B is for...

... bundles of blessings! Between the events in CT and the holidays, I've been soaking in every cuddle and giggle I can. I decided to spend all of my time celebrating with my family and save this blog for today. I know all of you have also been counting your blessings. I pray that you had a blessed Christmas with loved ones.

On to letter B... There are so many things to do with this letter!

Places to go that start with B:
*towns/cities in the area
*Bass Pro Shop
*Big Creek Beach (or any other beach near you)
*Bandana's BBQ
*Baskin Robbins
*Bennigans
*Bravo! Italian Cucina
*Burger King
*Backyard Adventures (indoor jungle gyms)
*baseball games
*Berry Patch Farm (local pick-your-own berries place)
*bike trails
*Blank Park Zoo
*book stores
*Build-a-Bear
*butterfly garden/house
*parks that start with B (ex. Big Creek State Park, Boulder Brook Park, Briarwood Park, etc.)
*Brookside Park in Ames has a neat little footbridge and splashpark
*Brucemore Mansion in Cedar Rapids

Things to do that begin with B:
*baking (not typically a summertime activity, but kids love it)
*blindfolded obstacle course (teaches children to listen well and trust each other or you)
*blow up balloons
*go to a barn
*play baseball or basketball (or any other "ball" game)
*Beyblades (fancy top-like spinning toys)
*ride bikes
*wear clothes that are black, blue, or brown
*board games (Backgammon, Balderdash, Battleship, Blurt!, Boggle, Bridge)
*play with, look at, or ride a boat
*read books that start with B (Berenstain Bears books or Big Fat Enormous Lie)
*go to a botanical center/garden
*go bowling
*braid hair
*blow bubbles
*watch movies that start with B (Babe and Beauty & the Beast are instant favorites)
*listen to music (songs or singers that start with B): Justin Roberts' "Billy the Bully," "Big Field Trip," "Best Friend," "Bigger," "Backyard Spaceship," "Brontosaurus Got a Sweet Tooth," "Bouncin' Baby," or "Bigger Fish to Fry," or Red Grammer's "Barnyard Boogie," Barry Manilow, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Backstreet Boys, Bruno Mars, etc. ;)
*draw a picture with colors that start with B (like beige, black, blue, blue-green, blue-violet, bronze, brown, burgundy, burnt sienna, burnt umber)
*play dates with friends whose names start with B (we're played with Brek, Brock, and Bryan)
*watch TV shows like Babar, The Backyardigans, or Bob the Builder

Foods that start with B:
bacon
Babybel cheese (my kids LOVE these!)
Baby Ruth bars
bagels/bagel bits
bologna
banana bread
bananas
BBQ
baked beans (or any other kind of beans)
beef/beef jerky
bell peppers
biscuits
blackberries
black licorice
black olives
blondies
BLTs
blueberries
bon bons
Boston cream pie
bratwurst (on buns!)
bread
bread sticks
brisket
broccoli
brown rice
brownies
Bruschetta
Bugles
bundt cake
burgers (on buns!)
burritos
Butterfingers
butterscotch

Bible verses I've used that begin with words starting with letter B:
"Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless - that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing." 1 Peter 3:8-10.
"But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently." Romans 8:25.
"Being punished isn't enjoyable while it's happening - it hurts! But afterwards we can see the result, a quiet growth in grace and character." Hebrews 12:11.

The only found object that resembled a letter B during #1's photography summer was my sunglasses. I included that picture in an earlier blog, but here it is again. If you find things that look more like a B, please share them! :)

Coming soon: letter C!

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

A is for...

... an absolute abundance of ideas! I am finally getting to the alphabet. :)

One thing I have had my soon-to-be-kindergartners do is practice writing each letter as we come to it. I buy them a lined practice notebook (the kind with a dotted line to show them where the lowercase letters start). They practice a line of the capital letter and a line of the lowercase letter. Then we brainstorm people we know who have names that start with that letter and they write those names. If we can't think of many people with that initial, we think of places that start with that letter. I try to limit it to proper names, but you certainly wouldn't have to do that. This last summer I wanted to keep my oldest occupied in an educational way while his sister practiced her letters. I gave him a notebook and had him list as many words as he could think of that started with that particular letter.

Below is a list of things that we have done in our ABC summers, plan to do for #3's big summer, or things that I've considered doing. There are so many foods, restaurants, local landmarks, historical locations, parks, etc. that can be used for ABC summer plans. Of course, your locale will determine the names of many places.

Places to go that start with A:
*towns/cities
*the Amana Colonies (a historical group of towns in Eastern Iowa)
*Applebee's
*Arby's
*Auntie Anne's pretzels
*airport
*Animal Rescue League
*art center
*art store
*art festival
*parks that start with A (ex. Ashby Park)
*playgrounds at schools that begin with A (ex. Ashland Meadows)
*amusement parks (the nearest one to us happens to be named Adventureland)

Things to do that begin with A:
*arm wrestle
*board games like Aggravation or Apples to Apples
*read ABC books or books that begin with A (Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and Are You My Mother? are classics)
*draw a picture using colors that start with A (amber, amethyst, aqua, etc.)
*watch movies that start with A (Annie)
*listen to music (either songs or singers that start with A) - we're partial to Justin Roberts' songs like "Airplane of Food," "All Eyes on You," "Apple Tree," "A, B, C, D, E,"  or Dan Zane's "All Around the Kitchen"
*play dates with friends whose names start with A (we have friends named Aimee, Austin, Averie, Ava, Anya, Audrey... you get the idea)
*watch kids' shows that start with A (Arthur)

Foods to eat that begin with A:
almonds
Almond Joy
alphabet soup
Alphabits cereal
angel food cake
angel hair pasta
animal crackers
ants on a log (raisins on PB or cream cheese spread on celery sticks)
apples
Apple Jacks cereal
apple pie
applesauce
apricots
artichokes
asparagus
avocado

Finally, I try to find at least one Bible verse for each letter than I can incorporate somehow. Sometimes I choose by the name of the book in the Bible (for instance, we could read from the book of Acts). Once in a while I select one of my favorite verses just because first word begins with a certain letter (ex. "All athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize." 1 Corinthians 9:25). Usually, though, I choose a verse based on the category under which I have filed it (I keep a notebook of index cards on which I list favorite verses under categories that I feel will help me teach my children our family values). For example, I have an "attentiveness" category and an "attitude" category. My favorite from that is, "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength." Proverbs 17:22. I also have a few categories to pull out when the children need to be disciplined on a certain topic. Under "arguing," I have Philippians 2:14, "In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing." My kids love it when I pull out my little book. ;)

Here are the photos #1 took of found objects that looked like the letter A:

So, the notes I make for myself about each letter's activities looks something like this:

Monday - have a picnic including apples at Ashland Meadows; meet Aimee, Austin and Averie at Ashby Park this afternoon
Tuesday - have applesauce at snack time; lunch at Arby's; play Aggravation
Wednesday - snack on animal crackers while enjoying Annie

I typically attempt to have two or three letter related activities each day. Like I mentioned in previous posts, you will need to remain flexible. Weather interferes and people get sick, so not everything will work out as planned. If you don't get to all of your ideas, keep the list for future summers! Feel free to comment if you have even more ideas.

Next up: letter B!

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

Photography, Books, and Food... Oh my!

Just in case you're not quite as gung ho about the ABC summer idea as I am, I thought I'd give you a few alternatives. As I said in my first post, after going all out that first summer (2009), I decided to take it a little easier the next couple summers. It just happens that there are two summers in between each of the big blowout ABC summers before kindergarten in our family.

My oldest developed a huge interest in photography when he was 4. We had given him my old Canon point and shoot right before his baby sister was born (it was on its last leg... but it then lasted a couple more years for him). Surprisingly, he was a pretty natural photographer. While he was in kindergarten, I decided to focus our next ABC summer on photography. I thought it would be fun to try finding letters in everyday items, so we took his camera everywhere we went that summer. Most of the letters we found were around our house or yard, or in area parks. Here are a few examples (I'll share more when I get to the individual letters).

Yes, some letters were more difficult than others. Obviously, the "A" is from our step ladder. That letter "B" from my sunglasses was a bit of a stretch, but we never found any other "B"s anywhere. The "C" was from a bag holder I had clipped on our stroller. At the end of the summer, I made my son a digital scrapbook of all the photos he'd taken of found letters. Then I used mpix.com to print the letters of his name on 8"x8" square pieces of foamcore and hung his name over his desk as a surprise for his birthday that fall. There are companies that sell framed names or words from found letters. I was just introduced to alphabetphotography.com this past spring when I was looking for a unique wedding gift for my brother-in-law. They sell artwork made from found photographs (mostly in architecture); I ordered the happy couple a framed piece featuring their last name. This company does beautiful work.

I have already decided that the summers after #2 & #3 finish kindergarten will also be photography based. For my daughter's ABC summer photos, we are going to create the letters using objects that begin with each letter. We think it will be fun to make an A from apple slices, a B from buttons or beads, a C from crayons, etc. She brings up this idea every once in a while and we brainstorm different things we can use for the letters. Should be fun! The idea I have for our youngest's ABC photography summer is to find the letters on distinctive signs at popular places or landmarks around our metro area. I plan to make them each a digital scrapbook and hang their names above their desks, as well.

The summer after #1 finished 1st grade, we focused our ABC summer on books. We made lots of trips to the library and hunted down several books that started with each letter of the alphabet. Some were trickier to find than others (Q and X, for instance), but we found at least two for each. I will try to include a few titles that we used when I post about individual letters. This was a fun way to become more acquainted with our library's offerings and to read a variety of books that we likely would not have otherwise selected.

I do have plans for the summer after #2 finishes 1st grade (are you really surprised?) and yes, even for the summer after #3's 1st grade year. We will spend #2's summer trying foods that start with each letter of the alphabet. Again, this will be a challenge for some letters, but I'm confident that if we search hard enough, we can do it. Thank goodness for Google. Hopefully this will be a fun way to get the children interested in trying new foods. My oldest two have always been good eaters and really very brave about trying things. My youngest is a different story. Perhaps he will change a lot in the next year and a half. If not, he may despise this ABC summer idea. The year he finishes 1st grade, we're going to have a geography theme. We will make road trips to towns around here that start with different letters. We'll also talk about all the different states and we'll discuss countries that start with each letter. Knowing my oldest, he'll be making maps for us that summer.

The big question in my head is whether we will stop after that summer or not. I'd kind of like to do one more major ABC summer. My children all have the little National Parks passports that you can buy in any of the park gift shops. I think it would be fun to see how many of those pages we could get stamped that summer (of course, by attempting to hit at least one place for each letter of the alphabet). That may require a lot of traveling, but we do all enjoy taking trips together. It's just a thought for now, but I like the idea of it. Now if I could just turn off my brain for a bit and relax...

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

Creative vs. Crafty

I don't know about you, but I have never considered myself a crafty person. I have avoided joining Pinterest because I know two things: 1) it will be yet another time suck in my life, and 2) I will feel inferior and inadequate compared to everyone on there. However, I do believe that I am creative.

I've always needed to have a creative outlet in my life. My favorite is writing. I love to write letters (actual hand-written letter sent by snail-mail!), journals for my children (I plan to give the journals to them for graduation someday), short stories, and even one fictionalized biography of my dad and his family (which I may never choose to publish). I've been a contributor to our state's largest newspaper, and I've written for an online magazine in the past. Many people have asked in recent years why I don't blog... I guess I didn't feel like I had anything to blog about until now.

There are other "artsier" ways that I like to be creative. Painting and drawing used to be passions of mine. I've been known to give my paintings as wedding and Christmas gifts. When I was a senior in high school, I was commissioned by my hometown librarian to paint a scene of her husband's childhood farm. She then had it framed in boards that had been salvaged from the century old barn on that farm. I'd still love to paint, but it's difficult to find time or space to do that with three children. I have also done calligraphy on the invitations for several graduations and weddings. With all of the fancy fonts out there, this is not a talent that is requested very often anymore.

So, the creative outlet I use the most nowadays is scrapbooking. My sister invited me to a Close to My Heart party about 8 years ago, and I've been hooked ever since. I'm nowhere near as talented at it as many others (including my sister), but I really enjoy it. My point in all of this creativity blather is that I highly recommend documenting your ABC summers in one way or another. My method of choice is to scrapbook our adventures for each child.

You will not see many photos of my children on this blog. I'm not only anal, but also paranoid about having my children's pictures online. You also will not see my children's given names on here. I'll likely refer to them by their initials or as #1, #2, and #3. That said, I am posting the scrapbook pages that I created for our first blowout ABC summer in 2009. I used the same layout for both children, but changed the look somewhat.

I have yet to do layouts for last summer's big ABC extravaganza. First of all, I haven't found another layout that will hold 26 photos and journaling. Secondly, it took me a lot of hours to make the 2009 pages and I know I have three layouts to do this time. And thirdly, I just haven't frankly found the time to scrapbook at all since July!  But, I will get there. I've never been more than a year behind in my scrapbooking and I don't plan to start now. That said, if any of you have seen layout ideas that will hold that many photos, I'd be ever-so-grateful if you would share those with me. 

Maybe you are a crafty person. You can probably come up with a Pinterest-worthy craft to record your ABC summer. More power to you! I love seeing everyone else's crafts. I'll post our 2012 ABC summer scrapbook pages when I finally get to them. Being the anal mom that I am, I insist on scrapbooking my pages in chronological order, and I'm up to my daughter's 5th birthday last March. I still have a few more to do before I get to the summer months. ;)

Crafty or creative... I look forward to seeing and hearing how others will document their ABC summers! (And I promise only one more post is coming before I start with the letter "A!")

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

The Joys of Being Anal

So, it occurred to me in bed last night that my first post didn't really expose my "real" self very much. Before I get into the letters, I need to let you get to know me a little better. This post could be titled, "Confessions of a Control Freak," and I've always been orally fixated (I was a thumb sucker and I often have gum in my mouth if I'm not eating), so I'm not sure how it is that I became anal. My parents refuse to take responsibility for my strange behaviors...

As much as my parents deny raising me to be this way, I can remember being anal even as a child. My books were in alphabetical order on my bookshelves and I was a list-maker at an early age. Now, I definitely went through a crazy messy phase when my dad couldn't stand to even look in the disaster that was my room. However, I still had many anal tendencies (sadly, I see my oldest going through this organized chaos phase right now). As a teenager, I was an excellent note taker in school (I also excelled at note writing, a skill that has been lost to today's youth as they only know how to text). My cassette tapes and books at home were alphabetized. Yes, cassette tapes. I finally got a CD player my senior year, and of course, I promptly organized my CDs in the "correct" order.

I like to believe that my husband has mellowed me out some over the years. He's known me since I was 14, so he fell in love with me in all my anal glory. In our home, I'd really like to have our spices alphabetized. In fact, I do organize them this way once a year. They stay that way until the next time he uses one of the spices. It's all downhill from there. I do refrain from reorganizing every time I open the cabinet, though. That would be a little too OCD, even for me.

Truly, though, it has been my children that have made me relax a bit. Not my firstborn... He was just as organized as I am until approximately 1st grade when he became a borderline hoarder. When he was an only child, he would put his books and toys right back where they belonged as soon as he finished with them. I knew exactly how many pieces had come with each toy and they could all be accounted for. Number two (our daughter) was a whirling dervish as soon as she could crawl. This girl could pull off everything she could reach from any shelf in a matter of mere seconds. I actually bought one of those big, folding, expandable gates to put up in front of our family library to keep her out until she was old enough to understand that every book and toy had a "proper" place in the room.

It was #3 that God used to get in my face and yell, "You are not in control of everything, Nikki!" I'd felt out of control as we went through fertility treatments to conceive our first two children. Then they were born healthy and were easy babies, and I thought I had everything under control. When #2 was a little over two years old, after much discussion, I made the executive decision that our family was officially complete. I sold most of our baby items at a friend's garage sale in June that year and I told everyone we knew that we were done. On July 20th, I found out that I was six weeks pregnant. Yep. God was reminding me that executive decisions were not in my job description. Once #3 was born and moving around, I gave up keeping track of toys in the house. Sometimes these days I find a toy that I didn't even know we owned!

Here are a few ways that I am still a nut job (for your pure enjoyment - feel free to laugh with me)...

1.  All of our children have names that are places, two syllables, and end with  "n."
2.  I'm a freak about numbers. Every important date in our family is related to  10, 13, or 16. Don't believe me? Check it out: 

• My husband's birthday is 3/7 (3+7=10)
• My birthday is 6/10 (not only the 10th, but also 6+10=16)
• We began dating on the 16th of December
• Our wedding anniversary the 16th of August (the only of these dates that we chose)
• #1 was due on the 13th, and born on the 16th of September (not the same year we married, for those that were curious)
• #2 was born on 3/13 (not only the 13th, but also 3+13=16)
• #3 was due on his dad's birthday, but born on 3/10 (not only the 10th like his mom, but also 3+10=13)

     3.     I created a cleaning schedule that I follow (certain chores each day, 

             more of a focus on certain rooms each month)

          4.     I love any kind of routine or schedule. This is why I felt like a mad 

                  woman every time we had a newborn. 

          5.     I've always kept a list of books I've read and movies I've seen. Now I 

                  use goodreads.com to keep track of my book list and netflix for the 

                  movies I want to see. Need numbers? I have 187 books on my to-read 

                  shelf and 229 movies on my to-see list. 

          6.     Other random lists I have... plays/musicals I've seen, places I've traveled, 

                  places I want to visit in the future, birthday themes for my children's 

                  birthdays, ideas for gifts to give my children for Christmas or 

                  birthdays, etc. I could go on and on. Really. 

There you have it. This should give you a small idea of how I go all out during the big ABC summers in this household. I may be crazy, but I love this sort of thing. :) Stay tuned for a post about how I scrap book the ABC summers to preserve our memories. I promise to get to the letters one day soon!

P.S. Speaking of being anal, the formatting on this post is driving me nuts. I can't get it to look just the way I want... But since I've been letting my 2-1/2 year old play Candyland by himself for the last hour, I'd better leave well enough alone!

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

Beating the Dreaded Brain Drain

Ah, summer. As a child, I couldn't wait for it! Sleeping in, endless hours at the pool, playing outside, staying up late, no homework to worry about, no cares at all. As a parent, my views changed once my oldest was in preschool. I wasn't consciously dreading that summer, but all it took was one fellow mom speaking at our local MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group to make me realize that I had an underlying fear: how to entertain my son all summer (while also taking care of his little sister)... I was exhausted just thinking about it.

The topic of that MOPS meeting was basically finding things to do during the summer months. I honestly hadn't put much thought into it before that morning. Then Alice stood up and shared that she liked to incorporate the alphabet into their family summer activities. I remember the example she gave was that a trip to Omaha would naturally become a study of the letter "O." A light bulb went off in my brain and I jotted a single note on my paper: "ABC summer." I spent the next couple of weeks mulling ideas in my head. Then I spent three days straight during Memorial Day weekend laying out our summer of activities on the calendar. My son's preschool was ending that Wednesday, and our first A day would begin immediately thereafter. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to make the most of his final summer before starting grade school.

My goal was to spend two or three days on each letter of the alphabet and cram in as many things that started with those letters as possible. Sounds insane, right? Maybe, but we had a blast and he never once complained of boredom (thank goodness since the phrase, “I’m bored,” is not allowed in our home). Some of my friends and family call me anal (don’t worry, I've been called worse). I loved going into each week knowing what fun things we’d be doing every day. I did learn to be flexible as some outdoor activities were rained out or play dates were canceled due to illnesses, but in general, the summer went as planned. No doubt about it, the planning was a lot of work. As we finished each letter, I made notes on my word program about ideas for the next big ABC summer.

The next spring, though, I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to go all out like that every year. At the time, I had a two-year-old, so I made the decision to keep the big ABC summers for that critical year leading up to kindergarten for each child. But I really still wanted to do something with the alphabet every year.

So, on this blog, I will not only highlight numerous ideas for blowout ABC summers, but also give suggestions for ABC summers that require less planning. There are so many ways one can go with this. I had so much fun coming up with all of these ideas, and I was encouraged by friends to share them with other parents in a book. I'm going to test the waters on this blog first. I'll be posting ideas for each letter first and foremost, and then I will post about other ways to focus an ABC summer. Look for a new post every few days.

I hope I'll be able to help you beat brain drain with fun, educational activities!