Cultivating Childhood

It's summertime!  We've decided that we'd like to do a bit of staycationing this season, so Phil took his first day off for us all to head south and enjoy  Northwest Trek .  We've heard a ton about it, and it seemed like something that the boys would enjoy.  So, after donning on our raincoats and boots (this is the Pacific NW after all) and driving an hour and a half south, we arrived at our destination. We LOVED it.  Unlike most zoos or even the  Wild Animal Park  in San Diego, all the animals are local animals.  It was fun to see them in their natural habitats.  It was interesting to also just observe some "normal" animals, like skunks and beavers and bobcats.  Animals you hear people talk about roaming into their yards, but you rarely get a chance to see them up close (nor usually want to!)  Buddy liked the slug that was crossing our path as well. (Funny enough, the park was getting set up for "SlugFest" the next day, and we saw a "wild

Simplify. Learn. Give. This has been the motto our church has adopted during its Spilling Hope campaign these last fifty days since Easter.  This campaign is like one I've never seen.  Though the ultimate goal is to provide life-giving water by building wells in Africa, it strives to change the way we live.  Here.  Now. Simplify - The idea behind simplifying is basically realizing just how much we have and what we really don't need.  What if we allocated our funds elsewhere?  What if, instead of buying a latte at Starbucks, we made coffee at home and give the money we saved to help people in Africa?  What if we sold the clothes that we don't wear in our wardrobe and donated the proceeds?  How could our lives be changed for the better if we were to simplify our budgets, our homes, our calendars? When given this challenge, I chose to follow the " No S Diet " for the fifty days.  Granted, this was hard to do.  Basically, I was giving up eating snacks, seconds,

Because it is summer, and you have small kids. I found this awesome recipe on allrecipes.com, and I thought I'd share. No-Drip Popsicles Ingredients: 1 Cup Boiling Water 1 (3oz.) package of fruit flavored gelatin mix 1 Banana 1 Cup Plain Yogurt Directions: Combine boiling water with gelatin in a blender and pulse until gelatin is fully dissolved. Blend in banana until smooth, then blend in yogurt. Pour mixture into popsicle molds and freeze until hard. That's it!  My kids loved them.  I'm sure we'll be making a lot of these this summer.

Our playroom is finally complete.  We found a great computer desk on craigslist, and we "stole" daddy's old desktop computer that he wasn't using.  Daddy got the computer all reformatted, and after purchasing a new mouse, Buddy was ready to use his first computer.  He loves playing Starfall or just typing his own words and letters on a blank document, and I've just heard about a kid's web browser called KidZui that I'm hoping we can implement soon.  ( KidZui works only on Windows, but our computer is running Linux). Here's the new set-up: The desk is nice and concise, and the computer only comes on at certain times of the day (mostly when Button is asleep).  Buddy is loving the newfound independence (and mommy is glad he doesn't know how to change the webpages!). Also, I just love these two pictures.  Like father like son!

We've been doing a lot of reading here.  For a long time now, Buddy has been consistently asking us to spell different words for him or he'll spell out a word he sees in a book or a sign for us to tell him what it says.  As much as I've more recently tried to hold back on reading and letters, he is sooo interested. I found a treasury of Dick and Jane  from a thrift store, so we've been slowly going over the simple stories and learning the sight words that go with them.  It's also lended itself to some more advanced phonics since he's learning what the "oo" sounds like (as in "look") and "ee" (as in "see").  He loves the feeling of accomplishment that he gets from reading each story, but I have to limit him to only one new story a day.  (Neither mommy or Buddy need to get burned out with reading when he's not yet 3 1/2).  We also sporadically work on phonics whenever it seems appropriate. He also just loves to