I have a friend In TOMs

Toms shoes we have all seem them I mean how can you not they are everywhere you look.  When I first saw the toms I thought they were the ugliest things I have ever seen. the toes were square and they just looked so unsupportive. One reason was that I thought my feet would be to fat for them and they would look weird and because of that thought they weren't cool.I did really love what they stood for and how you buy a pair and they send a pair to a someone in need that part was really cool. At the preschool I work at 8 out of 12 kids have a pair. They look super cute on kids I'm not gonna lie. However my dislike for them grew even more when having to deal with them falling off kids feet every 2mins, It was so annoying I couldn't even stand it. One day we lost only one of  a child's tom somewhere in the room, it took us most of the day looking for it, it was later found stuffed inside the dramatic play kitchen.

Now I know what your thinking ok Debbie downer the blog is called I have a friend in tom so what changed.. I was given a gift card to a local store that one of the parents owns as a birthday gift. First off I have never had a job where you get gifts at work for your birthday so that was pretty sweet. On a random day after work Me and my co-teacher decided to check out the store, and cash in our very generous gift cards. The store is called Bliss and is located in the heart of Maine's old Port. Super cute shop with very hip clothes and accessories. Well wouldn't ya know they sold Toms there. I decided to try a pair on, and was instantly in love. they are the most comfortable thing I have had on my feet since my LL Bean Slippers. I had the poor employee running back and forth from the back room with different colors and sizes to see just how the different styles and colors looked, I'm pretty sure behind her smile she wanted to cut me. I ended up buying a pair of the classic black canvas and got a corduroy pair for liv, she wears them everyday. I'm working on finding the perfect pair for the husband now. The moral of this blog is never judge a shoe by its box put it on your foot and give it a stroll. Buying toms is not only helping others its actually a really comfortable flat shoe.

Oooo Spooky

So its fall in Maine beautiful time of the year, my favorite time of the year I might add. We are currently living close to another great money trap for us parents, Pumpkin Land. When viewing the website they let you believe that you will have a whole day of fun with just paying to get it. of course they offer other thing to do there..You know.. cool things, but of course you need to spend extra money on tickets for those. Now I have an almost 4 year old I'm reading the website and its stating that there are several bounce houses, a kid maze, and a hayride to go get a pumpkin, along with a petting zoo and other things. So for some reason I forgot who my child was and had convinced myself and my husband that for 20 bucks we could have a nice fun time at pumpkin land and leave with a pumpkin.  We head out to Mechanic falls in search of the mystical land of pumpkins.
 as we pull in the place is packed there are attendants to help you park in this field. Right at the entrance is a row of  port-a-potty's, like any good parent would do after a long car ride, or before going into a amusement park of some sort you would ask or have your child try and go to the bathroom. My daughter makes me laugh every day and pull my hair out for that matter. Of course we go into the port-a potty and she can see well...human waste floating in blue airplane goo. She freaks out in her outside voice there's poop in there. after what seemed like 10mins of convincing we compromised with me plugging her nose while having my back turned to her so I wasn't watching. We were already off to a good start as you can tell. we buy our tickets and head through the giant pumpkin entrance. What do they have right in the middle of your view before you even walk 2 feet, is the giant bounce pillow. The Giant bounce pillow is a bounce house with no walls or ceiling like a pillow. Kids are drawn to it like a moth to a flame my child was no different she blackout and just ran to it. before I was even there she had her shoes off and was waiting in line...OH WAIT!! You need tickets for this...of course you do.  So we buy 10 tickets 2 bucks a piece for her to bounce on this pillow, that she actually was afraid to do once she got on it and needed one of the workers to bounce with her...I wouldn't let her get off..if you want to bounce on the giant pillow oooh you bet ya bottom your bouncing on that pillow. We used the rest of the tickets on the haunted day ride which was cool for young kids even made me jump a few times. We took our hayride out to the pumpkin patch and picked a good size pumpkin that the husband had to carry around for about 45mins.. Must things to do at pumpkin land

• Haunted Day ride: they tell you a story as you enter the haunted forest all the while there are spooky and random animated characters ready to jump out at you.

Frankenstein's Giant slide: Super steep slide NOTE: if you child is in leggings or tights they are going to fly down the
slide.
 
3D circus: I Think was the best thing they had there. An old barn painted with circus imagines in 3D paint, they give you glasses at the door and you can walk through as much as you want. the Alien landing part is really weird its a spinning tube with a straight plank down the middle for you to walk through mean while all with 3D stars spinning around you. After my third time through I was feeling dizzy. 

Corn Maze, and/or Munchkin Maze: we did the munchkin maze cause it came with the ticket and I didn't think liv would make it through the 10 acre intricate labyrinth of the Big maze.

If you have a small child under 2 or nearly 3 you could probably get away with not having to buy extra tickets. there are several bounce houses that were packed with toddlers just happy to be alive.

 

 

a Total " I love you man Moment"..

Caution: I have had three Grown up drinks while writing this it may be all over the place..

Not every adventure is a magical nature walk or a whimsical theme park trip. Life is an adventure in its self. Take for example today. Just another typical day in the Holmes household, both me and my husband had 8am appointments, he needed a teeth cleaning and I needed to go to the doctors about a foot problem I have been having. Oh yeah and we had the 3 years. We did what any normal married couple would do in a situation like this and played rock, paper, scissors to see who was going to have to take her with them to their appointment. I lost...rock always gets me. The husband ran up the street to put gas in my car for me and I was left running around the house trying to get dressed and get the mini beast dressed, and trying to feed her something so I didn't feel like a horrible parent rushing her out of the house without giving their kid breakfast. I finally get a mini me to sit down and eat an english muffin. So I can play a game of candy crush and finish my coffee while I wait for the husband to come back. Out of now where in full drama mood my daughter runs out into the kitchen telling me she has a button in her nose. I look.. I see nothing.. I tell her, "you're fine there is nothing up there".. *Insert mother of the year award here* she goes back to eating her breakfast and watching some obnoxious cartoon singing about how sharing is caring.. I continue to play candy crush cause lets face it..its crack. I look at the clock I have 5mins to leave to get there early and she comes back.."mama there is a button in my nose and it hurts". I amuse her by giving her a tissue and telling her to blow. Well I'll be damned there was a button in her nose and it was STUCK!
THis is the first time i have had to deal with any object besides macaroni up the nose. I tell her to keep blowing keep blowing like it Lamaze class..she's freaking out screaming it hurts, I'm freaking out thinking shit I'm gonna miss this appointment and end up in the ER while they suck out some old vintage button from my daughters nose.  As my husband and I are holding her down with a pair of tweezers trying to pull the button out, listening to sesame street playing in the back ground I thought to myself this is my life...I don't even know if my pants are clean and I'm pretty sure I just saw a bird fly out of my daughters hair...but this is it..  its not a bad thing is just not what good house keeping tells you its suppose to be. I don't know if its my new happy pills or the drinks talking but ya know what, you just have to embrace your life no matter what the situation may be. It has taken me almost 2 years to be able to say that I love and enjoy my family and its craziness, it sure is never is a dull moment.

Well I made it to my appointment 10mins late, along the way Livy telling everyone in our path that her mom had a broken foot. come to find out I did kinda have a broken foot and have to wear a "robot" boot for 2 weeks. my child is afraid of it but my toddler classroom love i

I better not see a snake!

So today me and the Ol' family decided to get out and enjoy the weather cause word on the street was that Sunday was suppose to rain. I'm a big fan of the website Alltrails.com, its a great page where you just type in your zip code and it lets you know of trails near you. I have heard many people talk about rattlesnake mountain and how the trail was easy and kid/dog friendly.  It even had 3 1/2 stars on the rating. I believe it even has the geo tracking box somewhere on the trail. So we take the drive out to Raymond about 45mins from where we live right now. The trail is located on Rt 85 in Raymond heading towards crescent lake. you will drive by a boat loading area and then about 1/4 mile on your left you will see a field for parking. Small lot only about 4 cars can fit but we just parked on the side of the road no worries. So we start by walking through a field to get to the head of the trail, which is wide and cleared nice scenic woods view, feels like your just taking a nice nature walk. Me and my Daughter picked up leaves that had already fallen and changed color and I tried to gave her my best explanation as to why they are changing color..im sure if she remembers that moment 10 years from now she will know I failed miserably.
So we come to a point in the trail where it turns and goes straight up. I'm like umm ok well it cant be to bad maybe for a little bit then it will level off and we will be fine. Oh no I'm not sure on the actually mileage or kilometers but I'm gonna guess and say it was at least a mile. it was very rocky, lots of branches and very steep. Like steep to the point where we had to grab trees on the side to help pull ourselves up. Ok now you also have to realize we are out of shape. we know this we weren't trying to be mountain climbers.
At one point Our daughter is screaming for her PB&J sandwich laying on a fallen log, my husband who has walked ahead a bit yells down "it just keeps going up do you want to turn back?"  Now if we had turned back I would not be writing this...well maybe I would of but I would of seriously made it sound like we were climbing mount Washington. So we took a break and ate lunch on an old log. Once we rested we continued on our way, finally we made it to what we decided to call the "top" it was just a wide open large rock area we could see some of the lake through the trees nothing to wild but it was the first flat area since we started. we sat there and had water and hung out. Livy talked to all the people walking by telling them her life story, her dog's name was Zooey, she thought the trail was very steep, and that we were gonna take naps when we got home. One couple stopped, livy of course asked them as many questions as she could, one being "are you going home?" The young thin athletic looking couple says no we are going to go apple picking. I then reply" oo that sounds fun" ..thinking in my head are freaking kidding me if I don't die on the top of this mountain I'm definitely taking a nap when I get home maybe even in the car.

Then I notice the dad is carrying a 6-9 month old on his back, who we now know is named calvin thanks to liv.  I then say "aww you have a baby on your back how was carrying him up?'  He then replies "not to bad really.." has he's looking down at me and my husband sweating and stuffing our faces with cheez-its he nods and says "have a good day" and they head on their way. I look at my husband and say " they just huffed it up this mountain with a baby on their backs and instead of collapsing in their cars out of breath they are going to go apple picking, we are walking to the top of this mountain".  So we did! The rest of the trail from where we were to the top wasn't that bad not as steep that's for sure and the view was really nice and peaceful. The walk down was a little tough cause it was so steep at one point livy was just holding on to her dads backpack so she wouldn't fall. I was so proud of her for making it up and down the trail on her own it was harder then we had expected and usually she just lays in the middle of the path refusing to move, but she did great this time and I'm glad cause there is no way I was gonna be able to carry her. I'm sure the hike wouldn't be bad if you were in shape and mentally prepared of what's to come.

Where fantasy Lives...Unless you have been to Disney

If you have small children and cant afford hopping a flight to Disney and dropping 5 months of your mortgage payment on a vacation then storyland is the place for you. Haven't heard of this magical place well shit Google it. Its in Glen NH just a little bit outside of North Conway. Here's my take on it..Mind you I have never been past new jersey so I have nothing to base it on besides funtown splash town..so all you people that have been to Disney..stop bragging..anyway Some of the characters are a little scary like for instance there are 2 Cinderella's shhh don't tell anyone..

Hung over Cinderella

I showered today cinderella

There is one that sits in the castle all day long and just smiles for pictures.. She kinda looked like she had been on an all night long drink binge and was tired and over it. Then there is the other Cinderella that does the tea party and comes out sings at the end of the night. She looks good not like dammmmn girl good, but put together good and could convince a small child that she was in fact Cinderella. Humpty Dumpty is kinda creepy too. He scared my kid she wanted nothing to do with him  in fact her exact words were " he is broken and going to get egg all over me". So you get the idea book characters walking around, there are awesome kids rides that even the adults can go on. Now when I say kid rides I don't mean those boats or cars that go in a circle at .-5mph and your kid just rings the bell and thinks in the best thing ever. These rides are pretty serious. like they have a mini rollercoaster, several versions of the tea cup ride, The Alice in wonderland tea cup ride is pretty sweet cause its a scrambler as well, there are also other things like a water area for kids to explore with a submarine and random things that shoot out water at them.

They do awesome face painting too

Also if you have a child that is really into the princess deal or just Cinderella for that matter pay the extra 10 bucks for the Tea party they did a really cute job, Cinderella comes out talks to all the kids, they have a snack and drink tea, she reads them a story and then takes pictures, it was cute my daughter loved it. Its just all in all good fun and a must do before your kid is to old.  Here are some helpful hints for your trip to storyland..
Tip #1 IF you can afford to spend the night DO IT!

Tip # 2 If you buy tickets after 3pm they will give you a pass to come back for free on another day the park is open..

Tip #3 Pack a lunch don't spend you money on food cause you know your kid is gonna want some stuffed animal or to play games or some other useless toy that they will lose before you even leave the park

Tip# 4 if you have to purchase drinks, buy the storyland cup its 9.99 but you get free refills all day, we got like 8 free refills totally worth it

Tip # 5 If you child is under 3 they are FREE!!

Tip # 6 Plan ahead groupon usually has discounted tickets around the Christmas season like half off which is great!
Tip # 7 Seriously just put your kid in their bathing suit if its summer time a lot of the rides they will get wet my daughter wore her bathing suit and a sundress the whole time.

Me and Alice

Tip # 8 have fun and be prepared for your child to have a mental breakdown, but don't feel bad about it cause the place is full of ticking time bomb children just waiting to freak out.

Up Up and Away

So here we are once again the Dirty Lew has something exciting to offer. The Great Falls Balloon Festival. Its usually the week of Aug 16-18. I have recently moved to the AUBURN area I want to make sure you all understand its AUBURN and not Lewiston..I had never been to the festival never even heard of it when I was living in the greater Portland area. Friday morning I'm drinking my coffee out on the deck and a giant balloon just appears floating over our house.

I Screamed like a four year old and then went and got my actual four year to check it out. We stood out on the lawn for over an hour as they launched over 20 different balloons my daughter screaming at the top of her lungs at every one, waking the neighbors, who had seen this every year for the last 15 years or so my point being they were not impressed. I'm not gonna lie it was pretty magical, one even touched down right in the river behind our house and was so close we could say good morning to them. So naturally after experiencing this whimsical sight we HAD to check out the festival its self. I convinced some of my "City friends" to come on up and part take in the festivities. I warned them it was Lewiston and to mentally prepare themselves for well...Lewiston. They reassured me that they use to live in DC they have seen the ghetto they are not going to freak out or be scared.  We had to walk past the projects to get to the park where the festival was. I believe it was when we saw a mom doing a drug deal with a baby on her hip that my friend turned to me and was like "Well there are some characters up here". Anyway I'm getting side tracked, the festival was in two different parks one side had the classic fair type food (Although no Corn Dogs which I was not impressed about it) they had live music, craft vendors, and an actual balloon that they had half blown up on its side so that you could walk inside. I thought that was pretty cool, and really slippery, oh and about 101 degrees. The kids loved it they threw about beach balls and

rolled around. We decided to walk out to the old railroad bridge to watch the balloons go up cause there was so many people on the field. If you know anything about my family we all pretty much had instant anxiety attacks and needed to find a happy place ASAP. We had a nice view actually and got some pretty interesting shots of the balloons. We headed back to the field after a bit and they had some of this years signature balloons tethered and they Were freaking HUGE!! We ended the night by paying a ridiculous about of money for our daughter to ride some sketchy carny rides that she just loved. All in all The festival is pretty cool and I recommend checking it out at least once in your life time for the balloons alone.

The Dirty Lew's Best kept Secret.

Quick I'm going to say a word... Lewiston. What's the first word that comes to mind? I'm sure its not beautiful nature walk park. Well hold on to your hats cause I found a place in the dirty Lew that makes you feel like you are miles away from the city. Its called Thorncrag bird sanctuary, Its located at the end of Highland Spring Rd, in Lewiston. Its a 372 acre wildlife preserve where you can do bird watching, picnicking, hiking, walking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, sledding, skating, and   nature photography.

 I wasn't really sure what to accept when I first heard about it cause lets be real its Lewiston. Not that there is anything wrong with living in Lewiston. Anyway we pull in and its seriously a little secluded area off the beaten path. We didn't really know where all the trails went, but word on the street was that straight up the yellow trail was a cool fireplace to check out. We had liv with us so thought it would be cool to go check out this fireplace. The yellow trail was wide and cleared and there was a really cute rock bench along the way to take a break if needed. It was 1/2 mile from base to the fireplace the incline wasn't to bad either, we did stop and take a break on the cool rock bench though cause we had liv and she was being a drama queen about walking. Once we got to the fireplace it was really cool. Kind of in the middle of a field was this giant fireplace with three rock benches surrounding it. It would be an awesome place to have a camp fire maybe sing some kum- bya make some smore's. Livy really loved climbing on the rock benches she thought it was the greatest thing.
We found a caterpillar, well several caterpillars which were a big hit. Livy tried to feed it a leaf and in the process and gave it a heart attack that it pooped all over the rock. We saw spiders and other weird bugs, but Let me tell ya.. We did not see any birds we heard them everywhere but didn't actually see any.  Probably cause we were so loud :) On the way down me and Liv ran the whole way. She started freaking out about having to walk back so I just took off jogging. Well me running down a hill was like that Giant rock ball in Indiana jones, once I got going I could stop or I probably would of broke my legs. We made it down that hill in like 5mins and had a great nap afterward.
 Later in the month on one of those weekends that my mother in-law had our daughter the husband and I went back to have a day date hike and hike around the whole place. It was probably over 3 miles of walking by the end of it. We walked up to the very top where WHALE ROCK is. It was kind of a disappointment for one it did not look like a whale, and for two it wasn't even that big, but it had a nice view and a nice quiet place to have a sandwich. I recommend if your in the area to check it out.

 PS NO BATHROOM THOUGH!!

I'm Back! Back in the Maine Grooove

Holy Cannoli,
Its been awhile huh.. Looking back at my old blogs my daughter looks so young, I was thinking shit I better update my old blog soon before I'm showing pictures of a teenager. So here we are with new adventures from near and far that are mostly kid friendly and maybe a few in between of some just mommy and daddy adventures. Cause lets be real sometimes you need to get out and explore with out a screaming child on your tail. Enjoy!