We've had a really nice week, considering we
should be at the beach now. Actually, I take that back- today would've been our day to spend hours in the car. So, I'm thankful for that to have not happened today. I am
way too tired to think about driving that far. Stephen had the week off and we had a fun and productive week.
On Tuesday, we decided to blow up our new purchase- a backyard pool/play center thing. Man, this thing has been a hit!
On Wednesday, we took the girls to daycare bright and early and had our 3rd annual house cleaning day! Woohoo!! I'm talking, vacuuming the blinds/vents/couches/mattresses above and beyond the obvious floors and carpet. I washed all the curtains, windexed all the windows and glass doors, Stephen caulked windows and any cracks in the house, dusted, mopped, cleaned the fridge, cleaned the oven, washed the fronts of all cabinets, etc, etc, etc. Whew! At least we have a clean house now!! Yay!
Thursday, we took the girls to daycare again, and Stephen played golf and I did Pinterest craft/girly movie day. I got some cute crafts done for the kiddos' rooms- a hairbow holder for Taylor's room, a wall painting thing for her room, and I painted the letters for Parker's name to hang on his wall. I also made a necklace for yours truly. I'll have to post pictures later, when I actually take some.
Today, we decided to venture out to the Yellow River Game Ranch. I went there back when I was a camp counselor in college, but couldn't really remember what it was like (yes, that was many, many moons ago!). I thought the girls would like it. (Insert side note here: my girls, especially Sydney, are unreasonably/insanely afraid of animals). But, I thought- the animals will be behind fences/cages, it'll be cool.
You can buy food at the ticket place to feed the animals, but I knew my girls would have no interest in that, whatsoever. So, we walk out and, right away, we see a deer, waiting for some yummy treats. Sydney immediately gets in panic mode. We promise her that the deer is behind the (rather low) fence, and that it won't jump out. A nice family is right behind us, and they have plenty of treats for the deer. All of a sudden, that deer jumped the fence to get close to that family. Oh, goodness, that about did Sydney in... and we were all of 10 feet into the one mile long path. Apparently, lots of friendly animals can walk the grounds freely. Needless to say, Stephen carried Sydney for most of the way, though it fortunately did get a little better. We got to see a lot of animals, like foxes, bears, coyotes, alpacas, ducks, turkeys, geese, roosters, cougars, skunks, pot-bellied pigs, and more.
This was the look on her face for most of the morning!
Taylor was pretty content with her goldfish, except when the deer tried to take a bite of them.
Checking out the buffalo.
See that top sign? That's where the water rose to in the floods in September, 2009. I totally remember it was on 9/23 because it was Sydney's first birthday, and they actually cancelled school! So, I got to spend that day with Sydney. :)
The pigs didn't smell very good.
We went to lunch at Chick Fil-A and then hit the "pool" in the backyard again. Since this is what we were facing today...
I picked a great time to be pregnant, huh??
... all four of us ended up in the pool! I didn't realize we were out there for almost 4 hours. Poor Taylor was so sleepy this evening that she fell asleep at the dinner table. I am so sunburnt, it's ridiculous. At least we look like we've been beach bums all week. :)
I'm thinking that we'll be hitting the pool this weekend, too! (105 degrees?? Seriously?)
So, a fun week was had by all. We had a good mix of practical activities, fun things for me and Stephen, the girls had fun at school, and we had some good family bonding time. Plus, time with the neighbors is always fun, too, which we got to do this week. Good times!
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