August Photo A Day part 2

I forgot to post my week's photos on Saturday!

Day 3: "S" is for {Silence, snuggles, silly faces, surprise smiles, superheroes and shopping}

 

 

Day 4: In the Middle {of the day and the sky}

Day 5: Pile

Day 6: Grateful for...

Day 7: Spot {on the iguana's cheek} (Added bonus: Throwback Thursday to circa 2002)

Day 8: Pet Peeve {she takes things off while walking around and just leaves it where it's dropped.}

Day 9: Mix {a new-to-us local donut shop has wonderful varieties}

End of Summer Update

I have been avoiding writing about this because I had no idea how things would end up. I've been in limbo for the summer.

My contract with the school district was not going to be renewed this year so I resigned. I put applications out and I was interviewed but due to circumstances, I was not hired. My family and I made the decision to apply for unemployment. This means that I will be staying home with Ivy and teaching her and taking care of things at home. Things will be tight this year but I've lived like this before and I know I can make it work.

I am really excited to teach Ivy. I have a lot of plans and if you follow me on Pinterest, you've seen a lot of my pins about preschool education. I have so many ideas and plans and we are both pretty excited.

This will also mean I am going to be really ramping up my menu planning and home organization. Get ready for more recipes, couponing, and cleaning tips and just fun stuff in general.

August Photo Challenge

I participated in a photo-a-day on Instagram in December. I thought I'd do it again. It seems as though this person does this every month. 

I will post my week's worth of photos on Saturday every week. 

1. Landscape

This was from grapevine heritage park. We too Ivy on a small adventure yesterday to a local learning farm. The park was just down the street. She enjoyed the scenery. 

2. Lunch

This is just tragic. I'm feeding myself like Ivy should be eating. Technically we are trying to eat what we have at home. Milk, banana and strawberry coins, fish nuggets, and a string cheese. 

I hope you enjoy my August photo challenge! If you're on Instagram, hop on board!

The Frio River part 4

If I were to write about my week, it would be an entirely too long post. I'm breaking this vacation down into a few posts.

Alternate Title: Jump from a Rock

Day 4

I really wanted to be in touch with everything we did this day. I left the phones at the cabin (or kept it in my purse) and planned to just enjoy myself. The photos contained in this post are from Google.

We spent the early part of the day driving around Concan taking in the few shops picking up goodies. We were able to stop by Concan Pies to pick up an extremely delicious chocolate cream pie.

After we got back from our driving around, we ate lunch and it was back to the Frio for some swimming!

I was in the river watching the kids, and some adults, jump off the large boulders. I sat there telling myself, "You know, this could be one of your 40 Before 40's." Ivy wanted to see what the big deal was. She started swimming to it and by the time I reached the rock to Mommy the situation, she was already climbing up and following her older cousin, "W." He was going to jump and she was going to watch. After he jumped, I walked her back down to the waiting arms of her other cousin, "L," while I found myself safely in the water too. 

"It's not that high." I thought to myself. "I can do it. I can show Ivy how brave Mommy is. I can show her that being afraid can be overcome. Her daddy won't believe it. It looks like fun. Yeah! Let's jump!" As an act of solidarity L jumped off, never having done it before either. And she kept jumping. 

I climbed. I looked over the edge. W jumped again. Got myself psyched up to jump. Made sure Ivy could see. A few more kids jumped. Ivy cheered me on. W peer-pressured and teased me. I looked over again at the water below. The soft cushion would catch my fall from a two-second drop. W promised to hold my hand, or just push me - whatever I wanted. Ivy cheered again. I looked over again, my hands shaking. I remembered the last time I fell from a similar height 20 years ago and broke a limb. All these other kids are jumping. 

I looked over the edge again and made my way down. The same way I came up. Later, Ivy had found a significantly smaller version of rocks and did her own jumping. 

It's okay to look your fear in the eye and say "Another day. We will meet again." I am okay with still being afraid and not ready to jump yet.

The following day, we woke up, cleaned up, packed up, and said goodbye to the Frio. 

Read More! Frio River Fun Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The Frio River part 3

If I were to write about my week, it would be an entirely too long post. I'm breaking this vacation down into a few posts.

Day 3

Another early morning! While almost everyone was still sleeping, Ivy and I took a little walk. We immediately down a couple of fawns!

She wanted a picture with this fawn behind her. 

"Let's go!"

Once she and I returned to the cabin, we decided to go to Garner State Park while everyone was still asleep. 

Adding to my collection!

We were going to try to actually hike but we couldn't find parking near any trails, it was scorching hot even at 9AM, and Ivy would not be a fun hiking companion. 

One of the scenic overlooks. 

Once we returned to the cabin, we ate an early lunch and headed out to a rental place to TUBE DOWN THE FRIO!!

Some areas of the river were low so we had to wade but there were deeper parts too so we did float. The water was cool and consistently this pretty green color. 

During one point of the river in which we were wading, all those round rocks kept slipping underfoot and made it difficult to walk. Ryan's feet and legs were sore for a few days. I actually fell backwards twice and ended up with a bruise on my lower back. 

Her form of going with the flow.

Bobbing along when she couldn't touch the bottom.

This face says it all!! She was squealing with excitement the entire time. 

After tubing, we went back to the cabin to freshen up. We decided that a few of us would go in search of desserts. We wanted PIE. Concan Pies pies to be exact. But they were closed. You have to get there early!

While we were gone, the kiddos did the nature scavenger hunt I made for them. 

We ended up picking up desserts from Neal's. 

Me and B on the back porch of Neal's.

"Squeaky Styrofoam is Satan's Soundtrack!!"

Once we got back and things quieted down, Cousin L started putting out deer corn. This is the result...

This was one of the best days!

Read More! Frio River Fun Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The Frio River part 2

If I were to write about my week, it would be an entirely too long post. I'm breaking this vacation down into a few posts.

On day two, our morning was spent quietly playing. We shared breakfast, Ivy played outside with the other kiddos, she and the other kiddos took a walk with my uncle, and Ryan and I hung out at the cabin. Then we went to Uvalde to shop at Walmart for some things we didn't bring from home.

We visited a stationary part of the river called Neal's Swimming Hole which has a shop, cabin lodging & camping grounds, and family-owned restaurant all reside with the name of, you guessed it, Neal's. The whole area reminds me of several scenes from Dirty Dancing. We were going to eat lunch in Uvalde but we ended up back in Concan and I suggested we lunch at Neal's Dining Room. It was delicious! I really loved the fact that Neal's has been around for a really long time and how rustic everything is.  

Our activity of the day was Neal's Swimming Hole. Technically, we parked and entered on the Buchanan side.

Someone really loved swimming in the river! She didn't want to leave and kept wanting to go back and swim in the "lake."

Later in the evening, we enjoyed listening to my younger cousin sing and Ivy played with her a bit. She is such a sweet young lady who practically mothers everyone. Her brother is very similar - he played well with Ivy too.

 

Later in the evening, it was "Spot the Deer." This was the first time any of the deer came close to the cabin. We were told that the deer would come close but we were certainly not prepared for just how close they would get.

Read More! Frio River Fun Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Camping Activities for Pre-Schoolers

1. Nature Scavenger Hunt
I made mine. I found images online that represent the items I wanted the kids to find.
You can find other variations

2. Glow Ring Toss
I purchased a six-pack of water and an assortment of glow sticks and glow bracelets at the dollar store.
The kids were more excited about the glow sticks alone and proceeded to throw them off the balcony as "fireworks."

3. Sidewalk Chalk
Target had 4-packs of Crayola sidewalk chalk in the dollar bins.
This was a MAJOR hit.

4. Bubbles
As much as the kiddos wanted the bubbles, they did not produce very well. I should've gotten or made a better bubble solution or some bubble-making toys.

5. Water Guns
A dollar each in the Target dollar bins. I was going to get water balloons but I didn't want to accidentally leave any balloons out in nature.
Only 1 gun was used as a water gun. The rest of the time, the kids were content to pretend to shoot the bad guys.

6. Coloring Books and Crayons
All a dollar each at the dollar store.

7. Insect Collecting Set
A dollar at the dollar store.
It has the observation container with a magnifying glass on it, an insect net, and plastic tweezers to help protect little hands and fingers.

7. Beach Toys

Purchased and brought by relative.
The kids were thrilled to play with the toys even though there was no sand. They liked digging the rocks into the buckets and pouring them out again.

The Frio River part 1

If I were to write about my week, it would be an entirely too long post. I'm breaking this vacation down into a few posts.

Last summer, my aunt and cousin invited me and my family to vacation with them at the Frio River. I immediately said yes! They had brought three other cousins vacationing with them in earlier years and just never got to include me as a child. Throughout the year, I was looking forward to this vacation and when it came time to plan, I had to politely thank them for the invitation but decline to go due to certain circumstances.

I was visiting with my aunt and cousin one week before the trip and they insisted that we go anyway, that we would work it all out. It took a couple of days of convincing, but we were finally able to accept and go along with them. So we planned and packed and planned and purchased and met up the morning of the long drive across the state.

We drove through Houston and somehow all ended up at Buc-ee's just before we got into San Antonio. Everyone else stopped to have lunch, Ryan and I drove straight to Concan. Once we arrived, we took a look around and ended up at Josh's. Goodbye "civilization"! We were able to make a few phone calls to check in with everyone, but after that, there was no service. No internet. No 4G. No wifi.

We waited for everyone to get to Concan before we went to find the cabin. Once we were there, we unpacked, relaxed and ate supper. We sat on the back porch, the kiddos played, helped cook and went to bed.

Read More! Frio River Fun Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4