Our First Pirate Game

The past week has been super crazy due to the Fall Fling (more on that later) so we ended up making the first home football game a family event. Usually Jeremy and I go as a date. We were all at the church preparing for the Fall Fling on Friday so we went out to eat with some friends of ours before the game. So we were talking about going to the game with Grace & Riley (Rillee is 3) After a quick meal at Taco Bell we headed home to change into our black & red. Luckily I had found a Pirate t-shirt in Grace's size at a yard sale last season for like a quarter. While we were getting ready Grace said the funniest thing! She asked me, "Mama, are there going to be games on this pirate ship we are going on?" It was so funny!!! She was completely confused but we had been talking about going to the Pirate game- so it was a good question! She also asked for a red thing in her hair like mine ( a bandanna). So all three of us wore matching ones. It was super fun, the kind of thing you dream about when you imagine having a family. The girls enjoyed the band, the cheerleaders, and the concession stand. But we only made it to half time. They are still little girls that needed to go to bed! It was a great memory.

A Full Weekend

Labor day weekend was full of fun for our family. I wish I could show you how much fun we had, but I forgot my camera!!! (this seriously about brought me to tears) Jeremy took Friday off from work so that we could have a little family trip. We left Friday after lunch to go to Fun City in Burlington, Iowa. We met my sister there. We had a free stay due to rewards points from bringing the youth group there. It has a huge arcade & indoor/outdoor waterpark. It was so much fun!!

Friday afternoon we went to the outdoor waterpark. There were about 20 people there so it was nice and quiet. Perfect for Grace & Faith. We floated around the lazy river and let them play in the special 1 ft. waterpark with slides. They loved the wave pool too. After swimming we went out to eat. We ended up in a restaraunt that was just a little too nice for toddlers. It took awhile for the food... (Fill in the blanks if you are a parent)

That night while the girls slept my sister and I snuck out to go shopping at Target. We had a blast. We ended up coming back to the hotel with a patio set (table & 4 chairs) for me, a coffee table for her, and two chairs for my mom. They were having a huge end of season clearance sale. I got a $500 set for about $120! Also, I got a bunch of early Chrsitmas presents. Did I mention we stopped to get Jeremy ice cream before I told him all the good deals I found at target?

The next day we checked out the indoor waterpark & arcade. Grace enjoyed "playing" the games even if we didn't pay. We were able to earn 100 tickets. We walked up to the counter and she said I want that pink bat. There was no changing her mind. It was 100 tickets! (yeah-one strong willed child battle avoided!)

Then we met Jeremy's family to take the girls on their first boat ride on the Mississippi River on Grandpa Rick's boat. It was an adventure. They were pretty uncertain at first. Faith hated the life jacket (it did seem to stangle her). We stopped at a sand bar. Grace wasn't a big fan of how dirty she got. So we eventually ended up back in the boat. We had a blow up pool we filled with clean water and they played in that on the boat. Then we went for a ride before eating at a restaraunt along the river. It was a very full day.

On Sunday Jeremy got up early (very early we had to be at church by 8) and made me breakfast so we could continue our tradition of eating our birthday breakfast on our china. I am still picking out my birthday present. I am getting a new camera!!! I am having a lot of fun shopping for it. We went to visit my family for my birthday. It was fun getting to see my famliy and spend time with them. My mom made me a birthday cake- and you just can't beat my mom's cake. Overall it was just the break we needed!

Rainbow Crayons

Filling the muffin tins & bread pan (for the rainbow crayon).

Can you tell she is having fun?
Watching to see what will happen.

The finished product- she drew with them for over an hour!

Yesterday Grace & I did a fun art project. We made rainbow crayons. I had noticed a lot of our crayons were broken and went ahead and bought her some new ones to add to her crayon tin when they were on the back to school special. So I have been wanting to clean out the broken pieces. I knew you could melt them down but just hadn't gotten around to it. So yesterday I got on the internet and did some searching. Grace really got into this project. She helped unwrap the crayons and put them in the tins. We did two different types. The easiest was just putting the pieces in muffin tins. The second was more difficult but by far her favorite! We lined up crayons in the order of the rainbow in a foil lined bread tin to make an crayon that actually makes a rainbow.

My suggestions if you wish to attempt this project:

1. Crayola crayons are the most difficult to unwrap but melt the best.

2. The Roseart crayons don't melt great-don't use them for the rainbow crayon. (ours is missing a yellow stripe because of how it melted)

3. Some directions say you don't have to use muffin tin liners. I wouldn't suggest this method as some crayon residue was left on the pans and was hard to get off!

Here is a link to directions for the rainbow crayon.

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/rainbow_crayon

When I first started doing these projects with Grace she was pretty little and they were more for me then her. But now she truly has fun- making it way more enjoyable!!

I have been doing a lot of evaluating lately. Our schedule has been so hectic and I constantly find myself spending my time on the urgent (what I HAVE to get done). 500 invitations for the Fall Fling at church, the laundry, all the cleaning jobs I neglected over the summer, etc. I say my priorities are the following: 1. My God 2. My Husband 3. My Girls. But it doens't always seem like that is where I spend my time... So it might be easy to see this blog and think,"Wow, what a neat idea; she must be a fun mom." But the truth of the matter is focusing on the to do list comes naturally to me. Jeremy is the one who excels at playing with the girls. I have to work at the fun carfree activities. Its not that I don't enjoy them-I LOVE them. I just have to discipline myself to let go of having everything in order and remember to spend my time where my heart is. So I'm thankful for moments when I totally focus in on my girls and make a memory like rainbow crayons.