My Perfect 2-Day Date!

I just had the best date EVER!!!! So to explain I have to tell you about my AMAZING friend...okay, I have lots of amazing friends (you know who you are!), but I am going to tell you about one amazing friend in particular. When you hear the phrase, "anxiously engaged in a good cause" that's her life mantra. She is always doing stuff for other people, both in and out of her family. She took my kids for days on end when I was up in Logan so much last year. She is always smiling, and to top it all off, she is as sweet as they come. My secret wish is to job shadow her one day to see how she does it...I just think she's awesome.

So anyways, she "forced" me to let her take my children overnight so Bryan and I could have a date...OVERNIGHT! I know...she's crazy. I am not a sleepover person, I am pretty much totally against my kids ever having sleepovers other than with family for more than one reason, but she feels like family so I "just this once"-ed it :) She even talked me into keeping Asher (SOMEHOW...she got him to take a bottle...no idea how, but she did!) They had the cutest family night with all the kids and wrote letters to the missionaries serving in our ward...again...amazing. She almost talked Aeden into being potty-trained...but not quite :) My kids always come home happier and cuter than when I leave them with her and her family, so that helps with my separation anxiety I get when I have to leave them.

Our "date" started off with Bryan and I enjoying a blissfully quiet lunch together...we carried on an entire conversation without interruption! Then we went shopping together...do you know how many stores you can hit in an hour when you aren't dealing with 4 carseats??? Then we came home and took a break and had dinner, and went to see Indiana Jones 4. It was a little on the cheesy side, but it's Indiana Jones...who cares? It was so much fun! I can't remember the last movie I went to where I didn't miss at least half of it because of taking kids out.

I started missing the kids pretty bad about the time we were driving home from the movie. I had to leave a bottle in her door for Asher, so I listened closely for any little wimper so I'd have an excuse to bring them home, but it was totally quiet and peaceful...how does she do it???

This morning, I got to go to the temple before we had to pick up the kids. Bryan was so cute and washed all my stuff and ironed it late last night for me so I could be ready to go this morning. He even woke me up on time (I know, I'm 13.). I am a little ashamed to admit it's been over 8 months since I've been to the temple and probably at least a year since I have done a session. Back in the day I'd go once a week, but that hardly seems possible now. I won't make excuses...but we'll talk about my guilt complex and why I hate asking people to babysit some other time :) I even got to sit next to a good friend during the session. It was peaceful and wonderful and just exactly what I needed.

To top it all off, I picked up my kids, and they were all happy, dressed, and didn't throw a 20 minute temper tantrum when it was time to leave. The perfect day....

Water Party!

Today, we threw a little going away party for some friends of ours, and it was a blast! Normally, my parties are pretty lame, and maybe this one was too, but it was so much fun, so I thought I'd share what we did.



First we played this game called the Octopus Relay. It was sooooo much fun, and it was way easy. The instructions are on the link, but one change I made was I hot glued some google eyes, a pom pom nose, and a pipe cleaner for a mouth. The kids played that for like 10 minutes...which in toddler time is practically an eternity.





Then we did the water balloon toss with the towels....kind of like water balloon volleyball, only without a net, with out teams, and without rules of any kind. It pretty much turned into a water balloon fight.





Then we played dodgesponge. It's basically prison ball with wet sponges. I got the idea from somewhere like 4 years ago for girls camp, but I can't remember where to give them credit. Anywho, you get two buckets and fill them with big poofy car washing sponges (I ripped the sponges in half). Fill the buckets with water and add the sponges. Divide the kids into two teams...each team gets a bucket. Basically, you huck wet sponges at each other...if you are hit, you are in prison, and you can get back in the came if someone catches a sponge or if you hit someone while you're in prison. The boys ESPECIALLY loved this game.


The rest of the party was just playing on the slip n slide, the kiddie pool with the slide in it, and jumping on the wet tramp. It was wonderful.

I don't get to do summer parties very often because all of our birthdays fall between fall and spring, so this was a fun opportunity to know what summer birthday kids feel like :)