Bubbles are back

It's a perfect day for blowing bubbles!

Sky

The sky in the midwest is so amazing.

I have lived in a lot of different places. California. Virginia. Colorado. No sky compares to Kansas sky. Sure, maybe it's because it's so flat here that there's nothing to interfere with the sky! But it sure is amazing.

Because my heart is still on vacation

One last shot, then I promise, I'll move on:

I'm so happy we met the nice couple on the beach who took a bunch of pictures of our family. And I hope their pictures turned out as well as ours did!

Worth It

Another reason the 2300 mile drive was so worth it:

Road Trip Tip #1: The Bins

For our 19-hour (give or take) two-day road trip, I tried something new for the kids. I bought these plastic bins from Target and each kid had his/her own bin in the back of the minivan. They were a little on the big side, but the big kids' bins stacked on top of each other in the way-back seat of the van -- the bins sat in between them. Truck had his own bin on the passenger seat beside him.

Here is what I put in them:
For the 8.5 year old boy: trip journal, library books, iPad, iPods, headphones, snack container. My minimalist.
For the 5 year old girl: trip journal, bag of pencils/crayons (to share with big brother), stickers, index cards, envelopes (for writing notes to friends), library books, DVDs, headphones (one DVD player was mounted to the headrest in front of her), snack container. She used it all. Her trip journal is FABULOUS.
For the almost 2 year old boy: three new sets of flash cards (one Elmo, one realistic animals, one Eric Carle animals), two new play phones, a play camera, a baggie full of play jewelry, a comb and a mirror, a couple favorite books (totally uninterested in library books AKA ones he had not read a thousand times), mini Magnadoodle, baby doll with pacifier (pacifier = very important; we spent a lot of time putting it in, taking it out), snack container. Flash cards got A LOT of action, mainly involving handing them to me.

2300 Miles

That's how far we drove for this:

It was worth it!

Erica, Maggie and Emily

Do you have an extra 10 minutes in your day? Well, of course you do. The point of today's post is to give you a suggestion of how to spend it, every once in awhile. When I have a couple minutes, there are several blogs that I love to check in on. The one thing that these blogs all have in common is that they feature a writer that I really enjoy reading. When I read them, it's almost like sitting down for a quick coffee with a friend! I enjoy reading all the blogs on the right hand side of this page (and in fact, I use my blog as much as a glorified bookmark to get to those blogs, and to alert me when they've posted something new as for anything else), so here are some reasons why I like a few of my favorites (and why you should check them out):

Mighty Maggie: Hilarious tales by a mom of three in the Pacific Northwest. Her writing is so from-the-heart and genuine. Her post about picking her oldest one's kindergarten really stuck with me today (especially the part about how she will be taking a picture of herself on her son's first day of school. Always great for a laugh!

The Adventures of Erica: Ultra-honest journey of a L.A.-based was-working, now-stays-at-home mom of one. Technically, the blog is called Polka Dot Hippo, but honestly, that has never really captured what it's about for me. Perhaps because I have a different perspective on hippos (the mutual favorite animal of me and my cousin since we were tots). I digress. I love reading Erica's blog because she is both informative and brutally honest about herself and her life, and she's not afraid to make changes. You never know what will happen next with her.

Not That You Asked: Poignant tales by Emily of her day-to-day with two kiddos. I just love her writing. She always has me laughing away and then WHAM, sucker punch that brings tears to your eyes. She's going through a lot of transition right now, so there's always something interesting around the corner.

I have more bloggers I like to read, including my cousin who had to turn her blog private when she got a new fancypants job, and this has been fun, so maybe I will highlight more of those tomorrow!

But speaking of pants, let me leave you with this conversation:

Me to Truck at breakfast: Take it easy there, Mr. Fussypants. Truck's response: NO NO NO NO FUSSYPANTS. Trucko wearing JEANS.

Heh.