Spring Break

Although I am a completely slacker mother as of late, I tried to plan a few fun activities to keep us sane during spring break. Not that spring break week is much different for us than any other week...it just means no dance and no 2 days of preschool. None the less, we did a few fun things this week.

On Monday I got a group of people together to go bowling at the college bowling alley. You just can't beat free shoe rental and $1.50 games. We ended up with 7 moms and around 25 kids. I hadn't really thought about numbers when I started inviting people. It first donned on me that I should have thought this through beforehand when all of us were walking into the bowling alley and I looked at our huge group and saw the look on the worker's faces.

It ended up going well though. We put about 5-6 kids on each lane, divided them up by age, and then sat back and enjoyed the show. Owen had the most amazing day and somehow managed to bowl a 149! He used a little ramp thing to push the ball down, but still, 149! He got a turkey, and won a free game for getting a strike when there was a colored pin in front. I was very proud!
All of the kids had fun and then we split up into more manageable groups to take the kids out to lunch. We ended up at Carl's Jr. so the kids got to play some more. It was a fun day, and we were all exhausted afterwards. (Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but I did have a friend take a picture of the score board for proof of Owen's amazing talent...I just haven't been given the picture yet!)

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we relaxed, hung out at home or with friends, did some cleaning, and by then I was grateful that we had plans for Friday before we went stir crazy. We went with some friends to check out a new play place in town that prides itself on being clean. They didn't disappoint.

There were a ton of activities for the kids. We showed up at 10:00 in the morning and didn't leave until 4:00. Who ever heard of staying at a play place for 6 hours? The best part was all of the comfy couches scattered about for the mom's to relax on. It was great. The place is usually quite spendy ($9 a kid) but we were able to find some BOGO coupons that made the trip totally worth it.

There was a bin full of animals and powdery stuff (no idea what it was but it felt cool!)

There was an art station with markers, play-doh, stickers, and lots of paper. There was a large play structure that was actually CLEAN!

There were lots of cool dress-ups that weren't disgusting. There was a whole play kitchen area, a big train table, books and chairs, a baby section, and a little restaurant that kept us well fed while we were there. It was so nice to be able to sit and relax while the kids played to their hearts content without having a mess to clean up afterward. I'm totally going again as soon as I find another buy one get one free coupon!

To finish off the day John joined the kids for a sleepover. I think the kids were a little worn out because there were a few tears shed by little Ainsley. However, we now know that playing with stuffed animals is a key part of sleep overs (and going to sleep in general) and so we will be able to avoid a melt down in the future.

John tried to sneak out after the kids had fallen asleep. I believe he got caught around midnight as Ainsley entered our room sobbing, at that point he just stuck out the rest of the night on the floor.

31

Here is my super be-lated birthday post for John. On Saturday he turned the big 31! Lucky for him, he got to have his birthday on a Saturday this year...you just can't beat a Saturday birthday. Unlucky for him, I was having a super sick day. So instead of doing fun things all day he got to hang out with a nauseous wife, take care of the kids and do most of the prep work for his BBQ/party that night. He claims he still had a nice birthday, even though I kind of ruined it. I promised him a night out when I'm feeling better.

Here are some of the highlights from the big day.
I did go all out on his cake. He was recently given his first murder trial at work and has been pretty excited about it, so I depicted a murder scene on the side of his cake.

Complete with him at his desk, and a man behind bars. I'm pretty sure that once I submit these photo's to Ace of Cakes I'll be getting a call for employment and my family will be moving Maryland for me to fulfill my dream.

The kids got John a tee-ball set. You might think that this would be more of a gift for the kids, but John has such a desire for our children to be baseball stars that he has been wanting one of these for years. I guess if you think about it, it was really a gift that will eventually buy us early retirement when our children join the major leagues.

I got John some camera equipment. A tripod and a remote control to snap pictures. I assure you, John and the kids had hours of fun with the new equipment. John enjoyed finally being able to get self portraits. He also had fun taking pictures of himself with everyone at the party.
He got some great ones of the kids.

He got some nice close-ups of the food, even with a slow shutter speed, thanks to the use of his tripod. (Red meat, mostly Wendy's Jr. bacon cheeseburgers, have been my food of choice lately. So hamburger night was good for my tummy! I didn't go for the double though.)

My favorite moment of the night was when John gave Owen the remote and let him snap pictures of himself. I think we have at least 30 pictures of Owen. These were just a few of the ones that made me laugh.

This last one by far made me laugh the hardest.....I just can't seem to get over that leg in the air!

Nice!

Ya, it was that nice outside today!



***Please ignore the fact that my children look slightly homeless and a little unkempt...that's just normal for us as of late.

Funny Man

And now for something a little more uplifting than my last whiny post...

Owen is at a really funny age. I wish I could catch his funny quirks all on camera. Like how whenever he does something he thinks is funny he laughs and says, "atta joke!" Or how he holds his hand straight in the air and moves it up and down to emphasize important words when he is sharing serious information. (Thinks spoofs on President Bush back in the day (not George W.)) His hand moves are very presidential. Or how he says his L's. His tongue gets a little carried away and makes me laugh. But one funny thing that we were able to get a picture of was what he does at night during family prayer...not sure what started this, or why he likes his body to be perpendicular to the ground, but I'm sure in his mind, he's being very official.

John even peaked in on him one day in nursery when they happened to be saying the prayer and he was laying on a table with his head down while all the other kids were "praying correctly." Only slightly embarrasing.

I forgot

I forgot how hard the first trimester can be. I wasn't this sick when I was pregnant with Owen, so it's been a while since I had to deal with the constant nausea. I hate eating every hour. I hate trying to figure out something to eat that doesn't sound disgusting. I can't even think about eating healthy right now, it's simply a matter of getting food down. I hate how much more money we spend on food, because I never know what I can eat until the moment arrives, so it is not uncommon for John to have to stop and get something after work, whether it be ingredients or Pizza Hut, or burgers. Yes, pregnancy is fun. I already get heartburn! Explain that one to me!

My sniffer is highly overactive. Things that I never even realized had a smell suddenly stink. The inside of my washer, my pantry, and my children are all smelly now. I think I managed to be up and dressed before noon 2 times last week (John was home helping both of those days). Breakfast dishes sit on the table all morning. The kids are poorly dressed and even more poorly fed. The poor kids have to eat whatever I can stomach making them...no more mac and cheese for Owen. Errands aren't getting run, chores aren't getting done, and it's driving me crazy, but not enough to do anything about it. I can't wait to be done with this. Thank heavens I'm not sick for more than the first trimester...I don't think I could handle it. (This was uplifting wasn't it!)

If I had to guess boy or girl at this point based on how I feel I would have to say girl....

Some happenings....

We've been busy around these parts...so here's a bit of what's been goin' on. On top of all the regular stuff this week, you know, stuff like pres. meetings, young men's, preschool, dance, etc.

The week started busy because I had to get invitations made for a shower that will be at my house this Saturday. Luckily, I'm not the only one throwing the shower, so I just had to make the invitations and not deliver them all. I thought they turned out cute though! ( I didn't scribble on the actual invitations :)

Ainsley and I also had to prepare for the talks we had to give on Sunday. That's right, BOTH of us had to speak on the same Sunday! Not stressful for a mother at all. For some reason I really hate writing kids talks, but Ains sure does love giving them. She did a great job and had the whole thing pretty much memorized. Ains was given the topic of faith, mine was not so pleasant. I had to speak about food storage...seeing as how I am now the preparedness person in our ward. I think it went okay, but over the years I have become a talk reader. I've lost the ability to speak from my mind with just a few bullet points written down. So I just hope it wasn't too boring. No one has said it was...but who would walk up to someone and say, "Hey, you're talk sure was informative, but pretty boring!" I just talked about the food storage article in this month's Ensign...give it a read. Pretty informative!

I also had to go get pictures taken this week. They didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped.

I couldn't even see the little bean, just the flutter of the heart.

Yep, I'm pregnant. We're excited. I'm due October 30th. This is only slightly depressing....My due date should actually be Oct. 17th. But due to the measurements during the ultrasound they moved it back 2 weeks!!!! Who's ever heard of anything like that? So now I have to relive weeks 6 and 7 of pregnancy. Not. Fun. I'm just hoping that this will be a good thing and that if they are correcting my due date now I won't be obscenely late like I usually am. I've been pretty nauseous, but that's the way it goes I guess. I just have to eat every hour, and figure out what I can get down. That's not going to cause serious weight gain!

I promise...because

Owen has added 2 new phrases to his vocabulary, unfortunately he uses them incorrectly, but it makes me laugh.

Phrase 1: I promise. He really likes to use this one when he is in trouble. I think he thinks it means I will.

For example: The other day he was in trouble for dumping a bunch of beads on the ground. I told him he needed to pick them up. His very adamant reply was, "I promise!" It would be cuter if said in a nice tone like I promise is usually said. he says it like, "leave me alone mom and I'll do it." Not so cute, but really funny.

Phrase #2: Because. Okay, so this is actually a word, not a phrase, oh well. Owen likes to use the word because to answer any question he doesn't know the answer to.

For example: Where are your pants? Because. Or What are you doing in the kitchen? Because! Perfectly clear right!?

The Game.

I'm joining the game. What game, you ask? The coupon game. I have always marvelled at people who swore by coupon shopping and told their amazing money saving stories. I wanted to be one of them but had no idea where to start. In the last week I have been to 2 couponing classes. The first one wanted you to PAY for their service...no thanks! But the second class was taught by a couple of girls that I know. They were simply teaching people how to get started and do it successfully. I was skeptical. But when I asked them what they spent on food for the month, and they both agreed that they could feed their families of four, and more importantly store food, for less than $250 a month. I though, "Okay, clearly there is something magical going on here that I must try."

So now I will begin. I subscribed to the paper (I don't just get one, I now get FOUR Sunday papers, as is recommended). I'm going to organize, clip, wait for the sales, and see if I can figure this out. I made my subscription for 13 weeks. I'm giving this 3 months to work. If it does, I just spent the best $50 of my life. If it doesn't, I will promptly cancel my subscription, cut my losses, and return to my depressing $500-$600 monthly grocery bill. I added links to the side of my blog for the coupon sites I will be using to get me started. If you have any tips (Val) please send them my way.