Groundhogs Day 2017

So we decided to hit up The High Life for their Groundhog Day celebration for my birthday again, we dropped the kids off at my parents on Wednesday night after gymnastics and went out for a birthday dinner at The Whiskey House in Ankeny. It was pretty good and there was live music!

We got up at the butt crack of dawn to be at the High Life by 5:30, and we were not the first ones in line and by 5:45 the line was so much longer! So fun!

We got right in and found a table and the bar filled up quickly! Channel 13 news guys were there too!

One group, who has been going for 9 years makes these groundhog cookies every year!

Free High Life from 6 until it runs out, they serve breakfast from 8-11 and then lunch. They have a parade.....best parade ever!

There was a small band, a float the groundhog rode in on, a group of guys 'dancing' with 2-wheelers and 2 beers semi-trucks! :)

Even the construction guys across the street took a time out of enjoy the parade!

Then they gave out awards for best band and best float. HA!

'Local Big Shot'

The gang! Me, Jordan, Jerry, Holly, Scott, Sam and Steve.

Thanks for all of them for coming out and celebrating my birthday! It was a lot of fun. (A special thanks to nephew Jordan who worked from 6:00pm to 4:30 am and then came drinking with us and then went home, slept for 4 hours and went to work again!) We got home about 1 pm and took a nap before picking up the girls and trying to function like normal parents who weren't exhausted and on the brink of hang overs at 6 pm in the evening. #badparents

8 years old

Presley Grace is 8. That just doesn't seem possible. My baby girl, my sweet shy baby is 8.
Presley is our challenge in a completely different way than Piper is.
Presley can be very up and down, very happy and very mad.
She will completely shut down and not talk to anyone (including family who she is around all the time) but then has no problem ordering her own food, participating in class or walking to the neighbors house to see if they want to play.
You really never know what to expect from her. She has changed a lot in the past 2 years. She is more willing to try new things, answer questions that strangers might ask her, spend the night at her Aunt Holly's house. (say WHAT?)

She loves learning but gets very frustrating when she doesn't understand something (like will throw pencils, slam the book shut and call herself dumb....this would be the drama queen in her also!)

She loves Piper and is sometimes SO good with her, playing and talking and distracting her...and other times I think she gets a little jealous of the attention that Piper gets since she is more outgoing and always makes people laugh, at those times, she just CANNOT leave Piper alone. CANNOT.

She is our homebody. Instead of going out to eat after school/work, she would rather go home and play.

She has lost 4 teeth since July and hates it. It is a huge ordeal when the teeth come out, so we are lucky that two of them have just fallen out and we haven't had to struggle with the pulling of those two!

She has taken on more chores around the house in the last couple months, emptying the dishwasher, putting away her clean clothes and doing her own school snacks. I love that we can delegate these things when needed!

She loves playing games (UNO, mancala, skip-bo, phase 10) and watching the Haschak sisters on youtube.
She hates taking cold lunch to school but she loves playing school at home!
She loves peas and green beans and all fruits! and has recently found a love of chocolate!

She has a special place in her daddy's heart for sure. He worries about her, which is really cute!

She made me a mommy and made me realize that being a parent is the hardest job in the world. You never stop worrying, you never think you are doing things right and you just want them to be happy.

Presley Grace, you are stubborn and a quiet leader. You are smart and funny, sarcastic and so sassy! You are beautiful and I never thought I could love your smile more than I did but the missing teeth melt my heart! Life is not a race, you can't always win and won't always be first. It is okay to show emotion and ask for help. You are stronger than you give yourself credit for and eventually you will appreciate the times that we push you out of your comfort zone! We love you Presley Pie! Happy 8th Birthday baby girl!

http://thegoodlife-jgo.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-30th-birthday.html
 

Weekend Update

This weekend was pretty laid back and I can't say that I didn't mind it! Friday night we were going to try to go out to dinner but when Steve picked Presley up from school she said she didn't feel good. So we went home and ordered pizza and just chilled!

The girls were up fairly early on Saturday morning and we had a bunch of stuff we had to get done for Presley's birthday party this coming weekend, so we all headed out! We went to Hy-Vee, Target and then the Dollar Tree.....the Dollar Tree should've been our first stop. We rarely shop there but we need to go there ALL the time. It was amazing what we got for $13 there......13 items is my guess! Valentines for the kids school? Done! All the plates, napkins, plastic silverware, Saran Wrap....if you need any Valentines or St. Patty's day stuff....go there! It's $1! :)

 

Then we spent the afternoon cleaning and doing laundry and getting ready for our babysitter to come that night. Brittany showed up about 5 and we headed to Reclaimed Rails in Bondurant to watch Jason Brown play. We love him! and it was SO packed. Sam and Scott went with us and Scott got there at 4:10 and got one of the last tables for us! We got there at 5:30 and it was standing room only....for a show that started at 7!

We actually had Dean from Clive and Leah and Jaime from Altoona, who we met in Mexico come meet us our for a while! It was good to see them again! We got home about midnight and crashed! The girls were good for Brittany but I guess Piper was crying for me at bedtime! Breaks my heart but I know she is just a drama queen anyway! :)

Sunday was filled with a lot of nothing, we were lucky that our kids slept in until almost 9! Piper and I didn't get out of our pj's or leave the house all day! Steve and Presley made a trip to Target but other than that, we watched movies, played games, I might have snoozed for an hour and Steve did smoke some meat for dinner. It was a nice lazy day!

Answers by Presley

I'm going to try to start to ask Presley these same questions every year on her birthday to see how they change over the years. I had printed off some different questions online and then FB had questions also so I'm combining them!

Her answers from last year.... http://thegoodlife-jgo.blogspot.com/2016/02/answers-by-presley.html

1. What is something I always say to you? I love you

2. What makes me happy?  Your kids
3. What makes me sad? When someone gets hurt
4. How do I make you laugh? No answer
5. What was I like as a child? Nice
6. How old am I? How old are you? 37, 7 (almost 8)
7. How tall am I? I don't know
8. What is my favorite thing to do? Play games with us
9. What do I do when you're not around? Clean
10. What am I really good at? Laundry
11. What is something I'm not good at? Cleaning up deer poop?
12. What do I do for a job? Something about houses
13. What is my favorite food? Toast
14. What do you enjoy doing with me? No answer

1. Who is your best friend? Leah
2. What do you want to be when you grow up? Teacher
3. What football team do you support? Iowa
4. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? Ice,  b/cif someone was going to attack me I could freeze them.
5. How would describe me to your friends? Blonde, happy, nice
6. What does heaven look like? Always sunny, with flowers and bunnies
7. What is the most disgusting thing you can think of? Poop
8. What's the hardest thing about being a kid? Doing what your mom and dad say
9. If you could time-travel, where and when would you go? Go back to Oregon
10. What 5 words describe you best? Happy, likes to color, brown hair, American Girl dolls, sweet

11.  What are the best things about your mom and dad? They are very nice
12. If you could be anyone in the world for a day, who would it be and why? An artist, to teach people how to do cool art stuff.
13. If you could change one rule that your family has, what would you change? Not to have to clean up.
14. If you could grow up and be famous, what would you want to be famous for? Dancing

Playing catch up (photo dump)

Last week was more of the same for us except Thursday! Thursday we got to meet Jordan King! Samantha and Scott's new baby! I went to the hospital after work and Steve picked up the girls and met me there! OMG, you forget how little they are!!! We hung out there for about an hour and left when there were too many people there and it was almost time for him to be fed! Seriously so cute! So happy for them and Boston will be a great big brother! We needed more boys in this family!

 

Holly was watching Boston Friday night and Presley felt a little left out and said she wanted to also. She has never wanted to spend the night anywhere except Grandma's! So we packed her up and dropped her off at Holly's after work (fully planning on picking her up later when she decided she really didn't want to spend the night there!) and then the three of us went out on a dinner date to Fletcher's in Ankeny. (It was good and we liked it and will go back!)

It was their 100 day of preschool and she wanted to wear her hat to dinner! :)

Presley stayed all night at Holly's! Shocking to us but proud of her for doing it! So Saturday morning we had craft day at my Aunt Ann's house and Holly just brought her there! It was nice seeing everyone and letting the kids do some crafts and watching others and their creativity take over.

 My aunt Ann, uncle Leslie, cousin Jenny and her daughter Grace doing string art, which is super cool!

We got home about 1:30 b/c Presley had a birthday party next door, then we had more one on one time with Miss Piper and she wanted to play Memory (she kicks our butts 90% of the time) and clean/organize! She organized the shoes and picked up the family room.

Then she washed the patio doors and then went to her room and picked it up and made her bed! Just b/c she wanted too! Love this girl!

 Then she wanted to play catch in her dress up heels, of course!

Saturday night we just hung out at home, and then after they went to bed I went out with neighbor Sarah for some girl time (since the boys had gone out the night before!) It was nice to sit and chat with no kids since we don't get to do that very often!

 

Sunday morning we got up and ready and headed to Bass Pro Shop for our neighbor Collins bowling birthday party! It was fun and the kids really enjoyed it!



 Presley helping Piper

 Other neighbor girls, Bella, Presley, Piper and Gianna...nice smile Piper.

 So then Piper wanted to look cute like Gianna

 Collins opening a present before they started the ice cream sundae bar!

 After the party we walked around Bass Pro, dreamed about boats that we would never own.

 Then we headed to Samantha and Scotts for the Packer game......Baby Jordan

 Piper wanted to hold him until he started crying.

 Even Steve got in on the baby-holding action!

 She loves him and wants to touch and kiss him....but she doesn't want pictures of her doing it!

 Grandma with baby Jordan

The Packer game was shitty but we tried to see the positive considering 6 weeks ago we never thought they would've made it this far. Oh well, we had good family time this season so we enjoyed it!

Day Four

Our last day.....and it really went too fast, but we still were able to enjoy alot of stuff and hang out with our new Iowa friends!

Another moment of pouting.



Steve did find an Iowa Hawkeye skull that he just had to have! :)

 

They just loved the beach...they just stood there holding hands and melting my heart, so I took a million pictures to remember the moment!

The Iowa crew!

Doing shots...yes, Presley has one. The bartender made her a virgin rainbow shot! HA!

They wanted bracelets made with their names on them...since it's impossible to find their names on anything!

They had an Ironman contest and our Clive friends joined in the fun! Julie took it seriously and put on her one-piece suit and swim cap! Too funny!

Their daughter, Keira is a great swimmer and ended up winning the Iron Man contest!

10 squats

Dive and swim across the pool

10 push ups

then you surf over to the other side and do a belly flop! :)

Julie's turn!

Dean's turn!

Even 8 year old Quinn went!

One last hurrah on the beach before dinner.....

The Clive crew

Piper wrote Goodrich in the sand!

Keira, Iron Man winner! :)



Fun on the balcony before dinner.

 

She wanted one more item from the gift shop...this cowgirl doll who had 'dark hair like her'

The Altoona crew



We saw the Michael Jackson show this night, which was pretty good too. We had front row seats and the kids enjoyed all the dancing and singing! We sat in the Lobby Bar for a bit after the show, Piper and I did some dancing and we tried to make the night last as long as possible since we had to leave the next morning! :(

After a long travel day on Sunday, with grouchy, sensitive kids who didn't want to wait in any lines in airports we finally make it back to Iowa before the freezing rain started. We were able to catch the beginning of the Packer game in the Dallas airport so that was a plus! We were all glad to get home but so sad to leave the warm air and fun with no schedule!
We have decided that this vacation wasn't THAT much different then when we don't take them. I go to bed earlier but other than that....so we will definitely be doing this again!