Okay so I actually had to pull out my calendar to see all the fun things we've done since my last blog post. I'm going to try to put it all in here--more for the sake of my children in the future as I'm planning to do one of those blog book things for them, but read on if you're interested.
Back to July 11th. Slurpee day! On 7-11 the convenience store with the same name gives free 7.11 ounce slurpees out. I first took my kids a couple years ago as their first introduction to Slurpees. Since then every time we pass a 7-11 my kids beg for one. I take them a few times a year, one of which being on July 11. So we went after lunch, around 1:00 pm. The free slurpees are quite small for an adult, but perfect size for my children. And we only waited about 5 minutes in the line. I shared mine with Clara--who LOVED it! Later that night for our Family Home Evening Activity we went to the Family Skate Night at the Lone Peak Skate Park. Sooooo much fun! Spencer brought his skate board and scooter, although he stuck with the scooter the whole time. He's a very cautious kid, always has been, and I don't think he's comfortable with the lack of control he has over the skate board. I need to work with him to get more comfortable and understand how to ride it. The Wii skateboarding isn't much help. Tessa brought her scooter and tricycle. She kept mainly to the trike, as that's her favorite thing. We brought the little push car for Clara. They were giving fruit rolls and water bottles out to people. Also Chik-Fil-A was there giving away chicken sandwiches and coupons. They do have the best chicken sandwiches around. The kids had a blast for about an hour before it started sprinkling rain and we packed up for home. Spencer can't wait to go back!
Tuesday, July 12th was the Draper Days Childrens' Parade. We brought the kids favorites, same ones shown above--Spencer's scooter, Tessa's tricycle, and Clara's push car. The kids were able to decorate them with streamers, flags, and balloons. They loved this! Then the firetruck signaled the start of the parade and the kids rode down the street and around the park. The only thing was that when we told Spencer it was a kids' parade, he thought that meant people would be sitting on the side watching and clapping, which they weren't. Maybe I should have asked a grandparent to sit along? A thought for next year. Brodie pushed along Clara and Spencer rode by them. Tessa's a good pedaler, but she's small and so is her trike so she was a bit slower and I stayed back with her. Occasionally I gave her a break and just pushed her along. At one point passing the park Brodie stopped by a statue of a blacksmith. Sure enough it was the one dedicated to his ancestor, Lauritz Smith, who was a pioneer who came to Utah with the Mormon Faith. Brigham Young sent him to Draper, saying they needed a blacksmith, and told him to remain in Draper. So he did. At the end of the parade they were giving out watermelon and cans of root beer. They had a band playing and it was a lot of fun. Except Clara let go of her balloon.
On Friday we went to the Country Bear's Fair puppet show at the Sandy Library. Seriously good fun. I love their puppet shows. All three of my kids love them as well. And during the school year Spencer doesn't get to go so he was really excited to be there. We then read some books and chose some new books and DVDs to checkout. Tessa loves sitting on my lap and having me read her all the Dora, Blue's Clues, and now Barbie books she can find. Clara just loves tearing out all the books from the shelves which I am then obliged to re-file correctly. This was the first time Spencer didn't want me to read him any books, he just wanted to read them all by himself. I also showed him the huge collection of Magic Treehouse books, hoping to inspire him as his reading has died down a bit lately, but he told me he would check out other books and only wanted to read Magic Treehouse books that he could keep forever. He owns and has read the first 8 along with their awesome research guides. I think they are great (especially the Research Guides) so after we got home I suckered in and bought the next 8 off of Amazon. Anyways, after the library we headed over to good ol' McD's for a Happy time. I knew I wouldn't get out of the Star Wars and Strawberry Shortcake toys. Luckily I convinced my sister to come along so I had someone to hang out with and the kids had extra fun by being able to play with their cousins. I'm now trying to get out of the Smurf set that came out today and hoping to make it to the next set of toys which Spencer told me at 7:05 this morning were going to be Ben 10 and Twinkle Toes. How sad that the first thing my 6 year old does when he wakes up is to log on to McDonald's site and check their Happy Meal Toys? Anyway, the kids at least had apples with the chicken nuggets and got some exercise in the playland with their cousins.
Monday, July 18, Spencer had a playdate so I took the girls to Macey's for grocery shopping and an ice cream cone. Macey's will give kids a free balloon at the customer service, a free cookie at the bakery, and a free kiddie ice cream cone at the deli. I generally go there twice a month with the kids (a couple times a month by myself) and let them choose one of the items. For a while they were on a big balloon kick, but now it's ice cream. I decided to let Clara try an ice cream cone, vanilla for a little less mess, while Tessa went with the twist. Holy cow that baby grabbed the cone and shoved the whole thing in her mouth! I tried to grab it away, fearing a brain freeze, and she screamed while grabbing the ice cream itself with her hand. I should have thought that out better. As we were fixing dinner our great neighbor from across the street came over and invited us to FHE at their cabin in Millcreek Canyon. It is so nice to be so close to the mountains and escape into the cool, fresh air up there so quickly. Our neighbors have a beautiful cabin in the breathtaking Millcreek Canyons that they invite us up to sometimes. We enjoyed hanging out with our neighbors and the other family they also invited. We had ice cream sundaes, visited, and the kids played and played. The teenagers were so good to take the kids around. We were coming down the canyon around 9:30 and all of a sudden Tessa started whimpering. I asked what was wrong and she told me she was scared of the dark. It is quite dark up there without any street or building lights and she was really scared. Then that made Spencer get scared. They were very relieved to make it out of the canyons and into the lighter neighborhoods.
Tuesday my sister and I took the kids down to the Gallivan Center for Radio Disney Days. On our way I decided to let the kids listen to Radio Disney, which I've never listened to before. Spencer and Bailee thought it was so cool. I laughed when Spencer and Tessa could recite which "Kidz Bop" the song was from. "This is from Kidz Bop 20!" and such. Too many television commercials... I couldn't find a parking meter near the Gallivan Center and am too cheap to pay the $5 to park right under the center so I dropped off my pregnant sister and the 4 older kids then went across the street to a parking garage that only cost me $1 per hour. I then loaded up the packed picnic lunches Janelle and I made for the kids and put Clara in the stroller and headed over to the Gallivan Center. The problem with "free" events is the crowds. I don't particularly like them, but I know it comes with the four letter word. When I got there Janelle and the kids were in line for the 1 bounce house. Yes it was free, but it was quite the wait for the little time they got to bounce. While in line we went to the "Got Milk?" booth for some free string cheese and milk mustache stickers. After the bounce house we went to the Ebay booth to play games to win squirt guns. Then we headed over to the inflatable water slide. All of a sudden Spencer freaked out and refused to go. So Janelle took the 3 girls and waited in line while I took Spencer to the line for face painting. The girls had a lot of fun once they got a turn to go down the slide and get their butt and feet wet. By the time they joined us we were told the face painting line was shutting down. The event went from 11 to 1. By the time I got all the kids out of the house, then met up with my sister, then found a parking place, we were only at the event for about one hour. But one hour with a lot of lines doesn't allow much to happen. We then got a free bag of licorice from a sponsor table, ran through the water dropping down, and went to the petting animal corral. Janelle, Bailee, and Tessa sat this one out. I took Spencer and Afton in to pet a pony, baby lamb, goat, and bunny rabbit. Then we anti-bacterialized the kids hands and had them eat their picnic lunches. The girls were freezing so I ran back across the street to my van and got changes of clothes and ran back over. As Janelle was helping her girls change in the bathroom she aggrevated her toenail that has been trying to come off. So she was limping and bleeding and in pain. I took Clara in the stroller along with all the picnic stuff and wet clothes and headed back to the van to come around and pick up Janelle and the other kids. Although we didn't do a lot, the kids really had fun, mainly because their cousins were there. I only took a picture in the bounce house, so here's one of them:
Thursday I had a playdate arranged with Tessa. We decided to take all the kids to the Days of '47 Float Preview Party at the South Towne Expo Center. This is an event we attend every year. However, this year there weren't as many floats. When we watched the parade on Monday there were a few floats that weren't at the preview party, but it still seemed there were fewer this year. The kids enjoyed watching and listening to the marching bands as they came down the aisles. We loved seeing the floats. The creativity and hard work is amazing! Some of our favorites included the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's float that had African animals including a hippo that was singing in a microphone and a monkey that was swiveling around video-recording it. The colors were beautiful, the animals well portrayed, and the animation was a lot of fun! We also loved the Chinese boat with the dragon who breathed steam. One of the sponsors of this was the Chinese market on 90th South just below State Street where we shop frequently. Spencer of course loved the Kung Fu Panda 2 float, simply because it was from a movie with a character he recognized. Then the kids had so much fun watching the parade on Monday on televion and seeing all the floats they had just seen up close.
On Friday Spencer went to a friend's birthday party in the afternoon. My neice wanted to come over that evening and have me help her with some summer school math packets so I decided to order pizza and rent Rango for the kids to watch. Then to bump it up to Friday fun day level I told them I'd sleep out on the trampoline with them. Turns out Rango wasn't a show my kids liked. Tessa was scared and Spencer was just bored. But Papa John's pizza was good! My cute neice stayed for a few hours, eating, watching a little Rango, and working on math. After she left the kids got their sleeping bags, pillows, water bottles, and stuffed animals out onto the trampoline. I figured it's been so warm I would be fine with just one blanket and a pillow. I also brought out my Sony Reader with an e-book from the library and a bag of Sweets taffy. See my post from our fun, free tour of the Sweets Candy Factory to see my favorites, but I'm now quite addicted. After eating all the taffy, giggling, and bouncing around I finally asked the kids to please settle down while I began reading. Then we saw some aerial fireworks not far away. Then around 10:00 Tessa told me she was too scared of the dark and needed to go sleep in her bed. Spencer walked her to the sliding door so she could go sleep inside with daddy and Clara. Without Tessa and with me reading a book, Spencer curled up in his sleeping bag and went to sleep. I stayed up reading for a while before going to sleep myself. Some bug kept flying around my face and I was continually swatting at it. Spencer woke up with about a dozen little red bumps on his face so I think the bug left me and went and bit up Spencer instead. I also had a few mosquito bites. And while a blanket would have been warm enough for me, I didn't think about the cold air under the trampoline so I was cold and uncomfortable most of the night. Spencer woke up around 6 and finally around 6:30 I sent him in the house and I rolled on top of his sleeping bag where I was finally warm and comfortable and went back to sleep for another hour. I was too tired and sore to get up the motivation to go to the gym so I watched Barbie A Fairy Secret with the kids instead. I'm glad my kids prefer Disney movies.
Saturday my neice came over for a while to work on math homework again. I love my neice and I love math so it was kind of fun. The kids were a little crazy having me tell them I was busy for a good chunk of the day so I decided to go to Rocky Mountain Raceways with them. Of course if you read my last post you'd know I really wanted to go this night regardless, so I really just used that as an excuse. Turns out my dad was going to be there and my brother was thinking of going. After my youngest sister caught wind she also decided to go. It was so fun having my dad, brother, and little sister go. But Brodie didn't want to spend the $20 or to come home late and have a busy Sunday, so he opted out. I thought it would be better for Clara not to go, so I left her with Brodie. Our favorite section is section M, the Family Section closest to the start/finish line. And if you know racing, or read my prior post, you'll know the further back you sit, the better the view. But they had the back 4 rows of this section (about 80 seats) blocked off "Reserved for the Young Family". Okay I know they own the track, but really 80 seats? And not one was filled until about 8:00. Then I think there were only 8 people back there at all. So we had to sit further up front than we usually like. Aww, but the the races were good. The modifieds put on a good show. And the Figure 8's are always entertaining. Then the Southwest Touring series (Late Models) were racing. And they are what race cars should be. The sound, look, and the way they move. Yes, it was a good night. Then they had the trains race (3 cars hooked together--first car has an engine and driver but no brakes, last car has brakes and a driver but no engine, middle car is just a shell) in the Figure 8. None of the T-boned or flipped upside down, which usually happen, but there were still a lot of close calls and barely misses. During the races I only had to take Tessa to the bathroom 3 or 4 times, much less than last time. And Janelle and I brought coloring equipment for the kids which helped keep them entertained for the 5 hours we were there. Then my brother brought his 2 oldest kids. Carson is only a couple years older than Spencer so the two boys had a lot of fun chasing each other, kung fu-ing each other, and playing around. The younger girls adore their older cousin, Alexis, and spent a lot of time oogling over her. I caught one picture of them gathered around admiring her 20+ lip glosses she had in her purse.
After the races were done they warned us they would be dimming the lights for the fireworks. Another 5 mintues went by so I let Spencer continue to chase Carson. Then all of a sudden all the lights went out and it was pitch black at the same time there was a loud BOOM. My kids have never been to a firework show before and never saw aerials until they were allowed from homes this year. I knew Spencer would freak out so I basically dropped Tessa and ran over the people on the aisle to find Spencer. He was huddled in a ball crying and screaming that he was lost. I picked him up and carried him back to our row and held him while telling him he wasn't lost and it was okay and so on . He finally calmed down and then went to sit with his other cousins. Then I turned my attention to Tessa who was curled in a ball by my feet shaking. I picked her up and she took much more consoling before not being afraid of the fireworks. My dad was sitting by me and I was reminded that I have only been to one firework show ever in my life that wasn't at the race track. I spent most 4th and 24th of Julys at the track and only once did I go with a boyfriend to a park for a show. Watching the fireworks at the race track brought back a bunch of fun memories. We ended up getting home at midnight. And as we all smelled of car exhaust and cigarette smoke that meant another morning up at 6:30 am so I could get all the kids and myself showered and ready for church as I had to meet with the Bishopbric at 8:40 before our 9:00 church to be called as Primary Secretary.
Sunday evening we went to Brodie's Aunt and Uncles for dinner and to visit with some of his cousins, who I really like and enjoyed visiting with. We went from there to my parents for our own firework show. My parents had 1/2 a smaller Costco box and we had 1/2 a larger Costco box and my brother brought along a few aerials. It was fun. But another late night. At least I got to light off fireworks! Every year Brodie has been the one lighting while I maintain the kids. This year for the Fourth and 24th I lit off all our fireworks. It was fun. Don't know that Brodie would say the same...
Now those of you who know me well know I like to stick around my house. I like my house. It's comfortable. I have plenty of things to keep me busy--housework, cooking, taking care of and playing with the kids, and so on. And my kids are usually on a routine--Clara still takes 2 naps. So leaving my house can be a headache at times--timing around or missing Clara's naps. Packing lunches, stroller, diaper bag, snacks, drinks, blankets, bikes, etc. depending. Driving, parking, late nights. These two weeks really took a toll on me. So this past week has been much more low key. I took some time for myself and read all 3 books in a trilogy. I caught up on some housework, did some schoolwork stuff with my kids, cooked dinner every night, and even made homemade blueberry muffins, cinnamon rolls, and a triple layer chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse covered in chocolate ganache and surrounded by chocolate covered strawberries. Oh. I used to be wondering why even after trying to make healthier meals and hit the gym a couple times a week I wasn't losing weight. I'm no longer wondering. In any case we finally made it out to the Aquarium today but I've enjoyed not doing much this week as much as I enjoyed doing something every day the prior two weeks.
