Family Fun time at the park

On Sunday, we decided to take the kids to a new local park for a picnic and to enjoy the beautiful fall-like weather that we were experiencing. 

Over the past year, our city has been developing a new 250-acre green space for our community, converting an old factory area into a gorgeous outdoor park area. I will admit that when they first were talking about the idea, I was less than thrilled. How could they develop a "park" without playground equipment for kids? They were really calling this a family friendly park? 

Well, they proved me wrong. Kids don't need playground equipment. Give them lots of green space to run and play. Give them several ponds and lakes with tons of geese and rocks to skip across the lakes. Give them a natural bridge out to an island. The kids will have a blast. And that is exactly what happened at our recent visit to Ariel-Foundation Park.

We had lunch at one of the many picnic areas in the park and then explored the large lake first...seeing lots of geese. Bill tried teaching the kids how to skip rocks across the lake. 

There were many places to take pictures as the scenery is beautiful.

Then we went to the other side of the park, called the Ruins, where there are parts of the old glass factory that used to be there. There are sculptures and half of buildings where you can learn about the history of the area. There is also a smokestack that you can climb half-way up (if you are willing to do the 224 steps). I have done it once in the past and it is a workout. Rebecca really wanted to climb it, so she and Bill did. I stayed on the ground with Jacob and Benjamin. 

Overall, it was a great family fun day at the park!

Rebecca had an AHG birthday party

 Rebecca is involved in one of our local American Heritage Girl troops. AHG is a Christ-centered scouting program for girls. She loves being in her troop. I am on the board of this troop and am one of the leaders of the K-3rd graders.

On Sunday, the troop had a get together at one of the new parks in our town to have cupcakes in honor of the 20th birthday of American Heritage Girls and they also kicked off their first service project of the year which is to raise money and gather items for the Humane Society. The girls in the troop are all about animals, so we wanted to tie the service project in with that. Rebecca had a lot of fun and it was a nice evening with the girls.

And the evening ended with the most beautiful sky displays as the sun was setting. This picture does not do it justice, but the evening was beautiful.

Got to try a new to us pizza place for free

On Fridays, I have gotten into the habit of stopping by our local Family Video and picking up a movie for the kids to watch for movie night. Our local Family VIdeo has a HUGE selection of kids movies that rent FREE for 5 days. In the past couple weeks, I have been able to get Benjamin a couple Thomas the Tank Engine movies to watch and I rented "Planes" for FREE. Well, this past Friday, Ben and I went in to see about getting a Thomas DVD and I wanted to rent the new Disney Nature movie for the kids. As we were checking out, I asked the woman working when the pizza place next door was going to open. They were putting in a Marco's Pizza right next door. She said that they were actually opening on Sunday, BUT would I like to take part in their soft opening the next day? She said that if I called in during dinner I could get a FREE large pizza and any 2 non-pizza items for FREE. Of course I agreed.

So Saturday night, Bill went and picked up our free dinner. We got a large pepperoni and cheese pizza and 2 subs-- an italiano sub on white and a ham leonardo sub on wheat! The receipt said that the total would have been $27.99. AND they also included a coupon for a free movie rental, which Bill used to rent "X-Men: Days of Future Past," which we watched after the kids went to bed.

The verdict: It was really yummy. The kids and Bill devoured the pizza. And my sub was wonderful! We will definitely be ordering from them again!

Update (Here you go dear!)

I feel bad that I have been neglecting this blog. There are just not enough hours in the day to get everything done and unfortunately this blog has taken the back seat to other things. However, I knew I HAD to get on here and do a quick update, as my dear husband asked me tonight, "When are you going to update your blog?" LOL I guess it is time.

Things have been super busy around here. I have been coming and going and coming and going, taking kids to and from school, tutoring jobs, softball for Rebecca, and other commitments. Throw in a sick kid off and on of the past week and a half and life has been fun....

I am still here. Just busy. I have several things to talk about including being asked to try a new pizza place for free, an American Heritage Girls birthday party, using essential oils for the first time, and I have several books that I need to get reviewed. I will try to get those posts up within the next week.

So to my dear husband: Look it is updated now :)

To everyone else: I hope you had a great Monday!

Board of DD walk: "Imagine the Possibilities"

Last Saturday, the kids and I took part in our local Board of Developmental Disabilities 2nd annual 5K and 1 mile walk benefitting our local Board of DD. I signed the kids and I up for the 1 mile walk as a way to give back to the community and to raise awareness. The Board of DD has helped us in a lot of ways with Ben and with Jacob in giving advice on where to get diagnoses, programs in our community that would benefit the boys, and just being there when I feel overwhelmed.

The kids and I had a blast. It was a great experience seeing all these walkers who society may look down on because they have down syndrome, or they have some other developmental disability that may interfere with some parts of their lives. They were walking, laughing, and having a great time.

I was so proud of Rebecca as well, because the walk was scheduled for 9am. She chose to miss her softball game and her softball pictures and team picutre because we had already committed to the walk. She is a very concietious little girl and I am so proud of her and of her brothers for walking the whole mile with no complaining!

It was a great day to be had by the kids and I, raising awareness for one of our community resources!

What's been going on?

Life always gets in the way of blogging....especially when you have a crazy schedule, are always coming or going, and just am trying to get things done. That pretty much describes where I am right now. 

Let's recap some of the craziness that has been the past week....

• Jacob fell 3 times last week. The last time, he face-planted at school scraping his knee very badly, scraping his chin and nose and giving himself a bloody nose and putting a large scrape down the front of his new glasses' lens. (Thank goodness for Walmart's Vision Centers 12 month replacement guarantee!) We are very concerned because his gait seems off and he has been falling a lot recently. 
• I have been getting my tutoring business off the ground. I am tutoring both homeschooling kids and traditional brick and mortar students. So far it is going well! 
• Saturday the kids and I took park in our local Board of DD walk. (I will blog about this later! Such a fun experience!)
• Sunday, we went to church. Then took the kids to the Dollar Tree to get a treat for staying on Green and blue during the past week. (The kids school has a behavior chart system, where Green is the best, blue means you might have had to be talked to once, and then it goes to orange and red, which are bad!)
• Sunday night, we met up with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend at Jake's restaurant to celebrate my dad's birthday (which was Monday). The service was lacking and the wait to get our food was way long, but the company was good! 
• Bill had to take his car in as it was overheating and needs 2 new tires at least. Will cost us almost $700 to get it fixed. Ugg, but it could be much worse....
• Yesterday, I had a super busy, seems-like-I-am-behind-all-day kind of day. I needed to go to the grocery store, then my mom calls to tell me she has to have a hearth cath done, pick Ben up from school, pick Bill up from work, home to tutor, then pick kids up from school, American Heritage Girls meeting and I crashed last night on the couch and watched 2 episodes of "House Hunters" on HGTV. 
• During this whole time, I have started a workout regimen using "Map My Walk" as a tool. Last week I walked a little over 10 miles over the course of the week. This week so far, I have walked almost 8 miles! My goal is to do at least 10 miles a week this month.

So I have been extremely busy, but it is all good. Life is moving along and honestly it is all okay.