memories – Page 11 – Pollywog's Place Blog

Happy St. Nicholas Day 2018!

Published on December 6, 2018 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog2 Comments

**This post may contain affiliate links to products we use.

Well the countdown to Christmas has officially started here. The kids are super excited after St. Nick stopped by sometime late last night. They had left their stockings on the table before bed and woke up to a big surprise!

They had been talking about our previous St. Nicholas Day celebrations and how they forgot to put their stockings out last year… Oops!

Don’t worry… that heater was not on ‘HEAT’ as we only have the flames going this morning but it has been doing great job at keeping us warm and cozy so far.

St. Nick did not disappoint with a variety of small toys, coloring books, and other holiday items plus a tiny bit of candy. He also left a couple of new books and a holiday music cd for them. They are looking forward to a midday snack of gingerbread cookies and hot cocoa too!

He didn’t forget about the grownups either and even left a small gift for Nanny J and Papa O. He left Momma some much needed kitchen items, some holiday jewelry, and CHOCOLATE!

Santa had even decorated a little bit and put these cute covers on the chairs.

And he must’ve met up with the UPS man at some point to grab our new Advent wreath for us. It had been stuck in delivery status as the driver couldn’t locate our house.

It is so much prettier than it looked on the internet! I had a hard time deciding what color to get but thought this was a good choice even though it isn’t the traditional Christmas colors. Now we are just waiting for the candles to arrive. After all this excitement it was time for breakfast:

This year I added the chocolate chips to the pancakes while on the griddle for our Santa Claus Pancakes. I forgot to pick up some fresh strawberries and blueberries so we made do with what we had here. I also didn’t realize that Mr. Jacob had added a couple of extra chocolate chips to Santa’s beard… lol!

The kids thought they were cute and very yummy. Later on we will be watching a few videos about St. Nick and taking a little about the history of Santa Claus.

If you want to check out some other activities please see St. Nicholas Day 2016 for some additional links.

Happy St. Nicholas Day everyone!

A Trip Down Memory Lane!

Published on August 10, 2018August 23, 2018 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog3 Comments

I survived my first plane trip and wanted to share a little bit about my trip down memory lane with all of you! Be prepared because as my Pop-pop would say, ‘This might take a while’.

Last week proved to be one of the most stressful weeks I can remember. I have been trying to refocus my life in so many areas. And on top of the everyday stresses of a large family and back to school worries I got the call that I really needed to head back to my childhood home.

While I call Florida home right now I was born in Pennsylvania. I grew up about an hour from Philadelphia in the mushroom capital of the world, Kennett Square.

Funny the things you didn’t know, huh? We were also very close to the Amish and Mennonite communities. In fact several of my siblings were delivered by an Amish midwife.

Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash Continue reading “A Trip Down Memory Lane!” →

Making Memories: Campfire Day

Published on August 2, 2018January 16, 2026 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

*This post contains affiliate links which help to support our blog and our family.

Campfire Day is the day we can set aside to relax and unwind by a campfire! Click here to learn more about this holiday. It is celebrated on the first Saturday in August.

I think I might be the perfect time to plan a Weenie Roast! We might need some of these for roasting our hot dogs and marshmallows for S’mores. It might also be nice to have some campfire songs and stories too.

Campfire Meals

Hobo Packets

Weenie Roast

Continue reading →

Midweek Progress: Vacation Pics, Unplugging, and Movie Night

Published on June 21, 2018September 15, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

**Please note this post does contain affiliate links to which I may, possibly, earn a small commission from if you click on and purchase an item. This helps to support to support this blog and my family. For full disclosure click here.

Hey everyone! Yesterday I posted about the ‘Summer Slide‘ but I really want to post these vacation pictures. I really hope everyone had a great a Father’s Day weekend as I know we did. While we didn’t see the Altamahaha on this trip we did make some really great memories. (The Altamahaha is a local legend dating back for centuries.)

Picture from: Deviant Art

It was a little stressful and chaotic getting ready for the trip but we all managed to survive. We went to the Altamaha Regional Park in Brunswick, GA. We stayed the weekend in one of their rental cabins while some of my family stayed in tents. I wasn’t quite brave enough to do this with so many kids in tow. Continue reading “Midweek Progress: Vacation Pics, Unplugging, and Movie Night” →

Best Memories Of The Summer

Published on January 30, 2018January 23, 2019 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

Oh my goodness… I’ve yet another post that was forgotten about and never published. This one has given me quite a few smiles and I hope we have an even better summer this year. I have added a few things to our routines to try and make sure that we make this year even better than last! This post was from June 2018…

Wow! Can you believe summer is almost over? Where did it go?

I know we didn’t get to do nearly as much as we had planned which was in part due to the extremely wet weather we’ve had. We had several special projects that haven’t made it off of the paper yet either but I know we will eventually accomplish what we have set to do.

This summer has been so busy and so full of fun. Below are some of our favorite memories from this summer in no particular order:

We have all enjoyed reading about Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Everyone also enjoyed getting their library cards at our first visit to the local library.

Then ice cream is always a summer favorite!

They also love this picture they took with Elvis…

Jacob loved that he got to help out in the kitchen more thanks to the Kids Cook Real Foods course we’ve been using.

And he really loved helping to come up with new recipes like Cinnamon Roll Muffins.

Everyone also loved going to the movies several times this summer. We saw several movies including Jurassic World, The Incredibles, Jumanji, and The Ant Man.