Mommin' It Up!

August 11, 2011August 25, 2011

Making Back-to-School Fun

For families with kids, nothing marks the passing of time quite like the first day of school. I’d say it’s even more momentous than New Year’s Eve, and not only because I’m actually awake. It’s a big part of our kids’ identities… for a year, a first- or second- or third- grader is what they are.

Going back to school requires a lot of preparation – shopping for school supplies, getting new clothes and shoes – and it’s also a big shift in routine. I know it’s going to take our family some time to adjust to using our evenings just to prepare for the next day. There will be lunches to pack and clothes to lay out and baths to give… and we’re all going to have to start going to bed a lot earlier!

In other words – back to school is a big deal!

And things that are a big deal for my kids tend to bring out the obsessive compulsive side of my personality (which is typically so buried beneath the surface, right? *ahem*), so of course I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time lately thinking about how to make the first day special, and to make it fun.

And by “thinking about,” I mean “googling.”

I’ve discovered all sort of fun things other (more organized, crafty, or thoughtful) people do to create BTS traditions for their kids. The obvious being, of course, the requisite first-day-of-school picture.

I ran across an article on RocketCityMom.com with a number of suggestions for creative ways to do the pictures. One idea was to add text to a photo that says the kid’s age and grade, and a few of their favorite things. I really like that one. I also like this idea, which I completely ripped off of that post:

Cute, huh?

Besides the picture, though, there are a million was to celebrate the first day back to school. A treat in their lunch, a trip to the playground after school, letting the school kid decide what to have for dinner… the list goes on.

So tell me, how do you and your family make back to school fun?

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Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Country Crock via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Country Crock.

August 9, 2011

Big Boy

On Sunday, Sam woke up and declared he wanted a big boy bed. I knew this day was coming (he is nearly three and a half, for heaven’s sake), but I was trying to put it off as long as possible. I like having that kid caged up!

But, since he had decided he was ready, I wanted to move on it. His crib is one of those that theoretically makes a toddler bed and then a double bed, and for some reason I had in my mind that make the conversion was going to require serious deconstruction and reconstruction of the whole thing. As it turns out, the “toddler bed” is the crib minus one side. The directions said to remove two screws. Even I could handle that. So, Sunday evening, we got him all set up.

He was so excited.

(Shout out to my good friend Beth and her son for the sweet bedding!)

I, however, was a bit sad. He is my baby. And he’s not sleeping in a crib anymore. Which would lead to the inevitable conclusion that he is not in fact a baby, but I refuse to acknowledge that.

He’s my baby.

Sunday night, after we had read books and said prayers and sang lullabyes and rocked for an extra long time, I carried him over and laid him in his big boy bed.

In his sweet, almost-asleep voice, he whispered to me, “I still need you, Mama.”

Oh, my heart.

August 5, 2011

Weird Weekend

This weekend, our family is going to be flung all over the midwest.

Kate’s spending the weekend with Aunt Anna at church camp. Anna wants to indoctrinate these kids into camp at an early age! I am really excited for them both and I know they’re going to have a great time. I can only hope Kate comes back from camp with a pine tree tattooed on her back like Anna did one summer.

Andy and my dad are spending the weekend in Chicago, on their annual baseball weekend trip. I can only hope they don’t come back with anything tattooed anywhere.

So, that means I get to spend the weekend with this guy.

And I am pretty excited about it.

I’ve been trying to think up fun things we could do, just the two of us. All Sam has requested is that we go to “Chick-a-lay.” I’m thinking we may stop at Cosi – I loved it as a kid but haven’t been for many years. I’ve never really taken Sam anywhere like that, just the two of us, and I think it would be fun. Besides – we’re going to need to do something to break up the 5-hour car ride we’ve got in store with us that day! I think we might go to the zoo on Sunday, as well.

Either that, or we’ll stay home and play super heroes. Regardless, opportunities like this don’t come along very often, and whether he’ll remember a weekend with his mom to himself years from now, I know I will.