They Get So Big, So Fast

I'm late in mentioning it, but Isaac turned 9 on the 28th of last month. This year we skipped the party on favor of a family game of laser tag. We went to Laser Quest last week and it was way more fun than I was expecting. It also cost a bit more than I'd like to pay but it's not a bad price. I didn't get any good pictures of the action because I was busy playing! I tried to get a few pictures before the fight went down but it was black lighted so they didn't turn out well.

Don't you just love the guy in the background?

In other birthday related activities, Isaac spent the day before his birthday at home to have a day with us to celebrate. He was treated to birthday breakfast at IHOP. We still owe him a bit of an Isaac day because we ended up spending a lot of the day car shopping. Yep, we are in the market for another car. To get straight to the fact, we were in the market. We've decided for now that another car goes on the back burner. Didn't want to trade in a car that's paid for to finance a car, just didn't seem like the best idea.

Trick-or-Treating: Kid Style

First off, I do not have a single, solitary photo of Isaac. My camera was at home and it was too dark to use my craptastic camera phone and I forget to ask Blaze or Kyle to use theirs when we actually got inside where there was a light source. Super sorry about the lack of photos, I resorted to stealing one of Mariska in  her purple witch costume from Blaze's Facebook page.

Isaac did a repeat of his Costume from 3 years ago and went as a rockstar. He wanted to do it again since now he has Paper Jamz guitars and they actually play songs compared to using one from Guitar Hero. Funny thing though he that he completely forgot about playing the music for anyone. Kids, go figure. As for Mariska, that hat lasted all of 3.5 seconds before she was over trying to keep it on and handed it off to anyone that would carry it. After about 10 houses Isaac started to complain about being tired but after the threat of calling it quits he wasn't quite so exhausted. He also tried to pass off carrying the guitar around the same time but after being told about the LARGE candy tax involved in taking off part of costume, he snatched that sucker back fast.

After a few Mariska meltdowns and one instance where Blaze turned back to help her not get left behind but  Mariska saw that as Mommy coming to take some candy away (M's bucket would get heavy and so some candy would be offloaded, which is what sparked one Mariska meltdown) and turned away from her mom, which was hilarious to see, we headed back to base camp (that'd be Blaze's place) since it was 8 o'clock and the end of free candy time. Sheesh, that was a long sentence! 

All that running around did eventually tire Isaac out, as he didn't survive the ride home. That I really wish a had a picture of...imagine Isaac, head back, leaning on the car window with his mouth wide open. Gorgeous, right?

Hope you all had a happy Halloween and a really good treat haul. Remember parents, the cost of taking your kids out begging for candy is that you claim half their stash. Candy tax, people, candy tax.

Bouncy Bouncy

Not a lot going on here, just looking at our Wednesday with Katelynn & Emily and looking for something to do. What did we do? Go to the Bounce House in Virginia Beach, off of Lynnhaven Parkway. It was inexpensive and the kids love it. Us grownups liked it too.

Pungo Strawberry Festival

Eric & Krystal dropped by to see us late this morning before they headed out to the Strawberry Festival in Pungo. I kind of wanted to go because I hadn't been before but we already had plans to go to Lisa's and hang out in the pool (which Kyle was really looking forward to). We figured though that there was still enough time to do both we'd just be a little late out to Lisa's. Wouldn't you know however that when Kyle called Lisa she had changed her mind about going poolside since she was out all day yesterday and had gotten a bad sunburn and had decided to spend today "not moving." Our day freed up, we headed out for some strawberry pickin'. We were one of many in terms of people heading out for the festival. It took a bit of time getting there, good weather = good turnout. The festival was a bit like the Chesapeake Jubilee & the Neptune Festival in terms of the carnival rides, the food and the vendors selling clothes, accessories and other things. Pungo definitely has The Neptune Festival beat in terms of rides though.

As close to 'Modern Warfare' as Kyle's ever going to get.

My boys.

Finding out about a helicopters weight capacity (it's a lot).

Since it's Memorial day weekend the military was out with a field of various modes of transportation that the kids got to sit in. It was really cool to see boats, trucks, and even a helicopter up close and personal and see their true size. They even had some weaponry (unloaded, of course) that everyone could hold and get a real sense of their size and weight. And yes, I asked if they could recruit as young as 8. I didn't actually get a firm no now that I think about it...

Just barely taller than the wheel!

As is customary for festival visiting, we had the prerequisite funnel cake and Eric bought old fashioned soda (in a word: sweet). Krystal got to see ponies and now we have an actual picture of Kyle, Isaac and myself. Don't know that I'd call it a family picture though.

As a side note today is Kyle's first true day of not smoking and he was feeling those cravings and the accompanying mood swings. He came through it like a champ though and he managed to stay pretty upbeat. I'm real proud of you sweetie!

Sister, Sister (& Pretend Shopping plus a School Meeting)

Tuesday (one of Kyle's days off) just happened to be a day Kate didn't have to work, so we decided to spend a little time together. We started off the day with a trip to London Bridge Greenhouse & Nursery. Kyle and I were looking for something to plant in the front of the house to grow up on the pair of trellises we just added to the front of the house. A trip to the nursery is kind of like taking a mini visit to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens.

There were rock sculptures all around and of course lots and lots of plants. The sculptures are rocks that are carefully balanced on top of each other. It's really neat outdoor art. We didn't happen to buy anything though we did narrow our choices on plants for the trellis. We still have a tiny soft spot for Wisteria, but Kyle really took a liking to the Jasmine.

There was still some time before Kyle and myself needed to be school-ward bound for a meeting with Isaac's vice principal and guidance counselor, so we headed over to Ethan Allen. Their building has been in the same spot for as long as I can think if and I had never been. I didn't really find their prices to be outrageous, but they were definitely out of our price range. I found a sofa I really like, it happens to very strongly remind me of one in The Dick Van Dyke show (if you want to know it'd be the sofa in Rob's workplace). 

Kyle found a definite style he liked that we shall call 'Mad Men', it pretty much encompasses the things in Ethan Allen's 'Modern Glamour' collection. I'm just glad to have stumbled upon something he really took a shine to, it feels good to be able to nail a look down.

After our trip to the Land of Pretty Things We Cannot Afford, we grabbed a bite to at Chez McDonald's. I got the very fancy Happy Meal and Kyle had a frappe. 

After Mickey D's we temporarily parted ways with Kate and Emmy, so we could make it to Isaac's school. No worries, everything's fine or at least is going to be. We just had to set some things up for next year. We ended out time out by heading over to Kate's for some more brother, sister, sister-in-law, niece, nephew, cousin family time.

Actual Fun with the Children

April 29th was Kyle's birthday but he didn't get to enjoy his best birthday present until Friday. Blaze had bought him a ticket to Lunatic Luau, which was finally back after a long hiatus. Kyle took a half day out of work so that he could go around 4 o'clock. He, Blaze and Audrey had a very good time and he got a new band to listen to out of it.

Sorry for the crappy phone pic. Blame Audrey :)

As for myself, my Friday night was spent with Isaac & Mariska. We went to a free sale at a local church, where the kids each took home a small bag of toys. I got a few items for Mariska, Blaze, Isaac & Kyle, but didn't find anything for myself. Oh well. We picked up cheapie pizzas from Food Lion on our way home along with some popsicles. Once we got to the house it was private dance party time! We also rounded out the night with a little Spongebob and Rugrats. Since they were so good, I promised some something extra fun on Saturday. Kyle gave me the great idea of letting them go to town on some canvas I had that I had already painted but wasn't crazy about, and then hanging it in their room. They had fun and stayed remarkably clean.

One of our masterpieces.

He also used his floating holiday to take off Saturday which is so nice since he has Sunday off already so we get to have a full weekend. Our plans got off track as we were planning to go to a free yard sale but it ended at noon and we were still at the house at half past 12. This was all my fault as I forgot to double check the time of the sale. Oh well, you live, you learn. We decided to hit up some regular yard sales instead. Things were winding down when we were we out and that amounts to cheap prices and free toys for the kids. There's something I forgot to mention, we 'kidnapped' Mariska for our family day out.

My father had given me his car to drive home so we needed to return it. Pops had invited us to spend the night so we packed a tiny bag and headed out to my folks (Mariska included). As always the kids have been getting the The Grandparent Treatment. Free flowing juice, cartoons galore, sweet treats, the works. It's good to be a grandchild.

We also took the kids to Kangaroo Jac's yesterday. It's a bit dizzying in there because of all the the bright colors and the loudness that is to be expected in a place filled with dozens of children. But since we were there for Isaac and Mariska and they had oodles of fun, it was completely worth it.

That's pretty much our weekend. Family time with my folks which is always good.

Go Fly A Kite

Which we did. Wednesday was windy so it seemed like a good time to head out to Mount Trashmore to go fly kite. Isaac got play hooky from school since Katelynn & Emily were visiting and we made a day of it. Apparently we weren't the only ones figuring windy = kite fun since we were not alone. After we'd flown our kites (and they were thoroughly destroyed, Dollar Tree kites, what do you expect?) we headed down to Kids Cove. Kids Cove is the playground at Mount Trashmore, it's recently rebuilt so it's still quite shiny and new.

The troubles of long hair.

A bit of successful kite flying.

Prince of the (play) mountain.

King of the (play) mountain.

Perfect timing makes it look like Emily has a great grip.

Monkeying around on the monkey bars.