A Day at the Park Scavenger Hunt for Kids

April 9, 2018 No Comments

A scavenger hunt for kids is a great way to explore the world around you. My kids love them. They have minimal exposure to them, but every time we’ve done one they have had a blast. We played a New Year’s Eve game where we hid clues for the kids that lead them around the house finding photos to recap the year. I don’t know if that constitutes a true scavenger hunt, but I’m also not sure what it’d be called otherwise!

There’s also a fun app called “Klikaklu” (click-a-clue for those of you who have trouble with “license plate words” – lookin’ at you dad!) where you can create a scavenger hunt for kids or adults on your phone and share it with friends or family (or make public!) My husband’s family has used this app at our annual Christmas hotel reunion weekend (scavenger hunt + hotel = great fun, if you’re the ones participating!), and my boys have been asking me recently if we could do more scavenger hunts.

I thought it would be fun to make an outdoor scavenger hunt, and what better place to search than our local city park? Having a park scavenger hunt was also a win for me because, to be honest, I sometimes get tired of the same old park trip. We always have fun there, but there is very little way to “mix up” playing on the swings, going down the slides, and looking at/being terrified of ducks. Seriously. Why are they under the park equipment? Go to your home! Wait, is this your home?

In any case, Klikaklu is still under development for Android users, and at this time us Droidies (can we get this nickname to catch on?) can only access scavenger hunts created and shared by others, not create new ones. So I figured I’d just start from scratch and make one up that we could print and take with us. Ditch the phone and play the old school way. Incidentally, it was also a great way to get some quality time in rather than just watching them play. (If you missed the discussion on love languages, read more here!)

What Age to Play?

I made the scavenger hunt for kids ages 3-6. My oldest boys are 3 and 5, and I had both of them in mind when I created the categories. That’s not to say that an older child wouldn’t have fun – they probably would – but the target age group is 3-6. I took a young 3 and an older 3 to the park to try it out, and both of them enjoyed it and were able to participate. I included pictures on the page to make it easier for them to recall what they are looking for. This way they can be somewhat independent as they search. The younger the child, the more “reminding” you’ll have to do as you search, and the more breaks they will need as they lose focus quickly!

Learning Through Play

I’m a teacher by trade, but I very rarely do any “formal” learning activities with my 3 year old. I’m a believer in learning through play and wanted to be sure to include some age appropriate learning opportunities in the game. We were able to talk about a variety of topics throughout the course of the scavenger hunt:

Size/length comparisons

Counting

Color recognition

Physical health – talking about types of exercisers to look for, the reasons people would be exercising and why exercise is important

Imagination

Citizenship – taking care of the park by helping clean up a bit

The kids knew they were learning something, even though it was not explicit. In this picture, he had just found an item and yelled, “I’m a genius!”

And also, isn’t he so sweet in his rain boots!? These are falling apart from his hard use – time for a new pair. Totally off topic, I know, but have you seen the “Hunter for Target” collection that’s coming out?! So cute!

Prepped to Go

Before we went, I told the boys we had a fun game to play at the park and got them excited about participating. We looked at the scavenger hunt page and talked about every box and what the pictures said to look for. I also explained to them that the white boxes were to mark off the items that they’d found. They each picked their writing utensil, and we were on our way. Finny of course wanted a sparkly crayon!

I think that prepping the kids before you leave the house is essential for this activity – especially with the younger ones. If you get out of the car and say, “WAIT! We’re not just playing today!” chances are that you’ve already lost them to the distractions going on around them. After we talked about the scavenger hunt, they knew what to expect and that they had a mission upon getting out of the car. (In fact, my son had an item knocked off before I even had everyone unstrapped from their car seats!)

Ready, Set, Hunt!

As soon as we got out of the car, the boys were ready to see what they could find. They remembered as soon as they saw a squirrel shoot past that they had animals on their list. The race was on! When we got to the play area, I first let them search for things at their will. We, of course, spotted litter very quickly, and they were eager to help clean it up. (Use your judgement here – if you think litter is too gross to touch, take a look around. There’s plenty of litter that is likely not too disgusting. We found a plethora of zip ties – creepy – and left over cracked plastic eggs from Easter hunts. In fact, Finn acted like he’d just found an Easter egg with each piece of trash.)

If you spend much time with 3 year olds, you know their attention span is pretty short. I had no illusion going into the day that we would go and they would be totally focused on the hunt the entire time. We went back and forth between playing and hunting. After they played for a few minutes, I’d either say something like, “Is there a box on your sheet you haven’t checked yet?” (they loved checking items off!) Or, “Oh wow! I think I see something purple!” I wouldn’t point out an item directly, but giving them a teaser like that made them eager to see what I was seeing!

We were able to play, mark everything off our lists, and have a fun morning out of the house. Our total time spent at the park was about an hour, but the hunt could’ve been accomplished in a 30-45 minute trip.

Park Scavenger Hunt for Kids

I created this scavenger hunt in the hopes that my boys and I could have a fun out of the norm activity to do together. I hope you’ll do the same. One thing I didn’t want to come from this is stress – for me or the kids! If they’re not into it, try again another day. If you try it, let me know how it goes! I’m always open to making improvements, and would love to hear if your kids (and you) enjoyed it! Feel free to share the link to this post in your moms groups on Facebook. What do you think about a scavenger hunt for kids of different ages?

Looking for more summer fun?? Try our Summer Reading Challenge for Kids or learn How to Start a Butterfly Garden!

Tag me in your scavenger hunt photos on Instagram if you try it out! @moretimesdesigns #moretimesscavengerhunt

Download

DIY, Freebies

Summer Doormat DIY – Free File Download

April 2, 2018 No Comments

*This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from one of the links in this post, I’ll receive a small commission, at no extra charge to you!

Please only use my file for personal use! Do not create items for sale to others using my handlettered design in any way. You also may not use the file in its original or in an altered form to sell it as an .svg or any other type of digital download.

A Fresh Greeting

I’ve been seeing fun DIY door mats all over social media lately (if you haven’t – remember, I run in crafty circles!) Anyway, I was more than ready to get one made up for our porch since ours was old and gross. I was able to find some time over Spring Break to knock it out!

Come In We're Awesome Doormat DIY — At least I think we are…

This was suprisingly simple after following a few YouTube tutorials for tips on stenciling. There are lots of methods out there, but I went with a freezer paper stencil pressed onto my mat. I used acrylic paint marked as safe for outdoor use (found at WalMart!) and a stiff bristle stenciling brush to paint on a plain coir doormat. (I got my mat at Home Depot, then found this one at Target cheaper!)

DIY Doormat materials

From Handlettering to Doormat DIY

After this successful project, I really wanted to do one that I could share with you. (The one I made was created using free for personal use fonts – so the file I used to cut my stencil can’t be shared! I’ll be happy to tell you what fonts I used if you want to create it for yourself!) My sister was putting together a summer themed basket for an auction at her daughter’s school, so we thought a summer-themed door mat would be a unique addition.

I started with a hand-lettered “summertime.” There are lots of pieces of paper in my house right now with the word “summertime” drawn on them. I finally settled on this version:

Summertime handlettering

Once I had my design, I snapped a picture with my phone, e-mailed it to myself, and uploaded it into Cricut’s Design Space to convert it to a cut file. If you’ve got a newer Cricut yourself, you should definitely play around with getting some of your own handwriting uploaded into Design Space to cut. It’s surprisingly easy!!

Convert to a Stencil

As the word is written, it cuts with “holes” detached for the s, e’s, and r. This is perfect when using vinyl, since you are using the letters themselves (the black of the photo!) When I stencil, I much prefer to have my holes attached for a more traditional stencil. I used to think this was incredibly annoying as you have to go back in later and fill in all of the little lines where the stencil was attached to the holes. But do you know what’s even more annoying than that? Keeping up with/ironing on a bunch of tiny pieces then hoping they stay put when you paint. Here’s what my cut file looked like after I added in the bars to keep the holes attached!

If you are using Cricut’s Design Space, here are links to the public Design Space files for both the original (holes not attached) and the stencil cut (holes attached)! No uploading, resizing, or anything at all needed if you’re making a door mat. If you’re on Silhouette, there is a .png for you to upload into your design software at the end of this post.

Cut It Out!

Once you’ve got your file ready to go, prepare your large cutting mat with freezer paper – shiny side down. Cut the file, weed the words (since it’s a stencil!), then remove the stencil carefully. I used to have curled up papers after cutting, then I came across the tip to pull the mat from the paper, and my life was changed. Go slow so that you don’t make any tears. I did tear one little bar on the big hole of the S in “Summertime,” but luckily there were two connectors – so no little piece to keep track of!

Place & Press

The next step is to place your stencil (& turn on your iron!). Take the time to get a ruler out! I just eyeball my placement first, then measure from the left and right edges to see if the gap from word to edge of the mat matches on each side. Once I get it centered horizontally, I work to get the design level by measuring from the bottom of the mat up to the bottom of the lower line of text in several places. If they all (pretty much) match, then I go for it.

Get the freezer paper placed, then press with a hot iron (no steam). Don’t rub the iron around, just set it down and apply pressure, pick it up, then do another spot. Continue until you get every inch of the freezer paper ironed down. If you pick at freezer paper, it WILL come up. It is not a super sticky bond, but it is stable if you don’t mess around with it. Watch the places you iron. You will be able to notice a difference in the surfaces that are adhered and those that aren’t. I repeat: Do not pick at the freezer paper!

Paint Time!

Once your freezer paper is applied, get your paint ready! I used a multi-surface acrylic paint. Anything labeled for outdoor use should work. The stiff bristled brushes are the only brushes I will ever use for stenciling ever again in my life. They hold paint well, but are great at letting it go. And on these mats, the bristles from the brush get down in the bristles for the mat, and it’s perfect!

While painting, keep the brush perpendicular to the mat. When you start getting crazy and sideways, that’s when your brush is going to get up under the stencil. (Which is a bad thing!) I had one spot where I had to put my finger onto the stencil to hold it as I painted around (I think it was around the hole of the ‘A’). If you see the stencil start to lift, just get your hand in there for extra security.

I do two coats of paint to try to get good coverage. If you have a spot that was troublesome with the stencil, hold off on the 2nd coat and do it with a small brush after you pull the stencil off!

Stencil Success!

I think that stenciling on a door mat is maybe the only stenciling I will do for a long time. Seriously, these things come off so clean! There is virtually no bleed since the excess paint can go straight down into the bristles of the mat. Pull off your stencil as soon as you get done painting, & enjoy your new DIY doormat! I think this is cute for a front porch, but would be great on a back porch too – where the livin’ really is easy! Do some yardwork, kick up your feet with a good book, then admire your handiwork as you slip back inside.

What are you going to use the cut file for? Share pictures of your creations with me! If you’re doing a complete porch makeover, check out my shop for a custom wreath to freshen things up or this post for a DIY floral wreath!!

**Please use my file for personal use only! Do not create items for sale to others using my handlettered design in any way. You also may not use the file in its original or in an altered form to sell it as an .svg or any other type of digital download.

Books

10 Books to Add to Your Reading List for the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

March 26, 2018 No Comments

Guest post by Kyle

Books to Add to Your Reading List

Reading Challenge Continued

I am continuing with the POPSUGAR reading challenge and suggest that anyone who loves reading to join in the fun! This reading challenge is particularly good for people, like me, who struggle with choosing the next book to read. I often struggle without parameters, so I created a reading list for everything. (I might need to cover these one day in a post!). This reading challenge is a good way to incorporate books from those lists while including others that I never would have picked (e.g. The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) for the 2016 prompt: “A book at least 100 years older than you,” and The Doctor and the Dinosaurs (Mike Resnick) for the 2017 prompt: “A steampunk novel”). I’ve enjoyed this reading challenge so much that we created one for our kids (shared here!)

If you missed my initial post describing the books I chose for the first ten prompts, essentially, the POPSUGAR reading challenge provides a list of prompts (This year there are 40 main prompts and then 10 “advanced” prompts. I’m still trying to figure out what makes them “advanced”). The reader (that’s you!) researches books that fit the prompt description and then, you know, reads them.

Here are my picks for prompts 11-20 from the 2018 list.

*This post contains affiliate links. That means if you decide to follow a link here/buy an item from this post, I’ll receive a small commission – at no extra cost to you!

11. A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym

Last year’s reading list had “a book by an author who uses a pseudonym” as a prompt, which led me to The Cuckoo’s Calling by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Of course, this was the first book in a series, so I could have read the second book to satisfy this year’s pseudonym prompt. But as I mentioned in the last post, there are too many series, and I was not interested in continuing another series for this reading challenge. That was good in theory, but the book I ended up reading for this prompt was also part of a series. Even worse, there are 47 books in the series.

I found Naked in Death (Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb) suggested on Goodreads and decided that a New York City-based detective novel set in the year 2058 was too good to pass up. I told myself that I would just read the first one and walk away and leave the other 46 books in the series unread. I’m not sure how that will work out, but I can tell you that it was fun reading the first one. Lieutenant Eve Dallas investigates the death of a senator’s daughter in a world dominated by technological advances. It gets more complicated, though. She grows increasingly attracted to person-of-interest Roarke, one of the richest and most powerful men on the planet.

12. A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist

I deviated from the original book I chose when I saw My Point…And I Do Have One (Ellen DeGeneres) recommended at the end of an e-book I read. Ellen can be extremely funny, and I thought it would be good. Additionally, I remember watching her sitcom when I was younger (before and after she came out as a lesbian), and I remember it being really funny.

From time to time when completing the challenge, you will end up convincing yourself that a book actually “counts.” This book was published two years before Ellen famously came out at the airport in “The Puppy Episode.” So, while the book was about Ellen, it was not about LGBTQ+ Ellen, which was the purpose of the prompt. I convinced myself that because Ellen was probably LGBTQ+ when the book was published (albiet privately), it still counts because the publication of that information did not fundamentally change who Ellen was at the time.

13. A book that is also a stage play or musical

Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter) tells the story of the, well, revolutionary Broadway musical (you’ve probably heard of it). The book covers the unprecedented use of hip-hop and R&B on Broadway, which was never supposed to be successful. It also integrates the subject of Alexander Hamilton, the play’s topic, to emphasize the improbable rise of what would become the most sought-after ticket on Broadway.

14. A book by an author of a different ethnicity than you

If you subscribe to Amazon Prime (try it free here!), one of the features that comes with your membership is Kindle First. This gives you early access to a free e-book at the beginning of each month. Typically, you choose between five or six books from various genres. I like to search through the descriptions and choose books that I can use for this reading challenge or that fit in on another reading list of mine. A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea (Masaji Ishikawa) worked for both. I was able to use it for this prompt. It also works on my list of non-fiction books set in or about a person from each country in the world. This memoir tells the story of a boy taken by his father to North Korea from Japan in hopes of a better life; one they do not find. As a member of the lowest social caste, Ishikawa must overcome suffering, death, and poverty to make it home.

15. A book about feminism

The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) is another book that I would have forever ignored if not for this reading challenge. I had no idea what it was about. I thought it was going to be something like Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) – which was on my “Amazon’s top 100 books to read” reading list. Spoilers: it’s not. Nothing like it. Not even a little. A dystopian future in which the American government has been overthrown and women are only valued for their ability to reproduce, this story features Offred (read Of Fred, to whom she belongs), a handmaid. She remembers life before slavery. She thinks about it, she dreams about it. And she has found inspiration: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum (Don’t let the bastards grind you down).

16. A book about mental health

Here is another book for which I had already seen the movie. Zach Galifianakis stars in the movie adaptation of It’s Kind of a Funny Story (Ned Vizzini). The story centers around teenager Craig Gilner. On the morning he has decided to commit suicide, Craig checks himself into a psychiatric hospital instead.

This story is autobiographical; the author spent time in a hospital for depression. WARNING: if you want to be happy, do not look up any information about the author. Learn from my mistakes.

17. A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift

My parents used to run a campground on the Brazos River near Glen Rose, TX. A frequent camper brought my parents a copy of Goodbye to a River (John Graves) and guess what, I borrowed it. John Graves undertakes one last canoe trip down the Brazos River before a series of dams would change the river and landscape forever. The story centers on his trip down the river, but also includes his versions of stories that took place along various points along the way. Anybody who is from Texas must read this book, even if you have never dipped your toes in the Brazos. If you are not from Texas, you should read it too!

18. A book by two authors

The 5 Love Languages of Children (Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell) is probably a little cheesier than it needs to be, but parenting books have to be a little cheesy. It’s the law. This one wasn’t initially on my list, but Megan downloaded in from Overdrive, so I read it too. This book is based on the original love languages book written for couples. I have not read that one, so I won’t comment on it. This book is geared to help you find your child’s primary ‘love language.’ Megan wrote a much more meaningful post about her experience reading and adapting the suggested practices, so check it out here!

19. A book about or involving a sport

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (Michael Lewis) is yet another book for which I had already seen the movie. It’s the true story of Billy Beane, the Oakland Athletics general manager who seeks to defy the odds by building a winning team with cheap talent that other teams consistently overlook. The transition into the sabremetric era of sports, baseball in particular, changed the way rosters are built. Moneyball provides great insight into the organization that started the craze.

20. A book by a local author

In 2017, the city of Cleburne, Texas celebrated the return of professional baseball. The Cleburne Railroaders inaugural season ended in the 1906 Texas League championship. After that first season, the team moved to Houston. We are not from Cleburne, so a lot of the city’s history is unknown to us. But this tidbit was shared multiple times throughout the campaign to bring a team to town and during the lead-up to opening day. What I thought was a one-and-done baseball team actually had a deeper history with multiple years of existence. Furthermore, the team had a significant amount of success. Cleburne Baseball: A Railroader History (Scott Cain) was written by the city’s mayor, who played a large role in bringing a team back to Cleburne. And you can’t get much more local than that!

Share Your Reading List

Aside from the two books about baseball, this group of ten has a lot of variety. I’d love to hear your thoughts of my list. I’m also interested to hear which books you are adding to your reading list. You don’t have to start with prompt #1, but don’t forget to check out prompts 1-10 in this post, or head on to prompts 21-30. Leave a comment with your thoughts and let me know how you liked the books, and if you want to be the first to know when I post the rest of my picks, sign up for our mailing list here!

My Pick:

Here’s @oscarshead with my favorite book out of this set of prompts.

A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea (Masaji Ishikawa)

Holidays, Kids

Spring Break Recap

March 19, 2018 No Comments

*This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click a product link/make a purchase from this post, I’ll receive a small commission – at no extra cost to you! View my affiliate statement here.

Spring Break Fun

I started teaching straight out of college, and haven’t stopped since. My husband has been a teacher for the better part of the last decade. We are lucky to be able to enjoy Spring Break each year as part of our scheduled time off. This year was slightly different, though, because we now officially have a boy in school. This was his first true Spring Break experience, and he was so excited for a vacation and extended time at home.

We had an ambitious Spring Break to-do list, and I think we did pretty well in whittling things off of it. We had a fair amount of in-home and out & busy days. I tend to get overwhelmed at holidays because we are on the go constantly for most of the time. This break felt like we had some good time to relax, with some out-of-the-norm activities sprinkled in.

Yardwork

We started out by tackling some yard projects. The weather here has been incredibly nice (and at times downright hot – but I keep trying to tell myself to cherish this “hot” because come August I’ll be wishing for 85!) So we took advantage of the opportunity to get outside and get started on our mile-long to do list.

Lava Rock Bed Be Gone!

The first for Kyle was a big bed of lava rock outside of our back door that’s been here since we moved in. We still aren’t sure what exactly is going to happen with this space, but we were in agreement that “bed-of-rock with weeds” wasn’t it. The boys helped him remove the lava rock, and he made several trips to our city dump for free mulch. Some people frown upon the free mulch – “You just don’t know what’s in that!” … but, for me, free = getting it.

For now it’s been transformed into a mulch bed with our cinder block bench (fresh with new cushions).

Butterfly Garden

Last summer we were gifted a new swing set. We loved our old one, but it did not hold up very well after moving from house to house. There’s a butterfly garden at one of the parks in town, and the kids love it. The boys and I decided we would transform our old swing set into a hub for a butterfly garden of our own. We did not do so well last year with this. I think we got started a little bit late, and by the time we got going, plants were out of stock and it was too hot for anything to be happy out there.

This year I decided we’d get a jump on things, so we went right after school on Friday to speak with our local nurseryman. (We actually worked with his wife this time!) She helped us take a look at our space and our list of plants that the Internet says are good for butterfly gardens to come up with a plan.

We were able to get a few things going, and our plant stand for pots got a fresh coat of paint. There are a few more plants in the plan that will really change the look of things. But I’ll go ahead and share what we’ve got going on so far! I plan to write a post detailing the make-up of our garden once we get it all established!

Update: We’ve had some visitors! Come read about what kinds of butterflies we’ve been attracting to the butterfly garden.

Craft Projects

What break would be complete without craft projects?! Not one of mine, that’s for sure. I was so happy to get a fresh coat of paint on that plant stand – but that wasn’t even one of my planned projects. There were only a few things on my list for Spring Break crafting, and I was happy to be able to fit them in.

Doormat DIY

I have been seeing cute DIY doormats all over social media lately, and I was itching to get us a fresh one. Our old one was a gift from our sweet realtors when we bought this house, which means it was almost two years old. The lifespan of a doormat is not that long. I was excited and nervous to try painting my own mat. Usually stenciling is a task I tackle with confidence and end up disappointed with in the end. However, stenciling on these coir doormats is a dream. No bleeding! What!?

I went back and forth on whether to do a silly saying or something more traditional like a monogram or “welcome.” But I’ve already got a little sign for my house number with our last initial and the word welcome, so silly saying it is. If you can’t have fun on a doormat, what can you have fun with, right?

Now I want to stencil/paint my porch too. Kyle thinks I’m crazy. *Update: If you want to see how I made this, I wrote a quick tutorial for stenciling a doormat.

T-shirt Mania

I recently bought a new Cricut (an electronic die-cutting machine). I already had a Cricut, but just like anything else, it became outdated. The old ones only cut images from cartridges that you had to purchase, so the things I could cut were very limited. New Cricuts cut any image or font you have on your computer. So the cutting world is your oyster. So far I’ve made some vinyl names for steel cups, a few t-shirts, stencils for signs (and my doormat!), and a few other random gifts. If you’ve been on the fence about buying one, or are just now climbing up on the hypothetical fence, do it!!

I wanted to make shirts for my smallest guys since I’d only made a shirt for the oldest. My middle child (the Halloween lover!) wanted a pumpkin shirt in another color, and I still get to pick what the baby gets! I fulfilled the pumpkin request, and put some Drake lyrics on a tiny shirt.

Day Trippin’

We took a few day trips for the kids to do some fun things in neighboring towns. They loved all of them, so the travel time was worth it!

Waco

We live about an hour or so from Waco, and I joined my mom and sister for a trip to Magnolia to experience the Chip and JoJo mania. Each time I’ve been it’s crazy busy and crowded, and I haven’t bought anything. But it’s always fun to get out of the house for a bit anyway! We also hit up Spice Village, which is a cute collection of boutiques in one space. Definitely worth the walk a few blocks over from Magnolia.

Mayborn Museum

My husband and his mom ended up taking the kids to Waco on the same day that I was there. But they did not go for shopping, they were headed to Baylor’s campus to the Mayborn Children’s Museum. We were able to meet up with them after lunch and take on the 2nd floor of the museum. There were many interactive exhibits for the kids, and all three boys found things to enjoy. Their collective favorite was the big water table. Of course! Here they are in the old-timey village learning how to crush herbs.

Epic Waters

The city of Grand Prairie recently opened a large indoor water park, and my family made a plan to check it out over Spring Break. The boys had a blast playing in the water. My oldest was a huge fan of the kid-sized water slides, the 3 year old just kind of “swam” (layed horizontally and walked along with his hands!), and the 1 year old got a kick out of the floor fountains. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves in their own ways and are ready to go back. It was crowded, but not in the way that makes things un-fun. The facility keeps track of how many people they are letting in at a given time, so there is some level of crowd control. Word of advice if you plan on visiting – buy tickets online before you go! Otherwise, plan on a very long wait outside.

Birthday Fun

Our last out of town activity was a trip a couple hours away to celebrate two of our cousins’ birthdays. The guys got to go swimming in March again (twice in one week!?), and the big boys stayed at the Embassy Suites with their grandparents. Kyle and I took advantage of the kid-free dinner to stop on our way back home and eat our favorite – Pei Wei. Turns out Noles likes lettuce wraps! The trip was mostly great, except for little man terrorizing his brothers the whole way. This can’t be comfy!

I also sorted, packed, and delivered the first of many loads of baby boy clothes to my sister-in-law, who is expecting her first boy. While it’s great to clear out some storage space, and kind of fun to think about getting to be done with the “baby phase,” I did shed some tears while preparing to officially close the door on that stage of life. I am super happy that the clothes are going to a family member and I’ll get to see some of them again, though!!

Springbreaksgiving

And of course, we celebrated Springbreaksgiving. If you’re not sure what that word means, go read this post! We had a lot of fun, and though I was insanely worried, we had enough food! I made Kyle run out at the last minute to buy some totally unnecessary chicken strips for the kids, but I was honestly convinced we were going to invite all these people over and run out of meat. A few expected guests were unable to come, but I think we probably would’ve been okay even if they had! The kids had a great time playing, and we enjoyed the time with our family, friends, and neighbors. The weather was great, and the food was delicious. I spent much of the day Wednesday and all morning Thursday cleaning like a madwoman, but my house is already back in post-tornado condition. Oh well, what can ya do?

Almost Summer

The only silver lining to Spring Break ending is the 2nd half of the spring semester generally flies by. I’ll wake up soon and be stressing out about not having enough teaching days left in the semester before my students take their final exam.

Life keeps getting more and more fun as the boys get older, and I’m excited to get into summer and make more memories as a family, both in and out of the house! What did you get accomplished this Spring Break?

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