The Climb is Never too Steep - A Message of Never Giving Up

If I was a quitter, I would have quit a long time ago at a time where I was miserable, making one mistake after another. This included marrying the wrong guy, crying myself to sleep almost every night and just really hating who I was as a person which seems oh so long long ago!

Over the last 25 years though, I have crafted a life of knowing who I am and being very transparent of who I am. Honesty of our life is freely shared and I have nothing truly to hide. I am confident, intense and passionate about the life we live. I love to share everything we experience for the chance it may inspire or help others.

I may change plans and dreams due to circumstance, but I don't quit, I don't give up and I certainly do not allow my family to quit either. We adapt.

In this past year we have moved crossed country, lost my sweet mama as well as several of her brothers and sisters, we became homeless by choice, took a huge cut in income, discovered a brain tumor right before it killed me, and have had to seek help in a variety of ways.

However, we also have fell head over heels in love with Oregon, met the most amazing people and families, went to Spokane Washington and the wonderful Portland Oregon. We drove up to see Crater Lake when snow was still on the surrounding mountains around the lake. Which is good because now it is smoke filled from a fire in that area with an entrance closed off and one of the roads in closed off as well. We have explored our wonderful new town where we go for everything and they have the coolest shops! We are being sheltered in a small studio for the most incredible, big hearted folk you can imagine while we get treatment for myself and try to pull together our financial resources to find our own place. We have gone to some amazing parks and seeing the Rogue River daily is just amazing.


I never see our circumstances as a bad thing, just another step in our journey with so many beautiful things to keep fighting for. Or should I say flowing for , because is that really what a journey is? A beautiful flowing dance of good and bad? But what defines bad as bad? Is cancer bad? No, not really it is no different than what someone else would see as bad, just a different obstacle is all. Truly the really only bad thing I would agree with would be something awful happening to a mother and fathers child.

Debt, car loss, home loss, terminal or chronic illness...........I refuse to quit, it is just not worth quitting and is just a small obstacle one must creatively figure out while they continue to seek joy daily.

Learn to dance in the rain or smell spring flowers, laugh...oh  I can not stress laughter enough!

A daily Mantra should be "I can do this, yes I can!"

I simply just don't take giving up as an option, I just have way too much to live for and what I do TODAY is what matters. TODAY I choose to fight for our joy and always be full of gratitude.

Have a marvelously inspired fun filled weekend everyone!

Carrie Hetu

CarriesUnschoolers Campout 2014 Photos

If you have good neighbors and at least an acre of land with online connections to other Unschoolers, I highly recommend hosting a week long camp out event!

I am really late getting this up as it was  the first week in September we held it but it was unbelievably the best time EVER!

It was truly an incredible experience getting to connect with other unschooling families that I had made deep connections online with for the past year and a half.

4 families and one friend of a family all showed up for a total of 18 people here including my family for the course of the week. 

They pitched their tents in the yard and the teens spent a lot of time in doors playing video games and baking brownies, periodically coming out to visit around the camp fire with us. 

Since everyone who came were unschoolers, the meshing of similar philosophies and parenting styles provided a rich and safe environment for all the kids to be themselves in total freedom of being themselves in a very laid back comfortable environment.

My husband who does not do anything on the computer was able to connect with other adults on his 9 days he had taken off work and totally appreciated the interaction with some of the most kindest, down to earth, fun loving people you had ever met.

This was right after a liver sectioning biopsy surgery I had and this was the fun week we desperately needed at the time.

The intellectual conversations, teens speaking their views, campfire games and so much laughter your sides hurt  with amazing food and company was the most amazing experience we have had in a very long time!

We had three 3 year olds and 5 kids aged 12 , 13, 14, 16 and 19.........so a perfect crowd!

It was truly AMAZING!

I can NOT WAIT to  host another one!

Hosting a Camp out in September!

When most will be going back to school, I am so excited to be hosting an Undead/Unschooling week long camp out in September!  I have made some of the most wonderful connections with some of the most amazing woman and families through my journey with breast cancer combined with our unschooling lifestyle that I am beyond grateful for this chance to have invited them and host a camp out.

I have formed some extremely deep online connections for a year and a half now since I reached out at the beginning of my diagnosis. They were my life line while I not only fought for my life, but struggled with feelings of guilt and a desire to give up our unschooling lifestyle as well. It took me a little to renew my faith and energy in unschooling through a terminal illness, in the end I embraced it and so grateful we did not give up! These beautiful souls, pulled me along while I could not get out of bed, laughed with me, celebrated my small accomplishments with me, cried with me, cyber hugged me and were always there. This camp out will be our first meeting face to face and I am just excited beyond words at this opportunity.

I had decided, if I could not financially afford traveling, nor would my health allow me to commit to traveling to some of these fantastic unschooling events and conventions than I would host my own! It has been wonderful having everyone pull together to make this happen and they will all be coming to pitch their tents in my yard........and having just a grand old time... what a way to start a brand new year!

Tents, bonfires, good food, fantastic company, lots of laughter, a little wine perhaps, strong coffee, amazing teens, preteens and preschoolers! S,mores, hugs, tears, love and the most incredible, inspiring, fun loving, amazing woman I have met ( there are many more that could not come that we will think of but so happy for the ones that can make it!)

I never underestimate the power of online connections..........they are just as real as meeting someone in person given time to develop the relationships. I have been blessed over many years to have gone on to meet some in person and now I get to meet a whole group at once! This is going to ROCK!

Creative Sprees

Cutie Cube Plushy

Latest Magna Drawing

Dragon

Cooking Pot Sewing Project

Coffee Mug ( tan piece sewn in top for "coffee" you can not see in this photo)

This winter has been LONG and COLD! Becoming bored from being cooped up inside can turn into a creative boom, a frenzy of activities that stem from internal motivation.

I have really enjoyed this frantic spurt from my daughter this winter! 

She has been working on her YouTube channel at Little Kitty treating it very much like a home business. She works really hard at getting videos made, editing them, uploading them and responding to comments. She also works hard at trying to increase her subscribers, so if you have kids that love Webkinz be sure to have them subscribe to her channel!

She also has been watching a variety of YouTube channels which is where she learned to sew the Cutie Cube Plushies that are shown in the photos above, my favorite is the coffee cup! She also made a few that she gave away as gifts before I could take pictures of them. I see an etsy shop coming up in her near future! Better start buying a lot more felt fabric and sewing supplies for her! This is incredible to me because I don't sew and I am not really crafty! She finds inspiration all the time from a variety of sources and it is really amazing to me to watch her start to flourish in her creativity.

Of course drawing is still going on too, 2 photos above show her latest that she would let me photograph, some of her recent drawings she wanted to remain private, so that is all good, I respect her need for privacy. I remember at her age, I use to write a lot of stories and poetry and some of it was very private, not for others to read.

She has been going around giggling at just how busy she is and is going to be AND she is excited about that which of course excites me! 

She also was able to send out and receive quite a few Valentine cards this year and a few pen pals will be coming out of that which is good because she loves to write letters as well as make new friends. She continues to write her older sister in Monster High characters and even in their own coded language. 

February has been a good month!

How has yours been going?

Before Shopping Photos #2

You may remember our Before Shopping Photos a little over a year ago, before receiving SNAP when our monthly grocery amount averaged $250 a month for a family of 5. You can refresh your memory and see that post HERE.

For the last 6 months we have been receiving 575 a month ( which now has gone down for the next 6 months  to $505) for a family of now 4. This is a whole lot of food for us and as you can see, puts us at a much better standing at the end of a grocery term, right before the major shopping day around the 5th of each month.

The first photo shows the  small chest freezer we purchased at the beginning of the year with a 25 pound bag of flour, several bags of homemade stock and some fries. Items were transferred from here to fill the freezer above the refrigerator so that the chest freezer had room for that days shopping.

The next photo is the fridge freezer after the chest freezer had been combined in it. It is full and has no room in it for more. It has frozen fruits,  veggies, a pork loin roast,  a duck, a whole chicken, chicken breasts,  sweet potato fries, pork chops and a steak that was on sale.

The next photo of the refrigerator, well  that is actually pretty empty but has milk, butter, eggs and some condiments left.

Then we get to the cupboards that has oatmeal, sauerkraut, soups, relish, tomato paste, jelly, raisins, and some rice a roni boxes (my sons friend gave us them as it is not something I would buy).  The one cupboard I forgot to take photos of, has fresh potato's, brown rice  and 10 pounds of rolled oats..

All in All I had 2 weeks worth of meals still at the end of the month, breakfasts and dinners were covered, however we were lacking things for lunch  although I could have fudged that for a little by making muffins, waffles, biscuits and banana breads as I have bananas frozen already for that purpose.

As for the duck, my hubby and kids have never had duck before so I wanted to give them that experience as this country girl loves a good duck! While it is pretty expensive, I was able to purchase it due to how frugal I am in general for grocery shopping.  It is in my freezer for a special occasion dinner, and this is the only meat I purchased last month that was not on sale.  All the other meats were drastically reduced and I pick them up through out the month when I see them at the greatly reduced prices which builds up our food  inventory at home.

All in all , the food stamps certainly puts us in a much more comfortable position at the end of a food shopping period and we plan on building up our food  inventory in a very substantial way over the next 6 months when our goal is to get back off of the food stamps.

How long would your food stash last if that was all you had?

Day 2: A Bit of a Fall Clean-up Day

 

 

Day 2 was a pretty busy day as it is fall, hubby was home and it was the start of a fall clean up day. Corin and Shae split the front yard mowing between them. Corin also did dishes and helped daddy make some sense of a neglected shed! Shae also did vacuuming and filling our water jugs as we get it in a large 5 gallon jug and then take that and fill 1 gallon jugs.

 

They both spent an hour reading their library books.

 

They both did a math worksheet......... I actually find this a tad humorous as I got new computer games this year. I tried out the one I installed called Baggin the Dragon and found it to be super fun but Corin told me "You know I like worksheets! I don't want a game!"  Shrugs shoulders....Go Figure! What is a mother to do but go print off some math worksheets then?

 

We also held our Family Financial Meeting which will be a regular Wednesday thing. Here we discuss how much cash we have available, what bills will be due out of that, ask questions related to income and expenses and keep  a book with these financial entries.

 

It may not sound like much but us all working together for fall clean up activities actually took up a large chunk of the day. Me and hubby were working on  things as well like getting all the scrap metal together and taken in for cash, dusting chickens (you dust for parasites) and other odd and ends.

 

It was a good and productive day with perfect weather for such activities!

 

My they are growing up so fast!

Summers End

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So summer is wrapping up and coming to an end, did you enjoy it and have a good time? While it flew by, we certainly had some good times although it was a tad chilly for a typical summer! I am excited about another new year starting with lots of ideas for activities and fun.......... always did love beginnings! At the same time I am enjoying reflecting on some memorable moments we were able to have over this summer.

 

The Middle photo is one of my daughters latest anime works, she loves to draw anime and it is awesome to see her develop her talents. She drew quite a few over the summer and they never cease to surprise me and I never tire of seeing them!

 

The other 2 photos were of a visit to Potters Park Zoo which is in Lansing, Michigan....... while fairly small it was a lovely little zoo and time spent exploring exhibits and enjoying a beautiful day with friends and family.

 

A dear friend was able to come to visit twice bringing our adult daughter with her. Each time staying a few days!

 

My mom and sister visited a few times and even brought my brother from Florida once with them!

 

My mother in law visited a couple times, brought hubby's brother with her once and this weekend even came and took our daughter to spend 3 days with her, she returns tomorrow! While there she will be able to visit her great grandfather too!

 

We were able to take kids to the Movie Theatre 3 times, which is a big deal for us, we have not been to one in like 7 years! We went to see Croods, World War Z and Despicable 2 3D...... awesome!

 

We took the kids to the beach ( finally found a local nice one easy driving distance YEA!) last week, although our son chose not to go, me and our daughter had a blast, I even went in and played with her a little bit! Sadly I forgot my camera though! She met a girl there, and when we left exchanged information and now they are connected on facebook an awesome way to extend and deepen local connections!

 

I have been getting better and energy is once again returning! :) Ta Da!

 

We have gone to thrift stores and turned in video games to Game Stop for the credit to get new games, both activities my kids really enjoy.

 

We have taken the kids out for ice cream twice to Tim Horton's which JUST opened in our town at the beginning of Summer.

 

Our son turned 15

 

Our Daughter turned 12

 

Our dear friends from North Carolina came and stayed a few days with us.

 

We drove into Lansing with them once where they got to see the Capitol building , the first time in a big city for them.

 

It really was a beautiful summer, I hope yours was as well!

Frugal Fun Family Afternoon!

My daughter starts feeling really bored and trapped when we stay home for far too long of stretches and everything follows a simple basic mundane routine of each day blending together in sameness. She is a very active 12 year old who loves creativity and newness so this is to be expected. She does not accept me having cancer or our finances being an issue as an answer, or a good answer anyways. Now granted sometimes this means she just wants us  to spend some family time together playing board games or doing something together. Other times it means she is desperate to get out of the house and go do something fun! I can't say as I blame her,  I think most of us feel this way from time to time especially for  those of us who really stay home a good share of the time.

So when my chemo was cancelled for the second week in a row this past Tuesday due to my white cell count still being low, I decided to take full advantage of us having 2 whole days off as a family including hubby! I  had $35 to our name, so knew it had to be frugal  is as frugal does! My 15 year old son had been asking to go to Game Stop for a few weeks now. We do not go that often because it is in another town 30 miles away, the same distance as my hospital for chemo trips but in the opposite direction! We had already put the gas in our truck though for chemo prior to it being cancelled!

So I had hubby and the kids  go through all  their Xbox 360 games  to gather what they no longer wanted or played which brought up a dozen games to return for store credit. We went to Game Stop and took  our time with no hurrying or rushing where we had enough store credit for each member to choose a new video game. They love going here and for 4  new video games  the out of pocket expense to us was only .70 cents! WOOT WOOT!

Our daughter also loves clothes shopping and at 12 let me tell you she has been growing continuously so always needs new clothes. There happens to be 2 thrift stores in the area of Game Stop, a Salvation Army and a Good Will. She got to go to both and found a couple items at each, I also was able to find a like brand new pair of jeans at Salvation Army. I was happy about this because other than a couple of sweat pants hubby got me at the start of chemo treatments, I only had one black pair of corduroy pants that fit me that again was purchased after loosing a bunch of weight from the cancer.

Then stopped by Walmart to pick up a couple things for dinner at home. All in  all we only spent $15 while the kids enjoyed their afternoon out, even our 15 year old son enjoys going to thrift stores. At home they all played their new video games with each other while I fixed a nice dinner.

$15 for an afternoon day of fun for family of 4, not so bad!

Not Much New Happening!

There has not been a whole lot to report on my end, sometimes one thing about being  frugal is that things can get downright pretty mundane!

We have simplified dinners to where each family member shops for their own food. They each get $50 to buy 2 weeks worth of  food at a time. They buy it,  they prepare it.... this goes on Monday through Friday which is a reason I have  not been posting any new  recipes lately....... I have  not been cooking! Saturday and Sunday I provide them with free meals either by cooking something simple or sometimes on a bad health day I cheat and order pizza or something like  that.

We did take the family out to the theatre not too long ago to watch World War Z, this is the second time this year we were able to enjoy this pleasure after not being in a theatre in  around 7 years so has been really nice.

We were also able to stop in at a cider mill with our daughter not too long ago after a chemo session. That was a new oh so wonderful activity for us! I bought some rhubarb jelly and yummy apple bread from their bakery!

Pretty much our days are filled with just hanging out at the house, going  to chemo, going to get blood work for chemo done and our bi-weekly grocery shopping. This is due to right  now ALL our extra money that comes in has been being used up in all the gas it takes  to get me  to my treatments.

Gas for our truck most months are equaling or coming very close to what our monthly RENT is! YIKES that  is a lot of gas BUT still pretty much staying on budget. It is making saving for our next propane fill up a little scary but I know it will work out. I don't have to start really worrying too much about that just yet so am hoping I can save my butt off in July for what we will need.

On another note it can be hard to think of what to write when each day is pretty much the same! We are living by the budget that is posted here  and using all extra income that comes in for Gas for the Truck. Even though I had envelopes I wanted  to fund, at the moment is not happening due to how much these hospital trips are costing us. BUT that  means I am still making all my needed trips and working in getting HEALTHY again! So  it is all good baby!

We just had my 45 birthday where last year the theme was 44 and still poor so this year was 45 Staying Alive!

Me and hubby have our 14 anniversary coming up this month!

And that is about all the news at my home!

Any plans for July? Share in the comments!

Freedom Series: Honoring Food Choices

Whole Life Unschooling extends the philosophy into all the other areas of living, beyond simply how one learns. This means a democracy and equality reside in the household as every member is honored and respected as an individual with same freedoms adults are granted so long as it is not infringing upon someone else's freedoms or causing harm.

Food Freedom falls into this area where food is not restricted, and one is free to choose what to eat and when, based on when their own body says it is hungry and what it desires to satisfy it's hunger. As adults, we have cravings and if paying attention to our body, give into those cravings as a body has a way of knowing what it needs, whether it is sweets , oranges or other fruit, veggies, or whatever. We know when we are hungry, so we eat, this also goes for children as it is the way our bodies are designed so why as adults do we restrict what and when they eat? Many are afraid if a child is allowed to eat with the same freedoms as adults, all they will eat is junk food and candy, yet this would only be the case, if that is all that is offered in a household.


Many times in our house it was a matter of financial circumstance, we had a very small food budget and the only way to get us through the month was if I did the shopping for our family and watched how much we all ate. We had $250 a month for food for a family of 5. We still made snacks and such but our diets were restricted as a whole to a tiny budget and I tried to choose a little of something that each member would like as a dinner or snacks like smoothies.

This has changes recently, now we are a family of 4 with a grocery budget of $429 to $570 a month so this has opened the door for total freedom in many ways along with simplifying my days!

For May each member will be allowed $100 to buy their own food, leaving me $170 to fill in the gaps and to cook weekend family dinners.

We have broken this up into 2 shopping trips of $50 where they shop for meals for 2 weeks at a time with me mentoring and helping when needed. Believe it or not it was hubby freaking out over how to shop in a frugal manner and get enough meals!

There are a few guidelines where the $50 goes to get what they want including snacks but to bear in mind the 3 meals a day for 2 weeks.  What they buy they prepare, I will only cook family meals on the weekends. They can eat their own food, when they are hungry without having to ask.  They can not take another persons food, they do not have to share their own food, but bartering and trading are perfectly acceptable!

When it came to the first shopping trip it was my daughter, hubby and myself that went, our 15 year old son decided he did not want to go. To respect his desire to stay home, I picked out his food on the $50 based on foods I know he loves and could fix himself.

My daughter has been going through her food kind of fast and I have gently reminded her a couple times that her food has to last until she gets more money to shop in 2 weeks, she is not very good at self regulating!

Yesterday as she had it in her head she has to wait a month ( that is how I normally shop, is for a month at a time with just having hubby pick up a few things here and there throughout the month when he gets out of work and is already uptown.)  She came to me and asked....

"Mom, how long can a person survive without food? A Month?" I was like you know I am not sure but I don't think so, we would have to google it to be sure..... her response a very dramatic "OMG I knew it I am going to STARVE TO DEATH!" Ha ha poor baby!

All in all though it has been a great experience and seeing how different everyone food choices were. And seeing how everyone in the family has self control over their food, all but our soon to be 12 year old daughter anyways ha ha.

I will do another post showing those choices and what was purchased.

I am also LOVING not to have to worry about what to cook for dinner 5 nights a week! Awesome!

Positive Partnering

Part of our journey here is having a partnership connection with our children, where they have a voice and their needs not only are allowed to be heard,  but something done about it as well! Children are people too,  with dreams, goals, desires and needs, just as adults do. In our journey through life in our home, we recognize this as a primal need and try to help them fulfill these wants and needs. Sometimes it may take a little while to recognize that members of the family may be getting ignored and an awakening with awareness brings it to light.

For the last couple months, it has been easy for me to see every single second of the day as amazing, miraculous moments throughout the whole day. I have a blazing spark  within,  huge smile on my face, oozing positive energy and just  screaming to everyone how awesome life is! Well of course I am, January of this year I was so close to Deaths Door I could see the light coming out from  under  the door! Since then I have been healing, gaining my old self back and have hope for a long future again.........therefore everyday I wake up, alive and well it is a friggin fabulous day where my heightened senses see every minute second as a miracle, no matter what our current situation is at the  moment! I was actually irritated with family members moping around, irritable, complaining about the mundanely and financial circumstances. I would look at them in amazement and say HEY I AM STILL HERE, LIFE IS AWESOME!

Of course they are grateful I am doing good and on my way to recovery, but this did not stop them from  being unhappy about certain areas of our life, especially hubby and  our youngest daughter who are very social creatures that have a need for adventure, getting out of the house and being explorers to find new things to keep that wonder and magical part of life inside of them.

So the other day, as I recognized these unhappy feelings within them, we had a pow wow and I asked each family member, what 3 things would they change about our family or their life, would they change if they could change it right now.

My 15 year old son says he is happy the way things are, not sure if I totally believe this, as he has always had a hard time relaying emotions and feelings. He gets upset if you try to get him to talk about how he feels, however he is a lone wolf who does not like talking to people, and is a computer geek who does not mind staying home a lot, much like myself. I am no computer geek of course, but I LOVE staying home!

My daughter very easily came up with 3 things:   For us to be more active as a family, playing games and doing things ( this really fell to the wayside when my health went into the toilet)

She also wants her own money,  and go places and do things with kids her age.

Hubby wanted to get out of the 9-5 crap job world,  have a residual income coming in and have me Cancer Free.

Myself?  I definitely want to get more active and involved with the kids again, have hubby  home and remove the word NO almost completely from our vocabulary!

We brainstormed on different ideas how to accomplish these goals and how to make those changes.

For example I know, we say no much of the time because we always have this feeling of "lack and no money"

We want to change that from a "No, we don't have  the money" to a "Well, HOW can we accomplish this?" then brainstorm and problem solve. Me and hubby both recognised this almost the same day, and know that for awhile we DID do this but then life took over and we fell back into old habits.

These are real feelings, desires and needs from the youngest child to the oldest adult in the house, none are less important than another. Each should be validated and explored and nurtured to make  happen.

I look forward to working on these throughout May! When we make these changes, we will come back and ask again as people grow and change, their needs will have to be revisited on a regular basis.

Happy Partnering is a beautiful thing!

15 years ago

April 18th

15 years ago and since then:

I brought you home and spent the whole first day holding you and simply staring at you, while you stared back.

I had you after thinking I was done having children. Your brother and sister being 11 and 12 years old!

The second day you were home,  2 days after you were born, we took you to your brothers opening day of Little League baseball.

You were always so happy, never crying and brought so much joy to our household.

Since then you still have always brought laughter and joy to the household and have grown into an amazing young Man, always choosing to learn things in your own time, on your own terms. You would not let us help with learning to ride a bike, reading, bowling or anything really. You always wanted to do it all by yourself, and you did and still do. Your time, Your terms, Your own determination........it has been an amazing journey.

You have deepened my own interests by the things you are passionate about and taught me so much about patience and a laid back attitude taking everything in the gentle strides that you do.

Our journey together has been amazing and miraculous, that I would not trade for the world.

You are Unique, Amazing and a wonderful son that has made my world a better place just by being YOU.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

 ( He would not give permission for a Birthday photo, so all I had recent was this photo when he was out flying kites with his nephew!)

4 Exhausting Fun Filled Days

My friend informed me she was coming down with my adult daughter, a 9 hour one way drive for them so they would spend 2 overnights and one full day of visiting!

The same day they were to arrive, I was asked if I wanted my adult sons kids, my grand kids to  come for 4 nights and days! Well yes I did! So I called  my sister to see if she could drive my mom  up, to see her great grand kids for a little bit! YES they could! We got a hold of my son who is in the area and let him know so  he could see his kids as well, it is not always easy getting a hold of him!

So I frantically cleaned  for several hours before everyone got here as I am really behind after being too ill to clean much for a couple months. Deep cleaning and clutter control anyways.

For 2 out of 4 nights we had a total of 9 people sleeping in our 2 bedroom 14 x 70 trailer! YIKES packed but so so so so so so fun!

This time was well spent where my 2 who are now close to 15 and 12, spent their time entertaining and caring for their 7 and 6 year old niece and nephew!

They fixed breakfast and lunches for them, played with them, baked cookies with them, flew kites, re-invented board games to make them age level appropriate and fun.

Outdoor playing, of cooking, herding chickens on "Grandpa and Grandma's Farm LOL) ( 7  chickens and a country lot makes us a farm ha ha)

Cuddling, sleeping with to make them feel safe in the dark, wildlife viewing ( cute skunk huh?)

Answering non stop questions..............

Setting up buffet style meals for picky eaters who are not so picky when given choices of what they want on their plates from a buffet..........

Picking up after the flurry of active small kids.............

Playing grocery store with a set my sis brought for them............with cash register, food items etc.

Patiently playing video games with them..........

The list goes on, it was a very fun filled but exhausting 4 days!