- First, at the end of February, I got really sick with a nasty stomach bug. I was out of commission with it for about two days, and it left me weak and not myself for about a week after. The real tragedy is that I no longer enjoy the taste of my long-time favorite cookie, the Samoa/Caramel DeLite Girl Scout cookie, because I'd been eating those just before I got sick. This same thing happened last year with their peanut butter patty cookies ("Tagalongs"), and they still don't taste good to me a year later. Maybe this is nature's way of getting me to back off from the Girl Scout cookies, one at at time, year by year. While that may be a good thing, I don't think I like it very much. I love Girl Scout cookies, darn it!
- Next was John's 7th birthday party with his friends on March 3rd. I don't particularly enjoy planning creative birthday parties for my kids; instead, my style is to have it at a fun place of my son's choosing, supervise the kids playing at the chosen place, and provide lunch and the cake. Voila! It's simple and doesn't require an over-exertion of creativity or time on my part. That works for me. And more importantly, it works for John!
Check out that cake! Needless to say, he loves Angry Birds. (Also needless to say, I didn't make the cake.)
This is just a cute picture of John the next morning with his newly added to collection of Angry Birds, as well as Sharkie, his class mascot that we had as a guest in our home for a few days while John was the Star Student of the week in his class that week.
- Next, we got our wills done, which I think is rather creepy and morbid. Our boys are now officially "heirs" and will be taken care of should we die an early death. It is my fervent hope that getting our wills done will not turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, at least not for a long, long time.
- Then was John's actual birthday on March 8th, when my little boy turned seven. I can't believe he's seven!
I wrapped all of his gifts and set them out on the table the night before.
Also the night before his birthday, I hung these streamers over his bedroom door after he went to bed as a fun surprise for when he woke up in the morning.
We had tacos for dinner at John's request. It's one of his favorite meals. My mother always made us whatever we wanted for dinner on our birthdays and I'm continuing the tradition. (Fortunately for me, my kids tastes haven't gotten too fancy yet!)
And look! I made the cake this time!
- After all of the birthday excitement was the excitement of Spring Break! We went to a really fun indoor water park resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin for a few days, which is about 3-1/2 hours north of us. It's called Kalahari and it's the largest indoor water park in the state. We had a great time! John was so sad the day we had to leave. I kind of was too, to be honest. I love vacations. We told him that maybe we'll go back there for a long weekend in the fall. We had lots of fun.
John loved climbing across the "lily pads."
Sam would wake up each morning saying "waterslide" and couldn't wait to get to the water, but once there, he would exercise an abundance of caution and wouldn't even go down the little slides without me grabbing him and taking him down against his will.
Kalahari has a long, awesome lazy river that connects to their wave pool and they also have a good one in the kid's area.
The wave pool:
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There's also an indoor theme park at Kalahari that has an awesome ropes course where you're attached to a carabiner so that you don't fall to your death or a painful injury should you lose your balance. You get really high up off the ground on the second level. John did this three times! He is fearless. I went once with him. It was a little scary crossing skinny ropes up so high, but I couldn't get too scared because my child wasn't!
Sam had fun toddler-style. I like how this picture of him on the swing ride is all blurry except for him.
We did some other fun things, like pet an adorable baby lion and eat lunch at a restaurant where a little train delivered the food and drinks to our table, which Sam loved. And I tried something new and got a mud body wrap at the resort's spa. It was a great trip!
- When we got home, we were welcomed with warm and mild weather. It felt like early summer, which is very unusual in March. It was awesome! We had a nine-day stretch of temperatures in the 70s and 80s, and it broke records. Buds are opening up, flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, and Sam got a sunburn on his arms. In March! It's crazy but I love it.
I call this our "Popcorn popping" tree.
- St. Patrick's Day is a must because I have Irish ancestry and therefore so do my children. Thanks to Pinterest (have I mentioned before how much I love that site?), I got creative and crafty for it for the first time ever. My kids made rainbows out of Froot Loops and we played a fun "Things that are green" Bingo game and another game that I found on Pinterest.
And of course we wore green and drank green milk for breakfast (and I bought a box of Lucky Charms for breakfast, which in conjunction with the Froot Loops made for quite the sugary weekend at our house. Usually we eat Cheerios, Chex, and Frosted Mini Wheats!).
- And last but not least, John won his Cub Scout Pack's Pinewood Derby race, thanks to the help of a talented, helpful friend who helped Peter cut the wood and put the car together. This Saturday it will race at the regional tournament. Go John! Or rather, go John's car!
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| Look at that grin. He was so happy to be the "Grand Champion"! |
Wow, that was a long post! The way I see it, I just wrote at least three or four blog posts in one. Now I don't have to write again for awhile, right? Ha ha, just kidding. Stay tuned this week for some exciting news that I have to share with you about lipstick! (Yes, lipstick.)
