Penny's Birthday, Last Week of Summer

Before I move unto tales of this week, there were a few things I forgot to share about last week. The first thing was a missionary moment that I unexpectedly found myself in. During my annual check up at the OBGYN the doctor asked me if I drank alcohol and usually I just say "Nope" but for some reason this time I said "Nope- I am a Mormon." This led us into a whole conversation about how he dislikes drinking and then he started asking me about temples and then when I spoke about sealings in the temple we started talking about marriage. It was a really neat conversation, although it would have been a lot better if I wasn't in a super awkward doctor's office gown, ha ha!

My other story is super humiliating so maybe that's why I left it out. We had been going in and out of fudge shops at Mackinac Island because they have at least a dozen of them and mom was searching for a specific kind of fudge (Creamsicle). Well after scanning one and not seeing the fudge, without looking down I grabbed the arm that I believed belonged to Steven. I tugged on it and said, "Come on, let's go." The arm didn't move so I tugged again, harder and then I looked down. That was not Steven's arm. I have never seen a child look more horrified of me. I was so embarrassed and apologized to the parents telling them that I thought it was my son. They tried to smooth things over saying, "Oh does your son have a hat like ours?" Nope. Definitely not. I think the icing on the cake was the hat that I was wearing. I just so happened to be wearing the "Free Hugs" hat the my friend had got me. What a creeper I must have looked like!!!

Last story that I don't think I have shared yet has to do with Ben. He still has accidents at night so we bought him a pee alarm. Well after night after night of waking up to that awful sound, we finally stopped hearing it. After a couple quiet nights I asked Ben if he really was staying dry at night and Steven replied, "Yeah he is...because I wake him up every night to go pee." Turns out Steven hated the sound of the alarm so much that he has taken it upon himself to be Benny's own personal alarm. I mean it's not the best solution BUT...it's working....

Anyways unto this week. We started off the week with Penny's birthday. I can't believe that crazy girl of mine is 4! She woke up that morning and opened presents as per tradition and then (after TV time) we went to Splash Universe. The kids had a lot of fun there and I think it was a proper way to celebrate her birthday. For dinner she requested I make her hot dog mac and then afterwards she got to have some of her amazing ballet bear cake. Lucy totally had this same cake a few years ago so it was fun to see Tyler make it again.

Tuesday was the sad day that I had to say goodbye to my parents. I hate when they leave so I distracted myself by throwing an end of summer party for my Primary Class that night. I had planned on keeping it simple- just pizza at our neighborhood beach and the kids could bring dessert. Well the weather was rainy off and on all day and it kind of led to a disastrous start to the party. The forecast SAID it was supposed to be clear during the party- literally a 0% chance of rain. But about 15 minutes after all the kids were there it started to sprinkle on us and Penny and Lucy were having panic attacks (because they believe that rain leads to lightening) and the rest of the kids were just being crazy. Tyler, of course, was late and not there yet so I was on my own trying to manage the chaos. We moved all our food and things under the ramada (which was quite the undertaking) and I managed to calm them all down by letting them eat junk food and soon after Tyler arrived. After that, the weather cleared up and things went much better but it was definitely a rough start.

Then to keep me further distracted from missing my parent I went to see the movie "Crazy Rich Asians" with Carina and Lauralyn after the class party. I am Carina's minister and we had been trying to get together for awhile so this is just what worked. It was a very predictable romantic comedy but it was a nice escape from life.

Wednesday I took the kids to their new school to play on the playground. It's a pretty fun playground and I had a hard time getting them to leave. I think this helped some in getting them more excited with school starting next week. Shortly after we came back, I let Steven be the babysitter for an hour while I went with my friend Corinne on an Arby's date. She is my friend that miscarried recently and she was looking to be distracted- apparently I am a good distractor. Even though she is struggling and having a hard time, I did see bits of her old self there.

Thursday afternoon we watched my friend's daughter. My friend left to NYC with her older kids that evening and her hubby was out of town for work so Eliza got to stay with us for the night and the next day. That night I took the kids for a walk and Steven was pulling Penny and Eliza in the wagon. At one point Penny stood up to look at some dogs and without realizing this, Steven tugged the wagon. Penny tipped over backwards and hit her head hard on the street. Thankfully no blood, just a really big bump. Scared me real good.

Also Thursday we had an air tech come to check our unit (Tyler signed up for their maintenance program) and he told us it needs replacing. It's wired wrong, it's from 1999 and it's probably going to die any day now. Great. That's just a $3000 fix. Talking to Tyler, as far as our ac smarts go, if the outside unit doesn't affect our heater then we will wait until next year to replace it. It's working for now, and it's almost September which means the hot month are almost gone. Still, we're just delaying the inevitable.

And to add icing to the cake, Tyler was out late at work Thursday night and driving home his tire went askew. He is fine but his truck is not. We are down to one car until he can fix his truck so that's super fun.

Friday night Laci threw me my belated birthday party. Per my request it was a puzzle party since I love doing puzzles. She had a succulent puzzle and a Harry Potter puzzle and we all just sat and chatted. The conversation wasn't always my most favorite. There was a lot of baby talk since two of the ladies there were pregnant- birthing stories and nursing stories and I feel like being 33 with 4 kids, I have had these conversations so much that I am getting tired of them. Especially when it was all the horror and shock stories of nursing and birthing. One of ladies was pregnant for the first time and I am sure she is now terrified. They also all got talking about their miscarriages and apparently I was the only one there who has never had to go through that. Honestly, I felt miserably out of place at my own party. I can appreciate how it can be therapeutic to talk about it so trying to think positively- I think my party was therapeutic for some of them. Anyways I shouldn't be such a grumpy pants. It was really nice of Laci to throw me the party and there were some really fun moments and I had the added bonus of having a really good chat with my friend Caroline afterwards so that was nice. I think if anything I can just learn from this for the future that I am really just not a birthday party girl. Group things are not my thing, I so prefer one on one. 

Lake St Clair and Mackinac

This week between appointments and adventures with Grams and Poppy we kept very busy! On Monday I had the joy of going to the doctor for my annual physical and to the gyno for my annual check up. I ended up getting a tetanus/whopping cough shot which made my arm sore for days. And I also found out that I am pre-diabetic. Not great news. I am .1 above the normal range but that's still above so now I should probably start monitoring what I eat. That's going to be challenging for me because I am a sugar and carbohydrates aholic. Also on Monday I got to bring a meal to my friend who recently miscarried. All the appointments and meal delivering made for a crazy day so I capped off the craziness with a trip to Kohl's with my mom. My mom spoiled me and got me a new beach hat (which Ben is modeling in a pic below). 

On Tuesday the kids had their dentist appointments (all 4 at once). Penny got super upset yet again during her cleaning which made the appointment hard for me but somehow they finished with all the kids in a half hour so at least it was quick. They all got good reports at the end- no cavities but last time they missed some cavities so I am not so sure if this is truly good news. I would like to hope everything's a-ok but with our bad teeth problems and some bad experiences with this dentist I just can't be sure.

Tuesday afternoon we were going to go on a quick trip to our neighborhood beach but our beach was closed since they just treated the weeds in the water. This meant that we ended up making the half an hour journey to the beach in Kensington. Not the short trip we planned on but everyone still had fun. They love the beach but they also are big fans of the playground there. My only hitch with the whole thing was the family smoking a hookah because it totally spread its whole stink across the beach.

Tuesday night Grams and I went on a date to Cheesecake Factory and ate the most amazing meal and dessert. It was serious yummy and left me craving more! 

Wednesday we went on a short trip to Lake Saint Clair Metropark- it's about an hour away. This Metropark is all kinds of amazing. After having a little picnic under the ramadas the kids had some fun at it's amazing playground. Then we walked over to Shipwreck Lagoon and played some miniature golf. It was super warm and we got super sweaty and we are not the greatest of players but it was still fun (because we cheated a lot). I really enjoy playing mini golf- even if I have no skill! 

The only not fun parts of the golfing was #1- the fighting over who got to go first and #2 Ben melting down because he could not keep his ball from falling into the river on one of the holes. It took him about 5 tries of hitting the ball and the crying before he finally got it. It was the worst. And I couldn't convince him that we were just having fun and it was ok if we skipped that part. So I guess I got to hand it to him that he sure is persistent but oh, the wailing and the crying. It was real rough.

After sweating up a storm the kids headed to the splash pad to cool off with Poppy. Grams and I headed to the car to get our beach gear. When the kids were done splashing Steven and Poppy went to the pool at this Metro park (it had a floating obstacle course and slide- both for older kids since it was super deep) and the rest of us hung out the beach. The beach was pretty deserted which we found out was because it was recently just reopened after being treated for e-coli. This made me slightly nervous and Grams very nervous but we all survived without getting diseased. The kids honestly spent most of their time chasing the seagulls.

After changing from our beach fun, the kids played a little more on the playground and then we journeyed back home- exhausted.

That night after dinner we finally went to the ice cream place by our house, Creamy Freeze. The sell Guernsey Ice Cream like all the other places but I am not complaining since that is super yummy ice cream.

Thursday we went to the Great Lakes Crossing Mall. The kids love the play place there and it's big enough that my big boys can get away with playing there with the girls. After they played their hearts out and had some food we did some shopping- or rather the Grandparents did some spoiling. The girls paid their first visit to Claire's which was one of my favorite places when I was younger and they loved it. It was buy 3, get 3 free so they got spoiled with sticker earrings, rings, and Lucy got a mermaid notebook and Penny got fake glasses. Ben got a Pokemon cards and Steven got a Minecraft Minifigure. And Poppy got me a cactus Lego Minifigure. The cactus guy came in one of those surprise bags but the nice worker felt every bag and found him the right one. She was really talented, ha ha!

Thursday night Tyler and I got to go on a temple date which was really nice. No big revelations yet on whether or not I should have one more kid but that's ok. 

Friday morning was uneventful but that afternoon I dropped off my 3 youngest with a friend and then Grams, Poppy, Steven and me headed up to Northern Michigan for a little adventure. Our fist stop was at our hotel in Cheboygan. Our room had a balcony view of the Cheboygan River which was real pretty. 

After settling in our room we grabbed some dinner and then went to find the Cheboygan Front Range Lighthouse because that's just what I do. This will not be one of my favorite lighthouses though. It was kind of run down and located in an industrial (not pretty at all) area. We attempted to go to another lighthouse but road closures kept us from doing that. Instead we went back to the hotel where Poppy and Steven went swimming at the pool. Grams and I left them and went on our own adventure to Cheboygan State Park where we found a little beach to sit and talk at. It was probably the best part of the trip just chatting with my mom about life and enjoying the beautiful view and weather.

After our beach chat, I did some reading on the balcony and then called it a day. 

The next morning we drove to Mackinac city where we boarded the ferry to Mackinac Island. The wind was blowing and it was a chilly wait for the ferry but once we got inside it all was well and the views were pretty.

Once we arrived on the island we went on a Carriage Tour. There are no cars on the island so you either get around by bike or by horse- my parents choice was horse. While I thought I would rather do the bike, I am glad we did the carriage tour. We got to learn a lot of fun facts about the island and see all the things on the island. Some interesting things I learned... The Grand Hotel (which really is grand) was built in 93 days. And even though no mail is delivered on the island- Amazon delivers by horse carriage. Good old Amazon!

 

Our first stop on the tour was at the Butterfly House. Steven really wanted to go and since this was his special trip I obliged. It wasn't really worth it. It was a very small house and many of the butterflies looked like they had been manhandled. I don't think they take good care of the butterflies. They also didn't flutter around much. So not super impressed but I did see one of my favorites ones- the ones with blue wings.

After the disappointing Butterfly House we continued our tour into the woods of Mackinac Island. They were pretty and we learned more interesting things- like how they used to have to walk over the frozen lakes to get supplies using Christmas trees as lights and about the Pileated Woodpecker that holes up the trees. They made that woodpecker sound giant but when I looked it up later, it didn't look so big. We also got to check out the beautiful arch rock. Our tour guide told us she had 3 stories about how that was created. The first- erosion. The second- woodpeckers. When she said that one Steven immediately let out "No, that's not true." Glad he's learned the difference between truth and tales. Her third tale was about a girl who was chained to a rock and then her tears made a hole in the middle of it. He didn't even bother to comment on the validity of it.

Our final stop on the tour was at Fort Mackinac. Steven and I both wanted to check it out and it was fun but not quite as big as I thought it was. I also think Greenfield Village has given me such high expectations of historic themed places that nothing is quite the same. But the views from the wall were great and the cannon firing was fun too.

After we watched them fire the cannon we got some lunch at the Fort at The Tea Room which was actually a balcony with a gorgeous view. The food was overpriced but still yummy. 

When we finished eating we hit the Children's Quarters which had some fun hands on things and photo props.

When we were done at the Fort we went into town and shopped the shops downtown. It was awful crowded and I got headachy (probably because I didn't sleep super fantastic the night before and it was sunny) so it was not my favorite part of the day but we did find some fun shirts and I did find some salt water taffy (my favorite!). Grandma also got her Creamsicle fudge and Steven got some Superman ice cream. Then it was back on to the ferry for us (this time we sat on top) and back home for us!