Thank you Cordelia and Samuel

This past summer Tay and I participated in the Little People on the Road Swap hosted by Meg and Mag. Our partners for this swap was Cordelia and Samuel. They are from California but if I'm not mistaken they now live in Spain. It was a fun swap. Tay and I enjoyed putting ours together but she especially enjoyed receiving her treats.

Her package consisted of a photo album with Samuel's summer adventures with his traveling buddy, Owlie, a box of Granola, a Flower Press kit, some Bento items that Cordelia got from one of her favorite stores in Berkeley, and Tay's favorite, a sketch book and color pencils.
Here's Tay with Owlie. At first she was having a hard time saying "Owlie" so she gave it another name which I can't remember what it was right this moment, but eventually calling it "Owlie" again because that was his first name. She carried him around for days.
The photo album that chronicled Samuel's and "Owlie's" adventures. Samuel went to a Science camp, they took a trip to Canada, and spent a good part of the summer with his Grandmom in Berkeley, CA. All before he and Cordelia left for Spain to live for a year.
Tay loves to draw. Imagine her excitement when she saw this in her swap package. She has dubbed this her "special" sketch pad and color pencils. No one but her is allowed to use it, although she has drawn a good many pictures for the refrigerator.

Thank you Cordelia and Samuel for the wonderful gifts. I hope you are both enjoying Spain.

Operation Christmas Child

Operation Christmas Child is not a swap, but is sort of along the same lines, only the package you prepare will go to a child in need in a third world or war torn country. It is a fun way to teach your children about giving to others. My son and I have done it in the past and even though he was pretty young (he was 3 the last time we did one two years ago), he seemed to get the concept of giving to another child who didn't have all the great toys and games that he has.

You can pick the gender and age range of the child you are preparing a box for, and even include a personal note and pictures of your family if you wish. You should be aware that the organization that sponsors this outreach program, Samaritan's Purse, is a religious organization and christian books and/or tracts will be added to your package before it is distributed.

Guidelines & Suggestions for Operation Christmas Child Packages

How to Find a Drop-off Location Near You

Samaritan's Purse asks that you include a check for $7.00 with each box to help cover the shipping costs.

If you decide to particpate, please feel free to post photos of your packages here on the swap blog and let us know what your family thought of the experience.

And the winner is...

Jill!!!! Congratulations!!!! Jill will receive a $50.00 gift card courtesy of Box Tops for Education. She can use it at one of over 50 stores that participate in the Box Tops Marketplace (Barnes&Noble, Kohl's, Target and Shutterfly to name a few). Plus a percentage of her purchase will go to the school of her choice! Thanks to Boxs Tops for Education, as well as one last thanks to everyone who participated in the Little People on the Road Swap!

Airmail from Australia

We got our package a few days ago and loved everything in it, especially how it was all themed around our new Australian friends Pinta the koala and Birra the wombat. We got books and stickers about each animal as well as lots of other fun Australian treats. Thank you so much Jane, Sophia & Tessa!

They even took Pinta and Birra to visit their real live counterparts at the Melbourne Zoo. Too funny!

Sammy and Abby have already been showing Pinta and Birra around town and taking them to our favorite spots. Thanks again to Jane and family and everyone who partipated this time around!

Rhino & Lion arrive Down-Under

Wow! Our parcel arrived today from the U.S.A. How exciting! We LOVE Rhino & Lion, thankyou Abby & Sammy. Lion has been claimed and already taken to Playgroup with Tessa to visit all her Aussie friends.

We also received; a fabulous scrapbook with room for more adventures, whiteboards to practice writing, pencils, U.S. coins, and alphabet stamps. I think thats all !?

Here is Tessa studying the beach adventures of her new friends.
Thankyou to everyone involved, we have really enjoyed our 1st childrens swap.

Welcome Harvey and Harry!

Fischer was excited to welcome Harvey the Horse and Harry the Horseshoe to our home yesterday morning. They brought with them a fabulous scrapbook all about their adventures in Oakdale California.

They brought Fisch a hat and a shirt and a bunch of other goodies!

Thanks Manami!!

News

First, we have extended the deadline for thank-you posts to Oct. 1st. You will still be entered into the contest if you post by then. The prize is a $50.00 gift card to the Box Tops for Education's Marketplace On-line Store, which will be generously donated by Box Tops for Education.

Second, everyone should have received an e-mail with a quick survey asking how this swap was for you and your family. Please take a few minutes to fill it out and e-mail it back to us.

Lastly, Jill (a participant in this swap), is hosting a fall swap for kids called One Good Book. We love her idea of having each participant choose a book to send to their partner along with goodies related to the story. Check it out! The deadline to sign up is September 18.

Happy Fall!

Good bye Lollie, Hello Elmer

Although we were very sad to see Lollie go...

We got a box!

Now we have Elmer! Thank you Zoe and Erika for all the fun suprises and Elmer! He has already been roaming around the house and I am sure he will be exploring the great outdoors tomorrow! Thanks for bringing us along for your summer!

B, S, & KW

Bunny Fun!

A couple days ago, our package from Nature Girl arrived! What a fabulous surprise it was! She and her mamma Jill went all out! Bunny came with accessories! (Hmm, someone must have known that little girls like accessories!) Pirate stuff, princess stuff, tutu stuff, she had it all! They also included some great books, a mini bowling set, dice games, and all kinds of little things. Hours and hours of fun, in mom-language.


Thank you for your precious package. Thank you ladies for getting this all together. And thanks Nature Girl!

Your hand written thank you note is on it's way!
Hope you have a fantastic fall season up in beautiful leaf land!

The Dancing Robots

Thank You ...This is Why Kid Swaps are the Best!

Thank you to The Mom, The Dancer & The Robot They were our partners for this swap. We had a great time taking Adventure Bunny around on our summer travels. We were a little sad to see her go but when our new softie friend arrived yesterday my daughter was excited!

This is the moment she saw her new friend!

The first hug!

After reading about Daffodil's summer adventures and her love of ice tea my daughter insisted we give her some ice tea. She was excited to feed Daffodil Love Bunny carrots and ice tea. She was even more excited that she got to sit in the middle of our table for the picture.
Thank you Karah and kids for our new bunny friend!

My Thank You's

I am not officially participating this round but as a hostess wanted to say thank you to all of you for doing what you need to do to make the swap run smooth.

A big thank you to Melissa for running this swap solo since the end of June when I went on my extended babymoon. You are doing a great job!

Final Contest

For the final contest all you need to do is post a thank-you to your swap partner, which was already a requirement of the swap anyway, but a little extra incentive never hurts! If you can, include a picture of your kids unwrapping their package or a pic of your loot. Since everyone should send their packages out by August 31st, we will make the deadline for the contest September 10th.

Also, please let us know if you encounter any problems in completing the swap--we want to make sure everyone has a great experience and that there are no disappointed kiddos.

Drum Roll Please...

And the winner of the July contest is.... The mom, the robot and the dancer!


It was so fun seeing everyone's travelling buddies and the summer adventures everyone is having. Thanks to everyone who did a post!

Look for rules for the final contest later this week.

Searching for a Prize

After much hemming and hawing, I decided that the prize will be a Where's Waldo book. Meg stopped by and saw my family during her cross country trek and gave my son one as an early birthday present. He has been obsessed ever since! He takes it everywhere with him and falls asleep looking at it at night. He not only likes to find Waldo, but just loves to dissect everything that is going on in each scene. Plus I can have Amazon do the shipping and save myself a dreaded trip to the post office:)

P.S. You still have until midnight tonight to post a pic of your travelling friend(s) to be entered in the contest.

Lollie travels

Lollie (named by S) started her travels with us at Longboat Key, FL where we were on vacation with our extended family on Daddy's side. She loved watching B and S playing in the waves as she played in the sand

But most of the time Lollie liked laying on the lounge chair in the shade, making sure she didn't get a sunburn, and resting up for the big travels that were ahead of her.

We will update on that later! Happy travels!

KW mom of B & S

Look what we did

Guess what? We got to go to Kindergarten with Sophia last week. It had been raining, but we still got to play outside. Here we are on the climbing frame.
Yesterday we went to a Fairy party at Sian's house, Sian is 4 now. Life's good at the moment, party food and birthday cake....yum!

Travel pal spotted at the beach.

Remember in an earlier post my daughter couldn't decide on which traveling pal to take with her to Hawaii. Well, at the last minute, she decided that she wanted to take the little puppy that her big sister gave her.




Meet Lihi. She came in a little purple purse with pearl handles and the word "Royalty" embroidered on the little bag.

Here is Lihi at the airport waiting for our flight. We flew on Hawaiian Airlines, the best way to fly to Hawaii.

Lihi had the chance to visit everyone in Hawaii.
But she especially loved going to the beach. We spent the day with family at the local beach. We BBQ'd chicken, steak, sausage. The boys went fishing, crabbing, or diving. It was a fun day.

This was one of the many days spent at the beach. Tay had a blast with all of her cousins.


Hope everyone is having as much fun as we did.

Hello from Australia

Here is Birra the Wombat out for a drive through the Dandenong Ranges. Shouldn't he have his seat belt on?
And here are Pinta the Koala and Birra posing in front of the lookout over the Silvan Dam.
Its a bit cold here at the moment, and we've all had bronchitis and the flu, so we haven't been out and about too much.

Craft time with Eddie

After spending the weekend with Grandma visiting, we had a little sewing time with mom, Jeremiah and Autumn. Eduardo has a playmate, Pinkie, isn't she cute?! Spending time crafting together is one of our summer highlights this year. Everyone has made something, and with it super hot in the afternoons and us laying low til our next trip...it's perfect fun!

Adventures with Kitty

Kitty came with us on our first adventure of the summer...out to see the Tony Stewart #20 Home Depot Car! Kitty was enthralled with it! Kitty decided it wanted to go home with one of my co-workers for a few more adventures and get a name...and be back in time to go with us camping in the Adirondack Mountains!

Hope everyone is travelling or visiting safely and staying cool in the heat!

Traveling with Adventure Bunny

We're having fun with our summer buddy! We created a pink and blue bunny named Adventure Bunny. She has been for a ride on an elephant with Nature Girl and her Grandma. She's also been on a ferry searching for Champ, the Lake Champlain monster. We didn't spot Champ, so we're off to try some new adventures before our bunny takes the final trip to her new home.

Our traveling buddy- July contest

Well, I must first say that I am glad we are sitting out this round and just helping organize because we have fallen completely in love with our buddy and would not be able to send her away! Baby (no name yet) was born yesterday at 2.42 pm Pacific time. She is 20 inches long and 8 lbs. 2 oz. Her head is 14 inches around. We are all doing great and totally in love. Hope your swaps are going well. Meg.

Swap Friends Spotted in Michigan

Arial the elephant and Lola the dog had a great time around Independence Day. Arial use to be a pair of socks and Lola was a pair of gloves in her former life. Patterns for both came from this book.

North Carolina Sighting

A big blue bunny has been spotted, lazily enjoying the clouds float by. While everyone else was floating down a river in the heat, she was just enjoying the "lovely air" she told me. She must be preparing for her journey in a box soon.

Get plenty of fresh air now, because travels to a new place are a-coming!

Our traveling buddy is making friends!

Here is our swap friend "Dino". He is feeding bread to critters in the mountains.

July Contest

To be entered in the July contest all you need to do is post a picture, either of your kids "on the road" (could be past or present) -OR- a picture of your new travelling buddy. The deadline to post is July 31st. The prize is TBA, but it will be something summery and fun. I will kick it off by posting a pic of my children's two travelling buddies, taken on our trip to the Oregon coast over the 4th of July weekend.

My husband actually took this picture--it is kind of fun to see him getting involved in the swap too.

Two weeks to go

Hi everyone. Oregon is finally starting to feel like summer. It's been getting hotter and we've had a few thunder storms.

With summer comes vacations, camping trips, softball games, and this year pool parties. We have camping trips in the making but no definite plans, we're in the middle of the softball season, and I'm hoping to plan a pool party for Tay and her little friends. We are, however, leaving in two weeks on vacation back to our little home in the beautiful state of Hawaii.

We're all excited, especially Tay. She will be bringing her travel buddy with her. But we do have a dilemma. Tay can't decide which buddy to take with her. I thought we already had her travel buddy picked out. It was no doubt going to be "Ballerina" but a recent trip to Build A Bear has made it complicated. She is now the proud owner of "Serafina". As you can see, I included a picture of them. I didn't want to ruin the surprise for our swap partner so I just took a picture of their footsies.

It's a hard decision because both buddies are an important part of Tay's life. I already told Tay that only one friend can come with us to Hawaii but I have a funny feeling that she'll try to sneak one in her bag. Oh well...

How's everyone coming along with their swaps?

And the Winner is......

Liz!

Thank you to everyone who shared their travel tips. We got some great ideas and it was fun reading all of your posts. We will do another contest for July--look for the rules after the holiday weekend. Happy 4th of July!

P.S. We did not judge the entries, instead we drew a name randomly.

Road Trips...

I was hoping to take some pictures of our road trip items but have yet to find them in the many boxes post move. :-) So pictures will follow... but  here is what we do for long road trips... I always put together a bag of healthy "car friendly" snacks and then together with Zoe we pick 2 or 3 books, small easy to manipulate while in the car seat toys, magna-doodle, coloring book with crayons (we received a fun crayon pocket holder during the first swap, thanks Meg & Mag).... The things I add without Zoe's knowledge usually keep her entertained the longest, I like to bring at least one new toy and one new book along on the really long road trips.  I do not run out and purchase new toys but keep my eyes peeled for fun little things at yard sales or the few times we do get happy meals I snag the toy before she see it and save them for those moments that we need a little something extra in the car! So that is what I do, nothing really special but it makes our road trips more enjoyable, but I have to say we are pretty lucky Zoe really likes to travel!

Learning a little as we go, in more ways than one!

Gosh, it was so interesting to read Liz's post and learn a little about her lifestyle. I think there are many different things we will take away from this swap.
I am planning on creating our little buddies this week. Now that Sophia is on holidays, I realise I may be running a bit late!
As for trips and hints, we took a trip over the Easter break and we packed a thermal bag which fitted between the girls car seats with; lunch boxes full of snacks, drinks, coloring books, and story books. We also took stable tables which the girls could put on there laps to balance books on. Lastly we packed there favourite quilts and there favourite C.D. "Hop, Skip and Jump". We also headed of in the wee hours of the morning, so we bundled the girls into the car in there p.j.s and got a few hours in before they awoke.
If you would like to see how this eventful trip ended up, head on over here!

Pine View Dam Swimming

Just did a Pineview Dam visit. Lovely water, waves, and just a bit of beach.

Here we are enjoying the sand:

We loved the little plastic tub boat. It was little tipsy, but fun!!

After a long days of playing we layed on our towells and soaked in the sun. mmmmmm.

The Jorgensens in Utah....

Scamp and Her "Box" Buddy

Right after Scamp and I signed up for the swap, we picked out her new traveling buddy for our trip that would be sent to our New York partners. Big Mistake for a mommy of a 2 year old!

Here she is with her "Box" who was set to accompany us on our vacation this next week.

But, Scamp quickly became attached to this little scraggly raccoon and carried him in her shirt for a few hours as her new baby. How could I send him away?

So, we picked up a new "Box" (Box #2), identical to his brother minus the chocolate milk stains Box #1 sustained a couple of weeks ago, who will also be traveling with us. Box #2 (who may acquire a new name along the way) is hiding in the back of our car until the trip on Sunday. Boxes 1 and 2 will both pose in many a picture in the Smoky Mountains, then Scamp and I will make our scrapbook and send it and Box #2 to our partners. Problem solved (I hope)!