Staycation Days #2,3,4, and Josh's Birthday Party

Tuesday on Spring Break I thought I would attempt to take the kids bowling. I say attempt because I was trying to do it all by myself since Aaron was at work. We headed over to the Syracuse Family Center where they have Bowling and Galactic Miniature Golfing. I hadn't planned on taking the kids miniature golfing, but they had a special that morning and Daniel and Josh begged me to to miniature golfing. I caved and so we went Galactic Golfing which is miniature golfing in the dark with black lights. I took a picture right before we went inside to miniature golf. It was the last time you see Sarah and Daniel smiling. Once we got back inside they have the course set up as a ship wreck with storm sounds--lightning and thundering. Once Sarah heard this she took off back outside the golf course. She did not like it at all. I had to leave everyone else inside and go get her. When I brought her back inside she just screamed. I tried to show her how to putt her ball, but she would have none of it and only wanted to be held. Also as soon as we got back inside Daniel looked terrified and told me he had changed his mind and didn't want to go golfing after all. I basically heard this the whole time we were in the golf course:
Daniel kept screaming that he needed lubs (loves) and Sarah just was screaming. I ended up carrying Sarah and reassuring Daniel while trying to push Noah's stroller through the course one handed. I was glad Josh and Matthew cheated their way through the whole course so we got finished rather quickly. Whew!!

Next we headed over to do some bowling. Sarah was not to fun to be with because she thought every turn should be her turn. She is not very good at taking turns so she would scream when we let the boys take their turns. She would try to escape my grasp and when she did she would run over and pick up a ball and try to throw it down the lane. She was a handful!! There were times I had to hold her in my one arm while I bowled using the other arm. Finally towards the end of the game she finally figured out everyone got two attempts to bowl the ball then it was her turn again. Unfortunately about this time she got a strike which meant she only got one turn that round and it set her off all over again. The kids have developed their own technique of bowling. They like to do some rocket bowling. They back up all the way to where we sit and run as fast as they can toward the lane and throw their ball. They think they get a better score this way. However, Josh attempted this technique and it turned out into some parallel bowling. He backed up and started running, but he tripped and ended up throwing the ball toward the people next to us. Not down another lane, but actually AT the people next to us. That was the last time I let them do rocket bowling. I think the people around us let out a sigh of relief when they heard me say no more!! Here's one of the rare times the kids were all sitting down with no one crying for two minutes. I had to take a picture because I was so shocked this short moment even happened at all!!Wednesday we headed over to the Dinosaur Park. It was a relatively nice day so I wanted to be outside to enjoy it! I think the kids liked it, too. Luckily Aaron got off work a little early so he got to come and help me out. I am always up for some help!!I love this sign. It says, "World's Most Dangerous Creature". I thought it was funny to pose the kids behind the cage.We were walking around when Daniel climbed up a sign to get a better look. That's when I noticed he hadn't bothered to put socks on that day. I asked him why and he said he couldn't find any socks so he just decided not to wear any. Nice!The kids had fun playing on the playgrounds. Josh figured out how to crawl on top. Daniel and Sarah saw him up there and tried to follow without much success.While we were there our visit got cut short because we got notice that someone wanted to view our house in 30 minutes and unfortunately we hadn't left the house in "viewing" condition. We were about a 30 minute drive away from home so we raced home hoping to beat the realtor bringing the people by. We did a fast mad cleaning frenzy and got the house in presentable condition and were out before the realtor came by. Whew!! Having the house up for sale and keeping it spotless at all times is quite difficult with 5 little mess makers--6 if you include Aaron, too.

Thursday was Baby Animal Days up in Logan. I thought the kids would like seeing the baby farm animals in addition to the baby bears and other exotic animals they had there. It was raining that morning, but I thought we would attempt it anyway. Here's what the drive started out like: It quickly turned into this:When we finally got up to Logan it was really snowing. I didn't want to spend the whole day outside in the cold getting snowed on. We decided to do something else. We headed over to the Gossner cheese plant. I wanted to pick up some Squeaky Cheese because I think it's pretty tasty. I, unfortunately, am the only one who thinks so in this family because no one else would eat any. Now I have a nice bag of Squeaky Cheese that probably won't get eaten because I am the only one that likes it. Nice! We then drove by the Logan Temple and Tabernacle just to look at it. On the way home we stopped by to look at the Brigham City temple under construction.Friday morning was Josh's birthday. To surprise him Aaron got up at 5 am and went to the store to pick up some balloons to decorate his new bike with. Josh was excited to come upstairs and see his first birthday present.We gave Josh the choice of a birthday party or going to the movies to see the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie and then out to lunch with a friend. He chose the movie instead of the party so that's what we did. We went to the earliest showing of the movie (because it was the cheapest) and then out to lunch. That movie is actually quite funny for adults and kids. Aaron and I laughed quite a bit which was surprising to me. The kids actually enjoyed the whole movie because we didn't have to take anyone out at all during the movie--including Sarah and Noah. It was great! Next our friends joined us for lunch at McDonald's. That's where Josh blew out his birthday candles on his birthday cake decorated with a book as per Josh's request. He wanted it decorated with a book because he loves to read so much.One of Josh's presents was the movie Tangled which we watched later that evening for Family Movie Night. We liked that movie, too.Josh loved getting some new Wii games in addition to his bike and movie. Also while G&G T were up at our house for Noah's birthday they let Josh open his birthday present then too. Josh was excited to get another "strong" shirt and some books. It is a muscle shirt, but for some reason my kids call them "strong" shirts. Kind of funny. Josh doesn't know how to sleep in. Even on Spring Break he has been waking up at 6 am and getting in the shower. This in turn wakes up Daniel who gets in the shower with Josh. However, getting up that early every morning doesn't work out so well for Daniel. He has been "Chuckles" (ornery) all week long. I know he must be exhausted because in addition to the orneriness he falls asleep as soon as he's in the car for any longer than 30 seconds. Here he was yesterday afternoon: We have had a busy, but fun week. However, I am glad to get back in the regularly scheduled routine of school next week. That's because I am about to pull a Daniel and fall asleep if I sit still anywhere for longer than 30 seconds. It doesn't help because Noah thinks that sleeping through the night is not a fun thing to do anymore.....Zzzzzzzzzzzzz