Week 3: Alligator Funerals and Carly's Pooping Virus

This week, I have much less exciting things to report, despite my riveting title. With the boys at school, and a lazy weekend to follow it wasn't a very exciting week around here.

If you missed my facebook update on how much Hayden is liking school, here's how it went:

Hayden day 1 of kindergarten- 'It's awesome!'

Hayden day 2 of kindergarten- 'It's ok'

Hayden day 3 of kindergarten- 'I hate school'

Hayden day 4 of kindergarten- 'Please don't make me go to school, I want to stay home with you forever'

Hayden day 5 of kindergarten- 'I'm serious, I'm not going to school ever again' (insert crying here- and for extra dramatic effect, kicking and laying on the floor)

I'm hoping these issues work themselves out soon rather than later. Calib attempted bribery, promising to buy Hayden a hermit crab if Hayden straightened up and went to school without whining. (This was day 3- as you can see, it didn't work). I said I would have a sleepover, and sleep on the trundle in their room on Friday if he was good. Asa found this to be a horrible idea, as I would be treating the separation anxiety by spending even more time with him. But, then he found it to be a good idea as he thought about getting to sleep in the middle of the bed. Either way, it was a no go.

Calib had a good first week. He's the top of the school being in 5th grade and all. I told him to enjoy it while it lasts, because next year he'll find himself at the bottom of the totem pole. He applied to be in safety patrol. Apparently, bright orange sashes mean you're super cool. Who would have thought? Peyton seems to like his class, but thats probably because the homework hasn't started yet. Oh man, if there is anything I'm dreading it's doing homework with Peyton again. This requires a super large amount of patience, and my patience bar has been depleted since that hugely long summer vacation we took.

We did use our newly constructed noise meter this week. I have found the noise meter does directly correlate with how much advil I need to take. We have four stages: Loud (reserved for Rock Band, and Light Saber Fights), Inside Voice, Whisper (which as we all know Asa does not know how to do- I guess if you have to have one fault this is not a bad one to have), and Quiet (for homework, and bedtime). Speaking of bedtime, I also had to mix up some super special good dream spray for Hayden. I will share with you my super secret recipe, but I warn you, it is most complicated. Ok, here it is. It's one part fabreeze, one part construction paper label. But, it keeps away zombies, ghosts, monsters, vampires, and bad dreams. 98 and 3/4 Percent Guaranteed.

I have come up with a weekly schedule, like we had for the summer. Just because they have school there's no reason to stop with the arts and crafts. (Look, my time with them and these sort of things are limited, they won't want to do them forever, I have to take advantage of it while it lasts). Monday we made bouncy balls (which I think I talked about in last weeks blog), anyway, that's craft night. Tuesday is Math Skills Night. We had all kinds of dixie cups lined up with numbers on them, and popsicle sticks with problems on them. They had to place the right popsicle stick in the right cup. Originally, Peyton was all whiney. But, when the reward was a miniature marshmallow for every couple you had correct, he got right on board.

Wednesday is game night. I wanted to play chalk squares, where you draw a huge board of squares, everyone starts on one and as you step to a new one you X out your old square. You can't move where the X's are, so the last person left with moves wins. I told Asa we should move the cars so we could do it in our driveway, but then Asa said we should just do it next door, since that house has gone into foreclosure- yay for the Florida Economy coming in handy once. Calib won, only because Asa helped him though. The boys have been waiting for it to rain since Wednesday so that it would wash away and we could play again. We finally got one of those trademark afternoon rains yesterday. Thursday is baking night. We made dirt, complete with oreo's and gummy worms (trust me, it's much more appealing than it sounds), and Friday is movie night. We watched Hoodwinked 2. Talk about a sequel that flopped. I think rotten tomatoes had it at like a 38 percent. I think that was a little high.

How was my week you ask? It was alright. The amount of things I can get done in a day are amazing. Monday by lunch time I had so much cleaning done and things accomplished I could hardly believe it. By Friday afternoon I was terribly bored, and was getting suggestions from everyone on what I should do. Rachel Benson wins for that one, next time I'm that bored I'll be making clay versions of my family, and making a video. Stay tuned for that one. I promise it'll be more entertaining than Hoodwinked 2.

Which brings me to the weekend. Originally the models had the hurricane coming our way. I was pretty sure it wouldn't though, because I'm basically hurricane repellent. When I moved here everyone said 'You're going to get swept away in a hurricane' or 'A gator is going to eat your kids'. Well, at this point both of them seem equally as likely, because neither one of them has come even close to happening. When the hurricane took the very predictable turn, we thought maybe we could go to Disney this weekend. But, early Saturday morning when I got online to check the weather, we were under severe weather. But not due to a storm, or anything like that. Oh no. This is Florida, in August. It was a heat advisory telling us 'dangerous heat index. outdoor exposure should be limited'. I am all for Disney, but not in 110 degree heat with 95 percent humidity.

So, it turned into a lazy weekend. This is good for a couple of reasons. 1. Asa needs one of those every once in awhile. 2. We have weekend plans until October. We called our friend Brandy out in Oregon for her birthday last week, and she was talking about coming to visit again (Which would be super fun- book your ticket now!) Asa told her I have us booked up until 2014 so she better start planning her wedding soon, otherwise we won't be able to make it. Which is inaccurate because A. To my knowledge, Brandy has not found her special someone yet. and B. I could rearrange my schedule for her! But, Asa's point ( to him at least) remains valid. We usually have plans for a couple weeks- or months - out. What can I say? I'm a planner.

We did go to the pool Saturday, where we lost someone very near and dear to all of us. Mr. Inflatable Alligator is no longer with us. He sprung a leak at approximately 3:55 pm and there was no reinflating him. He went peacefully though. Official cause of death is listed as natural causes. He was over 16 months old, after all. Thats at least 80 in inflatable raft years. Asa said we should take him home and cook him for dinner, I said the meat may be a little rubbery, so we decided to give him the proper burial he deserved. We picked out a nice spot in the trash can on the pool deck.We had a moment of silence for him. Hayden said a few words 'My favorite memory was riding Mr. Alligator around in the pool' RIP Mr. Alligator 2010-2011.

After our traumatizing event at the pool, we went over to Justin's for dinner. It was super official, instead of just calling us to invite us over, he made a facebook event and everything, complete with a picture of what was in his fridge. He did make the mistake of letting Asa cook the bacon burgers.

The conversation went something like this:

Justin: 'When you said wrap the burgers in bacon, you really meant wrap the WHOLE burger in bacon'

Me: 'Yea, you gotta watch him with the bacon usage, he'll use the whole package if you don't monitor it. You really should know better Justin'

We also got to play a game of catan, in which I did not win, and Asa did not throw any pieces. There may be a correlation between the two. Then we played munchkin. If you don't play this game, you should consider yourself lucky. I'm pretty confident friendships have been broken and divorces have been initiated due to this game. Even worse, Carly once made the pooping virus card, in which you have to give all your cards in use to the person to your left. Fortunately for Asa (who was sitting next to the poop virus host, aka Calib) 11 year olds are not very good at keeping secrets. Asa quickly sold his soul for a wishing ring to protect himself from this curse, and no tables were over turned. At one point though, Calib drew a card that would have had him win the game, but did not read it correctly to know thats what would happen, so we continued on. In the end I bluffed my way using deadly deathful death threats to making Asa and I co-winners. Just like in life, and we dodge the divorce bullet yet again. Phew. Thats good. I wouldn't have had the $360 to file till Friday anyway.

Fun side note: while we were playing this Peyton was playing star wars on Justin's Xbox, and Hayden was pretending to move pillows with his hands (because, the force was with him). He would move his hands around, then quickly throw the pillow when he thought nobody was looking. It was pretty entertaining.

Today we were going to go to Adventure Island, but Hayden seems to have come down with a bit of a cold. Con: Hayden not feeling well. Pro: Maybe I won't be alone tomorrow and I'll have a sick kid to cuddle with. Ok, not really, I'll make him go to school, and I don't actually want him to be sick. Hopefully he feels better in the morning. And, I won't be alone with week because Asa gets to work from home. YAY!

The most exciting event today was the great Bathroom/Bedroom Flood of 2011 caused by Hurricane Hayden in the bathtub. It was a 6-towel clean up job. Calib also picked Philip River's first in the fantasy league he's in with Asa and some people from Asa's work. (For those of you who don't know- and if you know Asa I don't know how you don't know- he's obsessed with Philip Rivers. So much so, the guy made it into our wedding vows.) I believe I see either a trade, or some grounding, in Calib's future.

I have no pictures for this week. I actually don't think I took any this week. Taking a picture everyday is not on my list like it was last year, so I don't think about it as much. My list is coming along well though. I made some new recipes this week, finished a book, and killed it on yoshi tetris.

I'll leave you with a conversation I had with Peyton tonight. Ever the kind child about my age, that one:

Peyton: When was the Super Nintendo made?

Me: Oh, I don't know, a while ago.

Peyton: Yea, like the 1980's, or something? Was it that long ag0? Because that's a really long time ago.

Me: Really Peyton?

Peyton: Oh, I mean, I know you were born in the 1980s, but it was still a long time ago.

Me: Really? This conversation is still going?

Peyton: (realizing perhaps he's calling me old) Well, at least Uncle Cort and Uncle Clint will always be older than you. They're REALLY old. Uncle Clint's even losing some hair!

Up Next: Vocabulary Parades, Ice Cream Buckets, and Giant Inflatable Slides Oh My!

Week 2: "To This Day, Nobody Knows if Hermit Crabs Poop"

Your blog title this week is brought to you by the weird things that come out of Peyton's mouth commission.

It was the last week of summer vacation here in the Waterstraut household. While some years I feel the staples 'it's the most wonderful time of the year' commercial is appropriate here, I think this year was different for two reasons. 1. Hayden is off to school, and I don't know what to do with myself 2. We had such an awesomely epic summer, it's sad to see it end.

Last Tuesday Hayden got registered for kindergarten. Such a sad, sad milestone. What will I do with all my kids in school? Five to Six hours a day, just me. It blows my mind that I could just go out and not have to say anything to anyone. This hasn't happened since I was like, a freshman in college. And, actually, thats the only time it ever happened. It'll be an adjustment, with pro's and con's, I'm sure. Pro: Nobody to mess up everything I clean up. :) Con: Nobody to mess up everything I clean up :(

This week Hayden invented strawberry tacos. Now before you all run right to your recipe box to add this thinking it's some cool new recipe I came up with, just know Hayden made this up all on his own. And, he's related to the guy who invented fat sandwiches (don't ask). Anyway, It was just a taco, complete with tomatoes, meat, cheese, and sour cream, and then added strawberries. Not one or two, no this is Hayden. His life motto whether he knows it or not is go big or go home. It's in his genes. Well, actually his motto is pretty much just 'go big in EVERY SINGLE THING YOU DO'. His weirdness continued into the night, while we were all in the living room doing our own thing, he came out with a broom, using it as metal detector. Beep....... Beep...... Beep....... BEEPBEEPBEEP.... He didn't talk to anyone else, he didn't involve anyone else. He just very seriously and intently looked for, and found some buried treasure.

With Hayden going to school, Calib and Peyton felt the need to start to tell him about what his daily life would be like. Peyton was talking about how Hayden is going to have to say the Pledge of Allegiance everyday. Haydens response: Whats the Pledge of Alliance? (Yes, alliance). Peyton then went on 'I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of american, and to the republic for whiches stands, one nation, under god, invisible for liberty and justice for all'. I tried to correct him, but he just wasn't having it. I thought people only messed that up in bad sitcoms, like saved by the bell. Oh no, folks. My kids are a bad sitcom.

We also made sponge bombs (not to be confused with sponge bob, the one with the square pants.)They are pretty much the concept of water balloons, without the broken balloon mess all over the yard. Plus you can use them over and over again. It's a genius idea, really. If By genius you mean something only the moms who would have to pick up said mess would appreciate. We also glow stick lanterns, they didn't last so long though. It was more like glow stick flashes of light.

Wednesday was meet the teacher day. This is the first day the boys find out what class they will be in and which one of their friends will be in the class with them. We were really hoping Peyton would have Calibs teacher from last year, there was a celebration of jumping up and down and high fives when we saw he did. She really works with the kids, and doesn't overload on homework (which Peytons teacher really did last year. Two to three hours of homework is WAY too much for third grade). The bad news came when Peyton noticed his best friend wasn't in his class. We went back to the board on our way out to check and see which class he was in, and we couldn't find him in fourth grade. Apparently, he didn't pass the FCAT and stayed in third grade. I felt really bad for Peyton, but we told him ALL year how important it was to pass the FCAT or he wouldn't go on to fourth grade. This is a good lesson for him, I suppose. Still, that stinks.

Also, at school they have pods, different animals represent different area's of the school. This way you always stay with the same kids and get the feel of a much smaller school than the nearly 1000 kids that are there. Hayden should have been in the Rays like Calib and Peyton, but for some reason he got put in the dolphins (on the bright side at least I don't have to worry about him getting Peyton's third grade teacher). Later that evening I overheard a conversation between Calib and Hayden, it went something like this:

Hayden: I'm a Shark.

Calib: No Hayden, you're a dolphin.

Hayden: I'll just pretend to be a shark then. It's pretty much just a mean dolphin with a lot more teeth.

Calib (patronizing): ok Hayden.

Hayden: Sharks can eat Rays, Calib. Remember that.

For Arts and Crafts this week (yes, I'm that mom) we made finger puppets out of those little pom pom things and pipe cleaners. Now, question, has anyone ever actually used a pipe cleaner to clean a pipe? And if so, why do you need neon colored ones. I'm fascinated by where in the heck the term pipe cleaners came from. Either way, they're super easy to make finger puppets out of. Just curl them around the top of your finger, hot glue a pom pom to the top for the head, and then add assorted googly eyes and such. Wha-La! We also made everyones name out of Popsicle sticks. They are pretty funny because they're kind of all over the place. I try really hard not to do these sorts of things for them though. Thats one of my biggest pet peeves. One day we were at the childrens museum and a lady kept correcting them on how to build this tower out of big blocks. And then she gave me a dirty look like 'aren't you going to help them'. Yea, ok lady, this is why your kid couldn't figure out how to do anything on his own.

I also discovered the joy that are koolade slushies this week. Ok, heres the recipe. It's really complicated, so take notes. You put a koolade packet, some sugar, water and ice in a blender. Here'es where it gets really complicated. You blend and pour. Although Koolade slushies are not nearly as good as Lemonade slushies. I'm partial to the lemonade ones though, mostly because I'm a grown up. And, grownups don't like Koolade. Unless you're feeling nostalgic. It's like tang, drink it once to remember your childhood. And then let it sit there till it gets all gross and clumpy and think about what other gross things you ate/drank as a child and would no longer subject yourself to. Like, Peanut Butter and Miracle Whip. Oh yea, that happened.

Friday was payday, which meant spending money on all the boring stuff that is school supplies. It amazes me the stuff we have to bring in, and the amount of it. Ziplock baggies in tons, 20 pounds of glue sticks, and a 2 year supply of baby wipes. Also not to be forgotten the packages of bandaids, batteries, and playdough. It was just a weird mix of things this year. I also had to buy three pairs of shoes and three backpacks, which was odd. Filed under the not awesome category: spending $300 on new shoes and school supplies. Filed under the awesome category: getting the Kohls cash when you buy all that. I guess I have some plans for later this week.

This weekend, I was playing Tetris Attack on the Nintendo 64, because we're that awesome, we have super awesome game consoles. I got to level 76, which met my goal on my 31 things to do before I turn 31. I was super excited. Hayden: What do you win? Me: The satisfaction of knowing I can still do it. Hayden: *sigh* Lame. Two days later I got to level 99 (the highest you can get to) and Peyton just kept talking about how tetris is the stupidest game ever, because you can't actually win. He told me I was just setting myself up for failure.

Saturday night we had a housewarming shindig for our friend Justin. He moved into his house when we were in Alaska, so we were just now getting around to his housewarming. Heres the great part about being able to have a party and Justins. 1. I don't have to clean for it. 2. It's Justins house, and Justin is the closest thing to family we have in Florida, so I feel pretty much at home there. 3. I don't have to clean up after it. It was a good time. There were toys sold on the black market, wrestling matches which resulted in Rex's face being rubbed into the carpet by Calib, and random toys ending up in shoes. Yup, it was a pretty wild time.

For the last day of summer vacation we spent the morning at Busch Gardens. Peyton was finally able to ride a 54 inch ride. Although, the bad news there is I can't hang that over his head to get him to drink his milk anymore. We had lunch at Five Guys, which translates to Hayden had peanuts for lunch (and made a HUGE mess), and then went to Adventure Island. We convinced Justin to add adventure island to his pass so he could come with us. He only did, and purchased a swim suit when I told him to do so (because if Asa comes up with an idea it's harebrained. If I come up with an idea it's pretty much the best idea ever- this is how Justin ended up as a homeowner). Our friend Ann came with us too, so Asa had someone else to coerce into going down slides and jumping off cliffs. It worked pretty well, he didn't ask me to go once! My big plan was to tire the kids out so they would go to sleep early enough for school in the morning. Unfortunately, this totally backfired as they were laying on the couch at 6:30 falling asleep. They weren't allowed to go to their rooms for fear of them falling asleep too early. Peyton was not happy, every time he started to doze off, Asa and I would make an obscene amount of noise.

Monday was the first day of school. Or, as I call it, the day I got fired from my day job. Hayden

did really well, he didn't even mind that Asa and I were leaving. I was happy Asa got a work from home exception, so he could come along too. The traffic though, was seriously ridiculous. When we left the school it was 9:40- school starts at ten till 10. The cars were backed up nearly to our house, which is a little over a mile. Calib said it took an hour after school started for all the kids to get there. It's always worst the first day of school, but I had never seen it like that. Crazy! I spent the day keeping busy. I got to pick up the stuff we painted on my birthday, and they all came out really cool. Everyone had a good first day at school. When they got home we made bouncy balls, which is actually a very similar recipe to making slime- who knew? I just couldn't go a day without some random kid project. Mid school year I suspect I'll be making puppets and playdough by myself, I'll be so desperate.

Quotes of the week:

Hayden: 'Dad went to register me for kindergarten. I think he's at publix.'

Me: 'No Hayden, he's at school.'

Hayden: But, I know theres a register at Publix. I don't think theres one at school'.

Quote: Hayden: Sometimes it's weird when I walk

Peyton: So you're drunk?

Hayden: Uh... Drunk? No, I'm Hayden.

Me: Why does Peyton know you can't walk if you're drunk?

Asa: Uhh.. I might have told him stories.

Peyton: School lunches just aren't going to be the same.

Me: Why ?

Peyton: Nobody makes me smiley faces out of vegetables and owls out of sandwiches. I even have to open my own milk. It's really a huge step down from the cruise ship.

Next Up: Trying to figure out how to entertain myself for about 5 and a half hours a day.

Also, pictures are being dumb again. But, I uploaded a bunch to facebook so you can also see them there!

Week 1: One year closer to being crushed to death by a falling llama

As many of you know, I have a list of things to do each year before my next birthday. I started this last year- with an over ambitious 52 things to do before I turned 30. The list got trimmed down to 30 things to do before I turn 30. You may call it cheating, but it's my list, I can do what I want! I highly under estimated the cost, and time commitment to do many of those things. Anyway, here's my much more manageable (and cheaper- can you hear Asa's sigh of relief right now?) 31 things to do before I turn 31.

1. Swim with manatees

2. Crochet an afgahan

3. Make at least 24 new recipes

4. Go to Key West (and stop in the Everglades)

5. Go Camping at least 3 different places

6. Get at least 5 new stadium pictures

7. Make 12 sewing projects

8. Read 12 new books

9. Make a Calendar Journal

10. Go Canoeing or Kyaking

11. Do at least 6 new things in the Tampa Bay Area I have not done before

12. Learn how to cook on a grill

13. Learn how to play two songs on the keyboard

14. Go Ice Skating

15. Get to level 75 on tetris attack

16. Go on the Shiekra

17. Learn how to eat with chop sticks

18. Eat at the Taco Bus

19. Teach Calib how to do the laundry

20. Teach Peyton how to cook lasagna

21. Teach Hayden how to ride a bike (without training wheels)

22. Make a scrapbook from the Epic Vacation

23. Organize the stuff in the Closet (papers, pictures)

24. Watch 24 new movies

25. Blog one entry per week

26. Fix the laptop hole in the door

27. Learn at least two songs on the guitar

28. Make Homemade Pasta

29. Go Puddle Hopping after a rain storm

30. Go to Caldesi Island

31. On our one year anniversary, take a picture of us holding a picture of anniversary #1

As you can see, (or your just reading now because you got bored reading my list) number 25 is to blog once a week. I rather enjoyed documenting out adventures on vacation, so I thought I would continue on. Our adventures here are much less exciting than our whirlwind 28 days around the country, but in many cases, just as entertaining to read about! Sadly though, my subtitle of '27 days. 9 states. 1 epic vacation' will have to be changed. Any ideas are welcome! So, anyway, get excited for 52 riveting posts about life in the Waterstraut household!

This week, we've see my 20's go. It was really sad, I'm thirty. THIRTY. Gross. Ughhh.. I suppose it's better than the alternative. My dad dreaded 65. And, well, lesson learned. I'll try not to complain. My mom was down for my birthday. You know, because we haven't spent enough time together this summer. She also brought Calib home, so we were all finally reunited. We bundled my birthday into a 5 day extravaganza of events. Because turning 30 deserves much more of a celebration than just one day.

Friday night we headed out to island nights- a cool festival type atmosphere they have at our water park here. I had some conch shell fritters, which were interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about them. They were like hush puppies but slime-e-er. Yea, now that I'm describing them they weren't all that awesome. But, at least I ate it. I still haven't brought myself to try gator meat. I should have put that on my list. Saturday we went to the fresh market at wiregrass. Apparently this happens twice a month, and has been occurring for at least 18 months. I had no idea. It's a cute little street market at the outdoor mall here. Although, I've noticed a lot of things people are selling I can/do totally make. I'm pretty crafty like that. We also went out to the stadium where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have their annual night practice. They had $1 drinks and hot dogs. Which basically means I spent the entire time in the concession line. Mom took advantage of the free beer, because as we know mom is a big drinker, and we got to cap off the night with some fireworks. Sunday we went to the pool. Here's the thing about our pool this time of year. It's HOT. Like, somewhere between 'this is nice and warm' and 'whoa, this is a hot tub'. I tried to visualize the cruise ship pool, or even the ones in Ohio, and thought to myself- you don't want to be the girl who complains no matter what. I also got to go see Harry Potter- or as Asa and I have been calling it HP7P2. You have to emphasize the HP7 and insert a dramatic pause before the P2. We're nerds like that. Also, was anyone else severely creeped out by that bloody baby Voldemort? (dude- Voldemort is in the google dictionary- awesome!) I certainly was.

Monday we headed out to the beach- to overcast skies. It rained a bit, but nothing to deter us from playing in the gulf. On the way, in the middle of the divided highway in the grassy area, I saw a bald eagle. Which, was just amazing to me. I had never seen one in the wild before Alaska. Apparently I didn't have to go that far. Peyton found lots of little baby hermit crabs, which he then brought home. (do I need to state the obvious here- they did not survive). I sprayed sunscreen on everyone, but did a terribly poor job. Haydens face looked like someone drew a red marker all over it. Apparently, I didn't get as much of his face with the stick as I thought I did. Tuesday we went to the Magic Kingdom. I am so super excited to have my passes back again! It's my 2012 birthday present, you know because 2011 was already used up for that little whale watching cruise I went on in Alaska. It was pouring down rain, and I said to my mom 'it can't possibly rain all day- the last time it did that was when Cort was at Disney'. Well, I guess chalk that up to Sattlers visiting Disney, because it rained nearly all day. At one point, I went on space mountain with Peyton and Calib. When we got off the ride it was POURING. I was watching all the people stuck driving around in those little cars just get absolutely drenched, and I felt horrible bad for them. A little while later Mom and Hayden showed up, drenched, as they were one of those people stuck driving around in the little cars. The rain had some good points though: we didn't mind the sunburn as much, nobody got hot, and it kept the crowds away. Plus, walking around barefoot through puddles in the Magic Kingdom on your last day of being 29 = SUPER FUN! Couple that with a dole whip, and proudly displaying a 'Happy Birthday' Button so all the cast members are paid to tell you happy birthday, and you've got yourself some kind of early birthday celebration. Asa came later in the evening and met us for dinner, and mom took the kids home so we could go see cirque du soleil at downtown disney. Asa was really skeptical of it, but it was super cool. People flipping around everywhere, little girls with the spools and sticks (it doesn't sound that entertaining- but really it was AWESOME with a capital AWE), and jugglers- yes please!

Wednesday was my actual birthday, so my wonderful husband got up early on his day off to go down to the aquarium in a massively big Florida sized storm (yes, it was still raining- a Sattler was visiting after all). They have a behind the scenes penguin tour, where you get to pet the penguins and go into their habitat and everything- but you have to get there early enough to register, because they only let 20 people in a day. Penguins are much softer than I anticipated them being, but just as friendly and socially awkward as one would expect. Think Chilly Willy. Anyway, they also poop alot. The keeper said he spends about a quarter of his day picking up poop. Apparently, they go every 15 minutes. It's like Asa after he has Taco Bell. After the aquarium we went to dinner, where I noticed Alaskan King Crab is just as expensive here (maybe even a little cheaper) than it is in Alaska. How weird is that? Whatever, we found our own crab legs later on the beach. They weren't quite king crab leg sized though.

For my birthday presents we went to color me mine. It's a paint your own pottery place. We went last year on my birthday too, I love it because its something to do, plus a gift, and you get to go back later in the week and get it when it's all finished. This year everyone made dinner plates. I haven't gotten them back yet, so I'm pretty excited about that. Plus last year Hayden just mixed all the paint and I ended up with a weird black fish platter. This year he actually kept the colors separate. Way to go being five! My mom could only take a few days of work, so we had to drop her back at the airport before we headed home for two kinds of cake (30 is also way too much of a celebration to just have one cake), complete with SPARKLERS for candles. FYI, this may be a better activity to do outside. All in all a good birthday.

After all those events we pretty much hung around the house. There was preseason football to be watched. Although, lets be realistic, toward the end of that I might as well be watching EMU play the Akron Zips. I don't know who any of the players are, and I don't really care. I did make an awesome bowl out of newspaper and magazines. Although, I don't recommend doing that in one day. My fingers still hurt from rolling all that paper pinwheel style. (thats the Ainsworth in me- I was thinking the cookie, not the toy). I also booked our tickets for our fall trip to Ohio, and our tickets to the Monday night primetime Bucs vs. Colts game, which is super exciting. The washer broke, which is annoying, but not terrible since it's still under warranty. The bad news is I really needed to do laundry. I sent a load of unmentionables over to Justin's house, so I didn't have to do the laundry mat thing. I hate laundry mats, they remind me of that one time in college where I thought it'd be a good idea to put all my clothes in one drier, thinking it would save time and money, and we were there for hours because lets face it, one dryer is not meant to hold five loads out of the washer. Lesson learned.

Today we're back to the old grind. By grind, I mean doing arts and crafts, workbooks, and making delicious deserts. Our day was complete with a slime/gak like substance made from glue, water, food coloring and borax (I had no idea how versatile and cheap that stuff was!). We also used old shirts to make some pretty awesome super hero capes, and had some kool-ade slushie, since the central air was MIA today. One more week of summer vacation and it's off to school they go. I've been looking up volunteer opportunities. I'm considering the zoo, that could be fun. I thought about the NICU, but I'd rather not relive that experience, so we'll see.

Quotes from the week:

Hayden: I can't wait to go to school and see Daniel and Deigo (his friends from the cruise ship- he's convinced they'll be there)

Peyton: Aw, man, I should have made the yellow slime. It looks way more like snot.

Birthday Winners: For those of you who were aware I asked for jokes instead of the old 'happy birthday'.

3rd place: Jake- I could be wishing you a happy birthday right now, but then you'd have to get on fb and leave the kitchen. And we can't have a woman leaving the kitchen, now can we?

2nd place: Kelley- So here is my witty advice that is also funny and just happened to me last night. So.. when your kids are driving you absolutely nuts and they are not listening to a word you are saying, DO NOT I repeat DO NOT have an industrial size plastic container of salsa in your hand when you decide to slam it down on the counter to get their attention. Result = One child covered in salsa and a HUGE mess in your kitchen! But at least I finally had some peace and quiet! (Thank God I can laugh about it today)

1st Place:

Drum Roll......

Joanne- and her various aray of 30 (and one to grow on) Brett Favre related posts.

And the twitter winner, by far, is Chris Kluwe. Who not only is the coolest punter in the NFL, but also wished me a happy birthday.

@cwaterstraut Happy Birthday. You're one year closer to being crushed to death by a falling llama.

Next Up: Tomorrow is be glad I'm married to Asa day. (It's the honorary 8th annual). And bracing myself for the big change. No, not that big change- the going to school one. I'll see ya next week! Have a fantabulous one!

Also- disclaimer the pictures were being all weird. So, excuse the weirdo formatting.