Day Trips

I almost want to keep this to myself. But at the same time I feel like this is a hidden gem in our city and maybe, like me, you have kids that need outings and you get tired of the same old thing.  

I've lived in this city for 20+ years and have only ever been to our public museum once (probably 20 years ago). I dont remember tons about it but I do remember that I wasnt overly impressed. So when friends recommend it to me I was a little skeptical. For our family of 8 to go on outings, it can get pricey so I put it off for a long time. In all honesty I only purchased a membership for the sole purpose of getting into a different local attraction for free. Let me break it down for you:

*A year membership at our GR Public Museum is $65. It would cost more than that for us all to go once.

*The membership gets you into the museum, planetarium, and unlimited carousel rides (my head is still spinning). 

*Reciprocal memberships are amazing! The Airzoo, Impression Five, museums in Chicago and tons of others FOR FREE!!!

Here's a glimpse into our time at the GRPM. My kids have all said its way better than the childrens museum and we are already planning our next visit!

The doll room was a favorite spot. Huge doll house to play with. Dolls from every era - my girls thought this was really neat!

The main area had large games for kids to play. We could've spent the whole day here and the kids wouldve had a blast!

 Ephram's favorite were these little ride on airplanes!

 My favorite was the old streets of GR! There is a working printing press and an old soda fountain. The employees are dressed in era appropriate attire and gave us tons of fun facts about how life was in that time period!

 Amelia trying an old school bike

 The planetarium/space part was cool. Next time we'll stay for the planetaroum show!

 The TOY exhibit was amazing! Toys from ever era and the kids were encouraged to play with them. It was fun to show the kids what I grew up playing with. And since grandma came along she showed the kids the toys she had when she was little!

 Abram loved the hall of soldiers z my history buff was amazed by all the different uniforms.

 There's an entire section dedicated to the animals that are common in our state. The kids all took turns measuring themselves against this giant sturgeon.

 A wigwam from early settlers.

 All smiles! No one wanted to to leave. We will definitely be going back. And we'll be using our reciprocal membership this weekend for another local attraction (stay tuned)!

Maybe I've been living under a rock and I'm just preaching to the choir. If that's the case then I'm jealous of all of you! I wish I had known about this amazing spot sooner. But better late than never!  If you need a fun outing, grab your kids and head to the public museum. Buy the year membership! It's totally worth it!

Meal Planning

Some mama's are amazingly prepared and great on the fly.

This is not me. I like a plan. I like lists. I like to know what's coming. And so meal time in our house needs some sort of order.

Enter the meal plan! I know, I know, that totally overwhelms some people, but having a plan (at least for one meal a day) keeps me just a little more sane- especially in the summer.

So let me tell you how I meal plan in the summer - because it's different than during the school year.

First I come up with 5 or 6 meals I know my family will eat. I let the kids and the hubby help me pick. In the summer I can always count on at least one night of grilling! I write the list of meals on the bottom of my grocery list then pull all the recipes I'll need for the week.

I like having my meals on my grocery list so I know why I'm buying certain things. It's also my "safe guard" against forgetting certain things. I'm notorious for making things and realizing I'm missing a key ingredient (cant have spaghetti without noodles).

One thing I DON'T do when meal planning is assign meals to a specific day. In the summer our schedule varies, and the weather where we live is ever changing, I like to have some flexibility.  So these were our meals for the week:

Bellon Tacos
Grilled Chicken Kabobs
Snow on the Mountain
Brats/hotdogs and pasta salad
Grilled cheese
Greek chicken pitas
Sandwich for 12

So we had lots of suggestions this week, I'll move any we didnt have to next week. We had some cooler weather this week so I chose to make snow on the mountain that night because it involved the oven and stove.

This is a family favorite. Albeit kind of weird, we love it. And it's super simple. The kids love it because they can make their plate however they want. Here's the recipe:
Shredded cooked chicken in gravy
Cooked rice (brown or white)
Toppings:
Shredded cheese
Tomato
Green onion
French fried onions
Peanuts or cashews
Shredded coconut
Pineapple tidbits
Pile it up however you want!

Now back to the meal plan... like I said I don't assign meals to days. Ive tried it and it caused too much stress if something unexpected happened and I couldn't get dinner ready in time. Now I look at our schedule for the day and look at the list of meals and choose which meal makes the most sense for that day.

Example: I might have some labor intensive meals on the list but if we spend the day at the pool I dont want to spend an hour at the stove after that. Pull out some brats and hotdogs to throw on the grill and we're good to go.

*Lunch plans: I dont really have a written plan for lunch but instead make sure we have things for sandwiches - different lunch meats, cheese, tortillas, bagels, bread etc and then we do mac and cheese once a week. Throw a fruit and a veggie on the plate and you've got a meal! *More on grocery shopping later.

Like I said, NO STRESS! That's what's important to me. It's an easy way to make sure we have dinner every night. Dont let the term "meal plan" stress you out!

What do you want to see on the blog?!

Summer Eats

Anyone else's kids eat twice as much during the summer? No? Just mine?

I find myself answering "can I have a snack?" just about every 5 minutes it seems. So we've come up with a system that works (at least for us). The system involves some preplanning on my part - which I really dont mind - its just adding a few things to my grocery list each week.

I keep two snack baskets in our lower pantry shelves. One has applesauce, fruit bars, and beer jerky sticks. The other has granola bars, PB crackers (occasionally fruit snacks or little Debbie's).

The rules is they get TWO snacks from these baskets each day. I dont care what or when but once they've had their two they have to pick from our other options.

Our other snacks get kept in the fridge and include cheese sticks, fruits (apples, pears, grapes and oranges) and prewashed veggies (carrots - the big ones, my kids wont eat the baby ones, sliced cucumbers, mini bell peppers).

They can have 2 of these snacks a day. Again, I dont care what or when but when they've had their two they're done.

Bedtime snacks. This is something I'd love to get rid of but my kids have been conditioned to think they need a snack before going to bed. So they have 3 choices:
Mini-twist pretzels
Graham Cracker
Popcorn

We also keep cups on the counter making it simple for them to get themselves a drink whenever-and saving me from having to do a boatload of dishes each day!

This is our "usual". Not our everyday. Somedays we're out and about so they eat less. Sometimes we are in the sun all day so we munch on popsicles. Somedays I throw caution to the wind and we make a huge batch of snack-mix with sugary cereals, pretzels, m&ms etc and we munch on it all day!

I'd love to hear any tips you guys have on keeping kids full all summer long!

Next up - my summer meal planning!

Saying Goodbye

Today was our last day of school and it was so bittersweet. Last night there were tears and emotions were high as we talked about the kind of changes we would experience in the fall. But today they were all smiles as I sent them off to school for their last day of 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and K!

And one silly shot before catching the bus for the last time! 

Pulling our kids from school isnt a decision we took lightly. In fact, we've been thrilled with their school. We've loved the staff, the kids have great friends, I've been able to volunteer and get to know lots of mom friends. So this decision wasnt an easy one.

This is just one of several notes to my kids and our family. The friends we've made at school have become family in some ways. After the bus came today we spent the entire day with these people - this school family. My heart is so full! I'm so very thankful for our experience at our school. 

I've shed my fair share of tears the last few days, many of these school friends are neighbors and I know we'll all still see each other, but change is hard. 

In all the sadness of this week there is also great anticipation! We are all excited to see what fall brings, to start our new routine and get involved with our homeschool community.

Until then, we'll be here, soaking in every ounce of sunshine and pool time we can! Also, school friends - we want to keep in touch! My kiddos are hoping for lots of playdate this summer!

*coming up on the blog
 - meal planning for a busy family
 - chores and allowances
 - Yes! Homeschooling is legal

Meet Clementine

Get a dog!" They said
"Itll be fun!" They said

 Actually that's a lie. No one advised us to get a dog. In fact it was the exact opposite. "DON'T DO IT!" was the warning we received from just about everyone we told about our plans to add a puppy to our family.

Let me start by saying I am NOT an animal lover. I was out voted 7 to 1 and so I have yielded my preferences to my husband and kids. They talked it up really well
"We'll do all the work mom!"
"I'll feed her and walk her everyday!"
"If we get one that's hypoallergenic you wont even know she's here!"

LIES! I TELL YOU! ALL LIES! I am the one home all day while Tim is at work and the kids are at school. Much of the work falls to me - the one who really doesnt like animals at all. Obviously we didn't listen to anyone, we went ahead and got a dog. Let me introduce you to Clementine (Clemmy for short)!

Clemmy is a ginger haired labradoodle. Fun fact - she has the same mom as my brothers chocolate labradoodle so they are half siblings (the kids find this fascinating). The kiddos had NO CLUE we were getting a puppy!
Another fun fact- our breeder breeds chocolate doodles and has never had this color pup before! We think she fits in with our family well!

 Clemmy spends most of her day lying the floor at my feet. Or finding anything the kids have left on the floor - shoes are a favorite thing to play with.

Clemmy isnt a huge fan of her leash yet so we're going on lots of walks for practice. Would you believe who gets the hold the leash is the biggest source of arguments in this house?

Amelia is involved with 4-H this spring/summer. They're working on obedience training and some agility skills. She's the youngest pup in the class and it shows.

Lenora was so fearful of dogs. Any dog really. She was absolutely terrified. In fact we were a little worried about how she'd do with Clemmy. She has faced her fear and now calls Clemmy "her dog"!

I've been told she'll grow on me. I'm not sure I believe that. For now I'll tolerate the cute fur ball for the sake of my kids!

All My Darlings... and Clementine!

Let me start off by introducing myself!  I'm Kate, a busy mom to 6 little ones (although my oldest is 10 so don't tell her I said "little") and we recently added a ginger labradoodle to our family!  To say life is full would be an understatement.  My oldest 4 were in school full time at a wonderful local school for the past several years (actually the school I attended as a child) but after much discussion and prayer the hubby and I have decided the best move for our family would be to bring our kids home this next year.

Ya know that busy life I mentioned? It's about to get a whole lot busier.  Our decision confuses people and we've been getting lots of "really?" "why?" "ALL of them?" types of questions. So I thought I'd share with you all some answers to your questions - in short, we feel this is what God has called us to do.  The longer "reasoning" behind why we're homeschooling is complex and would take more time than this blog allows, but if you'd like to hear our story, come on over for a cup of coffee and we'll chat!

But YES, really!  And YES, all of them! I will have a 5th, 4th, 3rd, 1st, K, and 3 year old to teach at home!  I'm so thankful we live in a place that supports homeschooling.  We'll be doing a partnership at a local public school for things like art, PE (gymnastics), and STEM, so don't worry about socialization.  I'll write another post about our curriculum choices later on!

For now, we have one more week of school at our current school and then it's SUMMER break!  We all are looking forward to a reset after a particularly challenging year.  We'll be starting school the week of Labor Day in September!

Don't worry, not every post will be about homeschooling!  Remember Clementine, I'm sure there will be some funny stories about her.  I'm sure I'll throw in some of our favorite large family snacks and meal (tips for meal planning anyone?). And we've got some fun adventures planned for the summer!