Author Archives: Natalie King

  

Today was a good day. The boys have been playing together so nicely every morning this week. We started the day with blueberry pancakes, bacon, AND bowls of cereal. After that, they played for 2 hours. They were calling each other “bro” and they were so funny. I emptied the dishwasher, put in a load of laundry, made a batch of cookies- I’m getting used to having time to get things done!

Eventually we got ready for the day and headed outside. I had a sensory activity of green noodles (“grass”) for the bugs to hide in today. Augustus was very entertained and enjoyed squishing them and moving the bugs around. Xander was mildly amused, and moved on quickly.

We were outside until lunch and then right back out. Nate came home a little early so I could go to Costco. I was prepared for a nightmare, but it wasn’t busy, everything was fully stocked, and I was in and out quickly. I haven’t been to Costco since before my surgery in February- it was nice to do something normal!

I got home and the boys continued playing all day. We were light on theme activities, but I’m happy if they are happy, and they are have been so content playing independently lately.

A lot of camps have announced that they are closing for the summer. I think it’s inevitable for CYC, but I remain hopeful (or maybe I’m just in denial). Today, one of the camps that I know well, and admire a lot announced they will be closed for the summer. I don’t know why this one hit me so hard, but I burst into tears several times today. I feel sick to my stomach. I immediately facebook messaged the director and she wrote back. She said she was sad, but also relieved to have a decision. Not knowing what is happening this summer is definitely taking a toll on me, so I appreciated what she said. I don’t want camp to be cancelled, but I also don’t want to run a camp where kids/staff/volunteers are unsafe. Basically, I don’t like any of the options in front of me. I keep hoping something drastic will change and everything will be better. but today I was sad.

This afternoon, Xander had a sliver in his finger and reacted the way I assume that someone would if they were told that they’d be having their arm removed with a dull saw. He hid under his covers for a while, cried, screamed, collapsed in tears, rolled around on the floor. I gave him a motivational speech about how much I believed in him and what a great opportunity this was to be courageous. I told him he could think about it and choose to let me help him. I let him see and hold the tweezer. I tried bribing him with a surprise. I told him we could go for ice cream after dinner. Eventually I lost my patience and said, “ok, times up, we’re going to do it.” He screamed in such a way that I expected the neighbors would be calling the police. Nate held him. Before I even touched him with the tweezer, he calmed down and watched me remove it. Crisis averted. He survived. Sliver removed.

There’s not even a mark.

We had dinner and then we walked down the block to our favorite ice cream shop. They are open again and Xander’s bravery was worth a trip. Plus, if we can support small business by eating ice cream cones, I am willing to do my part!

I was also excited to take advantage of the free time to get some things done. I knew that my free time was limited, so I was CRUISING. I emptied the dishwasher, folded and put away a load of clothes, measured mac ingredients and made my first batch for Mother’s Day orders. The boys played for 2 straight hours.  

Eventually, I convinced them to brush their teeth and get dressed and we headed outside for bike riding and more playing. 

A few days ago, as I was planning this week, the weather said it was supposed to rain today, so we were going to have a movie day. After a full morning of playing (including some outside time), we decided to still watch the movie during lunch. The boys enjoyed a children’s charcuterie lunch and watched “A Bug’s Life”.

We enjoyed taco Tuesday and then bath time and bedtime as usual. It was a great day!

In case you are wondering what it’s like to work from home with a 2 year old

A trend that is all over social media right now is “porch pictures”. Because people have to stay 6 feet apart, photographers have been offering family photos on people’s porches. I LOVE family pictures and I love this trend and I wanted to join in the fun. We don’t have a porch, but when a photographer posted in our neighborhood facebook group about “front step pictures” I was so excited! I actually love that these pictures are on our front steps, because for the last 4 years, we’ve been sitting on these steps almost every day to watch the cars drive by.

When Xander was just a few months old, we realized he loved watching cars. We’d take him outside and he would get so excited to watch vehicles drive by. One of his first words was “bus” and he would lose his mind with excitement when we saw a bus. Augustus is even more car/truck/bus obsessed than Xander. Watching cars is a pretty regular activity in our daily lives pandemic or not. So photos of us on those steps are extra special, on top of being a representation of our time in quarantine. 

One of my favorite things at camp were all the years (mostly before kids) when the program staff and I would stay up late preparing for activities the next day. Some of the best songs have been written and crazy programs have been created at 11pm when you’re exhausted, but also kinda goofy, and brainstorming is totally out there. Last night, at 10:30, when I was creating a web, I had a familiar feeling of late night prepping. 

We started the morning with a treasure hunt. I found this one on pinterest but had to re-write several clues to work for our yard. But, as always, the boys enjoyed it. I’d found some bug tents in the Target dollar spot a few weeks ago, and they were excited to find them at the end of the hunt.

We did some bug hunting, but every bug we found, Xander screamed and ran. We caught a beetle and Augustus was fascinated. He was so cute and kept calling it “my friend”. Xander was VERY concerned about separating it from its’ bug family and he fretted over it basically the whole day. He kept saying, “it seems really mad” or “do you think his bug parents miss him?” Eventually we let the bug go and he finally relaxed.

After bug hunting, the boys rode bikes for a while and then they wanted to play in the back of my van (one of their favorite hang outs). I said no. Xander yelled, “you’re the worst-est mom in the world” and marched into the house yelling, “come on Augustus!” I was sitting in a comfortable outdoor chair, the breeze blowing, sun shining, a cup of coffee in my hand. I sat out there by myself for about 8 minutes (a long time for 2 kids to be alone) and then I tip toed inside to see what they were up to. Xander was patiently explaining Chutes and Ladders to Augustus and they were playing together. Xander said to me, “we came inside because you were being rude!” I explained that sometimes mom’s say “no” and just because you disagree, doesn’t make it rude.

They finished the game and weren’t mad at me anymore, so we did our fine motor activity I’d prepared the night before. The boys used tweezers and also chopsticks to get the bugs out of the “web”. They did a good job and liked it.

When they finished that, Augustus said, “let’s do another activity” which is so cute. The boys worked on bug matching while I got some art supplies for them to make pom pom caterpillars.

We had lunch and rest time and then a lady bug snack/treat. I only had milk chocolate chips, and so the dark parts weren’t quite as dark as the pinterest ones I was trying to make, so this was only a partial success (although they tasted great).

It was only 1:30 at that point and so we ended up taking a spontaneous field trip to Hidden Falls Regional Park. I’ve never been there before, but it’s been on my list of places to go for a long time.

When I put it in my phone, the map said, “Hidden Falls Regional Park” and Xander said, “we’re going to a park!” which made me super sad because we haven’t been a playground in forever.

We talked about giving any people we saw lots of space, and there weren’t too many people there, but a few, and many of them were kids. Augustus will talk to ANYONE he sees, so I was sad about that too, because there was a little boy, about his age who he said hi, and would have definitely played with if I hadn’t awkwardly distracted him away. I hope this whole thing doesn’t make them weirdly anti-social.

The good news is, despite those 2 things making me sad, Hidden Falls totally made up for it. When we got there, Xander said, “this would be a great place for a picnic!” and he was right! We threw rocks into the water (a multiple time a day activity during the summer at camp), climbed cool trees, ran around the big fields full of cool trees. It was a magical place and Xander wants to go back tomorrow, so we will definitely be back soon (not sure if we’ll go tomorrow, but soon!).

This is a picture of Xander problem solving how to get all of the rocks he wanted back to the car with him. The pile was so big and so he was jamming rocks in his pockets and Augustus’s pockets.

We got home and had more time to ride bikes and play in the yard before dinner.

Dinner, bath, and an online bedtime story from Grandma Renee. A VERY full day.

I get to the end of each day feeling good and happy with all of the fun things we’ve done, but also DRAINED. As an introvert, it is A LOT to be with people (even my boys) all day long. I am enjoying this time with the kids and trying to soak it in, but I also really miss them going to school and me going to my office. Today was fun and hopefully our bug week will be a blast!

It was a great weekend, and I only took one picture the whole 2 days! On Saturday, all four of us walked to the bakery for donuts. We played outside a ton. Together, we organized toys in the basement. We relaxed.

Today was a re-charge day for everyone. Nate went golfing. I dropped the boys at my mom’s house for a fun day with Grandma Debbie. They made an obstacle course, they played with toys, they were busy all day. I’m not 100% sure of what they do there, but they LOVE being with Grandma Debbie.

I have fallen into a comfortable Sunday routine of dropping the boys and then going to the dollar store (new to me during this quarantine) where I spend about $10 per week on random things I use for weekly activities. I had been to the dollar store before quarantine, but never regularly. It’s a crazy place, filled with junk or treasure, depending on how you look at it. But it’s so great for random supplies that I don’t NEED, but help me create unique programming every week. Today I found plastic bugs, some plastic serving spoons, balloons, and some buckets. So cheap. And you never know what you are going to find there.

After the dollar store, I go to my office. I check the mail and if anything needs to be taken care of, I do that too. I print out a few work sheets that I will use for the week. I write out our activities, my calendar, my to do, the dinner menu, and everything else I need for the week. It’s my planning time. It helps me feel balanced and ready for the week ahead.

After that, I have the afternoon to get the house in order, bake, organize, relax or whatever else I want to do without interruption. Today I spent several hours organizing in our basement. In one corner, I have about 10 totes of random junk, art supplies, etc. It has gotten progressively messier and harder to find things, so today was the day that I finally took everything out, sorted and now it looks fantastic. I am so happy to have everything in order. I just have 2 small children, but I am still running daily/weekly programming, which requires supplies, set up, and planning. At camp, we have a program office, a ball closet, an art barn, my office, a health center- multiple buildings and infinitely more stuff. This is my tiny, at-home version of camp.

And I still had time to sit outside and relax for a little while. The boys came home and still had a ton of energy. We played outside, helped Nate cut the front bushes and I still had to drag them inside at dinner time. I can’t believe how much energy they have!

It was a great weekend and we are ready for another week of at-home fun.

Today was a fabulous day! Nate was home today, and we started the morning with all 4 of us cleaning up and organizing toys. I’d totally let it go for a few days and our living room was in shambles, so it felt great to get everything neatened up.

From there, both boys said, “let’s do an activity” which is pretty cute. Nate joined us for “small group time”. We started out “playing in the clouds” which was really just a bunch of white balloons and a fan. But the boys loved it and it kind of reminded me of this cool thing they have at the Children’s museum that pumps air out and you can get ping pong balls to hover. Nate had the balloons hovering in midair and it was super cool

After that, we decorated parachutes and then experimented by dropping them and seeing how long they stayed in the air.

After parachutes, Nate made the boys paper airplanes and we made a runway to see how far they could throw them.

Right before lunch, our doorbell rang, but no one was there! There were 3 may day baskets sitting there to surprise us!

The Nelson family was out and about delivering joy. There were bubbles and treats for the boys and a cocktail, tea towel and treat for me! It was SUCH a fun surprise and so cute!

Augustus said, “we’ve never even had bubbles!” which isn’t true (we’ve had a million bubbles), but his appreciation was cute. We headed outside to blow bubbles.

My mom arrived shortly after that and she and the boys played outside nonstop. The rode bikes, ran around, adventured for hours. Nate got the entire backyard and flower beds cleaned up. I re-organized our buffet, which has been 6 FULL drawers of junk for a while now. I took every single thing out and ended up with a FULL garbage bag. Everything is in perfect order now and I feel so fantastic that the mess has turned to order!

My mom helped Nate finish the flower beds while the boys took some rest time. I washed and put away a load of laundry, washed the floors and cleaned the bathroom. It was SUCH a productive day!

We had dinner, bath time and now the boys are in bed and I’m drinking a mojito to end the day! Happy May Day!

Today was a tough one. Extreme respect to all parents who are trying to work full time and stay at home with their children. So far, I’ve been very fortunate to be able to work in the evening or when Nate or my mom have the boys. But today I had an interview with a potential counselor and then had several calls with the accountant, and I had a lot of paperwork I was trying to do for the Payroll Protection Plan I’m applying for. The boys didn’t get dressed until after lunch, and I’m not sure either of them even brushed their teeth. The house is still in shambles and I was a wreck all day.  

 

Our good friends Jamie and Ryan had a baby on Saturday and I am so sad that we can’t go snuggle and squish her. We were supposed to have a shower for them in March and that got cancelled too. I was going to make this macaron E for the shower (their last name starts with E), so I decided to just make it for them instead. The boys and I took that and some food and dropped it all on their doorstep.

We got home and pretty much played outside the rest of the day. The boys rode bikes, played mechanic (they “fixed” bikes over and over, X saying, “all in a days work” each time he finished.

Before dinner, the boys found a small puddle in our yard and Xander said, “I’m going to put my finger in it.” Then they stepped in it. And pretty soon they had the hose out, making it a bigger puddle. They had so much fun jumping in it and splashing. They were so muddy that we put them in the bathtub while Nate went to pick up dinner. Different bath time, take out for dinner- the whole schedule was out the window today!

It was a great day (even if I felt like I was going a million ways all at once and never quite caught my breath or sat down). But, the HIGHLIGHT of my day was getting this gorgeous artwork in the mail! I follow @thecaffeinatedcrossstitcher on Instagram. I have wanted to order one of her pieces forever and I’ve been on a waiting list. But she’s had more free time and she got me in. I love that she captured Augustus’s red boots (which he has worn every day for months) and Xander’s favorite sweatshirt (also a daily wardrobe item for months). I love it so much!

It was another fun day with Grandma Debbie. It was windy and kind of chilly today, so they weren’t outside as much as usual, but they did find an excavator to look at (and Xander took the photo of my mom and Augustus!).

I never quite found the rhythm to my day. I cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, finished my May Day order macarons, and a few other things. Sometimes I think when I’m so busy with the boys, I actually get more done because I never stop moving and squeeze a million things in every spare moment.

Back to normal tomorrow. We have more airplane and cloud activities to keep us busy!

It was a rainy day, but we were busy! We started the day with play-dough. They played independently with it for about 20 minutes, which is pretty good.

We moved on to making a sky picture, gluing cotton balls for clouds and adding a little airplane.

We moved on to an activity where they had to use clothespins to pin the number on the airplane. They both really liked it, even though Augustus doesn’t really know numbers yet. After that, Augustus glued numbers onto an airplane and Xander colored his. The idea was to add the numbers in a row, like windows, but they didn’t want to do that, which was fine. They still each did their own version.

Next we did an experiment where we created rain in a glass. We used shaving cream and then squirted colored water into the “cloud” which eventually came down and “rained”. After that, we spread the shaving cream all over and they got to play in the clouds. Sometimes the boys don’t like getting their hands messy, but they enjoyed this activity today, so I was happy.
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Because it was supposed to be rainy all day, we planned a movie afternoon. I found these little baskets which made perfect treat holders. They watched “Planes” which is a Pixar movie from the people who made “Cars”. Not the best Pixar movie of all time, but it went with our theme and they liked it.

Nate got home around 3:30 and they all headed to the basement to play for a while. I made Thanksgiving dinner tonight- turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes and corn.

After dinner, Nate gave the boys a bath because I zoom called with some of my summer staff. It was SO good to see everyone and get a blast of camp energy. I am still very hopeful that we will all be together this summer.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to go back to sunny and wonderful, so that will be nice!

It’s a new week, which means a new theme. Our theme this week is airplanes and clouds. We don’t have very many airplane books, so I filled in the shelves with some of my other favorites.

This morning I had my 8 week post-surgery check up, so Nate was home with the boys. I set up a scavenger hunt for them and at the end of it was a very fun surprise- foam airplanes! The Nelson kids had these and Christine recommended them and she was right! They are very fun and when you throw them, they loop in a circle. They are also more heavy duty than other little foam planes I’ve seen.

Nate said the boys were very excited to run outside and use them and that they had a blast. We played with them later in the day too and I agree- very fun!

When I got home, we had lunch and some rest time. And then Xander was ready for more airplane activities. Xander has really embraced both our daily schedule and the themes. He still checks the posted schedule sometimes and he will often say, “let’s do another theme activity” which is cute. I think the we all do best when we have a schedule and the themes provide enough variety to make each day fun.

We built a cardboard airplane, that could use some paint, but they lost interest pretty quickly, so we’ll see if we keep going with it tomorrow or if it ends up in the recycling bin.

Augustus spent some time rolling around in a box- I’m not sure what kind of activity that was, but he was happy and occupied, so I count that as a win.

The day was GORGEOUS and 70 degrees out, so we had dinner outside, followed by a campfire (with s’mores of course!)

The boys played while Nate and I enjoyed the campfire for a while and then it was time for baths, books and bed! A great start to the week! The boys aren’t super into airplanes (and neither am I), so we’ll see how the theme goes. We had so much fun with superheroes last week, but I’m hopeful that they enjoy some of my programming.

It was a great weekend! It flew by and I barely took any photos!

Saturday we started with our typical Saturday brunch. I almost always make french brioche french toast and bacon. Xander said he didn’t want that, he’d prefer scrambled eggs and toast. As I was serving breakfast he said, “actually I changed my mind, I want french toast” which is something he does a lot. That little dude ended up eating 2 pieces of french toast, 2 pieces of regular toast, eggs, and bacon. I think he’s growing.

The boys spent the entire day outside. They played with Nate while I was at the grocery store. They rode bikes. They “helped” Nate rake the yard and clean up sticks. They drove their jeep and went to the secret lair. It was a gorgeous day and they were very busy.

When we came inside, we made some worms and dirt for dessert. A few scoops of pudding, a few scoops of crushed up oreo and several gummy worms. They were very excited about it.

Both boys were exhausted by the end of the day.

Sunday is Grandma’s day and it was a great one as always. They started the day in pants, but we packed summer clothes “just in case”. Of course they both ended up in tank tops and shorts right away. They rode bikes, played outside, put together a new puzzle, played in a tent.

I picked the boys up in the afternoon and stayed for dinner because Nate was golfing. We got home in the evening and jumped right into the bath tub, relaxed, played a little and went to bed. It was another fabulous day!