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Christmas With Kids

I love Christmastime, I always have. But it’s especially fun with little kids! We start all our stuff on Christmas Eve.

First, we go to our New Year’s Eve service at Church. I don’t hear much of the sermon amidst the 3yr old closing herself in the seat, bumping into the people in front of us, and waving to friends two rows back. While she’s at it the 18 month old is eating a small candy cane, dropping the small candy cane on the floor, and feeding the small candy cane to me. I thought he had forgotten about it and decided to eat it so it was out of the way and he suddenly decided that he wanted it back. Not to eat, just to hold in his hands for the remainder of the service. He was quite sticky by the time we got home.

And lit candles at the end of the sermon are a great opportunity for the 3yr old to attempt to catch something on fire until her Daddy blows out the flame. While this is happening the 18 moth old is contriving ways to grab the flame part of my candle (which he never succeeded in doing). I was more than happy to blow out the candles after singing “Silent Night”.

Honestly, the kids weren’t bad considering their ages and that they rarely join us in the sanctuary. But it made for an entertaining evening.

After dinner and “Charley Brown Christmas” we all open one present. This year the kids had picked out these $1 metal ornaments at WalMart that have candy in them for their Christmas Eve present. They’re kind and share the candy with us parents. It’s pretty much the worst candy I’ve ever tasted – I think they forgot the sugar, and all the kids feel the need to share a piece with me! Thanks a lot kiddos…

After they go to bed we set up the geotrax set. This is one of my favorite parts. The kids are always so excited to see the train Christmas morning and it gives me a chance to make breakfast so we can eat before opening presents. While setting this up we watch our favorite Christmas movie, “We’re No Angels”. It’s one of my favorite movies, if you haven’t seen it, you should. Amazon Prime has it on instant stream if you want to check it out.

Thankfully the kids sleep till almost 8. And after playing with the train and eating breakfast it’s 10 before we get around to presents. After presents and the baby’s nap we head over to a relative’s house for lunch and more presents. We carry 1 box of presents out of the house and return with 4 – because we have the only little girls on this side of the family and Frozen is all the rage this year. Well, that and all the giant stuffed animal gifts for the 18 month old. And now you know why I’m constantly cleaning out toys! I’m going to have to go through the kid’s puzzles because I am now out of puzzle storage room. I’ve been putting this off for a while, should be fun tracking down all those tiny pieces and hoping there still some puzzles with all the pieces in one place at one time.

We have loads of new nail polish, puzzles, coloring books, candy, stuffed animals, cars, and other toys. The kids are exhausted when we get home so bedtime is pretty easy, and we parents crash on the couch until bedtime.

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My Favorite Sites

A while back someone asked me to post a list of my favorite sites. Some of these include links that give me stuff if you sign up, other’s don’t offer that option, but either way, I hope you find something that you like! And sign up with my links just in case 🙂

Site with Points for Searching and Shopping:

1. Bing – You earn points for searching. It’s 1 point per 3 searches and a maximum of 30 points per day – or 40 points if you want to install and use the mobile app as well. I like to redeem my points for groupon gift cards and then get some free food with my groupon bucks. Actually, these days, I get free lunches for my husband with my groupon bucks, but either way, it saves us some money and he gets tasty lunches during the week.

2. Swagbucks – Points for searching and a few other things, the search points are random so you may get 20 points or no points, you never know. There’s also surveys, daily polls, and you can click through when you’re shopping online. So, there’s multiple ways to earn points here. I like to redeem my points for Amazon gift cards.

3. My Points – This is another site where you click through when you’re shopping and you get points you can redeem for gift cards. They have a great selection of gift cards on here. Also, Bzz Agent (discussed below) gives you My Points when you interact with brands, so you can earn two ways.

4. Coke Rewards – Collect bottle caps, enter the codes for points you can redeem for merchandise or free cokes. If you’re drinking it anyway you may as well get a few free ones!

5. Kelloggs – If you eat cereal, crackers, or plow through the eggos like my kids do, this is a great way to get some free cereal bowls or other merchandise. Just enter the codes from the inside of the boxes.

Product Review Sites:

1. Pinch Me – They offer a small box of free samples every other week. You have to be on there right when the samples become available to order yours or you won’t get any. These are all sample size and a bit of a hassle to get but if you want to try out interesting products, you can give it a try.

2. Smiley360 – Free products to try and review. They recently updated their website and it’s so much easier to use and they have so many more products available. I’m currently trying out a new Nescafe instant coffee, and I’m waiting on some scented markers to arrive for the kids to test. They seem to have a lot of home stuff like soap and toilet bowl cleaner and other fun things like markers and coffee.

3. Bzz Agent – Free products to try and review. I get lots of food products from here. I just tried a new Sara Lee Pound Cake (the blog review for this is coming soon), and several Kroger $5 off coupons to promo their digital coupons and their community rewards. Plus they do toys – which the kids love, and other products like deodorant, roomba, etc. Usually the products are totally free. (I got a huge discount on my roomba but I did still have to pay something – if you don’t want to pay you just say so and don’t accept the campaign). They offer you a product and you say that yes you’d like to receive it and review it. I’ve been using this site for years and love all the fun products I get to try!

Survey Sites:

1. YouGov – Mostly government related surveys. Usually about 1 survey a week, they have a few decent redemption options.

2. My View – I’ve been using this survey site for a long time. They have a great selection of rewards.

3. Toluna – Surveys mostly, there’s also a few other activities you can do on the site for points to redeem for gift cards.

4. Schlinger & Associates – A few surveys for points. Mostly, these are research studies and they’ll tell you up front what they’re offering you to participate. Sometimes it’s a check and other times it’s a gift card.

5. Pure Profile – Surveys, you redeem for PayPal in $25 increments.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and on Thanksgiving this year I am reminded of all that I have to be grateful for.

My husband: He’s sweet, caring, hardworking, and loves his family. I couldn’t ask for a better man, and I’m very grateful for that. Three kids and almost 9 years in we still don’t mind putting up with each other. We’re actually trying hard this year to spend some time away from the kids – you know, dinner out, a football game, a few movies, stuff like that – with 3 kids we really need some time to talk to each other without little ears being present. Plus, I need some occasional adult time.

My kids: My oldest who laughs at anything remotely funny, or not funny. My middle child who just likes to be sweet and helpful. And my baby who is just constantly a mess – it’s his goal in life, to make a mess and be a mess as often as possible. I’ll probably never find all the marbles to Hungry Hungry Hippo again (I think the hippos actually at them!) or clean without finding a few legos (or walk through the house at night without encountering a few), but when I hear them giggling and playing together, I’ll take the messy house any day of the week.

My family: Where would I be without my family. We’re loud and crazy when we’re all together but we really enjoy some good laughs, good food, and a great time catching up.

My Job: I’m kidding, I don’t have a job, actually I kinda do. Taking care of the kids is quite a job. Plus I freelance web and graphic design from home, with 3 kids this can get exciting and some days I long for a real office, but I get to stay home with my kids and it’s worth the hassle.

Mostly, I’m grateful for those people that God has put into my life, my family and friends. The people who keep me grounded, like me just as I am, and who care about me and are there for me when I need them. That’s a lot to be thankful for.

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My Halloween Porch Light

Me and my porch light just do not agree on how my front porch should be lit for Halloween. We’ve been in our house for 6 years now and I have yet to have my porch light ON for Halloween.

1st Halloween – I’m pretty sure the light worked, but I didn’t even think about it being Halloween. I grew up in a rural area and you really don’t trick or treat when the houses are miles apart. So, I really wasn’t paying attention. Plus I had a 2month old, so I really wasn’t up on things yet anyways. Currently, I live in a neighborhood that’s easy to walk and perfect for trick or treating, so there’s a lot of trick or treaters. Anyways, the first year in my house, I just didn’t think about it. Someone TP’d our pine trees in the front yard that year too. How was I to know this was a popular trick or treating street?

2nd Halloween – My porch light had burnt out the week before, but I hadn’t thought about it last year, and I didn’t think about it this year. However, my father-in-law had picked that night to come over to our house and work on his car in our garage (our garage is easier to see from the street than our front door). To complicate things, he was working with the garage door open and the lights on in the garage so people kept coming to him for candy. He sent them to the front door and luckily I had a basket of random candy on the counter that I grabbed and handed out to trick or treaters. As a side note, my father in law sat at that basket halfway through the evening so I was without a basket after that, and yes, I handed out the squashed candy, I didn’t have anything else!

3rd Halloween – So, I was prepared with candy this year, just in case, but I hadn’t planned to turn the porch light on so I didn’t have a large supply of candy. But, my father-in-law decided AGAIN that this was a good night to work on his car in my garage with the door open – you’d think he would know better by now. And since my porch light didn’t work again (it always goes out sometime in September and I don’t have a ladder tall enough to reach the bulb so I add it to my husband’s to-do list and hope for the best) people were driving him crazy. I offered to just set the basket of candy by the garage door entrance so he didn’t have to keep sending people to the front door, but he didn’t like that idea. So, I apologized to everyone for the porch light being out, and handed out candy at the front door.

4th Halloween – I finally got it figured out! I had my big basket of candy planned, even had fall decorations on the porch. My plan was to turn on the porch light and put the basket of candy on the porch so I didn’t have to keep answering the door. Well…a month before halloween my porch light went out again. And I STILL don’t have a ladder tall enough for me to reach the light, and my husband keeps forgetting, so I have to keep answering the door and pointing out the basket that’s on the outside of the door because no one can see it because there’s no porch light! You know, people come to the door, I say the candy’s on the porch (though, it’s now behind the open door) I have to point it out and they can’t see it because the porch is dark. I quickly gave up and just handed it out at the door.

5th Halloween – I still don’t have a tall enough ladder to reach the light, and it went out again in September. Though, it’s ok, we’re going to a halloween party, I’ll just leave candy on the porch and hope for the best. Well, my husband is home late that night so we end up at home with two disappointed little girls in their halloween costumes, handing out handfuls (instead of one at a time as instructed) of candy to people at the door. I almost ran out of candy! Actually, I did run out of candy, the last couple of people ended up with mini rice crispy treats. Sorry kids!

6th Halloween – This year, I have outwitted the light. I purchased a ladder. I replaced the bulb that burnt out in August this year with one of those bulbs that is supposed to last for years. I have my candy planned out, my bucket, we take the kids to a party the Friday before and they are all excited about handing out candy this year. A week before halloween my light goes out, you know, the bulb that is supposed to last for years. But, I have my ladder, so the day before Halloween (I’m not taking any chances this year, surely a light bulb can last 24 hours!) I climb up there and replace the bulb. Well…apparently, it’s not my bulb, there’s something wrong with the fixture and no light bulb is going to work. So, once again we have a dark porch, and this year the weather is bad so even though there are lots of trick or treaters, they aren’t taking a chance on a dark house so only about 5 people come by, the girls are sad because no one came, and we have LOTS of candy left over!

Next year, I’m going to have the fixture replaced, a new light bulb, and a couple of lanterns, some flashlights, maybe I’ll line the sidewalk with candles or something…

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My “Free Spirited” Child

So, one of my goals this summer was to spend some time getting to know my second born child. She’s what I like to call a “free spirit”. She’s really a sweet child, and tries hard to please, but I feel like we’re constantly fussing at her for things like spilling her water (for the 1,000th time!), stepping on my feet (also for the 1,000th time), dropping her bowl of cheerios on the floor, and so on. All avoidable accidents in my opinion. She’s like that dog on “up” who’s going along great but when he see’s a squirrel everything else is forgotten. Yup, the bowl of cereal is there, and you’re eating it, but you get distracted with a toy or something and bump the cereal off the table with your elbow. I try hard not to be upset because it is an accident, but you’ve got to pay attention to what you’re doing! So, my goal has been to figure out how to connect with her so that we’re enjoying each other more and it’s not just constant frustration.

My first born, I understand, I’m a firstborn and she’s a lot like me. A rule-follower, likes to keep everyone happy, a bit of an over-achiever, and fairly confident that in everything she does, no one can do it better (even if the child standing next to her in ballet class is way better than her).

My second-born on the other hand, is a total mystery. She’s pretty much always in her own little world, very spontaneous, blissfully happy one second and melting down the next, and in general hard to figure out. So, I’ve been paying a lot of attention to her moods. What makes her happy, and what is it that she likes to do. Surprisingly, she’s not actually that difficult to understand, she’s just a lot different than me so I have to consider things from her perspective.

Some interesting things I figured out.

1. A hug goes a long way – if she’s melting down, just sitting out the couch with her for 5 minutes can turn her day into “beautiful bouquets of flowers” – literally, I’m fairly sure this is how she thinks about it. She loves to come in my room early in the morning – sometime between 3am and when we get up, I’m not sure of the exact time because I’m asleep – and just snuggle in bed. She’s always happy on these mornings so I’ve quit trying to send her back to her bed but instead I just make room for her. And it makes sense, as a baby, there were nights she just wanted to sleep lying on my chest on the couch. If she’s upset and I need her to talk to me, just holding her hand while we talk helps her calm down. (now, if I was upset, this would irritate me, so I’m doing the opposite of what I would like)

2. Spontaneity is fun (and does not come naturally to me) – So, she wants to walk through the sanctuary instead of the hall on the way out of Church, it actually doesn’t take any extra time, it’s just not the usual route, we detour through the sanctuary and she skips the rest of the way to the car. Made her day, and honestly only requires that I pay attention and participate in something she considers novel.

Or, why she feels compelled to smush her face agains the screen door EVERY TIME she comes inside is a mystery to me, but I just smile and say hello, she says “hi” and continues on. I’m learning to just roll with it.

3. She loves to accessorize – I like accessories, like small hoop earrings, thin chain necklaces, and bracelets that don’t make noise when I use my hand. She on the other hand, likes to go through my jewelry box and pick out the largest, jangliest necklace she can find and wear it. Currently she’s wearing this bulky gold chain (don’t worry, not real gold) that I never wear because it’s just too large for me. I think she thinks her outfit’s not complete without a little bit of “bling” so I just roll with it. She is pretty cute running around in her princess dress, flip-flops, and mommy’s necklace.

4. She needs her space – being the middle child isn’t easy. Her older sister is constantly telling her what to do, and her little brother is constantly in her space stealing her sippy cup and snacks. Some days she just wanders off to her room alone, I’ll poke my head in and ask if she’s ok and she’s happily playing barbies or ponies by herself and perfectly happy about being alone. She doesn’t want company and I don’t feel compelled to make her join us. She’ll be out in an hour or so when she’s ready to see people again.

5. Praise her when I can – she got a certificate at preschool the other day for ending her day at the top of the behavior chart – the kids start in the middle so you have to be extra helpful to make it to the top – I made sure she remembered to show it to her Dad at supper time and explained to him what it meant. She was super excited to have made it to “pink” at class, plus get the certificate, and get to show it to everyone. It was a good day for her. She really likes to help, so a lot of times I praise the attempt, while she’s helping me clean up the mess. I’ve learned not to fuss at her too much, she already knows that she should have watched where she was going so she wouldn’t make a mess. I try to focus on what she was trying to accomplish and how good she is at helping me clean it up.

6. Let her help – even if it means a mess. Inside, I cringe every time I hand her a glass of water to carry or a plate of food to take to the table. Most of the time she makes it fine, but about 5% of the time she gets distracted on her way from the counter to the table and the water gets dumped or stuff starts rolling off the plate. It’s just a part of childhood and I’ve learned to keep an eye on her and refocus her when she needs it. And, I try to give her mostly mistake-proof jobs. Assigning her the job of giving everyone a fork at dinner is a great job for her. I hand her 5 forks and she distributes them, it’s hard to make a mess with that one.

7. Most importantly of all, just embrace and enjoy her unique personality – It is, after all, how God made her. And the more I stop trying to make her personality conform to mine, the more I see how sweet and fun she really is.

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Did I Brush My Hair Today?

So, we all have those days. Actually, I’d say more than 50% of the time is one of “those mornings”. You know, the morning where you start to get ready, get interrupted, try again, get interrupted again, try again, and somewhere around 2 when you need to run an errand you really can’t remember if you brushed your teeth, washed your face, or brushed your hair, and while you seem to have clothing on, you don’t really remember how that came about.

Like, this morning, I put in a movie for the kids and hopped in the shower, hoping the toddler didn’t notice my absence for a little while. Well, of course, he heard me turn on the shower, so he appeared in the bathroom hot chocolate in one hand, and waffle in the other, crying about my absence before I even had time to get my hair wet. He also felt the need to supervise the entire shower time, lest I somehow disappear from sight while in the shower and am never heard from again. Hmmm…that is tempting…

Or, like two days ago, I got up, and the two littlest were up, so I gave them hot chocolate and turned on their morning show then went back to the bedroom to get ready. I was halfway through changing out of my pjs when one of them appeared in need of breakfast, so I finished dressing and then fixed them breakfast (also had to hunt for my coffee around this point because I couldn’t remember where I’d left it). Once they were eating, I returned to my room and brushed my hair, my oldest woke up at this point and needed an unspecified item for breakfast, so I had to help her look through the fridge and pick out a yogurt. I returned to the bathroom to brush my teeth and in the midst of this little man who had finished his waffle decided to steal his sister’s. Which did not make her happy, so I had to go make another set of waffles, at which point I got distracted on getting schoolwork started for the kids, and a few other things I had to do for the morning (like cleaning the kitchen, picking up toys, checking e-mail, etc.). Baby boy went down for his nap, we finished school, and around noon I decided that since I couldn’t remember washing my face, I should probably go do that, just in time for the toddler to wake up for lunch…

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Why I Circumcised My Son

When I found out I was expecting a boy I decided that I really needed to research circumcision. My husband wanted to have our son circumcised, but I didn’t see the point. Seems like an unnecessary medical procedure to me.

So I did my research, there’s lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of info and articles out there on why to and why not to circumcise. What I concluded after all this reading was that there may possibly be some small medical benefit to being circumcised and there is a small risk of infection or complications after the procedure. So, my online research pretty much left me still undecided. There’s not enough medical benefit for me to be like we have to do this and there’s not enough risk to outweigh the benefit for me to say we can’t do this! My biggest struggle was finding actual factual articles instead of all these opinions written by people who really don’t know anything about the topic.

Now that I was more confused than when I started, I started asking friends who have boys. I didn’t ask “why did you circumcise?”, I asked “did you circumcise, and how hard was it to care for if you did?”. I discovered two things. 1. Almost all of my friends sons were circumcised (at least the ones I asked for advice were). 2. Most of my friends were like me, really didn’t see the importance of this, but, like me, their husband’s really wanted their son’s circumcised, so that’s what they did. Also, baby care after circumcision really wasn’t difficult.

Next, my husband and I had a discussion about this. I expressed my concerns about this being an unnecessary medical procedure and how I didn’t see the point. He felt that there were medical benefits and he wanted his son circumcised. He didn’t see why I had an issue with it. Seems like pretty much all of my friends has similar discussions with their husbands when their first son came along, so this seems to be a guy thing.

My conclusion, this is his son just as much as he is mine, and since he is the father, I think he has a right to make decisions like this in regards to his son (on the flip side, I think I should be allowed to get the girl’s ears pearced whenever I think they’re old enough – but that’s another discussion for another day). Really, I expect my husband to be the primary instructor of my son when it comes to his body, sexuality, and any other boy matters so it’s unreasonable for me to tell him at the beginning of our son’s life that he can’t make our first important decision about our son.

We got our son circumcised. Because I had a home birth he wasn’t circumcised in the hospital. I had to get a referral from my pediatrician. Along this process I discovered some interesting things.

1. It’s primarily women who discuss circumcision and their opinions of it. It’s also primarily women who have a negative view of circumcision – and if they don’t have a negative view, they really have no opinion (like me), very few women are adamant that their sons must be circumcised. My midwife was very opposed to it. I found this to be odd because it is men who are circumcised, not women. Probably men are less likely to discuss such things – and women being the primary caregivers of infants we are the ones who have to care for our sons after they are circumcised, so we have more opinions.

2. Men seem to be much more set in their opinion about circumcision but, they don’t seem to think that it’s a controversial topic. You are or you aren’t, it’s not a big deal. Generally, if they’re circumcised, they want their sons to be. If they’re not, their sons probably are not either. They really care if their boys are or aren’t but they don’t care a bit about whether other friend’s boys are or aren’t.

I have a male Pediatrician (I get along better with male doctors so I purposely picked a male pediatrician for my kids). I brought the baby in for his first infant checkup (2 days old) and the dr asks me in the course of the checkup if I plan to circumcise. I replied “yes”. He said something to the effect of “because we want him to be like daddy” (it wasn’t a condemnation, it was a statement of fact, I said yes, I want my son circumcised, and the Dr assumed that my husband is – and there’s no problem with that), and said that he would set up an appointment for me for a few days after baby boy was a week old (apparently, blood clotting is better after 8 days so waiting until the baby is closer to 2 weeks old is even less risky). There was no, “I think circumcision is a good thing, or I think it’s a bad thing” (it should be noted that immunizations are considered a good thing and to not immunize is bad – so my dr does have opinions), it was simply “he needs to be like his dad”.

In the end, I’m definitely not going to go out and say everyone should or everyone shouldn’t circumcise. But, I do think that it’s a Father’s right to decide. In this day of complaining about Father’s not taking on their responsibilities, why do we as women think that we should be making this decision for our men? It’s obviously a guy thing – has to do with locker rooms, being like daddy, and who knows what else, nothing of which makes sense to me.

When it comes down to it, why did I circumcise my son? The answer is simple. Because that’s what his Daddy wanted.

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Frozen

I’ve had several people say that Frozen is Disney’s best movie since The Lion King (Two-Disc Platinum Edition). I’ve only seen Lion King once and it just wasn’t for me – I think it was all the animals, I like movies better with people. Not that it’s a bad movie, it’s just not something I’ll watch over and over again. I love Frozen though, I’ve probably seen it 10 times since it came out – I don’t love it THAT much, but I have young kids who do and since I like the movie too, we watch it a lot.

Apparently, I’m not alone, because Disney Frozen merchandise is really hard to come by. And, every single one of my kid’s friends knows the songs (even the boys).

But, think about all the movies between Frozen and Lion King, there’s a lot of them. So, what is so great about Frozen?

What appeals to me, is the sacrifice. There’s not a lot of movies these days that show a sister willing to sacrifice her life for her sister. Anna gave up her chance to live when she saved her sister Elsa at the end of the movie. (of course, in true Disney fashion, Anna didn’t die, but the point is, she was willing to, and she showed that with her actions). Also, the love story wasn’t just about being swept off your feet and falling “in love” it was about working through tragedy together. (and, there were no randomly singing chipmunks, skunks, or animals cleaning the houses). Not that I’m against falling in love – but very few people fall in love at first sight and live happily ever after.

Ultimately, I’m all for my kids watching this move over and over and over and over again because I like the story, and I like the “putting others before yourself” concept that it portrays.

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Why I Don’t Have A Van

Husband (to me) “I want you to have the car that you want”. Me to husband, “I WANT a Mini Cooper, but that’s not very practical.”

Now you know how our van shopping is going! My husband remarked the other day that a mini-van seems to be some sort of status symbol among moms, you know, you have one kid and go buy the mini-van as fast as you can because now you’re a mom…or something like that. Hmmm, somehow, I missed the need for that status symbol. I’m still coming to grips with the fact that if I have one more child I will have no choice but to purchase a van.

Currently, I have 3 kids in the back of our SUV (yes, in their carseats). It’s kinda nice, I can reach them to do things like recover dropped flip-flops and share drinks. I know that’s not happening in a van!

So, why don’t I have a van? For starters they’re expensive! We’ve decided on a Honda Odyssey and my goodness, I can pay off my house, or buy a van! Actually, not quite pay off my house, but it’s pretty close. My SUV was nowhere near that expensive.

But really, it comes back to state of mind. I remarked to a friend the other day that I really sympathize with those girls who find themselves with an unwanted/unplanned pregnancy. You see, I didn’t plan my first child, she was a surprise. Now, when I found out I was pregnant, I was in a good position to be pregnant. I was married almost 2yrs, had 3 months of school left so I would definitely finish before the baby arrived, my husband had a good job – I actually wasn’t working at the time but I was getting ready to start hunting for a job for after school was over. My husband was excited, my family was excited, his family was excited. So, suddenly finding myself pregnant shouldn’t have necessarily been that bad.

But, getting pregnant just wasn’t in my plans for a few years. Once I got over the initial shock – actually, that happened at the exact same time that the baby arrived, I was happy to be a mom. And if I had to do it over, I wouldn’t change a thing. I love being a mom! That said, even though I now have 3 kids – once we had one child, why wait to go ahead and have more! Anyways, there just some things I haven’t done. I never joined the Mom’s group at Church – I just couldn’t. And I have not purchased a van. If people ask what I do I don’t say “referee, taxi service, chef, housekeeper, and mom”, I say, “I’m a graphic designer, I play in a band, I sew, etc.”.

Of course, there are some things I have done. I have a mommy blog (but you knew that already). I do all sorts of activities with my kids (just today we were at a kid’s event at the park). When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, my oldest will tell you that she wants to be a mom. But I’ve been holding out on the van. I’m sure I’ll like it once I have it, but what’s the hurry?

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Our First Pagent

A few weeks ago my 5yr old tried out her first pagent. If you’re looking for a pagent, National American Miss (NAM) really wasn’t bad. Everything starts and ends on time – and since I love schedules, this was awesome! Everyone’s polite, the kids are nice, etc. I had read up on some reviews before deciding to actually do this, so I wasn’t expecting “Toddlers and Tiaras”. Overall, the pagent is run professionally.

Most importantly, my 5yr old had fun. She’s already talking about going again next year.

Here’s the thing, it’s about $500 just to enter the pagent, plus you have your hotel and food on top of that. However, if you actually want at chance at winning the pagent, you have to enter all the “extra” activities, so the total pagent cost is closer to $1,000 just to enter. The winner does get a modeling contract, so this kind of makes sense. They say all over the place that the extra activities are not required to win, but really, there wasn’t a single girl up there in the “queen’s court” who hadn’t done every single extra activity. So, if you’re going to go, you kinda have to do it all.

Then, you add outfits on top of all this, and things start really getting expensive! They do do a professional photo shoot in the girl’s formal gowns, which is really nice (of course that’s extra).

It was a little tough having the younger kids along – really just the 1yr old was tough, the 3yr old would have had way more fun if I wasn’t keeping up with the 1yr old the whole time. If we do it again I may have to figure something else out for the little kids.

My opinion, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought, I’m glad my 5yr old enjoyed it, I’m not sure if we’re doing it again, I’m going to have to think some more about that. The thing is, if you want to win, you really do have to focus some more on modeling and acting and I have to decide if that’s a route we’re willing to let our girls pursue.