Escaping The Heat!

On Friday August 19th the kids and I were supposed to go to the sprinkler part with Kim and her kids, but Kim wasn't feel well so we rescheduled for the next week. The forecast for that day and the next day said it was going to be in the upper 90's. I can handle 80's, but 90 is a bit much! So I called up Ga-Ga to see if we could come down to her place to beat the heat....Ga-Ga & Pa's house has A/C!!!

Before we hung out at the house though we picked up Ga-Ga and went to Costco for lunch and shopping. On our way home we stopped at a few garage sales and the kids were able to use their spend money. 

Side Note: We are having our family pictures taken in September and I was having a hard time finding a shirt that matched everyone else's shirt. Well...the first garage sale we stopped at I found the perfect shirt for .25!!!

Once we got home from all the shopping Ga-Ga & I got the backyard set up for a lot of water fun! Jackson is all into American Ninja Warrior so we set it up as a course. 

First he had to go on the slip and slide....

then he had to jump in the pool....

run through and avoid other kids....

once he was out of the pool he had to go over to the play structure...

climb the rock wall....

come down the water slide...

run over to the sandbox and jump off...

make his way to down the path where he had to push the button to finish the course! 

Jackson is this years Backyard Ninja Warrior! 

Before we got to Ga-Ga's I had rented The Angry Birds movie so during the hottest part of the day the kids came in to refuel. 

They also had fun using these cool trays I found at a garage sale for $1 for all 4!!!  

We ended up spending the night and then staying until after dinner on Saturday. It was so nice to be able to enjoy both the hot and the cool and not just be smothered by the hot. When we got home on Saturday night the house wasn't too bad and to my surprise Michael did a bunch of work while we were gone. I was sure he was just going to chill out.....goodness knows the man deserves it! Instead of relaxing he painted all the mill work from the recent remodel and the door to the bathroom. He also touched up all the mill work on the stairway and in the hallway upstairs. Plus....he painted our bedroom the new color that I picked out to match my new bedding. 

Yeah for no white walls!! The color is called Simmering Smoke...it's a really light grey, but I didn't want anything dark. I wanted our room to feel open and airy! 

I love our new bedding! I found it at Fred Meyer's on clearance. It was originally priced at $149.00, marked on sale down to $111,00 and then I got it on clearance for $55!!! I had been planning on spending $60, but when it comes to King Size bedding that is almost impossible. I also had some money leftover from my gas fund for the month so I used that and got a set of sheets on sale for $34.99. I love finding deals! 

Homemade Ice Cream!

At the Mill Creek Garage Sales back in October I found an ice cream maker for only $4! It was in really nice shape and actually looked like it had never been used. The lady did say she used it and the ice cream turned out really good she just never used it enough. The only thing she didn't have was the instruction manual, but thankfully the internet has everything and I found the manual online and printed it out for free at the library! 

I made sure that during my November shopping trip that I bought both heavy cream and half and half so we could try out the machine! 

We decided to go with chocolate as our first flavor. First we mixed all the ingredients together and then got the machine set up with the ice and the salt. The nice thing is you don't have to use rock salt you just use table salt. I ended up buying a 25lb bag of salt at Sam's Club for less than $6! We turned on the ice cream maker and set the timer. During the whole process you have to add more ice and salt as you go. Thankfully I was in the process of making dinner so I was already hanging out in the kitchen so I could keep an eye on it. Those holes on each corner were where I would drop in more ice and salt. The manual said it would take between 18 - 25 minutes for normal ice cream to be ready and about a 1 minute shy of 25 minutes I heard a change in the sound of the machine....like it was working harder...and I knew it was done. 

It was still very much soft serve ice cream so I stuck it in the freezer for later. It didn't freeze as fast as I thought so we ended up not getting to eat it until the next day. It was fabulous! The one thing I've learned is I need to take the ice cream out of the tin and put it in a Tupperware container before freezing. It's fine to freeze it in the tin, but then you can't make any more ice cream since there is only one tin. Also when you take it out of the freezer it is so cold that it actually feels like it's burning your hands when you're holding it! 

The next flavor we are going to make is vanilla with broken up chunks of Butterfingers....all that Halloween candy is going to come in handy! 

Hey, Hey...Life In The Dreamhouse!!

After the LEGO store opening we went straight to Ga-Ga's house. I put LEGO's together and then we ate lunch. Then it was off to Garage Sales! Jack had been asking when we were going to go Garage Saling with Ga-Ga again and this was something that we had on our summer bucket list. Of course I didn't think that the LEGO store opening would be the same day so I thought the kids would have their own spending money. It's always easier when they have their own money because then they are more choosy with what they want since they are spending their money! Of course I wasn't going to cancel our fun so I figured they would each just get a couple things. 

The first garage sale we stopped at we found lots of treasures. Ella got this cute Sophia Tea Party game, an umbrella and a pair of white dress shoes. Owen got 3 Angry Birds Sets, a few pairs of shorts and a Seahawk hoodie, Jack got 2 Ninja Turtle masks and their weapons and a bag full of animals, Zeke got some Toy Story dominoes and a Lightning McQueen car. 

The next garage sale we went to was in neighborhood sale. Love those! The first thing I saw was this Barbie house, but I didn't say anything. Of course Ella saw it too and she just had to have it. Ga-Ga bought it for her of course. The funny thing was it was too big to fit in Ga-Ga's Aspen. So we took the all the accessories with us and then came back in my van to pick it up. 

The girl was only selling it was $20 which is really a steal. It originally costs over $100 and you have to put it together. I had actually researched this house last year and that was the biggest complaint....the instructions were horrible so putting it together was a pain in the tushy! When the guy was putting it in my van he even said that holding it brought back memories of putting it together. It took him hours! 

I love that Jack enjoys playing with Ella! 

It's in great shape and has most of the accessories...I think we are missing one dining room chair. Nothing is broken either. The elevator wasn't going all the way to the top so we watched a YouTube video and Michael figured out how to fix it so now it's working perfectly! 

This thing is huge! It's the same height as Ella! Saturday I spent the whole day reorganizing both playrooms. I had been needing to do it anyway so this was a good push for me to get it done. It was a LOT of work, but the Barbie Dreamhouse now has it's own little corner! 

On Saturday before we left to go garage saling I noticed that my mom's neighbors had set some stuff out by the curb. I asked mom what that was about and she said that in their neighborhood if someone does that it means it's free. So I checked it out and found these cool stack-able containers in girly colors. So I snatched right up...not really knowing what I'd use them for, but I'm not going to pass up free storage! Later when I got home I realized that they matched the Dreamhouse perfectly...light pink, dark pink and purple. So now that's where all of Ella's Barbie dolls, clothes, car and pool are stored! She got a pretty good set up I'd say!

In all we only went to 5 garage sales and we found lots of fun stuff. Another thing crossed off the summer bucket list!

Zeke's 2nd Birthday!!!

The day before Zeke's party I got the garage all cleaned up and ready for the drive-in movie. Our friend Micah came over and set up his projector, sound board and a white sheet to make the drive-in movie possible. Thank you Micah!!! 

The Cars looked so cute all set up! There is a completely separate blog post coming about the Cars. 

On the door into the garage I put a sign that said...Dinoco King's Drive-in!

After all the kids arrived I had them line up so I could talk to them about the drive-in movie and what was going to happen. 

The kids got to draw the name of their car from a bowl so there wouldn't be any fighting over what car they got or didn't get. 

I did put McQueen's name aside since he was being saved for the Birthday Boy! One the kids came into the garage they got to grab a small bowl of popcorn and then find their Car. 

Andrew got Sally! 

Josiah got Flo! 

Lilyann got Sheriff! 

Jack got Sarge! 

Owen got Fillmore! 

Ella got Red! 

Kendra got King! 

Here's the Birthday Boy! 

Unfortunately Zeke Man was not feeling very because of this cold that was holding on for dear life. He was coughing and was a bit whiny most of the day! 

The kids got to watch some of the short films from Tow Maters Tall Tales. There were a few cars empty since a couple families weren't able to make it to the party! :(

I had lots of fun with the food and coming up with the labels that would correspond with the movie. Here is Luigi's Leaning Tower of Tires! 

These are Sarges Stoplights! 

Doc's Dipsticks! 

Mack's Melons! 

Chick's Chips! 

Sally's Sausage Pizza! 

Happy boy with his donut...I think it was the only thing he ate all night! 

Zeke is normally a Pa boy, but since he was not feeling good he was even more of a Pa boy today! Of course Pa loved every minute of it! 

Earlier in the day the weather was so nice, but as the party got closer the sky got dark and the clouds rolled in and it started to pour! I was super bummed since really the only game we had planned was an outdoor game. Thankfully after dinner the rain stopped so we took advantage of it. 

We were off to the races....The Piston 200! 

The kids brought all their cars outside and then they each got to run from the starting line to the finish line. Michael was at the finish line with a stopwatch. Each of the kids had their own Pit Pass with their name on it and then I would write in the time it took them to run the race. 

Jack decided he didn't want to race with Sarge so he choose Tow Mater instead. 

Zeke was not going to race on his own so Pa put McQueen over Zeke's head and then held him and ran. 

On Thursday when I had some trouble with the van I needed some help from the neighbors. While they were helping I mentioned the party and the race. They were so excited so they came and were spectators for the race. It was so fun! 

I thought it was fun how the kids had a sort of ownership of their cars. They knew which one was theirs and it was important that they had the right one. 

Thankfully we didn't have any injuries during the course of the race. 

I was going to have the kids do a craft project which was decorate Fillmore with graffiti, but we just didn't get around to it. 

Camryn did a great job racing in heels! 

Ella thought that race was code for Sunday drive! She was sure cute though! 

Group shot! 

Camryn ended up winning the race. Her time was 4.17 seconds! She was a trophy that said "Winner Piston 200" and a 100 Grand candy bar!

 Even Pa & Uncle Ry got to take some cars for a "test drive"! 

Since I was busy making Cars I knew that I was not going to make a big fancy cake this time. So I ended up buying an ice cream cake. Since Zeke was sick we cut his piece off the cake so he wouldn't blow his germs all over the rest of the cake. 

Present Time! 

Jack spent his own money and got Zeke a brand new Lightning McQueen. He did not let it go!

Uncle Ry & Aunt Stephie got Zeke a McQueen helmet. I got Zeke a McQueen backpack, lunchbox and bicycle that I found at the Mill Creek garage sales. He also got a board book, McQueen swim shorts and money! 

Ga-Ga & Pa got Zeke this Cars table. I actually found it on Craigslist in Canada, but that didn't work out. Then I found a guy that had one and he lived in Longview. He actually worked at Fort Lewis so we met there. It worked out perfectly! 

Zeke drove around with his new McQueen! 

As you can see from his face he is not too sure about sharing his birthday present! 

You know the saying....sing with me now...It's my party and I'll cry if I want to! No birthday party is complete without tears!