as inspired by souleMama; one photo from our week, no words, only an image to sum up our time as a family. one that captures a moment in time and is a visual reminder of where we were at this time in our lives.
i would love it if you left a link to your { this moment }.
do you think this craft project is something your kids might be interested in?
my little lion woke up one morning, stumbled down the stairs in his groggy state and found these super adorable frog shoes waiting for him on the table!
“for me?” he asked.
“for you. try them on” i replied.
he slipped the shoes on easily, and as soon as he landed his first step the shoe made a silly squeak. then he landed another step and another, and the shoes kept squeaking away! the smile on my three year old’s face was priceless, as he repeated “rib-bit, rib-bit” jumping around the kitchen pretending to be a frog, as his shoes squeaked away!
these adorable shoes are by yochi yochi. they have four different designs you can pick from: lady bug, panda, skull n’ cross bone and of course these frogs! check out their website HERE. they also sell adorable socks that rattle with each movement. the socks are meant for babes.
HAPPY SQUEAKING!
[ i was compensated in exchange for writing a product review for yochi yochi shoes, but the views and opinions are my own.]
my family and i went on an epic road trip this summer. just over two weeks of driving, camping with a few pit stops in m/hotels. i say this trip was epic, because although we drove a similar distance last summer when we drove all the way out east to the maritimes of canada, on this trip we headed north. north to where life is rougher, the temperatures much cooler and for us the trip felt more challenging, mirroring the way of life.
dear hubby and i met 12 years ago in those scraggly forests just outside of thunder bay, while treeplanting. this vacation was really a trip down memory lane and a way for us to re-experience all of those fun new-relationship places we got to know each other at all those years ago! we’ve had a tough year of marriage and life, and even though the kids were with us, this vacation felt like dear hubby and i were reconnecting in all the right ways! so great!
the raw feel of the landscape along lake superior really affected me. i grew up in finland, which has a very similar look and feel, so i was feeling quite nostalgic. the rocky cliffs lining the shores of the great lake are capped with moss, thin spruce trees, the odd birch tree and some berry bushes. you can imagine the freezing cold wind blowing up from the lake, creating incredibly cold conditions. we camped at a few provincial parks along the shores of lake superior and were surprised at the fine sand beaches we found, with awesome crashing waves. felt like we were in the caribbean without the crowds of tourists and palm trees, oh and the salt water!
we truly live in a beautiful province, one that i think most people take for granted. it is so easy to forget to look at the beauty that surrounds us, to acknowledge the wonder that is in our own backyard. i am proud to share the awesome adventures ontario has to offer with my kids; it doesn’t sound like a very exotic place, this good ol’ ontario, but we saw and experienced some awesome things. it isn’t a coincidence that our car license plates here say “yours to discover”!
i have a million pictures to sort and edit, stories to organize in my brain and many details to write down! i will be sharing vacation pics and tales in spurts!
keep checking back!
sewing is an important skill to have. we don’t all have to be experts, but some basic knowledge of how make things is valuable and helpful. i realize in today’s culture where everything is so cheap and easily replaced, rather than fixed, it might feel strange teaching kids how to darn socks! but c’mon, from there you can make awesome sock monkeys! haha!
here is a small collection of simple, small and lovely sewing ideas for small fingers. some are use a machine, others use hands for threading, some use felt, others denim. i’m sure you won’t regret teaching your kids how to sew, and it can prove to be a very useful skill for them. if you were to be a Cultural Care Au Pair looking after small kids, sewing might be an activity that you would like to take part in with them. as a mama to two boys, i am going to make sure they are exposed to sewing and i will encourage them to learn. bear, 5YO has expressed some interest and curiosity!
which one is your favourite?
do you think you will get your kids sewing sooner rather than later?
i don’t often do this, but i wanted to share a very specific post by another blogger with you. it’s about breastfeeding. there is so much information out there, but as i remember my days as a nursing mama, i distinctly loved hearing about other women and their own experiences with feeding baby safely. even the “easiest” of babes can have various problems or concerns when it comes to nursing and then there are babes who need extra care of attention and mama needs extra skills to get things flowing properly (like the pun?)! on top of that, i faced some unique issues myself. for example, where i nursed my children, it was frightfully cold most winters so i had to look up a guide on how to prepare for breastfeeding in such cold conditions. so every mother will face their own unique struggles and it’s important she finds way to overcome them.
we’ve been going through a super tough patch with bear, and yes again. so there’s the whole potty mouth thing that i blogged about earlier (read about it HERE), that is still happening, but now instead of everything being poo, everything is stupid.
oh, great!
“my family is stupid, you are all stupid”
and recently bedtime has become a huge battle.
we’ve actually relaxed this summer a bit with the hopes that that would shift his negative (stupid) attitude. but,unfortunately no go. he kicks, shifts, tosses and sometimes even shouts, which is a huge problem as the boys share a room. we’ve tried letting him read a little on his own in our room after stories, so that he doesn’t bug lion. we’ve allowed him to just lay in our room and try to fall asleep there, we’ve changed times, tones, tunes… yes, i have gone back to singing my sleepy repertoire i sang to him so many years ago: “eternal flame” bangles, “let it be” the beatles, and “hey jude, the beatles.
i’m just not understanding where this rude, blatantly disrespectful behaviour is all coming from. yes, he’s 5 years old and pushing the boundaries, but c’mon he is ONLY 5 years old and calling his family stupid. all the time. really?
when i call him on it he giggles and laughs. which i try to ignore, but it really gets under my skin and makes my blood boil even more! ya know?! i try to keep my cool and set the example, but i feel like i am going in circles with him. i repeat myself a million times a day and hate the sound of my own voice and….
blargh.
during the road trip there were some very trying moments with him, but road tripping is stressful, so we tried to be forgiving. but, now back at home, with a month until school starts i am hoping he will grow out of this rude phase and express himself more softly. he’s just so mean. i’ve told him if he doesn’t have anything nice to say, to not bother saying anything at all!
my upset is exaggerated, when i hear my three year old lion saying the same mean things, but he understands less about being mean intentionally.
here’s hoping this last stretch of summer is filled with more kindness!
fingers crossed!
our family love road trips so after looking at the hartford auto insurance review, taking out a new policy, and getting our car looked at by a mechanic, our road trips plans were well undr way. we made a list of all the things we hope to see and do during this year’s summer road trip! our plan is to head north and stop where it’s practical or necessary!
it is 10:30pm on tuesday evening. i am sitting alone in my living room. lion is fast asleep upstairs in bed. but, bear and dear hubby are sitting in the waiting area at our local hospital’s emergency department.
if you have never been to kincardine, ontario, you should try to make it a destination for a day trip or longer vacation. we try to visit kincardine once a summer, which is a tradition that started way before we ever had kids.
the beaches are amazing. on one side of the main pier it is sandy and soft, the other it is rocky and pebbly. the waves that crash the shores are always cool as the water in lake huron never gets too warm!
the main strip in town has a variety of stores and chip stands, so there’s yummy grub for all! we left home in a hurry that morning, and i forgot to pack the kids’ bathing suits (duh! slaps palm to forehead) sowe had to stop at a box store to buy new bathers for the kids! haha!
the kids love kincardine. it is small and during the busiest of times, it was still pretty calm. there is enough to keep them busy and happy for the day. even dear hubby got to work on his new thing, his strength training. which is lots of jumping without a running start. he’s getting pretty good at it!
we played at the different beaches, ate picnics on the different beaches, found a playground with lots of other kids for the boys to play with, we drove around the town a little so lion could nap and bear could have some quiet. we left just before sunset.
it was a completely nearly perfect day.
you see lion sh#t in his brand new swim trunks at one point! hence the naked bum. it’s all good, these things happen even on the best of days!
haha!
these are my instagram pics.
to follow me there CLICK HERE!
can’t wait to do it all over again next summer!
