Unforgettable Childhood

I made a list today of all of the amazing things I want to do with this blog.

I have good intentions, but moving and summer put together have put a hold on all of those good intentions.

As we get settled in, I hope to post on a regular schedule with all of the fun activities we have on our agenda. We are working on writing right now and this weekend we are off exploring. In the next couple of weeks we hope to visit DeSmet, South Dakota. One of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s childhood homes.

But for now, I am joining in for New Friend Friday with a few pictures of our summer fun.

I hope to see you back here at Unforgettable Childhood. The purpose of this blog was to spend quality time with my girls, creating, exploring and learning.

With the busyness of our culture today we have to be intentional with our kids. We have to take back our family time from society. We have to teach them to use their imaginations. We have to be purposeful in limiting technology time and encourage active, outdoor time.

I can’t wait to share my ideas with you in the next few weeks, but right now the sun is shining in South Dakota and we are off to play.

One of my girls favorite treats is Peanut Butter Balls. They are so easy to make and they are yummy!

I was first introduced to this recipe when I was in 1st Grade. There are three ingredients so each of them has something to pour into the bowl.

• 1 cup of Peanut Butter
• 1 cup of Honey
• 1 1/2 cups of Powdered Milk

Mix them together until combined and then everybody gets to get messy and roll the mixture into balls.

They just need to be put into the fridge for an hour and they are ready to eat.

This is a great snack for an afternoon treat!

I am joining the fun of New Friend Friday! If you are a New Friend stopping by today!

Welcome to Unforgettable Childhood!

My girls love to read, but summer is always a little tough. I always find that the best thing to do is find books that they really love. I thought that I would share a few of the books that are on our shelf this summer.

My nine year old found a new series that she loves by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor that is a Boy/Girl Battle.

And she has read the new Camp Club Girls books from Barbour Books. These are great books with new ones being released every couple of months.

My middle daughter really wants to read chapter books only so we have been searching for books appropriate for her age and reading level. Of course, she loves Junie B. Jones, but she wanted to read something different this summer.

After a trip to the library and our recent trip to Disney World she found the Tales from Pixie Hollow books all about the Disney Fairies. They seem to be right at her level and she can read a chapter in about 15 minutes.

My four year old has been all over the place this summer. She loves a little bit of everything. It doesn’t take any convincing to get her to read. She won’t go to bed at night without books. I will share more from her reading list after I compile some of her favorites.

What are your kids reading this summer? How do you motivate them to read?

Last week we took advantage of one of our last days on the front porch. We decided to have a little picnic. Nothing fancy, just Mac and Cheese on a blanket in paper bowls.

After we finished eating I gave each of the younger girls (the oldest was away at Bible Camp), a folder, paper and some new markers to create a prayer journal.

As a family we have a lot of answered prayers to praise God for and requests that we continue to pray for. A couple of years ago I started a prayer journal myself using the book Praying in Color by Sybil MacBeth.

She now has a new book specifically for kids, but I do not have a copy of this book yet.

This is a great exercise in prayer to do with your kids. We had so much fun creating the pictures and talking about prayer.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

How do you focus on prayer with your kids?

I just checked out a cool new promotional site for Rayovac. They are hosting a summer promotion to win cool prizes every day. All you have to do is go here and answer their questions of the day for a chance to win.

Today’s question is all about your camping style. You know. . . we don’t exactly rough it with our camper, but we love to get outside and really enjoy the outdoors. We just love to have a place to go when a storm hits

I am excited to be a part of this promotion, who doesn’t love cool prizes. Make sure you visit their site every day for a chance to win.

Also on Wednesday, June 30th Janice and Susan from 5 Minutes for Mom will be hosting a Rayovac Twitter Party!

Date: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Time: 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. CST
Location: #rayovac
Follow: @Rayovac_Battery, @5minutesformom, @CirclePRMary

You can also “Like” Rayovac on Facebook to learn more details.

I hope to tweet with you on Wednesday, June 30th.

I hope I win some of the cool prizes, how about you?

The first 99 bloggers to promote the Rayovac Powers Your Summer Twitter Event won a prize package from Rayovac

I couldn’t start the summer posts without a few from our trip. It was an amazing time for our family. We shared lots of laughs and a few tears. We learned quickly that meltdown was going to happen at about 3pm each day. We worked through it, took a break and kept going to we all dropped.

Disney World truly is a place that every family needs to experience at least once.

We started our second day bright and early at Sea World. We all loved it!

Next stop, Animal Kingdom. I think we voted this as one of our favorite parks of the trip.

Magic Kingdom with three girls under 10, truly a magical place!

We were glad we decided to go to Disney Hollywood Studios. Playhouse Disney was a hit for Nadia and the Rockin’ Roller Coaster was the older girls favorite ride.

Our last Disney day would not have been complete without a visit with Daisy Duck. The girls were on the lookout for her all week. Thankfully she was right past the gate when we arrived so the girls got her signature and they felt their autograph books were complete.

We also enjoyed a little time at the beach. After two days of sun, we spent the third day near the pool and a few beach umbrellas.

Now we are at Grandma and Grandpa’s and summer is in full swing with reading, gymnastics and softball. I am wishing that I had rainy day kits ready to go because the days have been filled with a lot of rain!

We have spent a lot of time inside reading. My girls love to read. I can’t wait to share more about their favorite finds so far this summer.

Before we headed on vacation we received an awesome package from Patch Products. It had their new 3D Sneaky Puzzle Singin’ Sea Creatures.

We love puzzles in our house and super big ones that come with 3D glasses, how cool is that?

My four year old did the puzzle twice in a row as soon as I took it out of the box. I don’t think you are supposed to actually put the puzzle together while wearing the glasses, but she thought the glasses were really neat.

The quality of this puzzle was great. They are nice big, thick pieces and the picture is really colorful and bold. The bonus. . .the entire alphabet and numbers 0-9 are hidden in the puzzle. We had a lot of fun finding everything that was hidden in the picture.

I helped her with the outside pieces, but she did a great job putting in all of the center pieces.

A few days ago we pulled out the puzzle again to do with her sisters and grandma. It was just as much fun and challenging this time.

I am so excited to buy this puzzle as a gift. If your family loves puzzles, this is a great step up from the little 50 piece puzzles. I was flipping through the Patch Product catalog and they have more Sneaky Puzzles that we can’t wait to try.

They have puzzles the same size as this one that are 2-sided for twice the fun.

Patch Products is letting me giveaway this awesome floor puzzle. All you have to do is go to their site and let me know one other product that your family would love to try. The giveaway will run through Thursday, June 17th at midnight. I will announce the winner on Friday.