Turtle Timeshare

I bet most parents have been suckered into bringing home a small pet (a hamster, mouse, guinea pig, fish, lizard or turtle) for their child. I sure suckered my parents into getting me a handful of pets as a child. Growing up I had 2 hamsters, an iguana, a frog, a hermit crab and a few dozen fish, in addition to having a dog or two.

These "pocket pets" were always SO much fun...for the first couple weeks. Then the excitement dies down and the poor animal spends less and less time out of the cage being social. Over time it gets less attention and is only socialized when the cage is being cleaned.

The intentions are great. But think about the life of this poor animal. How horrible. And what does this teach our children?

As much as I LOVE animals, and love having them as pets, I know a pet would not get the attention it needs living in our house. This is especially hard when Ethan asks about our future dog. This is a weekly discussion. We are NOT getting a dog now, or any other animal.

BUT we have come up with the perfect solution to having a small pet. TIMESHARE!

Ethan's preschool teacher has a turtle in her classroom. Over the summer she needs someone to take the turtle home. We volunteered! Ethan's friend turtle-sat "Stripes" for the first half of the summer, and now it's our turn. We have Stripes for 6 weeks. This is the perfect amount of time to care for a small animal. It's new, fun and exciting. As a family we get to work together to take care of our pet and the kids will learn a lot. I know Ethan will grow bored with the turtle eventually and then it will be time to give him back.

I would definitely consider doing this again. (Or maybe I should get back into Fostering) :)

Some day.

5th Birthday!

Ethan is 5 years old now! Boy did we celebrate...all weekend long. Has is become the norm to have 2 birthday parites for kids these days, or are we just completely spoiling our children?

On Friday Ethan had his 10 best buddies (8 boys and 2 girls) over for a wet and wild party in our backyard. There was plenty of adult supervision (me, Nick, my mom, sister, Bob, DR) and it couldn't have gone better. We all had a ton of fun.

Then on Sunday we had a family BBQ birthday celebration. Ethan had 3 great-grandparents, 4 grandparents, 3 aunts/uncles, a great-uncle, a second/third(?) cousin, and 2 siblings at our house to celebrate.

It was a very fun weekend to celebrate our little baby boy who was born 5 years ago.

Fun 4th

Crosby, MN is the place to be for the 4th of July. Hands-down the best fireworks and parade I've ever seen. We were SO close to the fireworks that my dad actually got hit by one! Awesome!Ethan stayed up for his very first fireworks show and he was blown away.

We celebrated the 4th in a very American way: tons of food on a stick, red/white/blue and John Deere attire, 4-wheeling, boating, dirt biking, mini-golf, go-carts, Bud Light, and a farmers tan.

We'll be in Crosby every year for the 4th. Come on up and join the fun.

Summer of Scrapes

Every single day one of the kids acquires a new cut, scrape or bruise.

Here is Cal's latest-

Cal and Teagan are almost 17 months old, and this is an adventurous age. They are exploring everything and I can't always keep up. When I'm home alone every day my attention is divided between 3 kids, which means each child is only being watched 33% of the time. Or one child may have almost, but never fully, 100% of my attention for a moment while the other two are running amuck. Sure, tons of people have 3 or more kids, but having twins is very different. Having twins means I have 2 kids the same age, at the same developmental milestones, getting into the same trouble, which makes things twice as hard (or more). Plus, I have a soon-to-be 5 year old egging them on and encouraging their daring behavior.

Knowing this, I've learned my limits and can only take them to places I've already deemed safe. Just going to the park on a nice, sunny day can be a completely stressful disaster. I can only take the kids to the park by myself when it's not packed. The busier it is the harder it is for me to watch the twins and is therefore super stressful and unsafe. The best time for the park is early in the morning, or cloudy cold days like today. I've also found a couple of quiet, hidden parks with toddler size equipment, and fence around the park is a bonus!

We've accumulated some outdoor climbing toys and slides for our backyard instead, and save trips to the park when there is a better adult:child ratio. Or we go to friends houses/yards for a more relaxing (less stressful) playtime.