Adventures

The kiddos and I have had a lot of bonding time lately since Daddy has been working long hours and traveling a bit more than usual.  I'm the type of Mom that likes to "mix-it-up" when I've spent many days staring at the same four walls and the same three kids.  I've started calling them "adventures"....mostly to get Addison on board.  That allows me to throw in a few errands too and all the sudden it's an exciting adventure!  Wahoo!  Usually I throw the plans together last minute (during nap time) when I know the loooonnnnggg afternoon awaits us after they wake up.  Luckily, the kids never know the difference...and last minute plans are usually the best kind.  Except for Addison who likes to know what is happening every minute of every day.  She continually asks me what we are doing and where we are going.  It's a tough question to answer when I don't even know myself.

Kicking It Old School

Our first adventure involved a craigslist meet-up in Springdale.  It was a bit of a drive so I figured we'd make the most of it while we were there.  I punched in local parks into our GPS and hoped for the best.  That act alone can be scary on many levels.  One because GPS's definition of a "park" can vary greatly.  Two because Springdale's locations can vary greatly as well.  ;)  Luckily, the GPS AND Springdale came through for us and we happened upon a memorable adventure.  

We pulled up to a park that took me back to yesteryear.  Had a good mix of new age playgrounds and even included some old-school playground equipment.  It was fun teaching my kids how to work a true teeter-totter and how to work the merry-go-round and how to scale to the top of an all metal slide that seemed 40 feet high and contained absolutely no safety walls.  Needless to say my inner self fought between letting them explore while making sure we weren't ending the evening in the ER.  Thankfully we were successful on both accounts.  

Jonas braving the super tall slide.  This boy has no fear.  Within minutes of finding it he was traversing it.  Addison joined in simply because she couldn't be outdone by little brother.  I'm just glad we all survived.

Brooklyn even got to have some fun.  She wasn't quite sure what to think but soon turned out to be a fan.

Addison swinging.  She LOVES swinging.  And I LOVE that she now knows how to pump her legs herself.  It gets pretty tricky when trying to push three kids at once.

They loved this merry-go-round.  I was on board until I realized it was a flying death trap.  I bit my tongue and let them play on it.  After all, I survived and I grew up on these things!  I kept blocking images of 'flinging children' out of my mind.

All in all, it was a great trip.  I got to take a trip down memory lane while simultaneously wearing my Mama nerves to their ragged ends.  We all survived and are definitely putting it in our plans to go back.

On another day, I had a Saturday to fill up.  Those seem to come with higher expectations but I'm pretty positive that is just me.  All I knew when I woke up is that we WEREN'T staying at home yet again.  So, we were off!

First stop was at this cute little hardware store in Cave Springs that we've passed a billion times.  I've always promised myself that one day we'd go in there and today was that day! John laughs at me but visiting old farm stores totally brings back my childhood.  They always have such interesting stuff (and people) in them.  And sure enough, look what we found when we got there!

Bunnies!  We were in love...but not in love enough to take one home as our very own pet.  We just enjoyed cuddling on them for free instead.

Addison and Jonas seemed to love the farm store just as much as I did.  I took the time to teach them about horse reigns...the bit...the hackamore...etc.  We even sat them on a saddle and pretended to ride the horse.  I showed them a calf bottle and told them about when I used to feed our baby calves when I was younger.  I even had them "pretend" to drink from it like my very own baby cows.  Jonas apparently didn't get the memo that we were "pretending"...no sooner had I turned my back then he had his whole mouth around that thing.  Lovely yet nasty.

After our farm store adventure we decided to take a picnic to the airport and watch the planes go off.  Thank heavens we were able to pick up lunch food at the local gas station because I had nothing prepared.  Sadly, we only got to see about two planes take-off/land while we ate our lunch.  However, the kiddos were just thrilled to be eating food in the front seat of the van and wiping their cheetos fingers all over my dash.  After we all bathed in wet wipes we called it a day and headed back home for naps.  After all, getting to nap time is ALWAYS my main goal of every day.  :)

Some people may think I'm crazy taking three little kids out of the house all by myself but its fun for me (most of the time).  The kids are usually pretty good and we usually end up having some fun times.  I'm hoping I'm creating memories for them.  It's fun but it IS a lot of work too!