A Good-Bye and a Hello

Nearly three years ago when I started this site my posting duet was played with my friend Nicole. (And I just spent a good half an hour trying to find a picture of us together - just the two of us, but since we usually man the cameras, one or the other of us is missing. So, the drawing will just have to do.) There are many fun ideas she presented that she worked on with her cute girls. In fact, she is among a small number of people I know that really, truly makes a "to do" list of things to accomplish with her children and gets it done. As a working mom she has made the time to make her children a priority. The time has come where she is setting her participation here aside to keep that focus on her family. I have loved working on the site with her and her ideas she has contributed. She has one more "Science Saturday" scheduled today and then we will be saying good-bye to her. (But hopefully I can't get her to pop in and say hi now and then!)

With that good-bye on the horizon I thought it might be good to find someone else to contribute to the little Heaps of Laundry family we have here. Incidentally, we already have one literal member of my family here, my sister Rachel. So, you're going to start seeing posts from my other sister, Natalie too. Which reminds me, a lot of you may be new and we have never had proper introductions besides the measly write ups on the right.

We three girls, along with our brother were raised in the Midwest. We all have moved westward and live within 45 minutes of each other, which means we get to do a lot of fun things together. Between our collective 10 kids we're bound to have a few things we can share that would match up with your family.

I'm Collette aka Lettie here. My two boys are 4 & 5 and the best of friends. Sometimes I have to wrangle them away from "free play" to do projects, but they are usually glad in the end. My baby girl just turned one and she's going to be getting in on the action more as the months go by. I started the website to help me to do more with my kids and remember what really matters to me. In some ways blogging about our activities takes away from that time a little and that is why you will not see posts every day. We try to go on family adventures together and visit new places. In my "me" time, I like to read, run, collect ideas, listen to music, sew (and blog about it here), draw, try out new recipes, and spend time with friends.

A lot of you come to the site for the preschool ideas and Theme of the Week. That is Rachel's forte. She's got a house full of girls 5 and under. Because she is a busy working outside of the home mama, she really has to manage her time well to have play and activity time with her kids. This is something I bet a lot of you can relate to.

Rachel here: I am constantly striving to make sure that I don't look back on my kids' childhoods with regrets of wishing we had done this or that. So I try to organize our activities so we have a mix of crafts, fun, learning, books, etc. related to specific themes that I want my kids to know more about. Like Collette said, I work outside the home too, so we are busy a lot of the time, which also means that I miss my Theme of the Week some weeks. I am always trying to do better though. In my "me" time I love sports, music, movies, gardening, taking pictures, organizing, and spending time with my families.

And the newest member to the Heaps of Laundry family is Natalie. She has 2 boys, 10 & 11, and two girls, 7 & 4. A wider variety of activities that work well with elementary school aged kids are going to be where she shines much more than us other two. Like both Rachel and me, she also works. She finds time to balance her own business as a photographer and being a mom.

Natalie: When it comes to great mothering - I am always learning a thing or two from my younger sisters. Rachel and Collette really are excellent mothers. I wish I had done many of the things they do when my children were younger.

I have been a great collector of ideas to do with my children -

but all too often those files have remained just that - filed away.

We have been incorporating a lot more of these ideas into our routine the past few

years and I am excited to share some of these ideas with you.

When I am not capturing life with my camera, I also like to cook, scrapbook, read, and

just have a good time with family and friends.

Most of my posts will relate to kids ranging from preschool to 6th grade.

Excited to join Heaps of Laundry!
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Thanks for coming to the site and tell your friends about it!