Something special

Ok, wow! So... giant blogging fail in June. I was totally hoping to get a post up this past week so I could at least have one post every month. But, well, it's July today and you can see that nothing got written in June. So, I've decided to start July off on a better note.  I still want to go back and record our trip to St. Martin (from which we've been back a month now!) but for today I'm going to go with something quick and easy. (I have at least 700 pictures from the trip so even choosing pictures to include on the blog is going to take some serious time.) Oh, and everything else that happened in June probably will never make it on the blog. Oh well, it was a motivationless (so not even a word) month for me.

So, all summer so far Kaelyn has constantly been asking to "do something special." Which usually means she wants to watch t.v. or play games on the iPad. Someone please tell me why we didn't send her to summer camp. Oh yeah, because I was a slacker and never got around to getting the info and signing her up for anything.

So I was inspired by a pin I saw a while back for an "I'm not bored anymore jar." I finally got off my lazy butt and made a version of one about a week ago.  We call it her "Something Special Jar."

Each stick has a different activity on it and whenever she asks to do something special she gets to pick a stick. Now, most of the activities require my participation or help, only a few don't, but I figure it will be good for me too. It will help/force me stay focused on the kids for however long the activity takes. I've been getting distracted from them a lot lately and they deserve more of my attention.

The first one she picked after I made it was "Wash the dog." I ended up doing most of the work on that one but both the kids still thought it was a blast, the dog got clean, the kids will eventually learn how to give Rudy a bath on their own, and it was a half an hour that we didn't have to turn on the t.v.

Today she picked "Hide and Seek." I was totally hoping she'd pick something she could do on her own. But we haven't played hide and seek in awhile and we all had fun.  Kaelyn has improved her hiding skills. A couple months ago she would tell me where she was going to hide every time it was her turn. Now she just purposely makes noise from her hiding spot so I'll find her. Brennan thinks it's hilarious even though I'm not sure he has any idea what's going on. Although he did actually hide in the closet on his own after seeing Kaelyn do it. 

The last place she decided to hide today was in an empty diaper box.

Brennan had to get in on the action but could only find a small wipes box.

And of course, whatever he does Kaelyn has to do too.

Even though she didn't fit in the box at all.

After they spent close to 20 minutes perfectly happy just playing in boxes I'm almost convinced to get rid of most of their toys. It would certainly make keeping the house clean a lot easier.

Oh, and a big happy birthday to Pop today! Your present's in the mail. ;)