Reason #541 My Kids Are Awesome

Reason #541 My Kids Are Awesome:

If I wake up on Saturday morning and tell them we need to get some exercise and should go on a 5.5 mile round-trip bike ride to browse the toy store (without buying anything), they're game.

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I was surprised at how well they handled it.  It got a bit rough on an uphill part on the way home right near the end.  Eli was so tired, he literally fell off his bike (which is a bit of a feat since he has training wheels).

But at the end, we talked about perseverance and accomplishing tough things and gave each other high fives.

Totally worth it.

My Problem

I have a problem.  It's an addiction, actually. 

And this little pretty exemplifies the problem perfectly:

  

My argument:

It's soooo cute.

It's like the ones from when I was little!

It was only $1.50.

Gracen (and the boys, actually) have a lot of fun with it.

Jaron's argument:

We have no where to put it.

We could have saved $1.50.

We have plenty of toys.

Truth be told, Jaron teases me about my "problem" but also has a lot of patience for it.  I hope his patience lasts until I can find a garage-salers anonymous meeting somewhere! :)

 

Pinterest Sidewalk Paint

Homemade sidewalk paint is all over Pinterest.  We finally made some the other day.  It went well, except that the sun was so hot it took about 10 minutes for the paint to dry up in the muffin tins!  It was fun to mix the colors. 

It hasn't rained yet so I have yet to find out how well it washes off. :)

 

All Grown Up

No, it's not her birthday.

We got up one morning and decided that it was time to make a cake and have a "bye-bye-binky" party.  So we did and now those little binkies (soothers, pacifiers, etc.) are at the bottom of the dumpster.

No more binkies.  No more diapers.  No more naps.

It's such a strange thing to be a mother without these things!

Catchin' Fireflies

 One night we let the kids stay up late so that we could go out at dusk and try to catch some fireflies.  Eli was a little bit into it but Alden was totally into it.  We caught a total of four but, interestingly, they wouldn't flash in the jar.  Only one got accidentally squished.  Alden was terribly dismayed when he found out we weren't keeping any as pets.

 Gracen was more interested in the playground than the fireflies.  She kept laying down to go down the slide and this was the end result:

Mall Fun

We don't go to the mall very often, especially in the summer when there is so much fun stuff to do outside.  

We did go one day, though, and I turned around while checking out to see Gracen dancing up a storm in the aisle.  It was so funny to watch!

 We were pleasantly surprised to find out that a Lego store had opened.  It was pretty neat to see all the displays of things sculpted out of Lego.  The boys were in heaven!

Turkey Creek Festival

I haven't blogged in awhile so it's time to play catch-up.  Life seems extremely busy lately but we're definitely enjoying it!

A few weeks ago we went to a festival not too far away.  It was so much fun and, best of all, it was all FREE!  The kids and I had a blast.

 There was the coolest petting zoo I've ever seen.  It included a kangaroo, monkeys, a zebra, and some other exotic animals.  The kids were given these little cups of food that they could feed to the animals.  So much fun!

 Haha, love Eli's face here.  I can totally hear the whiny voice that goes with it! :)

 There was also a ton of bouncy house stuff.  Alden's favorite was this huge honey-comb type thing that you could go inside and play Nerf gun tag inside.  It's so funny how much his tastes have changed into "big boy" tastes lately.

 Eli totally got me. :)