August 2014 Sharing Time - Week 3

Welcome to August's Sharing Time Linky!

This week I posted about my nephew's Backyard Birthday Party, our Easy Backyard Campout, and "One of Those Mornings".




We are continuing to do our best to enjoy every moment left of the summer (I can't believe it's getting close to the end!)

For now, on to the link party- I can't wait to see what you share! :)

Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!

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If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!

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Easy Backyard Camp Out

A couple of years ago, we went camping as a family. It was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and we slept terribly. ;) When I asked the girls at the beginning of the summer what they hoped to do this summer, camping was one of the first things on their list. I knew Ken wasn't excited about camping again, and I knew that it could be a bit pricey to get a camp site anyway (and we were trying to be as low-budget as possible with our activities this summer). So, we came up with a plan to camp in Ken's parents' backyard.

We're lucky that they have camp supplies to share with us, because our family's camp supplies include a handful of flash-lights and one Strawberry Shortcake sleeping bag ;) So, we went to their house and Ken put Talia on wood-gathering duty and Katrina on "leaf-removal" duty (for our roasting sticks) and got a fire started in the fire pit. "Poppy" (Ken's dad) and I got started setting up the tent while Gummy (Ken's mom) hunted down sleeping bags, etc.

We had a lovely hot dog dinner (thanks to Gummy and Poppy again, for the condiments!)

...and roasted marshmallows :) [Sidenote: Don't they have a gorgeous backyard? It was beautiful to eat by the pond and listen to the little waterfall in the background at night!]

When it started to get dark, we changed into pajamas and went inside to brush teeth. Then it was out to the tent to play board games, read stories, say prayers, and sing songs. :)

The tent had a "room divider" that you could put up in the middle, so after we were done with the board game, we set that up and made shadows on the "wall"! :)

We were out in the tent, trying to get warm & comfortable and listening to hyper girls on the other side of the "wall" until about 10:30 when someone needed a trip to the bathroom and someone was complaining about how hard and cold the ground was. It didn't take much convincing... we were inside for the night! ;) Luckily we had beds to sleep in inside and had a great sleep! (No regrets there- the camping memories were made and we didn't have to wake up with sore backs!)

I'm so glad we made this happen!

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Creepy Laundry and One of "Those" Mornings

On Sunday Katrina wore a fancy little dress to church.  We arrived late and sheepishly took our spot on a pew at the front of the chapel.  Which always takes just a little too long to do with kids... they move slowly, they stop to look at the things around them and meanwhile I'm standing up in front of the congregation, wishing they would hurry so I could take my seat, or at least that I could shrink closer to the height of the pew backs and blend in.  

Anyway, we took our seats and I looked up at Katrina to double check her hair (which I brushed and arranged in the parking lot of the church because we had hurried that morning and Ken had the girls in the car before I had done their hair)... anyway, I looked at Katrina and quickly spotted two stains on her dress.  (The kind of thing you vaguely remember from the last time she wore that dress and probably told her she should put her dress in the hamper and then later asked her why she hadn't hung her dress up yet because you forgot about the stain... I'm saying "you" because I'm really hoping there are other moms reading this who can relate ;)

So, this week the dress made it to the hamper and last night I put the dress in the washing machine and this morning I pulled it out to see if the stain came out.  It was a yellowish stain and while looking for it, I spotted a dark stain and wondered how that had gotten there.. the mysteries of laundry!  And then the stain moved.

...because the stain wasn't a stain but a spider that had somehow found its way in between the fabric of the front of the dress and the lining of the dress!

I don't know what it was exactly this morning, but I just wasn't in a very happy mood and I could feel that my patience was low.  So it was frustrating to find that the girls were eating dry cereal in the living room again when I came upstairs from the spider incident.  I reminded them not to do that and pointed out the mess of crushed Special K all over the floor to remind them why.  Then I grabbed the vacuum and found that a feature on it is broken.  *sigh*

Next I headed to the kitchen and decided to set a timer for myself.  If I set a timer, I am much more productive. Knowing that I only have a limited amount of time to work on a task helps me keep going.  The first thing that needs to be done is to sweep the floor (because now there's Special K all over that floor too).  So I grab the broom and with the first swipe I realize that the broom is wet.  We left the kitchen window open last night to let cool air in and it rained. The broom was in the perfect place to get wet from the rain that came through the window. So, I set the broom on the porch in the sun to dry and I pull out a chair to sit on in the sun and try to feel a little more 'Zen'.


My question to you is this:  How do you handle mornings like these?  Any suggestions for getting things back on track?  Sure, there are days when I just have more patience and can take things like this in stride, but for the days when each little thing that goes wrong seems to bring me a lot further from "Zen"... well, what would you do?


Here's what I did this morning:

I announced that we needed to read our library books before tonight when some of them are due.  I sent the girls downstairs to gather their favourites and we re-convened on my bed to snuggle up and read.  Then the girls asked to pull out the lego.

We have a whole bunch of pink, purple, and white lego that combines to make a big fancy Barbie house, pool, ice cream stand, etc.  It's a MESS.  So, my rule is that bedrooms and living room have to be clean before we can bring the lego out.  Today the desire for lego was big enough motivation for them to get their jobs done, so we're hunting for pieces and the girls are totally focussed on their project.

 I actually kind of like putting the lego together and organizing the pieces, so it's a good way for me to play with them without getting bored ;)   Having a project for them to work on is also great... they stay focussed in one area of the house without leaving messes behind everywhere which makes everything else seem a little more "under control". The bonus on top of that is that they stay occupied for a long time without asking for something new to do.

I think things are back on track... on to the rest of the day!  Oh... is it lunch time already?

Please Note: This post is not sponsored by Lego ;) 

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Donovan's Backyard Birthday Party

Last week we went to my nephew's 4th birthday party.  It was just our family, his family, and Gummy & Poppy (the grandparents), and it was so much fun!  My sister-in-law, Betsy, had their backyard all set up with a pool complete with water and plastic balls, sun umbrellas and lawn chairs, their fun play structure, balloons and delicious snacks.  The kids had a blast and it was so much fun to watch it all!

Here's the cute little 4 year old himself:

August 2014 Sharing Time - Week 2

Welcome to August's Sharing Time Linky!

This week I posted about our family's trip to the Circus and last week I shared our trip to Palmyra.


I have some more fun family activities to post about soon, but for now, on to the link party!
I can't wait to see what you share! :)

Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!

 ---------------------------------------

If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!

<a href="http://http://www.RaisingMemories.com/" target="_blank"&_blank"><img src="http://oi43.tinypic.com/10gbrwy.jpg"/></a>

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for visiting my blog!

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A Trip to the Circus

Recently we had the opportunity to go to the Shrine Circus and we had such a great time! I had entered a giveaway on another blog and was so excited to win tickets and be able to take the family for a fun summer day trip! When we arrived, we went to the Box Office to get our tickets and were greeted by Cathy Sproule, Director of Public Relations, who took us to see the elephants (Marie and Shelly) before the show!

It was so neat to see them up close before the show, and to hear more about the circus "behind the scenes". I found out that the Zerbini family (I can remember hearing the name Tarzan Zerbini at circuses when I was a kid!) runs a sanctuary for elephants in Florida (which is where Marie and Shelly live during the months that the circus isn't travelling) and that Marie and Shelly have been together their whole lives (they are 46 and 48 years old) and are very close. So close that if one isn't feeling well, neither will perform that day.

Next, we headed to the front of the tent where everyone was lined up to get into the tent. That's where we got to see the human cannonball up close! It was pretty amazing!

Here's Talia plugging her ears during the countdown:

Cathy took us into the tent and gave us VIP seats (we were so excited!) and then the girls got to have an elephant ride! Katrina was a little nervous at first, but by the time they got off of the elephant, they were both really excited to tell me about it!

The girls loved watching the different acts (and I loved watching their faces!).  I kept turning my camera on them instead of the acts!

Perhaps my favourite act was when they pulled 4 dads (including Ken) up to perform! haha  They were all great sports and we had a lot of fun watching them!

The girls loved seeing the elephants again and the "pretty girls with shiny wings" who came out with music from Disney's Frozen playing.

Such a fun day out together and so fun to see things through these little girls' eyes :)

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