Unforgettable Childhood

We are moving into our new home.

Trying to get settled into our new town.

Enjoying the final days of summer.

Lots of plans in the works for Unforgettable Childhood.

You can join the party fun on this site, or over at SnazL.com. Don’t forget 3pm EST today!

Want to win a prize pack of books for your family? Stop by and chat with us.

I am so excited to chat with all of you tomorrow at my SnazL party. I wanted to share with you a few things ahead of time that you can look forward to at the party.

Healthy Snack alternatives from WAT-AAH!

Are you wondering which activities you should involve your children in? Check out this new book from Ann Kroeker.

Are you interested in a new way to communicate with your children’s teachers?

Aparna Vashisht-Rota, the founding Mom of Parentella.com will be sharing a great way to get involved in your child’s education. Below she shares her tips for Back to School. Come to the party and you can chat with Aparna.

It is back to school time! My son starts middle school tomorrow. We went shopping as he has outgrown his clothes, shoes, and backpack. He was very patient while we picked out his clothes and shoes.

He is really excited to go back to school and meet his friends and get back into the routine. It reminds me of my own eagerness and anticipation for a new school year. I used to love the new school year, so much excitement, new books, new notebooks, pencils, etc. I really enjoyed it.

As happy as I am for my son to embark on a new transition, I also feel sad. He is no longer a baby. He is older but I am also happy that he is grown into such a wonderful, loving, and kind person. I am very proud of him. I have heard that as they get older, it gets a little bit harder. I really want to get to know the other parents and make sure that the transition is as smooth as possible.

I am going to connect with other parents on Parentella. Parental involvement is the most important thing in a child’s education. You’d have thought it is the latest and the greatest but it boils down to parents being involved. Parentella is one such tool that helps parents stay connected, informed, involved, and on top of it.

10 reasons I am going to be on Parentella:

1. It is free.

2. It is only for parents and teachers.

3. It is private, safe, and secure.

4. It is simple, easy to use, site.

5. It allows busy moms to keep all information regarding the kids in one place. I am so done reading through the stack of paper they send us! If we are all online, it is money saved for school as no more paper is needed.

6. Parentella sends you automated reminders for events, never forget the movie night again!

7. Ask other parents that difficult question in Algebra. One time, my son got homework and it was tough! I wasn’t sure really what we were supposed to do and I’d have loved to ask another parent.

8. Get context rich information! Ask a mom in your child’s class regarding videogames, allowance, cellphone usage, etc. We are in it together, so might as well help each other.

9. You can archive information for the entire year when you leave the class to join the next grade, you still have access to the information. All the content you created, stays with you.

10. Organize online signups for potlucks, book fairs, staff luncheon, class parties.

Get Parentella, get involved. It is a MUST HAVE for back to school.

This post is written by Aparna Vashisht-Rota, the founding Mom of Parentella.com. Thank you for reading this post and please feel free to write her at aparna (at) parentella dot com.

Well, we survived our trip to Hobby Lobby yesterday. . .barely. Our trip did not start out very well at all, it went from bad to worse. I ran around trying to get out of town so we could get home at a decent hour.

We had just left our house and my middle daughter said to me, “mom, why are you in such a hurry?”

Of course, just as the words came out of her mouth I saw the police officer. Sitting in his car just waiting for someone like me to drive down the street. I was going 30 in a 20 (not sure why that road is only 20 mph). So my goal was to be really careful about how much money I spent yesterday. . .well I spent $70 on a speeding ticket before I even got out of town.

We finally got out of town, no road construction on the bridge, this trip was going to be just fine.

Then I hear those dreaded words from my middle child, “Mom I think I am going to throw up.”

I had her move to the front seat and I blew cold air at her. I told her to close her eyes. I tried everything I could think of. I should have just pulled over to the side of the road. Unfortunately on this drive through Nowhereland, there is not really any shoulders along the road. In fact, there is a lot of really tall grass. And with really tall grass in the Dakotas, by the river, is also, rattlesnakes. Especially this year with our high water levels. So, I didn’t want to pull over. I should have pulled over. I looked over to her and she threw up. All over herself. Yuck. No extra clothes, no wet ones. Just a few napkins. Yikes.

We found an approach and I got her cleaned up as best I could. The seat and her hands got a majority of the throw up so her clothes were not as bad as they could have been.

We were getting close to town now and I thought we were going to get to the store, I would run in and get a new outfit for her and then we could start our shopping trip.

Then I hear the second most dreaded words in the car from my youngest, “Mommy, I have to go potty.”

Are you kidding me. We still have this tall grass/rattlesnake issue. Only now we are about 15 miles from town. I plead with her to hold it and I will take her to the first gas station I see. We got about 5 miles from town and she said, “I’m going.”

Crap. So now I have puke and pee soaked clothes, no extra outfits, no wet ones and I wanted to cry.

The only thing I could do is drive as fast as I could to the nearest Kohl’s and find some new outfits. Of course, as soon as we got to the store my littlest said, “I have to go potty again.” Well, I could not take her into the store with her wet pants so I made my middle child give her shorts to the littlest. Before we got out of the car my middle child said, “Get me something cute, you know I am picky.”

We ran into the store as fast as we could. She was holding the shorts on because they were three sizes too big.We got everyone outfitted in cute clothes and I decided we were eating lunch at my favorite spot. No McDonalds today, I deserved a big bowl of pasta.

We did get back home safely. We did salvage the trip and have fun after all. Next time I head out of town, I am going on a Saturday and leaving the kids home with their dad!

I would love to blog about how organized I am as a mother. . .but I can’t. I have millions of ideas running crazy in my head, but there is not a lot of organization up there to get all of those ideas accomplished.

This summer when I was looking for idea books for our summer of fun I came across a book called, The Family Manager’s Guide to Summer Survival by Kathy Peel. I decided I needed to add it to my cart at Amazon and see how I am going to survive this summer.

I am so pleased that I got this book. There are tons of really great ideas. That is a bonus. The best part of the book for me was the section with the Summertime Development Chart. She encourages you and your spouse to come up with some goals for each child. She bases these goals on Luke 2:52. She says, “Luke 2:52 says that when Jesus was a young boy, he grew in wisdom (intellectually), stature (physically), favor with God (spiritually), and favor with man (socially). So you set four goals for each of your children based on these four concepts.

I think this is a great idea. I do not want to over organize my kids’ free time, but they do need a little guidance. For example, my middle daughter is learning how to read and we really need to keep working with her this summer. Her intellectual goal will be to improve her reading skills.

I am so excited to sit down and make some plans, but I wanted to share this awesome find. I will share more after I have some time to develop my charts.

Have a great Thursday!

Yesterday I had my first experience of being the mom of a kid that was bullied. I sent my little (8 year old) to softball practice. She is old enough this year that she practices with 8-12 year old girls. My oldest is a little athlete, but she is only 8. This is her first year out of t-ball into the “bigger” kids league.

She had her first practice of the summer and it was horrible. The softball field is across the street from my house so she went over on her bike. There was about 15 minutes left when she walked in the door. I could tell something was wrong. She burst into tears and said that a couple of girls were being mean to her.

She said she missed catching a couple of balls and they started saying stuff to her, and they wouldn’t drop it. Oh, my mama bear instinct came out. I kept myself from marching over there to give the girls and coaches a little piece of my mind. She calmed down and was fine, but I was still so mad.

I am a parent that believes that sports can really teach my children some valuable life lessons, if they are done correctly. Sports can give children the opportunity to build confidence and be healthy. I believe that some competition as children is good for them. However, I also believe that if they have bad experiences as young children with sports, it can ruin their experience with sports for life.

My hubby and I love going over to the ball field with our girls to throw the ball around and help them learn the game. I wanted to share a few pictures of our last trip over to the field.

The oldest gets a little bored waiting for her sisters to actually hit the ball. . .

The baby was mad because we were giving her older sisters a little too much attention. Oh well, she was still having fun.

Our middle girl is learning to hit the ball without the tee.