Spiderman S'mores

Jammy had a brilliant idea for enhancing s'mores, and he brought the ingredients along to try it out.

For a spiderman s'more, you will need:

1 graham cracker, broken into two halves
2 little pieces of a plain flat Hershey bar
1 big marshmallow
1/2 packet of Spiderman fruit snacks

You make it like a regular s'more: put the chocolate on one half of the cracker, toast the marshmallow and put that on top of the chocolate, squish it together with the other half of the cracker, and then open it back up and stick the fruit snacks in there.

Even mom thought it was pretty good.

Jammy thinks we should sell the recipe to restaurants.

Jammy's Point of View

Not unlike mom, if you give Jammy a camera, he will be busy taking pictures all day.

When Jammy is taking pictures (and movies), it is important to have a charger for the camera's battery and a way to offload the pictures, because the camera fills up quickly.

Spider!

Jammy found a big spider, crawling with babies, by the creek.

Mom took an interesting video, but be warned, it's a spider doing something kind of icky. 

Early morning walk

Why do grown-ups always want to sleep so late, anyway?

For the boys, a day of vacation is a much better reason than a day of school to wake up early!

Fortunately, in the mountains, all they need to do is step outside to find lots of things to see while they wait for the rest of the house to wake up.

Packing!

Today, after Jammy gets out of school, the boys are leaving to spend Memorial Day weekend with mom and dad and some friends at a weekend house in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

Jammy is allergic to dust mites. He knows there are dust mites in the bedding at the mountain house, so he will just bring his own bedding.

• Zippered mattress enclosure
• Sheets
• Pillow
• Blanket

Jammy (6) also needs to bring lots of socks, because he loves to have clean socks on his feet at all times.  For three days, he'll bring:

• 5-6 pairs of socks
• 4 pairs of underwear
• 3 short-sleeved T-shirts
• 2 long-sleeved T-shirts
• 1 hooded sweatshirt
• 1 rain jacket
• swimming trunks
• 2 shorts
• 2 long pants
• pajamas with feet
• sandals
• tennis shoes
• rubber boots
• slippers
• hat

Macho (3) packs just a little bit differently because he gets his pants muddy, and he doesn't keep his shoes on:

• 3 pairs of socks
• 4 pairs of underwear
• 4 short-sleeved T-shirts
• 1 long-sleeved T-shirt
• 1 hooded sweatshirt
• 1 rain jacket
• swimming trunks
• 3 shorts
• 2 long pants
• pajamas with feet
• water shoes
• rubber boots
• hat

In addition, they will bring:

• Rx allergy medicine
• Benadryl
• sunscreen
• aloe vera
• insect repellant
• poison ivy wash
• Neosporin
• bandaids
• First-Aid kit
• flashlights (to play with)
• dvd (to watch if mom and dad are sleeping late)
• pen and paper (to draw)
• a ziplock bag full of Legos
• a couple of toy cars
• toothbrushes and toothpaste
• kid shampoo and soap
• sippy-cup
• life-jackets
• their favorite story book for traveling The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury (Celebrated Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud)

Movie of the Week

Macho (3-1/2) has been watching Alladin all week. He calls it "that movie with the tiger" (that would be Princess Jasmine's tiger Raja. :)

Blueberries

For the 2nd week in a row they received fresh organic blueberries in the Produce Box delivery. So the boys had to read Blueberries for Sal. Jammy (6) digs it, but Macho (3-1/2) doesn't care about the berry picking. He just likes the parts with the bears.

Actually, Macho doesn't really like to eat blueberries, either.  That's okay, though, because Jammy will eat Macho's berries for him.

A Day of Waiting

Mom does not like taking Jammy and Macho to appointments. It doesn't matter what type of appointment: doctor, dentist, accountant, hairstylist, etc. It doesn't matter who stands to benefit from the appointment.

If it involves sitting quietly in a waiting room for an extended period of time, followed by meeting with a professional who requires the attention of at least one family member while the others either listen in or wait patiently - then mom doesn't like it.

Jammy and Macho don't really mind. They can always find something fun to do. The trouble is trying to find something of which mom can approve.

For this reason, mom postpones appointments until they can't be put off any longer, and then they all happen at once.
Today, for instance, is a day full of routine doctor's appointments. The family is getting ready to go away for the summer and needs to make sure that everyone is healthy and vaccinations are up-to-date.

Today while sitting in a waiting room, Macho (3-1/2) found a game to play that was okay with mom. He named the two different kinds of chairs in the room, so mom would ask "Where's a flower chair?" or "Where is a grape chair?" and Macho would find the chairs. Then mom and Macho took turns counting chairs.

Another waiting room lifesaver is mom's iPhone. A couple of apps with a lot of value for the price are:

Macho's (3-1/2) favorite, Bubbles by Hog Bay Software (it's even better on iPad)! http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bubbles/id284288607?mt=8

and Jammy's (6) favorite, Chicks by Triniti Interactive http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chicks/id358348579?mt=8