Toddler's Day Out With Gaa

 I took a day off and spent it with Aggie!

We started off visiting great grandma, my mother-in-law, and she gave us a tour of her nursing facility.  There are fun toys there and lots of space to run around, skip around, jump around.  And Aggie threw a plastic ax.  Stay out of her way!

After G-Grandma's, Aggie and I went to an indoor playland across town.  Since it was no school for that area of town, the place was hopping.  Aggie was a bit apprehensive to go down the big bouncy slide and only tried a few steps before chickening out and coming back to me.

She found one more her speed.

Her cute dress was impeding her efforts to climb the stairs inside a huge plastic tree, so we went and changed.  By that time, it was Bubble time and that made her a bit more brave to try things she hadn't yet.

She got about 6 steps up the bouncy slide before chickening out.

We're making progress!

She finally got brave enough to climb all the way up the huge plastic tree, of which I don't have a good pic.  Then she climbed across hanging rope tunnels.

I was so proud of how brave she was getting!

She finally found where the huge solid slides were and I JUST got to the bottom of them when she came hurdling down, bonking her head in the process... 

Poor thing!

She did NOT go down that a second time!  but cried for a while and went back to the bubbles for more strength.

She was still too bashful to go down the bouncy slide again, so I climbed up those hurtful little steps (at my weight, they truly hurt! I had to put my feet sideways to climb up them) and I went down it 3 times with her on my lap and two kids immediately behind us, who insisted on going down it so they could use me as a cushion at the bottom.

After 3 times, I said that if she wanted to go down again, she could do it herself and she did!

Notice her in front of a bunch of very patient kids who waited for her to climb it all by herself!

And those same kids went down immediately after her as she flew down the slides! Aggie went several more times enjoying it all immensely.

The lines for food there were really long and I was doubtful she'd even like the $10 chicken nuggets, so she and I said our goodbyes to a fun time and headed to Burger King nearby.

She initially said NO to a crown, but then while we were waiting for our food, she saw a family with lots of kids come in and all the kids grabbed a crown. "Gaa - hat!" You BET kid!  I got one too.

They had a kids playland at this BK and she refused to go climb in it.

ENOUGH ALREADY GAA!

She was only in it for the burger anyway.

Weekend Snake Guts

How would you like to come around the yard mowing and find this?!  

I must have caught it unawares while zipping around the apple tree...

I took the pic and sent it to Robb.  He texted back.  "We'll move."

Well, it's DEAD now...!  So we don't HAVE to!  I'll just protect us with the lawn mower.

On Friday, Leon and I went on an adventure and returned four of the mannequins from the grad party to their rightful owners.  I still have two left, but that lady lives a long ways away, so it will wait until the next sewing meeting.  We had some good conversations on the way but he mostly had his nose in his tablet...

He was mostly excited about the "fun place" that I promised that I'd take him.  When we got close to it, I realized that we'd been here before!  

He had been invited to a birthday party here back in preschool.    

He didn't remember and had a blast running all over the place.  I found a nice place to relax and realized that I should have charged my phone on the way down.  The percentage was at 8%...  sigh...  I got some pics in before it died.

 

 I dug out some quarters and he and I played some air hockey.  It was close...  Then later, he was playing with a boy and I found some more change.  He asked the boy to play it with him and then he got creamed.  I may have been holding back...  But Leon didn't care and was just excited to be playing the game with his new friend.

Loads more running around and bouncing and suddenly we'd been there an hour and it was time to take him to his mom's for the weekend.  darn.  I dropped him off and headed home.

My niece, Bethany, arrived the next morning and spent until this morning here with Meri.  They mostly avoided the house and spent money.  But they did play some board and card games with us in the evenings for a bit. 

I spent my free time sewing.  I made two pairs of black leggings and let the girls pick which ones they wanted.  Will make more of those now that I have Meri's size perfected!  Easy peasy!  Two hours later a new pair is done.

Meri was asked to sing with a small group of people for a funeral grave side service.  So right after church, she ditched us and ran home to practice with them in our living room.  I found that she DOES care what people think of our house!!  When we got home after lunch out with Bethany, she had done a bit more tidying...  Nice...  She's going to have to have more friends and their parents over more often...  She and a couple of the guys from the group have decided to start a new singing group called Dead Set.  Not sure if they're get a LOT of funeral gigs with that name, but I liked it.

Robb and I took Bethany to lunch at the pub where Ryan works.  It was early enough that we were the only customers there for almost 30 minutes, so Ryan was able to sit and visit a little.  He also brought us out some jalapeno cheddar balls to try out.  Oh...  those were delish!!!!

Bethany had to leave this morning, so she and Meri went to Meri's favorite coffee shop before she hit the road and Meri went to work.  I've got a TON of fettuccine noodles left over from Bethy's favorite meal last night and am wondering what to do with them.  

But not for lunch.  I have a lunch date with Ada today. :)

Making Babies and Nope, not sticking around

There was an early out on Wednesday so Meri and a couple of her friends came over to color eggs with Leon. 



He proposed to Jolie and when she refused to move in with him after they're married ( I think because of the age discrepancies), she left his ring here.  He was disappointed, but got over it quickly.

We now have 4 dozen (minus 2, I was hungry and they cracked) cholesterol bombs in the fridge.  

Or as Leon calls two dozen of them, his babies.  They WERE his and Jolie's babies, as they made them together...  but now they're just his.

There are rules about "Leon's babies"...

1) You can't eat them.

2) You can't put them in the fridge. BURR!

3) No one is allowed to hide or hunt them.

Yeah right...  We had a talk about that!

And all the rules are now stricken.

So last night, before Maundy Thursday service, he and I stopped at a local farm and country store and checked out their live baby chicks and baby ducks.  SO CUTE!!!  But you can't hold them.

bummer.

They had some cute little plush ones that you could buy nearby, so Leon opted for those.  You don't have to feed them and they don't poop! YAY!

AND you can still freak out your dad and grandpa by saying Grandma bought him a baby chick and a baby duck. True story!  "You DIDN'T buy him live animals, did you??!"

 

He has said that his two of his "babies" hatched now, so we can eat the rest of them after Easter.

whew!  That was going to be a waste of 2 dozen eggs!

So here is the progression of the snow fort.  

Robb liked to say, 

after we built this one, 

that you can judge 

a snow storm 

by it's forts.

Leon was disappointed by the above display of "fort"itude this morning, so before the bus came, he scrounged what snow we had left and made a new one.
 

 

 One of the remaining chunks may have been too much for him, 

 

but he was determined.

  And then the bus came.

So I would have to say that this past snow storm was a 2 fort storm.

Bubbles in the Snow

Leon's dad wasn't home yet when the boy got off the school bus, so he asked if he could play outside.  Okey dokey!  I discovered that my rake is missing...  So I couldn't do too much outside of picking up a little garbage that had flown into my landscaping.

 *mental note - buy a new rake*

He rode his trike down to his best friends around the corner.  He COULD have ridden his bike, but he said that it had flipped him over last time he rode it.  Good memory for only certain things... ;)

 

That's about when he found some bubble stuff under the sink.  So he blew bubbles for a while too.

Don't know if you can see the one bubble in the upper left corner of the pic below. 

Pay no attention to the dirt on my van...  

AND it starting snowing lightly.  It was no more than a dusting by this morning.  

I can PROBABLY put the snow blower away for the summer... 

*knock on wood*

 

I did a little more work-y work from the porch while he played.  A little bit later, he came up with a crushed, empty bottle of bubble stuff and a broken wand.  

"What happened to this?  Did you step on it?"

"I got mad because I spilled a little and the bubbles kept blowing away, so I threw it on the ground."

 

Well, that kills the fun, doesn't it?...

Toasting Dishes

 Sunday morning, Robb was out of town and I had a houseful of company to feed before they all scattered in opposite directions.  So I took my nursing home kitchen smarts and put them to work.  I made a pan of French toast and used the broiler to cook them all quickly.  Worked out pretty good but a couple pieces got a little too brown on one side.  My oven doesn't bake evenly...

Oh well.

Instead of sewing that afternoon, I spent three hours vegging and watching Netflix.  The weekend had worn me out.  THEN since Robb was still gone, I visited my bestie alone, attended a VERY short 4H meeting in place of Meri and then picked up the boy-child and brought him home.  Meri was off doing "play" stuff and Ryan was at work.  So after a quick supper, I let Leon play in the sandbox and we also planted some tomato plants and flower plants that I'd just picked up from the PTO plant sale Friday.

I didn't want them to die before I had a chance to plant them...  like last year.  and the year before.  Looking forward to some fresh tomatoes!!!

He got filthy happily and I enjoyed getting blossom pedals snowing on me.

 Also on Friday when I picked up the plants, I noticed that it was the city-wide garage sale in both towns. YAY!  Not that I had a lot of money to spend, but I've been looking for some more vases for the reception.  So I stopped at one, then texted one of my besties to creepily say that I'm going to drive past her house.  Lo and behold, that bestie's house had a garage sale too!  Her husband was manning it,  so I stopped.

Now she and I have been friends since Ryan was a baby, so 25 years...  I REMEMBER when she bought this enameled metal plate set from the Spiegel catalog...  She agonized for days before ordering it.   I have always admired them.  Aren't they pretty?!  A little beat up I suppose, but Meri has dibs on them for when she moves out.  I actually bought them with her in mind.

And to beat them up just a little more...  When Leon found out they were metal, he ran and got some magnets to test them out.  And then some wooden spoons to make a band.

and for your viewing pleasure...

We're hard on our dishes around here...

Litterbugs

The house is littered with candy wrappers.

Something is wrong with the laptop that the boy uses while I use the desk computer.  He's not happy.

I made homemade play dough yesterday for him in yellow and purple.  He had a blast and created for a long time.  After school, he hung out with Meri for a while.

Play dough recipe.

1 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

1/2 cup water

3 to 5 to 7 drops color

mix well using rubber gloves.  If too sticky, add a little more flour until it's not sticky anymore.  Use old play dough containers to store, or just seal up tight.

Late afternoon, a tow truck arrived. WOOHOO!!!  The eye sore parked in front of our house for the last six months was towed away!!!  We donated it to Locks of Love Teen Challenge.  It will be interesting to see how much we get to deduct from our taxes.  The last thing that car ever gave us...

Besides the dvd that I almost forgot to retrieve from the dvd player.  Oh and the plates that I almost forgot to grab.

It's OUTTA here!!!

Another car may be going soon too.  Our driveway looks like a used car lot.  I guess it has for the past several years, but there are too many that just don't move at all.

It's not good when the driveway is littered with cars.

Caution: Chalk Zone!

Anyone remember the Nick show Chalk Zone from like 2002? Me neither... The kids watched it on occasion but I keep getting it mixed up with Harold and the Purple Crayon...
Ryan brought home a friend on Monday night for dinner. She and Meri had a blast chalking up the driveway with Ryan entertaining them with his guitar. He's getting pretty good!
Then Maddy and Meri went out and colored it up some more yesterday afternoon when they got home from school.
Too bad it's supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow. It's been nice having the place decorated up!