Let’s Start May with a Sprinkle of Joy: Announcing the Giveaway Winner!

I want to start May off with a sprinkle of joy on the blog today. Let’s see who has won our Kids’ Summer Reading Giveaway! This winner will receive a copy of each of the three recently published books for their kids. Congratulations are in order to………. Linda Jackson!!! Hurray, Linda!! I hope your children will love these books. To read more about each of these 3 books, see my full review here. ***Disclaimer: When you purchase through Amazon links […]

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Successful Annual Road Trip to See Family During the Rona

covid road trip to see family

We make this trip down south to see our family every single year. Alan had to switch jobs back in June, so this year we pushed the pilgrimage back to August. I kept thinking by August “things” would be better. But alas, August is here, and things still look like a bowl of mush. Alan had to get special permission to even take leave and travel so far during all this mess. With permission secured, we packed our bags and […]

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Touring Havre de Grace Boardwalk, Pandemic Style

Havre de Grace boardwalk

June is always a dizzyingly busy month. We have two family birthdays, Father’s Day, and the end of school. For 2019, 2018, 2016, and 2014, we were also in the middle of a big move. So you can imagine, that the children are all completely bewildered at spending June stuck in our own house. Not just stuck in the house, but in the SAME house as last year! What??? Haaaa! The military life has been quite chaotic for us the […]

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5 Printable Summer Journal Pages to Get Your Kids Writing

free printable summer journal pages

Do you vow every summer to make sure your kids still read and write over the break? I know I do. Then I am always thoroughly disappointed when no one wants to do anything of the sort. In fact, as a mom of all boys, I feel like all anyone ever wants to do is stare at screens all day. That is our battle as a generation. Every year I enter in with delusions of grandeur, but that is okay. […]

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Good-bye Summer

Only 1 more day until school starts back!!!  Yay!!!! Y’all, I might have overdone it this summer. Hmmm, Israel, Washington, D.C., trips back and forth to my parents’ as well as Alan’s parents’ house, camps, and the beach!!??? Who does that? It was wonderful, and yet it was also like eating way too much at an all-you-can-eat donut buffet. I definitely over-packed this summer with fun activities. Lesson learned. Schedule more down time. Of course, next summer is a moving […]

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A Parent Review of ABCmouse: Keeping Our Brains Working Through Summer

Parent Review of ABCmouse

  Like most moms, I TRY to keep my children from letting all of their knowledge fall out over the summer. Any “book learnin’” my four boys accomplish over the summer is typically solely because I forced them to do it. Maybe your kids aren’t like mine, I don’t know, but my children never ASK me to do workbook pages and catch up on their reading logs. When I was a little girl, I LOVED doing workbooks, but that is […]

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10 Tips to Save Money and Hassle on Your D.C. Vacation

Last year, we went to Disney World for vacation. This year we need something more affordable, so we are going to Washington, D.C.!!!! Alan has been after me to write a post about how to save money and hassle on a D.C. vacation for a while now because it’s something we loved. When we lived in the D.C. area, we had so much fun taking our friends and family around to see the monuments and Smithsonian museums. So I finally […]

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2 Month Moving Update

I guess life has settled down into a new normal here at our new casa. Thus begins the 1st year that you move somewhere. Oh, how I love that first year. (That’s sarcasm.) This is the year when you walk around confused because you don’t get it yet, and you don’t know how to fit in either. You leave extra early to get places because 8 times out of 10, you are going to get lost. It’s a year of […]

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Day 2: Partying with Mickey Mouse and Pals at Epcot

DAY 2: EPCOT CENTER JD was a little disappointed when he met Bay Max. He had it in his head that he was going to get to “put Baymax’s stuff on him.” Translation: JD wanted to dress Bay Max in his red armor, but they told him to please not touch anything. Ha! For most people, Epcot is all about touring the different countries, but for us it was all about 2 things. #1. Hanging out with our friends and […]

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Let the Summer Shenanigans Begin! (With a Sneak Peek at Our New House)

There’s a word we hear a lot around here: “best friend.” JD says that Daniel is his best friend. That is mostly because I drill that into all of my children’s heads from the moment they are born. “Oh, look, he is being so sweet to you. He is your best friend.” “Your brother will always be your best friend.” Positive reinforcement style of brain washing is a good thing to do. Trust me. JD often asks, “Where my best […]

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