Dana Burland

They did it! Even in the rain!  This past Sunday I hosted our neighborhood's 3rd bi-annual kids fun run. I first started this last Spring, inspired by a friend who spun up her own neighborhood 5K Turkey Trot for Thanksgiving. It was such a hit I hosted another in the Fall, and now we're up to three. This is such a fun, easy event.  First: a post on the neighborhood Facebook page with a date and time. I also put up two homemade signs at our entrances a few days ahead of time.  Next--the set up: a table in the garage with paper and markers for kids to make their own personalized race bibs. A snack table of course, with water and granola bars. Some lawn chairs for the parents, yard toys/chalk out for post race play and a portable speaker with pump up jams. Then, race! Depending on the turn out I'll run a heat of younger kids, then older kids (to prevent a trample). Starting and finishing line is at the end of our driveway. I have a very official race stick with some flags on...

It all started 5 months ago. Well, it started a bit before that with my 6 and 4-year-old doing occasional “brother’s sleepovers” together in each other’s rooms. At first the mood had to be right, and they both had to opt in, which didn’t always happen. Then, some time around Christmas, it just clicked for good.* Since then they’ve been exclusively sleeping in the same room. We’ve had many mannnny iterations of bed set up to accommodate this. Mattresses on the floor, sometimes finding them both in the same twin size bed in the morning anyway. Their bond right now is deep and sweet. They play together, joke together, and dress similarly. A has gravitated more toward soccer and football because C likes to play. C embraces more of A’s favorite TV shows and movies so they can watch together. They know and play with each other’s friends, attend and cheer each other on at soccer games, swim lessons and piano practice. They prefer being together. *For the time that this lasts, why woul...

Is it even a family vacation if one of your kids doesn’t drop their brand new beloved sunglasses into the bear pen at the zoo RIGHT after you asked this child to be careful NOT to drop their brand new beloved sunglasses into the bear pen at the zoo? That and a lightly skinned knee were our only vacation casualties. Overall, we had a big, huge win. We spent 4 days in the Smoky Mountains for our annual just-the-4-of-us trip. It was SO great. We hiked every day. The first day we walked 5 miles! Laurel Falls with its VIEWS, twisty path with sketchy steep drop offs leading to an 80 ft waterfall. Wowow. Meigs Creek Trail we found by accident when looking for another trail. It wasn’t my absolute favorite (I was looking for something else, after all) but it had some really great rock throwing creek options and fun exposed tree root nature steps to explore. Cataract Falls right in town was a good one. Very easy, very popular. A bit too popular, especially at the 40 ft waterfall at the...