Easiest Notecards Ever

I don't know if other parents struggle with this, but I have a hard time throwing away my daughter's artwork. I know I can't keep it all, especially now that she is producing several pages each day. So last night I decided to repurpose some of her art.

I started with a giant watercolor painting, similar to this one, that had been sitting around the house for days. We have a roll of butcher paper for large art projects, and when the paints come out, the kitchen table is pretty well covered in the butcher paper. This makes for large works of art.

My paper cutter, glue stick and I spent some quality time together, and the result was these notecards. One painting yielded seventeen cards.

These will be used for my daughter's personal correspondence - thank you notes, birthday greetings to her friends, letters to grandparents, etc.

The only supplies I used were a stack of plain white notecards that I've had for years, a glue stick, a paper cutter, and my girl's watercoloring. And now we have an easy way to send both greetings and her artwork to grandparents who never seem to have enough of those things.

Kid-Friendly Summer - Feeding the Ducks

The end of July might be a bit late to begin a series of kid-friendly summer fun posts, but better late than never, right? We've been having a great summer, and I thought I'd share some of our fun (and inexpensive) activities with you.

One of my daughter's new favorite activities is feeding the ducks. We are fortunate in that we have weekly errands to a local shopping attraction that features ducks, chickens and rabbits wandering amongst the stores. We always visit the duck pond, and have recently started bringing old bread to feed to the ducks.

She had so much fun, sometimes throwing one bread cube at a time, sometimes an entire handful, sometimes dropping it gingerly into the water, sometimes throwing it as far as she could. We also had the opportunity to incorporate a good citizen lesson as the plastic bread bag very nearly ended up in the water along with the last bread cube.

The ducks seemed to appreciate the free lunch, too.

Vacation

There have been so many great things going on in real life lately that I haven't had time to blog about them. I like that. Andy and I, along with my sister and her husband, had a wonderful few days of vacation. We spent a few days in Victoria, B.C., which is just so beautiful. We walked (and walked and walked), visited museums, toured a castle, ate entire meals without cutting any person's meat but our own, and even went to a late night movie. Andy and Adam thought it was great fun to take pictures of all things Canadian. You would think that I mean things unique to Canada, but no. I mean things like Canadian dogs, Canadian firetrucks, Canadian street signs. If we had been visiting from some distant locale, this wouldn't have seemed so odd. But we live a mere ferry ride away; a long ferry ride, but still, that is the extent of the trip.

Here my sister and I are marveling at the small size of 100 year old ball gowns. Even my size 2 sister was in awe. Thank goodness for the obliteration of corsets.

After Victoria, we spent a couple of days camping. Our daughter was with us for most of this time. It was quiet, restful, and very pleasant. The weather was perfect. The roasted marshmallows were superb. We roasted one for our daughter, but she insisted that it was "dirty", and would only eat "clean" (i.e., raw) marshmallows.

It took us a few days to get back into the swing of things at home, as it always does, but ultimately we came back refreshed and ready to take on our list of summer/pre-baby projects.

Amazing Quilt Giveaway

You've got to check this out. Okay, if you're into quilts, you've got to check this out. Old Red Barn Company is giving away a beautiful quilt. You can see it and enter to win it here. The contest even provides an opportunity to practice your cinematography skills.

Here is a little preview:

Beautiful.

I'm So Ready For This

Isn't she sweet? This is my daughter at naptime a few weeks ago. She really is sleeping. Who knew little children actually slept in such picturesque positions? This is not how I found her this morning, however. Nope. This morning she was sitting up in bed, ready to go...at 5:30. My daughter doesn't get up at 5:30. She's more of a 7:30/8:00 kind of kid. I don't get up at 5:30 either. Add to that a frustrating day of parenting yesterday and a late night last night, and you will find that I am functioning quite poorly today. And I'm pregnant, so I can't even fake coherence with coffee.

But there is hope! My sister and brother-in-law will be arriving tonight, and we will go on vacation. Vacation! Our daughter will be with us part of the time and with grandparents part of the time, and that sounds just about perfect to me. (I need a break, but I don't like being away from her for more than a couple of days.) We have no agenda. We know where we will be staying and how we will get there, and that's it. It will be wonderful.

So all I have to do is make it through today and keep telling myself that it's okay if the house isn't spotless before we go. That is okay, isn't it?

Very Funny

This made me laugh. Not so much the verbose description, but the summary. I am sunrise? Really? No one who has ever lived with me would describe me as such. My mother has teased me for my entire life about not being a "morning person". My college roommates knew better than to ask if I wanted to get up for an early morning workout or cup of coffee. 8:00 classes and then 8:00 meetings were the most dreaded events on my calendar. My husband knows that the best way to pamper me is to let me sleep in. But the Internet! Ah, the ever reliable Internet. It knows. I am sunrise.

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

A Day At The Farm

Warning: Image-Heavy Post

We spent one morning last week at the berry farm. Sadly, they did not have their own berries. Our late spring delayed the strawberry crop by weeks. The farm was able to truck in strawberries from another local farm that had better luck, but they weren't very good. However, we still had a great time exploring the farm.

The attractions included various modes of transportation:

Slides of all sorts:

Creative tire swings:

A sampling of American architecture:

Here's my girl quietly listening to another child's sermon:

Inflatable tunnels/preschool hair salon:

And, of course, a giant spinning strawberry ride:

This was dubbed the "big, big strawberry with the steering wheel table". What could be better?

All in all we had a great day, even without the berries.

The Beach

We went back to the beach a few days after our first visit. This made for one very happy little girl. Playing in the "river" turned out to be the most enjoyable activity. Water, waves (sort of), treasures, and no fear of being swept out to sea. (Okay, so maybe that was my fear for her, not so much her own fear.)

You've got to have the right shades for the beach. These are her Bono meets Curious George glasses.

Walking with Mommy.

Stinky, slippery seaweed. Not as stinky as the wet dog who showered us just moments later.

Walking with Daddy. Aren't they sweet?