Summer Vacation Recap--Week 3

It's been another busy week at our house!

Friday, June 8-- I took the 3 girls to the ISU Dairy Farm.  June is National Dairy Month, so they were offering free tours to see how they milk cows, cool the milk, and store the milk until it's shipped to the processing plant.  We got to see a calf that was just about 10 minutes (yes, you read that correctly) old.  The free milk and ice cream samples were pretty great. 

In the afternoon, Myah, Maysen, Brandon, and I joined his parents and brother's family at Adventureland in Altoona, IA.  It had been years since I'd been there, and I had obviously not realized that I'm not as young as I used to be.  Way too much spinning, swinging, and zipping around for this ol' mom!

Saturday, June 9--All 3 girls and I joined my college friend, Sarah (Robinson) Streeter and her two sons at Chuck E. Cheese in West Des Moines.  We were there for about two hours--the perfect amount of time do devour some pizza and let the kids spend 25 tokens each (thanks to a good coupon, of course!). 

 After a two-hour nap upon returning home, we tried to go to the pool for about an hour.  Someone pooped in the pool (thankfully it wasn't one of my kids!) so we had to go home after only half an hour.

Sunday, June 10--I finished pulling the weeds in the landscaping around the house....my least favorite job for sure!  The girls played in the water table and we walked around the block before it got too hot outside.  I got to have some one-on-one time with my beautiful sister (lunch at Panera Bread and a quick swoop through TJ Maxx).  The 3 girls and I spent about an hour at the "Big Bucket," which was enough in this heat!  Spent some outside time in the sprinkler with the Geisler Family in the backyard!

Monday, June 11--I always make the weekly menu sometime over the weekend, but since there really weren't any activities on our calendar for today, I saved the actual grocery shopping for this nice Monday morning.  HyVee has these little green carts for kids so we really look like quite the crew when we grocery shop!  Myah and Maysen still take a nap about every other day so everyone in the house took a much needed two-hour nap.....glorious!!  I took M&M to the Big Bucket for about an hour.  The day was concluded with supper at home, and a trip to Orange Leaf--thanks to a gift card I had gotten from a student.  If you haven't discovered the Fro-Yo revolution yet, you're really missing out!!

Tuesday, June 12--I had looked ahead at the weather for the week and saw that today was going to be the coolest day--and too cool to consider the pool, which was ok (that's why we went the last three days in a row!).  We had planned ahead for lunch at the Pizza Ranch (due to some coupons soon to expire for free kid's buffets--can't beat that!).  Then I took Myah and Maysen to the library for their first K-Club experience.  It's an hour of activities at the library just for kids going into (or just finishing) Kindergarten.

Wednesday, June 13--In an effort to keep Mylie from forgetting her babysitter, Sue, she went and spent the day with her and the other kids at the day care.  She was excited when I dropped her off so that was a good sign.  Myah and Maysen and I went to visit my Aunt Suzi (who lives two blocks away, but we rarely see her) and had a tea party and played some games with her.  While I was at my annual physical, Brandon took the girls to the pet store to look around after lunch at HyVee Chinese.  They had as much fun there as they would at the zoo--and it's FREE!  We chose to spend our last few hours without Mylie at the Big Bucket--it wasn't the warmest day of the year, but that's what they wanted to do.

Thursday, June 14--I am running a 10K on Saturday morning, so I needed to get out for one last run before race day.  I did a 'quick' 3 miles and then took the girls on a 2 mile walk.  Mylie was in the wagon, the other girls actually walked.  It was a beautiful morning.  We made lunch at home and took a nice afternoon nap. We rounded out the day with an hour and a half at the Big Bucket.

Friday, June 15--Brandon had grad class again in the morning so the girls and I did some work around the house, finished the yard work (is it ever really finished??).  We went for lunch at Noodles and Co. and then to the wading pool.  Not only do we have the Big Bucket, but also this nice little wading pool.

It costs $1 (whereas we have a season pass to the aquatic center), but it was definitely worth the money because sometimes I just don't have the energy to chase Mylie in the larger setting.  We went home early afternoon to rest and then Rooney came to visit while Eric and Kelsey went to a wedding.


Saturday, June 16--I gave running another try with the Hope Run for Hospice 10K.  It turned out to be a nice morning and it the run felt good.  Brandon and the girls were at the finish line cheering me on so that made it extra special.  The girls have a birthday party to attend this afternoon and my parents are coming down to visit.  I think Brandon and I are going to go to the 'dollar theater' to watch The Lucky One to celebrate out anniversary that's coming up next week.

Next week, we have Vacation Bible School so that will take care of our mornings.  We hope to also give the Ames Farmer's Market a try. 

Some (more) randomness:
It's no wonder Mylie won the Raising Reader's Photo Contest and is featured on their magnet.  This is how I find her in her room often.  Pulling books off of her shelf and looking through them. How sweet is that?!?!