Fun...then not so fun.

Today we went to the gym and were able to use the outdoor cafe and slides afterwards. It was lots of fun. The girls and I did races in the swim lanes and played a mean game off shark. The outdoor cafe was finally open so we wee able to enjoy our lunch outside by the pool...lots of fun. I even went down the slide with the girls.it was fun and there were no lines so it was nice. We only stayed for an hour because we has to get home to meet the exterminator. All was going well and I had the perfect amount of time to get there without rushing. So heavens knows why when I got on the turnpike to head home I pressed the gas pedal to speed up for so long.I think I was talking to the girls and just didn't realize I was still accelerating, till I looked down and saw I was going almost 90. Eek. So I took my foot off the gas and looked up only to see a highway patrol car in the other lane coming toward me. I Look in my rearview mirror to see his brake lights.ugh. sure enough he whips a u-turn and follows me.... then the lights. Ugh. Well, I WAS on time, but I'm not gonna be now: ( I was hoping he would give me a warning, but I wasn't that lucky. So $188.50 later I have a ticket. Blahhhhhhh. So frustrating.but nothing I can do about it except pay the consequences for my mistake. And of course, pay better attention while driving so that I don't do that again! The thing that is so frustrating is I really wasn't late and intentionally speeding.it really was an oversight, and when I saw my error I was fixing it, unfortunately he saw it at the same time (or earlier) and I couldn't undo what I had already done: (
So a fun time ended in a not so fun time. And W is crying in the backseat because she doesn't know what else to do, and my kids are grilling me with questions about what all this means and what will happen (court, costs, insurance, etc) the only good thing I guess is that I admitted my mistake and I explained to them that there are consequences for bad behavior(we talk about this all the time as well as being responsible for our actions) so I was able to show them that I took my consequence without complaining, and that when we do something wrong we are responsible to pay for it. Even though it stinks! I don't want to give away almost $200 for a couple minutes of stupidity. But a ticket is better than an injury or fatality, so I will take my ticket and look towards tomorrow as a new day. :)

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Summertime

Summer is here and that means........ time to play!!!!!! If you have read my blog over the past summers you know that my summertime motto is Fun, Fun, Fun. The reason I became a stay-at-home mom was to be able to spend time with our kids and not have them spending the whole day in daycare environments. So every summer, I treat it like the summer vacation that it is. I get away from the school time schedule and focus entirely on having fun with our girls all summer long. I may be spoiling them a bit by doing this (as I know not every child gets to do summer vacation all summer long, some have to be in day care centers and even though most centers try to plan summertime field trips and such, its still a bit of a regular routine for the kiddos as their parents are at work). Even if this is spoiling them a bit, I feel its my perogative to do this, as the reason I am not working full time is simply to BE with them. So if I am going to BE with them, let's BE TOGETHER and BE having some FUN! Yes, we still have to do chores and our house has to get cleaned, dinner needs to get made(a couple nights a week ha ha), the lawn needs to be mowed, bills need to be paid, and Daddy still needs to work a regular day (until he retires which we look forward to in anticipation), but we can make those things NOT be the focus of our day and NOT make them the foundation of our schedule. Instead, during the summer, I focus on making our fun together the foundation of everything. I look for things for us to do that will be considered 'fun and vacation-worthy' rather than just regular plain days, counting down till school starts again and we go back to a more structured (less room for extra activities) time.
So, here's what we have been up to for those of you who are interested in keeping abreast of our activities....
We have been enjoying lots of 'girls lunches' together, and they seem to think we should be getting dessert too (???) so being the "spoiling summer mom" that I am, I have obliged ha ha. We've done some little bike rides, although I hope to do lots more, as well as some more outdoor activities.  The girls have had fun swimming in our pool and having friends over. Tomorrow we are having our first 'open pool' day of the summer, where moms and their kids can come and go at our pool for a designated time period. Its a good way for the kids to all get to see each other and play, as well as for us adults to get a chance to hang by the pool too. Our fun trip to the zoo was blogged about before , as well as a visit from my mom. The girls have started to get a little spoiled with real pedicures at the nail place. I took them there for T's birthday while we were in Dallas this spring. Since it was her birthday I let them get whatever they wanted from gel to extra massages to nail art. Well, $200+tip later, that was one very indulgent treat. Until that point I have never paid for them to get their nails done. That was a special occasion and at the time I expected it to only be repeated for each of their birthdays....well, when my mom came to visit I decided a good gift to give her would be to go get pedicures together with me and her granddaughters. So we did that and the girls loved it!!!!! I have been telling my husband for years that he needs to go get his feet done by a professional (not me) because I felt his feet were nasty and needed help. So after our trip with grandma, the girls and I decided that for Father's Day we should take daddy and the four of us get pedicures together.  I know what u are thinking "what, that will never happen!" But we suggested it to him and he said he would!  (I'm telling ya, I think he gets the #1Daddy Award for agreeing to get a pedicure with his daughters to make them happy!) Well, last week T was away on a camping trip with a friend and W wanted to do something 'special' with mommy and daddy since T was gone. She wanted either the pedi or a movie. Dan agreed to either, but thinking the pedi place wouldn't be open that late, he said 'sure go ahead and call them, I'll go"   lol you can see where this is going.... They WERE open and he was then locked into going and getting a pedi with his wife and daughter instead of going to a movie lol.  We went and W loved it, and Dan actually said it was fine, although he was very happy to point out that the nail lady said his feet weren't really bad at all and not nearly as bad as I think they are as compared to other men! lol
We have also gone to the movie theater a few times and done some swiming at our gym, as well as swimming in our own pool of course. Tonight we have some Redbox movies to watch  and we are planning on making some zucchini cookies.  We will also go bowling, ice skating, and partake in some library programs as well as craft activities in town, but haven't done these things yet.
The girls did do a beading class at the library while I was working (they went with grandma) and they loved it and now want to make lots of jewelry :) We have also done some shopping, which normally would not be an enjoyable activity with my oldest, but these shopping adventures have actually turned out to be pretty good, fun, and productive :)
W has already completed her Farm Camp week, which she LOVED, and T is in the middle of her Cheer Camp. W starts hers next week. Both are looking forward to cheering so hopefully that will go well for them. We recently bought a boat and took it out for the first time this past weekend to try it out. It was so fun! I can't wait till our vacation house is done and we will keep the boat there and spend half of every week living there and enjoying the lake and boat (not to mention the beautiful peacefulness of the house location!!!) Speaking of which, we are getting closer and closer to completing it and are at the point of needing to pick out flooring, paint, lighting, etc.  Lots of decisions to be made, but it will be super wonderful when it is all done. I love all the appliances we have picked out, but there are still so many decisions that need to be made. We are under no time constraint (construction loan) to finish it, and we are doing it ourselves, so we have been pretty laid back in our approach, which means that we have none of this stuff picked out yet or decided upon! So all that work comes now. It will be fine though, we will get it done and I am sure it will look beautiful.
Anyway, it will all come together I am sure :)
We have some fun plans made for a fishing/hiking/camping trip as well as a trip to Branson and an end-of-summer vacation to the Chateau on Tablerock Lake. We will take our boat with us when we go there and use their marina so it should be super fun.
Its hard to believe it is already June, and our kids go back to school the second week of August. Which is why we are truly focusing on summer fun till summer is done. Lots of you I follow on FB, so I've been keeping up with all your activities too and it sounds like everyone is having lots of fun! Its so fun to be able to shrink the miles between us and keep that communication flowing :)

Signing off, as its time for me to jump in the pool! :)
Have a great summer!

Grammy came to visit

My mom came to visit us the first week of summer, T decided to give her and W a good 'shower' on her first morning here :) maybe she figured she needed the water to open her eyes after that long drive. Anyway, my mom actually joined right in and asked for it, so it was all in good fun.

 I couldn't resist posting this adorable pix of my little cowgirl! They all went swimming every day while she was here, but I thought it was too cold still, so I just sat and watched.

 T is loving being the 'ham bone' in photos lately, as u can see by this one below.

 While my mom was here we treated her to a pedicure as a belated present for mother's day. Of course we thought it was the perfect opportunity for ALL of us to get new pedicures too, so we joined in. It was quite fun!  W was too short for their chairs, so they gave her a giant panda bear to sit in, too cute!

 We played mini golf one day and both Grammy and W got a hole-in-one on this hole!

 Me and my sweetie!

 Sometimes I just got to cut loose (isn't that what they say in Footloose?!) so I was having some goof off fun too :)  My mom shot a ball once that went flying through the air, landed in a tree, and scared a ton of birds out of it! Then she proceeded to hit a ball sailing through the air on the 18th hole and straight into the pond!  I am the only one who didn't get a hole-in-one during the game (T's was on the 18th hole!), but consistency pays off, because I was the winner :)

 I love this picture of the girls with Grammy, such a great shot.

 Me and my T.

 The girls with Grammy right before she heads out on the road after eating breakfast at IHOP. T was excited to learn they have her favorite flavor in pancakes...Red Velvet!

 me and my mom. It took her years to admit she was shorter than me, ha ha.

 Cute photo.

While we were at a art gallery/craft shop, Grammy bought the girls these adorable outfits for their American Girl dolls. They are handmade and absolutely gorgeous.

Well, that is a synopsis of our visit with Grammy via pictures. It was a fun time.

A Day at the zoo, with no animals

Today the girls and I went to the zoo. We met some friends there from school and their kiddos. All in all, I think we had 11 kiddos! It was funny, when one of the moms was in the restroom, a man came up to my friend and said "I just have to ask, how many of these are yours? (only 3 were) and he continued, 'u sure are doing a great job with them!"  How sweet was that? Anyway, it did try to sprinkle and then rain on us a bit, but that really didn't slow down the kids much, they continued to climb and play and just get a little wet. Its funny, we went to the 'zoo', but we only saw 3 animals, plus a very brave peacock who came right up to us because he wanted food. We kept trying to get him to open his feathers but he wouldn't. It really is amazing that God can create such beautiful colors without 'paint', and who would have thought it practical to create an animal that has feathers/tail sticking out so far behind him that it takes a 5 foot radius to turn?!  Crazy, but beautiful! The reason we went to the zoo was because one of those online sites was selling a package deal that gave u unlimited access to the rides (except the camels, we had to pay extra for that), so our main goal was to use those rides. We sure did! That's all we did, plus lunch, and some playground time. We briefly looked at the sea lions (my favorite), and the elephants&chimpanzees on our way TO the rides ha ha. We arrived at 10am and weren't driving home till 430 that evening, so u can certainly say we played, played, played. Normally when the kids do these rides I never do them because they are $5 a pop, and I just don't want to spend the money. But with our passes, it was included and unlimited, so I played right alongside the kiddos and they sure liked that. T even took a video of me doing a flip on the bouncy thing and then bouncing bouncing bouncing till the guy finally let me off it lol. I really like doing those things too, so it was fun to do it with the girls. We climbed the rock wall, rode the carosel, bounced, rode camels, and took a train ride all in the name of fun! Of course it wouldn't be a day in the life with Rene', if I didn't chronicle it in pictures, so here we go...(especially for my mom, who just left this week after visiting us, so she missed out on the zoo adventure, so here are some pictures for you, mom!)

 W and me climbing the rock wall together.

So cute!

 She's so cute!

 T doing the jumpy Frogger thing. She even did lots of flips.

 I thought this picture was neat as T rapelled down the side, it looks almost like she is free-falling, which of course she isn't.

 She was a great climber! She made it to the top 4 times in no time at all!

 W doing a flip.
Here we are riding the train, during which T always has to make funny faces for photos!



 One of the families that went with us has several little kids W's age, and one older girl a bit older than T. T loves hanging out with her and was so looking forward to her coming, especially since it would be her only similarily aged cohort amongst all these little ones. However, M didn't make it and I knew T was bummed at first, but it turned out to be great, because T and I were buddies then, while all the little kids hung out, and we had a ball strolling hand in hand, and riding all the rides together. We had so much fun! (and she was so happy and well-behaved, it was awesome! Actually both my girls were awesome today, no fighting or bickering or arguing AT ALL! Hence, I spoiled them for their good behavior in the gift shop lol. But heck, I love to give things to my kids and spoil them. I just don't like it when they become 'spoiled rotten'. Today however, they were awesome, so it was very fun to buy them whatever they chose in the gift shop. I also talked to them about why they were being blessed with these treats (because of their good behavior) and isn't it more fun to behave and have fun, than to argue and get in trouble).


 
 This is such a pretty picture of T on the really unique looking seahorse carousel. We rode that thing 4-5 times! The kids kept wanting to ride again and get new animals, so I just kept saying yes (free passes and all!) Its so fun doing stuff when u don't have to whip out cash every time!

 Ham bone W on the seal. Here I am, 41 and riding like a kid! Of course T pretended she didn't know me when I started dancing to the music ha ha

 The camel ride is super short and probably not worth $5/each, but they sure do look cute up there don't they? :)

 After a full day, guess who fell asleep in the car on the way home (with her new cute little turtle ball in her arms :)  So sweet!

 Here is the peacock we got close to. This is when T actually started to run it off as she was trying to touch it. It was so beautiful.

 Such a monkey!

 Every time we go to the zoo (since the kids were babies) I have tried to take a photo on this turtle. Her W is eating cotton candy with her best friend , L.

T doing a flip on the Frogger.

Here I am making it to the top to ring the bell.

Here is W flying through the air on the Frogger.