Summer Fun: Water Park Edition

Last Friday Jerry took the day off work so I could go waste 4 hours of my life sitting in the lab taking an unnecessary glucose test (more about that in my next pregnancy post).  As long as he had a free day, we decided to spend the afternoon doing something fun! The boys had all earned a free pass to the local aquatic center from the library summer reading program so we decided to use them. I'm sorry to say that in years past they have gone to waste. We didn't know what we were missing!

We let Hayden and JD skip nap and headed over after lunch. It is a very nice facility with three water slides and a small play area in addition to the regular pool. The boys had a blast. All except JD were able to go down the water slides by themselves. They pretty much spent the whole afternoon going up the steps and down the slide over and over and over.

JD didn't miss out though because he was allowed to go down with Daddy. When you ride with Dad you go down a lot faster so JD's first ride include a face full of water at the end of the slide. The next few trips JD went down the slide with his hands covering his face (see picture below). The more he went down the braver he got though, so by the end he was riding with his little hands up in the air roller coaster style.

We did take one snack break. They had a nice little snack bar that included the usual cold treats and even warm food like pizza and hot dogs if you were really hungry. After fasting all night and morning I happened to be quite hungry even after lunch so I tried a hot dog. :)

The weather was great. We had one dark cloud with a few sprinkles move through, but the sun came right back out. Of course, I happened to grab the camera from the locker room during the time the cloud was over us so most of these pictures make it look a lot colder than it really was.

We are looking forward to our trip next year already. Even Jerry was bummed the boys couldn't read more books for another free pass! Actually, I heard they have $5 family night a few times over the summer so we might have to look into that.

Here are some pictures...

Justus' Marble Run

Last Sunday Justus wasn't feeling well so he and I stayed home from church. He wasn't really that sick (just a little tummy ache) so we played with the marble run while the rest of the family was gone. Here is a video of our marble run creation. We usually just make the designs up but for this one we tried to copy one of the designs suggested on the box.

Knowing it wouldn't last long we figured we'd better take a video and a picture while we could. Justus was super excited to share the video on Facebook. But here it is again for those of you who didn't see it! :)

Brewers vs. D-Backs

Roz and a friend drove down to Milwaukee on Wednesday to watch the Brewers beat the Diamondbacks. Before she left we noticed that Hayden was wearing his Diamondbacks shirt so I took a quick picture. It's a good thing Hayden wasn't wearing his shirt because he's a big fan or he would have been disappointed at the outcome of the game!

Fame and (No) Fortune

It was an interesting week for me...

Last Saturday, I woke up to find myself in the newspaper.  A few weeks ago I got an email from a reporter at our local paper requesting an interview about my other money saving blog Green Bay Savers. I enjoyed the interview with the newspaper intern who isn't much older than Roz. :) And I thought it was a nice article even if it did include a few embellishments.

I was surprised by the number of people we know who saw the article. I guess I was under the assumption that no one reads the paper any more. Lots of people at church said something and even my OB/GYN said he read it! 

I was very happy with the number of hits I got after the article ran. I really didn't think many people would put down the paper and go to their computer! :) I was also happy to see lots of new email subscribers sign up.

Of course, with my "fifteen minutes of fame" came a few negative blog comments. One from someone who doesn't understand the nature of blogs, who commented on a post from 2009 saying it was old information! Umm, really? And one who didn't appreciate a few posts for the newbies I put up because she had been couponing a whole 2 years and didn't find the information helpful. My goal is to help people... sorry you don't share that vision. I wonder who helped her get started?

Wednesday I got a "casting call" email and application from the staff at TLC's Extreme Couponing show. It is still sitting in my inbox. I won't be applying. There is no "extreme" couponing in Green Bay. We have one store that doubles coupons and they limit you to five coupons. I'm probably passing up the chance for a spin off show about a family half the size of the Duggars who use coupons, but I'm okay with that. :)

Thursday night I found another WI deal blog that has been copying and pasting some of my entire posts. This wasn't related to the article in the paper because looking back I see she has been doing this for awhile. I happened upon this by accident because she wasn't even considerate enough to link back to my blog. This is both copyright infringement AND poor blogging etiquette. I sent her an email and she responded she'd fix it so we'll see what happens.

Although some days it feels like a job (without pay), I just can't seem to give it up. I use my own posts to plan my shopping trips and as an added bonus I get to help others. It helps to know that almost 300 (291 as of today) people follow GB Savers on Facebook and almost 350 (345) subscribe in using either RSS or email. It usually happens that on the days I wonder why I bother with it, I get a nice email or comment that makes me glad I keep at it. I'll definitely never make any big bucks from blogging, but I didn't expect to make any at all when I started!

Summer Fun

Ahhh... the lazy days of summer. Who am I kidding? Obviously the person who came up with that phrase didn't have five little boys! We still need to wrap a few loose ends of the "school year" but we are taking some time off most of our bookwork.

So what do we do without school work to keep us busy? Lots! Even with sticking close to home we find lots to do. The boys play outside a good portion of every day. The weather has been very nice so far this summer. I know some people are complaining that it has been too cool, but I'm definitely not one of them!

Wesley, the bookworm, has signed up for every reading program known to man. He's already received several "prizes" for his efforts. Eli and Justus are a bit jealous at times of Wesley's ability to read so much so fast, but their time will come.

A week or so ago, Wesley left me a note under my pillow. [All the boys like to do that once in awhile. They know that if they write me a note, they'll get one back by morning.] As you can see, he asked if he could cook something and if I had any suggestions. I told him he could and suggested a dessert. So the next day he pulled out his two cookbooks and after considering all his options decided to bake a cake (with frosting) from scratch. While he worked in the kitchen, I supervised but he pretty much did it all himself. He is a very good little chef.

Spreading the frosting

The finished cake... with sprinkles!!

We have a million toys, but what could be more fun than digging stuff out of the recycle bin to make a house for your little squirrel friend. Eli and Justus spent several hours (and at least one roll of tape) putting together this cute little house.

I let them take this picture with my camera when they were done. I should have gone to take some additional pictures of the details. You can see the window on the left there, but what you can't see is the light fixture (aka water bottle cap) and construction paper light switch on the inside.

JD loves to ask for a new box out of the "game room" every day. For those of you who don't know, the game room is the storage room where we keep all the toys. Some days he wants the play food and spends a few hours making me meals. Some days he plays for hours with the wooden trains. One day last week he played for most of the day with the wooden blocks. Right before nap he built a whole city on the floor in his room. I let him take a picture of his city with my camera to show daddy... just in case it didn't survive until Jerry got home from work. He was excited to use the camera and happy that his city did survive long enough for daddy to see it!

You might be wondering what keeps Hayden busy. Hayden has always been very good at keeping himself entertained. He loves to swing on the swing set. I'm not just talking 2 minutes here, I mean the kid could swing for an hour! He also loves to draw and color, especially with markers. Earlier this year he spent several hours every day drawing new levels for Angry Birds (his favorite game on the iPod touch). But someone (Wesley I think) told him he was "obsessed" with the game and he decided, completely on his own, to break his habit. In fact, I can't even remember now the last time he played.

So he moved on to drawing other things. Rainbows, cars, cities, letters, numbers, and maps of tornado alley:

You really have to click to enlarge this map to get all the details. I'll translate for you: Top center would be Scrabber, Texas (he spelled it backwards as RBARC) which is home to many a tornado chaser, at least according to the weather videos they like to watch. Just to the right of that is KAES (aka Kansas). In the center you can see it is sunny in TECSES (aka Texas). Also in the center Ohio is in imminent danger, as is UWCLER (aka UW Eau Claire). Good thing Roz is home for the summer!

Another new favorite for Hayden to draw is various buildings (sometimes McDonald's) with satellite dishes sending signals to outer space. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an example of one of those to share at the moment. I'm not really sure what all of this means, but I'm sure he'd make an interesting case study for anyone in the mental health field.

One of these days I should count how many pieces of paper Hayden goes through in a day. It's a lot! Thankfully, Jerry brings home a bunch of recycling from work for us to use as drawing paper. Nobody minds that it's got door and hardware specs on one side.

So that's what has been keeping us busy this summer. How about you?

Swimming Lessons

We're doing swimming lessons a little different this year for the boys. In previous years we've signed them up for daily swimming lessons. This year, knowing I needed to take it easy, we decided to try the weekly lessons.  Since the weekly lessons are in the evening Jerry is able to take them. They won't get in as many lessons this way, but it better than skipping the whole summer all together!

Justus and Eli

The only bummer thing is that the class for the two little boys wasn't offered at the same time. So instead of lessons, they just get to go hang out in the baby pool. They're not complaining though!

Wesley (on the far left)

Wesley is in Level 3 this year and it is quite a challenge for him (in a good way). He is learning real strokes, diving, and how to tread water. Eli and Justus are in Level 2 and doing really great! It's hard to believe a few short years ago swimming lessons were a struggle for them (especially Eli).

All the boys love to go to the pool. We got a season pass and even though we aren't going nearly as much as last year it has already paid for itself! Even JD is tall enough to go in the big pool without being held now. He still enjoys the baby pool too, but it is nice to all swim as a family instead of splitting up between the two pools.

On hot days like today even Mom and Dad enjoy the pool! We're hoping the baby stays put all summer so we can get lots more swimming in!