"See" You in a Week!

Sorry I haven't been around much, things have been crazy busy. I doubt I will be able to blog anytime before we leave for vacation Sunday, so I'll say "bye" now! I'll post all about our trip when I return. Hope everyone has a great week next week!

Father's Day Weekend fun & more

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers! Hope you all had a great one!

Our Father's Day weekend went pretty well. On Sunday, Joe wanted to sleep in. So, when the boys woke up at 4:50 a.m. I got them ready and took them a couple places, one of which was to the park so Joe could sleep. Here are a few pictures from the playground:

After that we went back home and made breakfast for Joe, then we all went to Joe's work to fish. They have a pond that is supposed to be for sturgeon and it has become overrun with sunfish. So, not only were we having fun, but also helping the sturgeon crew by getting some of the sunfish out. The boys both caught several fish, as did Joe. (I even caught a couple the few times I cast a line out).

In the couple hours we were there, all together 30 or so sunfish were caught.

Unfortunately there was one incident that was not so fun. At one point Brendan had his line all strung out across the ground and he was trying to get slime off his hook. Since fishing line is virtually invisible, I didn't see it and I went to get my camera and tripped over the fishing line and fell. When I tripped, the line pulled tight and jabbed the hook into Brendan's thumb and popped back out and whipped across his belly, putting a hole in his shirt and scratching him. So, he was bleeding from two places. Poor little guy. I felt so bad. He seemed to be fine once we got bandaids on him. Thank goodness I had put a little first aid kit in the car a few weeks ago.

That night for dinner we had Ribeyes, as requested by Joe. And Joe and the boys shot off the air rocket thingy that we gave Joe. Every year on father's day I try to get a fun thing that Joe can play with with the boys. This year it was this rocket shooter thing. It really did shoot way up high in the air too!

All in all it was a fun family day. Hopefully Joe enjoyed it too.

Then, Monday night I took Brendan to his cousin's party at a local swimming play area.

Brendan had a lot of fun! Today & tomorrow Brendan and Adam continue to have swimming lessons. Sunday we leave for vacation! Yea!

Menu Plan Monday (on Tues)

A day late, but here's the menu plan for this week. Simple stuff since we have swimming lessons every night of the week this week and most of next week.

Monday: hotdogs (at the boys' request)

Tuesday: Easy Italian Pasta Bake (from Laura's menu plan last week)

Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken Tacos (from Cyndi's menu plan last week)

Thursday: leftovers or McD's (I work extra hours that night)

Friday: pizza/family night

Saturday: on your own (I work extra hours that night)

Sunday: Joe's choice for Father's Day, probably steak

Since there's no way I have time to cook after swimming lessons and have time to eat before the boys need to get in bed, I'm cooking Tuesday & Wednesday's meals the night before so they are ready to heat and eat as soon as we walk in the door. So, I made the pasta bake last night for tonight, and the crockpot chicken tacos will be in the crockpot while we sleep tonight in preparation for Wednesday's dinner.

Scout awards and auction

Sunday Brendan had his Cub Scout awards and auction. In addition to the other 3 belt loop awards he had received previously, he now has earned his archery, bb shooting, art, soccer and basketball belt loops, and an outdoor activity award patch from day camp. He has also done the requirements for the swimming belt loop, but for some reason it wasn't presented to him yet.

Here are his latest awards he received...

After the awards, they did the auction. All year long, every time they attend a meeting or activity they get beads. At the end of the year those beads are turned in for fake money (scout bucks) and they get to use those to bid on fun items. Brendan didn't get the water gun he wanted, but he did win the boomerang, big bubble wand, head lamp, and several fishing lures.
Here he is bidding on an auction...

And here he is with his winnings from the auction...

It was a good time, except for the wind! It was SO windy that everything was blowing away and when we ate, everyone had to hold on to their plates and drinks or the wind would blow them over. Several plates and drinks spilled. And every time I'd open my mouth to take a bite, my hair flew in my mouth. So, the wind was frustrating. But, Brendan was happy with his auction winnings and his awards, and he had fun so that was great.

Now that 1st grade is over and they've had the end-of-the-year awards and auction, he officially moves up to being a Wolf instead of a Tiger Cub.

First Crush

Yesterday after Brendan's summer school I was driving him home and we had this conversation...

Brendan: (he lets out a huge sigh) "I can't believe I'm about to say this"
Me: "What is it?"
Brendan: (long pause)
Brendan: "I have a crush"
Me: (trying not to laugh and relieved that it was not something bad) "You do? That's great. What's her name?"
Brendan: "Sonya, she's in my last two classes"
Me: "That's good, it's okay to have a crush on a girl. Just like Daddy likes me, and I'm a girl you know."
Brendan: (sounding relieved) "Okay, that makes me feel a little better."

Haha! So, after all that icky talk he does anytime he sees girl stuff or people kissing, he now has a little crush. During the regular school year some little Kindergarten girls liked him and would chase him at recess, but he would never admit to liking them. This is the first girl he has admitted having a crush on. How cute :)

Traveling With Kids- What to Bring on the Car Ride?

So our family vacation is coming up and I'm starting to plan the car ride. lol This will be the longest the boys have had to ride in the car. (well, except for when Brendan was 3 and we went to Michigan, that was about the same number of hours and he did great!). Now with 2 of them though, even a car ride to the store can be a nightmare under certain circumstances, so I don't know how the 7+ hours will go. (and come March, the 13+ hr ride to Florida too, but I can't think about that one yet. lol).

So, here's what I'm definitely planning to have in the car for them:
- Leapster
- Game Boy (if we can find it- Brendan thinks he might have left it at our last hotel, ugh!)
- Dual-screen dvd player (we've had this for a year or two but have never used it yet)
- snacks & drinks
- various toys & books they pick to bring
- a couple new toys & books that they aren't sick of yet
- notebooks/coloring books for them to draw/color in
- Brain Quest cards for each of their appropriate levels
- Kid appropriate cds to listen to
- someone suggested the AquaDoodle Travel N Doodle, but I haven't decided if we'll get that or not.
- Binder of various things printed from online: coloring pages, word searches, dot-to-dot, etc.

We have some verbal car games we will undoubtedly play too of course. We tried car bingo on our recent weekend trip, and they got bored really quickly, so they probably won't want to do that again.

Okay, what am I forgetting? Anything that is a must-have for a long car-ride with a 7 & 3 yr old that you have done that was a hit?

Menu Plan Monday and Our Weekend

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Saturday I had some friends from the mom's group over to chat, eat, drink and play cards. It was fun. Joe decided to take the boys into our woods and camp-out that night. It almost got rained out, but after the rain passed he decided to go ahead and do it anyway. The boys had a lot of fun, and surprisingly Adam slept later than usual. Maybe we should have him sleep in a tent every night! lol

Sunday we tried to get some things done around the house, and I cleaned at one of my work facilities for a little over 3 hours. I didn't sleep well all weekend, so now I'm run down and exhausted.

The weekend felt very busy, but writing about it makes it look like we didn't do much. lol

Brendan started summer school today. He was looking forward to it, since he had a lot of fun there last summer. He has 2 regular educational school-type-classes, followed by 3 fun classes. His 3 fun elective classes this year are an outdoor games one, a bugs one, and a magic one.

I've been slacking badly on Menu Plan Monday, so I decided I better jump back in this week:

MONDAY: Hamburgers/veggie burger, homemade fries, and salad

TUESDAY: Crockpot chicken dish

WEDNESDAY: Spaghetti

THURSDAY: leftovers/on your own

FRIDAY: Pizza/family night

SATURDAY: Stir fry

SUNDAY: Probably chicken or fish something