Touch a Truck Day

Today our town hosted Touch a Truck Day! We had a blast looking at and climbing on all sorts of trucks and construction equipment! Highlites included the firetruck, police car, crane, and the post office truck! A free slushie helped this sore momma keep on truckin' herself. I'm seriously sore from a cough! Is that pathetic or what? I totally regretted not bringing the stroller once it was time to head back to the car! A 5 minute walk seemed to drag on for eternity.

So if your town doesn't host Touch a Truck Day or something similar perhaps you know the mail man, fireman, a farmer, or someone with a construction job. Do a little searching and you may find a willing volunteer to host Touch a Truck Day for your kids!



Here's Luke exploring some construction equipment.

Pet Store Visit

If you need a fun, yet free activity for your little ones, consider a trip to the pet store!
While running errands today we stopped by the pet store and had a great time looking at fish, mice, rabbits, and birds. We even got to see a dog being groomed. Luke (15 months) loved everything and would have stayed as long as possible! This was an especially great activity for today because today ended up being a wet, rainy and windy day in the Midwest.

Disclaimer: This activity will eventually turn into a not so frugal idea when your kids are old enough to ask to bring a pet home!

Make sure to visit Biblical Womanhood for more frugal ideas.

Memorial Day Activities

For Memorial Day we started off the day with working in the yard and then enjoyed a bike ride! Luke loved his first bicycle ride. He is using his cool new bicycle seat he received for his birthday and the nice helmet that came with it to keep him safe! In the evening we got to go to a family picnic where Luke wore himself out playing! We hope you enjoyed some special family time over the weekend too!

Sometimes pictures just show it better than words ever could!
This little boy was enjoying some fresh out of the oven big, fat, chewy chocolate chip cookies! Enjoy the weekend!

Summer Park Schedule

This summer my Women's Bible Study has developed a master park schedule for play dates for the kids. One of our awesome members took the time to put together a document listing each week of the summer and one of our local parks for each week. The idea is that if the weather cooperates whoever is able to will meet at the park every Wednesday for a playdate!

I love that the whole summer is organized and that we will get to try out lots of different parks over the course of the summer! There won't have to be any last minute calls to remember which park we are at or what time we are supposed to show up. Better yet, we will actually get together instead of just meaning to for the whole summer. Here's to having a fun filled summer! It works for us!

Be Inspired

- Have a Sleepyland Party - so cute!

- Food on the floor sounds fun to me.

- Kids loving to dust? Is it possible?

- Wet Chalk and Beep

- Pop up Pancakes look yummy!

- Water Colors and Saran Wrap - a beautiful combination

Homemade Breadsticks

In a flash of Monday organization attempts, I made up a menu for the week and added some homemade breadsticks to our dinner tonight! In our house it is a crime to serve pasta without some sort of buttery garlic bread.



I found this recipe on Tammy's Recipes and it was super quick and ever so easy. I recommend it if you are looking for something quick as a side to pasta. There's also a cinnamon variation that we might have to try out soon!

Doctor's Visit List

Here's a quick checklist of things to grab before you head out the door with a toddler for a doctor's appointment! It's better to be prepared in case of a longer than expected wait!

• Drink and a snack
• Necessary medical records
• Favorite blanket
• Pacifiers
• Insurance Card and Wallet
• Baby Tylenol
• Quiet toys or books for waiting time
• A list of questions for the doctor

I bet you can guess where we are going this afternoon!

Our Favorite Things

Vacation left me with extra time to enjoy reading some old favorites! Now I can't seem to stop!
If you have any young ladies in your family who haven't read the classic Anne of Green Gables series please introduce them to these wonderful books! Excuse me now while I go stick my nose back into these great books.

Life after Vacation

Well life must go on after 2 weeks of vacation I suppose! We're getting back to the normal swing of things with Mark off to work and me dealing with teething and temper tantrums!



We had a wonderful time! Highlights consisted of our trip to Wisconsin, a family trip to the farm, a visit to Aunt Lisa's zoo, playing with cousins, wagon rides, croquet matches and a college graduation for Mark's brother, Chris!



Take note - rolling and crawling through lawn clippings is very fun for this toddler! Then later on it's fun for Mom to find all the interesting places grass got stuck to!



Here Luke and Daddy are watching some of Grandpa's cows!

And of course we've got to include Luke's first carousal ride!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Today I would like to share a message about motherhood with you. This is an excellent, free audio download from Visionary Parenting! Simply scroll down to The Noble Calling of Motherhood and click. It is about a half hour. Enjoy!

Vacation Pics

We had a great mini vacation in Wisconsin and are still enjoying having time off to spend at home as a family this week and next! Next week we will continue vacationing by visiting the family farm and spending some time with Grandma, Grandpa, some Aunties and cousins!

We loved the natural beauty of Wisconsin and enjoyed visiting Roche-Cri State Park.



One of the humorous highlights of our trip consisted of our dining experience at The Family Affair Restaurant. We throughly enjoyed the hillbilly-ish atmosphere and got a kick out of the addition errors on our bill! I've posted it below for your pleasure. Don't worry though, they changed our bill when we pointed the errors out! I guess it's a good idea to add your bill up when you're an out of towner!