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Showing posts from July, 2014

Good Bye July - HELLO August!

Time for our Monthly Recap - I can't believe another month (and a long one at that) is already history.   We were busy!   The children all needed new backpacks. They last time they had backpacks is when the Cars movie came out...LOL...they love them and have already used them for an overnight at Grammies.   Crafting with our Kiwi Crates has been keeping our Art studies in motion. I started exposing the children to School House Rock and I can't be happier to relive my childhood.  The tunes are still catchy and the children love them!   (say the cartoons are "old" looking...LOL) Always lots of LEGO Learning happening. Molly made this Dragon the other morning.   Shopping with the children is not always the best time...however, we had 1 excursion to the mall to find a suit coat for my son's upcoming wedding (even typing that makes me shake..lol) , so we stopped into the Disney store and Kermit happened to hop up on Z's shoulder. LOL

Happy 10th Birthday Zachary!

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Camping Adventures - July

We have been trying to find different campgrounds to try out. Our "usual" is a Jellystone in the beautiful Hudson Valley of New York.  This time we went a little further Northeast near Albany to a KOA.  I have never been to a KOA and had pretty high expectations.   (that's all I got to say about that....) Besides the "usual" camping fun, s'mores, camp fire and playground fun.... We found some funny moments to capture.... The phone booth was a fun picture and the owner says it rings from time to time...lol.. Oh the stories I could think of if I answer!   We found this BIG DADDY skillet in the camping store - Zachary thought it was hilarious!  They had a cute craft on Saturday - kids decorated a fabric bag to bring back later that night for a Candy Hunt (in the dark) . Fun times.  One of my favorite things to do was hike the camp grounds. They had created a Nature Walking Path around the entire campground.  We were exci

Kiwi Crate - TRY IT FOR FREE!~

We are HUGE Fans of Kiwi Crate.  I am so excited to announce that you can try it now for FREE!  This craft is available for a limited time!  My girls made these and hang them by their bedside. FUN at night time.  Click on the picture above and check it out! This post may contain affiliate or sponsor links. You can see our full disclosure policy at the bottom of this blog page.

July with Mom Mentors and Graham Blanchard

This month is THE best Mom Mentor yet, IMO, at Graham Blanchard.  The team is really putting it all out there with their thoughts on ways to cope with tough days.  Being a mother is a tough and rewarding experience.  Days can be long, tough and wonderful.  I hope you are encouraged and lifted up by the post.  We are all laying it out on the line this month.   Honest, raw - real.  Check it all out at Graham Blanchard.  This post may contain affiliate or sponsor links. You can see our full disclosure policy at the bottom of this blog page.

Healthy Snacking - easy is as easy does!

Snacking is something we all do...whether you snack on carrots or carrot cake, we all snack.  Last year I found out about Naturebox and our snacking habits have changed for the better!   We still have the occasional nacho chip with dip, but mostly we snack on healthy alternatives. Thanks to Naturebox!   What is Naturebox you ask?  Glad to tell you all about it!  Naturebox delivers gourmet snacks to your doorstep every month.  Each monthly supply comes with up to 5 full sized bags of snacks, all of which have been taste tested and approved by a nutritionist.    As I type this post I am snacking on Salt and Pepper Lentil Loops. Oh My Word - these are delicious!   One of my favorite things about these snacks is that I can pick them myself!  OR you can have Naturebox surprise you with their picks.   We try 1 new snack each month, but mostly we stick to the favorites that the children love!  I encourage you to check out Naturebox and see what appeals to you.  They also ha

Our week in nature....a GREAT find!

Before I show you what we have been up to...don't forget to enter the Keep'em Busy giveaway !  The rain finally stopped, not that I am not thankful for the rain, but it dampens our outdoor time.  Once we ventured out to the yard after so much rain, we found lots of activity!   You can't tell by these pictures but there are actually two groundhogs under our shed.  They were fighting earlier and I broke it up. Biting at each other's necks and "screaming".  I felt bad so I ran out and broke it all up. Then I waited a bit and one of the contenders came out for a bit.  We love watching them eat our clover in the yard.  My roses are "reblooming"....wild raspberries are everywhere in our yard and neighborhood...Samantha is leaving a little bath and house for any bugs that need to get out of the sun and looking for some refuge....loving all the wildflowers around right now.  We always have a wide variety of birds at the feeders

Keep 'em Busy Bundle Giveaway

It's that time of the summer when the children might be saying "I am bored".... sigh ...that phrase turns my hair colors!   After sorting through all we HAVE - I decided we HAVE too much!  So we are giving a lot of it away to you!  We have a fun Keep'em Busy Bundle to giveaway!  So much to do...so little time...lol So much we are giving away, I could not fit it into one picture....see all the pictures for ALL you will get if you win! Crafts, games, prizes, stickers, crayons, foam paper, felt, markers, beads, stamps, books on CD and more....over $ 200 in Keep'em Busy Stuff! It's easy to enter using the Rafflecopter widget below: a Rafflecopter giveaway The Sorted Details: This giveaway is sponsored by me....it was purchased by me...it will be mailed by me...it's in no way affiliated with Instagram, Twitter, Blogger, or Google.  Open to US Mailing Addressed only.  Please make sure you leave an ema

What's Happening at The Joys of Home Educating

First the nice, fun, looks like a ball pictures.... At our first minor league game of the season...by this time last year we had already been to three games...we are slipping....we got the tickets for FREE with our 2014/15 season ski passes so the seats were not as good as we usually get, but hey they were free... Last weekend when my mom was here, she purchased Zachary's 10th birthday present (a new bike) and of course Molly lobbied for one also (she really did need one) so she got one (thanks Bubby) however, when we were in Toys r Us, I saw this bike - plain, simple, no gears - old fashion bike (with a nice big seat for my "you know what") . It was on a HUGE clearance (From $119 to $35.99 and I had $ 10 off coupon) SCORE. So I bought myself a bike.   mine did not have the basket with it...but yes it's Hello Kitty 8) This week I was determined to take a ride each morning with the children. My legs are hurting but my heart feels wel

June was a BLURRRR - what we did in pictures

I can't believe it's July already.  June was a complete blurr right now. We traveled a lot and had a chance to fellowship with so many friends that live far away. We started June with our Father's Day Weekend camping trip.   In my usual fashion, I had a theme to the weekend. FOOTBALL .. Since my hubby is a Vikings fan and my "other" hubby (BFF Husband) is an Eagles  fan - we decided to have a SUPERBOWL  theme with both of those teams in it!   (you might call is "fantasy" football...lol) The weather was great and we had a blast, as always! The weekend right after that we saw our BFF's again at my "other hubby's" 35th Birthday - they live 2 hours north of us in Upstate NY.  It was a great weekend filled with parties, slip-n-slides and bonfires. The flowers in the heart stones is in my friend's garden (not same friend as the other three pictures). Love this idea! We left their house to travel ano