Fascinating (Freaky?) Food Friday

The kids have been in gymnastics camp all week (well, C's is technically "Gymnastics, Trampoline, Acrobatics, and Cheer Camp" and B's is "Parkour Camp"!) from 9am-3pm.  Yes indeedy: that means the BG and I have enjoyed not one but TWO days of spending time together out on the town!  [too many things going on this week to get more than 2 day dates out of it, but we'll take it!]

Monday morning, we had to kill some time in a shopping center where the only store open was a gourmet market.  Now that we've wandered through, I know exactly where to go for any future international food item needs-- the selection was pretty incredible!   I'm not sure I'll be returning for this particular product, however:

Got the snails themselves in the can at the bottom and then the shells all lined up to stuff!  Ooh la la and magnifique!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Downtown Dining

I needed to go downtown yesterday for a meeting and, instead of going out to lunch, we walked out of the building and found a lineup of 15 food trucks!

(Not the greatest angle because it's slightly less-than-professional to be "hey, let me take a pic of these trucks!" when with other people!!)

In any case, the variety of cuisines was almost overwhelming.  I was really tempted to get Ethiopian since that's not in our usual rotation, but I'd been thinking about Asian noodles all morning so I went with the Vietnamese food truck (not to be confused with the Pho one, which there also was) and had vermicelli noodles with slow-roasted pork.   Oh, and then we went to the pie (!!!) truck and that's some lemon chess deliciousness:

Would you like to know which food truck had the longest line by many, many, many people??!  Uh, that would be the Chik-fil-A mobile truck.  So bizarre to me that people choose to wait in a line of 30+ people in the blazing sun--in work clothes!--for C-f-A but whatever!  Shorter lines for us elsewhere!

Wordless Wednesday

Sweet and Similar!

This wee lass was pretty excited to get her own awards at the end of the Pre-Team swim season last Friday:

Last summer, she wouldn't even touch her face to the water.  The times we went to the pool, she'd want to wear a floatie and just kinda bob around.  Flash forward to now:  she's always wearing goggles, going underneath and around, up and down...and can even swim a bit of a freestyle stroke across the pool!   Amazing!

We celebrated a successful pre-team season by....going to swim some more with Miss O who was looking pretty familiar!

Technical Difficulties

Our internet/cable provider is having some issues.  We were without service off and on all weekend--which was TOTALLY frustrating since I had planned to get a lot of work done.  I guess I figured service is kind enough to follow the calendar and the fact that all was well by last evening meant that it was good to go as the workweek got underway...but at 6:44 this morning, as I was typing an email, it went out again.

I'm using data on my phone to post this message and I'm realllllly close to maxing out my data thanks to an unfortunate accidental software update while away from the house!  So I'm not going to upload a pic in an effort to make it to Wednesday's start of a new billing cycle.

In other news, we didn't melt over the weekend in the 100+ heat index, so that's good.  Hope you all have a great Monday! 

Taking Advantage

While the B-man has been enjoying his week of camp/college, Miss C has been going to the last week of pre-team swim practice each morning.  They never have practices on Thursdays, however, so yesterday was a free morning and, in my estimation, perhaps the LAST chance we would have the opportunity to do something with "just her" for who knows how long!?!?

So...what did she want to do?

BUY NAIL POLISH!!

She also has been asking for a scooter and since, frankly, it's a novelty to have a child who wants to be outdoors and active--not to mention that she has only had hand-me-downs so far, we were happy to find a (PINK!) one on sale, as well as a (PINK!) helmet that can be decorated with wipe-off markers:

Couldn't even wait to go somewhere else to check it out!

Later in the evening, after an hour of splashing around, they changed their clothes and attended the Dive Team Banquet.  Mr. B is quite proud of his medal (engraved with his name)...and that Frog cupcake is pretty cute, too!

The coaches also gave him an award for being the "Ladder Lingerer," aka the one who tries to loiter in the water instead of getting out to try another (potentially scary) dive.  I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE HE WOULD GET THAT TRAIT. 

Happy Friday!   :-)

Throwback Thursday

Grandma (BG's mom) sent an anniversary card to us last week that featured a bonus enclosure.  Apparently, during some recent house cleaning, she found a very-yellowed-with-age piece of paper with a to-do list for an event to follow 9 months later:

The best part, at the very bottom of the list:

Sure glad we got that all figured out!

Here's Joe Cool

Anybody remember this gem from almost exactly a year ago?

Well, now it's REALLY HAPPENING:

Through a relatively random internet search last spring, I discovered that the local community college runs youth programs in the summer.  They have a class this week about Stop-Action Movie Making using Lego figures.  Um-- yes, please for Mr. B.

So he now goes to.......COLLEGE.    And he's loving it!

TOTALLY (silly) TUESDAY

I knew I shoulda broken up yesterday's post into two days o' material because there's slim pickings on evidence of recent adventures.

Perhaps this girl will give you a laugh?

The Sweetest Place on Earth

You know what makes having to postpone an adventure better?  Booking a suite for the new date that includes a big ol' whirlpool in the corner of the living room:

Since I'm not a fan of a) crowds, b) heat, or c) wasting money, we had purchased tickets for "Sunset" admission from 5pm until the park closed at 10pm.  We got to town at 2pm, however, so the kids went for a quick soak and then we headed to the free tour at Chocolate World:

Best part of the ride?  When they pump in the smell of chocolate!

Posing with the Reese's dude:

Then it was on to the park itself where we ran into quite the quandary at the height station:

Hershey?  Twizzler?  Hershey?  Twizzler?

I would have said Hershey to be safe, but he and the BG gave a "Twizzler Ride" a chance and had no problem getting on.  Twizzlers can go on ANY RIDE so...guess who went on TEN different roller coasters??  (It truly is amazing how many thrill rides this park has!)

(Little sister was no slouch, either-- she even went on a looping coaster!)

We went on some rides all together and some in various combinations.  I had said ahead of time that, as much as I hate wasting money, I still have and treasure some "official" pics from parks we visited when I was a kid, so I would purchase one commemorative shot.   The winner:

The crowds were soooo low which was DELIGHTFUL and also helped, most likely, by the fact the forecast didn't look great.  It did finally start raining about 6:20 and all the rides shut down for an hour or so.  We hung out under a covered coaster loading area for awhile and then finally decided to go get some dinner.  Someone wanted to make use of a "puncho":

We ate sitting ON the table because, otherwise, the rain running off the sides of the table umbrella hit right on our backs!

It cleared up nicely:

After dinner, we ended up passing this ride, which was basically the Coal Cracker/log ride on steroids.  There was a giant sign that said, "YOU WILL GET SOAKED ON THIS RIDE."  Everybody wears swimsuits to ride it.

Except for these loonies, I mean.  Guess who rode it not once, but twice...and were wet the rest of the evening?

(But seriously, they didn't even have to get off the boat to ride it again.  And that was the case on several other rides. Of the probably 30 different rides some portion of us rode, there were only TWO that had a wait, and it was about 10-15 minutes.  My kind of amusement park experience for sure!)

These two had their BEST DAY EVER, as well!

I actually am pretty sure that, because the rides were closed for 60 continuous minutes, we could've gotten passes to come back for free during this operational season-- which means an even BETTER deal.  Since I don't see that actually happening with our schedule, however, I didn't even bother searching out how to get that done.   But we are already very much looking forward to next summer!

How The Morning Gets Away From Me

I was blow-drying my hair on Wednesday morning when there was a horrible popping noise.  Some sort of part inside it must have exploded because, after that, there was just a "whole lotta shaking going on" (of exploded parts?) when I would move the dryer.  Needless to say, RIP HAIR DRYER.

Even though I then went to 4 different stores looking for rain ponchos (or "punchos" as the B-man called them, so that is their new name), and we stopped at Wegmans on the way to our adventure and Target on the way back-- even with all of that, I forgot to buy a new hair dryer.

This hair doesn't "do" without hot air-infused volume.  I gotta blow-dry it!  And I really don't want to take the time today, amidst a busy schedule, to go to a store to buy one.  So what does a 2016 citizen do?  Find one that can be delivered "same day" from Amazon, of course!

But...then it didn't cost as much as is required for free same-day delivery so--CLASSIC--I had to figure out what else our household needed that could up the amount.  Aha!  I need new sneakers!  Sneakers on Amazon often have free returns so there's no risk!  And look-- a really inexpensive color combo!  SOLD!

Oops....those aren't part of the same-day delivery promotion.  Boo.

I finally came up with some other things that DID count so, whew, I can get on with my day.  But now I don't really have enough time to email/download/edit/curate/upload photos from our amusement park adventure so, hey, come back Monday to see more like this:

We had a fabulous time, especially the young sir who went on--no joke--TEN different roller coasters!

Throwback Thursday

Sooo.....if all went according to Plan (B), the four of us are waking up this morning in a motel after spending up to 5 hours (the "sunset" plan: entry from 5-10pm) at an amusement park with a weather forecast of 70-90% rain.

EXACTLY what one would pick to celebrate a (gulp) 15th anniversary, right??!

(We were supposed to do this particular adventure LAST Wednesday/Thursday...but some little people decided to be difficult and develop fevers.)

Since I apparently did a bang-up job of gathering photos 5 years ago on this day, may I please direct you to a little historical reading:

July 14, 2011 (about July 14, 2001)

Happy Bastille Day!

Even More Fruity Updates!

Building on an earlier post, we have two more opinions to share:

NOT GREAT (tastes artificial):

QUITE TASTY (though off-putting color):

Portraits of a Young Girl

(also called: Fun with Filters)

"Who Is That Champion Diver??"

(This blog post's title came from one young sir, who may or may not be a little bit confused about the meaning of the word "champion"!!)

Yesterday, we had the 4th of five dive meets.  At a pool about 20 minutes away (with some water features that are way cooler than the NONE that our pool boasts), the meet provided an awesome opportunity for the B-man.  With several 8-and-under boys absent, there were only 4 competitors in the event.

Guess how many ribbons are given out for each event?  Four.

HOORAY!!  B's first real ribbon!!!!!!!!!!   :-)

The diving well/spot for viewing was DIRECTLY in the sun.  Thank goodness for this fancy umbrella chair that we bought randomly one year at Costco!  I would have fried to a crisp without it!

Our diving "champion" was so proud that he just might have carried his ribbon into the shop where his post-meet treat was procured:

PS:  For those inclined to enjoy slo-mo vidoes, here's one that the Big Guy captured of B's second "dive," the Back Jump:

Flashback Friday

Posted July 8, 2008........AND STILL TRUE!

For those of you not Kathy the birthday girl-- HAPPY FRIDAY!

New Way of Washing

(although he better work on his aim if we want to be successful in replacing baths!) 


Sweet sock tan line, too, right?!  ;-)

Trail Time

Sunday morning, we woke up to a lovely cool day.  Since we'd spent all week at VBS, we decided it would be fine to spend our morning taking in God's natural majesty instead of going to church.  And we were off!

The "binoculars" the preschool kiddos made at VBS were key to Miss C's exploring:

Consulting her "map":

 Acting out the trail signs.  As you do.

Lots of amphibians to find-- that's two different frogs and a toad!

Somebody got tired...

...but perked up later eating patriotic Knox Blox at a diving meet!

Family Independence Day Selfie

(aka the crazy shot where the skinniest member has the most chins-- ha ha ha!)

Super Social Saturday

I got to see not one but TWO sets of out-of-town friends on Saturday, making it a fabulous day indeed.  Will recount in reverse order because I want to send TOP O' THE BLOG birthday wishes today to loyal reader (and patriotic baby) Karen I!!   She and Ian stopped by late Sat PM on their way through town and we enjoyed dinner and dessert on the most gorgeous of summer days (72 degrees with a breeze and no humidity?  yes, please!):

Earlier in the day, the B-man and I took a drive over to the airport area to meet up with some very special friends whom we had not seen in almost 5 years.  Longtime readers of this blog might recall that B had a "twin" (born the same day in the same hospital), Cadence (or Cady as a wee one), who was in our "New Mom's Group" along with her mother, Lindsey.  

I just went through the blog archives and found a few pics from their early years, where they spent many a day together...

April 2008:

November 2009:

July 2010, right before they moved away:

 September 2011, when they came back for a visit:

Annnd......July 2016 as 8-year-old kids:

These two had no problem (re)becoming fast friends and we all wandered around a mall after finishing our lunches.   If you think we didn't all pop into a photo booth, then you don't know us very well!

HAPPY 4th OF JULY TO YOU ALL!!!!

Scenes From The Week

We head off to our last morning of VBS: Cave Quest in a little bit.  It's been a "sweet" week for us all!

Happy Long Weekend to all!!!  Yay Red, White, and Blue!