Wet and Wild Fun at Tracy's

After the stables we headed over to our friend's house nearby. There was a kiddie pool and a sprinkler going, so the kids had a lot of fun although Alex refused to don his swimsuit. He is so silly sometimes. It was Alyssa's first time in a pool type situation and she really wasn't quite sure at first. Heck, she has only taken one bath without me, so being put down in some strange, blue water contraption must have seemed quite odd. :) She got comfortable pretty quick though and splashed around and seemed to have a great time. It was really cute. The moms were talking and Tracy said that sometimes there is nothing better than sitting in a plastic pool on a hot day eating icey pops with your kids. Amen sister.

After the pool we headed home to eat dinner and change clothes before work. I had put a pot of crab claw gumbo on the stove earlier in the day. I tasted it and boy was it DISGUSTING. We ended up getting Chik Fil A on the way to the church. Maybe dinner tomorrow will be somewhat less of a disaster.

East Cobb Stables

We hung out around the house for the better part of the day. The kids decided to take their lunch outdoors today, so Alex dragged the Nemo umbrella table outside. Not just right outside either. Practically all the way to the culdesac. Then both chairs and their lunches. Silly kids. They sat out there eating for a few minutes until they realized that food + outside = bugs. They started freaking out. Alex convinced Kaitlyn that a bee stung her on the lip. First of all, I don't think she realizes how much a bee sting hurts because she never uttered so much as a whimper. But he must be convincing to a 3-year-old because she was still talking about her "bee sting" until she went to bed tonight. After a short rest we headed out to the East Cobb Stables. They advertise $8 pony rides on Wednesdays during summer and only at 2 pm.

http://www.eastcobbstables.com/PonyRides.htm

This and the ad I read in the Atlanta Parent magazine led me to believe that my children would receive a decently long pony ride. I meant to go all last summer, but put it off and put it off until summer was over and I had missed my chance. Well, one of my mommy friends posted about it on Atlanta Mommas so we decided to make an outing of it. We got there and weren't quite sure where to go. I realize that stables are not the most glam places, but it was kind of yucky there. It was totally hot outside, in the nineties. We finally figured out where we were supposed to be and waited a short time. Alex got to ride first. They walked him around the track twice and then that was it. Done. Same for Kaitlyn. It was less than 5 minutes each! I felt sort of misled about the time. They weren't even the friendliest people either. Not rude or anything, but definitely not friendly like I want people that are interacting with my children to be. The kids were definitely impressed by the horse riding. I asked Alex if he thought it was a thumbs up or thumbs down. He held his thumb sideways and said "medium". He said it was good because he got to ride a horse and bad because it was really hot. Kaitlyn agreed.

BAD! BAD BLOGGER!

So I have been a terrible blogger. I got like a week behind in blogging back in ohhh....march sometime? I have been meaning to wait until I have this huge block of time to do nothing except get the blog caught up. Instead I fall farther and farther behind. I am going forward and not looking back. Well, maybe one day I will try to fill in the gap. Maybe tonight.....

Lost Mountain Park

We checked out a new park today, Lost Mountain Park. It was a really neat playground. The whole thing was covered by a HUGE mesh covering that shaded the entire playground. We were cool, the equipment was cool, it was great! I wish all playgrounds were like this! We couldn't stay too long because Kaitlyn had ballet at noon. They have a recital coming up on June 10th, so this was their first time going through their routine on the stage in the big auditorium. It was so cute. For a bunch of 3 & 4 year olds I think they keep it together really well. I can't wait until the actual recital. Jon hasn't seen her do her ballet yet, so he is really excited too.

http://www.atlantaparent.com/06-06-june2006/playground-june2006.html

Memorial Day

This Memorial Day Jon's parents were coming over for a cookout. They came bearing gifts!! Ann had made a BEAUTIFUL French Heirloom dress for Kaitlyn (shown in picture). She also made Kaitlyn and Alyssa coordinating dresses, so we will have to do some pictures of them in them soon. We grilled out and ate steaks and hot dogs. Good combination, right? Ann and Will also took us to Target and bought the kids a ton of summer clothes, shoes for Jon and I, and I got my very first full coverage bathing suit. Ahhh....to be a grownup. Alyssa was scared of Will this time! Normally she tugs on his beard and doesn't mind him at all, but today she would cry everytime he would get near her. I think she is the most skittish of all three of my kids. She was terrified of Kathy (our cat) for awhile too. She would cry for me everytime the cat walked by her! It is funny how different kids can really be SO DIFFERENT.

I got an investor for my Ergo undertaking today!! I just need to push all the paperwork and it is a done deal! YAY!! I am going to make a million dollars now! You can check them out here:

www.ergobabycarrier.com

Christine's Birthday

Christine's birthday was actually Saturday the 27th, but we celebrated today at Pappasito's Mexican Restaurant on Windy Hill. It was really really good Mexican food. I got the seafood enchiladas and they were EXCELLENT. Jessalyn and I had put together Wonder Woman cupcakes and they turned out really cute. I think definitely a good time was had by all.

Later that night Jon and I watched Grandma's Boy. He didn't think it was great, but I thought it was pretty fun. Any Happy Madison movies I can watch over and over without getting sick of them. I swear I think I have seen Billy Madison 110 times at least.

Dancing Queen

We kind of just hung around the house all day today taking a family day. While Jon was making breakfast, Kaitlyn discovered a toy she had gotten at Christmastime in the top of her closet. It was a Cinderella dancing instruction DVD, so she put on all her Cinderella gear and tried to follow the steps. It was pretty hard stuff! Even I had a hard time following it!

Kaitlyn Is A Babywearer Like Momma

After the Koalamommas meeting, Kaitlyn was inspired to wear her babies too. Check her out in Christine's red Moby wrap! (Not too much else either! Call her Lady Godiva!)

Today was Alex's last day of kindergarten!! He managed to make it through the year without being expelled, so we are going to consider it a success! He is VERY glad to be out for the summer!!

Koalamommas

We had a Koalamommas meeting today at East Cobb Park. Christine couldn't make it to this one, but otherwise there was a good turnout. We even had a dad come to learn about carriers! Love that! We talked a lot about the Ergo vs. Patapum carrier. The Ergo is the cadillac of baby carriers right now. Since I sell the Patapum through Natural Family Boutique, I have been trying to convince myself that it is just as good as the Ergo. When mine finally arrived, I realized it was NOT. It is seriously a cheaper knock off of the Ergo. Especially after this meeting, I realized I really really need to sell the Ergo since I absolutely cannot recommend the Patapum to people. I have talked to a couple people about investing in my business because the intial investment into Ergos is sizeable. I think better follow up on that one....

Eating Sweet Potatoes & Standing

I tried making putting Alyssa's sweet potatoes in this little baby food eating contraption. There is a handle the baby can hold on it and you put the food in this little mesh bag so they can feed themselves. She didn't really seem to care about it at all. She seemed to like playing with it, but she still spit the food out everywhere. Oh well. She might eat something other than breastmilk...someday.

She also "stood" sort of for the first time today. She at least supported her weight for a few seconds. I went to sit her down in front of her new cube toy that we borrowed from Tamara and she grabbed the metal parts and hung on. I let go of her and she stood there long enough for me to grab a camera and take a picture. What a big girl!!

API

We went to our API meeting today. Christine and I were speaking about babywearing and we were hoping that it would encourage some more people to come to the Koalamommas meeting tomorrow. The meeting went well. The questions were: What is your favorite carrier right now? and If you could only have 1 carrier, which one would you choose? I said that right now my faovrite carrier is the Ergo. It is amazing. I can carry Kaitlyn in it and barely feel her weight. According to the website, I could even carry Alex since it goes up to 65 pounds. I thought if I could only have one, I would choose the meitai since it works well for an infant and a toddler just not as comfortable as the Ergo once the baby gets over 20 pounds or so. I thought about it later and realized the Ergo has an infant insert, so really it could go the whole time. I just have never seen one of their infant inserts in real life. I think I need to check one of those out....