Field Day

Today was a field day at school;  literally.  Never mind the fire ant that bit me!  It burned for five minutes at least by the way!  But the girls had a field day;  excuse the pun!

I think focusing our energy on providing our girls with a childhood similar to what hubby and I enjoyed growing up in Africa, is paying off.  I saw it firsthand today.

Did you know that most six year old kids attending this field day have never jumped rope before?  They've never thrown a frisbee or tried to hula hoop either!   Teachers were pointing at our girl Caramel and her hula hoop in awe saying "You should enter her into the school's talent show!  That is amazing!"

It is hard to believe but in this day and age it is pretty common.  Kids never learn to jump rope, roller skate or ride a bike because they are carpooled from swimming practice to taekwondo after school.  There is no time left for potato sack races.

We can be brainwashed into thinking our kids need to be exposed to as many opportunities as possible before reaching a certain age;  or is it more a case of us lavishing things on our kids for not being there as much as we would like to be, or is it because we think we are providing our kids with experiences that are imperative to their overall development?   And what impact do these things have on our children?  I've asked these questions myself while reading this book by Kim John Payne.

Try out a few things in this book.   I did not believe that it will make much of a difference but experienced changes I did not expect.  I learned more about myself than my kids implementing suggestions from this book.

Childhood is precious and fleeting.  We as parents should protect it as fiercely as we protect our children from getting in harms way.

Strawberry Treats

Strawberries.

One of our favorite treats this time of year is strawberry shortcakes.  We even had some for breakfast.

And I tried something different making us some wonderful strawberry jam.  It's a great way to put those berries to use before it goes bad.

Mother's Day Weekend

With fistfuls of flowers they came running inside the house this week.  "Happy Mothers Day, Mommy!"

They make my heart sing every day!

Picking Strawberries

Our winter has been very warm this year and the strawberry season has been in full swing for a few weeks already.  I nonchalantly suggested we go strawberry picking this weekend and I have not even finished my sentence yet, when they jumped to their feet asking insisting we go to the same farm we went to last year.  To be honest there was no room for negotiation.  "Please, please, please, please, please?  Can we pleeeeeeease go to the same farm?"

It made me realize that these random things we decide to do with our children in an effort to teach them more about the world around them, instantly becomes part of who they are.  And without even it being our intention it becomes part of the way we live our lives and the family traditions we relish year after year.

Once we got out of the car I felt a few droplets of soft rain fall on my skin.  "How funny, I thought to myself,  even the weather seems to be the same as last year!  Maybe just a tad more humid!"

We got three cardboard baskets, washed our hands and the girls gave hubby a quick rundown on the how-to's.  "Daddy, don't pick the ones with white or green at the ends!"  He smiled and nodded.  Then we were off to pick strawberries.

 Along the way the girls started talking with two first grade teachers.  They literally followed them around talking their ears off, but these poor ladies reassured us several times with lovely Southern drawls "We don't mind.  Your daughters are so precious!  We love talking to kids!"  And the conversation seemed to be quite entertaining, because I heard them laugh out loud several times!

We all got back to the car, hot and sweaty, but with three cardboard baskets filled to the top with sweet, delicious strawberries.  I was convinced we will never fill up the basket Fudge carried around, because she ate more than she ever placed inside it!   And no matter how many times we warned her she might get a stomach ache (wink, wink) she just gave us the "talk-to-the-hand-people" attitude!

You can really make a day of it visiting this farm as long as you bring a few sandwiches to enjoy at lunch time.  There are so much more to do.  We had some homemade ice cream;  the girls went for a spin around the farm in the cow train; we stopped over at the petting farm where they had the cutest little fuzzy ducklings and (I looked it up!) poults, commonly referred to as "baby turkeys" in our household, along with lots of rabbits, goats, ponies, donkeys and peacocks and finally the girls spent a good amount of time playing in Pappaw's playground.

Building these memories with our girls are now more important than ever to me.  They remember so much more than before and in my humble opinion THESE years are the most wonderful years we recall when reflecting on our own childhoods.  My wish is for them to think about these years with great fondness!

At The Edge of The Ocean

“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in”                 

Rachel Carson

The Disappearance Of the Hermit Crab

I was driving the kids to school yesterday morning when great excitement broke out in the back seat.  They were holding a shell we picked up on Jekyll island, yelling loudly:  "Mommy,  there is a hermit crab inside the shell!"  a billion times.  But I of course wrote it off to their vivid imaginations because after all we did look inside the shell before taking it home to make sure it is unoccupied. 

Every other shell we picked up on Jekyll island had huge hermit crabs inside.  So we neatly put them right back down again.  We even picked up one small little shell and saw a baby crab blown across the sand from under it.  But this shell was empty; so we decided to take it home.

While waiting in carline the afternoon I wanted to check on the shell;  just in case.  I got out of the front seat; opened the back door;  leaned over; opened the console between their seats;  turned the shell over and..............saw a dust covered hermit crab sticking out.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk!   I almost immediately put it back down because I swore something was crawling over my foot and up the side of my leg.  Of course the moment they got inside the car they opened the console and continued studying it;  the difference being I now knew there was a hermit crab inside the shell!

"Mommy, it is moving!"

"Put it down, please!" I demanded while visions of the befuddled crab escaping the confines of the console and scuttling under the driver's seat, never to be found again, swam through my mind.

"We need a habitat for the hermit crab!" said Fudge.

"I will get some sand from the sandbox and figure out the rest once we get home."

"We can "goggle" the internet and see what we need to feed it!" said Caramel.

"Yes, we can GOOGLE the internet and see what we need!" I reiterated, thinking to self the internet did not even exist when I was six years old.

"What about crab food?" Caramel suggested.

"Yeah, crab food will do the trick!"  I said with a smile.

We got sand and a shell together and I went to get the crab from the car.  Once I was holding it over the sand (so I can drop it in a split second if needed) I shook it a little bit just to see if it was alive and the poor, shriveled up little crab fell out of the shell.

The disappearance of the hermit crab came to a solemn and abrupt end!  Any thoughts of adopting another pet evaporated like mist under the sun.  It was replaced with thoughts of the story he had to share with Saint Peter once he arrived at the pearly gates! I think it would've made some best seller list for sure.