Recent Blog Articles

So Fresh And So Clean?

Ashley Longnecker / March 17, 2015

It’s no secret that I like things clean. I love newly washed sheets on the bed, floors that my feet don’t stick to, bathrooms that don’t smell like pee, all the toys in their place and a sparkling kitchen sink.

But you know what else I love? Spending time with my family. Being outside with the kids on when it's nice.  And relaxing in the evenings with my husband who has been busy working all day. 

I could spend all my time freaking out about the crumbs on the floor or the dishes piled next to the sink. I could spend all my time cleaning up toys after the kids are done playing with them. I could run around huffing and puffing about the mess and the noise level, but you know what? One day I'm going to miss all of it when my kids are grown and gone. 

And years from now when I'm sitting alone in my clean, quiet house what will I be thinking? That I should have cleaned the house more? I doubt it. What I hope is that I can remember all the fun times we had. I hope that I will have so many memories of pillow forts, stepping on legos, impromptu dances and general craziness that I get lost for hours.

Yes, kids are messy but you know what? Life is just too short. We have a measly 18 years with our children before they’re grown and out on their own. Stop worrying about the crumbs. Stop worrying about the laundry. Stop asking the kids to be quiet. Just roll with it and enjoy it. It will be over in the blink of an eye and you'll miss it. I know I will.

Good iPad Games for Your Older Kids: Part 2

Jonathan Longnecker / March 10, 2015

We're back with more iPad games for your kids that aren't stupid, "free" or crammed with in-app purchases and ads. They also look and feel like someone actually cared when making them. In other words - these are good, solid games that are worth paying for. 

This time I wanted to focus on games for the older kids in your family. Don't worry! I'll let you know if there's stuff like language or violence that you may want to watch out for. Looking for games for your younger kids? Check out Part 1.

Waking up from the American Dream

Ashley Longnecker / March 03, 2015

Are you excited?

This is a question I have been asked over and over for the last 5 months since we made our traveling plans known. 

These last 5 months have flown by. There has been so much organizing, selling, painting, preparing and planning going on that I sometimes just stop and have to remember to breathe. Every now and then I’ll find myself trying to think about what it will be like when we are actually out of the house and living everyday in our 5th wheel. But it’s hard. I’ve never slept in a 5th wheel let alone stayed in one, ever. This is a whole new experience for our family. We’ve never pulled a 42 foot trailer behind a truck. We’ve never tried to cram 6 people’s belongings into a 420 sqft space. 

Good iPad Games for Your Kids: Part 1

Jonathan Longnecker / February 10, 2015

Hey, you know what's fun? Grabbing one of those crappy free games on the App Store and letting your kids try to play it. It's jam packed full of annoying ads, game play mechanics that require in app purchases and so many popups there's no way you could possibly enjoy playing it, let alone your kids (who keep accidentally tapping the wrong thing and ending up in a web browser with some ad or in the App Store trying to get them to buy another app).

I lied. This is not fun. This isn't how games are supposed to be. 

I remember throwing a cartridge into my Nintento or Sega Genesis (yeah I'm old) and just losing myself in the graphics, music, story and game play. You know, back when games were fun? 

Recently I've become determined to make sure my kids know what a good game is. The first step was to grab this awesome Sega Gensis with 80 games built in! That's right, you can play Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog or Vectorman all from this one console. It's pretty cool!

The second step was to find fun, high quality games for our iPad without in-app purchases. Also said games may not involve endlessly running or flinging animals from a slingshot over and over again.

In the words of Barney Stinson, "Challenge accepted!" Here's a few of the best games we've played over the last year or so. They're not free or cheap, but they're great games you can play with your kids on the iPad. Great graphics, engaging story, thought-provoking puzzles and blistering action. We hope you love them as much as we do.

Leo's Fortune

Code:Rad - Revoltech Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Jonathan Longnecker / January 31, 2015

In case you missed it, we're big Ninja Turtle fans in the Longnecker household. I grew up with them, and now my kids are obsessed. We've watched just about every movie and television season we can get our hands on. And of course we've got all the toys. I'm pretty sure we have every action figure you can get. Or at least we thought we did.

Recently I ran across these bad boys from a Japanese company called Revoltech (seriously, it's all in Japanese). Not only are the a near perfect sculpt of the turtles from the 2012 Nickelodeon series, but they are dang near infinitely poseable and come with amazing detailed weapons. Shoot, you can even pose their eyes or white them out for battle mode. Rad!

I showed them to the kids, explaining that getting something like this wouldn't really be a toy you would play with all the time since they're delicate. But they still wanted them.

So we surprised them for Christmas this year and got the whole set. Or maybe I bought them for myself. Anyway.