New England Mamas

Summer Fun

School’s out and summer is almost here.  Trying to find the summer camp to fit your kids can be difficult.  Especially if two of the camps they want to attend run the same week!  My girls are doing some sporadic summer camp and other daily activities.  Next week starts our first planned activity of the summer.

Monday, all three girls will be attending Vacation Bible School (VBS).  Ironically, this was their choice, not mine.  A friend runs the program and invited the girls last year.  They attended and have been asking all year when they can go again.  You’d think with going to Catholic school, they’d be sick of religion.  But they love it.  It doesn’t matter what religion you are, you’re more then welcome to attend.  A bonus – there is barely any cost.  Many just ask for a donation.  Check your local churches for some fun activities this summer!

Monday also starts soccer camp.  While the girls will not be attending due to them wanting to go to VBS, I will be there.  One of my responsibilities as soccer VP was acting as a liaison between our soccer league and Challenger Sports.  If your kids are into sports, I highly recommend checking out their website to see if they offer any soccer camps near you.   Our soccer league has used this British soccer company for the past few seasons.  The trainers are highly enthusiastic about the sport and engage the children by introducing the sport in a variety of child friendly ways.   Seriously, check them out!

Monday, I’ll also be hitting the library to sign the girls up for the summer reading program and some craft days.  Einey went once a week for four weeks last year to the library for 1 ½ - 2 hours to make crafts.  She loved it!  This year, I’m signing the girls up for a few craft days, as well as Einey up for some craft days lead by the local girl scouts.  The best part, it’s free!   

Next weekend, Einey is going to one day of Girl Scout camp, or Camporee.  Her troop is not doing an overnight, which is fine by me.  I could send her to a weeklong program at any one of the Girl Scout camps, but there really are not any that are close by.  Plus I’m trying not to do week long programs.  Just enough to give them something to do to break up the monotony of being at home.

The following week, the girls will attend summer camp at their school.  They encourage you to leave their bikes and have a HUGE water slide set up.  Plus there are games and activities and they get to see their friends.   And they are putting in a new playground this week.  They’ve never had one before. Unlike many parents though, I didn’t sign them up for full week sessions, just a few days spread out through out the summer.  There are field trip days as well, but I didn’t send the girls to those.

If your school doesn’t offer summer camp, check your local Rec. department.  They usually offer full day summer programs as well as field trips.  The downside is, at least around here, they are fairly expensive!

Another thing I need to sign them up for is swimming lessons.  We’ve done swimming lessons through the Re. Dept. for the past two years.  The girls have fun and I like that they are learning a life skill.  For us, I feel it’s important that they learn how to swim!  We’ve got our beach passes already and cannot wait for the lake to open for many lazy summer afternoons of swimming.

One program we haven’t checked out, although I know the girls would love, are the week long summer sessions offered by Mad Science.  We’ve been to birthday parties at Mad Science and the girls LOVED them.  Maybe next year!

Another place to look would be your local community college.  The one near our house offers a kid’s academy.  Each week has a theme such as animals, science, cooking, etc.  I’ve heard from friends who have sent their kids that they had a lot of fun.

If being outside is more your style, check out your local Audubon Society.  They offer a variety of activities from guided hikes to summer camps.  Last year, Einey went to their afterschool program once a week.  She really enjoyed learning about nature and   taking hikes.  They looked for frogs, found mice in the bird houses they were cleaning out for the end of winter and looked for salamanders in a stream.

If you can’t find anything through your local Rec. Department, check out your local zoos, aquariums or science centers.  They usually offer a wide variety of summer programs as well, from one day programs to week long summer camps.

So let’s recap, for us, it’s VBS, swim lessons, craft days and school summer camp.  While it may seem like we’re doing a lot, most of these are either only an hour or two a day, once or twice a week or at the end of June and beginning of July.  For most of the summer, it will be widely unscheduled.  The girls want to invade the Cape again this summer and Husband wants to travel to New York – something about exploring caves.  Right now, I don’t know where we’ll end up, except of course, at the playground* and lake.

Now, if I could just convince the local coffee shop to install a playground, we’d be all set!

*The new playground in town is super cool.  Today, we met some school friends (planned and unplanned) for three hours of fun.  This is, apparently, the popular place to be.  This particular playground opened Memorial Day weekend.  It’s a Boundless Playground for kids with and without handicaps.  It’s been four years in the making and was well worth the wait!  We’ve been a few times and at first, it seemed overwhelming.  There are so many more people there than we are used to.  Add into the fact that the play structure tripled in size blocks the line of sight you once had.  But it’s new.  And fun.  And there’s shade to rest in.

Easter- Polish style

  One of the reason I like Easter, is it's one of the few occasions where we pull a big part of Husband's heritage and teach it to the kids.  Christmas and Easter are the two big holidays where we bring true Polish foods to the table.   My mother in-law spends a few days preparing and making Pierogi's like her mother taught her.  It's an old family recipe passed down from her father's family.  From the stories I've been told, he used to make his own Polish meats, the sausages, and kielbasa's  in a smoker he had in his back yard.  Today, we don't have that, so we do the next best thing,  we made one of our infrequent trips to the little Polish Deli in Webster, Massachusetts where we get our much needed supplies for our holiday dinners.  Todays trip, we picked up Easter kielbasa, Chruscik and some type of sweet cookie (it looks like a flat waffle but Husband swears it tastes like a sweet wafer) .

It's hard to find true Polish tasting food around, and this deli is one of the few places that pass Husband's test.  It's hard for me to go alone, I don't know what to buy and I don't speak the language, so reading packages is hard.   I tend to buy things that I know we've gotten in the past.   But I love watching the people and seeing the foods.  The main reason we go early in the week is  to get the food we want.  It's really popular around the holidays and if you wait, they sell out of the foods you want.  For a small store situated in a larger building, it's always busy when we go.

Once a year, we get together and go to a Polish Mass at the church his relatives in Massachusetts go to .  We even thought about sending the kids to the school there so they could learn the language.  But, then we thought about the drive and other options that made this idea not fit our needs.

One day, we hope the girls will pass on these traditions to their children and grand children.  While they may not appreciate the taste of sauerkraut now, hopefully as they grow and change, they will learn to enjoy these as much as Husband does.  Since I'm only Polish by injection (as I'm told) I do not fancy some of the stronger tasting foods, but  I do enjoy the taste of the kielbasa and some of the desserts.   

And so we stick to stories, food and the occasional Polish Mass to introduce the girls to a part of their heritage.

Put a smile on her face

Last week, I gave a new friend a pair of soccer cleats that my kids wore for one season.  They were in like new condition.  Even though Moe has yet to grow into that size, I had two pairs of the same size cleats and didn't need the extra pair.

Today, much to my surprise, I received a really nice thank you card and a gift certificate of thanks to Dunkin Donuts for the cleats.  It was a real nice surprise and definitely put a smile on my face.

It was just a small random act of kindness that I wanted to share.  Does anyone else want to share any small things someone has done to put a small on your face lately?

Winter is for the birds

Winter in New England is anything but predictable. Take this week for instance. Last Thursday, we had high temps of 12 degrees with a wind chill of below zero. Today, the high is supposed to be above 50 degrees! Throw snow and ice into the mix and you weather that's for the birds.

You can imagine then, that when the ground is covered in snow and ice, that it's hard for birds to find food. All the seeds and berries that have fallen to the ground are covered, until it thaws out. If the tree branches are not covered in a sheet of ice, they may be able to find winter berries such as bittersweet, holly or , well winter berry. So in times like this, it's important to provide food for our feathered friends. It could be as little as tossing out some bird seed on top of the snow or installing a bird feeder in your back yard.

At Casa del Whirlwind, we went a little beyond this year. This year, we made a wreath fit for the birds. We started with an ordinary grapevine wreath (found at most craft stores). We wove grasses, bittersweet, seed heads, and other dried floral pieces into the grapevine. Next we strung cranberries, popcorn and cheerios onto strings. We took these strings and wrapped them around the wreath. We took pine cones and wrapped them in a suet mixture and them rolled them in birdseed. We then took the suet mixture and made birdseed cookies which we hung from the wreath with ribbon. We secured some of the loose pieces of flowers with raffia ribbon and then tied a nice big bow (also out of raffia). Once it was competed, we hung it on the fence for the birds to enjoy all winter long. And once the food is gone and spring time comes, the pieces the birds didn't eat - such as the grasses and raffia - will make great nesting materials. The girls also made a second one for their Pepa as a Christmas gift.

It was alot of fun creating such a wonderful item that can be enjoyed by nature as well as by us. The girls really enjoyed making it and now they enjoy peeking out the windows to see the birds (and squirrels) enjoying it. In a few days, we'll go add some more popcorn and pine cone covered pieced. And anytime we have some stale bread (which is often as they never eat the ends) we'll cover with peanut butter and birdseed so our birds will be well fed.

One Crazy Mama...

What do you get when you have 13 kids under the age of 6, 7 dozen sugar cookies, containers of colored frosting and more toppings than you can imagine? Sugar highs to last until Christmas!

Last Friday was parent teacher conference day, so I did what any other crazy adventurous mom would do. I told the kids they could each invite 4 kids from their class over to decorate sugar cookies. We would provide the cookies and frosting if they brought the toppings. We ended up with such a plethora of toppings, I now have a fully restocked topping shelf. We had bags of gumdrops, M&M's, crushed Heath Bar toppings, containers of mini jelly beans, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, crushed peppermint, 3 of Christmas sprinkles, snowflake sprinkles, red and green colored sugar, colored writing icing and sugar holiday shaped cake toppers.

I set up stations at the two tables - cookies, frosting and toppings on each table. Then us moms stepped back and let chaos ensue! Actually aside from Moe who insisted on just piling every conceivable topping on the three slightly frosted cookies on her plate, it went fairly smooth. We had a few incidents of kids trying to lick the frosting off their plastic knives and then dip them back into the frosting, but we were able to stop all that we saw. We had TSO playing in the CD player, coffee in the pot and coffee cheesecake on the stove.

After about 30 minutes to an hour,  for the die hard cookie eaters decorators, the kids retired to the play room*. We moms hung out in the safety of the kitchen and sipped some gingerbread coffee, and talked up school. I started the task of cleaning up, which went easily after dumping the plates in the garbage and stacking the cups and various other topping containers on the counter. Then all that was left was rolling up the vinyl tablecloth and depositing the whole mess into the garbage.

When all was said and done, it was a fairly fun way to spend the morning. What's better than getting hoped up on sugar? Doing it with your friends!

We'll definitely continue the tradition next year (making it our third year).

* If your wondering about the state of the playroom when all the sugar laced children retired to their own homes? It was amazingly clean for that many kids! My three girls do much more damage on a day to day basis! It took the girls (their friends, their responsibility :P) about 5 minutes to have it cleaned.

Disappointment

All eyes were on the sky this weekend.  The weatherman predicted a wintery mess for Sunday night into Monday morning for the state.  1-3 inches of snow, sleet and freezing rain.  The girls periodically peeked out the windows all day yesterday to see if it was snowing yet.  Before bed, Einey remarked "I hope it snows while I'm sleeping". 

This morning we awoke to....

Nothing.   There was slushy ice in the driveway and ice on the cars, but the roads were just wet.  The girls had school (much to their dismay) without even a delay. 

And I have to admit, I was disappointed to.  Even thought I love the one-on-one time with Moe while her sisters are in school, I was looking forward to their first snow day of the year.  Husband is home today and I had visions of pancakes and board games and laughter.

I know the weather can be unpredictable (especially in New England!) but it seems like all winter storms are predicted harsher than reality.  It's great to be prepared.  Now just to teach the girls not to get so excited and wait to see what the weather brings. 

Let's talk turkey...

Now that the turkey has been carved, the pie's devoured and the good china returned to it's cabinet, it's time to talk turkey. This year, we had a turkey dinner three days in a row. It started the Tuesday before Thanksgiving where we had our dinner at home. Wednesday morning, we went to Meenie's school and had a turkey dinner with her class. On Thanksgiving, we went to my in-laws and had a late lunch before Husband went to work where yup, you guessed it, they again had turkey dinner.

Now we only had one dinner at our house, but we had enough leftovers to feed a small army. So what do you do with all that food? We started the first day (Wednesday) by having just regular turkey dinner (again). Thursday we skipped as we ate else where. Friday we graduated to turkey sandwiches. By Saturday, we were getting sick of just turkey. I made up a quick turkey chili (which was delicious btw) that was subsequently devoured. Sunday after church, with threats of mac and cheese with turkey, the girls begged cajoled their grandparents into going over to their house for lunch. It was a smart attempt at avoiding the dreaded turkey for a meal. Guess what Mema and Pepa served? Yup, mac and cheese and turkey. Well that and hamburgers, which two of the girls opted for.

We still have plenty of turkey left and like the girls, I'm starting to get sick of it as well.

Anyone want some turkey?

Jolly Old Elf

Santa has always been a jolly old elf.  An elf who snacks on cookies and milk.  He's fat.  There's no other way to put it. 

There is also no denying that there is an epidemic of obese children in the US.  Most of this is attributed to a sedentary lifestyle and convenience foods or meals on the run.  I know as a parent, I always worry about the girls, despite their pediatrician's assurance that they are "just fine".

The blame was laid upon the public school system.  It was said their were poor choices and not enough fruits and vegetables offered.  Then it was the vending machines in schools.  Kids would forgo buying lunch and consume soft drinks and potato chips.  The parents rallied and the laws (at least in some states) prevailed.  In my home state of CT, there are no longer vending machines allowed in schools.  There are partnerships with local farms to provide fresh fruits and vegetables at the lunch table.

Now the scapegoat seems to be the aforementioned jolly old elf.  Yup that's right, apparently Santa is too fat and needs to be on a diet.  If you go to ABC news and search for "fat Santa" (sorry, I cannot link to the actual video) it comes up with the video.  Apparently Santa is the reason kids are scarfing down double cheeseburgers, bags of fries and extra large shakes.  Who knew?

Personally, I believe that the root of the problem is our busy lifestyles.  We are too busy working and shuttling kids from one activity to another to sit down to a home cooked meal.  Adults are working through dinner and families are apart.  For my family, we try not to schedule activities during dinner time and usually try to sit down together for family meals.   Even when Husband is working nights, I try to resist taking the easy way out and order a pizza.  Instead, I'll throw together a meal and sit down with the girls.  For us, it's a time to talk about the day and to unwind.   The added bonus is we've never had food issues with our kids.  We can take the to restaurants, we can expect them to sit still and above all, they eat the food on their plates.  They don't always like everything but we've never had to make different meals for each child.  They even like the odd foods like spinach and broccoli and cauliflower.  They ask for chili and beans and onions. 

But until such a time comes that people can slow down and eat together, I guess the next best thing is to blame the big guy. 

Testing

Just to test the categories.