Ice Cream & Letterboxing

It was a GORGEOUS day today. So naturally we needed to fill the afternoon with ice cream treats and letterboxing.

I picked up a good friend and her two kids, and we went to a dairy farm to try their deliciously creamy ice cream.

We needed some adventure after our dairy treat, so we went letterboxing. Not surprisingly, our hunt took us to a cemetery.

And to a reservoir.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon!

P6 Hits the Trail

Clue: Search fruitlessly through each of the Nature Bags for the missing "6". Should the "6" finally be supposed to have been left along the last trail taken, make a stop at Hobby Lobby for a new "6" because, "P6" without the "6" is just...well, P.

Turn right and into the parking lot. Quietly utter half-curse words under your breath upon the sight of 3 big school buses parked by the curb.

Stand at a crossroads while trying to get your bearings. Look right and then left and then stare at the sky because that just might help in some way. Understand what it might be like to be a mama snake trying to herd her baby snakes when none of them will listen because they each think they know where to go. Allow your oldest daughter to overhear you share this feeling with your better half on the phone, whereupon she states, "But snakes are reptiles, and reptiles don't care for their offspring." Vow not to teach her anything else.

Finally find the first trail and skip happily along, down a hill, across a bridge. (Note: This trail would be easy to find for a lone adventurer, one without little people who have opinions. Strong opinions.) Find Peter Parker behind a tree. Smile in delight when the oldest daughter says, "It sure feels satisfying when you find one of these."

Now walk across to the other side of the park to find a second trail. Run smack dab into the huge group of children who came on the 3 big school buses parked by the curb which caused you to half-curse under your breath when you entered the parking lot. Choose the trail which weaves away from all of the children because a nature walk is more fun when bird calls are not mingled with the screams of children.

Take a few steps and have your littlest companion whine, "I'm tired", and another, bigger companion whine, "I'm starving." Tell them to suck it up and start walking. After another whines, "I'm hungry", find a bench, share a bag of Cheez-Its, pass around a bottle of water, and pray that no one needs to pee. Keep walking. Delight in two boys who name the steep path a "rollercoaster".

Bravely and solely take on the The Happy Stamper while the little people watch from the trail. Allow them to look on in awe as you wade through poison ivy and scale a large, rotting, prostrate tree trunk. Don't give in to the little peoples' requests to bring The Happy Stamper back to the trail because that would mean wading through poison ivy and scaling a large, rotting, prostrate tree trunk 4 times.

Keep walking and walking and walking.

Hear more from the Princess about being tired. Tell her to stop the whining and then give her a lecture about what good exercise this is for everyone. Have the oldest inform you that swimming really is much better exercise because a swimmer must use his or her strength to go against the force of the water.

After thinking that there are way too many pairs of trees which stand across the trail from each other, finally spot the two that make you go, "Duh! How did I miss that?", knowing that your 4 little companions probably had something to do with your poor observation skills. After discovering the pair of gigantic trees, once again brave the poison ivy to hike out to the noted tree. Once there, look into the hole at the base of the tree. Poke the cannister. Look back at the expectant faces of the 4 little ones. Would it be terrible to tell the 4 adventurers it's not there just because you're not quite as much of a nature freak as you feign to be and you're afraid to stick your hand into the hole?

Take a deep breath, overcome your fear of spiders and snakes and yank The Growl out of its hiding place. Enjoy leaving your mark.

Continue on the trail, hoping the end is near because the fatigue of the littlest one is growing. And after 4 hours of volleyball almost killed you Sunday night, you're afraid that, should you be forced to carry that littlest one, you might discover you are actually physically unable to.

Wish you could find The Ultrasound, but it appears to be one better left for winter when there is not so much poison ivy through which to wade.

Regrettably leave Peter's Nemesis and X-Men, it's X-Men for another time when tiny feet aren't so tired and rumbly bellies aren't rumbling so loudly.

End: One fun day of Letterboxing.

You Need Some Fun in this House!

OK. Don't laugh. But I'm an avid, faithful...closet...Supernanny watcher. I know, right? What can you learn from a 21st Century-style Mary Poppins who visits these outrageous families made up of children who cuss like sailors, beat each other up, and walk all over Mom and Dad? Well, I always go to bed Wednesday nights having pulled some parenting tidbit away from the drama. This past week's episode featured a young mom of 7. Ages 8 and under! My guess is that she way beats me on the number of times she gets stopped at the grocery store with an, "Are they ALL yours?" "Yes." "Wow! You have your hands full!" exchange. Anyway, Supernanny got it right when she told the young mother that there just wasn't much fun going on in the household. So true, so true. Same in this household.

Like this mother, I have my daily agenda which must be accomplished before I allow myself--or the kids--any "fun"--however that word may be defined. And that is exactly why, when I saw my friend's number on caller ID, I ignored it. She's the kind of friend who is always making life fun for her kids. I knew she was calling because she's always kind and always thinks of me and calls to see if maybe I'd like to go along for some fun as well. Fun. How can I be expected to just pick up and go have fun with the kids when there is still so much on my agenda?

As I was resolving to accomplish my to-do list and come up with some excuse to tell my friend about why I couldn't indulge in any fun, I heard Supernanny's british accent in my head: "You just don't have any FUN in this house!" OK, OK, Supernanny. I'll go have some fun. I'm sure we'll all survive if my kindergartener skips handwriting! And we might even be able to study Massachusetts and Connecticut some other day.

It was a beautiful, spring-like day yesterday, and we had a great time at the park. Not without a few owies of course--Michael skinned his elbow while performing a daring wheelie on his scooter. And not without the disappointment of not being able to find a letterbox which was supposedly 8 paces from a rock the size of a softball--great hiding techniques whoever hid it; like that rock hasn't gotten misplaced over the years! We did, however, find a second letterbox at the park, and the kids were able to stamp our notebook and leave our stamp imprint in the letterbox guest book.

In addition to our fun letterboxing adventure, the kids exercised, laughed and talked with their friends, explored, looked for tadpoles in the pond, walked the "plank" (a log referenced in a letterboxing clue), AND I got to enjoy some adult conversation! So, Supernanny, thanks for reminding me to stray from my agenda to have a little fun around here. And thanks to my friend for always thinking of me! Hey, we may even get around to Jacob's handwriting practice today!

Letterboxing

"What do you want to do fun today?" I often ask the kids this, and it usually means my creative juices have stopped flowing and I'm relying on their creative juices. Michael suggested Chuck E. Cheese--not really what I had in mind, especially since we were just there, and definitely not educational (this is a school day after all). Jacob thought it would be really fun to "go to a hotel." If I took him literally, we could actually have pulled that one off--there are plenty of hotels we could "go" to. Stay in one, though? For the day? Again, not really very educational, plus they'd tire of the close quarters very quickly (I know from too many first-hand experiences!). Alex had the best suggestion and an activity I've been promising for a long time: letterboxing.

Letterboxing is sort of a treasure hunt. You get clues and directions online to letterboxes in your area. After following the clues, you uncover a container of some sort with a guestbook and a special stamp. After stamping the guestbook, you use the stamp in the box to stamp your book, recording the visit both for the letterboxer (the one who created the box and hid it) and the letterboxee - us!

After running a few errands, we headed to one of the letterbox destinations: Suwanee Greenway, a paved walking/jogging/running trail. We picked up lunch and I had it in mind to stop along the trail for a picnic so we headed in. It wasn't long before we found the bench near which the box was hidden. After unpiling some rocks, we found the container hidden under a log. We did our stamping and re-hid the box. Of course, the kids were hungry at this point as was I. However, the kids were having a bit more fun than I; I was a little uneasy on this trail by ourselves as it was quite isolated and, besides the occasional jogger, we were quite alone. The fact that the one woman I saw by herself was jogging with two big dogs was enough to start my narrator! So, instead of enjoying a nice picnic on the bench under a lovely shade tree, we quickly headed back to the beginning of the trail where we soaked up some sun while we ate! Needless to say, it was a quick lunch.

And so we had another exciting adventure today, though not half as fun as yesterday. As noted before, it is a school day today for us, but luckily my worksheet-loving little girl doesn't mind a bit completing her work in the car while we head out on our various excursions. We've got another week until our school year officially ends, and I'm ready for a break. Hopefully, a vacation will replenish the dangerously low levels of creativity I have felt capable of putting into their lessons as of late. If all else fails, there are a lot more letterboxes out there to be discovered!

(For more information on Letterboxing, visit www.letterboxing.org.)