Birthday Party Day

We had 2 parties to go to yesterday, Zach was invited to his friend G's 3rd birthday in the morning and the family was invited to Lehlan's 2nd birthday in the afternoon. Zach ate a lot of cake!

G Turns 3!
The invitation came addressed to Zach but G's mommy was kind enough to extend the invitation to all my girls too. I took Megan with me and she was great with the kids. Annie just adores her and was at Megan's side during most of the party.

They started out playing. Here's Annie, Zach and Megan in the playhouse

Annie and Megan were picking bouquets of dandelions in the backyard. Annie turned 4 this past December.

Parachute time! Miss Dawn, she used to run Play Zone, came to the party to entertain.

Back inside for some more playtime and for lunch and cake. Here are two pretty princesses, Megan and Annie.

Don't forget about the third princess. (I guess that's what happens when you go to a girl party!)

I have to include at least one picture of the birthday girl. Here's G (also known as Gwen) blowing out the candles of her Dora cake.

Lehlan Turns 2!

I can't believe he's two already. I had to drop Lauren off at one of her soccer friend's house, they were going to decorate shirts as a team and then spend the night. Then it was off to wish Lehlan a happy birthday. Lehlan had an Elmo cake.

Yum! Cake, ice cream and juice.

He loved the Elmo card that Aunt Kelly gave him. When you pushed a button Elmo sang happy birthday.

Zach and Kristin just being goofy.

School Projects

Our day wasn't over yet. Kristin came home and did her science fair project. She chose to find out what cleans a penny best. Lauren did this exact same experiment a few years ago. Anyway, she chose to soak half a penny in vinegar, orange juice, lemon juice and Coke. She let them soak for an hour and then compared them. In case anyone needs to clean penny's in the future lemon juice did an awesome job.

Megan's project was to make a poster of the state of Delaware by drawing the state and including the 3 counties and major cities and rivers.

She finished it up today by adding the state flag and some symbols. Did you know that Delaware's state beverage is milk and that the state dessert is peach pie? Those were some of her favorites.

I can do videos again!

I bought a Vado pocket video cam a couple weeks ago, I happened to stumble on the Dell deal of the day and they were selling it at an awesome price. I had never heard of that particular brand so I checked out a bunch of online reviews at several different places and on a whim decided to buy it. So far I really like it and it's very easy to use. Plus it's really small, the size of a cell phone.

The best part though is that I used a gift card that the parents of my preschoolers gave me for Christmas so I didn't even have to use my own money.

This morning Zach was being too cute while he was watching Curious George. It's the show that comes on before we leave for the bus and I always put it on for him because then I can finish up whatever needs to be done and get out the door. His cackling laughter caught my attention today though and I ran to get my Vado.

In case you can't understand him he's saying, "it's funny stuff." It's a good thing he can be cute sometimes since it makes up somewhat for him being so darn bad lately.

A Few Random Pictures

Kristin is my back up babysitter whenever Lauren isn't available (which is most of the time anymore!) She was showing me the other day how she "babysits." Ha! Get it? Baby sit, she's sitting on the baby...

Megan is my little fashion girl. She is always trying to come up with some kind of outfit she makes up using the clothes she already has. She saw an outfit in a book that was labelled a "rock girl" outfit, or something like that, and she said to me that she could do that and darn if she didn't. It looked very similar to the picture in the book too. Future fashion designer?

I was busy for most of Monday morning just trying to organize and put things away. Next thing I know it's 11:00 and I hadn't done anything with my little guy and was feeling quite guilty about it. So we went outside for a little while to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.

He was quite a mess by the time he was ready to come inside. I had given him a few buckets full of water so he could mold the sand and do more with it. That kept him busy for almost an hour.

Early Monday morning he was sitting at the table with some paper and scissors. He got up and I asked him if he had fun cutting his paper. He replied yes and very casually mentioned that he had cut his hair too. Well I didn't think too much about it since he doesn't have much hair anymore after getting it all chopped off at his last hair cut. When I went to move his paper and scissors that's when I saw it, little pieces of his hair on the table. Apparently he wanted even shorter hair! He took a small chunk out of the middle right where his bangs would be. This is the best picture I could get of it.

It doesn't look too noticeable in the picture but in real life it is. The cashier at the grocery store noticed it right away and so did his teachers this morning. Aghhhhh! This one is so keeping me on my toes!

We had a leak...

...but now it's fixed thanks to papaw.

Megan's window had been leaking a little for awhile but the last rain we had before these pictures were taken the water just poured in. There was no way Paul could get up that high on the ladder without it tipping over into the window. Now Papaw could, with Paul's help bracing it from the bottom. If you look closely the top of the ladder is not resting against the house. With Paul weighing about a 100 pounds more than Papaw he was able to keep the ladder from tipping.
So with a new shingle in place and whatever else was done there's no more leaky window.

This all took place during Zach's nap time but since Megan's window is right next to his he didn't exactly take a nap.

He was too busy checking out what was going on by using his step stool to climb onto the windowsill. I always thought he was part monkey... Needless to say he did not take a nap that day and got to come outside to finish watching. (Plus his step stool is no longer in his room!)

One last picture for today

This one I took off of the school's website, it's much better than any I could take! Lauren was playing a tough team and though she didn't score any goals she did get one assist.

Kristin Goes Camping

Kristin is describing her pictures, in her words:

This picture I took on Sunday when we were packing everything up and getting ready to leave. I sent it to mom to show her that we were going to leave soon, but we ended up leaving an hour after that because we went to the gift shop and went to the park one last time. My friend Bella's dad is the guy in the orange shirt and he was talking to the guy that takes the cable out when people leave. Bella and I didn't sleep in the camper, we slept in a tent and it was surprisingly warm in the tent.

This is the tent that Bella and i slept in, it was very big and it was cool. Underneath the tent there was a big rug so if it rained the rug would soak up the water instead of the rain coming in through the seams on the bottom sides of the tent. Outside we put a mat so we could put our shoes on it. Bella and I called it our welcome mat because it was outside and we would step on it every time we went into the tent.

This is the camp site that we were at. The site was called C38. Out of all the sites I would say that ours was the sunniest spot. Even though it was kind of cold out on some days, I got sunburned on my nose and under my eyes. The site that we had was one of the biggest spot in the whole campground.

This picture I took on Saturday at about 9 at night while Bella and I were hanging out at our friends site. The fire was really cool because there were cylinder blocks on three sides of the fire and one side was open, and we put wood, dead leaves, branches, and trash into the fire. The place that we were hanging out with was our friend Klye's site. Kyle is 13 and he has a brother named Cole who is 8 years old. His fathers name is Brian and his moms name is Nancy. Brian is like my dad, he is crazy and funny. Cole kept us entertained all day with his friends C.J. and Bella's brother, Sebastian.

Ewwwwwwwww! I hate this picture...mom took it when i got home from camping on Sunday and I look terrible. When i got home on Sunday I put everything in my room and then I went back downstairs to talk to everyone and tell about my trip. I bought everyone a present and gave them out. I got mom a necklace, Lauren a bracelet, Megan a choker (but she thinks its a bracelet), Zach a truck and I got dad a gag thing that smells bad. Then mom gave me a bag with a present in it for me from Hersheypark and when I opened it it was a BIG Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Actually it's the World's Largest Peanut Butter Cup and there were 2 of them packaged in it, and they were all mine! I was in heaven looking at that! But when mom texted me on Saturday and told me that they got me a gift, I thought that they were just planning on giving me a big group hug.

Springtime in the Park! at Hersheypark

We went there this past Saturday and what a great deal that was. Tickets were much cheaper and the park was not nearly as crowded as the summer. The only rides not running were the water rides, plus the water park was closed. Sure it was a little chilly but with jeans and a sweatshirt we were good to go.

I was taking a picture of Zach and Megan when one of the employees asked me if I wanted to have a picture of all of us. Yeah, why not? So here we are, not long after getting there. If you notice, Kelly replaced Kristin for the day. Kristin was with her friend camping, I'll make a post about that (or maybe see if she will) soon. I kind of felt bad about going to Hersheypark without her but maybe we'll go back in the summer if one of those free ticket promotion things comes out again.

So onto our day, Zach got to ride some kiddie rides while everyone else was riding a couple of cool rides. This was the first year that Megan was too big to ride with him so he had to go solo. I wanted to put him on the mini pirate ship first but he wouldn't stand in line for that one, even if I stood with him. I did get him to go on the swings and he enjoyed that.

Here he is riding the Granny Bugs:

Here he is riding the kiddie train. He was the only one in line so he got a special trip all by himself. He picked his own seat too.

One of the rides Kelly, Paul and Lauren rode was the Wildcat, a wooden rollercoaster. Kelly took this picture with her cell phone.

They then rode the Sidewinder, I was surprised at how quick they got on that ride. I had just sat down where I could see the roller coaster get pulled up before it started and there they were on it already. In this picture you can see Kelly and Paul with their hands up. Lauren is next to Kelly.

We were headed out to eat the lunch we had brought with us when Zach spotted the train, the one that went around the park. We got in line and when we saw we would have to wait for the next train decided to skip it and do it later. As we were turning around to leave Zach starts jumping up and down saying, "no, no, no." Guess what? We waited to ride the train.

We all squeezed into one section of the car and got these lovely pictures.

After lunch they rode the Scrambler. I have about 5 different pictures I took of them on this ride but I'm putting this one on here since it has all 4 of them in it. I didn't realize that when I took it.

You can barely see the top of Zach's head riding with Lauren. That was one of his "big boy" rides!

This was the first time that we've gone anywhere like this with Zach being potty trained. I kept asking him at various times if he had to go potty and usually he would say no. I asked him right before getting into line for the Kissing Tower, he says no, we get in line. We waited for about 5 minutes then he starts jumping up and down and blurting out, "I gotta go potty!" So out of line we get. Now to find a potty! As I got the stroller I saw the Hershey Kiss guy walk up and I didn't care if he had to go potty or not, here was a photo op.

We did find a potty and then came and got back in line for the Kissing Tower. I guess it was all good timing because by this time Paul, Lauren and Kelly were done riding the Great Bear and got to ride with us. Kelly even got a kiss from Zach!

The cars you drive were right there so we did that next. First was Megan and Kelly with Kelly driving. Her car did not go very fast because we caught up to them quick.

Of course it could have been that Lauren was driving too fast!

Behind us it was Zach and Paul, with Zach driving. They were slow too, couldn't get a picture of them until we were waiting to get out at the end.

During past trips we have never gone through ZooAmerica even though it's free for Hersheypark guests. We happened to be passing the entrance so we decided to go through this time. It was ok. If we hadn't already walked for miles I would have enjoyed it better but my feet already hurt and to me it was just more walking. Also at this point Zach was getting tired, it was a little after 6:00 and he had no nap so he was just barely making it. Twice he laid down, once on a bench in a gazebo and then on this viewing platform.

Yeah, he's a yucky boy. Paul put him in the stroller when we left and it wasn't too long before he was asleep and took about an hour nap.

We had been checking out Fahrenheit all day, it was closed in the morning but we saw them doing test runs so figured it would open at some point. Finally, Kelly, Lauren and Paul rode while Megan and I sat with a sleeping Zach.

It was at this point that I began texting Kristin, she had no idea where we were. Lauren had joked with her before she left that we were going to fly down to Disney while she was gone. So as I was sitting there I took a picture of Fahrenheit and sent it to her and said something along the lines of, "See, you thought I was kidding about Disney, here we are!" Her reply was funny, she knew the ride wasn't in Disney then she said that I took the picture off the internet. Um, Megan... go stand in front of that ride. Click. Sent that to Kristin with a ha ha, yes we are in Disney. We did a lot of back and forth and she even texted Paul! That girl does know her rides though and eventually I came clean and told her where we were.

Good thing Paul texted me to tell me how many more cars went before it was them since it was hard to see with the way the sun was coming in. Paul and Lauren are in the front and Kelly is right behind them, the only one with a hand up.

That is one cool ride. One of these days we're going to have to ditch the kiddos and do an adult only day. Oh just to explain, I was offered a bazillion times if I wanted to ride and either Kelly or Paul would stay with the little ones and I took them up once to ride Storm Runner. I really don't mind not riding because then I can watch whoever (Zach, Megan, or a combo) enjoying the other tamer/kiddie rides. Zach was just too cute this year, huge grins on his face. I hate to miss that kind of stuff. Now if we had an adult/older kid day only that would be different...

It's now towards the end of the day and Megan had been wanting to ride the Comet rollercoaster all day and since I really don't care for that one Lauren volunteered to take her. Comet is an older roller coaster, it's wooden and at least for me it shakes you around a lot. It's actually one of the first rollercoasters I remember riding when I was little. Thank God for older sisters!

Zachary got one last ride too, the three of them rode the Scrambler.

We left the park around 8:30, it closed at 9:00, stopped and got something to eat at an Arby's then got home around 11:30. It was a very long day but I'm very glad I suggested doing it.

Lauren went fishing

Lauren wanted to go fishing last year with Papaw but somehow it never worked out. So this year she was determined to go fishing over spring break. Papaw agreed to take her yesterday.
They were gone for a couple of hours and when she came back look what she caught. Not one fish, but two.

It turns out she didn't really catch them, she just reeled them in once papaw caught them!

It took forever to get that picture of her holding them. She would not do it at all, even after I held them first. Somehow Papaw talked her into it and I barely got the picture before she got rid of them.

I had never cooked trout before so after calling my mom to find out how I fried them up and Lauren ate one for dinner. She said it was good and ate the whole thing. I tried a piece of one and it was pretty good so I guess I did a good job of cooking them. I'll probably get more practice cooking them because now Megan wants to go fishing. I might start making the kids cook their own fish instead.

Enjoying the day

Zach, Megan and I took a walk in our neighborhood. We headed towards the park so we could take the shortcut over the path and bridge that was made last year. We have never walked that path so I figured today was as good as any. Zach had tons of energy as we headed there, here they are posing by the stop sign near the entrance to our development.

I told Zach that running on the bridge wasn't allowed so he would stay close. I didn't want him getting too close to the pond that was on the other side of the bridge. He's still so unpredictable, I just don't trust him yet not to go near it. Plus I had Megan who would probably just chase him into it! The two of them together are just plain Trouble, with a capital T.

After crossing the bridge we stopped to check out the ducks that were in the pond.

My original plan was to spend some time on the playground and then head back but once we got to the park Zach said he was thirsty and tired. So instead we went to the first fitness thingie and checked that out.

Zach was all about running ahead on our way to the park. On the way back I practically had to drag him. He kept saying "I'm so tired..." and that all he wanted to do was go to bed. I might just have to make this a daily walk. :) When we got home he drank 2 cups of juice, ate 2/3 of an egg salad sandwich then took a nap. He's still sleeping as I write this.

Other pictures:

Paul took Zach to get his hair cut last Friday. Boy, is it short! He looks so much older now.

Lauren played her second high school game last Thursday. They played a tough team and ended up losing 2-5. Lauren didn't get a goal but she did get an assist.

I'll leave you with these last two pictures.

Don't be too shocked but there's been a few changes in my kids lately. We did a good job at hiding it in all the Easter pictures yesterday. Kristin has grown a very nice looking moustache to match her hair. Doesn't she just look lovely?

Zach just adores Kristin so he had to follow her and grow his own moustache.

Silly kids! They'll try anything to get attention.