Aug 31, 2010
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Because I’m tired of using the word “random” (even though that’s what it is), I thesaurused it up and chose “arbitrary” instead. So here we go.
First I found some pictures I’ve meant to share, but haven’t for whatever reason. This first one is from this cool Special Night for Special Kids event we went to a couple weeks ago. It was the night before a local town had their Riverfest and it was free rides & food for kids with special needs & their families. We decided to give it a whirl and Henry got to ride his first carnival rides which was a big, big hit. As I looked around, I noticed this mural on one of the rides – can’t remember what it was. I burst out laughing because, to me, it looks just like Emma Thompson dressed as a drag queen. Do ya think?
And here’s Henry totally enjoying the dragon ride with Maggie
I thought this was a hummingbird. I’ve never actually seen a hummingbird in real life, so I wasn’t sure. However, the antennae looked off to me. After looking it up, I found out it’s a hummingbird moth. Cool, huh?
And – WOO-HOO!!! Our patio is done! It is so beautiful and I cannot believe it’s attached to my house. So. Totally. Thrilled!
The garage sale? Oh, yeah, that’s over! It went amazingly. AMAZINGLY. It was worth all the work, for sure. It was the highest grossing garage sale I’ve ever been a part of or even heard about. We made over $1,100. Can you believe it? I’ve never made that much at a garage sale and the closest I’ve heard of was my parents’ who once made just over $1000. So whoop to the whoop-whoop.
We ended up not going to Six Flags and I have to give major props to my kids. When I broke the news, instead of freaking out, they both just said, “Okay”. I think my jaw shattered when it hit the floor.
Okay – gotta go to bed. I spent today attempting to reclaim my home after all the garage sale mess. So, nighty-night.
Aug 1, 2010
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My daughter asked me to give her “Crazy 80s Hair”. And since I was a queen of 80s hair back in the day…
…we spent about an hour curling, spraying & teasing. Her hair’s really long – much longer than mine was back then – so I couldn’t get it quite as big as I’d like. But I think she still looks amazing. Kind of like Apollonia or something. Only prettier and less…um….sleazy. Yeah.
Jul 30, 2010
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It’s his big day. We didn’t have a big, huge party for him or anything – just got a cake for him tonight. It’s amazing how each child gets less and less brouhaha. Maggie got a big party with all our friends & family. Steven’s party was a little smaller. Henry’s party was basically just us and my parents. William got only us. Because (and this is a mom-tip I’m sharing for free), HE DOESN’T CARE. I realized this later than I’d like to admit, but it’s true. Your one year old baby doesn’t care about his/her first birthday. They don’t know it’s their birthday. They aren’t expecting a party. They probably don’t even want a bunch of people in the house messing with nap time. Even the cake aspect can be touch & go. So if you’re not sure about the 1st birthday thing? Keep it small. Because, honestly, you’re the only one who really cares.
Anyway. I’m having trouble accepting that he’s a full year old already. I honestly do not understand how twelve months have passed already. Thought I’d share the pictures I took. Here he is in his chair awaiting something – he didn’t know what, but he knew something was up. Had to get a shot of him with the shirt, too.
I got this reaction as we brought the cake to the table. It was AWESOME. How often do you get an actual “OOOOO!” face on that?
(more…)
Jul 22, 2010
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Today I’m just going to share some pictures. I totally wish I could think of something decent to talk about, but for some reason I have the dumb. So, enjoy.
Henry, completely mesmerized and dreamy amidst colorful bubbles
William. Look at that mouth. His response to me making a clucking noise.
Henry & me at Dairy Queen. Got him a cone, with which he was completely displeased.
I don’t know how we make such beautiful babies.
Henry having a very serious conversation with a beautiful cow at Milk Days. He was earnest, enthralled, excited & couldn’t talk quickly enough.
Again with the eyes.
Now Henry offers the cow a treat. Eat, cow, eat.
Maggie at the zoo on the most miserable day we could have gone. I love the play of the mist in her hair.
Will during therapy. Can you tell he’s just about done?
“Look, Mommy….HORSE!”
HAPPY. With rockin’ hair.
Henry watching the fish at the aquarium.
William is now officially DONE with therapy today. “PICK ME UP, MOM”
Henry at the zoo with a rockin’ internet meme. Henry would have the ability to sport Three Wolf Moon and make it AWESOME. I thought it was hysterical that it was sold in the zoo gift shop.
Jul 16, 2010
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Because I cannot seem to finish this story! I think I left y’all with the attractively displayed dead animals. One place we had dinner was Buffalo Pete’s. If there’s one thing (besides waterslides) Wisconsin Dells rocks at, it’s having a building that has 850,000 different things to do inside. For example, Buffalo Pete’s is the restaurant portion. In one room you can eat your dinner while watching an electric train drive around, delivering food to the nearest tables. Which was pretty cool. But that’s only about 30% of the restaurant seating. There’s a bar, a huge salad bar and lots of other seating. When you walk to the bathroom (which I did way too many times, story to come), you enter an entire other area of the building that has a HUGE arcade, bowling, lazer tag. Though what constitutes an arcade nowadays is pretty lame. They’re all games of chance or gambling. Like claw games or drop the coin in and hope that it’ll knock a bunch of stuff to the slot. There are no actual GAMES, just stuff you probably won’t win. Maggie made an astute observation that these arcades seem to be designed to acclimate children to the idea of gambling. I think she’s not too far off the mark.
Earlier in the day, after Steve got back from Milwaukee, we ran over to the in-resort candy shop so I could get me some fudge. Because that’s really all the Dells are about for me. FUDGE. They also had a bunch of different candies in bulk bins. They had some watermelon flavored gummies which I had to try, so I nabbed a bag of those. We went back to the room and waited until everybody was ready to go to dinner at Buffalo Pete’s. I enjoyed some of the gummies (yes, probably too many) and we piled in the car. We had to wait a little while for a table so we could sit by the train. As we waited, I felt a wave of nausea. It went away. Then another one came. But not like I was going to vomit, more like I was going to have a gastrointestinal nightmare. We finally got seated and I said that I had to go to the bathroom. I still felt sick, but I went back to the table. About 10 minutes later, I had to go back. This continued all through the meal-every 10 minutes. I made it through the meal & began a quick pack-up to get my behind back to the room before I soiled the rental vehicle. Of course, however, our kids were desperate to spend time in Kiddie Crack-Vegas & didn’t really care about my issues. Thankfully, Steve got all Great Santini on them & dragged them out, verbally, so we could make it back before all hell broke loose for me. Made it, praise God. And thankfully, it only went through the night. By morning I was almost 100%.
The next day was horseback riding with me, Maggie, Steven, Chris & Daniel. We had a nice hour-long ride and, thankfully, my horse didn’t split in half or run me through the bushes or something. UNfortunately, I was sitting off-center in the saddle, so when I got off, I realized my right sacroiliac was totally ruined. Plus, the inside of my knees were all wonked up. It was fun being on a horse, though. For me, not for the horse.
In the afternoon, we took a jet boat trip. This is Henry’s favorite thing in the whole wide world. For those who don’t know, it’s a boat with a big motor that flies down the river at about 60 mph and then stops on a dime or does a fun 360° – completely spraying the boat. You’d think he’d hate this, but no way. So we go flying down the river and hit the first hard stop. The water comes FLYING over the front of the boat & drenches him. He GASPS and shouts, “BATH!!!:” And we are off, y’all. He’s now shouting and clapping and squealing “WHEE!!” all over the place. Every time he gets soaked, he shouts to the captain, “AGAIN!! BATH, AGAIN!!!” Oh, and this is after when we first got on the boat and he tells the captain, “Aye-aye, captain! ARGH.” Which was too cute by half. I preferred the hard stop on the boat, but I think Maggie preferred the 360°.
The boat would do a bunch of super-fast stuff and then we’d travel through a shallower section where we had to go real slow. I expected Henry to get upset that we stopped the crazy sensory boat ride, but I think it really calmed him. He just sat calmly looking at the water and talking to his hands about the experience. As we pulled back into the dock, I caught this gem.
This is a happy boy. Okay, y’all. I think that’s about all for me to tell about our vacation. Can’t believe it took me this long to get it told. Sheesh. To close, I’m just going to share some of my favorite pictures from the week that I haven’t shown yet. Enjoy.
