Toddler-Sized Clean Up the Neighborhood Trash Patrol

So it turns out that even 2-year-olds can get involved with hands-on community service and have a fun time with it! Here's how it started: almost every day little Biscuit and I go for a walk down the sidewalk in our neighborhood. He doesn't like to ride in the stroller much; he'd much rather push it (it's an obsession, really). And he's constantly stopping to try to check out the old soda cans and cigarette butts and boxes he finds that some litterer has thrown onto the street. I never let him touch these things because...well, they're filthy. But then, I didn't feel right about just leaving the junk sitting outside either. So I told him we'd pick a day and put our gloves on and clean up the trash we see on our walk. Today was the day and it was a fun activity for learning about cleaning up, helping others and being good stewards of God's world!

He knows what to do - see garbage, grab it...Then throw it in the trash bag!More trash. Better pick up that old straw, yuck.Uh-oh, he might be the pick of the litter but I don't think that's the kind of litter we want; besides, he won't fit in the trash bag...See, it's almost overflowing with garbage already!Time to take it all home and throw it in the trash can!

Juffuddy Day: a get-silly but not scary Halloween alternative

Well, although our family doesn't get much into the halloween scene or trick-or-treating (we aren't fans of its roots and what it celebrates), we made up our own dress-up holiday today so Little Biscuit could get in on some innocent costume fun, in advance...I like to call it Juffuddy Day (Just-for-Fun Dress-up Day). It's based on Prov. 8:7 so it's about honestly dressing up silly just for the fun of it, and not for any scary/evil, deceptive reasons, etc. Since this holiday has totally different origins than halloween we can celebrate guilt-free ;) It was also cost-free because I just let Little Biscuit parade around the store in the cute costumes he liked that were for sale and took pictures to remember it all by. The best part was, he didn't have to pick just one character!

Biscuit the Tank Engine...Choo! Choo!
Swashbucklin' Jack Sparrow, Jr...(Well, Captain Jack, Sr. can't bring this ship into Tortuga all by his onesies, savvy?")Sheriff Lil' Biscuit, fastest draw in the west (as long as he's got a crayon!)Sir Biscuit the Brave Knight meets...a tickle dragon!?Lightning McBiscuit (his personal favorite - "ca-CHOW!")

Toddler-size random acts of kindness :)

The other night Big Biscuit and I were letting Little Biscuit burn off some energy just walking around at an arcade. Suddenly we heard someone squeal with excitement - a young woman (total stranger to us) with her boyfriend had just won a giant Clifford the Big Red Dog from one of those toy-crane machine games. The next thing we knew, she ran up to Little Biscuit smiling and shouting, "Hi there! Look what I just won for you!" She outright gave her cool prize to him just for fun! And boy did she ever make his day! This particular Clifford was even wearing a firefighter's hat!

Here are some around-the-house adventures Biscuit and his new buddy have had lately and the not-so-random acts they've inspired us to try to do together to serve God and keep sharing His love:

Donate baby toys and DVDs to someone in need, like a single mom or the Pregnancy Resource Center...
Visit someone who's sad or sick...

Love on a lonely dog (our local pet store might have just the pup...)
Biscuit says, "Thank you SO much!" to the generous, thoughtful person who gave him this sweet gift!! :) Oh, and don't worry, Emily Elizabeth...Clifford really likes his new home ... and you can come visit anytime!

Stone Soup! (and other fun folk-n-fairy-tale-inspired toddler activities)

Because of Biscuit's newly discovered love of rocks (which he tries to steal from around the neighbor's mailbox), this morning's adventures took us to our local water garden center. I was hoping they had a few river rocks I could buy for Biscuit to play with, but it ended up being so much more fun than I figured it'd be. The sweet lady at the store let us fill up Biscuit's backpack full of rocks from her giant display fountain bed for $1 - she actually offered them to us free but we insisted!)

For Biscuit, it was like stepping into another world! He saw fountains, ponds, ferns, fish, tadpoles and other great water displays everywhere. So many places to explore and new things to touch! Here are some of the storybook examples of "enchantment" we discovered there!

Biscuit at the Fountain of Youth!?
(I didn't even drink from it but I sure felt like a kid again!)





















Looking for the troll under the bridge (from The Three Billygoats Gruff)...uh-oh, I guess he found him! Run, Biscuit, run! ;)


Was that The Frog Prince on that lily pad?

Hmmm, I wonder if any of these koi know The Golden Fish?

Of course all Biscuit's discoveries went right along with his latest library book, Made By God. It's fun to enjoy imaginary stories but even more amazing to know there's a real Creator who gave us this world full of wonders!

When we got home I boiled the rocks in hopes of killing some of the algae or other goopies that might be lurking on them, since Biscuit insists on taste-testing each one of them (thus the Stone Soup!) Then we put them all into a little clear box just his size. He loved taking them in and out of the box, clapping them together, rolling them to Curious George and trying to shove them into his shape sorter. I'm sure he'll come up with some other creative uses for them in the days ahead. After that he had to change clothes; he was soaked from playing in the lily pads! :)