The Maryland Zoo

Today we met some friends at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. I received a fabulous end of year gift from my bosses, a family membership to the zoo (and a bottle of wine and Starbucks gift card but who's bragging?). It was our first time there and we had a blast.

FiFi's BFF and her mom and siblings met us there. Her brother is 9 and her sister is 3 and my kids are 10, 9, and 7, so it works out perfect.

Some ducks along the way

B was convinced this goat was fake the entire time. He even was going to touch it's eye, crazy kid! Good thing he didn't. What a patient little goat.

The BFF's in the petting zoo

Giddy-up horsey!

Wyn and A were buddies the entire day, so cute!

Wyn's favorite animal, the giraffe

Wyn even used some of her own money for the special treat of getting up close and personal to feed the giraffe.

It truly was a great day. The weather took a slight break from the unbearable heat and humidity we've been experiencing and it stayed in the low 80's today. There was lots of walking and any time you have 6 kids with you it gets noisy but we had lots of fun. We can't wait to go back and explore more now that we are Maryland Zoo members.

Next Stop American Idol

FiFi is up first, in the red shirt and denim skirt, Wyn is up next in the yellow shirt and jeans, and B is up last in the red polo shirt and black jeans.

Only 5 more years until B can try out ;-)

School's Out For Summer!

We started out our summer break off with a bang today with a trip to the doctor's office (Wyn ended up having a sinus infection), a trip to Toys R Us for B to purchase electronic banking edition Monopoly, and a trip to Target for a return, antibiotics, and a purchase, topped off with lunch from Panera. Oh, I can't wait for the exciting things to come this summer.

In other exciting news all our window air conditioning units are installed (thank you hubby) and our neighbors (kids' friends) just upgraded from a 2 foot to a 4 foot above ground pool. The summer is shaping up well except for a doctor's visit on the first day of break but that is how things happen for me!

Top 10 Things I am Looking Forward to on Summer Break

10. BBQ's.
I love throwing parties, eating yummy food, and hanging out with great people. Summer makes this even easier because we have a great deck and backyard to hang out in too.

9. Organizing my house, selling stuff on Craigslist and ebay, and donating the rest. It seems like so much of this gets pushed aside when I work full-time. Now that I have the next 9 weeks off from work I look forward to trying to get caught up on these things.

8.Scrapbooking
I love scrapbooking but I don't really have the time for it during the year. I also don't have a space in this house to spread out my stuff. In the summer I can spread out in the morning, get a bunch done and still clean up in time for us to eat dinner at the dinning room table.

7. Sewing
I began learning to sew last fall. I took a few classes and completed about 3/4 of a table runner and two place mat project. First step is ordering the broken part for my sewing machine. Sewing may never be my favorite hobby but I would like to learn how to sew more and devote some more time to it.

6. Reading
I love to read. I go through phases where I read a lot and then I won't find much time to read for months. I have at least 10 books at home I want to get through and summer is the perfect time.

5. Sleeping in
I love sleep, probably more than most people. My only real complaint about my job is I have to get up at 5am each morning for work. I am looking forward to being able to sleep in everyday. Even with activities I shouldn't have to get up before 7am. When you are used to getting up at 5am, 7am sounds like heaven. So far the last two days I have woken up slightly after 6am with no alarm. This one is going to take some work and getting used to.

4. Cooking
I know I am a dork but last night as I was browsing through my Food Network magazines trying to meal plan I was so excited that I will have so much more time to try new recipes. I really enjoy cooking and I really enjoy trying new recipes. When I am working I still cook but some nights I am too exhausted to cook so we just have something easy or hubby cooks. Last night I made the most delicious reuben sandwiches, tonight I am making a new talapia recipe, and later this week I am making french toast stuffed with lemon curd and blueberries. Delicious!

3. Blogging
I never have the time I want to devote to my blog and the blog community I would like to. Hopefully I can spend at least some of the extra 40 hours a week I am not working, writing my blog, reading others blogs, and commenting on blogs. I love you ladies. Thanks for sticking with me even when I only get a post or two in a week.

2. Traveling!
I love to travel. The kids and I have a road trip to Virginia and North Carolina planned for next month. We are going to Colorado in August and we are camping for 4 days at Assateague island over labor day weekend.

1. Spending more time with my kids.
I am most excited to spend a ton of time with my kids. I am really blessed to have the great job I have. I follow my kids' school schedule, get Monday's off, and I am home by 4pm each day. School nights still get hectic with kid's activities. Even with no activities between dinner and homework I maybe get to see my kids for 2-3 hours a night. We have lots of free and affordable activities planned, lots of trips, and lots of rest and relaxation planned. I think they are as excited as I am!

What do you have planned for summer? What are you most excited for?

Flower Pot Pen Craft - How To

Friday was the kids' last day of school. I am now the proud mama to a 5th grader, 4th grader, and 2nd grader, yikes! At the end of each year (as well as various times throughout the year) we like to thank the kids teachers for all the hard work they put in. This year I decided to be creative and have the kids make their teachers' gifts. I knew the flower pot pens were easy and affordable to make but I had no idea how affordable and easy.

Flower Pot Pen Craft

Supply List

-Two stems of silk flowers with 5 flowers on each stem

-Green duct tape (at craft store)

-Package of 10 ball point pens

-Terracotta pot

-Paint to match

-Ribbon to match

-Fabric paint (if gift and you want to include a message)

-Gift bag (if gift, at craft store)

-Disposable paint brush

-Paper plate (for paint)

-Scissors

-Beans (bagged, uncooked, I used red beans)

How To

1. Cover work area in newspaper for easy clean up.

2. Pour paint onto paper plate. We started with a half dollar size glob and add more as needed.

3. Use brush to either paint terracotta pot or dip child's hand into paint to make a hand print on the outside of pot. I let my children decide and they all opted to paint the entire pot orange not put their hand print on it.

4. While paint dries cut flowers from stem, approximately 1 inch from flower.

5. Take pens from package and discard pen caps.

6. Tear approximately 1 inch squares of green duct tape and attach flower to top of pen with duct tape. Continue to tape the pen from top until bottom with 1 inch strips of tape so pen appears to be flower stem and not a pen.

7. Once paint dries, add beans to pots.

8. Use fabric paint to add message to pot, if desired. My children wrote messages to their teachers on theirs.

9. Add pens, now flowers, to pot.

10. Add ribbon to pot, if desired.

11. Once completely dry, if a gift, wrap in cellphone bag and close with ribbon.

All three of my children did this nearly independently and enjoyed it. Start to finish this project took less than 1 hour and cost $30 to make three gifts.

Cooking While Camping

I consider myself a decent cook and I have really enjoyed learning how to cook over the past few years. Now that our kids are getting older we have gotten more and more into camping. Cooking while camping can be challenging but it doesn't mean you have to resign yourself to packaged and processed junk food.

Over Memorial Day weekend we went camping and rafting with a group and I volunteered to plan, purchase, and prepare 4 of the meals that weekend (3 meals Sunday and Monday breakfast). It was a bit of work, figuring out the right amount of food to purchase, making sure I didn't have to much or too little, but it worked out great. I was even able to add in a few unique camping menu ideas I wanted to share.

Camping Menu

Sunday

Breakfast - pancakes, scrambled eggs, and coffee

-We had two propane stoves, two griddles, two frying pans, and two adults cooking. We managed to get food for 22 people out in a decent time frame and everyone seemed to enjoy the breakfast. We made the coffee in a percolator on the propane stove. My shopping list for this part of the meal included 1 large box of Bisquick from Costco, 72 eggs (Costco sells two, 18 packs of eggs wrapped together), coffee, half and half, Splenda, butter, and syrup.

Lunch - sandwiches and spinach salad

-This was the day hubby and I rafted and the kids stayed back at camp so everyone made their own sandwiches and I ended up preparing the salad to go with dinner. My shopping list for this part of the meal was 4 loaves of bread, mayo, mustard, sliced ham, sliced turkey, sliced cheese, large bag of spinach (Costco), onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and salad dressing. For the salad, I simply brought a small cutting board, and sliced the onions, tomatoes, and bell peppers and tossed them in a bowl with the spinach.

Dinner - hot dogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, and banana boats

-We cooked our hot dogs over the fire with skewers and sticks. I wanted to make homemade potato salad but ran out of time so the salads were store bought. Banana boats are a yummy s'more dessert alternative that not a lot of people know about. You take a banana, place it on a piece of foil large enough to wrap the banana in, peel still intact, and make one single slice down the peel (and into banana) top to bottom, the peel acts as the "boat" to hold everything together. Stuff Hershey's chocolate squares and mini marshmallows in the sliced peel, directly onto the banana (you can also add peanut butter though I haven't tried it yet). Wrap the banana tightly in the foil and stick the entire foil package into the coals or hot, bottom part of the fire. The banana boats take awhile to cook, depending upon how hot the fire is, about 10 minutes. You know they're done if when you take them out they are squishy. Obviously you need an oven mitt or glove to take the banana out of the fire, as it will be hot. Let the banana boat cool for a few minutes. Once cooled, open the foil, use a fork and dig in. So delicious! Shopping list for dinner, 4 packs of hot dogs, 4 packs of hot dog buns, ketchup, mustard, relish, packaged potato salad, packaged macaroni salad, 15 bananas, 1 package mini marshmallows, 6 Hershey's chocolate bars, foil.

Monday

Breakfast - cereal, granola bars, fruit, and coffee

Monday breakfast was serve yourself except hubby did make coffee on the propane stove on the percolator for everyone. Shopping list: 4 boxes cereal, 3 gallons of milk (some was used for Sunday's breakfast), 3 boxes of granola bars, 2 bags of apples, bananas, grapes, and strawberries.

My biggest challenge was getting all the food along with my family of 5 and our camping gear into our Honda Accord. Needless to say, it did not fit and we were beyond squished. I hope if you have a camping trip planned this summer these ideas can help you with your menu planning. Happy camping and happy cooking!

The Realities of Motherhood

Motherhood is not glamorous, I'll be the first to tell you that, but it is rewarding in ways that are indescribable. I sometimes hear new mother's say how shocked they are by the realities of motherhood, how they never could've imagined how difficult motherhood truly is. This honestly shocks me. I had worked with babies and kids for many years before becoming a mother, I knew how hard it could be. I had many expectations from motherhood but it being easy was not one of them.

I've been a mom for over 10 years now, and almost 11 years from when I found out I was pregnant. There certainly are some days when I think, "man this is hard" or "why won't my children listen to me" or "why do I even bother" but there is nothing else I have ever done in my life that has been so rewarding, so fulfilling, or brought me such joy.

I had bonded with my son while he grew in my belly. I loved him more than anything in this world before he was even born. Once he was placed in my arms, the love and adoration I felt for him was immeasurable. Those first few days at home, I certainly didn't feel duped. Sure it was hard. I was emotional and certain things were very difficult for me, like breastfeeding, but I felt so infinitely blessed to have this beautiful baby to raise.

I had B when I was young so I started adulthood as a mother. I have known nothing other than motherhood. It has defined me as a person yet I have been able to maintain myself as a person separate from being a mother. I sometimes think how different hubby and my life would be if we didn't have kids. We could travel, we could go on dates, we could spend time just with each other, focus on our marriage, but the reality of our situation is if we didn't have kids coming into our marriage we very well may have never met. I probably would've never been on Match.com and he may not have been either. I most likely would've went to law school in California and who knows if hubby would've followed the same career path or not.

Motherhood is not glamorous, it is not easy, it will change you as a person forever, but it is all worth it. Setting realistic expectations for motherhood is key to not becoming overwhelmed with all the changes. There truly is no rush to become a mother (except biologically speaking but there are plenty of first time mothers in their 40's these days). Just make sure you are ready because there is no going back. Strengthen your marriage, travel, go on dates, have fun, advance your career while you don't have your heart pulling you in another direction.

You can still be fun, and hip, and beautiful as a mother. You can still date your hubby and travel. You can still further your career. The only thing that stops you are the limits you put on yourself. I only get one chance at raising my kids, I don't get a "do over" and right now working as a nanny and having the time to spend with my children is much more important than any professional career I could have. There will be time for that in the future, or maybe not. Right now I am happy being me, mother, wife, nanny, and friend. In life people and the connections we make are the only things that matter in the end. I am happy where I am now. I hope other moms and moms-to-be can get there too, find their sense of balance, their own happiness. For all the women out there who aren't moms yet, I'm telling you now, motherhood is more difficult than you could ever imagine, consider yourself forewarned.

Camping at Ohiopyle and Rafting the Lower Yough

We spent Memorial Day weekend camping at Ohiopyle State Park in Pennsylvania and rafting the lower part of the Youghiogheny river (Lower Yough). We camped two of the three nights and there were about 25 people coming and going different days. Some of the people were hubby's co-workers and their friends but there were a lot of new people for us to meet. Everyone was great and we had a fun weekend. Here are some of the highlights:

Rafting was quite the adventure. The weather was perfect and our group was great. Hubby was the our guide. We hit some rapids perfect and others not so much. We have the honor of being the first group of rafters to every have flipped hubby's co-worker's raft. It was an exciting day filled with adventure and fun!

When we stopped for lunch there was this great rock with deep water below where we jumped off. The picture doesn't do it justice but it was a long way down and a lot of fun.

The kids spent their days watching after the dogs. FiFi was in love with this little Jack Russell Terrier, Darwin, and carried him around camp all weekend. We had to watch her when it was time to leave Monday because we all thought she might try to sneak him in our car to take home all for herself.

B's favorite dog was Creole. Creole isn't much of a lap dog but B tried to make him one.

And of course there was lots of goofing around and fun.

On our last day at Ohiopyle we hiked down to Cucumber Falls and let the kids swim in the water fall. The kids had a blast and hubby and I enjoyed the peaceful, beautiful setting.

The whole trip was great, great company, great setting, great food, and great adventures. I can't think of a better way to have spent Memorial Day weekend and I can't wait until we go back and do it again!