My parents

We are so lucky to have parents that live around here who are so willing to help us all out! Mom was going to watch Jordan while Sam worked, but then she lost her job so at that point my mom was 'unemployed' also.
We talked and Presley was having such a hard time with KTC, always complaining about going, saying she doesn't have fun....so mom and I decided that Presley would come there twice a week to give P more of a break from KTC and to keep my mom busy since Jordan wouldn't be there!

Before vacation Piper had hit her mouth on a playground, we didn't think much of it until one of her front teeth started turning grey!! I was able to call on my mom to take Piper to the dentist just to make sure there wasn't anything wrong. Basically a bruised tooth and we just had to watch for infection! (she also hit these same front teeth twice last weekend!!!)

I was able to get the girls into more private swim lessons and again my mom was happy to help us out. She this week she is taking them at 8 in the morning and then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday taking them to daycare and KTC and Mon/Fri keeping them at their house to hang out together.
I'm so happy that my kids have this time with my parents, it means a lot to all of us!

XOXOX LOVE YOU GUYS!

Weekend Update

So Friday it all just worked out that we were all able to go Adventureland that afternoon/evening. Samantha picked up Presley from my mom's that afternoon and they enjoyed the water park for a couple hours before we were all able to get there after work. I left work at 3:30, drove home, got Steve, picked up Piper and headed out there.

We headed for the Monster right away!

 and I was actually able to get some pics of them (perks of a good camera!)

 Little Miss rode her favorite ride the Frog Hopper

 while Holly, Mary, Scott and Sam rode the Space Shot.

 these 3 are too cute!

We stayed until almost 9:30, it's so cool when all the lights come on and such after dark!

Saturday we didn't do too much in the morning and then Steve took Piper to a birthday party at Lions Park and ran some errands.  I went for a walk and then got ready to go shopping. Our main goal was soccer shin guards and cleats, which we got! Then we went to Target for a couple things, including a new lunch box since hers was falling apart. We got a couple new clothes for school but she was more interested in looking for toys.

We must not take our kids to the store very often b/c Presley was HYPER and so excited about everything! (and it takes a lot to impress this girl and make her happy!) She went straight for the American Girl doll stuff (or Our Generation, the Target version) her eyes lit up like the 4th of July! I just can't justify buying her any of it when she has SO much already. She agreed to pay with her own money so she picked out her toy and we headed next door to Old Chicago for lunch before picked up Piper at her party.


We picked up Piper and then headed home for a bit before neighbor Rachel's 3rd birthday party! Her party was basically thru our backyard so we walked over to enjoy the night. Rachel wanted a Hulk Smash party, so cute for a little blond 3 yr old! We hung out there until about 8 and then Steve headed out and the girls and I headed home to watch Descendants 2 with popcorn in the basement!

Sunday we all slept in!! It was about 9:30 when I heard the girls up and playing. I took a walk  and then we decided to Gilroy's for lunch. They have a brunch buffet that is awesome and the price isn't bad either. We sat on the patio and enjoyed the awesome weather! We got home and just hung out. Steve opened up the shed and we sat out there, he watched golf and I read my book while the girls played!
Overall a great, relaxing weekend with perfect weather! We have one more free weekend before we start getting busy again with things!

Catch up!

So now that I got my vacation pictures all caught up, we can just go on to our normal, boring life!

Last week we didn't do much but recover, get back onto our normal schedules and get caught up with laundry and such.

Presley lost tooth #6 last week. It was SO loose and she accidently got hit in the mouth at KTC and it popped up. The best way for her to lose teeth is around other people and not in the privacy of our home where she tends to FREAK out about it!

Last weekend we got together at Sarah and Kyle's house with the other neighbors Wendy and Jason. It was nice! We haven't really been able to hang out in a long time so it was good to catch up, let the kids play, eat some dinner, drink some wine and play Cards Against Humanity!

Saturday morning I went to the farmer's market with my friend Lyndsi. I haven't been in so long and never want to take the kids and honestly we are never up early enough to really think about going, but I actually got up early on this Saturday to join her and it was so nice! Just walking around, talking, we both bought some things and then we did brunch at St. Kilda. http://www.stkildadsm.com/#home . This place was so good and so FRESH!

After that I went home and did nothing. I laid on the couch and watched movies with the girls, they played, I snoozed. I really had a lot I needed to get done but I was just not in the mood and really, we haven't had a boring weekend at home in forever so I was going to enjoy it!
I did however get my butt ready to go out that night for my girl, Andrea's 21st birthday get-together downtown! Neither one of my sisters could go so I invited my substitute sister Sarah to go with me!

 We started out at Hello Marjorie http://hellomarjorie.com/. It was really cute, good atmosphere, laid back but then I started to feel old when girls came in wearing half of the fabric that we had on!

 Then we walked over to The Copper Cup, a Moscow mule place, http://www.thecoppercupdm.com/.

And then to the Lift, a martini bar..... http://www.dmlift.com/.  After this Sarah and I headed home.

Me and the birthday girl, Andrea

Sunday we did more of nothing. Doing nothing drives Steve CRAZY but I convinced him it is what we needed! :)

And on to this week.....I'm finally NOT working overtime, hence why I have been able to get caught up on blogging! I'm trying to get in 10000 steps a day again, being able to take breaks at work and walking at night.

We had gymnastics on Wednesday night and Presley finally landed her front handspring on the trampoline! She has been working so hard on trying to get it, her coach has a lot of faith in her and is trying to give her more confidence which she needs!

Piper had 60's week at school, they made peace signs and protest signs, they made tye-died shirts and had a friendly protest, against naps! CUTEST THING EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Friday/Saturday/Sunday

The last day of vacation....2 weeks ago....we got up enjoyed the day, hung out on the beach, got things mostly packed up, let the kids eat whatever they wanted b/c if they didn't finish the food more than likely we were going to have to throw it away.........

and then the day got away from us. Steve got started in a serious bean bag tournament and he couldn't lose and it ended up being 5 o'clock and neither one of us really wanted to finish packing and drive home....so we decided to stick around for the night.
We headed out to dinner at The Okoboji Store and ate right near the water, the kids were good and ate good, the food was good, the weather was perfect.....it was a good decision to stay for another night!

Then we made ONE more pit stop....another night at The Barefoot Bar b/c Damon Dotson, who plays/sings around Des Moines was playing there!

The girls had ice cream and played on the playground, Matt, Gavin and Derek showed up to hang out with us for a bit and then we headed back an hour or so later!
We were the last ones to leave Saturday morning at 9:30! We were all tired so the trip was fairly quiet, we let them watch a movie and just got home and unpacked as fast as we could! Our weekend didn't end there!

That night we had Brittany come over about 6 so we could do dinner out before my 20 year high school class reunion at 300 Rooftop downtown. We went to dinner at Bubba downtown, http://bubbadsm.com/ OHMY! ......seriously so good!
Then we headed to the reunion. It was good! A lot of people from high school that I wasn't necessarily good friends with but I don't care! Steve knows some of the people that I graduated with so he was good talking and conversing. We were there for a couple hours and then headed home!

Sunday was all about cleaning, laundry, groceries and laying low.....for a while. Then the girls and Steve went down to the neighbors for the girls to play and Steve mentioned that I should go have some alone time and read my book.....so I did! El Mariachi, on the patio with a margarita or two and my book! Thank you Steve!

Then out of nowhere we decided to head to Earlham to watch Nate Nelson play for their music in the park event. More family time with the Goodrich's, the girls played some more and we headed home about 8. We really should've tried to get to bed early but considering the girls hadn't been awake before 9 oclock in the morning for over a week we knew they would never fall asleep early!
We had a great week off and some good family time! One of my favorite weeks of the year!

Thursday

Thursday I'm not even sure what we did in the morning, but that being said.....our mornings were short in the fact that we normally didn't stroll out of our cabin until at least 10. Everyone was going to Barefoot Bar that afternoon for a couple hours. We took things to keep Piper busy since she didn't really want to go in the water and honestly we didn't want her to! Presley on the other hand, was pumped to get back on the slide and water mat and thank goodness we had cousin Gavin there to keep her happy and occupied since Ava was gone!

Before we left Barefoot Bar we were able to meet up with Dean and Julie from Clive, who we had met in Cancun! They just happened to be in Spirit Lake and were able to come have a drink and enjoy an hour with us!
We headed back to the cabins to help with the fish fry dinner! Steve's aunt and uncle walked down to have dinner with us since we had so much fish to eat! Dinner was awesome and so cool for the girls to know that we were eating the fish that everyone had caught!

That night Presley and I decided to join the boys while they waded for more fish. They did a great job and P got to see Steve catch a northern not too far from where they were wading....it was at that time that she decided to join me on the other side, NOT in the water b/c it freaked her out that the fish were that close!

We hung out there and did our own fishing not to far from where the guys were catching fish, we caught a couple and thankfully Gavin was there again to help with the worm and taking off the fish since neither Presley or I wanted to touch them! HA!
We left Piper with Aunt Roxanne and Grandma Kathy, who she won't talk to if we around but the minute we leave she is chatty Kathy and won't shut up.

Tuesday night/Wednesday

We played trash and we played war, anything and everyone we did outside!

 Little Miss had a ROUGH Tuesday and spent many moments in time out in the cabin, it was almost embarrassing!

 She thought she was funny. I thought she was cute until I remember that her feet are SO dirty and she is probably completely covered in sand.....and this is my suitcase.

 Many of the guys went wading to catch fish and did a great job! We had so many fish this year for our fish fry!

 Wednesday Ava and the family left so we headed to Arnold's Park that afternoon.

We don't pay to ride the rides, but they do the Tipsy House and the Mirror Maze and then we walk around and do some looking and shopping.

We headed to The Ritz for kids night. We got there early so we could get a table, we ate some dinner, the girls colored and played with the things they bought (they each get $20 to spend on whatever they want). They had dancing and for some reason, Piper was too shy to dance?

They even had kids karaoke, the two kids that we saw were SO awesome! It was great and so fun for everyone!

 I did catch Presley doing some YMCA moves! :)

Back at the cabin we hung out some more.....cousin Gavin was so good to have around on these last couple days.

 and again Presley did some more fishing!

Love!!!!!

 Goofy!!

 The sunsets are so awesome!