Our Free(ish) Summer - Abbey Road Festival

I have been wanting to write about this for a while now. 2 weeks to be exact. The Abbey Road on the River Festival. You can read more about it here if you want. I love this festival, we have gone the past three years and it gets better every time. Here are the stats:

Kid Fun Level - 5
Mom Fun Level - 5
Mom Stress Level - 2 (maybe even 1)
Cost - $25 for my ticket (kids were free); $4 parking; $10 ice cream

Okay so this isn't exactly free and it really isn't even that cheap, but it is lots and lots of fun, and sometimes that is all that matters when looking for an activity to keep the kids (and you) happy. If you live in the Louisville area, this festival is a "must do". I usually go every year with my friend B, but since she has a brand new baby this year, I had my dad and sister tag along with us. Basically, this festival is where a bunch (and I mean a BUNCH) of bands get together and play Beatles songs. This goes on for like 4 days. I would describe it as a very small kid friendly version of Woodstock. Or of what I imagine Woodstock was probably like. All different types of people sitting (and dancing and laying) around listening to really great music. So was it kid friendly? Yes, and it gets more kid friendly every year. There are so many things the kids can do here. You can listen to music


Or you can enjoy some ice cream


You can relax with your family

Or maybe you want to dress up like a Yellow Submarine.

Or maybe you would prefer to be a robot

And since you are on the river, let's check out the view

And draw some pictures with sidewalk chalk

But please don't forget to dance with your Aunt

and hang with your grandpa.

Did you notice those specially made Beatles outfits the kids were wearing? You can't go to a Beatles Festival without those! Thanks, Mom!

Busy

I have to take a minute to apologize. I know I have been M.I.A the past couple of weeks, but I have a good excuse. We have been busy. Extremely busy, but it has been the fun kind of busy so I can't complain. That being said, we have been doing all sorts of things that have good "blog" potential, just no time to write it all down. So, in an effort to clear my mind of all of these blog posts, I am committing myself to a post a day the next week. I know, I know, I am setting my standards high, but I really want to get back into a good routine here. So I am sure you are wondering what we have been up to. Well, we have been hanging out a lot with these guys:


and going to this place:



and checking out this festival:

and making these dresses:

and also this dress:

and celebrating birthdays, going to aquatic centers, hanging out with friends and neighbors, and visiting family out of town, and making more dresses and hair accessories....whew, sounds exhausting! Lots of free and not-so-free activities to share with you all. Looking forward to our Week of Posts!

Our Free(ish) Summer - Week 2

Where do I start? Week two was filled with so many free (and not so free) activities!! The beginning of the week brought us to the Louisville Nature Center, so we will start there...

Louisville Nature Center
Cost: Free
Fun Level: 4
Mom Stress Level: 1

On Tuesday afternoon we made our way to the LNC in the early afternoon. This was sort of spur of the moment, so it was just me and the kids. I wasn't really sure what to expect; I had checked out the website, but it didn't really show many pictures or give too much info so we kind of went into it blind. Basically, it is just what the name says it is, a Nature Center. Everything you do here revolves around nature, being outside, looking at birds, bugs, flowers, plants, things like that. Good, if you have a kid who is "nature -y". Bad, if you have a kid who doesn't like getting dirty or who doesn't like walking or bugs. I happen to have one of each (plus one who is too little to know yet). When you pull into the parking lot this is what you will see:





a small cinder block building surrounded by trees and "nature". They have a lot of the plants and trees labeled in case you are interested in checking that out. Once inside the building you can...

check out your wingspan. Joe Finney happened to have the wingspan of a mallard. Or you can...

stick your hands in small boxes to figure out what sort of "nature-y" things are in the box. The boys loved this. I, however, am a little creeped out by sticking my hands into dark boxes. There is also a (very) small library inside, and that is about it inside. Then you walk through the building to the outside of the center. Here you have a couple of options; you can walk on the trail, which happens to be 1.5 miles long, or you can go into the bird blind. We did both. Well, we didn't actually walk the whole trail since it was just me with all three kids, but we did walk some of the trail. On the trail you could...

look at worms and bugs. Here joe Finney was attempting to step on a worm, which I quickly put a halt to. As much as I dislike bugs, they are God's creatures too and I don't need my kids trying to stomp them! Sidenote: if you go here, bring bug spray. Lots of it. The bugs are rampant here. We all came out with our fair share of bug bites each. You have been warned! You can also look and listen for different types of animals, birds, etc. They have signs around telling you what sorts of things you should be looking for. We ended up seeing some sort of woodpecker.

Next you can...

try to walk the trail. Or you can walk for about 5 minutes and then turn around like we did! Next time I will bring help so that we can walk the entire trail, which runs by Beargrass Creek.

After your trail walk, you can check out the bird blind. The Bird Blind is a small building (sort of like a shed or something like that) with a big window where you can watch birds. There is also a notebook where they want you to record what you see. I am assuming this is what the serious birdwatchers do. We, however, are not serious birdwatchers and actually did not see one single bird while we were in the bird blind. The boys were very interested in why the building smelled and looked the way it did, though.

There is also a gazebo and picnic tables, so this would be a great place to bring a picnic for after your hike. So, all in all, a good trip. Will I go back here? Absolutely. Will I bring help with me next time? You bet. That way we will be able to go on our hike!

Also this week we checked out Beef O Brady's on Tuesday for kids eat free night. We live right down the road, but for some reason, have never been here for kids eat free. We will be going back. They had a kids movie playing on the big screen t.v., the food was quick and the portions were generous. We were in and out in under 45 minutes and $20. Two thumbs up from the Saylor Camp!

More activities to come!

Seven Months

Carolena, my sweet little love. You are seven months old now and still the sweetest little baby I have ever known. You are getting big, though. You have gained 3 pounds since last month, which makes sense because we have found out that you LOVE to eat. Pretty much anything I put in front of you, you will devour. I can't feed you fast enough! You must get that from your mommy. It has been such a fun month trying new things and seeing your sweet reactions and curious eyes. You got to try out the baby pool this month and at first you were unsure of what was happening, but when you figured out how to splash the water, you wanted to play for hours!

You are starting to figure out how to wave at people and I could have sworn that you said "mama" the other day. You have been able to feed yourself puffs and love when I give you your own cup with juice or water. You also love when mommy fills up a cup with ice and water (for herself) and you reach for the cup until I give you a drink for yourself.

I have realized this month that I might have a heartbreaker on my hands. Just the other day when I was getting my hair done, you started flirting with the man who was washing my hair. You tend to do that with all of the cute boys around! I think we will instill a strict "no dating until 21" policy with you. I am sure your brothers will help me keep those boys away!

Carolena, every day with you gets sweeter and sweeter. You have made our family whole, you have made our family happy. The final piece to the Saylor puzzle! Kisses, my sweet girl.

Our Free(ish) Summer - Week 1

I really wasn't planning on officially starting this until June, but the opportunity presented itself, and who am I to pass up on a little neighborly fun. Our next door neighbor was over the other day, and the boys started playing a game of "flag" football without any prompting from me. "This counts", I thought to myself, so here we go with Free Idea #11 - Invite neighbors/friends over for a game of flag football, soccer, or basketball.

Ratings (on a scale of 0 to 5)

Cost - Free!

Fun - 5

Mom Stress level - 1 (would have been "0" except the "flag"football quickly turned into "tackle" football)

The boys had a blast with this one, and Carolena had the best time watching them run around. We didn't keep score or anything, just would run with the ball and tackle each other. It was pretty amusing to be honest with you. I think thew must have played for about 30 minutes or so. Probably would have played longer except I made them stop because the tackling was getting to rough. Ahh boys, I can always count on them to turn any sport into wrestling!

What started out as this...

Turned into this...

In the effort of full disclosure, today we attempted Free Idea #22 - Make some bubbles...bend wire hangers into loops to make giant interesting shapes. It didn't work out so much. Apparently bubbles = tantrums. We will leave it at that. So instead, we did this...

Carolenas first time in her swimming pool. She loved it. She thought she was hilarious every time she made the water splash. Love her! And yes, that is food on her chin, too lazy tonight to photoshop that out.

Next up on our list: Louisville Nature Center and kids eat free night! 2 down, 23 to go!

Our Free(ish) Summer

With summer quickly approaching and my fears of how we are going to fill our days, I was ecstatic when my Southeast Outlook arrived last week with the headline "25 ideas for free summer fun in Kentuckiana". "Perfect", I thought, "just perfect". You can only spend so much time at the pool and I had desperately been trying to think of things that we could do that didn't include making a run to Walgreens for some cheap toy to keep the kids occupied for five minutes. Sure, we have our Zoo Pass and Science Center/Art Museum Pass, and those things are great, but we are in need of something new and exciting. I was pleasantly surprised looking through the Outlook and found quite a few ideas that I had never thought of before. Sure, some of the things may not be quite age appropriate, but I can work with that. So then came my idea, "Let's try to do all of these things this summer and blog about it"! Cue the lightbulbs. So thats what we are going to do. We are going to pick a few different things from the list each week, do them, take pictures, and blog about it.

Anyone care to join us?

You know you do, I mean, how can you beat a summer full of free (or almost free) family fun! I am being realistic, I am sure even though something may be "free" entry my crew will find a way to spend money on something, but hey we will give it a shot. So come join us (if you dare) as we celebrate our Free(ish) Summer! Now the only question is "where do we start?" Posts will begin June 1st.

Holes

Can you believe that this sweet little boy has a tiny hole in his heart? I don't believe it, he is to full of love, and plus, I couldn't even really see it on the monitor while the doctor was doing his heart ultrasound. But there is a hole the doctor assures me, he called it a PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale). I knew he had one, we found that out when he was about 6 months old or so, but the doctor promised me that it would close up by the time he turned three. But that pesky little hole is still there, and now he is "hoping" that it will close up by the time Joe Finney is five. So "what does this mean", you ask? Well for now he can't scuba dive, and he can never be a Navy Seal. But he can do pretty much everything else, including sports (which is what I was worried about). We don't have to see the doctor again until his fifth birthday, and if at that point it hasn't closed up, he will have a 1% chance of surgery. I can live with that. I can live without him scuba diving too.