What I Did Over my Summer Vacation

This last summer, I knew we'd be traveling a great deal as a family and so I created a sash for my daughter to keep pins and patches from all of the places we visited.  In the course of three short months, our little girl chalked up a lot of miles and has visited several Western states.  It has become a cherished keepsake that reminds us of so many fond memories of a fun summer vacation spent with family and friends. Also, knowing we wanted to fill the sash with pins collected on our travels, made all those inevitable tours through tourist gifts shops a lot more fun (and drama-free) as we had the challenge of finding a pin or patch to go on her sash versus mindless wandering and impulse purchases of junky toys she really didn't need. Some other moms thought it was a pretty good idea too, and they are using their sashes (made by me) as a motivational tool for potty training, etc.  They wrote about it here.

She's really proud of her sash and it means a lot to all of us in the family. If we visited a place that didn't offer a hat-pin or patch she was really disappointed.  "Mommy, how will I remember that we were here if I don't have a pin for my sash?" she'd ask.  Oh, we'll have pictures and we'll remember in our hearts, yes, but the sash is fun too.   My older kids have all expressed that they wish that I would have thought of this sooner and they wish that they had their own sashes full of pins, even though I know for a fact that they walked away with their fair-share of gift shop fodder over the years. All my children are masters at what I term "guilting mother."  No worries though, I still retain so many fond memories of many family outings that we shared.  And I made tons of matching outfits for them to wear on those journeys and I know they loved wearing those (see song lyrics below).

Sash or no sash, my children have always had a knack for making family moments memorable.  Will I ever forget the Ketchup and Mustard song they made up on a family camping trip?  Try as I might, the lyrics are stuck in my head:

Ketchup and Mustard had a kid...
They named him Mayonnaise, yes they did.
Mayonnaise ran away from home
 because he hated his dad and mom.
Then Ketchup and Mustard had no kids...

Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Condiment should have gotten a sash for little Mayonnaise and things would have ended differently... Just sayin'