Recap

It has been an eventful couple of days for my little family. Before I get into pictures and such, I am excited to tell you about a little change happening around our place. When we had John, we were adamant about not having a lot of branded toys or things that are electronic. We really wanted him to grow up using his imagination and not playing with toys that make imagining difficult. We decided that John wouldn't be allowed to watch tv or play video games. We really just wanted him to grow up in a simpler life, more reminiscent of what his grandparents may have grown up with. Unfortunately, once he started getting bigger, I got sucked into all of the bells and whistles. I saw how excited he got about things that light up and toys that talk. Buzz Lightyear became a friend and he is around every corner waiting to be purchased.
Last week though, it was like a light bulb went off. I realized that I wasn't doing the things that I felt we wanted and needed to be done. I found this awesome blog, Childhood Magic, that broke me out of my stupor and reminded me of how I wanted to John to grow. So after talking with Josh, I spent Friday cleaning and purging all of the the unwanted/unnecessary toys from our collections. Anything, with the exception of one tractor, requiring batteries was weeded out. Along with 95% of our branded toys. It may sound extreme to some, but I KNOW that this is the right move for our little family. We have very little money anyway, so spending it on toys and junk is really unnecessary. This week I am going to post a freecycle ad and get rid of the extra stuff. There are going to be quite a few other changes as well, and I am excited to document them here. I should also mention that John Deere tractors don't fall into our branded list. He loves them so much and there are hundreds around the house because his pappy collects them. So when you see pictures of them later, don't think I am a hypocrite :)

And now...on to the fun weekend. :)

We spent Thursday night at my mom's house swimming and playing. We even brought our pooch along for the evening. John thought it was hilarious that Wickett rode in the car with us.

After cleaning all day, Josh made us some raw "burgers" from the Thrive book. It is all ground nuts and oils and it is pure ecstacy.

We also had corn. John helped me shuck it. I am letting him help out in the kitchen and he is a great helper.

Saturday we went to a vegan BBQ at Green with Rikki and Tim. It was great food and we met some other friends along the way. We moved two tables together and it made it sort of a fun communal atmosphere.

After the BBQ we went to Rikki and Tim's for board games and Beer. We ended up playing Taboo and it was hysterical. Vegan was even one of the cards!

Then we just sat around and talked.

On Sunday we visited our friends for 4th of July. They aren't vegan, but they went out of their way to cook an all vegan friendly meal. It was one of the nicest things ever.

He BBQ'd the corn and it was great. He also made eggplant burgers, which I will be recreating very soon because they were so yummy.

John had the most wonderful time running around their property being a crazy, dirty, rascally little boy.

And then ate an awesome dinner with all of us.

It has been a great few days, but I am tired :) Ihope everyone else had an awesome weekend!