First Summer Camping Trip

We like to take several camping trips each summer if we can manage it. It is my husband's busy time at work, but if we schedule far enough in advance we can make it happen.

This past week, the four of us plus my parents headed over to the eastern half of the state to Lake Pearrygin State Park. This was a new camp spot for us and our campsite was right on the lake! I was concerned it was going to be crazy crowded, but apparently we lucked out by going mid-week (Tues-Fri) and only the last day did the annoying neighbors show up. =)

The view from our campsite:

I was a little nervous about this location and Zachary drowning, but it was up on a bank and considering he's not very adventurous, I didn't have to worry too much. We had a nice relaxing week. The boys always love camping. I used this link from Pinterest and some leftover bags from Malachi's Hot Wheel birthday party this past March (which I apparently posted nothing about!) and put together a scavenger hunt for them. Zach is really too young, but he liked walking around with his big brother anyway. 

My mom and I tried out a few new meals (mostly her ideas). We had a camping pizza which was a big success, cooked our cornbread like pancakes to go with our chili and campfire french toast (moderately successful... if I'd followed the instructions correctly it might have been better!)

Malachi was excited to be able to fish right off the side of the lake. He learned to cast out a line pretty well over those couple days.

We walked around the nearby town of Winthrop, which is a little touristy old-timey town. Then we headed out to see the Falls Creek Waterfall. It was just a short little hike, but had a beautiful view.

All in all a fun trip! Already have a site scoped out for next year and ideas for what to do and bring since we've got a better idea of what's in the area. =)

I'll leave you with this.... this is what fun looks like... maybe too much fun. =)

Happy Easter!!!

Malachi and I have been enjoying the Easter Holy Week. I wanted to be a bit more intentional about talking about the Easter story with him this year and it just happened to be half days all week at school, so it was the perfect opportunity to do some Easter projects.

On Monday we made Restoration Eggs. This is something I just happened to come across on Pinterest and thought it would be a great way to remind us to talk about the Easter story each day. You are supposed to start 12 days before Easter, but since we just made them the Monday before, we've been doubling up and doing two eggs each day.

The idea behind the eggs is that each of the 12 eggs is filled with a symbol from an event of Holy Week. Each day we open an egg (or two) and then talk about that symbol and read a passage from our Bible.

Malachi helped me collect all the symbols for the eggs and then we have been enjoying reading all the passages each day. I think it has given him a better understanding of the sacrifice Jesus made for us at Easter.

(We used a couple examples from different people on Pinterest, but here was one of the examples we pulled from.)

We've also made several trips to the library this week for some good Easter reading. Some fun and some religious. I really enjoyed The Story of Easter by Aileen Fisher which explains how our current Easter has come from a combination of old Spring Festival holidays and the Christian story of Jesus.

We also really enjoyed The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt and a book I bought off Amazon Benjamin's Box by Melody Carlson which ties in with our restoration eggs.

Of course, Zach has enjoyed Max's Chocolate Chicken by Rosemary Wells and A Tale of Easter by Tasha Tudor.

We also decorated Easter eggs this week... because that's the thing Malachi wanted to do the most obviously. He also had apparently forgotten how good egg salad sandwiches are and so I had to re-introduce that to him. =)

And our final project of the week was making Resurrection Rolls. This is something I've seen around for a few years and keep meaning to do with the boys... but... I just never do. Oops. So I made sure I did it this year.

Crescent rolls (the tomb), marshmallows (Jesus' body), spices and butter (oil and spices) all wrapped up in a cocoon and baked for 12 minutes (3 days) was a great illustration for the resurrection when they came up hollow inside... and really yummy too!
(Here is a link to the recipe we used for our Resurrection Rolls)

I hope your week was great and you and your family have a wonderful Easter celebrating Jesus' resurrection tomorrow. =)

Lately....

So I've been a very bad blogger lately. I know it. I guess I don't have much interesting going on at the moment. =) Or the interesting things is the stuff I'd rather not post about. Although I don't like to be a fake "everything is awesome always!" person, I also don't like to post about sad things, so I think that's taken the wind out of my blogging sails the past couple weeks - that and laziness. =)

Things I have been doing:

• I've somehow read over 25 books already this year. I've been doing a lot of reviews for authors that don't require posting to a blog, which is nice. I don't mind putting reviews here... but when I don't have a lot of other content it turns into a book-only blog. If you're interested in seeing some of my other reviews, you can follow me on Goodreads or the Little Sprout Facebook page to see those.
• I've been collecting supplies to make these Survival Candles. I think they will be fun to make with Malachi. I had to get the supplies, PLUS I realized I don't have a metal bowl to use as a double boiler, so I found one for less than $2 at the Goodwill! Yay me!
• I have also been researching supplies for homemade soap, which was one of my 2015 Goals this year. I've been searching for a cheap immersion blender at Goodwill also, but unfortunately, no luck so far. I could buy one from Walmart, but what if I only do it once?? Then it's ruined for using in real food and I'll have to throw it away.....

Earlier this month, I spent the day with Malachi at his school for his 100th day of school activities and parade. With all the disappointments of early in the school year it was kind of good to see we made it to a milestone!!

We've also had some crazy nice weather here in the PNW - earlier this week it was up in the lower-60s! We lucked out that Malachi's mid-winter break fell on a couple of those days. We set up a playdate with a friend one day and went to the park the next!

Okay, well that is all for now. Now I have to get the little one to nap before I head off to work this afternoon!

Merry Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas with our families. Busy, of course. But good. 

The weekend before Christmas we spent with my in-laws. Malachi loves it because he can have a sleepover in the living room with his teenage cousins and spend the whole weekend playing with them. I like it because that means I don't have to drive there on the actual holiday. Win-win.

On Christmas Eve we did our traditional Christmas Eve service at church. That is always an interesting service because all the kids are in there. Mine almost don't know what to do with themselves - whether to be awed or frustrated.

Then we come home to dinner and our Christmas Eve tradition of new jammies, eggnogg and hot cocoa and watching The Polar Express. This was Zachary's first year staying up with us to watch the movie and he was so cute! He loved it! Here was a picture I tried to take of the two boys enthralled with the movie.....

Only to be given this look which says to me, "Mom! Why are you disturbing my first viewing EVER of this train movie??" LOL

Christmas day was spent opening our gifts at home, assembling lots of toys (why do they make things SO HARD to get out of the packaging??) and then heading over to my parents for opening more gifts and Christmas dinner! My mom very nicely didn't get the boys gifts needing assembly - unless you count Legos. We had enough of those at home already. =)

So now the toys are scattered everywhere, Zouff the Elf has returned to the North Pole, we have WAY too much candy in the house and I'm trying not to think about taking everything down next week.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It's All Fun and Games Until....

Well, we are having quite the interesting experience in public school this year. If you've been following me at all, then you'll know I've not been too excited about it all along. I've been trying to keep an open mind and I've also been telling myself it's going to get better..... but it has really yet to do so unfortunately. I feel like every week something happens to frustrate me and they are starting to really build up. 

Malachi seems to be having a good time so far though. His favorite subjects are PE and recess (of course!). He seems to be doing well and getting along okay with the other kids. Most of my complaints stem from the fact that there are 23 kids in his classroom and only one poor teacher! I think she seriously needs some help other than us parent volunteers once or twice a week.

Last Friday I got my first call from the school nurse. I'm actually surprised it took this long to happen. =) Apparently Malachi and another kid collided on the playground and Malachi came away with a big bump on his eyebrow bone. It's been quite interesting to watch the progression of colors everyday as it heals. 

I am in no way blaming this one on the school... this was completely an accident caused by rambunctious boys playing. It's almost comical how terrible his eye looks considering it wasn't actually his eye that got hit. I'm almost afraid to take him out in public because of the comments and stares we get! I told him it looks like he was in a UFC fight!

It is now Wednesday of the week following this collision and his eye still looks basically like the one in the fourth picture. Good thing school pictures have already been taken! I was taking daily pictures (obviously) but when I figured out how long it was going to  take to go away I decided to ease up. =)

Anyway... here's hoping to this being the only incident with the nurse this year. =)

Fall Fun

We are full speed into Fall and it's been busy around here! Malachi is loving school (even though I'm still not too sure about the crazy teacher and even crazier school) and Zach and I are enjoying our solo time together. =)

Zach and I spent a day together with our MOPS group at the local pumpkin patch. So fun to run around with this little man. I feel so blessed that he is finally running around like he should be. I can't even get too mad when he's running away from me!

This particular pumpkin patch has a lot of fun activities for kids. A huge sandbox in the barn is a big hit and so is the water trough and pump. We also saw some little bitty kittens that Zachary was super excited about. We went on a hayride, bought a few tiny pumpkins and went through a hay bale maze in the barn.

Definitely fun to spend time with friends and with Zach!

Malachi was disappointed that we weren't going to go to the pumpkin patch as a family, so Shaun and I decided to take the boys out all together to the other patch in town.

This was Zach's first day with boots and he was excited about that. =) Malachi had a great time walking around and "measuring" pumpkins for the right size (middle picture above). He finally found the one he thought was perfect.

Malachi and I carved his pumpkin a little too early.... it was rotting by the time Halloween arrived.... but we had fun doing it.

Malachi also went to the pumpkin patch with his school and his dad. Unfortunately, his dad broke his phone and he doesn't have the pictures from that day, but we DO have a good one of the giant pumpkin they carved together.

And last but not least - Halloween! My boys went as a cowboy and a pirate this year. Zach wore Malachi's old pirate costume. My mom made  both the costumes.

Malachi had a terrible runny nose, but he was super excited. I had to work, so all my pictures are secondhand from my mom and husband. Love these silly boys. =)

Smooth Mornings

Who doesn't want their mornings to be as simple as possible? Probably everyone, but it's especially nice for people like me who are not morning people at all. If it were up to me, I'd probably lay around it bed until 10am everyday (maybe its a good thing its not up to me!) When I actually DO make it out of bed (at 7:30 if I'm lucky, not 10), I'm really not too awake for awhile.... and if I worked the night before until 11:30pm... I'm probably really not with it.

Sooo... I've tried to make our mornings to school as easy as possible. I make Malachi's lunch the night before and stick the whole packed thing in the refrigerator. The only thing I add is a frozen tube of yogurt as we walk out the door (amazingly I've never forgotten this).

One of my favorite time savers was part of a project I started back before summer ended. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do it or if it was really going to be worth it, but it turned out great! (I originally got this idea from TheGunnySack blog)

I had purchased this 6 cubbie hanging shelf at Target for about $6.99, I think. They had a nicer, sturdier looking one, but it cost more, so I didn't get it. I wasn't sure if I'd want the 6th shelf eventually, so I have temporarily pinned it up with a super fancy binder clip... I know... really amazing right? Honestly, I think I could use the last shelf for Sunday morning church clothes, but then it starts getting down around his shoes...... so I"m thinking of just officially tacking up the  bottom shelf.

My mom is amazing and made the little hanging days of the week tags for me. I think she printed on the fabric with her printer (using the tutorial from the originally blog post, I think) and then she sewed them to the blue background. They are nice kinda thick, so they don't get bent up. 

I wasn't sure how I was going to attach them, but I finally just decided to take the old needle and thread and tack the corners. They are easily removable if I ever wanted to do something else with it (or possibly get the nicer hanging shelf and move the labels over to that one).

Anyway... it is great!!! So worth the effort! On Sunday, I just look at the weather report for the week and make sure he had the right clothes. I put everything in the cubbie for that day including socks and underwear. When the weather was nice and he was wearing shorts, I'd even put his sneakers in the Friday cubbie, so he'd remember he needed them for P.E. that day and couldn't wear sandals. He just gets up in the morning and puts on those clothes for the day. I don't have to worry about if he's matching, wearing something weather appropriate or if there are enough clean pants for the week... it's all done! Hooray!

Now... if I could just talk my husband into dropping him off at school in the morning, so I don't have to do it, my mornings would be about as good as they could get. =)

Family Photos

We recently had some new professional family photos taken. I used to have a friend who did them for free, but I lost contact with her for awhile and had to find someone new! It was hard! There are so many of them out there these days. I discovered a girl from our church was doing photos and decided to use her since Malachi already knew her.

The last time we had photos done was when we had Zach's newborn shoot. Two years! I think they turned out really great.

Here is my little model... he loves doing this.
This was before Zach was really walking around much on his own. And he was super shy.... 

And of course a few family shots... my husband is always thrilled when I decided to get pictures done (did you catch the sarcasm there?) I love how she  caught the evening light in this shoot....

And here's one of my favorite. It was completely by chance that these two pictures were taken. The one on the left is of Malachi at about 18 months, I think and the one on the right is of Zachary, age 2. Love it that we got these two almost matching photos of these brothers.

And there concludes the photo display for the day. Love the memories that are captured during these photo shoots. Personalities are visible and it's amazing how quickly the boys change at this age. 

Back to School

We have been in a bit of a crazy mode with Malachi starting school this month. It always seems that everything starts all at once! 

Malachi has school... can I just say I'm not enjoying getting up in time to get everyone fed and out of the house each morning. I'm only thankful that he doesn't have to be there until 8:40 am... any earlier and I'd probably die.

Can I just take this time to make a public service announcement? It is never okay to go out in public without a bra on? There are actually people who drop their kids of (and then pick them back up at 3:00 pm!) with no bra on. So you're wearing a sweatshirt? Too bad... they rest of us can still tell you don't have a bra on. Sorry to break it to you. And if you don't care.... hm... I'm not sure what to say about that.

For me, MOPS and Women's Bible Study have started up again. They are now much easier to get to those places on time because I'm already up and dressed. 

Because of Zach's evaluation with the school district last year to get him his needed physical therapy, he now qualifies for a free parent/toddler class. I didn't quite realize when I said we'd join that it's EVERY Thursday morning. Sigh.... another commitment.  It was very good though and I think he really enjoyed it. It is fun to do something special with just Zach. I did something similar with Malachi when he was a toddler. I might have to cut out something else... I haven't decided quite yet.

Malachi has become obsessed with Hot Wheels recently. He's watches demonstrations on YouTube.... he would rather watch that on TV than regular cartoons! Crazy! Now when he plays with his own Hot Wheels he wants me to video him and post HIS videos to YouTube. They are hilarious!

I have a bunch of projects I want to do. I thought I was going to have all this extra time with Malachi in school.... and I do... but I still don't feel like I've been very productive. I honestly almost feel more tired! I have a dresser to paint and use as my media console and I want to build a book caddy thingy for Zach's room (okay...actually I want my husband to build it so I can paint it). Hopefully I get to those things in the near future and then I'll have something to post here that seems productive!!

Summer Wrap Up

I can't believe it's the end of summer already!! How did that happen? In our house, we're gearing up for the beginning of Kindergarten! I'm a little terrified, but I think it will be good. 

Yesterday I received an email from Malachi's teacher to set up our "Kindergarten Interview".  Honestly, I have no idea what to expect from this year.... being homeschooled from 1st-12th grade doesn't give you a whole lot of practical experience for the public school system. To say I'm a little skeptical is a bit of an understatement. I think there are a lot of awesome teachers out there, but they can only do so much with a broken system. I'm willing to give it a try though, so hopefully it is a good experience.

We also went shopping for school supplies with grandma and make a trip down to the outlet stores for new school clothes - of course mommy and grandma got a few things also. =)

I've also been trying to figure out how to streamline our mornings. I'm not a morning person, so anything to help me out is great. I took this idea from Pinterest @TheGunnySack for organizing clothes for the week. I went to Target yesterday and purchased a six-cubbie haning shelf organizer. Malachi thinks its cool (??) and so hopefully that will get us going. This way he can get himself dressed in the mornings and I know he's actually match.

We've been trying to fit in all the stuff that I didn't get to earlier in the summer.... like swimming lessons! Last year I only got Malachi in for a week of lessons at the YMCA. This year I didn't think I was going to get him in at all, but then I got told about a local place that was a good price AND they had one last session for the summer. Hooray! Only 3 kids in his class and he's doing really well this year having gotten over his fear of putting his face in the water last year. 

We happened to see Zachary's physical therapist at the swimming place. It was exciting to show her how well his walking now!! Last time we saw her he had only taken a few steps between us. Hooray for finally walking!!

We're going to try to "quit sugar" in our house. I was offered this book to review by the publisher and didn't plan AT ALL to want to do it.

But after reading it I've discovered that I already agreed with a lot of what the author had to say, but had no idea how to go about implementing it. Sooo... I'm actually really interested in trying it. She has a 8-week sugar detox program, so we're ALL going to try it. Convincing my husband with the sweet-tooth ("does this mean you're not going to make cookies anymore?) took some doing... but he's on-board too. We'll see how it goes......



Lastly... found this precious picture today of Malachi holding his new baby brother in the hospital.... awwwww......

Little House on the Prairie

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Malachi and I are enjoying reading the Little House Books. We've finished Little House in the Big Woods and we just started Little House on the Prairie this afternoon. I loved these books as a kid and I'm hoping Malachi enjoys them as well..

One thing that he's been really intrigued by is that these books are about REAL people. So today as we were reading about the Ingalls family leaving their house in the Big Woods and driving across Lake Pepin on the ice, I remembered I had saved a Pinterest pin about a virtual field trip tour of the Little House sites. It is a little hard for a 5-year-old in our culture to picture what it was like to live in a little cabin the the woods.... or what it was like traveling in a covered wagon for that matter. This site had some great pictures of the actual site where Laura and her family lived in Wisconsin. Even I enjoyed the pictures! I don't think I quite realized how large Lake Pepin is and I cannot imagine crossing it on ice! Yikes!

This is also a great site to find information and pictures about Laura and the places she lived - liwfrontiergirl.com.

Junior Ranger Programs

Something we discovered part way into our week at Yellowstone is the Junior Ranger program. I thought this was just a Yellowstone thing, but apparently it's a National Park thing. 

According to the National Park Foundation: 

Inviting the youngest park visitors to become a member of the National Park Service family, the Junior Ranger program gives kids and families the opportunity to uniquely explore and learn about their national parks, and how they can help protect them today and into the future.

There are currently over 200 Junior Ranger Programs in the National Park Service. In each of these parks, kids interview Rangers, complete games, and answer questions about the park and the National Park Service. At the end of their experience in the park, they are sworn in as Junior Rangers and receive a special certificate and official Junior Ranger badge.

I would highly recommend this to anyone with kids 4-12! Malachi loved becoming a Junior Ranger. The booklet was $3 at Yellowstone and totally worth it!

First - go to any visitor center and pick up you Junior Ranger workbook. One of the REAL Park Rangers with go over the process with you and your child along with the rules of the park.

Second - Figure out how many activities your child has to complete in the workbook for their age level. Malachi was in the youngest age category, so he had to complete 6 pages. We actually ended up completing 8 and we might work on a few more - or maybe we'll just pick up a new one next time! 

Third - Attend a Ranger-led program. This was the hardest part for us. We kept planning on attending a certain program and then something would prevent us from getting there on time (brother with a blow-out diaper, cool animals on the side of the road, traffic, etc) We finally ended up hearing a talk on Grizzly Bears and their Habitat by Ranger Rick (not the raccoon =) at the Junior Ranger Station on our last day. We made a special trip into the park just to attend!!!

Fourth - Walk a trail or boardwalk

Fifth - Find the visitor center again and have a Park Ranger look over your booklet. After that they have your child hold up their right hand and "swear them in". Then they receive a patch!

They also have a bunco of Junior Ranger accessories you can buy, a vest, hat, binoculars, etc. Lots of it actually. Malachi ended up going home with a stainless steel collapsible cup, a whistle and some binos (just like Daddy's). I am seriously considering a vest, just so I have a place to keep the patches!

Craters of the Moon also had a Junior Ranger program. It was much simpler and the booklet was free because it's a smaller park, but we had a lot of fun with it. They actually become "Lunar Park Ranger's". Same process applied: walk a trail, do some activities from the workbook, attend a program and get sworn in. Malachi chose to wear an astronaut helmet for his swearing in and it was a little big!

All that to say - check out the Junior Ranger programs at the National Parks that you visit in the future. I heard several people say that they have a bunch of adults who ask to do the programs, just because they are informative! The Park Ranger who did our Ranger-led program at Craters of the Moon told me she always picks up a workbook and does it when she goes to a new park - and she's already a Ranger!

Go here to find a list of National Parks with Junior Ranger Programs and have fun exploring!

Introducting Chapter Books

A couple months back I found a set of the first 10  Magic School Bus chapter books on a local free/wanted/for sale site. I wasn't sure Malachi would be ready for something with only minimal pictures, but he loved watching the Magic School Bus cartoon, so I thought I'd pick them up anyway. I got the set of 10 books for $5 - which considering each book originally cost about that much was a pretty good deal. (This person also sold me over 20 Magic TreeHouse books for another $5!)

Well, come to find out - Malachi loved listening to these books! We've finished the set we have and have started on some new chapter books. We've started Dinosaurs Before Dark #1 in the Magic TreeHouse series and I just got the first Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book by Betty MacDonald. He does an awesome job of just sitting and listening to the stories. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has even less pictures than either the Magic School Bus or Magic Treehouse. 

I am thinking of what other books I might be able to read to him now! This opens up a whole new set of options!

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