Fun For All Ages

Me and one of my friends Kristi took our kids to a play place close by called Journeys. It's kinda like a chucky cheese but alittle smaller and more fun (the parents were aloud to go on everything, even the jump houses). It was the perfect size for the kids and everything was in one area so I could watch both kids at once. The kids had a blast! We were afraid it would be alittle hectic with so many kids but they were all so good and played together perfect. The ages of the kids were 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10,16.

BTW-two kids were mine and 3 were hers the rest were her nephews. We had a small bus full of kids, including me and Kristi. We played for 4 hours and I think we played as much as the kids did. We can't wait to take them back.

The kids favorite thing to do was race us down the big slides.

Caiden playing glow in the dark put-put.

The boys all ran crazy in this dark room, lucky no one got hurt :)

Monday Memories

We took the kids to the zoo this weekend. We bought a pass earlier this summer and have only went 3 times so far so were going to try and take them more often. They both love going.

There favorite things to see are the seals, and the hippos! I think they are there favorite because there underwater and have the viewing window where the kids can watch them up close. They come right up to the window.

That was the biggest seal we have ever seen!

Caiden loves taking the train ride out in the "african safari" to see all the animals. The zoo really does have an area called Africa! While on the train Hailey threw her favorite shoe (shoe fetish) over the side and Brad about fell out trying to get it while the train was moving but he saved the day and got her shoe:)

While we were watching the hippos they started fighting. Caiden thought it was so cool. I should've gotten some pics of it but i was too busy holding the kids. It kinda scared Hailey alittle when they were splashing and biting each other.

I can't wait to take the kids this winter to the lights before christman display. They decorate the whole zoo for christmas and have santa there to get the kids pictures taken with. We did this a couple years ago with Caiden but this will be the first year for Hailey.

Wish me luck, I start my new job today. I'm excited but at the same time i don't want to be away from the kids. I will only be working about 3 days a week but it is really going to be hard because i'll be working in the evening. I have finally gotten both kids on a nightly routine of supper, playing, baths and bedtime and now i won't be getting home till about 10:oopm so i'll have to see how it goes. I'll post tommorrow on how everything went!

Slip-n-Slide

I realized that i haven't been on here in awhile, this week just flew by. For an update on my guilty feelings I am so much better. We all have those days that we feel down and out of it, i know that and it really did help me to hear that i am not the only mother who goes to bed worrying or feeling guilty. I have really concentrated on spending quality time with each child, I decided that Caiden can stay up an hour later than Hailey and that gives me and him time to play and cuddle before bed. He loves not going to bed at his normal bedtime. Too bad this can't last long though, school starts on the 4th and he's gonna have to go back to his bedtime then, but were enjoying it for now.

He is so excited about going to school. He is going to a new one this year. I liked his last preschool but it was very expensive and i felt that they didn't put enough time into each child. For example caiden can write his first and last name very good and i helped him everyday at school when i dropped him off for about the first half. For the second half i decided to let him go in by himself and let the teachers help him or even let him do it by himself. I saw at the end of the year that the whole second half he didn't write his name once, all he did was scribble. I know that there are more children that teachers but not one day did they sit down with him and help him. It was always the same with his art work too. If he didn't feel like doing anything they they didn't make him do it, most things came home just scribbled on. I feel that he is there to learn not play, he can do that at home...for free. So anyways we are going to try this new school and hopefully he likes it. He will be going Mon-Thurs 8:30-11:30. Last year he only went 2 days a week for 2 1/2 hours a day so this will be a big adjustment for him, and me. It will be weird not having him here all day with me but i guess i better get used to it cause from here on out that is how it will be. My baby is growing up too fast.

We are enjoying the last days of summer. The weather was beautiful today and we spent the whole day outside. We started at my aunt pool and then went to Brad's parents house to let the kids play on the slip-n-slide. They both love it! We played out there on it for about 2 hours.

Caiden was surfing on his spider-man surf board, he was actually doing pretty good. He would run and put the surf board under his knees and make it from one end to the other!

I was surprised at how much Hailey liked it too. She can't walk on it by herself without slipping and falling down so she was getting alittle frustrated with that but she did find one good use for it...

The kids were completely wore out by bedtime, they were both asleep by 9:15 (which is very good for my kids). So i guess i should get to bed too, i should take advantage of their early bedtime.

Hailey's 1!!!

Friday was Hailey's first birthday!!!


We can't believe that a whole year has already passed since she was born. It doesn't seem that long ago that i took this picture...

Look how tiny and precious she looked! Now if she's in that seat i can't get the snaps to fit around her!

We had a fun weekend, friday we took Hailey out to eat for her birthday, she got a banana pie dessert and ate almost the whole thing. Saturday we had her party out at my moms house. We had about 50 people show up. Andrea and her little boy Taite were able to come, they are visiting this weekend from NC, it was really nice to see her again. (Caleb was napping so he wasn't able to come). Sunday we went to Andrea and Travis' old church were Travis was the youth pastor, they had a huge celebration for i think there 50th anniversary. Ther was all kinds of things for the kids to do, jumpy things, rock climbing walls, cotton candy, sno-cones - Caiden loved it. Andrea let me wear Hailey in her Mei Tai (i think) It was SO nice. Hailey always needs to be held and it was nice to be able to hold her and still do what i needed to do, i'll have to get that picture from Andrea i forgot to get one with my camera.

Hailey's party went really good and she seemed to have a good time. Caiden helped her blow out her candle and then she dove into her cake. We got her her own individual little cake and let her do what she wanted with it, by the time she was done she had more up her nose and in her eyes than in her mouth, but it was cute!

I made one slideshow for the whole weekend.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Trip to the Zoo

We took the kids to the zoo for the first time this year. Caiden has always loved going and Hailey seemed to do pretty good too. It was kinda crowded that day, of course we had to go on the same day as all the schools and very hot around 90 degrees.
We stayed there most of the day and let the kids see everything. All the animals were very active which Caiden loved. Usually when we go all they do is lay there. Caiden had alot of favorites, the rhino, the seals, the giraffe and i think a couple more but i'll just stop there. Hailey seemed very amazed by everything and almost emotionless, she just starred!


I finally figured out how to put my slide show together (thanks drea!) so here it is...

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Zoo

Every summer we get a membership to the zoo. The closest one to us is about 45 minutes away.

We started doing this when caiden was 2 years old and he absolutely loved it! His favorite thing then used to be the birds. Go figure you take your child to the zoo to see all kinds of animals and all they want to do is stay in the bird building, if we wanted to watch birds we could go outback at our house and do that:)



He loved playing in the ostrich egg that was in the end of the bird museum. This summer we are going to get another pass. This will be the first time Hailey will go. We hope that she will enjoy it as much as her brother did. This is a fun family thing that we can all do together for a reasonable price. The pass lasts for a whole year and includes parking and other discounts throughout the zoo and at other zoo's. It is only 65.00 for a family. That really isn't alot when you look at the admission for one day. For our family to go once it would be about 30.oo. If you are interested in buying a pass for your family go to www.toledozoo.com or whatever zoo is closest to you for their rates. Your children will love it!

He Got A Stike!!!

Brad and i took Caiden bowling this weekend. We've been wanting to take him for awhile but never knew if he was old enough yet.

He actually did really good for his first time. The ball was a little heavy for him and he sometimes had trouble rolling it fast enough but on his first game he got a strike! We couldn't believe it.

He bowled an 87, which i think is pretty good for a 4 year old (seeing how i only bowled 124 and that was with the bumper lanes!)

He had so much fun and so did we. I know that it's not something that too many people think to take there little ones to do but I definitely recommend taking your child bowling but wait until there at least 4 or 5 and also make sure that you call ahead of time and find out if they have bumper lanes (a must) and to make sure that they are not too busy. We went in the afternoon and we were the only ones in the whole bowling alley. I think it was nicer just being able to teach Caiden without a whole bunch of people around.