New England Mamas

Winter Crafts that are for the birds

Winter can be a great time for bird watching. One way to entice them into your yard it to provide food. There is something beautiful about seeing a bright red cardinal against the snowy white ground.

The easiest way to draw birds into your yard is to provide plants that they can eat and hide in as well as fresh water to drink. Last year, I posted this craft I did with the kids.

Here are a few more that you can do.

Rocking New Years - Kids' Style

Two years ago, we were invited to a friends' house for "A New Year's Eve Kids' Bash."  This event was such a success, that this year will mark the third annual event.  Our friends' graciously open their doors and their home to an average of 11 kids and 10 adults.  They provide the bulk of the food and the activities.  Everyone provides the fun.

All I want for Christmas. . .

. . .is some time alone with my family.  Time that's not consumed by play rehearsals, scouts, cheer leading and basketball games.  I don't want to worry about schoolwork and birthday parties.  Where my husband can step away from the laptop and not worry about studying for a short time. Time where we're not committed to meetings or tied to the computer doing work.

Time spent enjoying each other's company - maybe splashing around at CoCoKeys.  Or camping in Maine.  At a beach house in VA (with our very best friends).  Just anywhere away from home, where the temptations and demands of everyday life tend to take over and get in the way.  It doesn't have to be a long time, just a short time will do.

Wishing you and your family the very best of holidays.

Making new memories at Bright Nights

Growing up, Christmas always meant a visit to Whipple’s Chapel.  Every year.  Whipple’s Chapel was a vast Christmas display of over 6,000 lights in our current hometown.  It featured Macy’s window style displays of Christmas scenes.  Occasionally, a new display was added, but it always remained almost the same.  Run entirely by volunteers, it was a holiday tradition.  I looked forward to visiting with my family and meeting Santa Claus.  For 35 years, people traveled from all over the country to visit.  Father Christmas, Mr. Whipple himself, was there every night, shaking hands and counting visitors, always with a smile on his face.

It's that time of year again

Ahh, December.  The craziest month of the year in my home.  You see, we are fortunate to also have  a December birthday in our home.  Eight years ago, Einey decided to forgo her late January birthday and graced us with her presence on Christmas Day.  So in addition to the normal holiday run-around, I also need to plan and implement a party in there.  Which should be easy, right?  Wrong.

I have to plan around holiday parties.  Basketball season is now officially in gear, so that means Friday nights and weekends are spent in a gymnasium watching youngsters dribble a ball back and forth across the gym.  There is Christmas shopping (which I barely started already.  I think on-line may be the way to go this year).  There's the annual Christmas pageant at school.  And then the holiday parties.  And the kindergarten Christmas show.  There are parent-teacher conferences and IEP's.  Scout meetings and cookie training.   And then, hope and pray that it doesn't snow. 

And that's not even counting what we want to do - things like taking in Christmas shows at the local theater.  Visiting Bright Nights in Springfield, MA.   Breakfast with Santa. 

Ahh December.  Wake me when it's over.

Razzle Dazzle Light Parade

Who doesn’t like a parade?  Have you ever been to a parade at night?  We have!  This Sunday will be the eighth year that our family will attend the “Razzle Dazzle Light Parade” in Putnam, CT.

Weekend wanderings - fall hikes at the Audubon

Hiking is a favorite pastime of our family.  We’ve taken the girls out so much, that they no longer complain when we head out for 4 miles.  Well not much at least.  Most of the time though, we end our hikes in mid to late September.  A combination of the weather and hunting season keep us away until mid March or so.

But this year, we cannot seem to resist the forces of nature aligning and making it perfect hiking weather.  Warm weather, clear skies and no bugs.  Perfect!  And so, we’ve hit the woods as often as we can.  The hunters, well, they’re out there, we can hear them far off, which is a little unsettling.  It is recommended is to blaze orange during hunting  season, we have yet to don our orange vests.  We prefer to blaze bright stinking pink.  We’ve also taken to hiking on private property (such as our local Audubon lands) where hunting is not permitted.  And on Sundays where hunting is also not permitted.  The girls tend to make a lot of noise and we are well aware of our surroundings.

There are many, many places to hike around.  So many, that we are constantly finding new places to hike.  Three years ago, when we started hiking together, we started at our local Audubon society.  We naively thought that there were a few trails back there.  When in fact, they own 1700 acres in a nearby town that is filled with miles of trails.  This week, we explored three different loops on Audubon owned land.  We explored a ravine, walked a boardwalk through a dried up swamp and crossed open meadows.  Check your local Audubon Society or town websites for a list or public lands to hike on to get started. 

 Fall is a great time to hike – hunters aside.  For one thing, there are no bugs.  Nothing makes a person crabbier then hiking in 90 degree heat, 100% humidity and being attacked by thousands of no-see-ems and mosquito’s.  In fall, there are no bugs.  The lack of leaves and foliage give way to further line of sight.  You can see things you’ll miss with all he foliage blocking the way.  There are less brambles and overgrowth.  Swampy terrain is usually drier- thus meaning you won’t lose your shoes when you step knee deep in mud (hey, it’s only happened three times…..)  And the biggest reason is the wild life seems to be more active.  Or maybe more noticeable due to lack of foliage.  Yesterday, we happened upon a young deer dozing just off the edge of the trail in a slightly wooded area.  Einey was fascinated.  Meenie and Moe were spooked as much as the deer- turning tail and running back down the trail.  After we got them to stop, they caught the white end of the deer as it ran further away.  It’s time to get out and enjoy nature!

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?