My Love, My Life

      

Gwen and I may not have tons of frequent flyer miles, but I have taken my child to the Hundred Acre Wood with Pooh, Narnia with Lucy, Out West with Laura, North of North with Bella, England with Mary and China with Ping.

 We have been to Japan with Masako, Africa with Ki-Pat, Spain with Ferdinand, Boston with the ducklings and to Paris with Madeline.

We have been to the vet with George, the Garden with Peter, Under the sea with Emily, and to the farm with Happy.

We have been to Droon with Eric, into the woods with Robert Frost, Canada with Toklo and New York City with Chester the cricket.

Side by side we have battled snowstorms with Katy, ran a circus with Olivia, chased bees to their tree with Mary Ellen, been chased by Monsters with Jewel, and traveled the world in Santa’s sleigh with Felix.

Together we mastered the high wire with Mirette, been adopted with Martha, escaped the Vikings with Jack & Annie, played with Danny’s dinosaur, and misunderstood EVERYTHING with Amelia.

My daughter and I have built fairy houses and birds nests. We have cleaned up litter and watched a turtle eat (It happens veeerrrry Slllooowwlly). We have explored forests, wetlands, beaches and fields as a team.  

These are experiences that will shape her life. Someday she will think of me and get feelings of excitement, love, approval, and acceptance. She may not remember every moment of every day she spends with me, but she will have a great desire for adventure and knowledge. She will know that I loved her enough to give her that, no matter how long it took us or where we ended up.

The Split-up Weekend

This past weekend was a big one for us! Gwen went in one direction and I went in another.

Gwen
Gwen went camping in Hershey with my mom and dad. They did Boo At The Zoo and came home with all kinds of creepy facts about vampire bats.

She saw a black bear eating a pumpkin!

They also did Treat-or-treating among the campers and went to Chocolate World!

Colleen
Meanwhile, I went to Washington D.C. to visit a friend. It was a loooonnngggg drive and metro ride trip by myself, but completely worth it! We always have a lot to talk about :) We visited the White House gardens which meant A LOT of standing in line for our time slot and then more standing in line to get through security.

We got up close and personal

saw the rose garden



and the veggie garden

The coolest part, though, was going to the International Spy Museum! My friend had already been into the main museum and said it was cool, but pricey. So we went right into their Operation Spy experience instead. We loved it! They have transformed the entire upstairs of the museum into an imaginary country to simulate a spy mission. So much fun :) it lasted almost an hour.

The website says there are some cool things for kids under 10yrs old in the museum, but the interactive missions are for ages 12+. I grabbed this from the website

 

I would love to post real pictures of it but there's no pictures allowed. Just trust me that it's a must see on your next D.C. trip, just beware the spy store... I could've spent a FORTUNE there!

Spreading The Love!

So, because I enjoy reading so much I always want to help kids enjoy books from a very early age and I have a method to my madness

Step 1: Exposure. I take them to the library, read to them at least twice a day (I actually can't remember the last time I only read to them twice in a day...) and always have books available to them.

Step 2: Knowledge. I teach them how to take care of books, how to find the ones they're interested in at the library, and how to use them to learn about anything in the world.

Step 3: Do It Yourself. I believe it is very important for them to have a good experience when learning to read. So I encourage them in recognizing letters and learning their sounds even before 'preschool age'. Not just through worksheets, but with things they can explore. The Leapfrog Word Whammer, Starfall.com, painting, and sensory exercises.

It has worked in the past anyway

Just Another Day In Paradise- In The City

Bye Bye Birdie

When I was in highschool I was involved in the play two years in a row. It was a wonderful experience. I would love to say that it was enlightening and empowering... but lets be honest. I have no acting, dancing, or singing skills. So I was an usher the first year and stage crew the second year. LOL!

I've been to a few plays in years since I graduated. There were a couple times that people I knew were in it and I just had to go. This year was one of those years because the older sister of one of the kids I watch was in it (she was wonderful by the way). My mom thought that maybe Gwen would like to go with us and I thought Sure! At eight years old she'll only last an hour or so. Then I'll have an excuse to leave early. Not that our high school doesn't put on AMAZING musicals. The talent in that school and the level of commitment from the teachers is incredible. They never fail to impress. I simply am not a musical person... and the seats in that auditorium are painful to sit on after about an hour.

Little did I know that she would LOVE IT!!! It was a LOOONNNNGGG play lasting more then 3 hours and she was engrossed the whole time. Laughing and keeping up with the plot and everything.

It took me a very long time to get those songs out of my head when I was an usher for Bye Bye Birdie... But I have a feeling it will take even longer now with Gwen humming them as well!

I just hope this doesn't mean that she's going to want to see musicals all the time now!

Too Dangerous

One of my little boys went to Story Book Land last summer with his brother and parents. Story Book Land is INCREDIBLY little kid friendly. It's where I went on my Kindergarten field trip and I took Gwen when she was four & she went on every single ride. It's a really cute place.

Anyway, they took him on the little roller coaster and it totally traumatized him. They both came the next day wearing the T-shirts with the roller coaster on them (LOL) so I asked him how he liked it. The response was something like this:

"No. No ga roller coaster. Agbash hanfalwa domgawa. No, Miss Colleen. Too dangerous." And a really long hug.

Ever since then random things have been 'too dangerous' for him, from eating breakfast to going down one of those enclosed twisty playground slides. It has become one of the inside jokes around here, as many funny kid phrases tend to be.

But... I would really like to worn you about MY 'too dangerous' because I wouldn't want to see anyone else get hurt this way.

 

This object is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. As it stands right now the score is

Apple Wedger: 2

Colleen: 0

I probably should've gotten stitches this last time. Here, I thought it was really cute that it had a plastic cover for the sharp side... HA! That plastic cover is not just decorative. Let this be your warning.

Don't let this happen to you.

How Much I Love The Off Season

Many of you know I am not a beach person. I don't like the way I worry about Gwen getting sucked out in a rip tide. I don't like the way the waves knock her over. I don't like sand all over me making me feel nasty.

Gwen, on the other hand, IS a beach person. She could spend all day in the waves and sand. She doesn't even mind an hour drive home still covered in salt and sand. Last summer at the beach after she spent 4 hours straight in the water I finally made her get out and she sat on her boogie board reading a book until it was time to go. It was the first time I had ever seen a 7yr old reading on the beach!


Well, the other day I got a flashback to when I was a little girl and we went to visit a friend of the family. He would take me down to the beach, 3 blocks from their house, early in the morning, no matter what season it was and I would LOVE it. I would play tag with the waves and run around and have a blast (looking back I realize he did it to give my mom a break :) they're good people). So I decided that I should take Gwen to the beach...

Yes, I know it's October and I don't like the cold or the wind. I wanted to go anyway. So we grabbed some snacks and hit the road. I have to tell you, it was the most enjoyable drive to the beach I have ever had. No traffic!! I put on the cruise control and turned up the radio and had a pleasant drive.

When we got there I easily found a parking spot close to the boardwalk and did not have to put money in the meter! We were able to walk around without people running into us and look in stores without people getting in our way. I had more fun then I have had at the beach in a very long time! I think our friends had a good time too!

It's not just the beach that I enjoy more in the off season! The zoo is wonderful without the crowds and the noise too. We took our nature journals to draw pictures and make observations of the animals and actually saw a lot of the animals doing things we don't get to see very often.

The tiger who usually hides was out pacing around, the bear was in his hammock, and the cockatoo, singing dog and donkey were trying to answer us when we spoke to them! I don't know if it was the cooler weather or the lack of screaming children, but the kids were enchanted. The surprised look on Gwen's face is when the swan made a strange hiss/bark/growl at her. I guess she made it nervous! It made her a little nervous too!

What can I say, I just love being able to enjoy what we are doing without being crowded. It's not as much fun when you're worried about losing a kid in the shuffle, bumping into someone, or getting run over by a stroller!

Just Another Day In Paradise...

Apple picking and all that other stuff!

There is an awesome 'pick your own' farm nearby that we went to today. They don't have anything that the other 'pick your own' places in the area don't have. It's because they're so darn nice that we love it there! They smile at us and talk to us and give us a hayride even though they don't usually do that on the weekdays... It's just nice.

"C'mon boys! Look at me so I can take a picture. Don't you want a nice picture for mommy?!"

"It's time for a pretty picture" I said sternly

Silly Girl

"I'll take this one and this one and this one..."

 

Why would they want to walk through the hay maze when they can walk on it??

By the time we got home we were itchy and tired, but not too tired to make applesauce! We made plain and raspberry, both unsweetened. It needed WAY more water than I thought from the recipes I read online. I'm sure it had something to do with the giant apples we used :). I probably used a whole cup of water for the big pot of plain applesauce and AT LEAST 1/2 cup for the smaller pot of raspberry. Some of it went into baby food containers in individual portions. I always have a million uses for those containers!

Apple prints

Some good apple books to read to kids before/during/after apple picking are:

The life and times of the Apple by Charles Micucci

Dappled Apples by Jan Carr

Apples by Gail Gibbons

And for fun apple crafts, experiments, facts and recipes:

The Amazing Apple Book by Paulette Bourgeois

Wacky Wednesday

Hello Art Museum

When Gwen was about two I read somewhere about taking your toddlers to the art museum being super-duper good for them. So of course I took her because that's what the article said to do. She did love it, BUT a toddler in an art museum is like a rhino in a china shop. I was constantly redirecting and we were both completely exhausted at the end of an hour.

Needless to say, we did not go back until this weekend. A seven year old is much more manageable! We had studied Jackson Pollock in August and we found not one, not two, but three of his pieces. Gwen was not impressed by all the naked people though! LOL!

My mom, Gwen and Jennifer studying Monet

Look a picture where I'm not the one holding the camera! That's rare!