Who Let the Cows Out?, Rock Band Family Style, Squishy, Dirty Swim Diapers--YUCK!!

The other day Sarah wandered upstairs to the toy room and was up there awhile.  Next thing I know she was hefting the top part of the drum set to Rock Band down the stairs.  She finally got it to the coffee table and 'set it up'.  Then she started rocking out to whatever music was in her head.  Josh saw what she was doing and came over to be part of her band.  He was on the drums while Sarah tried to sing the song Dynamite into her plastic Easter egg microphone.

Then she decided that she wanted to dance.  And if you were wondering she does do her own wardrobe with the lovely tutu, pink shirt, bed head, red beads and mismatched princess shoes.

After she was done dancing she picked up her baby and smelled her bum deeming her very stinky.  She proceeded to use half my baby wipes to clean off her bum and totally saturate her cloth skin.  Isn't pretend play fun (or funny to watch)?!

Monday and Tuesday were such warm and beautiful days!! Monday we had a water party at Daniel's friend's house.  They had a blow up water slide and a huge yard with grass (something we are very greatly missing at this point in time).  Sarah is supposedly potty trained, but just in case I threw a swim diaper on her.  Good thing I did because by the time we came home she had 'taken care of business' if you know what I mean.  Let me tell you a very soggy, dirty swim diaper is NOT a pretty site!!  I did have to put her in her car seat to come home.  I tried to cover her car seat with a towel to protect it, but she thought the towel was for laying across her lap and not sitting on.  She had already sat down on her bare car seat with the towel laying across her lap before I could stop her.  DOH!!  She got her car seat good and soaked with her squishy swim diaper contents so every time we get in the car it STINKS!!!  I will need to figure out a way to wash the car seat cover, but it is one of those that don't come off the base, unfortunately.  Here I thought she was doing so well, too.  She actually went #2 in the potty not just one, but TWICE last week so I thought we had overcome this hurdle.  **SIGH**.  Tuesday we went to another friend's house for lunch and a water day, too.  I put Sarah in a swim diaper just in case and just like the day before she loaded it down by the time we were getting ready to leave.  Again she refused to sit on the towel across her car seat so her car seat cover got soaked again with squishy, dirty swim diaper contents.  **DOUBLE SIGH**  At least we had fun playing in the water!  Here's Noah having fun swinging on the swing set. 

We all enjoyed running around ON THE GRASS again, too.  We had lots of fun (minus Sarah's nasty swim diaper, of course).

Daniel has been working on trying to get a cold this last week.  Tuesday night it hit him full force and we had to start breathing treatments on him.  I haven't seen him have an asthma exacerbation this bad for a few years so it has been a little concerning to me.  I gave him the breathing treatments as well as some Benadryl and Zyrtec to make sure the asthma flare up wasn't because he got exposed to something he shouldn't have, but it didn't help.  He came up to my room Wednesday morning and said he was too sick to go to school--something he never does.  He didn't have a fever, he was only having trouble breathing.  He spent the day at home sitting on the couch watching TV and getting breathing treatments every 2-4 hours.  This is a small sample of how you can tell he is struggling to breath: 

(When you watch the video you can see his whole chest sucking in to breath.  He is using his accessory muscles between his ribs, and tummy as well as slightly flaring his nostrils in trying to get enough breath).  This of course isn't as bad as he got, but this was taken when he was starting to feel better. If you got up close enough to him you could hear him really wheezing as well.  I have a hard time watching this and not taking big deep breaths in trying to breath for him.  And who says I am not using my nursing skills at home!!!  My kids sure keep my skills in use--that's for sure!!!

He was quite upset he didn't get to go to school Wednesday so he was pretty insistent that he wanted to go to school on Thursday, but he was still needing breathing treatments so I didn't let him go.  He was mad and tried to sneak past me out the door to go anyway--the little stinker!!  Luckily, his breathing got a little easier as the day went on.  That afternoon he was getting a little tired of being stuck in the house so he came outside to help me plant the garden.

Here I thought we were doing good in getting a good headstart on our garden, until I talked to my Mom and she told me we aren't supposed to plant the non hardy plants like tomatoes, watermelon, bell peppers until after Mother's Day when there is no more threat of frost.  DOH!!!  There was a huge storm last night and the temperatures have definitely cooled off so I hope I don't lose all the plants we just planted!!!  Keeping my fingers crossed!!!

Yesterday morning the Relief Society President stopped by for an impromptu visit.  As she sat down and we were visiting she looked outside and said, "Oh I can't tell which side of the fence that cow is on."  I got up and looked and sure enough, our cow backyard neighbors had escaped out of their fenced field.  They were getting awfully close to our grass seeded backyard, too.  Aaron called about that time to talk and I told him what was going on.  Luckily he had already gotten to know the farmer the cows belonged to and he hung up with me to give them a call to let them know their cows had escaped.  

We got to watch them round them up from our window.  It was pretty interesting. They also left behind some good fertilizer for our yard :P. 

Too bad they got out AGAIN this morning.  Maybe having cows as back yard neighbors isn't such a good thing... 

Since we do have cows as back yard neighbors, the kids like watching them.  However, they are allowing some educational opportunities for my kids.  Josh came up to me the other day and told me how he saw the cows 'wrestling'.  One cow would hop on the other cows back...and, well you get the picture.  Josh just thought they were wrestling.  I will just let him think that for a while at least.  I am not ready for the full on birds and bees talk yet.

Aaron finally got a calling for our ward.  Since he got released as the membership clerk 8 months ago he has been staying under the radar.  Well they finally caught him and we got a call to meet with a Stake Presidency member two Sundays ago.  UH OH!!  Luckily, he just got called to be in the Elder's Quorum Presidency.  However, that will be interesting for Sundays since Noah refuses to go to nursery by himself.  Aaron spends every Sunday hanging out with Noah in nursery because if he tries to leave, Noah will scream and not calm down.  The nursery leaders eventually have to bring him back to Aaron because they can't get him to stop crying.  This should be very interesting in how this will play out since I am in primary and can't go to nursery to help out.  I am sure we will figure something out eventually.  Anyway, Aaron got set apart in Elders Quorum this last Sunday.  I came in to listen and to hold Noah during the blessing.  There are only about two other babies in Elder's Quorum so it is so quiet.  Noah took it upon himself to liven things up during the blessing by blowing huge raspberries on his arms and saying, "LIGHT, LIGHT, LIGHT!" because he wanted to play with the light switch.  He also kept screaming, "DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!" after I wouldn't let him play with the light switches.  What a stinker!!  After the blessing I tried to go back to primary, but Noah wouldn't let me give him back to Aaron.  I decided to take him back to primary with me because they just had singing time left and how hard could having him be??  Let me just say I will never do that again!!  Noah was a little turd!!  He wouldn't stay in my lap and he kept trying to wander around the room.  Then at the very end of primary Matthew insisted that he knew how to play the piano and forced his way over to the piano to play the songs for everyone.  I was trying to talk to him telling him to sit down because he does not know how to play well enough to have the kids sing along with him. He wouldn't take no for an answer.  Luckily the primary chorister struck a bargain with him and told him that he could play the postlude music as everyone was leaving.  Matthew thought it over and decided that it would be ok.  As soon as everyone said amen to the closing prayer Matthew raced up to the piano and sat himself down and began to attempt to play Book of Mormon Stories.  I had to stand right there with him to make sure he would behave himself all the while my kids were running rampant around the primary room.  It was utter chaos for me. Of course Elder's Quorum went long so I didn't have an reinforcements come to help me in the form of Aaron.  The primary chorister started talking to me telling me that when Matthew got good enough at Book of Mormon Stories she would let him play for the primary while they sang.  We were talking about this for a few minutes when I looked down to see the primary room was empty and all of my kids were missing.  Insert big sigh right here.  I quickly extricated myself from the conversation as politely as I could and headed out the door in search of my children.  Of course Matthew was being the door holder as always.  He loves to be the door holder for everyone and as they pass through his open door Matthew reminds them how they need to tell him thank you for opening the door for them.  It's pretty awesome (not really).  However, in being the door holder, he allowed Sarah and Noah to escape out to the parking lot of the church.  I ran outside to find Sarah and Noah wandering around the parking lot.  Luckily another family was trying to keep Noah by them until they found the missing parent of a wandering 2 year old boy.  I grabbed Noah and Sarah and called to the rest of the kids to go get in the car.  About the time I had buckled up Sarah and Noah in the car Aaron showed up.  Hey better late then never, right?!  It was crazy!!

Egg Hunt, Coloring Eggs With No Anaphylaxis, Whoops, Handsome

Yesterday Aaron had to meet with some people at work which meant he had to dress up in more than just jeans.  He wore his khaki pants all day.  When he got home he changed out of them into something more comfortable only to realize his khaki pants had a huge rip in the bum.  He had worn the ripped pants all day not knowing that he was giving anyone and everyone a sweet show!!  When he showed me I couldn't stop laughing.  I wonder what the people at work think....I am also hoping that he wasn't wearing his underwear with holes in as well...hahahahahaha--poor guy!  Here's the hole in his pants that was big enough he could put four fingers through it:

Josh finally got to pick up his glasses Saturday.  In the space of 24 hours of even having them he'd lost them a few times.  Lucky for him he found them again.  Here he is sporting his new look:

When we got his glasses we made sure we got the warranty that goes along with them, however, you can only use the warranty if you have all or part of the glasses.  It won't work if the glasses are lost.  DOH!!  That's why I was understandably upset when he couldn't find his glasses AT ALL Tuesday.  He had to go all day at school on Tuesday without them because we couldn't find them.  Lucky for him, Aaron found them that afternoon under all his sheets in his bed.  WHAT?!?  What a crazy kid!

I was at the store the other day down the party aisle looking for a gift bag.  Next thing I know I turned around and saw that Sarah had pulled a pinata from the shelf and was trying to ride it like a horse.  What you can't see in the picture is the front legs are bending from being sat on by an almost 4 year old little girl.  Good thing she didn't break it because I didn't want to buy it!!!  Giddy up!!

Sarah has really been into picking out her own outfits lately.  Some of them have really been some humdingers such as this one:

You gotta love the tutu with pajama top matched perfectly with her glass slippers and bed head.  What a crazy girl!

This year we did make it to the City's egg hunt, however, with all our kids being different ages, Aaron and I had to divide and conquer.  I got Noah and Sarah while Aaron got the three older boys.  For some reason Noah woke up on the WRONG side of the bed--or the floor because that is what he seems to prefer sleeping on for some strange reason.  He just wanted to cry all morning long.  Here's what I was dealing with right when they rang the starting bell--the little turd!

Sarah was pretty happy to be there, however, she did get upset at first when I told her she had to wait to pick up the eggs until it had started.  Once it did start she got right into her groove.

The boys did pretty well.  Daniel of course had to mug for the camera.  He is the only one looking at the camera while everyone else was picking up eggs.

After the egg hunt we were meeting G&G T over at Chuck E. Cheeses for a family birthday party for Josh and Noah.  Since Noah had gotten his cake a few days before, we only had a cake for Josh.  I like to try and decorate their cakes with something they like every year.  This year it was Angry Birds.  I took a picture of the cake just in case it got dropped and ruined like Daniel's last birthday cake. Luckily, it didn't.

When we got to Chuck E. Cheeses Noah was still an unhappy little guy.  However, I turned my back for one second and he got a hold of the salt shaker and dumped it out all over the floor.  That at least made him happy---before I took it away.

After a quick bite of pizza he didn't brighten up a bit and allow me to sit him on a few of the rides.

It was a good thing we got there as soon as it opened and had four adults with us because it took all of us to keep track of all 5 kids!

It is a sad day for Matthew.  He LOVES all the kiddie rides, but alas, he is getting way to big to fit into all of them, but he stilled tried anyway.  This one is his favorite, but it creaked popped and groaned the whole time he rode it.

Opening up the presents--I think Josh liked what he got.

Here's the cake:

Noah liked what he got for a few minutes until he realized he wasn't crying anymore and started crying again.

Everyone tried to fit on this ride all at once.  It didn't work out so well.

Afterward we ran a few errands and then came home.  That's when I attempted to color Easter eggs with the kids.  We have never colored Easter eggs before because I have been afraid for Daniel since he is allergic to them.  I prepared everything and, thankfully, we did not have any anaphylactic reactions which I think is a fabulous outcome with any activity!  The kids seemed to have fun with it as well, too.

Here's Josh patiently waiting for his egg to become just the right shade.

The next morning was Easter and the Easter Bunny did visit.  He hid everyone's Easter baskets around the house.  Here's everyone waiting until we let them find their baskets:

  

Checking out the loot:

Spring Break Part 2, Doctor Visit, Birthday Week

Thursday morning, Noah's birthday, of Spring Break I got the fun opportunity of taking all five kids to Noah and Josh's well child appointments.  I had made the appointment for Noah about two months ago not realizing that it fell during Spring Break--DOH!!  I didn't want to reschedule since the well child appointments take months to get in so I thought I would brave it.  I also hadn't made Josh's well child appointment yet so I called Wednesday afternoon and much to my surprise they were able to squeeze Josh in as well--WAHOO!!  That morning we had to be up, breakfasted, dressed hair done and out of the house by 9 am which is not an easy task especially with 5 crazy kids, however, we made it.  That morning amongst the craziness the kids did find time to play with the balloons Aaron had gotten up extra early (like 4:45 am) to go to the store and get.  What a nice Dad!!

Anyway, here is the bright, shiny, brand new two year old (with his stinker sister posing for the picture as well)!!

In getting ready for the doctor's visit I told the kids they could wear their flip flops only if they had a matching pair since Josh had brought mismatched pairs with him to G&G T's house.  I didn't specify if they had to fit or not because I didn't think I would need to.  But because I didn't, Josh thought it would be ok to wear Dad's flip flops that are WAY too big for him.  He figured they were matching and that would be enough.  Too bad they were so big he kept walking out of them and tripping over them when we were walking into the doctor's office.  Here's the nice HUGE flip flops:

The visit at the doctor's office went as well as can be expected with bringing all five kids with me.  I am happy to say Sarah did not poop her pants and that always makes any outing positive!  Noah is growing so big.  Noah is 26 pounds (48th percentile),  34 3/4 inches tall (55th percentile), and his head circumference is 48.3 cm (55th percentile).  He still fits on the baby growth chart, but he can also fit on the child growth chart now as well which makes some changes as to his percentiles--his height changes to 69th percentile and his weight changes to 33rd percentile, and his head circumference changes to 50th percentile.  He is growing up way too fast.  He is doing well on all his milestones and is an all around happy, laid back kid most of the time.  He is learning some not so much fun 'tricks of the trade' from his sister regarding trouble making, but he is a fun cuddly, kid.  Josh is growing as well.  I was surprised when they told me his weight of 46.5 pounds was in the 61st percentile since he is just skin and bones.  However, when they told me his height of 56 1/2 inches was in the 95th percentile is all balanced out.  His BMI is 11 which is underweight for his height and weight together.  I am not too worried since he eats so much food.  For example if you feed him pancakes he can eat up to 15 in one sitting and I am not lying!!  Everything was going great until they did an eye screening.  The poor kid couldn't even see the HUGE E at the top of the chart.  That meant he FAILED his eye test and we got referred to see an optometrist to get a more in depth vision screening.  I was so  hoping Josh would get my eyesight as I still don't need to wear any glasses or contacts at all yet.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  Aaron had to start wearing glasses in 3rd grade and it looks like Josh is following in his footsteps. 

When we got home it was around lunch time.  I was not fast enough to fixing lunch and before I knew it Sarah and Noah had gotten into the potato chips and had spilled them all over the floor.  See what I mean about Noah being Sarah's mischief apprentice?!

That afternoon I tried to make a fancy birthday cake for Noah that was Daniel friendly.  I cooked the cake in two different 8 inch round pans because I wanted to make something cut.  Well when the cakes had cooled I tried to get them out of the pans and it was a complete FAIL!!  I thought they would come out so easy since I had completely coated the pans with PAM until they were dripping.  Oh well that wasn't the case.  After I scraped out the cake pieces I tried to mold them into something which was another FAIL.  I then thought if I got enough frosting I could hide the cake disaster.  That didn't work out either.  The cake was so crumbly the frosting wouldn't stick to it at all.  By the end of it all this is how it turned out:

Not very pretty.  I called Aaron and told him to pick up a birthday cake for Noah on his way home from work and make things easier since I didn't have time to make another one.  I did keep the cake FAIL around since it was still Daniel friendly so he could eat that while the rest of us ate the store bought cake which ended up being Smurfs.  The picture is upside down, but I can't seem to fix that...

Noah didn't care what his cake looked like--he just knew it tasted GOOD.  However, he refused to use a fork and only ate it with one finger at a time.  He would poke his finger in the cake and ice cream and then lick off what was on his finger.  Needless to say it took him FOREVER to eat his cake!!

When we finally took Noah's cake away he got to open his presents.  He loved his new car set.

Everyone else did too as you can see this is how we spent the rest of the evening:

The next day we had an optometrist appointment for Josh.  He was not happy about needing glasses. He kept saying about how much of a nerd he was going to be.  Here are the frames he picked out:

And, no, I don't think he looks like a nerd AT ALL!!  We think he looks handsome and distinguished.  Aaron and I kept telling him this, but when it comes from your parents it doesn't mean much in Josh's opinion--the little twerp!!   It will take the office about a week to get the glasses made so he has to go this whole week with not being able to see, but it is not much different than what he has been doing for who knows how long!!

Home Grown Basketball Team Part 1, Where's That Mute Button For Kids?, Short Bike Ride

Well it has been a very busy two weeks, so I will try to get caught up Reader's Digest style.  Two Saturdays ago it was a beautiful day.  We had a quick, but fun lunch of octopus hot dogs that the kids liked (except for Josh who can't like anything that Matthew likes EVER):

You cut the hot dogs half way up and when you boil them their 'tentacles' curl up.  It looks cute, but I don't even want to venture a guess as to what is in hot dogs that make them do that.  It is probably for the best I don't know what is in hot dogs anyway.

After lunch I was excited to FINALLY get to try out my kid bike trailer.

I have had this bike trailer for a few years, but haven't been able to use it.  I haven't been able to use it because Daniel was too afraid to ride his bike last summer and this bike trailer only holds two kids.  Can you see the dilemma?  Noah and Sarah could use the trailer, but Daniel really didn't want to run beside me as I rode my bike pulling the trailer.  Thankfully, by the very tail end of the warm weather last year he figured out the bike riding by himself--phew.  So this past week I was finally able to dust off the trailer, all the kids bikes and Aaron's bike to use--only in getting all the gear out we realized that three of the bikes, including the bike trailer had flats--DOH!!  Aaron went to work and was able to fix everything up so later on we all went for a family bike ride.  However, we only got a few houses away when Josh's bike brakes locked up.  Aaron went back to fix those and I went on ahead with Daniel and Matthew.  We got a few more houses away when Daniel's bike chain fell off.  Daniel walked his bike back to the house.  Matthew and I made the loop around our neighborhood and came back home.  That's when I noticed my other trailer tire was flat.  I gave up at that point, but Aaron took the rest of the kids around the loop.  He was almost home when his bike tire exploded.  About that time I was starting to think we just weren't meant to go on a bike ride that day!!!  Here's Aaron and the boys:

 Aaron has since fixed my bike trailer tire, but it has been a little on the cool side to go bike riding.  Hopefully it warms up soon because I want to go on family bike rides.  I have fond memories of doing this when I was growing up and I want to do the same with my family.  Hopefully the weather and the bike tires, chains, seats, etc. cooperate!!

This past week was Spring Break for the kids.  Josh came home and reminded me about that Friday when he got home from school--as if I didn't already know this minor detail that there would be absolutely NO SCHOOL for a whole week.  Anyway, he also said that in his class they went around and everyone got to say all the fun places they were going for Spring Break.  Well unfortunately, after buying the new house and attempting to put in the yard this year, we have no excess of funds which means no trips for us.  Josh was disappointed he wasn't going anywhere fun.  I felt bad so to try and do something different and fun I decided to take the kids down to stay at G&G T's house and spend the first part of the week doing activities in Utah County.  Aaron is trying to save up his vacation leave, so he decided to work instead of come with us.  As I was packing up the car Monday morning, Matthew was having a very difficult morning.  He was being rather contrary so I sent him to his room to calm down.  He didn't like that idea so he kicked the wall on the way to his room and left this basketball size hole in it.  Good thing he was already in his room because I got pretty upset.  Not a very good start to spring break, that's for sure!!!

If I am trying to look on the positive side, at least now I can see if someone left the light on in the downstairs laundry room without needing to actually go downstairs to check.  I love my child, I love my child, I love my child....

On the way down to G&G T's house we stopped by the Capitol building.  They were supposed to have free tours every 30 minutes, but when we got there the tours ended up being every hour instead.  Of course we got there at 12:30 and the tour didn't start until 1.  I wasn't about to wait around for 30 minutes for a tour that most of my kids probably wouldn't listen to anyway so we wandered around and went on our own tour.  This is how it pretty much went--all five kids in different directions at the same time:

I did run into a creepy guy while we were there.  I was trying to gather my sheep together when he came over and asked me if all those kids were mine.  After I said yes, he then said to me how I was a perfect Mormon mom.  My chest started to swell with pride, but then he ruined it by saying how I was the perfect Mormon mom because unlike paying millions for a basketball team like Larry H. Miller I kept having kids so I could make my own basketball team.  I was speechless at that comment.  I gave him the strangest look and walked away to try and gather my 'home made basketball team that didn't cost me millions' together--at least they haven't cost me millions, yet anyway.  Really?!!What a weirdo!!!!  He obviously hasn't read the book How to Make Friends and Influence People.  I tried to avoid him the whole rest of the time we were there.

Here we are looking at the senate room in the capitol building:

After a quick picnic lunch in the car since it was too cold outside, we headed down to the Monte Beane museum down at BYU.  After looking around at all the taxidermied animals and doing the cub scout packet that you can do throughout the museum, we headed over to the BYU Museum of Art.  They were having an exhibit named Beauty and Belief about Islamic Art.  The kids weren't too impressed, but the had fun in the kids part making their own scribbled art.

To keep things easier at the Museum of Art Noah stayed strapped in the stroller.  Thankfully he didn't mind for the most part.  He made his own fun by ripping off his shoes and socks and throwing them throughout the museum.

After that we headed downstairs to check out the Weir symposium which was a collection of all the Weir families impressionist art/paintings.  Thankfully they place was almost deserted so I could enjoy the artwork while my kids ran around like a 'home grown basket ball team'.  It made my miss my days in the study abroad program when I could go to all the museums in London and browse at my leisure.  Browsing at my leisure does not happen when you have five little kids--it's more like you are lucky if you happen to even see what the painting is about as you run by it trying to keep up with the kids.  After the Museum of Art we headed back to stay at G&G T's house for the night.

Tuesday Grandma took a day off to spend with us.  First off we headed over to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy.  They had a new otters exhibit that was fun to look at.  We even got a close up glimpse of the otter right next to the glass. 

They had a pop of window in the middle of the exhibit so you could get an even closer look.  Right when Josh lifted up Daniel to see is when the otter ran right by the window.  They were pretty excited to see the otter so close up.

Here's the kids looking at the jelly fish through the portal window:

Grandma took pity on Noah who spent the first part of the aquarium in the stroller.  She took him out so he could look at the jelly fish and once he tasted freedom there was no getting him back in the stroller.  Good thing she came with me because it would have been really hard to keep track of everyone by myself since there were a ton of people there.

Here's some more jelly fish that Sarah and Noah looked at for a minute.  I could sit and watch these for hours because they are so neat to watch.  However, the kids had other plans.

They had a petting area where you could touch the sting rays.  Josh was all about that and kept following the sting rays around to touch them. Daniel was a little more hesitant to reach in the water.

Matthew even attempted to touch them, but got too excited/scared and pulled his hand back out as it swam by.

Here's Matthew and Sarah looking at the HUGE fish:

After the aquarium we headed down to Provo to have a quick lunch at McDonald's.  After 12 hamburgers and three drinks later (and that was just the kid's food alone!) we decided to attempt going to the dollar movies.  However, when I was rounding up the 'team' I got close to Sarah and realized she had 'taken care of business' in her underwear.  Why is it that my family can never go to McDonald's without someone pooping their pants??!!  I had to take Sarah out to the car and basically give her a wet wipe bath because it was BAD!!!  Right after I carefully slid off her underwear she started to sit down in the floor.  Seeing as she was all poopy I did not want her sitting on the floor of my car with her poopy bum.  I quickly tried to grab her back to stop her from sitting down, but I ended up grabbing her way poopy bum with my bare hand instead--um, YUCK!!!!  After she got all cleaned up I had to go back inside McDonald's to clean myself all up.  I am starting to really HATE McDonald's not because of the food, but because of what their food does to my kids--GEEZ!!  Anyway, after that fiasco we headed over to Movies 8.  Luckily Tuesday was all a dollar day--WAHOO!!  However, the movie we wanted to see didn't start for almost two hours.  To kill some time we headed over to Zurchers which is a huge party store to look at stuff.  This, of course, was during Noah's usual nap time so he was "Chuckles" and was very cross about everything!!  We headed into the store and the employees handed each kid a free balloon.  I thought that might make Noah happy--boy was I WRONG!!!!  He screamed if I tried to tie it to his hand, tie it to the cart, or if I tried to hold it.  He screamed if you stepped wrong or if you said anything.  He was one angry little guy.  The whole time we were in the store he screamed.  Also they had so much stuff around the kids were playing with stuff and screaming, too.  By the time we got to the middle of the store Noah let go of his balloon and it floated away.  That made him even more angry and he screamed even louder.  We were making so much noise the store manager came over and asked, "Do you need any help?"  I was about to answer when Josh cut in and said, "Yes sir, can you tell me who farted?"  Upon hearing this my Mom got way embarrassed and tried to walk away from us pretending not to know us.  Unfortunately I couldn't try that because all the screaming kids would have followed me!!  Anyway, luckily, the manager rolled with the punches and told Josh, "Well, I know that I just got here, so it wasn't me!!"  How embarrassing!!!  Where's that mute button when you need it!!!  About that time I decided it was time to leave before my kids embarrassed us even more.  We headed back over to the theater and it was time for the movie to start.  We watched the movie We Bought a Zoo and it was a pretty good show.  However, it was over two hours long and by the middle of it Sarah and Noah were pretty restless.  They started doing sprints up and down the main middle aisle.  The movie theater was pretty empty thank goodness. Other than needing to take a tantruming Noah out for a few minutes the kids did pretty well during the whole thing minus the middle aisle sprints.  After the movie we headed back to G&G T's house for the night.  The next morning Grandma had to go back to work and I was back on my own. DANGIT!!  I don't know how these single moms do it!!   There is a pretty neat park in Pleasant Grove that we went to Wednesday morning.  The kids had lots of fun playing.  Of course when we first got there, Sarah got out of the car and ran over to the corner of the playground.  As I got closer I saw she was 'assuming the position'.  I ran over and grabbed her before she pooped in her underwear.  I caught her before too much damage was done, but I put her in a pull up before she could finish.  I have a dream...that someday my little girl will be poop potty trained!!  However, the kids had fun playing at the park. 

That afternoon I had scheduled a tour of the Sweet Candy Company for us.  When we parked in the parking lot I pulled Sarah out of the car and lucky for me (not really) she had finally finished what she had started earlier in the day, she had pooped in her pull up.  **Sigh**  Luckily it was just a pull up so it was a lot easier to change than poopy panties--that's for sure!!  I am happy to announce that I did not stick my bare hand in it this time either!!  Yay for me!!  Anyway after getting Sarah cleaned up we were ready to go.  The factory didn't allow any photography inside the factory at all so we had to settle for this picture by the sign:

Noah was being "Chuckles" and was not a happy camper.  He refused to pose for the picture as you can see Josh trying to wrestle with him in the picture.  He was especially 'Chuckles' when I tried to put a hair net on him to go inside the factory. Lucky for me the inside of the factory was so loud no one could hear him scream.  The tour group only consisted of me, my kids and the tour guide.  Pretty much the whole tour I had to keep putting Noah's hair net back on because he kept ripping it off.  Hopefully, people don't end up with hairy candy because Noah almost refused to wear his hair net.    Other than fighting with Noah's hair net the tour was pretty interesting.  We even got fresh off the conveyor belt samples throughout the factory.  That was a pleasant surprise except every time we got to sample something Daniel kept telling them how much he hated all the candy they made.  That was awesome.  I just had to sheepishly smile every time.  Again where's that mute button when you need it?!  When we finished the tour Noah was more than happy to rip off his hair net for the last time and I was happy to let him.

We did get some factory seconds candy at the gift shop and for some reason Daniel likes those candies...I am still trying to figure out what the difference was between the candy inside the factory vs. the candy outside the factory.  Who knows?! 

After the tour we headed home to see Dad who had been missing his crazy, noisy home grown basketball team.  And I was more than happy to get a break from my crazy, noisy home grown basketball team!!!