If you have a toddler and you have Disney Jr. on TV or if your child has discovered it on the YouTube, you have heard of Choo Choo Soul. When I found out they were going to be performing at Sea World, I took Will and Casey.

They had two shows the day we went and I wanted to make sure we got good seats. The boys and I stood in line and waited. When the doors were opened, I made a poor decision on where to sit. I thought the front row on the side would be great, but we ended up watching Genevieve and DC, the Choo Choo Soul Cast, from behind the camera man. Will was not thrilled with the loud music and did not like the crowd that gathered around Genevieve every time she walked off the stage and into the crowd. He also had a hard time reconciling that one of his favorite things on TV was right in front of him. Casey had a blast and danced and sang the whole time.

Later that day I thought we would try again. This time we sat on the other side of the stage. Will insisted we sit in the front side row, the exact opposite of where we were in the morning. This time the kids could see everything that was going on. Their favorite song was the “Freeze Dance” song and dance along with the cast. Later, Will was thrilled when he got to high-five DC. Will knew what to expect because the performance was exactly the same as earlier in the day. He danced and sang and had fun.

Now when we see Choo Choo Soul on TV or hear a song played some where, Will gets a big grin on his face and says “we saw them at Sea World!”
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I think mom did a good job in the boys first concert.

I am not a crafty mom. I make a pillow now and then, but most of my kids’ costumes come from the thrift store (I am not paying full price for something my kids will wear only once.) Birthday parties are balloons and table cloth and maybe some streamers or random decorations I find on sale. Rainy day crafts come from a kit or package. You would think just following the recipe for moon sand or slime is easy but somehow it never come out right.

Dress up days at school are hard on me. Usually I talk my kinds into not dressing up or just grab whatever we have in the dress up box. Sometimes costumes are thrown together the last minutes. For example, there was “Job” day in Will’s PreK class. I expected him to want to dress up as a chef since he had given this answer numerous times throughout the year. When I asked him the day before, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Will answered, “A pirate!” Like usual, I talked him out of it.

Monday morning came and Will asked if he could dress as a pirate.

What was I supposed to do? Will looked at me with his sweet eyes and I said, “OK.” It was about 20 minutes before we were leaving for school and I found myself making an eye patch out of black construction paper and string. I cut up an old t-shirt to make a pirate’s vest and Dad found a doo rag to make a pirate “hat”. Will was a happy pirate.

There was one day that I decided to pull all the resources in my power to craft Will a costume for Dr. Seuss day. Armed with the date he had to dress up and a glue gun, I crafted Will a ‘Cat in the Hat’ Costume. I made a tail out of an old t-shirt and clothes clip. A red bow tie was crafted from red Christmas ribbon and glued it to another clip to attach to Will’s shirt. And out of cardboard and construction paper, Will had a hat and cat face.

Will was very proud to wear to school the costume his mom made. He was even more excited when his teacher dressed as a Sneech!
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I do not know the next time I will attempt to make a costume for my kids and I know I will never attempt a Pinterest craft for my kid’s entertainment. I do know that with planning, the right materials, a set of blue eyes asking “Please”, I can make almost anything. 

At the end of September, the kids and I went to the park. Hurricane Matthew had gone over Florida. Our area had been expecting lots of rain and damage from the hurricane but instead we were spared with nothing more than flickering power, broken limbs and a night time curfew.

The kids needed to get out of the house since we had spent the weekend waiting for a hurricane to hit and had not been able to go outside for two days.

While playing at the park, the kids discovered small shells. Instead of enjoying their escape from the house, my kids were running all over the park collecting shells in their hands and in empty paper cups.

I thought the shells were empty. I figured they had been washed on to the playground because of the rain or had tried to escape the water and dried up on the playground.

I was wrong.

When we left the playground, the kids brought the shells in the car. Lizzie and Evelyn put the cups in the cup holders and left them over night. Even though, I’m always saying, “Don’t leave trash in the car.” Or “Make sure you bring all you stuff in with you.”

The next morning we got in the car and there were snails on the windows and walls of the car. They had congregated on a cup that held melted ice water and filled the cup holders. The snails seemed to be everywhere.

I thought the kids had picked up four or five of the shells but it turned out they had about 50!
The girls moved as many as they could into the cup and I told them I would take care of them later since we were on our way to school. They were very excited about the prospect of these new pets and couldn’t wait until they got home to play with them.

I hated to tell them that these snails were not going to be around after school. Dad was not going to risk them hanging out on the front porch so they could infest our yard. I was worried they were going to be upset with this decision, but when I picked them up from school, they never asked about the snails. They had moved on.
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I’m not sure what was going on in my mind when I let them bring small ‘empty’ snail shells in my car, but the next time they ask to bring shells in the car they will be from the beach and I will make sure they are empty!

Over the past year, the boys and I have been going to Sea World. Every time we go, we have a very specific list of things we like to see and I have figured out a plan to see everything we want with shortest lines possible.

The Antarctic: Empire of the Penguins is the first place to start. Earlier in the day the line is short. Everyone wants to cool off at 3 in the afternoon! The ride often breaks in the afternoon, so visiting this exhibit first is smart. Then it is off to the shows. Sea World shows often happen where you watch one and when it is over you can walk to the next. Usually we go to Pets Ahoy next or as the kids call it the “Cat and Dog show. Then is off to see Clyde and Seamore at Sea Lion High. Along the way we eat, see other animals and aquariums. The middle of our day with the ‘other’ side of the park riding the kid rides, seeing Shamu and splashing in the water park.  We visit the Wild Artic where the kids see Beluga whales and climb in the polar bear cave while the Shamu show is going on, if you time it right, there is almost no line and small crowds. We end our day at the aquarium under the Manta roller coaster, this has been a tradition in our family for many years.

One thing we always ride is the carousel in Shamu’s Happy Harbor. So far every time we go, one kid is too short to ride alone so I have to stand next to them. And of course, I have pictures. Lots of pictures. I want to make sure I remember this part of their childhood forever. I want to remember the time Evelyn cried the whole time and I had to whisper soothing words to her. After that ride, she wanted to go again and has loved it since. I want to remember the time that Casey insisted I hold his little hand in mine. This year, I have seen the boys grow and it always hits me on the carousel “they won’t be small forever.”
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When they are older we will talk about the times we went to Sea World. I will find the pictures and show them how much fun we had. They will have their own memories and I will have the carousel.
 

Each kiddo was 2 years old in their picture. One, I can't believe I found a good picture of each of them at 2. And two, that Will and Casey rode the SAME creature their first time around!

My kids hate cleaning up their toys.

Even if they are motivated with an exciting trip or a yummy treat, or Mom just saying “clean up!”, they hate cleaning up.

Often Lizzie has to help motivate the other siblings. She knows the toys in the living room need to be picked up, but she doesn’t want to do it herself. I have seen her use many tactics to get her siblings to clean up.

Lizzie will first come tell me “Evelyn isn’t helping.” She will repeat this until Evelyn is annoyed enough to help. She will then coax Casey and Will, “clean up and we can watch V. This one is amusing because I may not have promised them TV and when I try these tactics, they never work.

One day Lizzie got creative. She tried the color clean-up game. She sat on the couch and gave instructions, “everyone pick up something yellow”. A few moments later, “pick up toys that have blue in them” and proceeded to go through all the colors of the rainbow and then some.

This worked for a few days but everyone lost interest and Lizzie got tired of naming colors.

One Saturday morning, Lizzie came up with a brilliant idea-the Human Clean-up Machine.

We have a tent that the kids play with inside. And this particular day, the tent was part of the mess. Lizzie figured out that if they turned the tent upright and all squished inside, they could shuffle around the room picking up toys.

It was pretty cool, all of them were moving according to Lizzie’s directions picking up toys in the cleaning machine and shuffling back to the toy shelf to put them away.

Sadly, the cleaning machine only worked this one time and Lizzie soon grew resentful for being the only one cleaning, especially when she did not make the mess. We moved the toys out of the living room, into a bedroom and gave all the kids more specific cleaning responsibilities.  For the most part, everyone has to clean the mess they made. So if Lizzie doesn’t play with the toys, she doesn’t have to clean. This means the boys have to clean up with no more fun clean up games for Lizzie.

Although when mom needs a hand, I might see what else she comes up with to help pick these toys up off the floor.

The Clean-up Machine

​One morning, Will wanted toast for breakfast. So we made toast.

Two pieces of bread were put in the toaster oven. After the timer ‘dinged’ we spread the butter.

At grandma’s house, she cuts the crust off each piece before the kids eat it. This is done in love because Mom doesn’t do this. When Will asked Mom to do this, the answer was “Only Grandma does that.”

Will’s next request was a little different, and it took us a minute to figure out exactly what he wanted.

Will asked if we could sprinkle some of the ‘white stuff with the picture of the bowl of seeds’ on his toast.
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Dad and I had no idea what he was wanted I asked him to describe it a couple more times and then we started looking around the kitchen. We found a bottle that fit this description 

It was garlic salt! Will wanted garlic toast for breakfast.

We tried teaching him the name but he knows it as the ‘bottle with the bowl of seeds on it.’
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The next time we were at Grandma’s he asked for it again. Unfortunately Grandma didn’t have any garlic salt, but she did cut the crust off.

Lizzie is mean to her sister. I know there is some degree of sibling rivalry and we try to keep in under control. But more often than not. I find myself saying “Lizzie, what did you do to make Evelyn cry?”
Occasionally, Lizzie will show a softer side. One where she does care about those around her and not for her own agenda. Unfortunately this discovering was when Evelyn was crying but still Lizzie was caring for others.

The Moving Wall, the traveling half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, came to Eustis, Florida. I took the kids. We can’t get to Washington, D.C. and I wanted my kids to see this. Their grandfather fought in Vietnam, their other grandfather served with many names on the wall, and Lizzie and Evelyn are old enough to understand that someone sacrificed for their freedom.

At the Wall is an exhibit of the “Empty Table”, a POW/MIA memorial. Lizzie asked me to explain it and I did. I had no idea how much it would upset Evelyn. After signing a Flag Wall that travels with the Moving Wall, we left. In the car Evelyn started crying. She was upset because all she could think about was “what if someone captured Daddy?” and began crying. I tried to calm her fears but could do little since I was driving. Then Lizzie spoke up, “How about I sing you the song that makes you happy when you think about the HM?”

First I asked what the ‘HM’ was. Lizzie explained that Evelyn will have bad dreams about the Haunted Mansion at Disney and that the only thing that calms her down is this song.

Then, I needed to know the song. Lizzie began with a visual, “Evelyn, imagine your unicorn. Do you see the candy on its back? Is it your favorite kind? Where is the unicorn, what is it doing?” And then breaks into song, “Pink fuzzy unicorn dancing on a rainbow.”

The song is simple, those words over and over, yet somehow it soothes Evelyn. She was no longer crying but sitting still. The boys have picked up on it and now the entire car is singing four versions of “Pink Fuzzy Unicorn Dancing on a Rainbow.” And I am driving with a smile on my face.
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I was worried about Lizzie, but now I know deep down that she really loves her sister. 

The traveling Vietnam Veteran Memorial Wall

Across the street from our house is a big field, often our family is running, flying kites or playing ball in the field. One afternoon, Lizzie wanted to try something else. She wanted to build a fort.

Lizzie has the kind of mind that thinks of an idea then goes to her surroundings in order to bring the idea to life. The only available materials in the field were dried palm fronds and some sticks.

Enlisting the help of her sister, Lizzie gathered dried palm fronds to make the tent. Many were laying on the ground but some they had to pull from the short palm trees growing next to the fence line that divides the field from the Post Office next door.

After several attempts to lean the fronds together only to have them fall, I stepped in to help. I had the girls get the tallest straightest stick they could find. I asked Evelyn to dig a hole in the ground to help stabilize the stick. Once the stick would stand on its own, I showed them how to lean the palm fronds against the stick for balance. After a few more tries of balancing the palm fronds against each other and then adding more to fill in the holes, Lizzie had a tent.

Evelyn added a pretend campfire of sticks. The kids played camping and house until it was time to go home for dinner.

Lizzie has a creative mind and watching her creations come to life always amazes me.

​And one never knows when that will the ability to build a tent will come in handy!

When I was pregnant with Lizzie, my mother in law began pulling out outfits my husband had worn when he was a kid. I thought she was crazy for saving these things.

Fast forward a few years, I had to start parting ways with clothes my girls wore as babies. Most outfits made it through both girls and were ready for the trash or to be passed on to someone else but there were a few precious items I could not part with. I now understood why my mother-n-law saved those clothes. The tiny outfits reminded me of how small the kids once were and how I could hold them in one arm.

 Not all outfits remind me of the good times. One outfit I saved reminded me of the time when Lizzie was 5 months old and had an accident at a restaurant and I forgot to bring a change of clothes.  A relative whet to the gift shop and bought a souvenir onesie for her to wear.

Some pieces of clothing are remembered in pictures. There was a pair of pink shoes that Evelyn loved. They were too small and falling apart but we promised to take pictures of them so she could remember them forever. I refused to keep two small and very stinky shoes!

I have also kept the outfit each child came home in from the hospital and the Cow Halloween costume that each kid wore at least twice.

Every day outfits didn’t make the cut. But Evelyn, Lizzie and Will each had a shirt that when it came time to let go of, they just didn’t want to. So I decided to make pillows out of these shirts.

Evelyn’s pillow is made from a camouflage shirt that says “Wild One” on it, Lizzie’s is from a small shirt that is pink and white with flowers.

After I made Lizzie’s shirt into a pillow, she thought this was such a great idea and concluded that every shirt that didn’t fit her anymore should be a pillow.

Will had a blue shirt with a train on it that came from Grandma. He loved to wear this shirt every chance he could but it had a big hole in the shoulder and I wouldn’t let him wear it anymore. I told him I could make it into a pillow and thought his was a pretty cool idea.

Casey is next on the list. So far he hasn’t become attached to any of his clothes but that will probably change one day with the right shirt.

Lately my trouble hasn’t been keeping favorite clothes, but keeping these growing kids in clothes. It seems like one day something will fit and the next it is too short or too tight and won’t fit over their head.
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So for now, I will reminisce about them being little whether it’s from a kept article of clothing, a picture or a pillow and continue to tell the grandparents what size clothes the grandkids need and pray it still fits when we get it.

Lizzie loves her birthday. I think she loves it more than any other kid in our family. She loves to be celebrated. She loves the cake, the presents and how in our family the celebration often lasts the whole week.

When Lizzie was four years old, we had a birthday party for her at the park across the street. There were four balloons for her being four years old, a few decorations including pink table cloths and there was cake.

She revealed in the attention and squealed when opening each present. But when it came time for birthday cake, she was filled with anticipation and excitement. Every year since they were old enough to ask, Grandma bought a cake from Publix decorated according to their request. That year was a “Flower” cupcake cake. Candles were placed, then lit and all gathered to sing Happy Birthday.

Lizzie started to giggle. She was so excited. She kept putting her hands on her face and continued to giggle.

I remember taking the video and thinking that she was the happiest person in the whole world. I also remember hoping she would always be this excited over her birthday cake.

This most recent birthday Lizzie turned 9 and it was going to be celebrated in three stages. The weekend before her birthday I took her and her siblings to the beach.

The next weekend we went to Grandma’s house.

Later we would celebrate with her Bubbe, Papa Mike and Aunt Michelle.

Saturday night at Grandma’s was cake night. This year, instead of a cartoon character cake, Lizzie got a ‘grown up’ cake. A chocolate ‘spider cake’ from an Ocala bakery called Betty Cakes. The cake is called ‘spider’ cake because it is covered in chocolate ganache and it runs down the side of the cake to look like spider legs. The cake had pink flowers on it and “Happy Birthday Lizzie” written in pink icing. You can click here to find Betty Cakes.

Once again the cake was taken out of the cake box, candles placed and lit and we began to sing ‘Happy Birthday.’

Immediately, I was taken back to her 5th birthday. Lizzie stared giggling with joy. Her eyes darted around the room watching everybody sing and then back to her cake with her hands on her face.

There was no other way to describe it except that she was overcome with pure joy. We cut and ate the cake and then took a few minutes to open presents. There were only two presents this year and they were clothes, but she didn’t care, we were celebrating her.
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I pray that over the years, she finds this much joy in every birthday and that the combination of cake and the ‘Happy Birthday’ song make her the happiest girl in the world.