More Water Parks

This time to the park out in Derby. I went with a friend, because I was afraid it'd be too much for me to handle alone, but it turned out that it wasn't that bad. (In fact, my friend didn't help at all!) The older two girls went off and did water slides and the lazy river, and the younger two were content to play in the playhouse/splash park. And Megan was even willing to watch Kristen for a bit while I took Alison on the lazy river a couple of times. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and while it was crowded (it was 100 degrees yesterday, and a LOT of people had the same idea as us; I can't imagine the park on a weekend!) it wasn't unmanageable. Unfortunately, though, being there by myself means that all the pictures I got were from the first few minutes there, before we really got started. And there's no water slide pictures... then again, there's always next time. Because we enjoyed it enough that there will be a next time.

It took Kristen a long time to get warmed up (no pun!) to the park. She didn't want to do anything, she didn't want to be splashed, she didn't want to leave my side. After a while, though, she did give in to the fun of it all, and had a grand time. I just didn't get any of those pictures...


I chased Megan around the lazy river trying to get a picture. The lazy river was a lot of fun. It was a fast moving river, with three waterfalls to go under. Megan went down every single water slide they had and only found one she wasn't willing to go one more than once. (Even she has her limits, and this one was really scary!) I wish I could have gotten a picture of that.


They had these animals floating in the middle of the pool to climb on. Alison loved them, and spent most of her time climbing on and falling off of them.


Caitlyn, in the splash park playhouse.


Caitlyn and Alison, behind one of the waterfalls. The other picture I wished I could have gotten is of the girls getting dumped by the HUGE bucket of water that turned over on top of the house every 5 minutes or so. That would have been fun.

Ah well. Next year!

An Aspiring

Actress? Musician? Diva?

Caitlyn said Kristen insisted on being filmed!

You Guessed It

More books:

46. Violet on the Runway, Melissa Walker
47. The Coming of Dragons, A. J. Lane
48. The Battle for Skandia, John Flanagan
49. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
50. Sabriel, Garth Nix
51. Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeline L'Engle

Girls Photo Shoot 2008

I like getting new pictures of the girls. Sure, I'm probably too controlling with the whole thing... but I know our parents like the pictures and I have to admit, I do like something nice (rather than just cute or fun) to go on my wall. After the experience yesterday, though, I'm wondering why the heck I think I can do it my way, when the girls will probably just do whatever they want in the end!

Kristen was the big stinker. I had something planned for the clothes -- yellow, pink and brown -- and we even went out and bought Caitlyn a new shirt to go with a skirt she had so she could coordinate. Well, yesterday morning came, and Kristen flat out refused to put on the yellow dress. "Flat out refused" meaning kicking and screaming on the floor and hiding under the bed... So, last minute, I had to re-think and scrounge for a color scheme to go with what Kristen would wear.

Then... (after much screaming before we left because Alison wasn't sharing the Lego babies... what a morning!) she decided that she didn't want to get her pictures taken AT ALL. The photographer took pictures of Megan, Caitlyn and Alison, and STILL Kristen didn't want to. The only thing (we eventually figured out) that would even entice her to sit in the relative area as her older sisters was a huge rubber ducky that they had. Thankfully, we were able to crop the duck out of the pictures...

On top of all that (!), Alison was squirreley and wouldn't listen (she kept sliding on the backgrounds, and not cooperating), and Megan and Caitlyn in their eagerness to help with Kristen kept thwarting the photographer's plans. I kept saying to myself, "We only need one. We only need one." Over and over... (the zen of photo shoots...)


At least I only do this once a year!

Swimming at the Y

The Northwest Branch of the local YMCA opened up two summers ago (right when we moved here), and the girls have been dying to go swimming there ever since. But, we've never joined up and it wasn't until the Austins moved here that we found someone willing to sponsor us for an afternoon at the pool.

We found when we got there, though, that's is a really fun place for the older kids. Megan was gone on the two water slides almost immediately. (And I hardly saw her the rest of the two hours we were there!) The real amazing thing, though, was that Caitlyn (who has hated waters slides in the past) actually went down both slides! (The second -- where you went down on an inner tube, she went down very last, after I said I was going to go down, too...)


As for the little girls, Alison liked the lazy river, especially the part where we went through and got dumped on. Kristen wasn't too hot on that part, and after the second time around on the tubes, she protested. Loudly.



Then there was the one slide that the little kids could go down... which Alison did. Kristen, though, would have nothing to do with it.

All she wanted to do was jump off the side of the deep(er) end of the pool.

At least we all had fun!

More of Megan's Books

38. Princess in Training, Meg Cabot
39. The Sight, David Clement-Davies
40. The Rule of Won, Stefan Petrucha
41. Princess in the Spotlight, Meg Cabot
42. Sweet 16 Princess, Meg Cabot
43. Erec Rex and the Monsters of Otherness, Kaza Kingsley
44. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle
45. A Wind at the Door, Madeline L'Engle

The Great Plains Nature Center

Back when we lived in Arkansas, we often found ourselves at the Craighead County Nature Center for an afternoon -- we loved the combination of education, nature, and wild open spaces. That, and it made for a good Sunday afternoon outing. It's been a while since we've been to a nature center; I knew there was one here, but had never made the effort to go out to it (it's across town). So, using the Adventure Challenge as an excuse, I suggested having playgroup out there today. We had a fairly good sized turnout, and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Well, mostly. The center itself is nice: lots of good information on both the Arkansas (say it with me: AR-kan-saw!) River and the Great Plains -- both the animals, and natural environment. It lacked the fun kids area of the one in Arkansas, but otherwise, it was a good little center.

After we had exhausted the inside options, we headed out to the trails. They were really nice: sidewalks through the woods, actually, not natural at all. But, there were several large ponds/small lakes that had an abundance of ducks, fish, other birds, and turtles, much to the girls' (and other kids) enjoyment. Unfortunately, Alison had a couple of mishaps: a wasp stung her hand (thank heavens she's not allergic; it hurt for a while, but someone managed to find an ice pack that helped take the sting away) and then fell down on the trail and scraped up both knees. Other than that, though, it was uneventful and nice.

It turned out to be a bit hot today -- 85 degrees when we left at 11:30 this morning -- to really enjoy the walks outside, but I think it'd be really nice to go back in the fall sometime. I'm glad we went.

This is Getting to Be a Trend Around Here

Before:


After:

One story from the trip. The stylist looked at Alison and said, "Aren't you just like Strawberry Shortcake: red hair and freckles." Alison said,"I don't have red hair. My big sister Megan has red hair. Mine is brown."

A Picture's Worth 1,000 Words

Kind of makes you wonder what they are, though.

Early Birthday

We asked Grandma Fox to help Megan out with bedding for her new bed as a birthday present. I suppose we could have wrapped it when it came, and then waited until her birthday, but we really kind of needed the bedding now... so, we let Megan open up the packages. The sheets, blanket, and pillow came first, but the quilt was on back order. She checked for packages every day for three weeks, and it came on the ONE DAY she didn't check.

She's very happy to have the pretty bedding now. Thanks Grandma!

Kit: The Movie

I'm went to see Kit: A American Girl with my friend Rachel. It was really good!!! We spent 8.50 popcorn, soda, and M&Ms. I was put out when they invented a plot and a character that wasn't in the books! They changed the plot where Kit's family got robbed, and that made me angry. Though the whole movie I'm was telling But other than all that it was really good! I liked the way that put all the books together into one. Though Chairly was really inportant in one of the books, and you never saw him that's o.k. I really hope someday YOU can see it!!!

Megan's Books this week

34. Firebringer, David Clement-Davies
35. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
36. Austenland, Shannon Hale
37. Parliament of Blood, Justin Richards

A smaller week this week, but those are some pretty hefty books.... She also started The Sword of Shanarra, but abandoned it because "it was just a Lord of the Rings ripoff".

Happy 4th!

We had a whopper of a day! It started early with the breakfast at the church -- which was more snacks than anything else -- and a flag raising ceremony. The girls had friends over for a bit, and then we went to the bishop's house for a BBQ (forgot the camera). It was BYO meat, but he made grilled pineapple for everyone (interesting -- warm pineapple with cinnamon) and I had many takers for the tried-and-true-but-my-family-won't-eat-it Patriotic Pie. The girls got incredibly dirty playing in the sand, and I'm not sure Alison ate much besides one hot dog and one brownie (this is important for later!). After that, we went swimming (pools were free!)...

both Alison and Kristen crashed when we got home. A couple hours later, Alison woke up with a screaming headache (literally), and I gave her some medicine before I remembered she'd had food. I managed to get some peaches down her, but those came back up. We did it right: got her some 7-up, and saltines and a cold washcloth and she felt better after a little while. Which is a good thing, because she desperately wanted to go see fireworks.

Thankfully, she was feeling up to it, so we piled in the car around 9:20 and drove to the Exploration Place, found a place to park (it was packed), crossed the street, climbed the hill and enjoyed a very nice view of the fireworks at the ballpark. Not super-great, but good enough. Alison and Kristen both loved it. And aside from a trip to an obliging tree (for both Caitlyn and Alison), it was uneventful. We got home at a reasonable hour (only 10:40!) and everyone crashed. What a day!!

Mmmmm....Candy!

We went to the candy stores this week, on Thursday instead of Friday (due to the holiday!). We started at Farris Wheel, since it was the furthest east.

It was a cute little shop, adjacent to a restaurant. And they were pretty good with samples and the girls. We were the only ones in the store for a while, so the girls had the run of the store.

We got a few little things -- some Spanish Peanuts for Megan, Jelly Bellys for Alison and Kristen and some fudge for Caitlyn.

We were excited, and thought it was a neat place, but that was before we got here (notwithstanding that we thought the fudge from Farris Wheel was too sweet and a bit grainy):

It's a fairly large warehouse just east of downtown, and they have a HUGE selection of candies. And they were SO much better about their samples and dealing with the girls. One salesperson, in particular, made it her mission to find Caitlyn something she liked (especially after I said no to buying M&Ms).

She gave Alison a chocolate covered peanut, I think. Alison doesn't like peanuts in her chocolate...

We found some really YUMMY stuff there. Caitlyn settled for mint-chocolate malt balls (which were really good), and I picked up some red apple caramels (think caramel apples in candy form) and some cashew butter toffee (which Russell LOVED!) I think we can safely say 1) we know what we're getting people for Christmas and 2) we found a new place to buy candy!

Thwack

Before:


After:

She donated 11 inches to Locks of Love! And she says, "It makes me want to smile with my mouth open." Though she also says it's "weird" and that she "feels naked."

Swim Lessons

Today was the last day (well, for Alison... Megan and Caitlyn's last day is tomorrow) of swimming lessons. They all had a grand time... especially Alison. She's crazy in the water, and a pretty good swimmer for a 4 1/2 year old!

Caitlyn was busy making friends. Oh, and she did some swimming, too.

Megan got "stuck" doing the front crawl over and over, mostly because her back crawl is better and she needs to ... practice! Oh, the horrors!

Poor Kristen got the rum end of the deal, though. She really wanted to go "wim" every time we went to the pool, but she's too young. Next year, though.

There are a few more pictures up at Flickr.

Megan's Books for The Past Week

20. Rapunzel's Revenge, Shannon and Dean Hale
21. The Princess Bride, William Goldman (Thanks, Grandma! She loved it!)
22. Millie's Remarkable Journey, based on books by Martha Finley
23. Millie's Faithful Heart, based on books by Martha Finley
24. Millie's Steadfast Love, based on books by Martha Finley
25. Millie's Grand Adventure, based on books by Martha Finley
26. Millie's Reluctant Sacrifice, based on books by Martha Finley
27. Millie's Fiery Trial, based on books by Martha Finley
28. The Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. LeGuin
29. The Farthest Shore, Ursula K. LeGuin
30. The Exiles, Hilary McKay
31. The Exiles at Home, Hilary McKay
32. The Exiles in Love, Hilary McKay
33. Sovay, Celia Rees

(And she re-read a few dragon books. See what I mean about keeping her in books?)