Life With A Toddler

Hey ya'll!  I saw the perfect parent picture on facebook today and I just had to share.  I think it accurately describes every mothers day (and some fathers too). 

I know this is my day with my 1 1/2 year old daughter.  Except most of the time it's Letty throwing things at Hailey instead of me.  All day long it's "Don't hit your sister!" , "Don't throw that at her!".  But I know that I wouldn't change it for anything, as I'm sure ya'll wouldn't.  We can definitely say that life is never boring at our house. 

I know what some are thinking, "Why don't you just do this, this, or this?  You wouldn't have that problem."  Well, you know what, we would still have that problem.  Kids are Houdini's who can unlock every child proof lock there is and can disappear in the blink of an eye.  It's truly amazing. 

I hope ya'll got as good a kick as I did out of this picture.  And I hope it reminds you to cherish every moment you get because you only have that moment once.  Tomorrow they will be one day older.  What are some funny things that have happened to you with your kids?

Let's Celebrate Thanksgiving!

In my family Thanksgiving is a BIG deal.  My husbands birthday is around that time and his Granny comes in from out of state.  It's very busy and very fun.  We all LOVE to eat and we love getting together.

So let me say that when stores have Christmas stuff out well before Halloween has even been celebrated it DRIVES ME CRAZY.  Don't get me wrong, I like celebrating Christmas.  But I believe that every holiday should have its own time.  Right now, at the beginning of November, when I walk in the grocery store all I see is Christmas.  They have one small display for Thanksgiving.  Not to mention when you walk in ANY other store all the Christmas trees are up and decorations are out.

Is Thanksgiving soon going to be out?  I mean, we are suppose to be celebrating when the pilgrams came over and make peace with the Native Americans and celebrate everything we are thankful for.  For me and my family this is a special time of the year that we can celebrate something that doesn't involve presents.  The kids actually think about what they are thankful for and celebrate life.  

So, to celebrate Thanksgiving a little bit I found some turkey color by numbers, regular coloring pages, word searches, and an art project.  These should help the kids get ready for Thanksgiving when everywhere around them is already celebrating Christmas.

You can find this color by number here.  She also has lots of other color by number pages and very cute ideas.

This one can be found here.  There is also A LOT of other activites for the kids to do on this site.

Hailey loves word searches so I thought she would love this one.  She did!  Go to this page to download the word search and print it out.

Both of my little ones LOVE to color.  They could do it for hours.  So why not color Thanksgiving pages for everyone?  Get them here.

Most kids love paint.  It's messy and they can make something beautiful out of it.  Just make sure you have lots of newspaper to lay down so paint doesn't get everywhere.  I saw this great idea on Minne-Mama.

I hope ya'll celebrate Thanksgiving with family this year.  These pages will give the kids PLENTY to do while you prepare too.  Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!

Kids and Gender Roles

I was watching "The Chew" this afternoon and they mentioned something they saw online about a father being berated for teaching his son to cook.  Of course, they all thought it was very wrong; which it is.  The father should definitely be teaching his son to cook!  Women always like a man who can cook.

Gender roles are something I hear a lot about living in the south.  Oddly enough I hear it more from kids than I do parents.  I will occasionally hear a child say "I'm not doing that, that's a boy's chore." or "I don't have to clean because I'm a boy."  I don't know where they get it from, but it's a problem that we face head on in our house. 

The only one I have to worry about right now is Hailey and I have (luckily) not had this problem with her yet.  Although I'm sure it will come.  Just like I'm sure it will come with Letty and the new baby when they are older. 

Both of my daughters play with cars and tractors all the time.  They also play with dolls and stuffed animals.  There is no reason a girl can't play with "boy" toys.  Just like there isn't a reason a boy can't play with "girl" toys.  My husband and I have always let our kids pick out what they want to play with.  One of the first toys Letty ever picked out at the store was a blue and green toy car.  She loved it.  Our nephew, when he was little, loved to play with beaded necklaces and shoes.  He would run around his Nanny's house with her flip flops and necklaces and just play.  He is now 8 years old, plays football and is a typical boy.  There was no reason for us to take them away from him.  They made him happy and that's all that matters.

Before Hailey was born, my husband and I talked about gender roles.  I was nervous, thinking that he would want the girls to have their toys and their chores in the house and the boys to have their toys and their chores outside.  Boy was I wrong!  He was very adamant about them having the option to choose the toys they want to play with along with them learning to do chores outside and inside.  I don't have any sons yet, but my daughters go outside and help out just as they help in the house.  Hailey loves to help cook and she loves going outside and raking leaves. 

Boys and girls should both learn what it takes to cook, clean, and take care of a house.  We definitely don't subscribe to gender roles in this house.  This is something I feel very passionate about (if you couldn't tell).  What do you think of gender roles?

Fun Family Activities for Fall

I don't know about yall, but I love autumn!  It means football has started (hopefully the Saints will start doing better for me), and Halloween and Thanksgiving are around the corner.  This is my favorite time of year.  The family gets out in the yard and plays and rakes leaves.  It's wonderful!  We all have a great time just being together.  I believe just taking the time to be present with your kids (and even the husband) is about the best gift you could ever give your family.  They will probably never thank you for it, but I believe it makes for a great childhood. 

I can never seem to come up with a good idea for a game or activity for all of us while we're outside.  I absolutely hate the idea of jumping in a pile of leaves because I always think spiders are going to get on the kids.  We live in the woods ya'll, so they're everywhere!  So I thought I would think really hard and try to come up with something. 

• Build a fire pit.  Everyone enjoys a good bonfire to roast marshmallows and hot dogs right?  It doesn't have to be anything fancy.  (If you're wanting to make it really nice, Pinterest has A LOT of great ideas.)  We actually made one last weekend with some extra cinder blocks we had around the house.  It's open on one side so we can rake leaves into it, that way we can clean the yard a little before the marshmallows.  DO NOT roast your food over burning leaves.  I promise you they won't taste good.
• If you're not worried about bugs and spiders, then rake a big huge pile of leaves and let your kids get crazy!  I promise they will have a blast jumping and throwing them everywhere.  
• I haven't tried this yet, but I'm thinking lawn bowling would be a fun idea.  We usually have a couple of 2-liter bottles around somewhere.  I'm thinking I could fill them up half way or a little less with water and place them at the bottom of one of our small hills and let them try to roll the soccer ball into them to knock them over.  I bet they would love it.  I would probably even get in on that game.

I hope this is a good start to ya'll fall fun!  It doesn't matter what you do, it just matters that you get out and have fun!  What does your family love to do in the fall time?