Blogging Challenge: Day 6

Hi!
If you didn't notice, I am not planning on doing the Blogging Challenge over the weekend days. Those are reserved for family and fun!

On Saturday, we took the kids to the pumpkin/apple farm. We have gone the past 3 years (1 without kids, 2 with just Booger, and now with Chunk too!). Booger had a great time helping us pick out the bag of apples, the apple donuts, and her own small cider pumpkin sippy cup. She held onto that thing for the rest of the trip.

Then it was time to go to the other side with the fun activities and pumpkins! This was definitely her favorite part-- a giant slide (she even went down once by herself!), tractors to climb, animals to see. She loved the corn kernel "sandbox".
Chunk was in and out of sleep most of the time, but he loved looking around at everything and everyone while he was up!

Sunday was my best friend's baby's first birthday. I cannot believe he is already ONE! It seems like just yesterday we were getting our matching tattoos (2012), or rooming in college (2004-2005), or playing mancala, going swimming, seeing Titanic in the theatre and oogling over Leo, or playing badminton in my backyard. I've known this girl since before I was 10 years old (neither one of us knows exactly when we met!) and here we are, a handful of kids between us. Life is crazy, isn't it?

So on to Blogging Challenge

Day 6: Something You Fear

The easy way out of this challenge is to just say something like Spiders or Bees or those super creepy crawly things with 800 legs.

While those are all terrifying, thats not a challenge.

There are two things I genuinely fear, but one has been around longer than the other. One thing is losing my children. I get flashes of car crashes, accidents, kidnappings etc all. the. time. Probably the same as any parent, but its truly frightening. My stomach clenches, my heart seizes up, and I start to panic when I think of things that could happen.

But the one thing that has been around longer than my fear of losing my children is the fear of failure. I truly fear being a failure at things. A failure as a mother, a failure as a wife, a friend, a sister, a daughter, an employee, etc. Especially if it is something that I have total control over. If it's personal. I try to do my best, but sometimes my best is only so good. I take things personally, even if it was not my fault. I try to please everyone, try to be the problem solver, the middle man. I try to make everyone see both sides of the story, so that no one is too unhappy.

Failure is always a possibility. It's how you react to it, and grow from it that shapes who you are. It is something I will always have to work on, to tell myself to use it as a learning tool instead of a fear.

What is something that you fear?

Blogging Challenge: Day 5

Day 5: My Proudest Moment

These are getting so difficult, as I have to keep choose one time!

But I don't think that I can.

My deepest sense of pride comes with my babies. I constantly tell Booger how proud of her I am for everything she does. From the first time she rolled over, to present day, Not a week goes by without me telling her that I'm proud of her. Lately it comes in the form of being a great big sister. Seriously, she could not be better (ok, except for the times she starts screaming outside of Chunk's room while hes napping, but other than that...). She is always finding ways to help me with him, always saying nice things to him, always ready to play, or sing, or talk, or hang out next to him.

I am so proud to call these two kiddos mine. They are both amazing and I know I will continue to be proud of their accomplishments, their personalities, and their successes over the years.

(Short post this morning; working on a Room Makeover post for this afternoon!

Blogging Challenge: Day 3 (and Day 4); Making Popsicles

I swear, I had Day 3 posted yesterday.... but here I find it sitting in Drafts and not Published.. oops!
So here is Day 3 AND 4 AND a quick post on a fun activity for Kiddos!

Day 3: Your Favorite Quote

This one was a bit difficult... there are so many good quotes out there that inspire, make me happy, make me thankful, etc. One that has always stood out to me is a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote:

I've actually had this printed out and in my planner for a long time, so I could see it every day. Its a great reminder to relax, enjoy life, and not take things too seriously. A good reminder to not stress over the little things and to live in the moment. 

What's your favorite quote??

Day 4: Your Dream Job

This one is tough too! I think my dream job would be something with travel. Or something in Australia. Maybe Samantha Brown's job, from the old Travel Channel shows. She got to just explore different countries and cities and film a TV show about it. There didn't have to be anything specific she had to do, just roam around, finding different places to eat, things to do, people to talk to. I think that would be fabulous. I would start in Australia, travel the whole country, then move on to Europe. 

Of course, I would bring my whole family with me. And it wouldn't be stressful travelling with babies (one can wish, right?). 

Yup. That would be it. Be Samantha Brown :-)

Making Popsicles

Booger has been asking me for popsicles for days now, and I kept forgetting until Tuesday afternoon. It's such an easy and quick thing to do, and Booger loves to help! I need to start cooking more and including her as a helper. She makes a fantastic sous chef...at least with stirring. Worlds Best Stirrer is her new title. 

We bought our popsicle mold from Ikea years ago, but these from Amazon are super cute too!

Mold 1  Mold 2 (good for smaller babies/ toddlers) Mold 3

I also like making our own, as we can control the ingredients and how healthy to make them!

For this batch, we first had to make some lemonade. Booger was the best at that, as there was a lot of stirring to do :-)

Then, we used the lemonade and some juice (100% juice-- orange, strawberry, mango blend). There are 6 molds, so we did 3 lemonade, 3 juice. 

In each, we also added some fruit. 2 raspberries, 2 blueberries, 2 strawberry. 

The best part is eating-- you don't know which popsicle is which so its a nice surprise!

Have you made your own Popsicles? They're so easy and fun for the kiddos to help!