Our Zoo at the Zoo

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Our Staycation continued with a trip to the zoo.  This was, hands down, one of the best purchases we have made in the past year.  It was a zoo membership.  We had to renew it when we went this time and we upgraded to the wristband membership so we have unlimited access to all the fun stuff including…

 Feeding the giraffes.  (Random guy in yellow is not with us.)

 And the sky high ropes course.  Which all of the kids old enough to participate LOVED, thereby proving that they are my little monkeys (not that they are from monkeys…sorry, no evolution around here).
 Ace stayed with Josiah and had to give a bit of moral support.
 Liam never hesitated, never looked down.  He just took off and had a blast.  I don’t think he would have come down if Mark told him he could stay up there.
 Aside from  having to see the elephants, Bryant enjoyed the gorillas.  They indulged us by lounging by the observation window munching some food.
 Malachi loved the fish.
 That would be Liam at the top of the rock wall.  It took a couple of tries but he was persistent and made it to the top.
 That’s Zoe at the top there.

Josiah made it to the top eventually too as did Ace.  All in all, we had a wonderful time.  We can’t wait to go back.

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Happy Birthday Sir Josiah!

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We live in a great neighborhood and for a small fee/deposit, we can rent out the pavilion for birthday parties.  That makes life so easy for us since there are three within a month of each other.  Josiah’s up first on the birthday train.  He requested a knight cake but then I found a cool pin on a castle cake.  I asked him if I could surprise him and he agreed.
Here is how it turned out.  The only thing I have to say is you need A LOT of chocolate icing to glue things together and such.  I layered it three layers.  It was also a TON of chocolate which didn’t bother me a bit but may have been a bit too rich for the kids.

Enjoying pizza and friends!

 He is such a cool kid.

Josiah loved the cake but wanted it to look a bit more realistic so they brought knights to the party and decorated it.  I thought they did a great job with it.

Ge & Granddaddy didn’t get to come to the actual party so they came a bit earlier and created their own party.  Josiah didn’t mind (actually they love when grandparents have to come at a different time than their party…it makes it feel like it lasts longer)!

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Shall we golf???

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Apparently, it’s now hip to post out of order.  Here is the first stop on our family Staycation adventures.  Putt putt and laser tag.

 We tried really hard to keep score.  Then we finally just gave up.  Mark hit a few hole in ones as did Ace and Josiah.  Josiah actually hit quite a bit but, since we weren’t keeping score, I have no clue how many.

 By about whole 10 we decided to play, “Don’t let the ball stop moving” or “Speed Golf”

 And then it was inside to cool off.  The big kids (including Mark) hit up the laser tag area.
 I love how Zoe can look girly and deadly all at the same time.
Ceili Rain’s first trip in to the laser tag.  She was equally as cute and deadly.  Okay, only to those who had vests around their waists.
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I’m a Puppet

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Ya’ll all know our family is weird.  And as such, our kids have never really freaked out over puppets.  They love them in fact.  We received notice that The Cat in the Hat was going to be performed at The Center for Puppetry Arts so while we were in Atlanta we knew we wanted to go see that.  They did a phenomenal job and our ticket included a “create a creature” workshop where the kids got to make puppets.  We also got to tour the museum which featured puppets from around the world.  It wasn’t cheap but since we didn’t have to pay for our trip to Imagine It, we decided it was well worth it.
 Bryant’s silly face puppet.

 Yes, we thought this was just really cool.
 Shadow puppet making time.

 Ta da!
Our creature creators and their creations.
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Just Imagine

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June began our summer Staycation.  We plotted out several places to go and things to do in and around where we live.  The first stop was miniature golf and I forgot to get pictures.  Later in that same week, we traveled to Atlanta.  We are members at children’s museum there and this was our first trip.
 Working in the “garden.”

 Farm work is tough stuff.

 Liam the grocer.
 Ceili Rain was “fishing,” but had time to stop for a pose.
 Look what I caught!

They had a special exhibit of the 50 states.  This was in one of them…it was supposed to be like you were scuba diving (I’m guessing Hawaii).

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Color me…

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June was a hard month.  I’m not going to lie.  It was just plain tough.  The kids were fine but the emotional side of all we were going through took it’s toll on me that month.
So, to give us some smiles, I decided we would make good use of all of the broken crayons we had left over from previous years.  I purchased small loaf pans from the dollar store.  I also bought a couple of cute ice molds.  We had some candy molds in the house as well and we put those to use.
First, we peeled each broken crayon.  I mean each and every one.  It took two days.  Zoe and Ace were wiped out after that.
We separated the crayons into the loaf pans based on their shade/tint.

 Our first experiment was to put all of the crayons in to one pan.

 Yeah, brown was not what we were going for.

Next, we decided to melt all the crayons on very low heat.  They stayed in their individual loaf pans and after pouring the melted crayons in to the molds, the pans went back in to the oven to stay melted.  Please note:  not all of the crayons will melt.  Either they are too old or just a cheap brand.  But the ones that did were so cool.

The kids got to choose a mold to make specifically.  Some got creative and asked for different colors in one mold.  That gave us the swirl effect we were after when we dumped several colors in one pan.

 The final products!

These were so much fun and just a smidge of work.  The kids loved the result and are now reusing several crayons.

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At the Lake

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We had promised the kids that after the reunion they could play at the lake in the water.  They were thrilled.  So we threw on some swimsuits and headed down to the muddy water (this was the start of the 40 plus days of rain all of us in the south got).

 Buckets meant lots of opportunities to get siblings soaking wet.

In the end, everyone was all smiles.
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Reunited

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While visiting Papa and Grandmere, we were able to attend a family reunion.  The kids had a wonderful time at the lake.  Especially since their cousins were all there.

 Uncle B couldn’t resist trying to fix something. 
 Mr. T.  He’s Malachi’s age and just as adorable.
 Cousin G hanging out with Malachi.
 Uncle B gathered all the cousins to go check out the lake.
 Can you say ADORABLE?!  I love those cheeks.  Did you know that they jiggle when he walks?

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Happy, Happy, Happy

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Papa’s birthday was the end of May and we just so happened to be getting together around then.  Way back in February, we (meaning the sons and their spouses) cooked up a fun surprise party for Papa.  Even further back, last October when while in Chattanooga, Mark and I introduced everyone to Duck Dynasty.  Some say it was a bad move but Papa has been hooked.  We decided to do a Duck Dynasty party complete with beards, bandanas, duck calls and the theme song.
 Uncle B gave a pep talk and showed off their attire for the evening.
 Cousin H all decked out.

 The whole Duck Dynasty crew.
 The main organizers.  Grandmere can blame them for the silliness that ensued.

Needless to say, Papa was thrilled.    We also got him a “Happy, Happy, Happy” t-shirt and a Si tea glass.

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Continuing on…Getting Fit Update

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I finished up 42 days to fit last week.  I’m still continuing with the changes I made in my diet and adding to my exercise/strength training.

So, here are my stats:

I’ve lost a total of 10 pounds.
I’ve lost one inch in my arms, eight inches in my waist, four inches in my hips, and four and half inches in my thighs.

I’m technically down a size.  Although I don’t have any real capris that I can wear or flattering skirts so, for now, until they fall off, I’m staying in the size I was in when I started this journey.  Except in tops,  some of my tops are nice and loose so I can wear the next size down.

I have somewhere around two months to lose ten more pounds.  So, I’m soldiering on.  After the cruise, I am hoping to continue on track with losing weight (counting whatever I gain on the cruise if the food is really good :).

So off we go.  Two days cycling and one day of high intensity interval training (10 reps of 1 minute stairs with a 40 second recovery) and three days strength training.  I’m trying to increase my cycling to 30 minutes but the humidity makes my body protest.  Still, I was able to get 3 miles in to 20 minutes when I cycled by myself.  Obviously when I have a bike partner (my amazing daughter), I go a tad slower.  I’d love to see 4 miles in 20 minutes but I think that will take a bit of time.

I’m well aware that a plateau could happen at any time and I’m prepping myself by planning out other exercises or how many more I will do.  I’m not too worried about it and will cross that hurdle if I come to it.  My strength training will be easy to add more circuits to and I can always swap a cycling day for more HIITs (even though I would miss cycling).  I can also increase my cycling time.  So, there are more options should my weight and measurements go stagnant.

So, onward and upward my friends.  Anyone else working on getting fit and staying that way?

Oh, pictures.  Opps.  Yeah, about those.  Soon.  I promise.

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