A friend of mine called to tell me that someone had thrown away a kid kitchen in her Apartment's dumpster. Lucky me.

Voila. I got "oops" paint from the hardware store for $5 a gallon and $2 for a pint. So $7 total for a "new kitchen" for the kids.

*oops paint is paint the messed up while mixing colors. They are still great colors, just not what the original person ordered.

 I still dream of doing it now, but have moved onto bigger dumpster...like the city dump...yes, the city dump. Now, now, I am not as sick as you think. The dump seperates their wood pile, furniture pile, appliances pile, and refuse pile (the really gross stuff) and I happen to like the furniture and wood piles. Here is one of my finds (I grabbed six wooden chairs right before the huricane hit).
I have only re finished one so far. I rewove the bottom after I wittled a dowel to fit the space where one was missing. I have yet to add a little more yellow to the weave, but took a picture anyway...I am too tired to finish it just yet. It is now functional regardless and was super fun to fix.  The whole thing cost me nothing (well, I am lieing. I did buy 250 yards of yellow bakers twine to accent the real rope I wove with, it was $14-oh and the wooden dowel cost $2, so really it cost me $16), but I got the paint off of freecycle and we had the rope around the house.

Now don't you want to dumpster dive? ;)

 At the same time last year I enrolled Claire in a local Baptist Church's summer Bible camp. It was a good experience and I liked the feeling of community between other Moms of different religions.
  I then wondered why we didn't as a church take advantage of inviting the community in a bigger way than simply inviting a friend to come to some activities.
 So I spent the next year working on how to bring Safety Kids to our community. I wanted to do something that was non-denominational-something that any person with or without faith would appreciate.
 I advertised through all the local city halls and they sent mailers out and posted on their websites. I also posted on several local and popular sites for the community and went to a variety of churches and asked if they could post our community event.
 I asked my friends who were not affiliated with the Mormon Church to teach classes.
 I gave the teachers two months to prepare their own lessons based on the materials I gave them (Brite music gave me copyright permission).
 I had two different outdoor safety classes that the kids also rotated through. They learned "street smarts" in regards to playing outside and being in the woods and a bit of wilderness survival...you know fires and shelters and such.

 The turnout was not what I dreamed, but it was a great start. We did have people from around the community join (just not as many as I hoped, but non the less a good start- 10 out of 43 "member"kids).
 It ran smoothly, I had tons of help and people all seemed to comment in the positive.-Whew!
 I really hope if we are not in NH next year that someone will continue on with this. I think it will gain momentum as the years go on and be a positive thing for the community and something that can bring understanding and a sense of comfort between faiths.

 I started to read this book titled "Last child in the woods" or something like that. It motivated me to take the girls on more hikes in our back yard and just hang out outside more because they are where I am.
 The author bored me after the first 5 pages, but that's all I needed to get his message. I didn't care for all his research behind why it is so important to spend more time outside vs. inside. I don't need it beat into my head to get out more.
 One point that he made was one that I had already heard my Dad make comments on- and that was, "Kids are not ADD or ADHD, they are 'wilderness deficiant'"...now don't get mad at me, I know there is legitimacy in the above conditions, but I do believe there is truth to what being outside more can do for the body, soul, and mind.
 This is the lil' fam on top of Mt. Cartigan- Beautiful! And Windy! I thought Syndey was going to blow off.



 Her little Mountain goat legs kept climbing around though. (there was a rusty old tower on top...fire tower?? Not sure, doesn't help for looks, but what can you do).

 I don't think any boy scouts peed in this puddle....

 This kid is danger. She would have jumped off the side if we let her. Heaven help me keep her alive.



 When Sydney started stripping, we knew it was time to head back down the mountain.
 Another day on the Connecticut
 Water Lillies




Now don't you want to come and visit??? Before we move of course!