1st Day Of School

It's the first day of second grade and fourth grade. It also signals the end of summer... I miss the boys already. The house is too quiet.

Last Day Of Summer Break

School starts tomorrow. I'm not ready. They're not ready. But you can't stop the inevitable. We started the day by going to the orientation. They saw their desks, I paid tuition and all the other fees, and I dropped off all of the Epi Pens and food allergy instructions for the Little Man.

Then I asked them how they wanted to spend their last day of freedom and they both said the "zoo". I brought a camera but I forgot it in the car and since everyone else had the same the same idea that we did, I wasn't about to walk back 3 miles to get it. So I'll have to leave you with cell phone pictures.

Something about the cell phone flash made the Little Man look possessed. It's not a good look. Here they are working in the Science Center in the rain forest.
The Little Man finds a friend.

The Little Man L.O.V.E.S. frogs and this was his favorite exhibit.

Yes, it's a snake. A Very Big Snake. This one happens to be Older Boys favorite. Right next to it is the Tarantula exhibit. That one is my least favorite. I can't look at it or I get light headed. I could never work in the rain forest....

Rain and fog in the rain forest.

I'm going to miss these boys... even if they do drive me crazy most of the time.

Oh and as for the earth quake, we didn't feel it. Apparently it was felt here in Cleveland but we had no idea that it happened until my husband called to check on us. I'm glad that it wasn't that bad and that everyone on the East Coast is safe tonight.

Trying To Make The Most Of The Last Days

This weekend we went camping. And by camping I mean staying at my parents cabin in the mountains that has in door plumbing and my mom cooks a feast at every meal (yea, my diet is dead). I'm an in door kind of girl. I don't do "rustic" very well.

Each year we like to do something fun with the boys right before school starts. It's like a last of summer hurrah. I had big plans to rent a cabin and go caving but the boys wanted to visit Papa and Grandma at their cabin. We had a great time and got "back to nature".

The view here is gorgeous and I could live here (in a nice house with in door plumbing).
Yes, this is a bear. We went for a hike hoping to see wild life and we saw a deer, and then a bear. The Older Boy was completely freaked out but as you can tell by my photos (they are really bad) the bear wasn't that close. He didn't seem like he knew we were there. He sure was cute though.

He wasn't THAT big. And right after this it stormed. While we were in woods. Older Boy was so not happy.
Here are my guys at the beginning of the hike. All seemed well here. No bear. No storm. Looks can be deceiving.
The boys at the Elk Viewing Center. They really enjoyed this. So did I!

And today we went to the local park.
Note to self: It's in the woods. There's a swamp. I attract ALL mosquitoes. Bug spray would have been good here. My eye got a mosquito bite. I now look like the elephant man. It's so not good.

You too can learn "topographics" with Lego's.

Apparently Brook Trout are endangered here in Ohio. Who knew?

Older Boy going eye to eye with the Brook Trout.

And there's a puppet theater. Again, who knew?

The Little Man gets in on the act. Thank goodness all this was free....

Something New To Start The New School Year

This is the Little Man in his Taekwondo outfit. It was his first day. His physical therapist thought that it would be good for him, but we let him make the decision. Doing Taekwondo means that he can't do soccer this fall. He's done soccer the last 3 years so we didn't want to sway him either way. He made the decision and secretly I was pleased. Watching him play soccer can be painful. He doesn't like to run so he walks down the field. I think part of this is due to his Dyspraxia. We always knew that his movement was "off" but it was nice when the PT put a name on it. At least now we know what we're dealing with. And hopefully we can help him. I'm hoping that the Taekwondo helps and also that it boosts his confidence. He's only been two times, but surprisingly (at least it was a surprise to me and his brother) he's pretty good. We're on the "free trial plan" right now and if he likes it, we'll have to sign him up with a 12 to 18 month commitment. It's a lot more pricey than soccer, but if it helps him, I'm all for it. I was also hoping that it was only one evening a week but it's at least two evenings and you could go more if you want to. Due to school, PT, and Cub Scouts (not to mention Older Boys soccer) I think we'll stick to two days a week.

We instructed him and the Master instructed him that Taekwondo is NOT to be used on his brother. If we sign him up, he gets nunchucks. I'm a little scared of this and may have to keep them in a "safe place" when he's not in class. His brother should be a little scared too...

Advocating For Other's Webinar on WEGO Health

Monday August 29 at 8-9pm EST I'll be participating in the WEGO Health webinar "Advocating For Other's". As a parent of a food allergic child (who happens to have no food allergies herself), I do this every day. Some days I'm better at it than others, but it's always there.

Some of the topics we'll be discussing are how to:

We’ll discuss how to:
* Educate yourself as a caregiver for your child
* Empower yourself to advocate for someone else
* How to advocate for others as a caregiver
* Prepare yourself (and your child) for the outside world – school, other people, etc.
* Make a difference but stay healthy yourself
* Go from caregiver to activist


This Webinar is free and open to anyone who advocates for others, may have to advocate for a child in the future, or who just wants to learn more.

I hope you'll join us!

To RSVP for the Webinar, go here.

To learn more about the Webinar, go here.

Great Lakes Science Museum

Trying to get in as much activity before school, I took the boys to the Science Museum today. They Loved It! We actually went through it (about 4 hours) with no fighting or bickering. We may have to go back more often. We also saw the movie Tornado Alley on the Imax Theater. They loved that. Too bad we had a storm last night and they were terrified that tornado's were coming... And we went on William G Mather. Over all I think they had a lot fun and learned a lot too.

The boys on the moon

Some days I feel like I'd like to send them into space.... ;)

Future Flight Attendant

In front of the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. It was so windy that Older Boy had to hold on his glasses. And a word to the wise: Don't wear a dress on The Mather when it's windy out. You may end up "mooning" the Browns Stadium by accident. I'm just saying....

Browns Stadium

How do we drive this thing?

He didn't actually do it, but he thought he was being funny...

This is his "I hate Grain" face. Only from a child allergic to wheat, rye, barley, and oat.

A good time was had by all.

What Else Have We Been Up To Lately ?

1st salsa of the season. Yum!

The garden is producing cukes and zucchini like crazy. I made Refrigerator Pickles. It hasn't been a week yet, so we haven't tried them. I hope they are good. I also made Smitten Kitchen's Ratatouille. Best Ever!



Finishing out swim team. This past week was the last meet and the Championship. Our team came in 1st. Yay us!

Soccer camp starts today. It's in the evening and I don't know how knowledgeable they are about food allergies and the Epi pen. I've downloaded a new book to my Kindle so I have something to read while I sit there for 2.5 hours. I'm anticipating that their food allergy knowledge may be nil and I'm prepared to sit. As a food allergy mom of a young child, it's what we do.

We are set on uniforms and school supplies, but we need shoes now. Hopefully this week.

Visiting Farmers Markets. In Ohio, the growing season produces all at once and that time is now. We are enjoying fresh fruits and veggies (our garden is small and only produces so much so we supplement locally).

Reading! Since vacation I've been reading a lot.

Books so far:

Beach Trees by Karen White

The House on Tradd Street by Karen White

The Girl On Legare Street by Karen White (book 2 in the Tradd Street series)

Learning To Breathe by Karen White

Carolina Rain by Nancy Brewer

Apparently I really like Karen White. I've also read On Folly Beach, The Memory Of Water, and The Color Of Light (read these 3 last summer).

Next Up:

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton.

All of these books are good summer beach reading. Will let you know about the Kate Morton book.

I've also cut down on my on-line time. I'm no longer with WEGO Health and Twitter has taken a back seat. Yes, my blogging is down too but that should change once the boys get back to school. I'd like to get back to basics.

I'm going to enjoy every minute of the next few weeks until the boys go back to school. Time is flying by.

More New Products From Enjoy Life

A few weeks ago Enjoy Life sent us their new crunchy cookies to try. As soon as we got them, the boys and I were like Cookie Monsters ripping open each box and sampling each cookie. You can see all of the cookies HERE.

WE LOVE THEM!

The Crunchy Chocolate Chip cookies reminds me of a Chips Ahoy type cookie only better. This cookie was our favorite.

The Sugar Cookies is just the right amount of sugar and crunch. This one is a close second.

The Double Chocolate cookies are a hit also. Who doesn't like double chocolate??

The Vanilla Honey Graham came in last place in our taste test, but it was still a yummy cookie. The Next time we make S'Mores, we're going to try using this cookie as an allergen friendly graham "cracker".

Not only have we finished the samples that we were sent, but we've purchased more. These have to be the best pre-made allergy friendly cookies we've had so far.

To see more about the new line of cookies:

Enjoy Life Crunchy Cookies

To see all of the Enjoy Life products visit the home page

To see what Enjoy Life is "free of", Click Here

Enjoy!

(Enjoy Life sent us 4 boxes of cookies at no cost for review purpose only)