If you are a fan of this blog, you know that our family is a huge supporter of fundraisers, especially if they are for a great cause. When the Barkley Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) hosted a fundraiser at our local roller rink, Magic Wheels Fun Center, you could absolutely bet that we were going to show our support. I mean, who in their right mind is going to turn down old-school roller skating, supporting your daughters’ school, AND seeing tough Army coworkers fall flat on their face while trying to skate? Well, should be no one, because as always, we had a blast at this event while supporting an amazing cause.
Elaina is 100% convinced this was her teacher under the suit
Since I got back from Romania, the girls and I have yet to spend a big holiday together (unless of course, you count… Labor Day?), so Halloween was our chance to get back into our holiday routine. First it was the cookie party, but now it was time for the main event. From picking out costumes to decorating the porch to mapping out our trick-or-treating route, we were definitely ready to have some fun together as a family. In tacit acknowledgement of how far behind I am in posting, here is the 2023 version of the Calkins Family Halloween.
They did not need a sugar-high, because they both dressed up as characters who are insane
It is that time of year again, and after being apart for Christmas in 2022, we are finally back to our routine and traditions this holiday season. Personalized ornaments. Advent calendars. Christmas cards. We were absolutely not planning to take this holiday season lying down… unless it was for family pictures. So from our family to yours, Merry Christmas!
“Yes, the wind blows a little bit colder, And we’re all getting older.” – Anna (Frozen II)
While being deployed to Romania from October 2022 to April 2023, the girls and I were unable to partake in many of our annual holiday traditions. One that we missed the most was our annual Halloween Cookie Decorating Party; we also missed the Christmas-version, but you will not see the post for this year’s event for a couple more months. With the girls and I about to enjoy our first Halloween at Fort Campbell, it was also a great opportunity to invite some friends over for some fun with cookies, frosting, and sprinkles.
It is that time of year again. After Gabriella opted for not having a party this year (she went back and forth on the issue for weeks), we started going into planning mode for celebrating Elaina’s first decade on this planet. Since this was going to be her first birthday at her new school and new home, she was pretty excited about it. Thankfully, party planning is just another service that Dad provides for the Calkins Family, so let us bring on Elaina’s space-themed 10th birthday party!
As we continue our search in concentric circles for our next adventure, we came across a children’s museum in Nashville, the Adventure Science Center. Aside from dropping the girls or Grandma off at the airport, the girls and I have not spent a lot of time in Nashville, so it was about time we dove into navigating the typical big city that is always about an hour away from Army posts (such as Seattle for Joint Base Lewis-McChord or Tucson for Fort Huachuca). The girls and I were all very excited to spend most of the day here, learning and interacting with science, biology, engineering, and the universe. If you have read this blog before, you probably think this is going to be another post where we all had a good time, the girls happily surprised me, and we all learned a valuable lesson along the way; unfortunately, this is not going to be one of those posts.
Adventure is Out There! Yep, it is literally on the sign.
While the girls have been back at Fort Campbell for a while since I got back from deployment, Gabriella declined to have a birthday party, so starting school on post was the first big event since their return. And of course, this included all the fun activities that go hand-in-hand with the new school year, such as shopping for clothes and school supplies, prepping the house for the daily routine and homework, and triple checking to make sure that the battery on my car will not die on the big day. Here comes a short post on the girls’ first day of school at Barkey Elementary.
Obligatory “First Day of School” Picture. Nailed it.
Prior to the girls arriving at Fort Campbell following the year with their Mother, I conducted an extensive search on activities within a few hours of the post. I found a large selection of zoos, children’s museums, playgrounds, trampoline parks, and other activities to give them a large variety of things to do during our weekends. While trampolining in the backyard and going to the local pool have been fun, nothing in the area has been quite as amazing as visiting the Discovery Park of America in Union City, TN.
About two months after completing my deployment to Romania, the girls were set to finish school and finally come back home. In the meantime, I visited them in Texas, moved houses during my reintegration leave, and took on additional responsibilities at my job. But like everything in the interim, it all just seemed like preparation for when they got back home. After a cross country car ride and two more weeks of leave, the girls and I are happily back together at Fort Campbell and ready to get back to being our awesome little family again.
While I was deployed to Romania, I decided to get my Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC) certification, which I am about halfway through completing. As part of gaining experience hours to achieve the certification, I started a financial blog called Finances at the Fort (www.financesatthefort.com). Although this was meant to be completely separate from Adventures in Single Dadding, the two blogs were bound to intersect at some point. At the risk getting “double credit” for one assignment and potentially alienating loyal followers, I wanted to share my article on teaching personal finance to the girls. Hope you enjoy it.
As part of my Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC) program, in addition to gaining knowledge to improve my personal financial literacy, I have also taken several classes on how to educate others in personal finance. These curriculums have focused on young people (children), young adults (teenagers), adults, older adults, and even for small businesses (I am absolutely not an expert on the latter, so unfortunately, you will not be receiving any advice on small business finances at this time). While going through the classes, I realized that I could do better in educating my children in personal finance, so I started implementing a program to do just that.
Paying them in the correct country currency is probably a good start
Adventures in Single Dadding 