Ice Cream

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GUESS WHAT HAPPENED

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I can’t even make this up.

If you read my end of summer post recently, you know that my kids had one request at the beginning of this summer: get ice cream from an ice cream truck. How hard could that be? I pinky promised.

I don’t even know how many weekends we arranged our plans around finding an ice cream truck. We’d go to a playground we don’t usually go to because we’d heard that the truck goes there. Or we’d take the long way around and drive by a few schools or soccer fields to see if we could find it. We always promised ice cream, so we’d end up at a local place at the end, which kept everyone happy, but no ice cream truck.

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A Big Trip

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We’ve all heard the funny sayings about how vacations with kids aren’t vacations, they’re ‘trips’ or just parenting in a new location. I think it’s a great perspective to have, since it helps to set expectations. Tom and I have traveled to beaches where we sat in the sun all day and read book after book. That was relaxing. We’ve also toured cities where we walked tens of thousands of steps a day and saw every every sight we wanted to. We’ve been there, done that. And we know that this season of life isn’t either of those. (And we’re okay with it).

Our recent trips have been very kid focused and friendly. Visits to or with family, where we have extra adults and very easy schedules. We incorporate naps and play time and nothing too hard. Even when we go places around home, we do easy trips. We go to the library after nap time when everyone is happy, and we don’t stay too long. We’re not the parents who attempt big things. We keep it easy and safe for the most part.

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4th of July Weekend

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I had no desire to celebrate this embarrassment of a country, but we had a three day weekend and needed to do something with three littles. So we shut off the news, and had some quality family time in our little bubble. We went to a playground and had our first run in with an ice cream truck. It worked out since we were leaving to go get ice cream anyway, so we let the kids decide. Did they want to go get ice cream, or eat from the truck? The truck overwhelmingly won, and E picked out an orange creamsicle and G got a strawberry shortcake popsicle. They were incredibly happy, eating in the trunk of the minivan.

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Vacation Week

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So our lovely daycare decided to close for a week, with not a ton of notice, which meant there weren’t a lot of options for us. All vacation homes within a few hour drive were booked or too expensive or missing something essential. So instead of meeting my parents at the beach somewhere, we decided to just head to Vermont. Honestly the kids probably enjoy Vermont better than the beach anyway. There are tractors and land to run around on, and they can eat all my dad’s peas from his garden.

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A Slow and Small Return to Normal(ish)

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Not a ton of time has gone by, but the last post I made had snow on the ground. It’s slow, but things are changing, and for the better. After a year of stagnation, it’s both amazing and unsettling to witness change again.

The weather is definitely warmer, which means more time outside, and with that comes playground dates again. Such a simple thing that we’ve taken for granted in the past, but makes the kids so happy, and tires them out like nothing else. Combined with spending the rest of the day outside at home, they sleep so well too.

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Mainely Memories

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We recently went on our annual trek to Maine. I guess it was technically a vacation, but these days that word has a very different meaning than it used to. At this point it’s all about building memories and doing things to make the kids happy. And I’m okay with that, as tiring as it is. (It definitely gives me a different perspective of all those years in Maine when I was younger, and what my mom was going through!)

We did have the added bonus of having a lot of family and friends come and stay with us, which was amazing. It meant extra hands to hold our babies, to entertain them, to play with them, and to feed us! All good things. And our kids were psyched! There was so much laughter and running around and smiles. Nothing is better, or makes me happier than seeing someone I love, love on my children. It makes my heart happy.

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Food Adventures of E

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In case you were wondering how much sand a baby will eat before deciding it's not edible.. I don't have an answer for you.  We never got to that point with E!  Eventually we were able to distract him with pickles and oranges, but I swear that kid would have sat in the sand eating fistful after fistful.  

I'm not sure where he'd rate the sand on the list of things he tried while in Florida, but I think I'd put Florida farmer's markets at the top.  We spent one afternoon eating our way through one, and I think I'd gladly go every day if I could.