Sledding on the farm is no joke

If one thing has become clear in the past few days, it's that my family does not fool around when it comes to sledding. After the winter of last year, where hardly a flake fell to the ground, we're taking full advantage of the powder covering the hills this year. 

The back hill on my grandfather's farm has some serious hills. Though I feel like none of my pictures quite capture the breath-taking terrain (and I mean that in both the beauty and the "you want me to sled down THAT?") it is the ideal sledding spot. 

The perfect place to send your toddler whizzing down the hill on a round plastic disc. 

If the speed of the hill and wipeout potential doesn't get you, then the stream snaking through the bottom of the hill or the small pond on your left might. Not to mention the concrete cattle waterers. 

My husband errs on the side of "kids have been doing this forever, they'll be fine." while I would like to micro-manage every send off and be sure I'm sending them down the hill in a path to land perfectly between pond and stream. 

One of the things that I love about watching this, is to see my kids' personalities emerge on the hill. One is fearless. One will try it once or twice, but that's plenty for her. One just goes and goes and goes and loves to talk about how much each lump and bump hurt. 

But there was one sledder among us, who doesn't fool around. 

Waxing up the runners. We're not fooling around here, people.

Lord help me be this adventurous and nimble at 84. Let me still be climbing on sleds and hoofing it back up the hills. 

I'm pretty sure my grandfather loves this just as much as the small sledders. 

When the hill seemed like it just wasn't fast enough or sending people far enough, things got serious. 

The tractor came out.

A path was packed down and suddenly my dear children were skidding down the hill on a trail of new speeds and distances.  (If you look closely at the picture above, you'll see my oldest daughter climbing out of the stream bed.) Everyone needs a good sledding story, I tell her. Mine involves a big hill, a jump and a tailbone so bruised I missed two months of my high school basketball season. 

After sledding, we came inside for a dinner of steak and warm soup and a celebration of Robbie Burns's birthday (more on that soon.) and between dessert and hot chocolate everyone was back on the hill, sledding by moonlight. 

I'd lose sight of them about halfway down the hill and throw out a little prayer that they were fine at the bottom--made obviously clear when I'd hear whopping and laughing from the darkness. 

Help me and BeOutThere write an e-book!

I'm writing to you from New York City tonight, thankful that I decided to throw the laptop in my bag at the very last minute. I have one more exciting thing that I want to share with all of you.

I've been asked to partner with The Motherhood and National Wildlife Federation's Be Out There to help publish an e-book on summer activities that will encourage kids and families to get outdoors. I've been a Founding Mother for Be Out There for several years and love being part of that program. Though I feel like being in the outdoors comes pretty naturally for my kids (and when it doesn't, I simply kick them out of the house), I have always felt strongly about the importance of outside play, and giving children a knowledge and appreciation for the natural world.

Each of the authors contributing to the book were given a topic and I have to admit, mine kind of cracks me up. Ask me how I encourage my kids to get outside and I have answers. Ask me ideas for teaching them their natural history, I have answers. But ask me about outdoor parties, and I'm a bit of a slacker. Yes, we eat outside on the back porch for most summer dinners. Yes, when it gets too hot, we break out the hose and go crazy. But parties? Hmmm.

So I'll be stretching my party-planning muscles during the next few days. Rounding up ideas for fun ways to take events like birthday parties, holidays and family reunions into the big wide open. I'll be taking some of my favorite outdoor activities and tweaking them to make them party crowd-friendly.

But this is where you come in!

One of the things I love about this book is that it is as much about my thoughts, as it is about yours! Crowd-sourced, even! If you have a favorite activity, idea, experience, pinterest pin, or even saw something cool online, share it with me here. Have a photo of your own? Shoot me an email and maybe we'll include it in the book (with credit, of course!). I'd love to hear your ideas, because I know you people are creative and fun and will help get my own creative juices flowing!

So let's hear it, what are some of your favorite ideas for taking parties, celebrations, even a small dinner party with your kids, into the outdoors?

June 4. Zoo bound

This will be a short post but I'm committed to keeping up with my daily posts! And I am actually posting this from my phone, in the car. No, I'm not driving.

We are having a rare two days of beautiful cool days here in Maryland. So we are taking advantage of both the weather and the fact that schools are still in session to slip off to the National zoo for the day.

Birdy says she wants to see scary tigers, Mary says she won't leave without seeing flamingos and Emma says giraffes are a required stop. Elizabeth thankfully has no stringent requests.

More soon! Happy day.