Friday Favorites 8.29.14

Friday!
Labor Day weekend is finally here. In my head signifies the close of all things summer, which only makes me want to embrace any and all things fall even more than I already am.

We will be spending the holiday weekend at home, trying to stay cool. Which probably means staying inside, BOO! Unfortunately the summer weather finally decided to kick in just about the same time that the pools closed and school resumed, *deep sigh*. I hope you all have more exciting plans than we do.

Here are this weeks Friday 5!
{ONE} Silver Dollar City Trip
I spent yesterday having fun ,AKA melting, at Silver Dollar City. Meme and Papa wanted to take the girls and they were nice enough to let me tag along to.

 The best part about Silver Dollar City with Papa (besides the quality time with Papa, obviously), he spoils us rotten. I am pretty sure I ate about 2 or 3 days worth of calories in 8 hours. Cinnamon rolls the size of your face, funnel cake, pizza, frozen lemonade and taffy. Who could resist a "little" splurging. I would have been rude to say no, right?!

{TWO} Fall Baking
I spent Wednesday in the kitchen experimenting and playing with a new recipe. I can't give to many details away but it is a super yummy easy to make fall flavored bagel and it will be my next contributor post on Beauty Through Imperfection. 

So excited about this recipe!

I will keep you posted when it publishes in the next couple weeks. 
{THREE} Toothless Grin
I adore this picture. What better way to remember a toothless grin than with an extreme close up. 

And just in case you missed it, I dished the dirt on all of the tooth drama that has been our life lately. 
{FOUR} Inside Out

Anyone?

Embarrassingly enough I seldom take the time to reverse them when and if I finally do notice. 
{FIVE} The Little Old Lady
Fall is on the brain and the other day I just happened to stumble across one of our favorite fall/ Halloween books. Marissa fell in love with this book at Pre-K and it has been a favorite ever since. 

If you don't already own it pick up a copy and make sure to check out these adorable printables that make the story even more fun. We put some contact paper on ours in hopes they would last for a few years. Interactive story time at home, it doesn't get much better than that!
Have a great Labor Day weekend!

The Ugly Truths Of Loosing Teeth

I think some things in parenthood you are just never really 100% prepared to handle. Like the first diaper blow out or the first time your kid gets sick and of course doesn't make it to the toilet. These are the parts of parenthood that you don't think about when dreaming of your future kids. They seldom come with warning and generally don't happen at the most convenient times. Regardless of all of this, they are memories that you don't forget and eventually you may be able to laugh about them.

Recently I have discovered that loosing teeth will have it's own chapter in the parenting duties that I was never prepared for.
Little Miss lost her 3rd tooth this week. Just one week after loosing front tooth #1, #2 was barely hanging on for dear life. After doing some examining we came to the conclusion that it needed to come out to allow her to eat without swallowing it. 
That brings me to share with you the ugly truths we have discovered over our last couple months of loosing teeth.

1) You think you know just how dramatic your child can be and then you learn that you really were mistaken all of these years. Take the current highest level of drama you can remember and multiply it by 3. The process of pulling out a tooth has included levels of Oscar winning drama that I never imagined seeing in our house.

2) Prepare to be emotionally torn. I can sway back and forth between feeling a bit bad for her and trying to help gently guide the tooth out one moment. Seconds later I am completely over the process and just want to yank the tooth out without any notice.... but I can't
 That brings me to my next point.

3) If you have not yet entered the "tooth loosing age" at your house you need to have a sit down pow-wow with the spouse... tonight. Figure out who is the more ruthless one of the two of you and make them the designated tooth puller. If neither is willing then you should implement some sort of system immediately so you are prepared when the day comes.

Other wise you end up like us. He is saying "It's easy, like ripping off a band-aid." I am giving him dirty looks and mumbling "If it's so easy then you do it!" Neither of us have the guts to actually do it quickly and that just results in the whole process being drawn out even more.
4) Bribery will come up. Just like any other behavior related parenting situation promises of candy, t.v., chocolate milk will come pouring out of your mouth before you even realize it. Meme just might offer to chip in some cash if the above isn't enough.

You will be tempted to bribe. If bribing isn't your thing mentally prepare to battle temptation now. 
5) Blood, possibly lots of blood. Which only amplifies point #1.

6) At the end you realized this whole time you were being "had". The tooth is out, the kids is over it and grinning ear to ear. She is more than okay, not emotionally traumatized and possibly sipping on the chocolate milk you bribed her with. Then she prances to her room to add the dollar bills from Meme to her piggy bank stash. 
And you?  Your exhausted and in serious need of a nap, or a drink.

Not at all how I imagined this process going.  Let's see, we now have 3 teeth gone... only 17 more to go.

Sounds "fun" doesn't it?

Well as exhausting and dramatic as it has been in our house lately, we have our share of sweet surprises to. The very next day Marissa counted up all the money in her piggy bank to see how much she had. She was hoping and wishing that just maybe she had enough to buy something special.



Sure enough not counting her pennies she had the exact amount of money she needed so we headed to Wal-Mart where she went straight to the toy section. Picked up an Anna doll and handed it to her sister. 

"Mommy, I want to buy the Anna doll for Emily"

I could have cried. No words to say how proud I was of her at that moment. 

Which just so happened to make all of those ugly little truths worth it.
Oh the memories! 
Not only will I laugh about all of this someday, I will never forget Marissa being so unselfish and such an awesome big sister.

It's The Little Things: Scavenger Hunts

Our weekend camping trip provided the perfect opportunity to cross off the FINAL item on our summer bucket list. I can't believe we actually did the whole list. I had set a Labor Day end goal and we made it with a week to spare.

Our final item was a scavenger hunt. Is there really a better place to do a scavenger hunt than in the middle of the woods? I think not. We brought several lists with us which worked out perfectly. Everyone had a list or two to work on and we were able to give the kids age appropriate hunts.

Marissa and Jonathan started out first.

Marissa quickly got to work studying and memorizing her list.

Then she was off!

 After watching the big kids having fun Emily wanted to join.

And soon she had a friend helping her out.

There HAS to be a bird up there somewhere!

 They ran, played and checked things off their lists for about 15 minutes before they were ready to move on to something else. 

Honestly, I was impressed they lasted that long. 

 And really, they didn't do bad at all!

Just like that our summer bucket list is done!

5 Things I am BAD at...

A few of my blogger friends have done posts in the past dishing out the dirt on what they are bad at. I have found their posts to be hilarious and relate-able After all the best way to get over your "flaws" is to confront them face to face by putting them out there for everyone to see... right?

Well, it's worth a shot.

Here is my list of 5 things that I am bad at:
1. Grammar
This isn't exactly a secret.

Using proper punctuation and correctly enunciating words is a real life struggle for me. Dusty writing skills and Kansas roots are what I cast the blame on. Over the past year I have tried to improve my skills in this department, but I still make some pretty epic mistakes. Is it sad that I really look forward to tackling grammar in homeschool?! It will be a lovely and much needed refresher course.

2. Cooking Poultry

Baking, crock pot, grilling you name it. I am unpredictable.

One day it will be so dry it resembles National Lampoons Christmas dinner. The next meal it is so under cooked you are worried that you may get sick if you eat it. I have tried  using meat thermometers but nothing really seems to help. I never know where to put them in or I melt them on the grill (Oh yes I did). I really just need some sort of thermal scanner that says done or raw. 
3.Whistling & Snapping
Things I just can't do.

Why I can't do either is beyond me but I can't no matter how much I practice. 

4. Cleaning the Bathroom
Specifically the shower.

As and OCD, clean house loving, can't stand a mess kind of gal, I have some pretty dirty showers. I HATE cleaning showers. I will scrub toilets, clean sinks, clean the stove and literally scrub a floor on my hands and knees. But getting me to scrub the shower takes a lot of convincing.

I often worry that company may peek in the shower while they are in the bathroom and judge my cleanliness by my bad shower cleaning skills/habit.
5. The Budget
It isn't that I am bad a making a budget or even staying within a budget.

I am TERRIBLE at keeping up with a budget. I let 2/3 weeks go by and then find myself in panic mode or complaining about the mess I am in and how long it is going to take me to straighten it all back out. You think I would learn, but I don't. In fact what should I really be doing right now instead of writing this blog post?... You guessed it!

There you have it guys. 5 areas where I am far from perfect.  Now it's your turn to air your dirty laundry and give up your secrets.
What are you bad at?

Our First Camping Trip

We are starting our Monday coming off of a weekend high. Spirits are a little down in the Newman house this morning as we try and get back into our school routine and return to all things normal. 
In the spirit of reminiscing let's talk about our amazing weekend a bit...

We went on our first camping trip! 

No, we didn't sleep in a tent, thank God in this heat! We left early Friday evening with our dear friends and we headed south for Beaver Lake in Arkansas.
There was a lot of excitement in the car. The moms drove the crazy kids while the dads enjoyed the silence pulling the trailer. (Aren't we sweet, or demented?!)

Without a trailer to pull and managing 0 bathroom stops (amazing mom victory) we had a little bit of time to let the kids play while we waited for the guys.

It was a very LATE night for 4 kids while we set up camp, but we got things done as fast as we could and put those kids to bed. Would you believe they didn't give us a single problem. We were pretty surprised ourselves.



Side note: A bike, a toddler and a hill are not a great combo. I was taking Emily's helmet to her when she had a run away bike accident. I ran as fast as I could trying to catch her but I failed. She smashed into a (small) tree and was virtually unharmed. I however almost had a heart attack and all of this was in the first 10 minutes of us arriving. If I said I wasn't a bit nervous about the rest of the trip I would be a liar. 
With the kids in bed it was game time. Please tell me that I am not the only person who has never played Phase 10?!

The next morning we hit up the play ground, rode bikes, played cards, found a "pet turtle", ate breakfast and more. They didn't stop going for a second. 

The highlight of the trip was the swimming beach. It was the perfect spot to stay cool in the 99 degree weather. We made a late morning trip, went back to the camp site for lunch and headed back to the swim more that afternoon.

 Four very exhausted friends watching Tom and Jerry waiting on dinner.

And it wouldn't be a camping trip without S'mores!

The kids before bed on our second night. Two thumbs up for camping.

Anna snapped this picture right before we started packing things up in the morning. 4 great friends, with so many fun memories of an awesome weekend spent together. 

So thankful for the relaxing weekend away with great friends. We had an awesome time and I am proud to say our first camping trip was a huge success. Maybe next time we will be brave enough to try tent camping... or maybe not ;).

Would you dare to call yourself a camper?

Oh Hey Friday: Week 6

Oh Hey Friday.  I always feel like I should point, wink and add a "how you doin" after saying that. 
Big weekend plans are brewing here guys. I can't wait to tell you all about them... on Monday ;).
Friday 5
{ONE} A Day Alone

Yesterday I was minus children for almost the entire day. They had spent the night at my parents house with plans of going to a local theme park the next day. (Turns out said theme park happened to be closed so they improvised other plans.) 
I woke up at 6:30. I know some of you are cringing wondering why I would do that. But, compared to my 4:30 days that was sleeping in! Then I did the obvious thing one does when they don't have any kids at home, I went for an 8 mile run. #woot #Iknowimcrazy


 After a desperately needed shower I did some preparing for our exciting weekend, blogged and enjoyed the silence. It was a lovely day. 

{TWO} Toothless

This little lady has a knack for loosing teeth on special days. She lost her first tooth a couple months ago on her 6th birthday and this week she lost her second tooth on our 7th anniversary!

So stinking cute with that toothless grin.
{THREE} Standing In Storms
A friend sent me this on Pinterest and I had to share it.



We all have our unexpected storms that we have gone and will go through. Times that we felt we may just be blown away. So thankful for the anchor I have found in Christ that holds me fast during those times. 
{FOUR} Lesson Plans
Our home school co-op resumes classes on September 5th for the 2014/2015 school year. I reluctantly accepted a position as a high school teacher for the first semester. My class will be an introduction to needle arts AKA I will be teaching beginning crochet skills.
I am so nervous!

But having said that I am very excited to. I spent a chunk of an afternoon this week working on lesson plans and picking out projects to make. That really seemed to help me get a vision and set some goal for the class. I am excited to see how it goes. 
{FIVE} I NEED this

I saw this shirt on Pinterest this week and had two thoughts.

1) Oh my goodness, that shirt is ridiculous

followed by

2) I need it

Have an awesome weekend.

Do something fun, summer is almost over!