I don't want to let go!

My kids have about 3 and a half weeks until school starts....when I say that I feel a few different things. SUPER excited....what mom isn't excited for school to start? These kids seem to find the weirdest things to fight about, when they are around each other ALL day. Them having a break from each other will be good, for all of us!

I feel stressed about the rest of the school stuff the kids need....backpacks, a few more outfits for the girls, lunch boxes, all three kids still need school supplies. I'm buying for an 8th grader, which we all know means A LOT of supplies. AHH!!

I also can't help but feel scared. My son will be in 8th grade. He will be part of the "big kids" in school now, and that can be a good or bad thing. ;) I worry that Laura won't mesh well with the teacher I chose for her, or kids won't be nice to her. I worry that Katie might not do well in all day kindergarten.....after all, she is only 4. She turns 5 at the end of September, and even though she is an independent little firecracker.....she still requires a lot of quiet time, playing alone. She thrives off of it.

Which leads me to feel sad. I love my kids being home. I know where they are. I know they are safe, and happy, I know random kids aren't being mean to them. I know they are eating their lunch, and if they need me at any given notice....I'm here.

I worry a lot, about each of my kids. It's what I do.

I hate to let go. With each milestone they reach, it makes it that much harder for me. I feel like soon they will be moving out and leading their own lives. I'm SO not ready for that.....even on a bad day. ;)

My kids are my life. Period. They are my heart, and knowing they are going to be away from me for several hours a day, absolutely makes me sad. Don't get me wrong....we all need those breaks.....but going from them being home allllll summer, to going to school all day, will be something I have to get used to again.

HA, you probably wouldn't believe that I've been doing this since my 13 year old was 5! I feel worried and anxious, excited and sad each and every year that they start school.

This will be the last year that William is home with me all day. He will start preschool the following year.....what will I do then?! I'm going to be a basket case.....though my home will be very clean! ;)

I know I can't be alone in feeling these emotions....so to all of you mama's out there that look forward to, yet dread the first day of school....I'm sending you all a big hug!

<3

Summer fun Day 42! CHOCOLATE!!

Hi friends!! Today it was a bit cloudy, and when it's cloudy, my family is SLEEPY! I don't know what it is, but rain and clouds just make us want to cuddle up, eat junk food and watch movies all day.

We made the junk food part come true! Hey, sometimes its ok to eat the yummy soooo not good for you food. ;)

I went grocery shopping recently, and brought my oldest son. He saw a box of brownie mix that has fudge icing on top, and NEEDED it.....such a teenager ;) I got it for him, and today we made it. Funny enough.....he didn't want to make it with us, but he surely did eat it up for dessert! ;)

 

I had the help of my three younger kiddos, so we had some fun stirring, pouring and smelling the yummy smell of brownies baking!

 

 

 

They love to help, and I absolutely love getting the kids in the kitchen, learning how to measure and bake, all kinds of things.

 

When the family saw THIS was for dessert, they were so excited, and ate ALL of their dinner! How can you NOT be excited for brownies with fudge icing??? We ended up topping it with chopped walnuts. :)

 

 

We ate our brownies with smiles on our faces, and happy tummies!

 

 

Hope you all had as SWEET of a day as we did!  ;)

 

<3

Summer fun Day 41! Weather experiment.

Hi friends!! Today is day 41, and I couldn't wait to try this fun weather experiment out, that I found on pinterest! Our family seems to always be talking about the weather. We moved from Arizona to Northern California a few years ago, and even though people here complain about how hot it is.....we know this isn't as hot as Arizona! We love to compare the temperatures! We also love to rave about the RAIN! Az rarely gets rain, so we absolutely love all the rain we get here. This weather experiment was so much fun for the kids!

All you need is a glass of water, shaving cream (you all know how much my family loves to play with shaving cream!) and food coloring.

 

All you need to do is fill the glass up with water (leave a bit of space at the top). Spray on a bunch of shaving cream, to create your cloud, and then put a couple drops of food coloring on the top of your cloud.

 

 

Now watch as your cloud fills up with the food coloring and begins to rain!! It's awesome! We did this 4 times, and the kids were so excited each time the clouds began to rain. It was a neat way to explain how it rains, to the younger kids.

 

 

 

When we were done, we decided to use the rest of the shaving cream outside, in one of our sleds.....I swear its the best way to keep stuff like that in one place. The kids loved playing with it, and then they decided to add water to it, which was lots of fun too!

We had a fun filled day here in our house! I hope you all had a great day, full of smiles!!!

<3

Summer fun Day 40!! Scavenger hunt!

Hi friends!!! Day 40! WOW!!! It's been really fun, doing all these new activities! For the next couple of weeks, we will have a couple repeat activities.....I'm letting the kids choose some that we've done, that they LOVED.

Today we had a fun scavenger hunt!!

How simple is that?! It's FREE (which is a bonus!) and it was fun to make teams and watch them work together.

I put the boys together, and the girls together. I figured Nicholas would be a good help with William.....it worked out nicely.

I made up a quick list of things for them to find....

And then we got to it! I explained the point to them, and they couldn't wait to find everything on the list.

 

 

It took a while to find some things, like the dandelion, and a rolly polly.....but they did it!

Nick and I had fun watching them run around the yard to look for each item.

The girls ended up winning!!! They found everything the fastest......but the boys did great too.

We had fun with this activity, it got us outside in the fresh (but hot) air, and the kids did great working together. When we were finished we came inside to play some games, and eat some popsicles!! :) Great summer day activity if you ask me! ;)

Hope you all have a happy day!!!

<3

Summer fun Day 39!! Mini fruit pizzas!

Hi friends!! Here we are on day 39! I'm so sorry I missed yesterday. I have a little sicky in the house, who wanted to be held all day, so mama was all about making him happy. :) Thank you for being so understanding!

Today we had a yummy recipe to try out. I saw this recipe on pinterest, for deep dish mini fruit pizzas. They looked delicious, and I am all about adding fruit to our dessert. So we were excited to make this!

All you need is a mini cupcake pan, sugar cookie dough (we used the pre-made stuff), cream cheese (8oz) softened, cool whip (16oz), cut up fruit (we used kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, and peaches).

 

We whipped up the cream cheese and then mixed it with the cool whip (the original recipe said to use all of the cool whip, but I decided to leave a little out, just in case some of my kids didn't want the frosting we made.)

 

 

Then we rolled up the sugar cookie dough, into little balls, and put one in each spot in the cupcake pan.

 

 

Here is where things got tricky for us. I baked them, according to the recipe (at 350, for 6-7 minutes), but I think we made the balls to big, because they pretty much filled the little slots, and were almost impossible to get out, without crumbling them.

 

 

:( SO sad that they didn't work....but we weren't going to let that, stop us from making fun pizza's! So I ended up baking the cookies like normal....which honestly....I think worked out better than the little cups would have.

 

 

We let the kids pick between the frosting we made, and plain cool whip. Most of us LOVED the frosting! The kids were able to put the fruit that they wanted on their pizzas, which was fun.

 

 

We all loved the mini fruit pizza's that we made! They were so cute, and SUPER yummy!!

 

 

 

William wanted plain sugar cookies, so he didn't make one, but this little boy ate 2 sugar cookies, and handfuls of fruit!

 

 

I hope you all try this recipe out......the kids will LOVE it!

 

Lot's of smiles and hugs from my home, to yours!!

 

<3