Funderland

Today we went to Funderland in Land Park. I haven't been there since I was twelve or so, and it looks pretty much like it looked back then...as in, they probably haven't painted the place or done much upgrading or updating to it since 1990. The boys had a TON of fun, but as an adult, you can't help but notice that it is missing a lot of its original luster. We visited there today intending on checking it out to see if it would be a good place to hold Sutton's birthday party next month. I'm still undecided, but leaning towards not...the kids will love it, but the place is pretty run down, and even though the rides were in fine working order, you sort of get the feeling that they're on their last legs.


The first ride they went on were the teacups. I remember that back in the day they had a Tilt-a-Whirl, but I guess they've since replaced it with teacups.


I was actually kind of glad that their section wasn't spinning very much since we'd just eaten lunch!

Next they went on the log flume. This was the longest line that they had to wait in (about 10 minutes) since the ride only runs 4 people at a time.

Splash! Unlike the bigger version of this ride, the kids didn't really get wet except for a bit on their shoes (yay!).

As always, they both loved riding the old time cars

The airplane ride was next

It was also a big hit! Huge smiles all around :)

Next they decided to tackle the dragon coaster. Sawyer was beyond excited, but Sutton wasn't really sure what to think about it. Sawyer was telling him that it might be a "tiny bit scary" but that they were going to have fun!

Going up...

...and coming down...Sawyer is LOVING it...looks like Sutton is doing okay with it...

...or maybe not! By the second trip around the track his knuckles were white, and he was completely ready to get off! Poor guy was SO scared - he was crying and saying "I don't want to ride that dragon. It's TOO scary!" :( He's definitely going to be waiting at the bottom of the thrill rides with me while Mitch & Sawyer ride them.

We decided to calm our nerves and settle our tummies with a mellow train ride.

Sawyer & Mitch wanted to take another spin on the rollercoaster, so Sutton and I hit up the carousel. He still doesn't want to ride the horses, but he loves to sit on the bench. I have to admit that this thing spun way faster than I thought it was going to! By the end of the ride I was totally nauseous again - yick!

We finished off the day with a couple of rainbow snowcones, a bag of popcorn, and a nice long drive home so the kids could both squeeze in a nap. It might not be the fanciest place for a birthday party (though there were plenty of them going on while we were there), but it was a really great way to spend a few hours with the family on a Saturday afternoon.

Park Picnic

Friday was another gorgeous sunny day, and Holly and I both had the day off with all of our kids at home (for once!), so we decided to take a picnic lunch to Wesley Park. We took the kids' bicycles and scooters, and they had a blast riding around all the pathways there while Holly and I chit chatted and got some sun. It was a beautiful day, and it was so perfect to get to spend it outside with our best buddies!

St. Patrick's Day Shirts

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Yesterday the boys and I made some fun shamrock shirts to get into the St. Patty's spirit. We picked up the following supplies at Joann's: green t-shirts (on sale for $2.50 each), compressed sponges (2-pack on clearance for $1.25) and a bottle of lime green acrylic craft paint ($1.00). Total spent = less than $10 for 3 shirts



This is what a pack of compressed sponges looks like. They come two to a pack and are about as thick as two pieces of cardstock, so you'll have to use some sharp or heavy duty scissors to cut them. I printed out two different shamrock shapes that I found online, and then had the boys drop them into water. Sawyer at first was skeptical and asked "why?" but they were thrilled when they discovered that the paper turned into sponges. They even wanted to hydrate all of my little leftover scraps! Put some newspaper inside your shirt so that the paint won't bleed through, and then let the kids stamp it up!







They are SO proud of their shirts and have been showing them off all around town and at the park today. The size small shirts are actually a size 6/8, so they will be able to wear them next year (and probably the year after that as well) - not too bad price-wise if you think about it that way!


I even made one for myself since I'm running out of things that fit over my expanding baby belly :)


We played with the shamrock matching file folder game that I made last St. Patrick's Day. It's amazing to see how their skills have progressed in a year! Last year they had some trouble and a little confusion with a couple of very similar patterns, but this year they were done with this before I could even get the next project out of the cupboard!

Soccer

Last night was a beautiful evening, so Sutton and I tagged along to go watch Mitch & Sawyer's Daddy-and-Me sports class. This week they were working on soccer skills (in previous weeks they've done baseball and basketball).





Sawyer liked all the warm up running drills, but when it came time to actually play soccer he was a little underwhelmed with it all. Mitch said that's the way he's been with most of the classes, which surprised me because Sawyer is constantly telling me how much fun it is and asking me "is it sports class day yet?" Let's just say that if this class were a baseball game, he'd have probably been the kid who laid down in the outfield and picked grass instead of playing :)

He did like the part where they actually got to shoot goals though!

Sutton, on the other hand, was SOOO into soccer! He kept asking if he could go join the class, and when we told him that he had to be four to play soccer, he kept pouting and saying "I can be four. I can be bigger." Truly, he probably would have fit in with the other kids in the class just fine, but since the class is for 4-5.5 year olds, he's going to have to wait another year before he can try it. Luckily there were some extra soccer balls laying around, so we had plenty of time to kick it around with each other. He's really good! I definitely think that Sutton is going to be our athlete...maybe Sawyer can try something like guitar lessons next time :)

Once it started to get dark and the mosquitos came out, we put away the soccer ball, and Sutton helped me take this picture of the cool cloudy sunset on the hill above us.

Park Fun

Yesterday we headed outdoors to enjoy the sunshine with some frozen yogurt and a trip to the park. It's supposed to be in the low 70's this week - yay! I'm SO ready for some warm sunshine around here!




Sutton has gotten really good at throwing a frisbee (even though he throws it backwards!) - I guess it's all that Wii frisbee practice!

Nothing like rolling down a grassy hill to...well, grass stain your clothes and make you dizzy ;)

We stopped to watch an older boy practice baseball batting with his parents. Sawyer & Sutton were so enthralled with it - they can't wait until next summer when they'll both be old enough to do t-ball together.

Tandem slide riding with Daddy

Apple Cinnamon Strudel Muffins

Sutton and I made up another delicious recipe this morning. This time we decided to do something with the Granny Smith apples that have been sitting untouched on our counter all week - Yum! This recipe is a result of several other recipes combined...something y'all know I love to do! The apple prep took waaaay longer than I thought it would, but I suppose I should just look into purchasing myself a food processor so I don't have to waste another hour with a hand grater and a bunch of apple slices (remind me of this again when I go try to shred potatoes by hand to make latkes too!).

Ingredients:

2 c. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. white sugar

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. milk

1/4 c. applesauce

3 c. apples - I did 1/2 shredded and 1/2 chopped. You can use whatever kind of apples you have on hand.

1/3 c. packed brown sugar

1 tbsp. flour

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. melted butter

Directions:

* Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease muffin pan or use muffin liners {note: this recipe is supposed to make 12 muffins, but it made 16 for me and could have easily made 18 if I didn't fill them up so high}

* In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

* In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and blend until smooth. Mix in vanilla, milk and applesauce. Stir in the apples and gradually blend in the flour mixture.

* In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon until well combined and all lumps are gone. Add melted butter until you have a course crumbly mixture.

* Spoon muffin mixture into muffin tins and top with the strudel mix.

* Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Sutton-isms: A Collection of Quotes

Sutton is about to turn 3 next month, and he's at the age right now where the stuff that comes out of his mouth is usually hysterically random. Here are a few of the things he's said in the past week that have made me laugh out loud...

"This yellow lemonade is SO good for my brain. It makes me think better. You know why, Mommy? Cause it's YELLOW." (He has trouble with his Ls though, so it sounds more like "This weh-woah wemmin ade...")

"My stomach is kind of like a bunk bed. Mmhmm."

"Mommy, can you pleeeeeeeeeease make me pepperoni muffins. I don't like blueberries."

Sutton: "Mom...Mom...Mom! Mooooom! Mommmmmmmmmmy!!!"
Mom: "Yes, Sutton?"
Sutton: "Waterfalls don't talk, okay?"

Sutton: [devouring a ham and cheese omlette] "These eggs are TERRIBLE!" [shovels in another huge bite]
Mom: "Why do you think they're terrible? They taste good to me."
Sutton: "They're yellow. I want green eggs and ham. Yellow eggs are so terrible. Green eggs make me want to do breakdancing. "
[we had green eggs and ham last week for Dr. Suess's birthday...I don't remember celebrating with any breakdancing though!]

11 Week Ultrasound

It still doesn't look like much at this point, especially because this is one SUPER squirmy little baby - he/she was flailing their arms and legs around so much that we were lucky to get any kind of picture that wasn't just a complete blur! This was taken literally one second before the little bean pulled their arms and legs in and turned it's back side towards us. The heartbeat was holding steady at 162 bpm. Hopefully by the time we have our next ultrasound we'll be able to know if it's a girl or a boy!

Strikes Bowling

Today our family took a spontaneous trip to Strikes Bowling. It's been a long time since we've gone, and the boys were SO excited to see if they were as good at real bowling as they are at Wii bowling. They remembered pretty quickly that a real bowling ball, even the lightest six-pound ball, is an entirely different experience!

A real bowling ball goes MUCH slower down the lane...in fact, sometimes it even stops midway down the lane if you don't throw it hard enough :)

The boys had a lot of fun despite the fact that our ball return kept breaking down on us - seriously, all of the balls got stuck after EVERY frame from the 4th frame onward. We had to call the tech guys every four minutes to clear the jam, and eventually our lane just shut off completely halfway through the ninth frame. We were all pretty tired at that point, so we went and politely complained to the manager and ended up with free passes for our next visit - score!

I'm still looking and feeling rather green and nauseous, but it was nice to get out of the house for a change. I've been missing out on all the family fun these past few weeks, so I was really glad to get out there and have some fun with my three favorite guys ♥

Gettin' Crafty

The boys have been hating the fact that my pregnancy sickness has left me with no energy or desire to set up any fun craft projects for them lately, so they were thrilled when I came up with this spontaneous collage project the other morning (during one of my brief moments of feeling okay-ish).


First I gave them each a blank shamrock that I cut out of green construction paper. I am horrible at free-handing shapes, so I used this image as my guide: SHAMROCK


I found a great use for my Tupperware chip n' dip container. I filled each section with different green materials - split peas, foam stickers, green paper in various shades, spangles, sequins, pom poms and cut up bits of pipe cleaners. I also included green paint chips and a hole punch in case they wanted to make their own green dots (Sawyer ended up using this almost the entire time).


The boys got out the glue and started assembling their collages.


Easy peasy St. Patrick's Day decorations! Sawyer's is on the left, Sutton's on the right.

Sawyer was thrilled to be in crafting mode, so that afternoon we painted the pirate ship birdhouse that his Aunt Kari got him for his birthday.




He was very insistent that pirate ships are "only black and red and just a little tiny bit of other colors."



It was nice to get back into our creative groove, and I hope that I'll be having lots more good days in the near future. I'm SO ready to be back to my normal self again (11 weeks tomorrow!)!