Last Few Weeks of Summer

It's hard to believe the summer is almost over. Brendan goes back to school in less than 3 weeks. I feel like summer is just getting going and there were things I had hoped to do this summer that I just don't think will happen at this point. But, we do still have some fun things coming up. Tomorrow my mom is picking up Adam and one of my nephews to take them to the Butterfly House and carousel. While he's gone, Joe, Brendan and I will be going to a baby shower for one of Joe's co-workers. It is a "family" baby shower, so men and children can go too.

Then, next Friday my mom will be picking up Brendan and my other nephew and taking them to a cool Dinosaur show and a monster exhibit, then they will stay overnight with her. The next morning I will go pick them both up and take them to Six Flags! Yes, I know I am crazy to take 2 boys (7 & 8 yrs) to Six Flags on a busy weekend in steaming hot August. But, Brendan earned his free ticket from school for reading, and I would just feel way too guilty not taking him to use it (and it is about to expire). Plus, I still enjoy amusement parks and rides too. lol

We'll still try to squeeze in some more summer family fun in the next couple weeks too, somehow.

What are you doing with your last few weeks of summer?

TV & Movie blabbing

Okay, well since no one seems to like my question in the previous grocery post (LOL), here's another question for you. Anyone seen the latest X-Files movie yet? I saw it Saturday. I thought it was pretty good. Since we do not have cable or dish or anything, it has been a long time since I've seen the X-Files tv show. But, in my opinion, I think Scully looks even prettier now that she's a little older.

Anyone watch Last Comic Standing? Any thoughts on who you want to win yet? I think all of the finalists left now are pretty good, except for Sean Cullen. I'm sorry, but that man is just goofy, stupid and annoying. Parts of his little songs are somewhat clever I guess, and his voice is decent I suppose, but where's the stand-up comedy in his act? It's just 90% singing. I prefer all of the others. Just my opinion.

Apparently there's not too much excitement going on in my life right now, since I'm talking about Last Comic Standing and X-Files, huh? LOL Okay, just call me lame, I know I know.

Amount Spent on Groceries Per Week?

I saw this article on MSN today, and it kinda confirmed what I suspected…that we apparently spend way less than most typical families on groceries each week.
(Click HERE to see article)

This article makes it sound as if $100 per week is a huge challenge and practically unheard of for a family of 4. We spend approximately $120-$170 per week at Super Wal-Mart, but that is not just groceries. That includes all of our other Wal-Mart needs/supplies too! So, I’m pretty sure that once you subtract the other non-grocery items each week, that we do spend right around $100 per week on actual groceries. And yet we are still feeling like we spend too much and looking for ways to cut. So now I’m curious, what *do* most families spend per week on groceries? Anyone willing to share?

Scrapping, Pool and Yucky Flavor

I had a fun weekend with my mom & sister, doing the scrapbooking thing. My sister got 22 pages done, I got 21 pages done, and our mom got 4 pages done (but she also spent most of the time sorting through tons of pictures). Now it's back to reality and who knows when I'll have time to work on more pages now.

Joe got the pool out for the boys finally. June just wasn't all that hot this year so we hadn't dragged it out yet. The boys have been having fun playing in it in the evenings when we get home.

So far the cats haven't clawed a hole in it, but we'll see how long that lasts. lol

And completely changing topics...

I took this quiz after seeing it on Melzie's blog. I hate the flavor of ice cream that it says I am, just like she too hates the flavor it says she is (she got vanilla, and I love vanilla, but I can't stand coffee). LOL

Headed Off for Scrapland

Yes, this weekend is the annual scrapping weekend at a cabin with my sister and our mom. I haven't done any pages in sooo long. I hope I remember how! lol I've got about half of my stuff packed, will have to do the rest tonight. Friday I work a half-day and then head to my sister's house so we can ride together to the cabin. We'll meet our mom there since she lives the opposite direction. Then we'll spend from Friday late afternoon until Monday morning scrapping, laughing, eating and drinking. Woohoo! Oh, and a little sleeping too, but not much. We go to the same cabin place every year...it is a place that is really more for people fishing I suppose, and I think the guys that work there think we are a little nuts each year, but oh well. We have fun!

"See" you when I return.

Family Sticker

Saw this on Peggy's blog and decided to make one of my family too. lol

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Not much to say

Well, not much to write about since we've returned from vacation. We had a nice 4th, mom, her bf, my sister, her hubby and their boys all came over to our place the evening of the 4th. Mom's boyfriend brought BBQ for everyone and we made desserts. Then we all shot off fireworks on our property. The boys love fireworks (so do I).

This week has been a blur. Some serious stuff going on at work, I'm not even gonna talk about all that. Things at home have been fine. We've been trying to carpool most days now to cut back on gas expenses. Brendan has been having fun at day camp. Adam is having fun at daycare. Brendan is about to drive me crazy with his Yu-Gi-Oh card obsession. He is constantly talking about those cards. lol During summer school it was the Pokemon cards, now it's all about the Yu-Gi-Oh ones. I should probably make an effort to learn about them so that I know what the heck he is rambling on about...right now it is just mumble jumble noise to me when he goes on and on about it. lol

Not a whole lot going on this weekend...well, aside from the usual housework and such that is. Sunday I'm going to part of a crop. Next weekend, though, is the annual trip w/ mom and sis for scrapbooking all weekend at a cabin. I've been burned out on scrapbooking lately and have done basically nothing with it for about 6 months or so, but I am looking forward to our weekend trip next weekend :)

Well, don't want to bore anyone to tears, so I'll end this post. Just felt like I should post SOMETHING since I haven't been very "talkative" since returning from vacation. (If you missed our vacation photos, scroll down a couple posts).

Happy 4th of July!

We're Back from Vacation!

We’re back from our vacation to Wisconsin Dells! We got home on Friday evening, but I wasn't able to log on to update our blog all day Saturday (not sure why) and then Sunday we were gone helping my sister & her family move.

So, after a rough start, vacation was great. The morning we were supposed to leave, Adam came up and got in bed with us for a few minutes. He then threw up in our bed. Ewww! Luckily it wasn’t too much, and he seemed to feel fine before & after, so we think maybe he just choked or something. But, that meant we had to do another load of laundry before we could leave. We finally got out the door and drove 2 hours to our nephew’s baptism.

From there we drove directly to our resort in Wisconsin Dells (about a 7-1/2 hr drive from the baptism location). Our room was very big and gorgeous! It had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen and dining room, a living room with fireplace, washer/dryer, balcony, and our master bathroom had a jetted tub and a huge glass door shower. I think our unit might have been bigger than our house even! lol

Unfortunately the “rough start” to our vacation wasn’t over yet. That night Joe got sick with food poisoning type symptoms and spent the first night and all the first day going between the bathroom and bed. The boys and I got our groceries for the week, and hit the New Frontier and Wild WaterDome waterparks at the resort that day.

After that, the vacation was great! Day 2 we took a ride on the Original Wisconsin Ducks, which was fun. We saw some deer up close, went on the Wisconsin River which had beautiful surroundings (and rode by where Lake Delton had been before it drained into the river).

After that, we had lunch in our room and then hit the Lost World waterpark at the resort.

That night we went to the Tommy Bartlett show, which is normally a ski, stage and sky show, but with Lake Delton gone, it was just a stage show. It was okay, but I think it would have been much better if they’d been able to have the ski part of the show.

Day 3 we headed to the Circus World Museum, located at the site of the original Ringling Bros. Circus Winter Quarters - a National Historic landmark. It was neat. They had over 200 circus wagons (some were very ornate and detailed designs, etc), circus tents, an antique carousel where the music in the middle was actually played by real instruments, a 1-ring circus show that was very good, and another kids’ circus, where they pull kids out of the audience to do the show…they dress up as the elephants, tigers, etc. They pulled Adam up there to be the conductor of the circus music! He was so cute. He had his sunglasses on, and they put a conductor hat on him and had him wave the wand to lead the “band”.

After that we went to another of the waterparks at the resort, called Wild West. It was my favorite of all of them. Very fun stuff. We all had a lot of fun on the waterslides and playing in the water. We also hit the Lake Wilderness outdoor waterpark that was right next to it.

That night we went to Moosejaw Pizza and Brewery. It was a neat place too. The whole downstairs floor is a huge arcade/game room/bar where the whole family can be entertained while waiting for a table. Once seated at the table, they give all of the kids moose antler hats to wear. Their pizza was pretty good, their beer was pretty good too, but what was most surprisingly good was their home-brewed root beer. I thought it was very yummy!



Then we took the boys to the arcade in our resort, where they were very happy to win lots of tickets and pick their prizes.

Day 4 we went for a horse-drawn carriage ride through Lost Canyon. Very pretty area and a nice relaxing ride.

After that we headed back to the resort for lunch and then went to the Timberland Playhouse, a huge 30,000 sq foot indoor ball house/play area. The boys played there for a few hours. Then we went for a few more hours back to the waterpark we’d gone to the day before (the best one) and we played as much as we could there, since it was our last day. As it was approaching bedtime, we left to go back to our room.

Day 5 we basically just cleaned up, packed up and left. One road along our route on the way home was closed due to flooding, so we had to find another way around, but otherwise the drive home was fine.

All in all I think we all had a great time, and I hope the boys will always remember this fun family vacation!

Brendan gives this vacation two thumbs up!