Engage With Your Kids

Summer is coming to a close.  We are soaking in the last few days and weeks in our house.  Yesterday I spent 30 minutes playing play dough with my daughter.  Today we spent the entire day in a wet swim suit at the water park.

The list below came from our local library.  I love it so much, I decided to post it here.  All of these things can be done throughout the year with your children.  Life with our children doesn't just have to happen during the summer.  Sometimes I find myself striving to check of the "summer fun list" but the truth is my children and I need fun throughout the year.


One of my sweetest friends said these words to me one day regarding her four children.....

"I'm going to make their childhood magical if it kills me"!

Those words stuck with me.  They made me laugh right out loud.  And they echo in my mind when days are hard.  I only have an allotted amount of time with my children.  Why wouldn't I work my hardest to make it magical?!  Magical doesn't have to be big and extravagant and over the top at all times.  Magical can be as simple as the list below.  I believe magical happens when I ENGAGE with my children.  When they know they have MOMMY present 100%.  Those are the moments I believe they will remember as magical.  I have enlarged my most favorite in the list below.  

Visit the library

Play blocks with your child

Read wordless books with your child

Make animal noises together

Look at a picture dictionary together

Sing songs about your day

Talk about the weather with your child. What kind of days do they like best?

Sing counting songs, such as “One, Two, Buckle my Shoe.”

Visit the grocery store with and talk about the many colors you see

Read a nonfiction book with your child

Talk about what is going on around you

Ask your child many questions

Read a story about your child’s favorite animal

Share a story about your childhood

Make a snack together by using a recipe

Do fingerplays and action rhymes any time

Let your child make music with various kitchen items

Read your child a bedtime story

Count with your child as you drive in the car

Make an alphabet book

Collect leaves together and sort them by size and color

Put a puzzle together with your child

Go on a color walk together and point things out that are red, green, etc

Sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” together

Dance with your child

A Date With My Daughter

A few weeks ago our older kids went to see their grandparents.  That left my husband and me with just one baby.  We laughed at how difficult we once thought one baby was.  Now we see life differently and having one baby in our house felt like a vacation.

"Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds".

Proverbs 27:23

We enjoyed our baby and our time together and lots of days sleeping in.  Our baby slept until 8:30 most mornings (so not the norm with our other two 7am risers).  We enjoyed our baby in ways we never knew.  He had our undivided attention 24/7.  He learned things about us and we learned things about him.

It made us think a lot about our children's needs for one on one time with us.  It made us think a lot about our needs for one on one time with our children.  We even talked about once a year letting them each have a week at home as the only child.

While our daughter was away, she kept telling her MiMi that she and her mommy go on dates.  We do go on dates.  I really try hard to do something with just "the girls" even if it is just a trip to the grocery store.  When she returned home from MiMi's first thing she asked was to go on a date with mommy.

So we ate dinner one night with the boys and then jumped in the car for a mommy/daughter date.  She chose the library and a few swings and twirls in the park.  I helped her finish out her date by suggesting milk and a cake pop at Starbucks.  Mommy always enjoys an excuse for a cup of coffee.

We had the best time.  She held my hand and I held hers back with deep intentionality (not just trying to save her from the cars in the parking lot).  We skipped.  She looked up at me and said, "I love you mommy and our just girl dates".  She checked scanned books out at the library.  I pushed her in the swing at the park and enjoyed her little giggle.  We danced in the parks open field and when she had to go the bathroom (cause don't they always) we raced to see who could get there the fastest.

She carefully selected her milk at Starbucks and asked the lady for no less than a pink cake pop.  When we got to the table she sat across from me, took one bite out of the cake pop and said, "This is so good.  Mommy would you like a bite"?  I love how she savors every moment and is extremely generous.

Intentional.  That is what I want to be with my children.  It is easy to lose who they are individually in the mundane of our everyday.  It is easy for me to wish they were just all the same and fit them into a box nicely.  But they are all very different from one another.  I don't want to miss out on who they are.  I don't want to miss out on their dreams.  I do not want to miss out on the little detail of each one of them.

Dates with your children don't have to cost one penny.  At the end of the day there is no amount of money that can replace the time we spent with our children.  Dates with your children are most fun when you let them choose how to spend the time together.  It may not be the most fun activity for you but will give you deep insight into what is going on in their little mind.

God's been speaking to me a lot about the intentional individual time I spend with my children.  He has been talking to me a lot about not lumping them together.  For me, a once a month intentional date with my children is what I can balance right now.

What about you?  Do you spend intentional individual time with your children?  What does it look like?  How often do you do it?  How has it changed your relationship with him/her?  What ways do you hope it will change your relationship with him/her?

Deals and Steals: Sibling Shirts

I have been eyeing a few Etsy sites for "sibling" shirts for when #3 makes his debut.  

I have even considered having some shirts monogrammed.  

But, in all honesty the price makes me think twice.  

I could use that $60 plus dollars for diapers!

When I was in Hobby Lobby last week, I happened upon these "iron-on"

 BIG SISTER, BIG BROTHER, and LITTLE BROTHER packages.  

For $1.99 each, I could not pass them up.

Made by SEI Crafts out of Utah

Here is the package just in case you want/need 

to find them somewhere else than Hobby Lobby.

I picked up a white t-shirt for my daughter.  

I had a hard time finding a white t-shirt for my son, but ended up with one with a pocket. 

 I simply removed the pocket with a seam ripper.  

And baby boy has tons of solid white onesies.

I followed the directions on the package and VIOLA!  

Sibling shirts for $14.00!  

Which leaves me $46.00 left over for diapers. 

Pretty good deal if you ask me.

 For #3

For #1

For #2

I am really SOOOOO Excited to see them in these!