Hello, friends! I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings. We were in Virginia with John’s family and the week left me feeling full and happy. We decorated sugar cookies, we played cards and Do You Love Your Neighbor, we went on a hike, we went into DC and had tea, and our Thursday table was full of all the usual favorites plus buttered noodles, a Thomas family tradition.
Perhaps my favorite part, though was the walks. Every morning, any adult siblings who were available snuck away for a brisk walk, 30 minutes to an hour. Not only did it feel great to move my body throughout a week that is more often known for lounging and eating, but the power of walking and talking was on full display. We filled each other in on jobs and home projects, kids and parents, travel and health and plans for next year. I am grateful for the siblings I married into, and relished the opportunity to catch up with some of my favorite people in this way. I hope you were able to find moments of connection this week, too.
To wrap up this year’s gift guides, I thought I’d share a few of the items I’ve squirreled away for my family’s stockings. Linking is a bit difficult, since I prefer to pick up items throughout the year as I visit small shops and boutiques, but I’ve noted the same or similar items where possible. I hope it’s helpful! (And if you want to finish your shopping in one go, don’t forget about my friends’ ingenious one-stop stocking shop, Persnickety Gifts!)
Annie:
— A new water bottle and a handful of stickers from our summer travels to jumpstart decorating it — Color-changing flame packets for s’mores nights (I’ll split these up between the kids!) — A kitty pencil pouch for all her treasures — An adorable little deer stuffie — Fairy house supplies from our local garden store — A sheet of Bluey stickers — A Liberty fabric knotted headband — A few Schleich animals — Hair elastics — The most fun bandaids — Some sort of candy
Shep:
— A handful of Yoto cards stored up from our subscription — A roll of Scotch tape, since he’s forever borrowing mine — A mini paper airplane set — Cherry sour balls from Michigan favorite Cherry Republic — The most adorable little lantern. (All of the kids are going to go nuts for this and I probably should have bought three…) — Tattly dino tattoos — 50 silly scavenger hunts — A camo tank and camo jeep — A new paint-by-sticker book, his favorite — Glow in the dark stickers — A few new Hot Wheels (I think I’ll see if there are any on our neighborhood Buy Nothing group!)
Everyone’s favorite gift guide – what we’re actually giving our kids this Christmas! It’s been enjoyed since 2019, when we had a four-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy. Below, I’ve shared what each of our kids will be finding under the tree this year, along with a few suggestions I gave to relatives. I’ve also listed a few of the very favorite kid items we already own at the bottom if you’re looking for a few more suggestions!
(And if it’s helpful, I’ve linked everything here!)
First, the kids will be receiving one joint gift this year – the beautiful embroidered banner below for our loft/playroom, in honor of the Narnia books they’ve been reading with John. I love it so much, but the other designs are tempting, too!
June (who is almost 9) will be receiving:
— A ticket to Alice in Wonderland performed by the Carolina Ballet this spring. I wasn’t thrilled with the DPAC offerings this season, and though I don’t think a ballet would be her first choice, she thrives on a fancy night out and 1-on-1 time so I feel like we can’t go wrong here. — New bedding: the duvet, sham, and sheet set of her choice. I’ve selected some options I think she’ll love (including this, this, and this) and will wrap and print a little catalog for her to choose from. She’s been asking for a “fluffy” comforter for awhile (she has a quilt on her bed now), so I think this will be very exciting. — 8 books in the Dear America series, a favorite from my childhood. And when I say from my childhood, I mean from my childhood – I’ve tucked these away for several decades just for this moment! — Two winter watercolor workbooks – one from Emily Lex (I bought it in the cutest shop in our downtown, supporting two small businesses in one go!) and one from Brighter Day Press. I’m hoping she’ll let me paint alongside her!
— A ticket to Dude Perfect when they come to Greensboro next summer. We would have bought tickets for both kids, but June will be at camp on this date! — A replacement Yoto Mini. Yep, you read that right: somehow Shep’s Yoto went missing a few months ago, and though I am annoyed that he lost it and was definitely not going to jump in to replace it immediately, he’s been sad without it and I’d love for him to have one again. — A wooden paddleboat kit. We snagged this surreptitiously on our Bryson City trip after he clamored for it in a store. — An NC Courage tee to cheer on his favorite soccer ladies.
— Dog BINGO. I originally purchased this for June a few months ago, and she’s going to be very jealous when she sees Annie open it, but ultimately it will be played by everyone and I’m relieved to have another gift with the name of the hardest child to shop for under the tree :) — A giant box of chalk. This sidewalk chalk is incredible – bold and vibrant – and with 180 pieces, should satisfy our smallest artist for at least a few weeks. — A kimchi tee. All of our kids are nuts for fermented cabbage, much to John’s delight. They’ll get a kick out of this graphic tee, which I’ll wrap with a few consignment finds I held back from my fall haul. — A new bike helmet from our local shop, just like the big kids. — A little purse for all her treasures.
Other ideas I gave to relatives: panda slippers and a bunny light. Mostly, this girl is still just thrilled to be here and happy to open anything! :)
A FEW OF OUR TIME-TESTED, VERY FAVORITE TOYS AND GIFTS:
— The Nugget, a key component for hours of open-ended play. — This ice cream play set, which has provided hours and hours of entertainment. FIVE STARS. — A set of MagnaTiles, because yes, they’re as good as everyone says they are. Definitely add the cars, and remember MagnaTiles and PicassoTiles are interchangeable! — A big box of colorful Duplos (played with daily for many years). — America’s Test Kitchen Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs, which has some of the most delicious recipes I’ve ever tasted (those chocolate crinkle cookies!). — A box of letter writing supplies (cards and envelopes, postage stamps, a fancy pen, stickers, a return address stamp, maybe even pre-addressed labels printed with the addresses of grandparents and friends!). — The softest faux fur tie dye blanket in all of June’s favorite colors. — A wooden train track. We have a combo of the Hape and Ikea sets, which are interchangeable. — A Micro Kickboard scooter. These are hands-down the best scooters – we’ve gifted them to all of our kids around age 2, and 3-5 is the sweet spot. — A glow-in-the-dark soccer ball – perfect for street games after Daylight Savings Time! — A Priority Start bike. June started with the 16″ at age 4 3/4, graduated to the 20″ at age 6, and got the 24″ for her 8th birthday. Shep now rides the 20″ and Annie will get the 16″ on her 4th birthday. These bikes are SO well-made – they’ve been through several kids in our family and still look perfect! — An art case coloring set. One of Shep’s most beloved items, used daily! — A game you can play together: try Cover Your Assets, Ticket to Ride, or Sushi Go Party, all family favorites. (More ideas here!) — The cutest personalized notepads. BIG favorite with June.
Whew! I hope that’s helpful! I’ve rounded up a bunch of ideas, but remember, kids don’t need much to be happy – in our family, we’ve actually found that too many gifts can be overwhelming and dull the whole experience. So choose wisely, and with joy – giving our kids good gifts is a really fun part of being a parent! :)
Below, tell me what you’re getting your kiddos this year — I love hearing your shopping lists!
Previously: — 2023: A 7-year-old girl, a 5.5-year-old boy, and a 2.5-year-old girl — 2022: A 6-year-old girl, a 4.5-year-old boy, and a 1.5-year-old girl — 2021: A 5-year-old girl, a 3.5-year-old boy, and a six-months girl — 2020: A 4-year-old girl and a 2.5-year-old boy — 2019: A 3-year-old girl and a 1.5-year-old boy
Those who’ve been with me awhile likely remember one of our favorite family traditions: bringing apple cider scones to the kids’ teachers on the first day of fall (or thereabouts). It’s a tradition that dates from June’s first year of life, when I made and packaged pairs of buttery, cinnamon-flecked treats for her daycare teachers. As the kids and I tallied up our list of teachers to bake for this week, I realized that I’ll likely be tripling my recipe this year: there are three kids in the mix now, of course, and June loves to deliver this treat to each of her past elementary school teachers in addition to her current one. I’m not mad about it. Our teachers deserve to be celebrated, and so does the first day of fall :)
Over the years, many of you have joined me in this tradition. I’ve always pointed those who wanted in on the fun to Jenny Steffen Hobick’s website, where I first found the recipe many years ago. Since it no longer seems to be active on her site, I thought I’d share it here for those who are curious. Whether you make it for your teachers or yourself, enjoy! And happy (early) fall.
Apple Cider Scones
1 cup of apple cider
2 cups plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1/4 cup cold heavy cream 1/4 cup of apple cider reduction 1 teaspoon of vanilla 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/4 cup of apple cider reduction 2 tablespoons of butter 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Reduce the apple cider in advance so it can cool. Pour the cider in a saucepan and simmer on medium until it reduces by half, to an almost maple-syrup consistency. It should take about 10 minutes. Pour it in a glass bowl and let it cool in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
Note: In all my years of making this recipe, my apple cider has never reached what I’d call a “maple syrup consistency,” even though it does reduce. I faithfully simmer it for 10 minutes or so and call it good.
In a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut the cold butter into 1/2 inch pieces. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and mix on low until the butter is mixed in and is the size of peas.
In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, cider reduction, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and whipping cream with a fork. If you have a pourable measure, do it in that to make it easy to add to the flour/butter mixture.
Turn the mixer on low and slowly add the cream and egg mixture. You may not use it all. (Note: I have never used it all.) Turn off the mixer once the dough comes together.
Sprinkle some flour on the counter and turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Add some flour onto the top of the dough, then pat it out into a disk – about 8-9 inches in diameter.
Cut the disk into 6-8 pieces like a pie for standard size scones. For minis, cut each of the 6-8 pieces in half. (This is what I do!)
Separate the pieces and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees: for minis, 12-14 minutes, for standard, 15-17 minutes.
To make the glaze, heat the cider reduction and butter for 30 seconds to one minute, until the butter is melted. Add the powdered sugar and stir until smooth. Add more powdered sugar or more cider to reach the desired consistency – it should be drizzle-able, but not too runny. Enjoy!
A highlight of June: hosting a kindergarten breakfast in our neighborhood! This was a very, very low-key event – so low-key that it almost feels not worth detailing – but it’s been a sweet tradition in our neighborhood for many years and was a great comfort to me when June was a rising kindergartner. Today, I thought I could offer a few ideas (and lots of encouragement) if you, too, might like to host one!
The background on our neighborhood’s kindergarten breakfast:
Our neighborhood has been holding a breakfast for rising kindergarteners for at least as long as we’ve been here. (I remember thinking it sounded like the coziest tradition when we moved in ten years ago, sans children!)
The first time I actually attended was in 2021, when June was getting ready to make her elementary school debut. Though I had nothing to compare it to, it felt like a bit of a muted event – which makes sense, since things were still opening back up after the pandemic. There were just a handful of families in attendance, but what we lacked in quantity was made up for by quality – including a pair of powerhouse moms with four kids each, all of whom attended June’s future school. Getting to chat with them and ask them questions went a long way toward putting me at ease.
It was my desire to pass that sense of ease onto another new kindergarten parent that made me say “yes” when a request went out for a breakfast coordinator earlier this year. After confirming a date with the head of the social committee, I was given a budget of $200 and carte blanche to do pretty much whatever I wanted… my ideal scenario, ha!
Planning a kindergarten breakfast:
In our neighborhood, the kindergarten breakfast is open to all rising kindergartners, no matter what school they’re planning on attending. Since our public and private options include year-round schools, we hold the breakfast in June. (This feels early for those on traditional calendars, but the year-round school year starts in July!)
We got the word out in a few ways: we included the details in our neighborhood’s email newsletter. We made a Facebook event and posted in the neighborhood Facebook group. We set yard signs at a couple of key intersections, and put a signboard out by our neighborhood clubhouse a few days before the event. Thankfully, this was all taken care of by the social committee!
We ended up with about 15-20 kindergarteners (and their parents and siblings) in attendance, which I was pleasantly surprised by!
Kindergarten breakfast ideas:
We hosted our kindergarten breakfast at our neighborhood’s clubhouse, which has a wide, covered porch and is right next to the neighborhood playground. The event was from 9:30-11am on a Saturday.
We did, indeed, keep things very simple. I set out tablecloths I already owned and added this paper ruler runner on top. We arranged the food on one table: juice boxes, chicken minis and coffee from Chick-fil-a, donut holes from Dunkin, and mini muffins from Publix. Simple, simple, simple!
The main activity for the adults was simply mingling (we set out name tag stickers!), chatting, and swapping information :) We also had a little bracelet making station, inspired by June’s and my kindergarten tradition. At just $9 (!), this bead kit was perfect and we still had plenty left over after the party.
We also printed copies of Whitney’s summer book BINGO card as a sort of parting favor. Aside from making bracelets and scarfing snacks, the kids pretty much just ran in a pack from the playground to the porch and back – and seemed to have a great time.
And that was pretty much it! I loved getting to meet other kindergarten parents, loved seeing Shep meet some kindergarten buddies, but I think my favorite part (rather selfishly) might have been knowing that I played a small part in keeping a beloved neighborhood tradition alive and well. In a world where a lot of people don’t know their neighbors or the families at their kids’ schools, I’m grateful for the tight-knit communities we get to be a part of – and willing to do what I can to strengthen those bonds.
And you can do the same! If you’re reading this with a bit of sadness because you wish your neighborhood had an event like this, you can be the one to make it happen! You don’t have to wait for someone else to create the kind of place you want to live!!
That’s just what my friend Bethany did, and to round out this post, I thought I’d share a bit from her perspective. After hearing me yap about my plans, she decided to put together a little celebration for the kindergarteners on her street (including her son!). Here she is with the details:
One of my big, dreamy adult hopes is to be the home where the kids hang out. So it feels like we hit the jackpot when we landed on a street with more than 50 kids in middle school or younger. My oldest and four other pals on our street are starting kindergarten this summer (year-round school!). Always looking for an excuse to gather friends with all the comings and goings of summer schedules, we threw a kindergarten ice cream party to celebrate their transition.
Most of the kinders will attend the same school, so we scheduled the party in the afternoon, following Meet the Teacher at our school. The logistics were simple: I texted the other parents to share the invite, and each family graciously asked what they could bring to the party. Our menu included ice cream, lots of fun toppings, fruit, a veggie tray, and crunchy snacks. Our only non-food purchases were a set of very popular color-change spoons and school-themed napkins. (We also bought these adorable ice cream plates, but I don’t think a single one was used.)
Most of the kinders have older siblings who pass our house on the walk home from their bus stop. We planned for the kinders and parents to arrive a bit before the bus dropped for some quieter time with just the younger kids, and then the older siblings and their friends joined a bit later for an ice cream bash for about 40 people. (Reader, you should know that when I bought extra ice cream because I was worried the three Bluebells tubs would not be enough for 40 people, I was very wrong. If you’d like to have ice cream tonight, please come to my house; we still have plenty!)
I hope our time together excited the kindergartners and maybe helped to quell some fears or uncertainties about their start at a new school. And, if I’m being my big, dreamy self, I hope it’s another moment the kids look back on when they remember the big team they had cheering them on as they moved through childhood.
Isn’t that the best? If nothing else, I hope this post inspired you to make a little community magic right where you live :)
