Our upcoming camping trip or rather "glamping"

I do not come from a long line of campers.  If anything, my family (myself included) can sometimes be a hotel snob.  We like to save money and get the best deal, but I remember more than one time switching hotels if it wasn't up to par.  So what has my 6 year old son been clambering to do for the past two years?  Go camping, of course.  Luckily, my brother does enjoy camping, like real camping, in a tent in the woods and everything.  So our plan was to have my son first go camping in the backyard so that he could work his way up to going camping with my brother.

But a couple of months ago, I was browsing online when I found Lake in Wood Campground.  This campground had everything that I could hope for with our family of two kids: two playgrounds, outdoor swimming pool, kiddie pool, covered swimming pool, mini golf, hay rides, fire engine rides, hiking trails, bingo, arcade, restaurant and of course a lake for fishing! 
 
Plus it is located in Pennsylvania Dutch Country and I love the Amish :) 

Yes, I know they don't like having their pictures taken, I didn't take the pic! :b

You can go to Lake In Wood Campground to go camping in a tent, use your RV or rent one of their Unique Rentals.

Unique is definitely the word, you can choose from a Caboose, a Treehouse, a Yurt, a Ship, a Covered wagon and more.  We decided to go a little less unique and chose a cabin.  This is where the "glamping" part of the camping comes in.  We're staying at the Lake View Cabin. 

The Lake View Cabin was actually our second choice, but our first choice was already booked.  Therefore it's actually a little bigger than we actually need. It sleeps 2 adults and 4 children (we only have two).  But the sleeping arrangements for 2 kids includes two bunk beds, so now I won't have the hassle of dealing with my kids arguing who sleeps where.  If they both want to sleep on the top they can (not really, because my three year old would fall right off, I'm hoping they both choose to sleep on the bottom).  The cabin also includes a bathroom, refrigerator, coffeemaker, toaster, gas grill, microwave, TV and Air Conditioner.  Now that's my kind of roughing it :b Truthfully the cost is not that cheap, we could have easily gotten a hotel in the area for less, but it's a great way to introduce my family (and me!) to camping and there is so much to do that I think we're going to have a wonderful trip!

Wordless Wednesday: First Day of Kindergarten #WW

First day of Kindergarten last Wednesday! Oh my heart :)

Wordless Wednesday: Dining out with Kids #WW

Buca Di Beppo is a good restaurant to take kids like mine who crack themselves up, are a bit too loud and lick Parmesan cheese off their hands :)

Mom of 2 boys, BMBH, and Poop

                                                    Please do NOT wake sleeping children!

M.O.B. Society First Annual Boy Mom Blog Hop

Welcome to any new Boy Mom Readers!

Yesterday I wrote a short blog that was titled "So Tired" because I was so tired :b  It was a very short post that I said I would try to continue, but I think I knew in the back of my head that the post would never be finished and it was really just a chance for me to vent.  So why was I so tired?

Because I'm a mom of two boys!  In general I think just being a mom of any amount of children and any gender is going to make you pretty tired.  But there really is just something about boys.

  I'm doing okay today, but yesterday was rough.  It started with my 2 1/2 year old waking up around 5 something.  I tried getting him to fall back asleep but he was set on going downstairs.  So we went downstairs to lay on the couch and thank goodness we both were able to fall back asleep for a short period.

It was my 5 year old's last day of camp, so we drove the 40 minute drive that I've been doing for 3 days a week the past 6 weeks to get to Hockessin (it was an excellent camp, so it was totally worth it).  Then me and Chunka (my 2 1/2 year old) went to Kmart to return an item.  Then Chunka had Little Gym at 10 am.  Then we stopped at a store to pick up a baby shower gift.  Then I picked Beluga (my 5 year old) up from camp.  Then we drove 40 minutes home so we could be home in time for Chunka's speech therapy.  Chunka usually loves playing with his speech therapist but yesterday he was just in a mood.  He didn't want to do anything he was asked.  He is also at his "me do" period where he wants to do everything himself.  So he had a complete meltdown when I wouldn't let him cut up his own strawberries.  Then I tried putting him down for a nap which had quite a few interruptions due to the fact that he now almost daily goes poop in his pull up at nap time. He pooped twice yesterday during his nap, the last one requiring a bath and the end of his nap.

                                        (Not poop, just mud, although it could very easily be poop)
                
And that's where I was at yesterday when I wrote that I was so tired and still had lots to do for the rest of the day (which included physical therapy and swim class).  Mind you all of this could have been exactly the same with two little girls, but in my experience (which isn't a lot because I have two boys!) boys are especially great at pushing things.  And I can't speak for all boys, but mine are especially energetic.  Most days you will see the two of them running around and around the coffee table yelling and laughing.  One a their favorite parts of the day it when daddy comes home, he has about 7 minutes to get changed before hearing "Daddy, let's wrestle!"  Yesterday I was worn down, but most days I love it more than anything!!  I always imagined that I would have at least one girl, because I'm so girly.  Plus my husband had one sibling, a sister and I had one sibling, a brother, so that's what we were used to.  But now I think it is so nice that to see my boys being brothers!  It's a really unique special bond that they have.  Plus I'm girly enough for our family. 

Chocolate, not poop, although this child did eat a worm once.

Have you noticed a difference between raising boys or girls?
Please note: the writing of this post was interrupted because I heard Chunka up from his nap.  Why? Because he was poopy of course!  Also, please note, spell check does not recognize poopy as a word :b

So tired!

I'm soo tired right now.  I have a whole list that I could write about my day and my kids (one in particular) to explain why I'm so tired, but I'm too tired to write that right now.  So for now I'm going to hope that my 2 1/2 year old stays down for his nap so I can sit down and eat lunch.  Maybe after that, I'll vent some more about my day.  Until then,

To be continued, maybe.

Our version of The Upside Down Show

My 5 year old is all about videos, he watches them on youtube and he's made a few of them himself.  They usually revolve around Thomas the Tank Engine, but for his last video, he wanted to do the Upside Down Show.  If you've seen the Upside Down Show before, you will get it, if you have not, you will not.  Sorry it got cut off, my camera ran out of space!

Our tomato plant

For years I wanted to have a small garden to have the kids help me grow a few veggies. I think it's great for children to have the opportunity to learn about how some food is grown and be involved in the process.

I finally took the leap and put in a raised cedar garden kit, with some help of course.

But truthfully, my father in law came and helped me screw it together.  He even brought over two tomato plants.  I planted two tomato plants that he had (three if you count the teeny tiny one in the middle). As of right now we have five possible tomatoes that may turn out.

The funny thing is neither my husband nor I like plain tomatoes, but both the boys do. So far they've enjoyed watering the plants and checking to see if the tomatoes had grown.

 If you have any gardening advice for me, such as tips on how not to kill all the plants, I'd love to hear from you!

Boys and Mud

What is it with boys (at least my boys) that they love playing in the dirt and mud so much? I'm sure that some little girls also enjoy playing in the mud, but that was not me. I'm a bit of a Girly girl. I don't mind letting my kids getting messy while having fun, but it was more than once that I told them "Don't touch mommy". And you can bet that they went straight in the tub after this!

Happy 4th of July 2011! Kids Activities

 

Picture of Firework taken at Blue Rocks Game

Happy 4th of July everyone!  I hope you have a great day filled with time with family, fun, friends and food!

I haven't decided if I'll be doing some craft activities with the boys today or just chillin', but if you are planning on doing some kids activities centered around the fourth of July, Disney Family Fun has some great ideas under the 4th of July tab.  They have lots of Printables, I printed out the Fireworks Coloring Page, they also have Crafts and cute Recipes.

Have a great Holiday!

Fun ideas for Pool Noodles

Right now there is a "Summer Camp" going on over at Design Dazzle with ideas and projects for summertime fun with the kids.   This week they asked bloggers to submit their ideas for uses for Pool Noodles.  There are so many great ideas!  One of my favorite ideas is making the noodles into a track either for cars or marbles.  I know Beluga would definitely love using it for some train track.  Go to  
Summer Camp 20 Ways to use pool noodles 
to see more great ideas!

Storybook Land- Great Jersey Family Attraction!

My family and I just got back home from our first trip to Storybook Land.  Storybook Land is located in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, pretty close to Atlantic City.  It took us a little less than 1 1/2 hours to get there from my home in Wilmington, Delaware.  If you've never been to Storybook Land before, think of a place like Dutch Wonderland, but a bit smaller without a large water area.  Storybook Land has been around for almost 56 years which is evident by some of the 1950s charm and nostalgic displays they have.

On this trip were me, my mother-in-law, a family friend, my 5 year old son Beluga and my 2 year old son Christopher.  This is a place that was perfect for kids their ages.  Both of my sons were able to go on any ride if they chose to.  Many of the rides, my 2 year old was too little to go on by himself, but was able to go on with an adult, which is perfectly fine. 

Today was a customer appreciation day, which meant that tickets were 25% off.  We were also chosen out of the line to get free cups (that had lids and straws) for our party that we were able to have filled with soda, water or lemonade for free whenever we wanted!  This was a very nice surprise to start our day off with.

The theme of Storybook Land is, of course, nursery rhymes and story books.  When we first got into the area the first thing we saw was the Hickory Dickory Dock, which was a large clock that had a mouse going up and down it.  Now as a grown person you may not be impressed, but my 2 year old, for some reason, was enthralled.  He kept wanting to go back and see this clock and the mouse that is hidden for a minute and then comes back up the clock then down the clock.  He loved it.

The first official ride that we went on was the Railroad train, which is necessary for my train loving Beluga.  This was a great way to see what is around the park when you first get there.  As I mentioned, it's not a large park about 20 acres of cute family fun.  Another thing that Beluga loved was the Alice in Wonderland maze, we had to go through that twice. 

Everyone had a great day and was very satisfied with the trip.  The only part that didn't go well was during lunch we were eating at the Dining Depot and my mother-in-law went up to the counter to get her customer appreciation cup refilled.  The older lady working the counter got an attitude with her and told her "you know, there are other areas where you can get your cup refilled", my MIL explained that we were eating lunch in there, which did not seem to satisfy this worker.  Talk about customer service!  But that was the exception to the rule because every other staff member that we interacted with was very friendly, courteous and seemed to enjoy having the children around having a great time.

Another thing that I enjoyed about Storybook Land is that it was not very crowded.  We went on a Monday, so I'm sure this makes a difference, but we felt very comfortable just taking our time visiting everything at our own pace. We got to the park a little before 10:30 am and left around 2:45.  We could have stayed a bit longer, but we had seen most of the park and the kids were starting to get a bit tired.  There are probably only about 20 rides, but my 5 year old would have been happy riding a couple of them multiple times.

This is a great place for little ones, but if you have a child 10, they might not be thrilled and you may have to take a picture of them because they didn't mind their mother :b  If you do have young children and are looking for something to do for a day trip, you should consider Story Book Land.  It's also good for frugal families because although the price is not cheap at $21.95, it is free for 1 years and under, 25% off all tickets on customer appreciation days and you are welcome to bring your own food and drinks inside and they have a partially covered picnic area available close to bathrooms where we saw many families with coolers.

To find out more, visit Story Book Land

Sidenote: We saw two chipmunks in the park while we were there.  They do have animals there, such as "Mary's Little Lamb", but these guys were not part of the attractions.  I've never actually seen chipmunks in real life, they are so small!

Summer List update coming soon

I can't wait to update everyone on Beluga's Summer List.  So far I believe we have 16 items checked off, not too bad so far.  Yesterday was a good day in that we got to check off three items.  Can you guess what one of them was? :)

Themed Activities- Clouds

I used to work at a Rec & Respite camp every other Saturday for three years.  One of the most difficult and also most enjoyable parts was coming up with themes every week and different activities to go along with the themes that the kids would enjoy.  I'm going to try to post different theme ideas for those who work in camps, after school programs, home school or just want some fun activities to do with their kids.  Our first theme will be Clouds.  You may have to adjust some activities to work for different ages, an 11 year old may not want to pretend to be an airplane going around the clouds :)  Here are some ideas:

Read the book: Little Cloud by Eric Carle


Paint clouds
Jump to touch clouds
Cotton Ball Clouds – Use blue construction paper and have the kids glue cotton balls to make clouds.
          Having   the children pull the cotton balls apart a bit makes the clouds look more realistic. 
Make Clouds out of Shaving Cream onto blue plastic plates
Pretend to be airplanes going around the clouds
Go outside and look for different shapes and pictures in the clouds
Make a cloud wind puppet  Dltk Kids- Weather Crafts
Sing this cloud song (found from Preschool Express)
I’M A LITTLE CLOUD
Tune:  “I’m A Little Teapot” I’m a little cloud, in the sky.
You can find me, way up high.
Sometimes I’m puffy and sometimes stretched out.
I just love to float about.
                                    Jean Warren

Here are some great links for planning your cloud activities
Weather Wiz Kids
Preschool Express
Eric Carle Cloud Activities for the Classroom
DLTK Kids- Crafts  One of my favorite websites for theme ideas!

Bird feeder

My 5 year old, Beluga, had his last day of preschool (sniff) last Friday, so I'm in the mood to start planning summer activities. On Friday I went with my youngest and picked up a bird feeder and some bird seed from our local Home Depot. I couldn't decide which bird feeder I liked best so I just let Chunka pick one out. On Saturday the boys and I went out back to fill the feeder up with seed and hang it.

Unfortunately, I didn't think about what trees we had and all our trees were either to big with branches 10 feet above our house or too small that they couldn't handle the weight of the bird feeder. Beluga wanted to hang it from his swing set, but I convinced him that we could just set it on one of the stumpsmof a tree that we got cut down. Maybe we will be able to figure out a better location during the summer!

Pudding Time

I love that even with all their technology loves- my 2 year old opens apps on my ipad and my 5 year old makes videos for Youtube, my boys still get such a thrill out of simple things like making vanilla pudding :)

Quick Tip: Use Nail Polish to get (most of) Sharpie off Wood

I knew my 2 year old son was being too quiet, when I came into the computer room I saw this:

The culprit:  

A quick google search told me that nail polish remover or Mr. Clean Magic Eraser should do the trick.  This is the desk after the nail polish remover. 

Still not great, but better.  I used the Magic Eraser after the nail polish remover, but it wasn't able to help much more. I'm thinking I might be spray painting this desk eventually.