The Root Beer Stand II

If you will remember, we visited the Root Beer Stand before, Raigan was just a wee little one and my photography skills were way better. I'm slackin' that department of life at the current moment, but hope to practice my skills on a more regular basis again. 

But we went and I documented it none the less, even if some may have been with my iPhone. I also added to the repertoire by throwing in a fun spur of the moment trip to Sharron Woods. God bless my husband for always being supportive and go with the flow to my crazy ideas for our adventures.

Our day started out in this fashion which is always promising; the girls are getting along, clean, dressed, have hair accessories. This is way above some day's standards.

The Root Beer Stand is awesome because it has kegs? barrels? large amounts of homemade creamy root beer and the best root beer floats known to man.

They have a large play structure in the back for the kids to play on.

After we stuffed our bellies with root beer, ice cream, and chilli dogs we rode right up the street to Sharon Woods and rented a petal boats spur of the moment on this beautiful spring day. You can find info about boat rental in Sharon Woods here.

Easter 2013

We have our annual Easter Egg Hunt party with the girls' cousins. I love Easter and it's my favorite holiday. I think I mention that every Easter, but it never changes. I love that it's the start of spring and something new. I love that these kids will have a tradition that they will forever remember also. It's amazing to see the bigs that were once littles helping the little ones out.

The annual Easter egg dying, always chaotic and always fun.

The food setup, or what is left of it rather:

For our egg hunt each year we hide a key in one of the eggs and the finder of the key gets a large chocolate bar or bunny or some kind of large prize; this is this years:

We take this picture every year and they all change so much:

The finder of the key:

When I was a little girl as young as I can remember I used to help my mom purchase things for Easter baskets and make them. I was the 3rd and last child of the family so the secret of the Easter bunny and Santa didn't last. I still love carrying on this tradition with my girls and they think the Easter Bunny really does hide their basket every year.

The iced coffee is what the Easter Bunny brought for me:

Happy Easter my girls, I hope you enjoy every minute of your childhood.

I hope to start a new Easter tradition by putting a Reds shirt or some kind of merchandise in their Easter basket for Opening Day.

Happy Easter 2013!

Books

My kids and their books:

I love bookstores. It doesn't matter if it's a national chair or a mom and pop (those I do love more, though). I hope that there is a whole category of my girls' childhood memory that holds the hours we spend in bookstores. 

I had a short moment of envy when we were in this particular bookstore because I wanted to purchase every single children's book there for my kids library, but obviously do not have the means to do that.  Short after, I soon realized that my girls already  have a good portion of the books from our many "you can pick out one book to purchase" trips. I also thought about how beautiful these books on these shelves are with their nice clean covers and fresh spines that aren't yet worn, but there's something to be said about our books at home. They show that they have been held, read, played with, read again many of times and there is a beauty just as beautiful to the worn, tattered books in my girls library.

Random Thoughts

My brain works in a way that a psychiatrist might describe as a flight of ideas, but that's me. In case you're not familiar:

flight of ideas,

 (in psychiatry) a continuous stream of talk in which the patient switches rapidly from one topic to another and each subject is incoherent and unrelated to the preceding one or is stimulated by some environmental circumstance (source).

 I like getting all my thoughts out because there are always a million things running thought my mind.




First, I'm tired.I am not a night-shifter as a mother. Pre-baby days definitely, but now not so much. I'm not really sure what my resolve to this is, but I am getting less sleep I think than the days I had a newborn. I have tried ear plugs, black out shades, etc. and just cannot sleep during daytime hours.

I keep half joking and half serious say that I am going to write a book about my friends and I and our lives, because sometimes they are crazier than a reality TV show. I think it would be great if they gave me permission to write about the craziness in a book or on this blog, because I think it's too much to contain amongst ourselves.Our careers, the men in our lives, the ridiculous drama that seems to find us sometimes; it's pretty interesting stuff.

I have had a horrible case of the baby crazies (a strong urge to have another baby-after seeing other people's babies) lately.

My phone and computer are both starting to give out. I think between the kids and I, we  have dropped my laptop one too many times, and it takes 20 minutes to load a 30 second video and watch it and part of the screen is falling off.   My phone's touch screen has a mind of it's own and will just randomly take over and start to open things when it wants to without even touching it. If anyone knows anything about me they would know that these are vital to my existence, sadly enough, they are right up there with oxygen.It's how I schedule things, pay bills, communicate, and maintain my sanity.

Halloween is almost here and I love this holiday. Our family is dressing up as superheros and I am so excited to wear our costumes, even though I have to go into work after our trick or treating.  We haven't carved our pumpkins yet- but I think with the 80 degree weather around here tonight may just be a perfect night to do it. I will probably have to go out and buy some more candy because every year in an attempt to plan ahead we buy candy for trick or treaters and then we end up eating most of it before Halloween gets here...

Thanks readers for listening to my random thoughts of Thursday. Raigan thinks they are hilarious:

Fall

Fall Traditions

I think everyone that lives in an area of the country that offers crisp fall October days cannot deny that this season is for them. It has so much to offer and is full of fall traditions for my little family.We love fall church festivals, winning inflatable sharks, and taking naps snuggling them. When I came in to check on her at nap and she was legitimately snuggling this thing and sleeping; it cracked me up.

 I love that with each season there is a fresh start to things. A fresh new weather pattern to experience, new routines, new ways to spend our days and weekends, and the city never fails to deliver. There are always festivals, new restaurants to try, farms with pumpkin patches to visit, and even our favorite familiar places to revisit over and over.

I hope my children never outgrow loving to get their faces painted, and I don't think they will. That's our "go-to/ gotta make sure we hit up that booth" at every festival.

I think it's so important to ingrain certain things into my children's minds: the importance of our family, traditions, and enjoying the little things in life together.