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Touring Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Creating a Life You Love· Titus 2 in Real Life

10 Jul

This is post 2 in the week-long Summer Bucket List series. You can read how our family built our list here.

When my dear friend and college roommate spilled the beans that her family was planning a trip to MD this summer I was really excited and started to think of fun ideas for their visit. I knew we’d want a lot of time to just visit since it will likely be another few years until we’re together again. They’d never been to Baltimore so we knew we’d have to do something touristy, but I was stuck on ideas. We’ve lived in Maryland for nine years now but haven’t really done much exploring.

I received a copy of Kids Love Maryland by Michele Zavatsky last month and I’ve flipped through it a number of times. It is well laid out with tips for how to best use the book, right in the front pages. I even appreciated Michele’s mission statement;

…to arm families with information that they can use to create memories.

Within the pages of the book there were tons of ideas, all laid out by region. We had plenty to choose from for the visit, but certainly not enough time to do as much as we would have liked! Hidden in the Central Maryland portion was a little paragraph about tours of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

This was a GEM!

For just $6 each we’d get an hour+ tour of the grounds.

We were too late to purchase the tickets online, so we headed into the city in hopes of getting tickets at the window. We made it down to Baltimore just in time for the last tour of the day. It was HOT that day and they were preparing for a game that night, thankfully our tour guide was going to shift the order of the tour so we’d still get a chance to go into the dugout (on game days the final tour of the day is not guaranteed to see it, so check the times)!

We received lots of warning not to touch the grass and were schooled on why they pay such careful attention to the grounds-keeping. We learned it was only planted on a very thin layer of soil and layers of other materials that help it drain so efficiently.

We were able to walk along the warning track and over the logo. Even if you aren’t a baseball fan, you have to admit it is a pretty cool opportunity!

After walking through the Umpire’s Tunnel we went up to the Club level. We were able to sit in a luxury box, but I enjoyed sitting in the press box. Watching my boys stare out at the field from there was sweet!

I don’t love the game as much as they do, but watching their eyes through each stop on the tour was pretty amazing.

We learned about the stadium and property, and what all of its interesting history is. We even were shown where to find the home where Babe Ruth was born!

The only thing that could have made the tour better would be if the concession stand was open!

This was another surprise item from the Summer Bucket List. A little item we didn’t even realize was here. We know this tour is one that we’ll repeat with other friends and family that visit. The price was excellent, especially for how interesting it was. I could easily have the older boys use it as a starting point for an interest-led study! (Shhh… don’t tell them I want to make school-work out of it.)

Now I’m looking through the Kids Love Maryland guide to decide what our next adventure will be! There are quite a few things listed for right here in Carroll County! I think we’ll have to consider getting copies for our surrounding states too…

Be sure to visit the other participants to see how their families are celebrating summer!

**I received a complimentary copy of Kids Love Maryland for the purpose of review. This posts features our honest feedback of this practical and easy to use resource. **

Building Our Summer Bucket List

Creating a Life You Love· Titus 2 in Real Life

9 Jul

This is my first post in the week-long Summer Bucket List series. Join me and 8 fabulous bloggers while we share our take on the trend.

Today I share how our family made up our list and show you a few of the things we’ve already done!

When we decided to school through most of the summer we knew we would need to be intentional about choosing things that would also mark the time of celebration for the children. This school year was a tough one. We wanted to make sure they understood that we were pleased that they had given good effort in the face of challenge even if we had not completed every page in our program.

After we completed our homeschool review we decided to mark that as our official end-of-the-year. We celebrated with dinner out as a family and went to support the older boys at their Cub Scout pack meeting, where they had both earned badges.

Later we asked them what sort of things they wanted to do this summer. Five little voices had many suggestions. So I asked if they would each make a list of five things they would like to do. I told them to have a couple extra ideas in their minds in case we had repeats.

The three older children made turned in their lists and we were impressed.

I think what surprised us most was that many of the things they asked to do were pretty humble choices:

go camping
make a tree house
have a family game night
play in the sprinkler
make goo (slime)
have a birthday party at Players

Of course we had a good giggle at some of the more ambitious desires:

go to Lego Land
go to Disney
own a pet snake(?!?!)
watch Star Wars again (the boys have been on a mom enforced SW sabbatical for a while now)

Some of their requests were exactly what we expected:

watch Brave
go to Hershey Park
go to a water park
go to the beach

They gave us some great ideas and we reserved the right to add our own to the list that would be surprises.

The first thing we crossed off the list was a surprise item – I hadn’t told the children that I had registered them to bowl this summer so it was a bit of a surprise when we went bowling and had dinner out (KidsBowlFree and Buffalo Wild Wings, Kid’s Night is only $.99).

The children also didn’t know that dear friends from a few states away were planning to visit (we hadn’t seen them in nearly three years)! While they were visiting we had planned to take everyone for Medieval Times for dinner. There were lots of cheers for that one. We arrived early so we would get close seats and there was plenty of time for everyone to get decked out with all the right accoutrements.

We brought home quite a bit more food than was eaten, but everyone really enjoyed themselves while we ate with no utensils and cheered for the Black and White Knight! (I was pleasantly surprised when we got home and I completed the online feedback survey that we would receive 50% off for shows we attend in the coming year, SCORE!)

Be sure to visit the other participants in the Summer Bucket List Series and come back here tomorrow when I tell you about the next surprise item we crossed off our list (I’ve lived outside of Baltimore for nine years and never known about it)!

What have you crossed off your list so far?

Starting School in the Middle of Summer…

Creating a Life You Love· Titus 2 in Real Life

8 Jul

I know that most families are just settling in to enjoy their summer break.

We’re getting ready to start the new school year.

Our children have been on a break since our final review in May.

That gave me time to reevaluate our curriculum and supplemental material (and get the schoolroom reorganized) and them time to do ‘nothing‘. When the heat is so high that playing outside is no longer fun, it makes more sense to keep busy while keeping cool inside. Why not get some of our learning accomplished?

The 2011-2012 school year was difficult for us and while I don’ feel the need to ‘catch-up‘, I do feel responsible for getting them back onto a forward progression. We haven’t yet completed our guides from this past year so we’ll be heading back to them and continuing on.

Yesterday instead of sitting inside all day to avoid the triple-digit weather we went shopping. Lots of new ~~toys~~ tools for our home-school.

When we first let the children know we were preparing to begin again they were ~~thrilled~~ less than excited. As soon as we explained that it didn’t mean that the fun of summer was going to disappear and that we would only be ‘working’ for a few hours a day, they started to come around. Letting them help me pick out our new supplies went a long way towards building the anticipation of fun.

Our plan is to get started back at math and phonics/reading right away but to focus on all the ‘extras’ that normally get skipped in the pressure to get our basics done.

I don’t want the ‘extras’ to be extra, I want them to be a well-integrated part of our day.

My goal of focusing on things like art, nature study, composer study, and science experiments over the summer is to allow them become a natural part of the day instead of something squeezed in when we are done with everything else.

I know you might be thinking that all sounds good… but don’t the children need to have fun too? I agree, they do!

This week I am participating in a Summer Bucket List series with 8 great bloggers!

I’ll be posting how we plan to enjoy summer while keeping our toes wet in our studies. I’ll share with you how we built our list and give you a peek at what we’ve already enjoyed this summer, like sitting in the dugout at Camden Yards, and stepping back in time at Medieval Times. You’ll also get let in on a (big)little secret of why our list will take until November to accomplish!

If you don’t want to miss any of the posts in this series you can subscribe by email on the right or add us to your favorite reader. If you are on Facebook you can ‘like’ our page, where I often post family-friendly finds and invite you to join the conversation and sharing.

How are you planning on making this summer memorable?

If you are a year-round schooler, how do you keep ‘fun’ a part of the season? If your children attend school outside the home, how are you bridging the summer with them?

What do you do about "Celebrations" in the wake of loss? [Family Connections {for Summer} 2012]

Creating a Life You Love· Life After Loss

4 Jul

I wasn’t able to participate in our weekly Family Connections link-up last week because I was in the midst of sorting through my thoughts on the events of my past month. I was worried about jumping right back in to ‘happy’ posting because that would just be insanity for my emotions.

Our theme this week is Celebrations, but as I prayed about how I’d share I realized it was very relevant to my journey along the path after losing Miranda.

As a family we’ve been navigating our way through many celebrations in the wake of losing our daughter.

~~Thanksgiving~~ (actually Halloween was just a few days after she passed away) was our first holiday without Miranda, soon followed by Christmas, and then Easter, with lots of birthdays mixed in.

There are parts of me that would like to hide under the covers and deny that there is anything to celebrate… but I can’t do that. We still have much to be thankful for and celebrate.

The 4th of July was a difficult holiday for my family growing up.

My 17 year old uncle was killed in a car accident on his way to pick up his boss before work on July 4th in 1981, when I was 4 years old.

The way we celebrated the holiday was changed in an instant.

For many years we didn’t celebrate at all. There were no fireworks, some years there was attendance at a service in his honor, and a meal with the family, lots of time together in support of each other. Over the years it started to change. We slowly started attending or having barbeques and started lighting little firecrackers and sparklers or watching an aerial display.

My uncle Michael’s memory was still honored but we were able to embrace the celebration of festivities of the day as well.

As a young child I didn’t have a full understanding of what it all meant. I was sad remembering his death but I didn’t understand why it meant we couldn’t still have fun. I now know, because I’m looking through the lens of losing my own child, that it is exactly what my family needed in that season of loss.

For our home we’ve made a different choice. With five young children to usher through the grief journey we’ve had to be very intentional about how we’ve approached the holidays on the calendar. Choosing to not celebrate the holidays, even in this first year, wasn’t the decision we were going to make. If we chose to abstain from celebrating this year what would we do next year? We would still need to face those days… and we would still be missing Miranda.

Grieving a loss doesn’t have a neat timeline.

Even after the rawness of loss dulls, there are moments that grab you and take your breath away. Setting an “acceptable” time-frame of mourning by abstaining for a certain number of months or years and then attempting to rejoin into the festivities may give the impression to others that we’re “over it” or are “moving on” without ever really healing.

For our family, my husband and I are choosing to take each of these days and allow ourselves ways to incorporate our memory of Miranda into each of them. There will never be a Christmas that we don’t realize there is a stocking that won’t be getting filled. September 29th won’t just disappear from our calendar (and neither will October 27th).

We have to find ways to redefine how we see these days and be thankful for what we have here with us while we miss the one that is not.

So today as we choose between attending the church barbeque or watching the fireworks display at the Farm Museum, we will have fun and we will celebrate but we’ll also miss Miranda and I’ll remember how last year on this day she was still in my belly and quite active while we sat and watched the fireworks.

Thanks for joining us for week 4 of the Family Connections {for Summer} series, be sure to visit Missional Mama, Our Good Life, Walking in High Cotton, and The Daisyhead to see what celebrations are like in their families. Please join in the hop by linking your post about summertime family connections or celebrations! Please include the button or link back to this site (you can grab the button code from my side-bar). Join us again next Wednesday, when we talk about Outdoor Fun.

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