone in the peanut butter and bird seed.

At the end, the kids found a place outside to hang them and were quite satisfied with their creations.

We ended the night with a short walk, hand in hand, while the kids talked and pointed out the flowers in nature. All in all, it was a good day.

Crayon Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Today, Ali has been causing me all sorts of grief.  I went to pick her up from one of her final preschool days to find out from her teacher that she was complaining of being tired all day. The teacher said that she basically stayed in a blanket and read books to herself in the corner instead of participating.

At first, I was sympathetic. “Ali, are feeling okay? Did you not get enough sleep?"

“Yeah Mom, I’m tired. Erin kept waking me up last night.”

I knew that this last statement wasn’t true considering that Erin was out like a light by 8:00 pm, and I would have heard her if anything was wrong because I am the lightest sleeper in the world. I also remembered that Ali was the first one out of her room this morning. At about 6:30, I heard her creep down the stairs and start watching TV.

Giving her the benefit of the doubt, I didn’t say anything and took her home. That’s when it started.

Within 5 minutes, she had transformed from a lethargic slug to the Roadrunner zooming throughout my house. Except, instead of “Meep! Meep!” it was “Mom! … Mom! …”

I’m sure that she said more, but I couldn’t understand because she kept moving from room to room while words flew out of her mouth.

I wasn’t the only one who was bothered by her running around, though. After a few shoves and bossing from her big sister, Erin began scheming. I watched as she transformed into the Wiley Coyote.

What I heard next was a quick thump-thump-thump of someone running up the stairs, then a loud thump and some crying. When I came around the corner I pieced back what logically must have happened with my two Looney Tunes:

Erin, the Wiley Coyote, climbed up the stairs as if they were a cliff and waited for Ali, the Roadrunner, to come flying along the same path. However, as Ali reached the top of the stairs, Coyote Erin made a quick shove and did what was impossible in the cartoons – she successfully pushed the Roadrunner off the cliff.

She didn’t fall more than a step though, and no one was hurt, but both kids were sent to time out.

That’s about when I passed out from exhaustion. Pregnancy tends to kick in full throttle at about 2:00, and I become useless without a nap.  It wasn’t long before both kids were bouncing on my bed.

“Mom…MOM….MOOOOOOOMMMM!!!” shouted Ali.

“Wake-up mom,” said Erin in her little whisper voice as she patted my face.

Despite my efforts to play dead, the kids weren’t going to let me sleep any more. I got out of bed and told Ali that if she wanted to do anything fun today, she was required to wear clothes. She reluctantly obeyed, and I started the kids cleaning up some of the toys so that we could start a fun activity.

Ali started working on the toys that were spread across the floor while I cleaned the kitchen, office and living room.

Finally, I told the kids that it was time to have some super fun.

“Ali, go and get all of your broken crayons.”

Ali rushed like a mad woman to the computer desk where she kept her secret stash of crayons. I took the normal supply out of the cupboard and started sorting out the broken ones with Erin. It didn’t take long before we had a nice pile of crayons. Most of the broken ones already had the paper peeled off because that is something that my toddler enjoys doing in her free time.

While the kids ripped the paper off of the rest, I put tin liners in the cupcake pan. I had the kids put the colors that they wanted to mix in the tin of their choice.

 

“All the pinks and purples are mine!” exclaimed Ali.

Erin just started to whimper in the background until I handed her one of the “cool” colors.

Once the kids were done loading up the tins, I slipped them in the oven at 400 degrees and let the kids watch through the glass as the crayons slowly melted. They thought that part was especially cool. The problem was once the crayons came out of the oven, they needed to cool down. The kids were not a fan.

“It’s taking too long.”

“Waaaaaaaaaawaaaaa”

“I don’t understand how we can color with those paint things. Are we going to dip our fingers in them?”

After about 5 minutes of this, I wanted to rip out my hair and run screaming the opposite direction. Luckily, that’s about when Matt came home. Thank goodness for small favors.

I got frustrated enough with Ali that she was sent to time out until dinner was done (3 minutes later), and told Matt what had happened at school today. Once Ali got out from her room, Matt promptly told her that she was going to bed right after dinner. We didn’t want her to be “tired” tomorrow, right? Of course not…

I thought that the idea was brilliant. Not only did it punish Ali for lying to her teacher about her lack of energy, but it also gave me an extra hour tonight to get a little peace and quiet.

Ali started complaining again about how tired she was and how she couldn’t move from one space to another.

“Ali, if that is truly how you are feeling, we are going to have to take you to the doctor.”

“Will he give me a shot?”

“Probably”

Her fatigue suddenly disappeared, but we still put her to bed soon after.

The crayons eventually cooled to a solid state. I peeled back the tins to find that they definitely do look like Reese’s peanut butter cups. I will let the kids color with them tomorrow.

 

In the future, I will probably do this again, but with something else to distract the kids during the cooling time. The wait was just too much. 

Shapes, Colors and Marshmallows

The last day of preschool is this Friday; so, I was hesitant to break into my summer bag of tricks already. After all, one of the final days of preschool was only 21 hours away… Even better, bed time was only 9 hours away... If I could run out the clock, I could keep the first activity fresh until they drove me really nuts…

I looked at them naked except for their underwear as they took turns clawing at each other while fighting over a bean bag chair. I knew I had to take action, and it had to be now.

“Hey, do you want to do something fun?” I asked energetically.

Ali allowed herself to be kicked off the bean bag chair and hopped up, eyes wide in anticipation. She was always up for an adventure. Erin ignored me, now sprawling in the coveted spot.

I pulled out a bag of colored marshmallows and held them up. Erin took a break from celebrating a rare victory over the bean bag to fixate on the treats. Mirroring her stare at the bag was my husband, who seemed to have temporarily been pulled out of the trance induced by his laptop game. I now had their undivided attention.

I divvied out the toothpicks and marshmallows at the table and demonstrated to the kids how to put them together. Ali immediately started making a chain of marshmallow-toothpick-marshmallow-toothpick. Erin put a marshmallow on a toothpick,ate it, then repeated.

My husband and I, on the other hand, are pros at this. I started building a bridge, explaining that I was using triangles to make it structurally sound. My husband pointed out that circles are actually the most structurally sound, but that triangles are easier to make and are also very strong. He had some weird lattice structure growing in front of him. I’m glad he finally found a way to use what he learned in all those mechanical engineering classes in college…

Ali then looked at our three-dimensional structures, and it clicked. She turned her chain into an oval and called it a pond. Then she started building a triangular structure on the side of it. “For the horses,” she said. Of course.

Erin looked at our three-dimensional structures, then at her empty toothpick, picked up a pink marshmallow and said “PINK!” Then she picked up a yellow marshmallow and said “LELLOW!” Finally, she picked up a greenish marshmallow and said “BLUE!” Close enough…

My bridge was done. Well, done as it could be. Toothpicks aren’t always the right length, so it zig-zags a bit. My husband had built some sort of geometric abomination that he was a little too proud of.

“Look, I made a space ship!” He said, making a rocket sound. Then he picked it up and pointed out the docking station he built that it can rest on. Not bad!

Ali only heard “station” and said hers was now train tracks, and the horses help get coal for the trains. She then started shoving as many marshmallows as would fit on a toothpick so she could to build a coal pile. Ingenious!

It was time for pictures to document the start of the summer activities. My husband and I beamed proudly behind our creations. Erin turned her back to me and let me take a picture of her toothpick pile, and Ali continued to fiddle with her creation and refused a photo until lunch was ready; at which point, she finally gave a big proud smile presenting her work to the camera.

The first activity was definitely a success, and there were plenty more marshmallows and toothpicks to do it again. Best $3 I’ve spent in a while.

The Beginning

This blog is to maintain my sanity.

Let me explain.

I am a mother of two kids, with one on the way.

That is reason enough, but let me explain more – Summer is coming.

My four-year old has been in preschool for 9 months and has loved it. She has turned into quite the curious child and seems to want to know EVERYTHING.  The problem with this is that she is still young and often needs parental supervision for some of the things that she wants to explore. She’s a smart girl, and we've worked on her reading and math. Needless to say, she’s way ahead of her age group. Her personality is all sunshine and rainbows, and she is very friendly. How she came from my husband and I, I am still not sure. She loves being a big sister, and has the classic “nobody can bug my sister but me” mentality when it comes to Erin.

My two-year old is in very much in a two-year-old frame of mind.  She makes messes in two minutes that require more than an hour to clean up, and her favorite word is “no!” She isn’t as interested in learning as Ali, but she’s very smart too. Most of her personality can be summed up by saying that if our kids were pets, Ali would be a dog, and Erin would be a cat. Until recently, Erin was largely content to ignore us until she needed something. Over the past couple of months, she seems to have developed a sixth sense that another baby is coming. Ever since, her attachment to mom has become quite strong; therefore, she watches my moves like a hawk.

I have loved preschool as much as Ali has. I get to spend one-on-one time with my two-year old and it’s been peaceful and quiet with only one toddler to look after. But preschool is ending for the summer, and I find myself wondering what in the world I am going to do with both. Both of them are at the perfect age to enjoy new experiences and teaching opportunities, I just have to present them with some.

Half to share my experience with others and half to commit myself to actually planning and doing these activities, I thought of posting some of our upcoming adventures on this blog. I am sure as I get through each activity and experiment that there will be ones that I love and hate for different reasons. Hopefully, at least one person will be able to learn from my mistakes.

Either way, the goal is to spend some quality time with my kids, and get them away from the television for a bit each day. I’d say it’s also to help them bond as sisters and fight less, but let’s not get carried away. Wish me luck! I am sure that I am going to need it.