Thursday, August 8th

Once again, our good friend Mrs. Lawson worked her magic and was able to get us into an amusement park at a deeply discounted price (free is pretty discounted, yes?).  The kids were SO geeked to head to White Water on Thursday - the weather had looked iffy but the forecast was showing little chance of rain until the afternoon, so we decided to go for it!  Things started out very smoothly and fun, but no sooner had we gotten settled when Lincoln took an epic spill, stopping his fall with his knees, forehead and chin :-(  He had been really excited to do some of the bigger kid slides at the water park, but after that happened he just wanted to stick close by me, so he, Victoria, Waverly and Julia were my crew while the other moms and kids (including Scarlett) went off to explore and ride some slides. 

Right before our two mini-groups joined back up, we had a nice little downpour.  However, the baby stayed dry and there was no thunder during the rain so the park remained open and we decided to break for lunch.  One of the great things about White Water is you can bring your own picnic lunch and eat outside of the park - it's very convenient and a huge money saver!  Unfortunately for us, there were some very interested yellow jackets hovering nearby and Victoria ended up with three stings!!  This made Day 2 of a kid getting stung... not a good trend.  Right after that drama was going down, it started thundering and with our firm departure time of 2:30 looming an hour away, I just had to call it a day.  It ended up being the absolute best choice, and the kids got giggly on the way home, making it a fun drive with everyone smiling :-)

The kids had baths (ew, the grody-ness of a water park majorly gags me, even though I am one of the least germaphobe people out there!), snacks and a rest, then it was time to get geared up for karate.  But best of all - Uncle Jeff made it to our house in time to go with them to karate class!  They were insanely thrilled to see him, and are looking forward to him being here over the next few days.

Knowing it would be hot and that we were, after all, going to a water park, I put Waverly in a cute little size 3 month swimsuit.  As I put it on her she made a little "uuhh!" noise, because WOW, that thing was tight!  It was like a baby spanx girdle! haha  I decided to take a picture of her with it on before peeling it off.

Victoria was adamant that she get to be the one to hold her for this photo :-p  Love my crew!

I hadn't packed the lunch the night before like usual, we had some time to spare, and the kids were running circles underfoot in sheer excitement... so I had the idea to let the girls make/pack our lunch. Genius!  They LOVED doing it and felt so big, and I did not have to make lunch.  A win-win :-)  Scarlett made all four sandwiches - 2 pb&js, 2 turkey & cheese - while Victoria washed and plucked grapes off the bunch and put them into a bag for us.  Linc helped momentarily by gathering some pretzels, but was soon off and running again.

Me: "Lincoln, I thought you were going to help the girls pack our lunch...?"

Lincoln: "I can't."

Me: "Why not, exactly?"

Lincoln: "There's a dinosaur eating my finger."

Me: "Oh."

Waiting for the rest of our group - love these goofballs!  Waverly could not fit into our group pic, taken as we huddled in the van :-)

Much smaller SASCH group this time, compared with Six Flags - only three families, plus a friend of Kimberly's and her son.

Running through the splash park area - can't imagine why he fell :-p

Scarlett - a wee bit excited to be here finally!

Mrs. Lawson is *always* - ALWAYS - prepared for everything.  Not only did she have a huge waterproof bandaid + neosporin for Lincoln's knee shred, but later she had sting-away wipes, motrin and benadryl for Victoria's stings! Thanks Mrs. Lawson :-)

Trying in vain to keep those pretty eyes open, but the warmth and sunshine just make it impossible - she was snoozing in no time.

I didn't get to see Scarlett go down any of the bigger slides while she was off with the other group, but she was really impressed with herself for doing them :-)

Julia and Lincoln, down a water slide.

Victoria was not so sure she wanted to go down this little slide, but eventually was peer-pressured into it.  Of course, once she'd done it she loved it and went back down twenty times.

Lincoln and Victoria!

The last thing my group did was the lazy river.  Julia took point and guided Victoria and Lincoln around in the inflatable.  When they made it back around, Victoria was not too pleased - she hadn't realized it would take so long and had gotten anxious.  She also said it was "way cold, like our pool at home." haha

After the picnic-lunch-gone-wrong (stings, thunder, lots and lots of loud sobbing and wailing), we packed up to head home.  Once we were in the car and suckers passed out, the kids rallied and even Victoria couldn't stay mad (doing her very best to show me a mad/sad face but failing miserably, lol).

Lincoln's version of a mad face :-)

While Jim and Jeff took the big kids to karate, Grammie and Waverly were talking about the day - big smiles :-)  Gram had asked Victoria if she cried more or less than Lincoln had the previous day (when he was stung by the wasp), and she responded, "I cried more, but three is a lot worse than one." True enough!

Gram made her awesome bbq ribs and fried potatoes for dinner - what an awesome treat!  Then the men spent twenty minutes throwing the kids around and/or being beaten up.  A good workout after all that delicious food :-)

Wednesday, August 7th

The kids were eager to play scientists, and so we set up our fun colored water station on the screened-in porch again on Wednesday morning.  After they had played for a while, Waverly woke up from a morning nap and Scarlett was a big help to me working on a little project in the baby's room - I'm thankful that all of my kids are such eager workers!  What a great talent to be blessed with :-)  Eventually it was time for lunch and just about then Lincoln was helping Grammie take out some heavy trash to the garage when he was stung by a wasp! :-(  He was very brave about it though and was over it quickly (although he did relish looking at the images on my camera over and over, ha!).

Naptime, snack and karate followed, then home for dinner.  Afterward, Jim took Scarlett and Lincoln on a top secret mission to buy a gift for their sister for her upcoming birthday party!

Creating a potion... okay, mostly arguing over creating a potion.

Scarlett helped feed Waverly a little bit, then handed her off to me and got to work on going through the baby's closet and pulling out anything NB and putting it aside in a "too small" bag.  A lot of 0 to 3 month items also had to be put away as too small.  Our little newborn is not a newborn anymore!  She is about ready to surpass her 3 month size clothes!!  Scarlett did a terrific job and was so proud of herself at the accomplishment.

Poor guy! Pointing to his nasty wasp sting on his neck - is that just the most pitiful little side profile face or what?? :-(  He told me to send the picture to daddy!

Ouch!

Victoria gets on kicks where she is bound and determined to teach our dog, Salty, new tricks. "I'm going to train Salty!" she will declare. 

Eventually she gets frustrated and goes to his trusty standby - "Sit" and "Shake." 

Post-nap, pre-karate snack of pistachios.  At first, Victoria was just helping Lincoln pry open some of the tougher ones - however, she tried one and actually loved it.  Watch out, Linc, you're going to have some pistachio-eating competition!

My little snuggler! :-)  She went along to karate, and everyone there already knows her by name; she may have to join Tiny Tigers already an orange belt from all of her kicking and punching practice ;-)

She loves talking about her day to Nana!  It's funny how much she talks to my mom and gram - she will for me and Jim, but not nearly for as long or with such vehemence. 

While Jim and the other two big kids were out shopping for a present, Victoria requested I paint her nails - she chose the color, a sparkly purple.  Lovely!

Second night in a row that the cat has been in the baby's room!  SOOO not okay.  I had to get photographic evidence but then the cat got the major heave-ho out of the house!  Look at Pixie chillin' on the changing table like it's a specialty piece of cat furniture...that's some nerve.