And this is AFTER many HOURS of breaking down Barbie Doll boxes, digging through bags to make sure we aren’t throwing away instruction manuals, picking up every little twisty tie, wading through a sea of chocolate wrappers and broken candy canes. 🤣🎄 I tried this year. While we were opening gifts, we would pause between “rounds” to throw all the boxes and wrapping paper into a massive pile by the kitchen trash can. We would take the allotted 12+ minutes to cut the toy out of the, what I’m assuming is, military grade plastic using my sewing scissors and husband using his pocket knife. (Dad Mode❤️) After hours of work,…
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Albanese Candy Factory
We recently visited the Albanese Confectionery in Merrillville IN. 🍭🏭 Address: 1910 W 81st AveMerrillville, IN 46410United States It was my own fault for imagining it would be like taking a magical tour of Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory, but I was surprised by how chill and low key the place was. I should say, the ATMOSPHERE was chill and low key, NOT my experience… We made this one of our “stretch your legs” pitstops about 3 hours in to our 6 Hour Rd. trip that day. So the kids were feeling WILD and restless, and I handed them each $10 and let them buy whatever they wanted 😳 That was…
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Switchyard Park in Bloomington IN
Coolest. Park. Ever 😎👍 We visited Switchyard Park in Bloomington today. It’s brand new which totally adds to the charm. It wasn’t “packed,” but it was definitely busy, and we went around 10am on a Thursday. They have a nice and cool covered picnic area, so definitely plan ahead for that. Thankfully I brought a gloriously cold and delicious iced tea from Starbucks or we all would’ve had a heat stroke 😅🥵 The playground area is pretty much all fenced in aside from a couple places where it opens up to walking/hiking paths. Definitely watch out for that if you have wildlings like I do. There was a moment when…
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The Day My Daughter Learned About Racism
I remember the moment my daughter learned about racism. The exact moment.
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Becky’s Museum of Useless Clutter
Marie Kondo will agree, you can let go of the sentimental clutter. Here’s how I did it
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A Reader in Bloom
SuperSnap has come such a long way in her reading. I have a hard time relating because I LOVED to read and tested out of HIGH SCHOOL in reading when I was a first grader. 😳 (no one knows how I even learned, it was a TOTAL mystery) 🤷♀️ So, when my brilliant and beautiful daughter proclaimed that she didn’t enjoy reading, I scraped and scrapped every possible avenue to help her enjoy reading. I tried everything. Reading reward charts, incentives, silly stories, reading to dogs…The only thing I couldn’t properly manufacture at home was REAL peer competition, an obvious struggle for a rural homeschooling family. This kid thrives on…
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Flatwoods Park and Wetlands
This Labor Day we took the chance to spend some family time together having a small picnic and nature walk at Flatwoods Park and Wetlands in Ellettsville IN. There is a nice playground, covered picnic shelters, restroom and guided/paved hiking trail. This was easy to take a stroller along with sleeping baby. The paths are dotted with informational signs explaining the wetlands. Not that my kids cared, they were more into the benches and resting spots. Haha. We found some nice leaves 🍁 Hard to believe they are already starting to turn colors and fall. It’s nice to take the kids away from the screens and noise to spend some…
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Build-A-Bear and CHILL
So, Build-A-Bear is like, this magical DIY toy store that children of today are blessed with. We didn’t have BAB when I was a kid, not that I would’ve ever been allowed to step foot into their store because we were poor as beans and I was a total spazz who would’ve undoubtedly knocked over a display of teddy bear roller skates while practicing my cartwheels in the store trying to get “discovered” by a talent scout…anywho. Some kids get to go, and that’s a total blast for them. (Hip-Hip-Hooray!) Today, this magical toy store decided to offer a super cool special. They called it “Pay Your Age Day.” This…
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Pantene Beautiful Lengths
Why we chose Pantene Beautiful Lengths for our hair donation
