Our Adventure called Life

We 've taken enough road trips with our kids to know how to keep them entertained and upbeat while hitting the open road.  Some of our good friends had move d to Pittsburgh over a year ago and it was time to reunite the kids and adults!   Blankets...captivation tiny travelers for hours We departed early Friday and drove straight thru with the exception of one stop to fuel-up and take a tour of the gas station restrooms.  I had visited the local dollar tree prior to departure day and stocked up on sticker books, stickers, and travel sized magna doodles.  I spaced out the "prizes" by a couple hours.  It kept the kids on their best behavior and they had something to look forward too!  We also utilized our baking sheets which the kids used to color and snack on.   Focused My husband sort of tricked me, un-intentionally.....so I am not a fan of driving.  I'd much rather be in the passenger seat for hours then spend any time behind the whe...

Just the 2 of us A few weekends ago Scott and I realized we hadn't taken any time for ourselves as parents since our adult ski trip to Montana in January.  There is nothing we enjoy more then taking our littles on adventures, but every once we need to relax and spend time together as Scott and Kara. Hello Cincinnati Some friends of ours live in Cincinnati and will soon be moving to Texas.  They had been asking us to come visit before they moved even further away.  We decided to take a mini road trip to visit them and enjoy life in the city.  The kids were excited to spend a night with the grandparents as Scott I got out of town for the day/night. Glacier National Park A few other couples met up with us in the city and we ventured to the Cincinnati Museum Center.  We are a pretty outdoorsy group, so we were excited to visit the Omnimax Theater for a screening of Our National Parks: Celebrating 100 Years of the National Park Service .  Watching...

She dyed most of her eggs pink The week of Easter we kicked off the holiday by dying Easter eggs.  I made the comment to Scott that most crafts and activities seem to be getting easier and easier each day with the kids.  My mom has been apart of the egg dying process since becoming a Nana, this year was no exception as she showed up on the farm with a carton of eggs in hand.    The lovely Lila Saturday morning we took the kids to their first public egg hunt, held at the community center of our little town.  I was a little anxious for them as I wasn't sure how they would do racing against other kids for eggs. Luckily, all I had to do was tell Lila there was candy in the eggs, and that prompted her to hurry along and grab as many of the brightly colored plastic eggs as possible.   He doesn't look like a fierce hunter, but watch out! We've discovered that Paisley has a competitive streak in him, so after explaining that he had to be quick to...

The sheet of paper slid out of his backpack with ease, as if this was all written in the stars and supposed to be happening.  I read over the words and looked back to his backpack, making sure he hadn't grabbed one of the older children's by mistake.  The moment caught me off guard and my eyes fell on my little boy.  Was he really old enough for t-ball sign-ups? Lil Slugger Growing up I played sports and loved watching baseball.  My husband also grew up in an athletic family that played sports, so naturally we knew the time would come for our offspring to play.  I just didn't expect it to happen so soon.  Scott took our boy to sign ups while I stayed home with baby sister.  A few weeks later we received a text from his coach (a guy Scott went to high school with), a practice and game schedule, and a list of his teammates.  Paisley was happy to see 2 names on his teammate list that he knew from school.   Being that Scott and I...

Not your regular cup of joe Originally we planned to head to Pittsburgh this weekend to visit friends.  Plans shifted when some of the family we were going to stay with tested positive for influenza on Wednesday.  We decided to road trip later next month! Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Our little family of 4 bumped up family night from Friday night to Thursday, in order to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  We took our green clad crew to dinner at a local restaurant and enjoyed some phone-free family time.  After dinner we made green shebert shakes.  The kids loved them and next year we won't serve the 7-up infused beverage to the kids right before bed. Did you want some cereal? Despite our road trip changing dates, Scott went ahead and kept his requested day off and we had a full day of family entertainment!  We started with a huge breakfast and making plans for our day.  The kids didn't realize their dad took the day off, so when Scott asked if...

Get excited about diaper-free nights! As our son was nearing his 3rd birthday we decided to start talking to him about wearing big boy undies to bed.  He had consistently been accident free throughout the day for the past 6 months and he had zero issue napping without a diaper.  He liked the idea of wearing his cartoon themed underwear all night, so having him on board was the first step. Up until we began potty training over night, we had allowed him to have a cup of water in his room.  Now that we wanted him to stay dry all night, we removed the cup from his room and put it in his bathroom.  We explained that if he got up to get a drink, he needed to use the potty as well.  After 1 or 2 accidents during the night, the process clicked and he was permanently free of diapers.  At 4 years old, we allowed the cup of water to return back to his room as he no longer needed the reminder to use the potty.   We are currently in the midst of overnig...

"Will you lay underneath me?" This week the early spring crud hit our home and both babies came down with sniffles and coughs.  The extra snuggles were worth the excess snotty noses I had to wipe.  Little sister was hit the hardest and had a difficult time sleeping at night.  This also resulted in less then successful nights of being diaper-free.  I've put her back in diapers at bedtime until this cold passes and then we'll start again.  More details to come this Tuesday in the potty-training part 2 post! Are you my mommy? We've had an uninvited furry visitor at our home this week that would be welcome with open arms....except he's a jumper that knocks down small people.  After multiple days of him hanging around and zero luck finding his real home via Facebook, I called the dog catcher.  Of course when the dog catcher arrived the dog disappeared.  Smart dog! Target can get exhausting after the first hour We're gearing up for a ro...