FREE FUN!!!!

Living on a budget sometimes limits some of the fun we get to have but recently I have discovered A LOT of things we can do for free! Today we went to story time at the library and then went to Chuckie Cheese. You dont have to pay to get in and I brought lunch with us- the best part is the kids had so much fun. We (Courtney, Amanda, and I) decided we will make this a weekly event.

Michael playing with puzzles at the library.

Making a mess!

Lauren working on a puzzle after story time.

Chuckie Cheese

Michael is a little young for the things they had but he still had fun!

Pink milk please....

We have been struggling to get Lauren to drink more milk for a long time. I thought chocolate milk would do the trick so a few weeks ago I bought organic chocolate syrup and made Lauren chocolate milk. She HATED it and refused to drink it. I then came across organic strawberry milk (or pink milk as we call it) at whole foods. I bought one small bottle for Lauren not knowing if she would like it.... she LOVES it! I am mixing it with plain milk to make it last longer and she has been drinking milk with every meal now plus her normal sippy cup before bed (which she will drink plain).

Lauren and her "bubble" straw drinking her "pink" milk.

The Big Fruit

It has been ridiculously hot out so we have been doing everything we can think of indoors lately. Today we went up to Wellington Mall with Amanda, Nathan, and Alex, and Traci and Brady to play on the big fruit (its a play area made up of soft plastic things to climb on- the theme is breakfast and it has mostly large fruit items (hence why we call it the big fruit). This was the first time Michael could actually play there, both kids really enjoyed themselves.

Lauren's new "friend"

Michael has an inflatable duck bath tub that was given to us from a friend and up until a few days ago Lauren was terrified of it. It was so bad she would actually tremble and cry if it came anywhere by her. A few days ago Pop Pop got on the floor with her and played with the tub to help her with her fear. Not only did he help her get over her fear, she is now totally obsessed with the tub. The "nack, nack" as she calls it since a duck says "quack, quack" has to do everything with her.

Here they are watching Yo Gabba Gabba together.

She even sleeps with it. (Of course I took it out and put it on the floor)

Bella and Romeo

We have been dog sitting for friends for about 2 weeks while they traveled throughout Europe on a family vacation and today we had to say goodbye. Lauren and Michael both enjoyed having dogs their size in the house (a Chihuahua, Bella, and a Papillon, Romeo). Lauren loved walking the dogs every day with Daddy while Michaels favorite thing to do was play in Bella's crate. I felt horrible for Lauren when they left she came inside screaming and crying while calling out their names. She was devastated- as far as she knew these were her pets and they were being taken away.

While Michael played in the crate Lauren decided to close the door and say "Michael's home"

Lauren and Romeo

Mommy's Blanket

A few trips to the doctor

Lauren developed a boil over the weekend that I took her to have looked at Monday morning. I had a feeling we might be dealing with a staph infection and sure enough I was right (Mommy knows best!) It kills me I have to give her a 10 day dose of ridiculously strong antibiotics and an antibiotic injection on top of that but we have to get rid of this. Tuesday we went to the doctor for me - I also have a staph infection.

Lauren at the doctor.

Lauren's boil has drained some and the redness has gotten much better, now we are waiting for the hard lump that has developed to go down. If it doesn't we will have to see a pediatric surgeon to have it drained- I'm praying we don't have to go that route. The medicine she's on has made her pretty moody and she's not feeling very good but it's working so we don't want to change it. I can't wait to be done with it and get my happy child back.

Granny and Pop Pop Are Here to Visit!

Granny and Pop Pop showed up today with their motor home to visit for a few weeks. Lauren and Michael are very happy to have them around to play with. We all went to Cracker Barrel for dinner (Pop Pop and Granny like the Sunday special there- fried chicken!!!). Lauren enjoyed playing on the rocking chairs and playing with the giant checkers board before we ate.

What A Day!

Today didn't start off on a very good note- Lauren woke up on the wrong side of the bed but I was excited because it was the first day of summer session for story time at the library. I knew the Mommy read and play with me would make Lauren happy. We got ready and packed lunch since we were having lunch with Ilene and Sydney after and headed to the library. When we got there Lauren was extremely excited and all she kept saying was "go play, go play". Come to find out you have to register for the open play now and they said all summer programs at that library are already full for the whole summer! Talk about breaking my one year olds heart. She cried so much as I brought her back to the car and kept repeating "go play" over and over- poor girl (this was not making her bad mood improve!)
We headed off to meet Sydney and Ilene for lunch at Stir Crazy (one of my favorite restaurants) and things got much better once Lauren realized she liked my noodles and they have ice cream (if you ever want to get Lauren to behave in a restaurant order her ice cream!). Michael of-course was being an angel all morning (THANK GOD! I really don't know if I would have made it through the morning if he wasn't).
We headed home from lunch to do naps. After naps I set up the kids new splash mat in the backyard, they had a great time- here are some pictures:

A typical Sunday at the beach...

I spent the afternoon at the beach with the kids and Nams just like we do every other Sunday. Aunt Pat stopped by too. The kids had a lot of fun today. Lately we have been staying up at the pool since Lauren loves swimming but today we went down to the water. Michael has gotten so much more mobile and loved crawling around in the sand (and eating it of-course). He has no fear, just like Lauren so he was crawling right into the water. After getting completely covered in sand we showered the kids and met up with John, John's friend Eric, and Pop-Pop for dinner at mellow mushroom. That was a bit of an adventure since the kids were already tired but for the most part they were well behaved (thank god for ice-cream it's what kept Lauren quiet during most of dinner).