Preston Trout Days

Back in May we travelled down to Preston, Minnesota to visit my grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins to enjoy Trout Days.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Preston area it is a beautiful place filled with tons of fun family activities like bike trails, parks, swimming, and you guessed it - trout fishing!! 

We didn't make it down in time for the kids trout fishing event, but we did make it to the kiddie carnival with a LOT of bouncy castles, games and kiddie tractor pull.  Then we watched the parade which sent us along with a ton of candy!  We stayed for dinner with my grandma and my kids had fun at her house exploring all the nooks and crannys and making my grandma smile : ) 

Aunt Sandy and Emma

Logan supervised the candy collection efforts

He had his ears covered pretty much the whole time!

Candy buddies!

The Kraby 6

Grandma Greggie and her great-grandchildren : )

Book Club!

A few months ago I picked up an Easy Bake kit from a garage sale.  This prompted the beginning of "Baking Club" with Lauren and her friend Izzy.  From there, ideas for gardening club, running club, art club, swimming club, movie club and book club came about.  The ideas for laundry club, cleaning club, and dishes club were, of course, met with eye rolls!  Book club sounded like a good way to keep the girls interested in reading in a social way to make reading fun since sometimes it can feel like work (especially during the school year).  Then the busyness of life kept getting in the way, so the idea was put on the back-burner.  The girls, however, refused to let it go.  They kept reminding me, "What about book club?" and "When are we starting book club?" 

I decided that I was going to host book club for them.  I did some Google research on good books for second grade girls and decided on three of them:  Three Stories You Can Read To Your Dog, The Hundred Dresses, and The Seven Treasure Hunts. 

We had the first book club last week and it was so much fun!!  The book Three Stories You Can Read To Your Dog was really below their level of reading, but the girls only had a short amount of time to read it in.  Plus, it was a cute book!  The girls arrived in their pajamas with their favorite stuffed dogs and started playing Scooby Doo Bingo (their idea!).  My wonderful neighbor, Stephanie, did an art project with the girls, which was a self-portrait of them with their dogs glued on cardboard surrounded by a Milk-Bone frame.  It was so adorable and super fun for the girls!  Then we ate lunch:  hot dogs, kibbles and bits (macaroni & cheese), dog bone shaped watermelon and puppy chow.  After lunch we gathered to talk about the book - our favorite story out of the book, the silly things our dogs do, whose voice the book was from, and if we actually read it to our dogs.  The girls were very talkative and responsive and it was clear all of them read the book, which was a relief!  After the book talk, the make-up came out and the girls spent the rest of the time painting nails and so on.

I'd say it was a success! 

I'm excited for the next book club for The Hundred Dresses. : )

You Win Some, You Lose Some....

Lauren and Josh are playing their first season of in-house league soccer this summer.  For those of you well out of the children's sports world, this means they don't travel to other towns, they play other teams from Northfield.  I received an email from the head of the Northfield Soccer Association which addressed sportsmanship and having fun in the league.  The email also included what to do if your team is winning by a lot during any given game and included this message, verbatim: 

So, here are a few tips for slowing down your team if they're bowling the other team over.

1. Make them come all the way back and touch their own goal until the ball is released onto the field.

2. Release the ball so the other team has the advantage.

3. Re strict who can score on your team (only Jamie can score).

4. Everyone on your team must touch the ball before you can score.

5. Can only pass and/or shoot with the non-dominant foot.

6. Parents - stop telling your kids (if they're on the dominant team) to "go get the ball". Let the other team get a feel for the game. Clap when they score, but don't egg them on.

I'm not saying "throw the game" .....just slow your kids down

As a parent, I am extremely unhappy with the message this is sending to my kids.  Aren't kids supposed to try and be the best?  Aren't they supposed to strive to win?  Isn't the point of youth sports to teach competition along with good sportsmanship - winning and losing?  Aren't these items good for practices?  Why should they be implemented in games? 

One of the reasons I choose to enroll my kids in sports because I know they need exercise, but they don't need organized sports to do this.  They spend plenty of time playing tag (everywhere we go!), running to get whatever, and kickball is the staple game in our cul-de-sac.  I'm not really worried that my kids aren't getting enough exercise. 

However, teaching kids about comptetition is an important part of life that gets circumvented because people in general want to make sure everyone feels included and no one feels bad.  I disagree with this.  Competition is important.  When these kids grow up and compete for jobs, the employer is not going to give the job to all the applicants because that way no one feels bad.  What is also important for kids to learn is how to win and how to lose.  Kids need to actually learn this - it doesn't come naturally.  It's important for kids to understand that not everything is fair, not everything makes you feel good, and if you want something, you need to work hard to get it. 

We set this "everyone is a winner" standard and wonder why kids aren't ambitious and have no drive.  When the label of "winner" is automatically handed over without any effort, when would kids ever learn that this is not the case in adulthood?  As teenagers and adults, these kids are emotionally paralyzed because they fear failure.  And why wouldn't they, they've never experienced it and learned to deal with the emotions to go along with it.  Or they just simply expect everything to be handed to them. 

There is something to be said for learning to win and lose graciously.  Again, this does not come naturally.  A kid's first reaction when they win is to point out that the other person lost.  Kids must learn to celebrate their accomplishments without belittling the other person/team.  Kids must learn to learn from their shortcomings when they lose.  It's a part of life that cannot be sugar-coated or skipped over because it's everywhere.  Yes, it hurts us as parents to see our children disappointed or sad because they lost the game.  Acknowledging their feelings and helping them work through these emotions is much more helpful longterm to children than brushing them under a rug or blaming the other team because we don't like to see our kids hurting.
I sincerely hope that my kids always play their best, no matter what and that they learn how to win just as graciously as they lose.  But mostly, I hope they learn that the majority of situations there are winners and losers.  Sometimes they'll be on the winning side and sometimes the losing side.  But what's important is that when they win, they learn what they did to get there and when they lose, they learn what they did to get there.  Life is all about learning.....about themselves and about others.

pool day!

What a great day at the pool!!!  I was so very nervous about taking all four kids to the pool.  The last time I took them to a pool by myself I was fortunate that it was at a friend's house because Joshua had an accident (and not the pleasant kind) and Logan has some sort of allergic reaction to something and was all boogery.  And honestly, I didn't know what I would do with Emma while I was dealing with those two and their out of control bodily functions. 

I really wanted to go to the pool and asked my wonderful neighbor, Stephanie, if she would want to go.  She did (lucky me!) and off we went.  She and her three kids and me and my four - what a crew! 

It went really good!

Three things work in my favor this summer: 

1.  Lauren and Josh know how to swim.  They aren't strong swimmers, but they know how to get to the edge of the pool. 

2.  Logan won't go in the big pool.  Yay for the baby pool!!!

3.  Emma's an awesome baby. 

I felt empowered.  This is a big deal.  Many times I feel stuck because of Emma's feeding/nap schedule and Logan's three year old fireyness.  So this was amazing!!  I know every time won't be this good, but for planning on going for and hour and a half and staying for four hours, I'd say it's a win!!!

tattling vs. reporting

Now that the "honeymoon" of being out of school is over, I have to say that I am so fed-up with tattling.  My neighbor has this sign on her wall in her kitchen and I love it!  Of course hers is much prettier and way more colorful.  I got this picture off of Pinterest.  It's on my list - you know, the list of things to do that you feel good once you cross off, but the list never, ever, ever gets completed?  Yeah, that list. 

The other thing I'm working on with my kids is not to interrupt conversations.  Unless there is an emergency (bleeding, bone sticking out of skin, fire, etc.).  Of course, every single thing that happens in a 6, 5, and 3 year olds world is an emergency, so we're still sorting that one out. 

The joys of parenting : ) 

But I wouldn't trade it for the world! 

organize!

This is my project for this summer - new mudroom lockers for my mudroom/laundry room.  It is a project that will probably take all summer and into the fall, being that there isn't a lot of spare time on my hands.  I have a set of cubbies in there now, but they are too small.  My goal this summer is trying to find ways to keep my life organized because when fall comes and I have a second grader, kindergartener, preschooler and sweet, sweet baby girl, I know that I will need all the help I can get!  Plus, I am hoping to get an office actually outside of my home (gasp!!), which will make my work much more efficient. 

So, wish me luck and feel free to lend any advice my way!! 

R~H~U~B~A~R~B

I have a lot of rhubarb.  We joined a CSA (community shared agriculture) this summer.  We are so happy and I love trying new produce and coming up with new ideas for produce I'm familiar with.  One of those is rhubarb.  Now, I can make a mean strawberry-rhubarb crisp and have a fantastic recipe from my neighbor for rhubarb crisp, but there's only so many crisps one can make.  Today I made Rhubarb Drop Cookies out of my Northfield Montessori cookbook (special thanks to Grandma Rosie for submitting the recipe).  The cookies are really good!!  They taste similar to oatmeal cookies and the kids love them (mine and the neighbors), which is the most important part!

Here is the recipe.  Note: I did not add the optional ingredients because I did not have them! 

2.c all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter
1 c. white sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. raisins (optional)
1/2 c. chopped nuts(optional)
3 tbsp flax seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 375.  Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a bowl.  Set aside.  Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth.  Beat the egg into the butter until completely blended, then stir in rhubarb.  Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated.  Fold in the raisins, nuts, and flax seed;  mixing just enough to evenly combine.  Drop spoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.  Bake in oven until lightly browned, 12-15 minutes.  Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. 

Try them - they're quick, easy and yummy!!