Time and "Space"

My little guy turned six this year, and as a result, decided himself, that it was time to change to a "big boy" room.  He's had a big boy bed for quite awhile, but alas, "Winnie the Pooh" was still sticking to the walls.  He started removing the border himself (and without our knowledge) in order to get our process under way. 
After many attempts on picking a theme (the best was when he told us he wanted a 'Batman' train-dinosaur room- and I was fretting how I was going to pull that all together), we finally decided on Outer Space. Phew!  Now, that was something we could work with!  So, off came Winnie the Pooh and the gender neutral green walls, and up went the ocean blue paint with orange (yes, I said, orange) trim! 
Getting bed linens was the easy part, but surprisingly, I couldn't find many decor items that I wanted to bring the theme together.  This is still an ongoing process, but we are nearly done.  We did find a really great remote control moon that we hung on the wall and it lights up in stages (quarter, half, or full moon phases), and comes with an educational CD (the teacher in me LOVES this), and J loves the extra bit of light in his room at bedtime. 
Lastly, I was looking to find outlet and lightswitch covers (again, Winnie the Pooh was nixed by J).  After, not finding anything that I really liked, I decided to take some old wallpaper border that my mom had leftover from when my brother was roughly J's age, and I used it as a covering.  Here are the finished products!

Caution! Mommy rant...

If you folllow me on facebook, you will already know my views, but I feel the need to express this further.  It is something I feel very strongly about and am having a hard time trying to make the right "mommy" decision here.  Luckily, I have an extremely supportive husband by my side, willing to back me up on what I want.  The subject....vaccinations.  Let me just say, I am not anti-vaccinations.  I completely understand that our children need them to stay healthy and to ward off horrible, terrible, deadly diseases.  I remind myself of this every time I watch the doctors stick my kids with needles.  However, I think, we, as parents, should have the right to decide on non life-threatening disease vaccinations...such as, the flu vaccine, chicken pox vaccine, etc. 
As a personal choice, I do a delayed vaccination regime.  It can be more "inconvenient" because you need to schedule extra appointments, but in my opinion, I'd rather make two or three trips to the doctor's office than have my precious little ones stuck with 3 or 4 vaccines at a time.  And, now, with the "combo" shots, they can have up to 5 or 6 viruses at one time!  No way, no thank-you. 
These are my kidlets, we get one shot (pardon the pun) to do this right...once it's done, there is no turning back.  So, here's my dilemma....
Our state, as of this year, is requiring all children in Pre-K between the ages of 24-59 months to have 2 rounds of the flu vaccination, if not previously vaccinated against influenza, and one round if they have had it previously.  The state is saying those who do not receive the vaccine, will need to be excluded from school for the entire flu season (January 1-March 31). 
My little missy is a peer model in a wonderful integrated pre-k program.  I have looked into exemption, (medical or religious) and she doesn't "qualify" for it. So, now I'm left with the decision of taking her out for the duration of the flu season.  This is a decision I really didn't want to make.  Part of me feels, that by taking her out, I'm doing what I need to do to keep my right as a parent to make these vaccination decisions.  I will be contacting my Congressperson and the Department of Health to see what, if any, options we may have, but I'm thinking I better start dusting off my old lesson plan books for an at-home pre-school this winter!

Autumn Daze

Okay, so I'm not sure what I was thinking trying to make this a "daily" blog, it's going to be more of a "weekly" blog.  I'm too darn tired at night to think creatively (or at all for that matter), and my munchkins don't leave me much downtime during the days.  I'm sitting here typing away as I try with all my might not to go pick up the tiredly crying little L.  All mommies and daddies know exactly what I'm talking about...that "I'm too tired to actually give it my all cry."  I'm tellin' ya, my kidlets would rebel against naptime to the very end of time. However, they have a stubborn mommy that will go to great lengths to get them the sleep they need.


On to other things...since, time is precious!  We are working on our "fall fun tree" and have had two leaves fall.  We  attended a fall fair (The Big E, of course!), and the kidlets had a fantastic time (as did Corey and I). Little L rode her first carousel and loved every second!  J and K wanted to go on the more daring rides, and it was great fun to see them so excited.  We had lots of cotton candy, pie, and fried dough.  All of the things that go along with a traditional Big E experience.  I am looking forward to many more memories that that one. 

We also made a dinner involving acorn squash from our local farmstand...which was super yummy.  J is eager to make the leaves fall, he loves to take it off the tree and tape it to the bottom. He is a hands-on learner for sure! 


We will be adding more leaves to the ground this coming Columbus Day weekend.  With an extra day to play, there is no telling what may happen at our house! 

Falling Leaves

Here's our "Fall Fun" tree.  J, K, and I thought up some fall fun ideas together. I wrote them down on leaves, color coding them by food, trips, and crafts.

When we do one of the things on the leaves, it will "fall" to the bottom.  J and K helped make the tree and colored in the branches and trunk! 

We are looking forward to our falling leaves :) 
P.S. It's even promoting nutrition!  J asked if we could have squash with our dinner tonight so we could have that leaf come down! 

Happy Autumn, Happy Fall!

Happy autumn to all!  Even with the pouring rain and dismal sky, we can begin to celebrate the vibrant colors of the maple trees turning all around us. As I sit here, finishing my pumpkin coffee (decaf, of course), I am ready to embrace our new season!  With a little detour trip to the pediatrician's office (conveniently next to the "donut shop," as my kid's so nicely call it), I figured we could begin our celebration with Pumpkin Munchkins' and a discussion about the season changing.  Yesterday, we made a list of all the things we'd like to do during this season, and I will share with you when we are done! I got an idea for how to display our hopes for the season from another mom's website I stumbled upon...
http://dinosaursandoctopuses.blogspot.com/2011/09/autumn-bucket-list-80-ideas-and-special.html.   I will be cutting out various colored leaves this evening...

Back to School Open Houses...Opens Creativity and Productivity at Home

Corey and I attended "Parents Only" Open Houses- two nights in a row...one for K's pre-k and one for J's first grade class.  As a former teacher, I completely understand the reasoning for having just the parents. As a mom of three...I grumble at having to find a sitter two nights in a row at the "witching hour" (6:00 p.m.) in our house. 

However, after attending both, it made me come to a wonderful conclusion; back to school nights inspire parents (or at least, this parent) to get more creative in our everyday learning and routines. Walking around the school, without having to corral the kidlets, gave me an opporunity to focus on the awesome projects and behavior models used in school.  I am inspired to use more charts and positive reinforcement and also to remind my kidlets that they need to behave at home the same way they do at school.  It makes everyone's day and night run smoother that way. 

J and K both love their school environment, and as much as I have tried to stay on task as a teacher to them, it's easy to get caught up in the everyday craziness of just running our household.  I have decided that on our autumn equinox, that would be tomorrow...ahem...we will begin a daily project or lesson.  Throwing myself back in to "teacher mode" will be a great way to make our days more productive together, and by productive, I mean - making memories and laughing and learning together! 



J's "All About Me" design (the popsicle sticks are skis)



K's "About Me" project

Finally! It's Begun!

Hi!  I'm Erin.  I'm a stay-at-home mommy to three amazing children, J, K, and Little L. I have been wanting to start a blog since my son, J, was born, six years ago.  But, as all mommies (and daddies) know, our intentions sometimes get away from us when we have so much fun and fascinating new "mommyisms" to explore.  My husband, Corey,  and I wanted a way to remember the every day things that our beautiful children say, accomplish, struggle with, and learn, and it seems this is the best avenue for us.  I hope you enjoy our journey with us.