Staying Sane Despite Winter

To say it's been a hard winter is almost an understatement. In our 5 years of living here, we've seen so much snow and crazy negative degree temps for days on end. LOTS of time spent indoors has gone on as trying to do anything outdoors consists of going to and from the car and/or an indoor location.

Here are a few snaps of just what we've been doing to pass the time....

Our snow fortres. Channeling our inner Frozen Elsa

Getting crafty for our little boy

Continuing the fun for a friends little girl

With more snow and ice....the wall becomes more agro

Getting inside the engine of a 767 plane during a field trip tour of the local airport with MOPS 

I, as everyone else, look forward to shedding our winter layers for more simplistic outerwear. Not to mention as I finish quilts, being able to capture them being displayed outside. But, alas for now, we continue to suffer from Elsa's PMS as we wait to endure her menopause with hot flashes :)

Our Mary Poppins Bag

In times where we as a family are found to need to take one or both of the kids to a place where a) There are no kids to play with b)Not a place/event which looks kindly to loud playful children running circles around others or even biting large standing metal vases (yes I am serious about that last one)

This is where we've come up with a bag of fun when times are not so fun (ER, government offices, banks etc..) We came about to this solution when I didn't like handing some electronic binki to the kids to keep them quiet. Because, what we found was if they felt at any time outside of the house was too boring...they just about expected it. Not so much Nolan yet, but Eliza for sure. We've had to set some strict rules about the car dvd player.

Thanks to the recent hospital swag, I've dedicated this for Eliza. We have a mini back pack with other items for the whole family for later on also.

Items found:

Cheap dollar store markers- Who cares if one does get lost or a cap gets left off.
Fast food toys (unopened) - Delay that gratification in the bag for a later time.
Candy!- Well duh. A few suckers can work wonders.
Glow sticks- No matter the time of day...they are still magical.
Misc free notepads- You know the kinds with businesses on the top.
Mini coloring books
Stickers
Silly Putty
Crayola Twistables- I love these things for the paper free mess and no broken crayons at the bottom of bag.

I've hit up the dollar stores and my fav place to look is the dollar section at Target. Heck, they have stuff I would want to have in a busy bag!

For when they are older
Travel games- Wendy's had great family game night toys of popular full sized ones
Smart links- Flat slat building toy.
Scratch boards- Metal stylus that you scape a board with to revel color behind.
Trivia

As the kids get older, I am sure I will create special road trip bags filled with fun to use other than back to back movies. But for the time, I will enjoy being able to put together inexpensive fun distraction bags for as long as I can.

When Life Brings Bad Apples

These pictures were not the planned ones I had been preparing for....

No, these were the ones that I tried to squeeze in, in order to not feel like I had wasted all of my time and effort for the afternoon.

You see, we have a family tradition going on since I was pregnant with Eliza to go to a small apple orchard. After she arrived and it was fall again, going to take cute pictures has been on the agenda ever since.

This year, I had a vision with a new prop to incorporate. I stained it before hand, loaded up the other small props to complete it, picked and dressed the kids several times until I finally found the right combination to complement each other. 

The day was wonderful after mostly rain the day before and Matt had this afternoon free from commitments. About halfway to our destination, Matt asks how late the farm was open till. With how light it was, I was pretty confident we had more than enough time on our side. But, out of curiosity, I decided to pull up their information on my phone.

They closed.at.four.flippin.pm! The farm had already been closed for 30 minutes when I glanced at the dash.

Who closes that early on such a glorious afternoon?!

We tried another closer orchard, only to find out that their u-pick season didn't start for another week. So we drove and drove around to look at the scenery as I stewed about all my precious time and energy gone to waste.

Eventually, we stopped at a state park that has a waterfall. The kids had been asleep most of the time while we were driving and enjoyed hearing the rushing water.

This is all I could salvage out of our afternoon of pictures....

For some reason only God would know...apple orchard pictures were not meant to be. It is hard to accept this, when there are no guarantees for nice dry weather. I have about one month worth of weekends to make this happen. Even less when you have to take in the fact that Matt has to be with me to child wrangle and has a few weekends of ministry commitments.

Here is to letting go of control and praying for good weather next weekend! 

U Pick Blueberry Morning

The van was loaded up early that morning, and mommy scrambled to get both kids out the door in time, while of course forgetting her Canon DSLR at home. Sometimes, phone cameras do save the day. This was the first time I've been able to enjoy blueberry season, as the weekends are a bit crazy at this local farm, while weekdays in the mornings are manageable. Being a working mother had is sacrifices. 

I think it is safe to say....Eliza is pretty safe from any child labor. And for what little she did pick for the family...fell to the ground as she stumbled, toppling her bucket. After that...she was a bit over picking. Nolan did more eating than picking...until he picked a green one. Then fighting with his sister seemed much more entertaining :/

My milk jug bucket was pretty handy as I would fill and then dump into the Easter basket pail that hung on the wagon handle. We picked close to 7 pounds, and at 1.98/lbs. it came to $13.20 for our morning out. Going with another friend and her mommy was nice company for the girls to play around the bushes.

                

The morning was finished with a stop at a park with friends. I swear...these kids could swing all day!

The Discovery Zoo

We had the chance to finally make a visit to Fort Rickey with the kids. This was a first for Nolan getting to be up close to a variety of animals. He'd squeal in delight at just about each one.

My little country girl

Eliza was very fascinated with these ducks. It took a good long while for her to understand that you can't run up to the animals and not everyone wants to be pet.

River Otter

Eliza quickly caught on that the sheep and goats would eat leaves off the tree.

The Peacocks were allowed to roam the grounds as they pleased, even if it was right on top of the table you were snacking on.

Finally, one wasn't skittish to let Nolan check him out.

We spent just a few hours there in the afternoon and ended up getting a season pass for myself and put Eliza on it as my free child and there is no cost for Nolan at the moment. I just have to take the kids there a second time and the membership has paid for itself. It will be a great place to bring a picnic lunch and let the kids get out of the house until the zoo closes at the end of October.

Because it is just outside of where we live, it is a great activity for young ones to enjoy without the high costs of alternative entertainment. Free parking is another plus! 

Is that Sand?

Nolan rocking his Halloween costume of Charlie Brown

After scoring this sand and water table for free on the side of the road, it was time to find some sand to fill it. Oddly, Walmart only carried the colored kind of pink or blue. What happened to the plain stuff folks? Crayola makes this and they don't disappoint in the richness of this blue.

It is a constant battle with Eliza to keep the sand inside the table. At one point, I caught her rubbing two globs of it on her legs as if applying lotion. Oh my child.

My driveway now looks like someone murdered a Smurf...

Splish Splash - Cheap Fun in the Tub

If you are a mother on Pintrest, I am sure you have seen these pins about how to make a fun suction cup pipe maze using items found from the dollar store and Home Depot. When I caught sight of them, I went to see what materials were going to cost and where to find them.

After looking around...I could start to see that this could turn into a $40 bath toy......

For some reason...PVC isn't exactly cheap. Especially when you try and get those seen in the image above. But the biggest lie about this project is where they state where to get the suction cups. No....the dollar store does not stock them, nor Big Lots or any other home improvement store. Some will carry them, but they have a giant plastic hook going through them for bath needs.

After expanding my search, I did find plain suction cups at Michaels. But for three medium sized ones, it was over $3.00 for a pack. 

Just.3.cups. 

This seemed like a fun project and bath toy, but I couldn't see spending that much money on it.

But low and behold!

What you'll need

X number of suction cups. I used those I found from other discarded items (think Baking Soda disks that you stick up...broken toys that use them etc)

As many as you want plastic bottles from recycle bin. (think kid meal milk bottles and washed peanut butter jars)

What to do

I used my pointed Fiskars scissors to poke holes for the suction cups and for water to enter and exit. Get creative in how you attach the containers and how the water will play through them. If you have a large or strong sc, put it on the bottom so water can travel away from the wall.