Snow?.... noooooo!!!

This was my reaction this morning when I opened the washing machine and found the diaper that  some dumb child OBVIOUSLY put in there (right? ok maybe it just walked in there on it's own when I put the load in while the kids were at school. couldn't possibly be my fault).
You ever done that?
As you know, maybe, you can't weed it out... I had to wash the washing machine empty, and then I stuck my clothes in the dryer and hoped that the lint trap grabbed most of it... MOST OF IT... still found baby goo, dried to some of my clothes... it was a great reminder of home

I have had a great couple weeks experiencing friends and snow, but when I'm trying to get back to real life (instead of a 5 week vaca) this was kinda a breath of fresh air... like the mistakes I always make, the things my kids always act up on are back and feels like home
which feeds into my saying, a place is not home, family is home... thanks for letting me steal that renee.

hospital-ality

First I want to say thank you to EVERYONE who was willing to host us for the past 5 weeks.
I thought it was funny that so many houses had disease and we escaped 90% of it. We had 2 girls who had a fever for less than 24 hours.
I want to talk about hospitality.
It is amazing that there is such a thing as the gift of hospitality. There are so many things I saw this trip that were so different but I would still consider to be great hospitable people.
I had some people who wanted to do EVERYTHING for us. There were some people who wanted us to feel like part of the family and pitch in. Some people had their houses decorated to the hilt, some people had very simple decorations (and maybe piles of dirty laundry everywhere for me to fold).
Some people had toothbrushes (and even one house that had robes for everyone in the family) in case we forgot and some were pulling towels out of the dryer as we got there.
No matter what I saw that they were trying to make us feel welcome at their house.... and we totally did. No ones house did we feel out of place or nervous. No one made us wish it was time to leave.
so what is hospitality and what makes it a gift?
Hospitality is making someone feel at home... and making it seem seemless. That is where the gift is.
So, thank you for your hospitality even if it included trips to the hospital for you.

Car Edition PART II

 I admit... I'm kinda a nerd...
But here's a packing list for the car.... first go to the dollar store because it's amazing.... I got these 6 mini m&m packs for a dollar... good for treats and small enough to throw across the car ....

 With the M&M's I will start with m and m graphing... it's good for all of them to learn a little something... we got comparing, adding, fractions, graphing, tasty m's and coloring all at once... even add a little tally, number learning etc... gotta take up 15 minutes right?

 I'm trying to be age appropriate... so I have dry erase boards, but nyla can't do markers if you know what I mean so I found these markers... little more expensive, but worth saving shirts and car and whatever else... the board is dollar store and they can always write on the windows too... that's gotta be 30 minutes.

 The dollar store has these crafts... seems lik boys wouldn't like them, but I 'm not convinced... the one on the left has sea creatures... it's not girly... but the "jewels" are self sticking . the board on the right is the sticky and you stick sequins... coloring board in the middle... have a contest who can make the best, but pass out awards to all of them which you can also find at the dollar store.... depending on the craftiness of your kid, this could be forever.

Fazoodles abound!!!! I found these giant fuzzy pipe cleaners at the dollar store... and they came with stickers for eyeballs... or get regular pipe cleaners and create animals... who can make a giraffe, who can rock it poppet!!!!

 These were bonuses... a box full of animals and tin foil... make foil animals, have them make oragami or something.... the creatures were on clearance at walmart.. totally worth it.

 My favorite.. magnet fun... get a pan from the dollar store and then I did splurge at Barnes and Noble... i found in the travel game section (they have one of those!!!!) magnetic puzzles... this way, they can do puzzles and they stay in the pan... for nyla there's animals... and for a treat challenge they have to do a tanagram... magnetic from B&N for 2$

So here's a backpack... a notebook of paper, crafts, fuzzy noodles, dice game, a box of crayons... and we're set!!!! Head out on the road!