I hate to wake a sleeping kid, but if we were to stay on any kind of a schedule, I had to.
She actually woke up quite easily and agreed to go see Gramma Jean. And that’s when it all fell apart. She was sitting with GJ, but gently wimpering and whining…which eventually turned into full-blown crying with tears and everything. Hoo boy. It went on and on and on. She didn’t want milk, the iPad, M&Ms, or her B. After a half hour, talk of going to the pool finally got her attention.
Last year the gang went to Fudpuckers while I stayed home to let Katie get a good nap. This year, we both went along.
They are known for the alligators…and I have to be honest and say they just creep me the hell out. /shudder
Beth and I decided to split this 40 oz margarita-ish drink.
And made mom try it, too. 🙂
Feeding the alligators.
Being a ham.
Attempting to get a cousin pic…and failing. 🙂
More creeptastic alligators.
Owen by his name that he wrote there last year.
Then this happened on the drive home.
I was more than happy to take the kids to the pool…because it meant NO SAND. 🙂
Of course holding her new Happy Meal dolly that she can’t let out of her sight since she got it yesterday. 🙂
The dining room table seats six so the kids all sat out on the balcony—and loved it!
Katie loves the balcony!
She also spent a lot of time like this:
The kids’ first time at Waffle House—and both loved it (and both chose waffles and bacon)!
Unfortunately they didn’t work so now I get to contact the company. 🙁
Katie didn’t want to finish her lunch.
We were eating lunch and I was looking up something on my phone when Katie saw me and told me to take her picture. So I did.
And then…happy again!
With all the recent snow days, Owen’s class was behind on celebrating Dr. Seuss Week, so the making of Green Eggs & Ham was this week. The teacher had emailed asking for volunteers, but with Tom gone and me prepping for our vacation, I opted to skip it. Then. The teacher emailed me directly asking if I could come in because no one else had volunteered. Hoo boy. So I said of course.
We got there as they were reading the book. Owen was, as usual, super excited to see us and gave Katie a hug.
While the teacher explained what the groups would be doing today, kk played in the kitchen.
And then it was time for centers. And as I had imagined, it was pretty much a cluster. Thankfully another mom showed up—as normally we’d have three 15-minute sessions of 4 kids each but since they were trying to make up time, we had three sessions of eight kids each. Yeesh.
There was cracking of eggs (after the mess the first group created, we broke the eggs ourselves), stirring of the eggs with food coloring in two bowls, sharing turns stirring, then cooking the eggs in an electric skillet and cutting the ham, the kids crowding around us trying to cook and us trying to keep them from touching the pan and burning themselves, trying to rember who can’t have ham due to religious reasons, then serving the eggs and ham and trying to keep things cleaned up while cleaning up the utensils for the next batch. WHEW.
The first session was SO crazy that I never had a second to snap a picture. Thankfully Owen was in the second group and we were getting the routine perfected by then.
Giving me a thumbs up on the green eggs!
Thankfully Katie is pretty well-behaved because I couldn’t do the eggs and watch her at the same time. I did see her with the assistant most of the time, and she was at a table coloring another time. I apologized to the assistant and she said no worries, Katie was really very good. PHEW.
And then just like that, it was done. And even though it was crazy, it hadn’t been that bad. 🙂
…but I can’t deny cuddles. Do you blame me?
I wanted Katie to come sit on my lap and she didn’t want to so Owen piped up that he would. Well, of course then Katie had to!
I got this new outfit for Katie at Costco this morning. It’s technically a sporty (Adidas) outfit but it has a skirt so to her its a princess outfit. 🙂 She couldn’t wait for it to be washed, so here she is.
We took Maggie on a short walk at bus stop time because it was so nice!
She has been carrying around this scrap of paper and drawing on it for WEEKS (using a pen of Owen’s, of course).
This is what it looks like. She apparently likes making circles.
Tom usually has birthday party duty but since he’s gone it fell to me. And of course I had to take Katie as well—so it was her first trip to Chuck E. Cheese.
Fortunately, it wasn’t nearly as crazy as I thought it would be. Of course it was Chuck E. Cheese so it was a little bit crazy but overall it wasn’t bad.
Katie’s skee ball style:
The Clifford ride it was super tame and she looked pretty bored…so the next one moved more and she quickly said “DONE. DONE!!”
Then it was time for lunch and the birthday show (Chuck E. Cheese comes out). Katie was EXCITED. She’s saying “CHUCK E. CHEEEEESE!” 🙂
Redeeming tickets!
And then it was time to head home. This is the toy Owen picked—a tiny blow up sword (which she said was his favorite thing about the whole day, LOL).
And a mustache tattoo he got in his gift bag:
And these were the cards we had printed! (I think these were the best deal of the whole place—one card for one token!)
Both kids had a great time!
This is insane. I don’t think we ever got this many snow days in Michigan. Yeah yeah, it’s different down here. But still. Yeesh.
So, by morning (and after more drugs) I wasn’t quite as pissed about the snow and the kids wanted to go out…
But the novelty has still worn off—I only took about three pics and this was the best one. They were drinking from coconuts. 🙂
It was actually warm-ish and sunny so stuff was melting. But I still spent 45 or so minutes brushing off the car, shoveling the driveway (including the rest of the plowed-in entrance), clearing a path to the mailbox, and chipping ice off the sidewalk.
I’m so ready for winter to be over.