Halloween 2017

You want to be what?

Isaac announced about a month ago that he wanted to be a garbage man for trick or treat this year.  Say what? That's when the scouring of the Pinterest boards began.  I searched and found some example, many made of wood or somehow made a motorized car into the garbage truck. Ugh. So I thought about it for a week then pushed it to the back burner. WRONG ANSWER. Forward to Monday of the week of trick or treat. Isaac wore a police officer outfit we had around here in the toy room for the costume dress up at dance. It was a gentle reminder that I HAD to get started. Tuesday at work I asked if anyone knew where I could get an appliance box. Luckily the scene shop director said he had just thrown a large cardboard box out by the dumpster and he'd have someone bring it down to my office.  When it arrived, my heart actually skipped a beat. It was absolutely perfect, and bonus, it fit in my car to take home. Barely.

When I got it home, Jeremy helped me pencil draw my vision onto the box before cutting. I bought some green spray paint, reflective wear vest and hat at Menards. Isaac looked sad when we were leaving. I asked him what was wrong.  He responded that I was missing the fog light on top.  What? Who notices that? So we went on the search to auto zone and such,

No one sells those! So the closest thing we came up with was the new flares that actually do the circles lights like the garbage trucks.

With my trusted Cricut, I cut out WM for Waste Management and placed them on the side. Isaac requested the flap in the back to throw his candy into.  At the end he was super pumped. He did request windshield wipers too... to which I told him it was the night before and NO. lol. Even I have limits.

He was a hit with his costume and won the contest at his school. I've included the video! 

Now Olivia, she changed her mind the week before. For weeks she declared she would be Belle. Easy enough! We have the dress and shoes that we bought for her for birthday and for our upcoming Disney trip.  Perfect. Done.  Well.... the week of she decided she'd rather be a waitress with her dress up costume from Melissa and Doug. That's great, except that to actually trick or treat she is going freeze and be so slow that we are going to need a stroller. (she moves at sloth speed!) Then it hit me- I'll put her on roller skates. She LOVES to skate. So car hop waitress it was.

As soon as Olivia got out of the car and skated about 100 yards, she slammed hard on the road and was over the skates. lol. Jeremy's parents went with us, so they helped guide her up to the houses. She was awarded honorable mention later after trick or treat at her school costume contest.

Homemade Salsa

Now that summer is over, the blogging will be much more sporadic, I'm certain. School has started for both the kiddos and myself, but that doesn't mean I don't find myself thinking up 100 things to do. Recently this was on my things-to-do list. The harvest of my tomatoes from my garden had me wanting to can tomatoes and make salsa. In the past I've also just bought the packet and dumped it in and done. It's ok. Nothing to write home about. So I decided to go out to my favorite social media tool- Pinterest.  Ta-da. I found this pin for the best salsa recipe. 

I'll save you the time of trying others. This is so good. Go ahead and do yourself the favor of whipping this up. If you have a garden, go ahead and get as much as you can fresh. I only have the tomatoes, but I bought the other ingredients locally.


YOU NEED:

1/2 bushel tomatoes
5 large yellow onions
5 large green bell peppers
1/4 cup salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
6 jalapenos for mild salsa- add more if you want kick! USE GLOVES when you chop them up.
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Mind you, I was doing this at 1 a.m. It's the time I have to myself after the kiddos have went to bed, I've completed all my other work around the house and I can actually devote some time to my things-to-do list that isn't as pressing as work or family commitments. I'm not going to write out step-by-step instructions, as the original post that is linked here does an excellent job walking you through the steps. Just know that it's worth your time. I wish I could attach smell to this blog post. You'd make it yet today!

Last Day of Summer! The Solar Eclipse

We got Mooned...

Last day of summer, so the universe got involved to help us celebrate. A Solar Eclipse. According to this website, 

An eclipse of the Sun happens when the New Moon moves between the Sun and Earth, blocking out the Sun's rays and casting a shadow on parts of Earth.

The Moon's shadow is not big enough to engulf the entire planet, so the shadow is always limited to a certain area (see map illustrations below). This area changes during the course of the eclipse because the Moon and Earth are in constant motion: Earth continuously rotates around its axis while it orbits the Sun, and the Moon orbits Earth. This is why solar eclipses seem to travel from one place to another.

ONU handed out special glasses to view the eclipse, so I shared a pair with the kiddos who would be at my parents while I started my first day of school. It was pretty cool. My mom had both kids draw pictures of what they seen, and explained to them that in 2024 they would get to see it again. Both kids thought it was pretty cool. Olivia said, "I liked that a lot!" Isaac said, "It was awesome!" 

As we close out the summer, thanks for reading along. I would love to know if you read some post, or what you thought. Please comment below and let me know what you thought! 

2 Days of Summer-McDonalds Playland

We're Lovin' It

Just down the street is a McDonalds with a Playland. I think many of them have removed the play areas, but not our McDonalds. The kids beg to stop every time we pass it. So today as we near the last day of summer, I caved. 

The kids squealed as we pulled in. Like it was really something special. Good, I need this to be a treat and not an expectation! They ordered the normal. Chicken McNuggets. Is this ever kids go-to food? I think my kids could seriously live off of McNuggets. Ugh.

After they were finished eating, I let them run wild in the play area. At first when we got there, Olivia's friend from dance was there. She was so excited. Someone she knew. But shortly after we arrived, her family was finishing up, so they left. This is where the funny video comes into play- girls are just so much better than boys. LOL.

I can't believe I'm heading back to school and summer is nearing the end. So sad, but a fact of life. Tomorrow is it! I think there is something out-of-this-world happening, so stay tuned for our final adventure!

3 Days of Summer- Pandora Park

Ninja Warrior Tryouts- Junior Division

In the evenings we have been watching a lot of episodes of Ninja Warrior. The kids are just as excited to watch as we are. This park in Pandora is super cool. Isaac's kindergarten class actually had a class trip to this park last year. Today we needed to go up that way to pick up a table and chairs so we were able to go up early to let the kids burn off some steam.

So you must watch the video of Olivia going across the rings. Too funny. I love how she starts to swing her legs like she's going to dismount at the third bar.  She's watched way too many episodes of ninja warrior.

Isaac also completed the course in record time. Jeremy and I sat on the benches and watch them run like rats through a maze. There was no one else there, so they were enjoying having the castle to themselves. Playing together and nicely is always a plus!

4 Days of Summer- Red Robin

Red Robin.....YUM!

Today we ventured to Fort Wayne to sell some of the kiddos clothes to Once Upon a Child. New policy stated they only look at two totes now at a time, so the six we brought over didn't fly. When I text my friend to complain, she suggested I hop over to kid to kid. Although they weren't open to purchase things from yet, they went through my totes and gave me cash too!

We shopped while we were in town and of course had to go to eat. Red Robin is in the mall in Fort Wayne. The kids love that they can ride on the elevator and escalators at Macy's while we are so close, so we decided to eat at Red Robin. Jeremy had his fantasy football draft, so it was just me and the kiddos. This is the only photo I have of the entire evening in Fort Wayne. It's not perfect by any means, but silly faces and all, this is us!

5 Days of Summer- Midnight Swim

Summer Midnight Swims

Well it wasn't quiet midnight, but 10 p.m. is pretty late and has darkness, so we'll count it. The pool has pool lights in the water, but Jeremy also ran over the box with mower and one pool light doesn't work of the two, so we choose not to turn on the lights in the pool for fear of electrocution. We have a flood light that beams from above, so we turned that on and went for a swim. 

Overall this summer hasn't been hot. When nighttime falls, many nights it was too chilly to swim. So tonight was a welcome surprise to the kids as we haven't swam in the dark all summer. So much fun because we all went out and Jeremy entertained them in the "wave" pool since he jumped up and down making waves. Some times you just have to make do with what you have!

The video is classic Isaac. Without someone showing him first, he sometimes chickens out on attempting the flip into the pool. After much talking, he finally nailed it. He was afraid he couldn't perform in the dark.  LOL. Hopefully if you focus hard enough you can see those little neon shorts flip into the water in the video!

6 Days of Summer- Cookie Monster

YUMMY Cookies!

Well I had to go back to work today...tear. My summer is over. I think I miss counted 88 days out, because I have it ending next Wednesday....oops. Oh well, I'm this close I'm going to finish it out!

So tonight the kiddos wanted to make cookies when I got home. How could I say no? I hadn't seen them all day and I missed them. Funny how that works. I have only been gone one day. They could ask to make messes or whatever and I'd probably say yes.

It helps that I LOVE chocolate chip cookies. I love the dough just as much as I love the cookies. I always cut the recipe in half so we don't have tons. Otherwise I'd eat way too much, and we don't need cookies for a week, just a dessert for the evening.

Isaac loves cracking the eggs. His favorite part. He's getting really good at it. Olivia just wants to help and really doesn't care how. I put her in charge of dumping in the chocolate chips. I started buying the mini morsels because they're just as good and all the more chocolate in every bite!

They turned out great. They won't last long so if you want to stop by, you better do so fast.

7 Days of Summer- Hip Hop Dance Class

Getting Their Grove On

Well we are in the final days of summer and of summer dance classes. One of the choices for the end of summer classes was Hip Hop. We thought Isaac might enjoy taking this one with Olivia, so we enrolled them both. We figured if he liked it, we would enroll him for the year in the class. If he hated it, hey, at least we would know.

Apprehension of the class was at a high for Isaac. He didn't want to go. He said he'd be the only boy (he was right) and that it wouldn't be that fun. He claimed he knew how to dance. After some coxing from myself and some "man talk" from Jeremy, he resistantly went.

I sat in the lobby for a half hour, hearing the music and wondering how they were getting along. This was never in Olivia's interest range either, so I hoped I hadn't wasted our money. I told the other moms what he had said and wondered what was happening inside the classroom.

After the 30 minutes the door flung open and Isaac came out first exclaiming to all the moms in the lobby, "I liked it!" lol. So it was success. Looks like we might have two Hip Hop dancers for the next season. Not sure how the ole' wallet feels about having Olivia in two classes and Isaac in one, but here is to another great dance season!

8 Days of Summer- Bowling

Bowling Pros?

Have you heard of the kids bowl free program? If not, look into it because it's definitely a great program. We have done it the past three years. Of all those years, this is by far the LEAST amount we have used it. Typically by the end of the summer we've went a dozen or so times. This summer, for whatever reason, we didn't and today was the first day we've went all summer! 

It was pretty dead. There was only one other family there when we arrived. Kids love when we go over dinner hour because Westgate pizza is a must. Sometimes I think they enjoy eating just as much as the bowling. 

Isaac is my bowler. Olivia last about one game and she's done. Isaac typically takes over and rolls for both him and her. We still put the bumpers up or we'd have lots of disappointment. I'm guessing my kiddos are not going pro in bowling, especially since Olivia still bowls by sitting the ball down and rolling it from between her legs. (PS- look at those shoulder muscles! How is that even fair that she is more cut that most college girls?!). 

After two games, Jeremy met us after work and ate pizza with us. Fun night bowling!

9 Days of Summer- Rollercoaster Pool Fun

Sinking Ship

AHHHHHH, we are in single digits folks. How did that happen? Started with 88 Days and now we are down to nine? The ship is sinking folks...

Today we got out the rollercoaster from a few years back when the kids were toddlers and wanted this to play and got it from maw and paw for a Christmas gift. They loved this and we had a downward slope driveway that built up speed even more.

The internet is full of crazy stuff and we viewed a video of people putting the rollercoaster next to their pool and going in... we decided to try it out for ourselves. As you can see from the video it's pretty funny. Something different than the diving board for sure. Who sits around and thinks this stuff up? Not sure, but it was fun.

It's not nearly as hot here as it was in Florida, but it is nice to cool off by the pool. We've had lots of friends who were able to come visit throughout the summer and we absolutely love having them come and enjoy. Although today was a lazy Sunday, it was nice to have a weekend of relaxation.

10 Days of Summer- Health Expo

Looking for Fun in Town

Thanks to my friend who posted pictures early in the morning, I was able to see that there was a Health Expo in downtown Lima at the Civic Center. I told the kids to quickly get on their clothes and shoes and we could head that way. We only had 75 minutes until it closed, so it was going to be a fast trip. Jeremy agreed to go along, which is always nice to have an extra set of eyes.

They had roughly 20+ booths set up in the Civic Center with sponsors and venders sharing each organization's mission. Lots of free give-a-aways and useful information on healthy things to become involved with throughout the Lima-land.

Outside they had several bounce houses set up for the kids to play. Both kids loved the super long obstacle course bounce house they were able to race through. There was also a zip line, which Isaac attempted to do, but got scared at the top and walked back down. First time we have seen him chicken out on something. Shocked us!

11 Days of Summer- Wapak School's Playground

Playing at Dusk

Tonight we got to head down to Auntie Ann's and Uncle Jason's to celebrate Ann's and Sheri's birthdays. They live relatively close to the school, so after the party the kids begged to go to the playground. How could I say no? This playground is so cool, even I want to play. So we headed over at dusk and I said we could play until it got dark, which I knew wouldn't be long.

From the video you can see Olivia and I's favorite piece of playground equipment. Forget the old fashion merry-go-round, here you have your own personal tilt-a-whirl! Her and I could sit on that thing forever and spin in circles. Isaac prefers to run. There are two main playgrounds, and on one playground we like to play a game when you hit the floor you're out. Trying to stay balanced throughout the ropes and spinning pieces is a riot. Lots of yelling out, "You fell in and the crocodile ate you!"

When it started to get dark, it was hard to get the kids to go. They could have played there for hours. I told them we'd come back some other time, but it will most likely be months before we come back. It's such a cool playground, it's actually worth the drive there. The kids who attend Wapakoneta school are lucky to have such a cool playground to play at throughout the school year!

12 Days of Summer- OmniSource

Cashing in on Cans

So remember earlier in the summer when the kids were at my parents and they walked up and down the roads and collected cans to recycle? Well Isaac informed me today that our cans were full and it was time to take them in to get rich! LOL

So we packed them in the trunk of the car and headed to OmniSource. Isaac has been here before and loves to watch the cranes (like in Toy Story) pick up the metal out in the field. He also get's way excited to put the cans in the carts and have them weighed. Today was no different.

We didn't have loads of cans. Only a couple of bags full from the past year. But they got excited when the cashier handed them $5 for their cans. I said it in the last post and I'll say it again...they're not going to get rich doing this. Heck, you can't even by a 24 pack of soda for $5, but they learn how to recycle.

13 Days of Summer- Flying Home

Back to Reality

The last four days have been amazingly fun. Hot, but fun.  Today we get to travel back home. We took the double stroller, but I think this was it's last trip. Isaac is simply getting too big for it. Looks like we will go to a single umbrella stroller for Olivia. I will miss the storage underneath, but I won't miss trying to maneuver through crowds and doors. 

Our kids love to fly. Southwest is our airline of choice because of the free luggage we can check. When you are talking about a family of four, luggage is a must, and just a carry on isn't going to cut it. The flight out and back were both eventful. On the way out we were delayed because of weather. On the way home we were delayed because the airplane was too hot. Yep, everything here was too HOT. 

We finally made it home and Isaac always darts to the baggage claim area to find our bags. He loves that part and finds the search for his suitcase a competition. LOL. He decided on this trip he was old enough to pull his own suitcase like a "grown up" so we let him! Tomorrow Jeremy will go back to work and the rest of us will go back to reality. Only 13 days left of summer!  AHHHHHH, time is running out. 

14 Days of Summer- Universal Studios

Universal Fun

Oh baby, Hot! Hot! Hot! Did I forget to mention how hot it is here? If you haven’t read the previous Day 15 or Day 14 posts, please do. I complain about the heat in those posts as well!

Universal Studios. Jeremy and I visited here on our first vacation together back in 2002. It’s been awhile. Things have grown and parks have split. Tickets have gotten more expensive. Instead of buying park hoppers to visit all their parks, we chose to do one- Universal Studios. Isaac really wanted to go on the Minion ride (thanks again to advertising on Nickelodeon!) so we chose that park. Additionally, he loves Spongebob Squarepants, so double bonus attending Universal Studios.

We got to park and within minutes of walking in we see the 90 minutes wait for Minions ride. We get in line that is totally outside and HOT. Did I mention it was hot outside? Lol. Sweat dripping, Isaac begged for a water. Jeremy was super dad and jumped out of line an hour into our wait and brought back three drinks and a pretzel. Fast forward an hour later and in a shade under two hours we were experiencing the one and only Minion ride. Olivia said she didn’t like the 4-D experience and took off her glasses moments after starting. Isaac loved it, but said he didn’t need to wait again in line. LOL. Good buddy. Instead he chose Bob, the $30 plush, to take home. Yes, you read that right. $30 for ANOTHER stuffed animal. (insert my rolling eyes!)

We spent the next few hours back in the kid land, complete with character meet and greets that you can see in the picture below. The kiddos loved it. Jeremy commented on how different this trip was than 2002! Jeremy loved the Barney show- Not. We did enjoy anything in the AC though!

Olivia and I really enjoyed the Men In Black ride because it spun you around as you zapped aliens. Transformers ride was also a hit, although Olivia took off her glasses so she wasn’t scared. Isaac giggled throughout the entire ride trying to get away from the evil transformer. He loved the screeching tires as our movable carts felt as if we were truly speeding away. The parade was cute and I love the picture of Olivia and Edith interacting. It was adorable. We are pretty sure that she wanted Olivia to come out and dance with her, but her handler said no. Plus the characters loved Isaac’s minion Bob. Too cute!

We ended the day with the craziest rollercoaster the park had. The boys waited an hour in line and Olivia and I hung out in the AC child/parent swap area. When the boys finished going on the ride, Isaac got to ride back-to-back, as he got to go again with me! Great deal for me- an hour of AC then an immediate rollercoaster ride. Sweet!

Leaving the park was the wildest part of the entire day. Universal needs some lessons from Disney here. The parks all released at the same time so thousands of people funneled out of the parks at the same time. It was insane. We got an Uber and the kids were cashed out within minutes into the ride. All-in-all another great day.

15 Days of Summer- Legoland Waterpark

Splish Splash...Having a Blast!

 

Well yesterday rocked. So much fun but HOT. We were totally looking forward to having passes to the waterpark today at Legoland. The forecast was again going to be a unbearable, so we were looking forward to the waterpark cooling us off.





We entered the park around 11 in the morning and it wasn't too busy. By 2 p.m. it was packed. As soon as we entered, Isaac and Jeremy took off for the large waterslide. So impressed that little man has no fear of going on these. Check out the video below. I didn't catch it until he was halfway down, but wow.  Crazy.

Olivia, on the other hand, prefers the water works splash zone. It's so fun, but she has no fear of ever being lost. DRIVES.ME.NUTS. So I chase her around throughout the thing, but she went down one of the slides and then doesn't wait on me. I tried to find her in the millions of kids that are racing through. Ten minutes goes by and no Olivia. I begin to freak. I locate a lifeguard. He kindly tells me to just keep looking and if she doesn't come back in five minutes he'll blow the whistle.  Five minutes goes by. He blows the whistle to indicate to the other guards she's missing. I want to throw up. Seriously, where is she? As the other guard is walking toward me, her Olivia comes down a slide. Still no clue that she's missing and I've been freaking out. I alert the guards and then walk her over to the chairs and give her yet another lecture of how she can't run off. I'm telling you, this girl is going to be the death of me!

Besides this scare within being there the first half hour, it was a great afternoon. Olivia loved doing the tube slides with us. We all enjoyed the wave pool and lazy river. The day ended around 6 p.m. and the waterpark closed. We packed up the rental car and headed the hour drive back to Orlando to head to Universal tomorrow.

16 Days of Summer- Legoland Park

Build it and they will come

It took us longer than normal to figure out where we wanted to vacation at with the kiddos this summer. It wasn't until about a month ago we found airline tickets for really cheap to Orlando. We could always go for Disney, but decided since we had never done Legoland or Universal, this might be our opportunity to do so. With tickets in hand and a forecast in the 100s, our 2017 summer vacation lead to Florida.

Holy hotness. I mean drip off you standing hotness. I now understand why people don't do this. Lines were short because it was too damn hot. Ok, that's my vent session on that.

Legoland. Located an hour away from Orlando, this is super cute and totally built for kids. When I'm impressed by bathrooms at an amusement park, it get's my automatic stamp of approval. The parking entrance needs some work in efficiency, but other than that it was a fantastic park.

So. many. things. made. out. of. legos! Even the birds walking into the park in the grass were made out of legos. Jeremy and I were impressed with miniland- entire cities made out of legos. The attention to detail was amazing. Whoever has the patience to sit and do those for hours is my superhero.

This was our first trip to Legoland and the kiddos had a great time. From obtaining their "driving license" just like nick jr. advertises (the whole reason we are here!) to rollercoasters to Olivia picking out a new princess lego set, it had it all. We shut down the park (it closed at 7) and ended with a few water rides. Because we are cheap, we didn't eat in the park and instead headed to Outback on the way back to our hotel. We'll be back tomorrow for the waterpark. Stay tuned.