Productivity

Yesterday I was up bright and early to make pancakes (with flax seed).  Next I had a sweaty Zumba workout before I ran errands to the library, bank, and grocery store.  I came home and made other things to store in freezer: chocolate chip banana cookies (with avocado replacing some butter), ground beef, and sour cream coffee cake (sour cream was replaced by Greek yogurt and half the butter was replaced by avocado).  In the evening, I met my sweet friend Lara to talk outside Starbucks.  Then I went to her house to play games with her and her husband.  That led to plenty of laughs!

Today I volunteered in the children's area during first service.  I was happy to see my dear friend Carey during the service.  I cleaned out 2 closets at school before hosting my friends Kelly and Adrienne.  We sat outside on my new furniture in my newly renovated 3 seasons room.  When the sun set, we lit a candle and continued talking.  It was a lovely evening. 

The 4 Day Weekend Begins

Last night we went to the Indians game.  We ran into our neighbor, Luke.  We loved the experience.

This is the meltdown Princess threw when brother was asked to go to a friend's house.  Never fear, Bekah then asked us all over.  It was a great afternoon of jumping on the trampoline, swimming in the pool, and playing pokémon.

I liked seeing Champ combing Princess's hair.

My sweet neighbor, Tammy, picked flowers from her yard and gave them to me.

Tonight I worked on getting ahead by making chocolate zucchini cake and pumpkin waffles.   I will put these healthy, homemade treats in the freezer.

Cub Scouts

Building his boat

Unsuccessful attempt

A leader helped him modify his boat.  This time his effort was more successful.

End of August

Saturday I got a lot done at the start of the day:  Zumba, recycling, glasses tightened, bank, library, groceries.  I love the mathematical challenge of MPerks and clearance shopping.

I dropped Champ off at Jonah Smith’s house for a pool/birthday party.  Princess cried the whole way there and home.  Her main complaint was that Champ gets to do everything special.  She could have cared less that the last birthday party someone attended was her.  My logic was wasted on the 3 year old.

She was also unhappy with my plan for her to take a bath and get on a dress instead.  However, I eventually gave her a bath, blow dried her hair, got her in a dress, and put a flower barrette in her hair.  Although no one applauded my effort, Princess did receive many compliments at the party we attended.

We attended a wedding reception/military send off for my cousin Taylor and his new bride, Kellan.  It was a lovely time with family.

Sunday I volunteered in Princess’s Sunday School class.  We came home and worked on things around the house.  I love that Champ was practically begging to clean the house so that he could get money to add to his bank.  We had plenty of opportunities Sunday to talk about work ethic.  Just because it took him 3 hours to accomplish the task, didn’t mean he was getting paid for 3 hours of work since he rested for large amounts of time during the 3 hours.  I also inspected his work since I am his employer.  I had him redo portions of his work because it wasn't done with quality.  Princess was devastated to learn that she only got paid half as much as Champ.  It was an opportunity to talk about how she did half as much work as him.

I make Princess sort her money into piles.  Champ or I count it for her.  

Sunday night we went to Hot Box for dinner.  Hot Box, thank you for leaving coupons for a free pizza in the teacher workroom recently.  I only paid for drinks and the kids were thrilled to be eating out.  We finished the evening by playing both Candyland and Yahtzee. 

Monday evening the kids came with me to the gym, and I even got them to do a few laps around the track.  

When I went to the gym today, I was excited to have the opportunity to run 2 miles with my friend Vanessa.  

I was thrilled tonight with Champ's interest in a book about dolphins that he checked out from the library.  He sounded great reading the book too.

Getting Princess to do things is a challenge, especially before bed.  In order to get her to pee before bed, everyone would guess a number we thought the pee would come out on.  Then we would count while she was waiting on the toilet.  Although I was pleased that we were working on counting, the process was taking too long.  So, last night and tonight I challenged her to a pee race.  Champ starts the race in the hall.  Princess and I run to our separate toilets, pee, wash hands, and run back to the start line.  This is a much faster method.  

Church

I love volunteering at church in the children’s area.  I love seeing what my kids are learning, getting to know their teachers, and watching them interact with others.

In the first picture, Princess was chosen to be one of the special people who got to pray in front of the group.  This is a prized role.  She was so excited about her performance that she started to run off before saying amen.

The third picture shows the start of game night tonight.  Champ is playing another version of paper, rock, scissors.  This version was Ninja, water gun, gorilla.  Champ quickly got out when he and his partner both turned around doing the same action.

Next up is a picture of Champ playing 4 square.  That seems to be one of his favorite games these days.  

A picture of Champ playing Ga Ga ball is next.  I don’t understand what the game is, but I know it is extremely popular.

At the end of game night, Champ’s name was drawn for a raffle prize.  He labored over what to choose.  In the end, he decided on a big tub of cotton candy.  That should wash down the extremely large tube of sandy candy that he had earlier in the night!

Another great game night.  He requested that I put the next one down on the calendar.

King's Island

I often pray for many of the things in my life.  I was bold enough months ago to pray for a free or low cost trip.  A couple of weeks ago a representative of AAA contacted me to let me know that I had won free tickets to King’s Island in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Thank you!

We met my brother and his oldest child, Will, at the park.  It was the perfect day to be at the park.  It wasn’t too hot or too cold for the park.  However, it was too cold for the waterpark, so we spent a brief amount of time there in the afternoon.

The first picture is of the gang waiting for the train.  We parked outside the waterpark and took the train into the middle of the park.  On the train rides, the kids believed we were riding Thomas the Train and friends.

We spent a lot of time at Planet Snoopy.  Will and Princess could ride many of the same rides.  They were too short for other rides, while Champ was too tall for some rides.  So, we split up sometimes.

The second picture shows Princess and I waiting to ride the Woodstock Express.  The next picture has Uncle Matt and Champ ready to ride the ride.  Although I didn’t take a picture with the camera, I have a mental picture of the look on Princess’s face on the first downhill which was priceless.  She had this look of, “What are you doing to me?”  However, once we went up again she seemed to get that it was fun.  Then she wanted to do it again.

Next up is a picture of Will and Princess on a car ride.  

I splurged and bought the kids lunch in the park.  Food in the park costs a fortune.  Uncle Matt treated the kids to blue ice cream.  Blue ice cream is extremely messy!

I took Princess and Will on a helicopter ride.  I think we waited the longest for this ride, about 30 minutes.  Both kids were very patient though.

The next picture was of a ride that had pumpkin in the title.  It was a roller coaster, like the Woodstock Express.  However, the ride wasn’t as long and the line wasn’t as long.  The kids could also ride it without me.  I got a kick out of watching their facial expressions.  

Uncle Matt posed for 4 pictures with the kids.  My kids love Uncle Matt.  He is super cool.  I think Matt enjoyed going on some water rides with just Champ.  They went on the log ride a couple of times before getting drenched on the White Water Canyon.

There is another picture of Champ and Princess on the train.  She couldn’t stop munching on her snack for the picture though.

Will and Matt eventually left after the freezing water park.  The kids and I ventured back to Planet Snoopy.  The kids loved the tree where you were lifted up, down, up, down, etc.

Princess met a new friend in the cars that quickly spun around the corners.  I love her gleeful expressions in the pictures.

Both kids rode a train.  There are two pictures of the kids on a car ride.  Princess enjoyed the swings that spun around.

There is a picture of our final time in line for the Woodstock Express.  Princess looks like a pirate in the picture.  

Our last picture is in between log rides at Planet Snoopy.

The kids eventually left the park, but it wasn’t willingly.  We had such a fun day of creating happy memories!  

We grabbed an extremely late dinner at Wendy’s to eat on the car ride home.  The kids quickly fell asleep on the way home.  

So thankful for a great day!