Just Let Them Play and Get Dirty!

Being a parent has opened my eyes to many things that we do in our society that is really harming our kids more than helping them. I used to observe the behaviors or practices and didn't think much of it because everyone did it, right? But now, thanks to a very good friend, I see more and think more about the long term effects of what all these "modern day parenting practices" mean for kids later in life.

Klint and I take the kids to the park quite a bit. Most of the time I will sit in a place where I can see all the kids, lend a hand when needed, but just watch the kids play and interact with each other. Also, most of the time, I am the ONLY parent doing this. All the other moms are hovering over the kids, ordering their children to play a certain way ("No Liam, hold the truck like this and roll it over here"), and giving them silly rules that have no place in an outdoor play setting such as "Don't pick up that rock, it is dirty", "No running!", "Don't jump off the stair, you will break something", and my personal favorite "Don't dig in the dirt or pick up sticks".

Meanwhile, I am letting Gabby climb wayyy high up a tree, give all the little girls sticks to dog with, and even pick up a huge beetle for the kids to look at. I let them go into the woods off the path with me, pick up rocks and throw them into the stream, and even *gasp* jump over fallen tree branches.

What is the point of taking kids to the park if they can't touch anything, run or yell, and have all these rules that have no purpose? Just let the kids play for goodness sake! Let them use sticks to make fairy forts, dig for buried acorns, and pretend something is different than what it is!!

Good Friday Was Oh So Good!

Not being Christian always makes holidays a little interesting around here. My good friend Joan, who is a very devout Catholic, asked me what we did to celebrate Easter since it obviously means something different for us. Joan is cool like that, never judgmental and when she asks me stuff about my set of beliefs I can be 100% honest because I know that she will NEVER look down on my choices. That is why she is my soul sister... she just gets it.

Anyhow, I digress... I told Joan that we view Easter as a celebration of Spring. Of course we still give the girls Easter baskets with a bit of candy, but I am also including some gardening items like seeds, shovels, and little clay pots. We dyed Easter eggs tonight with Koolaid because all the birds are getting ready to lay eggs, we eat Peeps bunnies because bunnies come out in the Spring... make sense?

Today was Good Friday and even though it had no religious significance to us, it was a VERY good day! It was over 80 outside... a feat for good ol' Cleveland, the beach was packed, and we did a lot of fun things. We started out by taking the dog shopping at the mall (to Moochie & Co) where she got tons and tons of attention. After a nice lunch at Chipotle Gabby and I made some Pom Pom Flowers... look how cute they turned out!

Then we headed off to the beach, YAY!!!! Here are some pics of the girls having lots of fun...

(I do not dress her.... that is all her own doing, lol!)

(AJ hates being wet so was pretty naked by the end of the trip... and she also thinks she is a bird!)

Finally, after dinner I got some cute pictures of the girls that really capture their personalities...

I am pretty sure AJ was a pirate in a past life, she has the scowl down!

Sweet huh? Lol, that is a common look for my lil one.

Gabby on the other hand just loved life today and was sooooo good, yay!

So that was my Good Friday! Was your Friday good too?

Family and Friend Outtings

One thing I love about living here, outside of Cleveland, but not in the country is how easy it is to find things to do. Last week we took the kids to the Nature Center in Bay Village and today our family went to the Lake Farm Metroparks. What a great time we had!! Tons of animals to see, stuff to touch and smell, and we got to learn a few things about nature along the way. Here are some pictures from our trip!

There was a cool breed of sheep that we have never seen before. The farm has over 50 endangered breeds of livestock!

AJ is 7 hands high!
The biggest pig I have ever seen in my life! Seriously, I had no clue pigs really looked like this!
Gabby checking out some sheep
We took a great wagon ride, pulled by a pair of lovely Clydesdales.
Gabby is over 10 hands high!

Gabby learning about solar powered energy by controlling a large solar panel. You could tell how much power the panel was getting from the spout that was shooting out water. The more power equaled more water shooting into the pond. Very cool!
Gabby checking out a baby bull calf. Adorable!
Aj and me seeing the horses!

Nature's the Way

One of the places that I really enjoy going is the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center. It is free all the time, which is great for those days that you need something to do, but don't feel like going to a place where you are going to spend a ton of money. I love that it has animals that are native to the area, has a really nice tidal wave pool with tropical fish and such, and is really educational. My only issue is a personal one involving a certain fear of snakes that I have. The center has the three venomous snakes in plastic cylinders on the floor... rattlesnakes...ugh! I almost passed out from dry heaving the first time I saw them! There went my theory that OH was venomous snake free.