Tuesday was movie and fountains

Ok, I am finally catching up (except for birthday's!). We are on Tuesday of this past week. We went to our first free movie of the summer and saw Kung Fu Panda

Then we went over to the fountains with our picnic lunch to eat and play. We enjoyed meeting up with some friends to play with.

He would put the board down on the fountain.

Then watch the water spray it up.






The movie started at 10am. We played in the fountains till at least 2 and then enjoyed walking around Barnes and Nobles for an hour and playing in the kids section. Then we drove over to the pharmacy to pick up Batman's prescription.

On the way home I decided to stop by the library to see if they had Sizzling Sixteen in yet (Janet Evanovich's new book) and placed a hold on it for me. The kids headed to the computers and played games til we closed the library down at 6pm. Decided that since it was so late, we would just pick up Sky Mesa for dinner and head home.

Fun day.

Softball party

Last Saturday was our softball party. Clint and Rene hosted it at their families house with a pool. We ate pizza and the kids swam and had a great time.

Little D is not afraid of anything and would walk right up and jump off the diving board.






Coach got pushed in by the girls, clothes and all.



Fruity Popsicles for all.


Chris was home this weekend so he was able to be there for the party. We had a great softball season!

He really likes the barber!

Take a second look at the hair. Yes, I didn't even see it the first time. Daddy came home last weekend and the barber was on the agenda. Well I had Batman's hair cut the week before and we usually shoot for a one or a two.

Well he wanted to go with Daddy and Chris told him no, that he didn't need another cut. So before anyone realized Batman went and got the electric razor and decided to cut his hair himself.

So off the whole family went to the barber to get is head totally shaved.

So we had the talk with both kids about cutting their hair. I really think it was mostly directed at Ladybug and I think that we were all grateful that it was not her that cut her hair.

But honestly, Chris and I both had to keep our smile in check when we saw how he had shaved his head because it was pretty funny.

Water Balloons!

Everyone loves water balloons. And Janma had sent a box of them for the kids. But the problem with water balloons is that you have to blow them up, then you have to get them tied and then before you can even get to the next one, the first one has been thrown and is gone.

But, we had a great attachment to the hose to fill the balloons with and Janma and Grandpa sent a little gadget to tie the balloons with that made it soooo easy and we found that the kids could actually fill them up them selves!

So we spent an hour or two in the pool with the kids filling them up and me tying them and then sliding them down the slide into the pool. The kids were having so much fun filling them and the pool as they went that they didn't pop them!

When we finally got to the end of the bag they did eventually pop them and after all that work they were gone in just a few minutes but they sure did have a blast filling them and playing in the water!

Grandpa's last day

After a very full week of traveling, we got back home about 5pm Friday evening.

Saturday morning we got up and headed to the Tennessee Agriculture Center for one of their free days in July. This was was all about horses and Ladybug is consumed with horses right now so I knew she would love it.

First off on the agenda was the bubbles that Janma had sent. They couldn't wait to play with their no spill bubbles.

Then off to the Ag Museum. The police had their police walking horses out on display for the kids to pet and sit on.



This one was Saber. Her handler had put 26 years into this job and is getting ready to retire and is hoping to take Saber with her.

She was a military horse before a police horse and is branded with the US on her side.




They did a short talk about their horses and what they do and situations they handled.

Then took the horses through some of the items they train on. You can see Saber walking on a see saw sort of platform.

And walking through the paper hanging down.

And playing with a ball.

Then we walked down the path to the little pond at the bottom.

Then another group brought their horses out for kids to pet and they also brought horses to take people on a buggy ride. Ladybug loved the horses and would have stayed pet them all day.

She is begging for a horse and I have had to repeatedly explain why it is not feasible to buy a horse and care for it. But I did tell her that once we get settled in Texas she can take horse back riding lessons.


We grabbed lunch afterward and then took Grandpa to the airport. Had a great week with him. The kids were sad to see him go and looked for him the next morning when they woke up.

Thursday July 22, 2010

Ok, here are random thoughts. I am out of order in my timeline here. So sorry.

We stayed home today. Yes, I know, nothing was wrong with me. I would have liked to get out and go to peek a boo and meet friends and then play in the fountains. Or even head over to the YMCA and swim since we are having a heat wave!

But Batman slept till 9:30 and Ladybug slept till 11:30. In other wards, what this means is WE ARE NOT READY FOR SCHOOL TO START! First of all we hit the latest night time bedtime of midnight last night for Ladybug. It has slowly gotten later and later and I had senior pictures to edit and she was playing so nicely with her horses, before I knew it, it was midnight.

So home we stayed today, but I didn't say we didn't do anything.

We read several chapters from "Little house in the Big Woods", the first book in Little House on the Prairie series and Ladybug is loving it. I realized tonight as we read that Laura turns six in this book so that was cool for Ladybug.

We watched our chrysalis pinned to the inside of our butterfly cage. We still have a few days before the butterflies come out.

I broke up more fights than I want to count. They have hit that point where all they do it fight about everything. He looked at me the wrong way, he touched me, tell him to stop, he did this, he did that etc. It is literally driving me crazy. They are the sweetest kids to others and have the best hearts (most of the time) but they treat each other like they are evil!

We made tornadoes in an old coke bottle and added more and more things to watch the water spin and to see what would float to the top and what would sink to to the bottom and talked about how tornadoes form.

Batman wore his pj's till 5pm.

They begged to watch the new Scooby Doo Movie that I DVRed last week so many times I lost count. Course I told them no most of the time but they did watch it once. And as we sat down to read books tonight, they asked again and I actually opened my mouth and started to say, I think we are going to take a break from the tv for lets say a whole week and find other things to do. But as the words came out, my brain realized that I might actually need a little tv down time in the afternoons during our heat wave or a few minutes of peace when they are not yelling at each other because they are so engrossed in a movie. So I stopped myself mid sentence and grabbed a few extra books for the evening story time.

We made milkshakes. MMMM I love these and read more from our Little House book while we ate them.

I actually fixed two things on the computer that had been a problem. I was proud of myself. Didn't even have to text my husband and have him tell me, I can't fix it from Texas. I did it myself.

Batman and I did a puzzle. The kids played shoot guns across with room complete with barriers made up by the chairs with blankets dropped over them. That is until Batman supposedly came on the wrong side of the good guy/bad guy line and a meltdown occurred by both children.

Ladybug got in four small 10 minute piano lesson practices and has almost got her two songs from her song book down. Now we just have to finish theory and the practice pages.

We did head out to the grocery store about 7pm and was so excited to get a great deal on Charmin and Cottenelle, my two favorite toilet paper brands. But I had to put my four year old in the baby seat on the buggy because I can't find a way to keep him from literally touching EVERYTHING he passes and pulling things off the shelf!

We didn't get baths but I got everyone's teeth brushed and Batman's heart medicine down and several books read before the kids went to sleep and Ladybug got to bed earlier tonight.

And we did our Summer Bridge before bed. I am actually proud of the kids, they have both completed the first 15 days already and we just started it in July when Grandpa brought us the books.

Oh, on the medicine thing, he has been taking this heart medicine since he was three months old with no problems. Well it is a compound so only certain pharmacy's will fill it. We had to go to one in Goodlettsville that I have been using for a couple of years. Well, when I called to refill this month, they were closed, like shut down completely cleared out. So I had to find a new place. Found one in Hendersonville and when I called to transfer the prescription, they asked if I wanted it flavored. So Batman said yes, he would like cherry. Wellll, I learned my lesson, do not mess with a good thing. He does not like the cherry medicine. The old stuff he would gulp it down like sweet tea. The cherry flavored, not so much. I put it in a tiny medicine dropper tonight and he would take a sip and drink several ounces of water and we had to do this about four times to get it down. If we make it through this months supply, I will go back to the straight up original non flavored medicine!

So my next problem is do I put Batman in school. Looks like we will start school in Tennessee. He told me over puzzle time this morning that he would like me to "what do you call it mom, school at home?" Yes sweetie, home school. I would love to do it and have all the stuff already but I am thinking after a summer mostly by myself with the kids that I may need a couple mental health days a week before I go completely bonkers.

Here's to a new day tomorrow. Let's see what we can get into!

Abraham Lincoln's birthplace

On the way up North we saw the exit for Abraham Lincoln's birthplace and decided we should stop on the way back home. So that is what we did.

It was a little off the interstate, about 13 miles. Ladybug studied him in school last year and already knew that he was the 16th president and about his tall hat etc. So it was a perfect stop to make.



Grandpa Lincoln?

Make me laugh!

Sample log cabin home. The had a full visitor center with at least three state workers. A movie room where they showed about a 15 minute movie about his life, a gift store and guided tours of the property.

We just took off on our own. It was a beautiful walk to what we though was his house.


This is actually it. This building houses his house. And the building is under renovation so we couldn't even look in.

But the kids had fun walking the steps.


Impromptu photo shoot.



They had another little store on the property and three more log cabins. You could actually rent the log cabins for the night and stay in them for a more real experience.

The kids found this chair. Batman sat down and it collapsed. lol. Then Ladybug had to show him how to do it and the foot stool collapsed.

Then they finally got it.


I also purchased a DVD (since it was state run, I wanted to support them) titled "National Parks for Kids". It states.. it is over 2 hours of video in a fun interactive format that kids of all ages will enjoy. Explore and learn about 90 national parks, monuments and historic sites plus famous events from our nation's past.

I have not watched it yet. I am just afraid that I will get a wild hair to start planning road trips to visit all the suggested attractions. But wouldn't that make a very cool scrapbook!