PlanetBoxes are Totally Cool!

This may sound like a crazy thing to want to blog about, but I can't help it. When I get my hands on something as cool as this, I want everyone to know about it! Back several months ago I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, PaleoTalk. This podcast is about eating Paleo. I won't go into the details, but it's awesome!  If your interested in checking it out you can find the link for the podcast at www.everydaypaleo.com. Who knows, I may blog about it one of these days. :)

Anyway, on this show they were talking about what they send in their kids lunch boxes and Sara (yes, I'm on a first name basis with the hosts,) was talking about these totally cool lunch boxes she found for her kids and how everyone at their school was wanting to know how to get their hands on one. After looking it up online I knew PlanetBoxes would be on our "must have" list for school this year. Being the procrastinator I am (you didn't know that about me did you?) I finally ordered them when school started. The kids have been asking all summer if I was going to order Planet Boxes...I finally did, the first day of school. :)

The much anticipated "PlanetBoxes"

This morning was a lunch box packin' party! I've never seen two kids so excited about packing lunches. It was crazy and fun ~ it was crazy fun! I'm loving these lunch boxes because for the last 4 years I've been limited to what I could send in their lunches. I'm a zip-lock baggy mama and strawberries, cherry tomatoes, blueberries and such don't do well in baggies. The kids refused to eat squished berries and tomatoes. I don't blame them; unpacking their lunch boxes was a pretty gross job. But no more ~ Planetbox to the rescue! If you think you might be interested I highly recommend going to www.planetbox.com to watch the video. 

I can't wait for the kids to tell how me how lunch was today!

We're a Football Family

R has been saying for two years he wants to play football, but for some reason sign-ups always seem to come and go and we would say, "Maybe next year." Several months back when news of the Pop Warner league coming to our area was all over the place my mom asked if R was going to play. I didn't think much about it; I guess I always figured we would get enough football in a few years. After visiting with some friends and finding out their son was going to play, we decided to look into it. Next thing I know we're signing the papers, paying the fee, getting weighed and being fitted for a helmet (not me, R.) Over the course of several weeks we were inundated with emails from our new coach about all the upcoming practices, game schedule, fund raising, t-shirt purchases, etc...I was starting to wonder what the heck we had signed up for. Then I get the practice schedule ~ three nights a week with games on Saturday. Yikes, I was beginning to think we had signed our lives away for the next 4 months.

Fast forward 4 weeks and here we are the day of the Pop Warner opening ceremony. We have to be there at 7:45am, yes, you read that right, am. The ceremony starts at 9, and our team plays a scrimmage at 12:15. Ok people, that's alot of sitting around and waiting in this heat. We were sweating, the boys were hot and hungry and I was dealing with a 6 year old who wanted to be anywhere but there. She loves her brother but come on this is ridiculous.

The scrimmage finally starts, I video every play (do you know how hard it is for me to video, watch the game and control my screaming? I'm taking the tri-pod next time for sure.) I realize it was only a scrimmage, but the boys played their little hearts out and we got a glimpse of what this season is going to hold. I honestly have never seen Ryan genuinely smile like he smiled coming off of that football field. I think he finally found his sport and so have the rest of us.

This is just the beginning and I'm so excited! These are the "fun years." Watching my kiddos participate in activities, seeing them excel in the things they enjoy, encouraging all they do, at the same time making sure they know this is not what defines them. They are growing, discovering their passions and having fun along the way. I can't wait to see what the future holds ~

* Just a little funny ~ during the ceremony all the little cheer leading squads were sitting on the sideline in front of their respective teams (our team doesn't have cheerleaders this year or we would have been all over that.) K turns to me and asks, "Are the cheerleaders just for decoration or are they going to do some cheers?" It was hilarious!

Our First Fan Letter

Several months ago I took K to see Soul Surfer; a few days after that we went again with big R and son. K talks about Bethany like she's a personal friend of the family and has said on numerous occasions she wishes Bethany was her sister. So when I found her fan page on Facebook last night we were very excited. She sat with me for about an hour looking at all of Bethany's pictures until we came across a drawing a little boy had sent her. Well, that's all it took; immediately K was rounding up her crayons and stealing paper from the printer. "I'm gonna draw Bethany a picture!" Keep in mind this was all happening about 10:30 last night and yes, school starts Monday and no, we have NOT established any kind of routine around here. On a side note, I've learned over the last 4 years the bedtime routine takes care of itself. That being said, we were up until about 11:30 creating 'the best picture I've ever colored' for Bethany Hamilton.

This is Bethany just before the shark attack. Notice the shark coming out of the water, but most important, notice the cross above.
God was watching over Bethany.

I don't remember ever sending a fan letter to anyone. As far back as I can remember I've always felt like a small fish in a huge pond. But here we are smack dab in the middle of 'the information age' and social media makes us feel like we can be friends with those who in the past have been unreachable. And my little one, with her 'I can do anything' spirit thinks "Why not!"

So, this morning I got up, went to the computer and found Bethany's fan club address and in a little while we'll make a trip to the post office to send our very first fan letter.

County Road Lemonade Stand

For the longest time (pretty much every summer) the kids ask if they can have a lemonade stand. Every summer I manage to put them off. I'm not doing this to be mean or squash their entrepreneurial spirit, but to keep them from experiencing failure. Before you start judging me and thinking I'm a bad mom, seriously we live out in the middle of nowhere USA and the people that do drive by are going at least 10 mph above the speed limit. Which is the exact reason why I will never spend time putting a garage sale together, but that's another blog post. Back to lemonade...for some reason when they asked me yesterday, before I could really think about it we were making lemonade, a sign and loading up the Gator to head to end of the driveway.

Before we left the house, I made a phone call to their daddy to let him know that when he got home he better be prepared to buy a little (or alot) of lemonade. :) And right as we were walking out the door the phone rang; it was their Bo (Big R's mom) to see if we were home (yea ~ another customer!)

As we were sitting in the Gator, sun beating down on us, waiting patiently to sell our first cup of lemonade, R commented on how he really hoped we had some real customers. I asked him what he meant; he said he wanted real customers who we hadn't talked to and told them to have their wallets open. I laughed so hard at this; it really was funny.

When it was all said and done the kids sold 10 cups of lemonade and half of those were unsolicited. Ok, so 10 cups @ $.25 per cup is only $2.50. They somehow managed to walk away with $16.50 (all of which R wants to put away for our Hawaii fund.) The moral of the story is this: If you're cute, live out in the country and take a chance on a lemonade stand you might just make a few bucks and a few memories. Pretty sure they will remember this for a long time...and me? I will remember to let the kids take chances even if they might end up disappointed.