Mother of the Year? Nope, not gonna happen this year either...

(This lack of award for me should be surprising to no one.)

 

So my kids go to a friend of mine's house on Wednesdays when I go to work.  They love it at Tolly's house. 

 

Seriously. 

 

Love. It. There.

 

They love it there because she's awesome and is always willing to let them try new things.  Tolly's very laid back and lets kids be kids.  I tried to channel my inner Tolly the other day.  I ordered bean bag filler to plump up our bean bags.  It came in a gigantic cardboard box so I decided to get crazy by letting the kids get in the box. 

 

See how happy she was?

This guy got in on the action, too.

See how happy they were?  It was all fun and games until Ella tipped the box.  She landed on her arm on the door frame and this happened...

 

She also ended up with a gigantic bruise on her arm that looked like I grabbed her by the arm really hard and squeezed/shook her. This is her lying on the couch with a bag of frozen cranberries on the bruise. 

 

No, I did not take a picture of the actual bruise because, quite frankly, I can't say I wanted to help Children's Services document anything.   

Gotta go fishin'!

Ella's class took a field trip to the local state park at the end of the school year.  I would say she still enjoys eating goldfish crackers more than fishing for actual fish but she likes it more than she did before the trip.  She did the event in typical Ella style by wearing purple heart boots.  Click a photo to enlarge and enjoy the boots!

 

 

Backyard Grilling

 One of the things that I love about our (new) house is our gigantic back yard.  We live on one of the main streets in town but we have almost one acre to enjoy.  Here's a shot of our back yard with the kids doing their favorite thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As an aside, see all that green space?  I mow that every week.  With a push mower.  Yes, a push mower.  Now accepting applications to help with this.  No previous experience required.  Warning:  it may cause heart palpitations and make you feel like you're dying.

Sorry but you're kinda stuck with us...

I started to take a shower recently and noticed this note from Ella sticking out of the shower.  The green thing is a straw that she used to wedge the note in the door.

 

True story.  This is what I saw
poking out of my shower.

 

 

"Please stop using my body soap, Mom
and Dad.  Love, Ella.  Writ(e) if you did or not
on the back."

 I added my answer as follows:

 

Aron refused to answer (no surprise there) but he smells suspiciously fruity every morning.  Now accepting donations of Bath and Body Works gift cards.

...and enjoy your day here at...................Cedar Point

 

 

 



See this girl?  She loves her some icee.








See this guy?  He is also an ice lover.

I decided to take the kids to an amusement park in celebration of the end of school.   See those two kids in the picture below?  They had never even heard of Cedar Point until last week. Poor, unenlightened children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The park opened at 10 and we got there around 10:30 because I wanted to maximize our playing time. Cedar Point has its own app (no surprise there) where I could purchase my parking and tickets in advance.  It was super easy and very convenient--highly recommended!. 











The kids had a blast!  The park was pretty empty with minimal wait times for the rides the kids wanted to go on.  It was a bit overcast in the morning so I think some people were hesitant to come out because Cedar Point has a firm no refunds for inclement weather policy. 


I spent a lot of time riding around in the back of cars that the kids could drive.  It was  4 1/2 mph of good times.

 

 

My daughter is obsessed with this ride.  Because there was an odd number of us, I sat by myself for rides while the kids sat together.  The first time we rode this ride, the kids sat behind me and I heard Ella scream "I loooooooove thiiiiiiis.  Thiiiiiiis is awwwwwwwwwwwesome!!!!" while Luke screamed "I hate this!!"

See this?  When I say there was no line, there was seriously NO LINE.

 

I've been a horrible blogger lately...

...just add it to the list of things I'm not good at!  I'm going to try to do a little catching up.  We've been so insanely busy lately that I've barely had time to breathe.  The good news is that I've taken some pictures so let's go!