Jeremy took most of last week off to recuperate from the work-craziness of the last month, and we decided to do some fun local things and get the kids out of the house. We managed to give our swimsuits a mighty workout. We crashed grandma's pool a couple of times--and the boys realized her gardening wagon was just as fun. And one day we had a yummy pool-side greasy double-meat 'n cheese burger bash with some friends. And I was the lucky recipient of a surprise goodbye-goody bag that was so cute it would make you die of jealousy. Aidan discovered he loves floating around a kiddie pool in an inner tube lounging like an old man. But I'm a poopoo-head and forgot my camera. (Are y'all alive Jessica? Did you make it across country with your baby, three big kids, your dad, and dog with their heads still attached to their bodies?)
We also hit a water park--Alex got daring on the "scary slides" while Aidan apparently thought the water was acid burning his skin off --he clung to us like a spider monkey and screamed most of the time. Later, a wasp flew within a foot of Alex just as he was about to take a bite of his precious chocolate dippin' dots, causing him to scream like a preteen girl and fling his entire bowl up in the air. It took approximately 19 seconds for the entire pile of overturned chocolate dots to become a disgusting melted puddle on the pavement. Major freak out. But they've been asking to go back ever since, so it must've been a fun time, despite the chocolate casualty.
On another day, the kids got to go test drive cars with Dad on the way home from taking a friend to the airport. Jeremy gets an itch for a new car about every 24 months. I can tell because he salivates excessively whenever we drive by a car dealership. He drives a bunch of different cars, haggles with 10 different obnoxious sales guys that continue to call for MONTHS, then decides he doesn't want to do any more... at least for a few more months. After that, they all went to the movies. I think they really enjoy doing all the things we can't drag the little boys along for.
Thursday we got adventurous and rented a boat out on a semi-nearby lake. Since it was a weekday and a little overcast in the morning, we had the whole giant place to ourselves. Aidan must have had some sort of water-related trauma that I'm unaware of because he was terrified of the whole boating/lake experience. But he did enjoy a short part of the boat ride when he was sucking the life out of a can of Sunkist. And he was completely calm riding on the giant inner tube thing we rented. On the other hand, Avery was crazy and wild and loved every minute of the boat and lake swimming. Alex taught him to scream"Yeah, baby!" and "faster" when we were all riding around on the tube. He's not very happy in one of the pictures because he wanted to jump off the back of the boat but I made him pose with everyone for posterity's sake. Dang that posterity.
Thursday night we were able to "entertain" some long-lost friends from California that were here on business. I say "entertain" because with all the kids running around here, it's always a madhouse and we just ordered in a bunch of Chinese food, so it was nothing fancy. But it's always fun to sit and chat and catch up with friends from our PK (pre-kid) college days. And I summoned my inner Martha Stewart and whipped up some brownies to serve with caramel, chocolate syrup, and the best stuff on earth--Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. A fun and fattening night was had by all.
Friday afternoon we ditched the boys with Grandma so the older kids felt special and we could take them somewhere non-baby friendly. We ended up trekking out to GattiLand--think Chuck E. Cheese's on steroids. Maddie got her face painted--which turned out kind of scary looking--like she was trying out for a new Star Trek series for kids. At the end of playtime, their tickets yielded: 2 cartons of Flavafluff, 2 rubber bouncy balls for the boys, 1 Chinese finger cuff thingy, 1 jeweled princess tiara, and 2 ring pops. Sugar=happiness, so based on that, they were very happy.
Then they got to go play in the IKEA playland for an hour while Jeremy and I bought crap we didn't really need for really cheap. But that's the funnest kind of shopping. Then, we went over to a huge mall for milkshakes and shopping. Jeremy bought an impulse-pair of Oakley's (instead of the car, he said). I'll take bets now on how long it will be until they go missing. Winner will receive---the empty box from his sunglasses, complete with his tear and blood stains from where I will punch him in the nose for losing them. I managed to find a new swimsuit for 50% off, which makes the whole swimsuit-shopping endeavor a little less nightmarish. We knew the day was over when both kids were screaming about their feet falling off and the "no more stores" whining was nonstop.
So even though we spent the week around here, melting in the Texas heat, we managed to find some fun stuff to keep us busy and change up our normal summer routine. Tomorrow I register Maddie for kindy-garten. WHOO-HOO! She's got school on the brain--as I type this, she has the twins loaded up with heavy backbacks and is instructing them on appropriate circle time conduct. They get stickers for being good and for being nice to Timmy--the huge stuffed gorilla that is apparently the class' mascot.
The countdown's on--three weeks until school starts. The excitement of spanking new school supplies and school clothes is more than I can stand! There's just something about a crisp box of sharp, pristine crayons and an untouched writing tablet that brings back warm fuzzy memories of elementary school...
3 comments:
Looks like Aidan got in a fight with an ant mound?
Hey you added more pictures since this morning. Yeah, I've checked your blog twice today. The kids are sleeping and now I have more than a minute to look at things.
Oh how I wish we had a pool. Atleast we aren't dying of heat as much as ya'll are.
why u gotta brag about ur blue bell when u know i aint got it over here in the ghettos of va?
Post a Comment