Under The Dome

Also on our list of places to visit this summer was the Adventuredome. We FINALLY made it there last week:

It wasn't crowded at all, so the kids were able to walk onto almost every ride. Very nice!

 Some (a lot of) pics:







I love watching the video that the Adventuredome takes of the kids on the train rollercoaster. I never buy it, but visions of it are etched into my memory.



Megan lost her shoe on the pirate ship ride and I am sure annoyed all of the other Adventuredome patrons when they had to shut down the ride to get it for her. What a troublemaker.



Jackson, Liam and McKinna all decided to go on the Inverter, which I found to be a terrible error in judgment. That ride looks so scary I can't stand it!



Awfulness:



They are currently taking down the water ride (a favorite of the children) to make room for new roller coaster, and the Disco ride was broken (also a favorite), which were both disappointments, but all in all we had a wonderful time.

Bike Riding - Sadie Style

I have a theory that the sooner (in age) that you learn to bike ride, the better bike rider you will be and the more you will love it. It comes from countless (maybe one or two) observations I have made over the years (mostly in high school). My friends that learned to ride a bike later in life (like at 8, 9, or 10 years of age) were always more fearful and slower at bike riding than others who learned earlier (like me who learned at 4). See! It makes perfect sense. Right? :)

(Hopefully this is coming off as tongue in cheek?)

So I have drilled it into my kids that they must learn by no later than 5. I succeeded with the other two, but we were getting down to the wire with Sade (we only had 4 more months to go). In order to "motivate" her I may have even told her that it was LAW that you had to learn when you were five (sometimes I am hardcore). She didn't believe me, but she learned anyway!

Practicing:



Success:



More practicing:



More success:





Video:



My work here is done.

12 X 12 - August 2013

I started the day off by sleeping in (as I always do). I am going to go through serious withdrawals when school starts. Upon awakening, I had my breakfast/lunch meal, and then we got ready for the day.

Sade post shower:



Jackson and Sade always look at themselves in this mirror in my room while they brush their teeth. Weird.



Summer means lots of snacks around here. These strawberries were probably snack #4 for the day:



Meg and Sade doing a little floor lounging:



After lunch and house cleaning, Amy came and picked us up for one last visit to the Children's Museum before school starts. This is how Jackson generally exits her car:



After the museum we arrived home to discover that Eric was home early for work. It was Kids Eat Free night at Chili's, so we headed there for dinner. Sade had been extra ornery leading up to us leaving, so when she promptly fell asleep when we left the house we discovered the reason why:



Meg, Sade and Eric at dinner. The girls always sit next to Eric, and Jackson always sits next to me.



(FYI: You used to be able to get 2 free kids meals for every adult meal purchased, but they have now changed it to 1 free kids meal for every adult meal purchased. Whomp, whomp, whomp.)

After our early dinner we traveled the distance to Costco to check out their Vitamix. I want one so bad I can hardly stand it!



Upon arriving home we watched a little T.V. while having popsicles. I do not generally enjoy any kids related television, but I LOVE Good Luck Charlie. This was a new episode and I actually laughed out loud 4 times!



We have a new challenge this month to read all of the Hymns out of the Hymn book during the month of August, so after our popsicle snack we settled down to read them. I imagine that for many families this is a spiritual experience, but my kids end up laughing their guts out almost every night.  They crack up every single time the word bosom is mentioned, and it is mentioned a lot!



Before bed it was let's jump on dad time while he relaxes on the floor:



We have always lived on a quiet street with nice neighbors until about 6 months ago. It started off with large groups of kids hanging out, and then spread to rock throwing, lots of screaming, horrendous language, fighting and vandalism (cars and homes). At first we sort of ignored it, hoping it would go away, and not wanting to provoke any retaliation.  But now I am fed up, and decided to take it upon myself to save our street! I'm not going to take it anymore!

So this may come as a shock, but after we put the kids to bed I become a vigilante! I sit outside in the front yard, monitor all the children hanging out, tell them to be quiet, and then call the police if they get out of control.

I am a very imposing presence. No?



Last night was one of the nights that I ended up having to call the police. I usually don't stick around to see the outcome, but I am to the point that I want the kids to know I mean business so I stuck it out until the police arrived. It was gratifying seeing the kids being sent on their way home. I will prevail!

More Places Visited

Besides visiting Wet-n-Wild a few more times (I have really gotten my money's worth!) we also visited the Rio pool again with the Demille's  (thanks for the invite!). Last time the kiddie pool was too hot, and this time it was too cold. Is there not a happy medium?

I love that they have sand:



We spent the majority of our time in the middle pool that felt like warm bath water. We have become cold water wimps!



Sade's amazing sand splits ability:



Which she definitely did not inherit this from me. I am most likely a member of least flexible 5% of the earths population.

We stayed a few hours, and Sadie was "dying" of hunger. It showed:



We also visited the Children's Museum once again. It was very, very busy, but we still got to see everything we wanted to. It was a very exciting visit for all of us because they had finally installed the wind tunnel!





Other exhibits: