***Scrap 3***: Week with FIVE

Here is a picture I took from Day 1. The girls were decorating those sun visors. I forgot to upload the pictures I took onto my computer...but it's here now. The girls had fun with this. Colton got his done too but getting him to wear it is another story!

And here is the start of Day 2. I had this wild idea to not take them to just ONE park...but FIVE! I called it....HOP A PARK. The girls had no clue what that meant. All they knew was the word HOP A PARK on my daily list that is up next to their chore chart and they got a goodie bag that was a mystery to them too! haha So I got a cooler filled with LOTS of drinks, a bag of cut up oranges, a bag of cut up watermelon and some other snacks and got that loaded into the truck along with their goodie bags and my camera.

I had them all get into the truck, buckled in and got in myself. Took this picture of them first.

Then I finally told them what we were doing. They were excited! I was crazy! hahaha Then I gave them their goodie bags and told them what were the contents. Here's what I had in them: sunblock, their sunvisors, a ziplock bag of wipes, 3 Silly Bands, a pack of gum, and 6 tickets for them to turn into me at each park (I'll discuss that in a bit). They LOVED the silly bands and talked about how many they have and what they had. I wish I thought of that craze! Then I told them to put some sunscreen on. You can see in the photo that my 2 nieces are fair skin with red hair. You know what that means...burn central! NOT ON MY WATCH!

Okay, now those tickets. I had bought some fun little prizes for the kids and I thought that after each park I'd draw a ticket out of my pocket and one lucky girl would get a prize (Colt didn't have to play this game...he had no clue what was going on anyways). Just some fun stuff like notepads, tatoos, lip gloss...stuff like that a little girl just wants to have because she does. They were also warned that someone might win ALL the prizes or a couple...that's just the luck of the draw. But I had a surprise at the end...cause what was that 6th ticket for if we were only going to go to 5 parks??

So here is the first park. Very pretty, clean. OH...my friend April gave me the idea of having the kids pick up any garbage at the park and explain to them the importance of keeping their play area clean. Well...I brought the garbage bags and well...to my surprise the first park...pristine! It was such a beautiful day out to do this. It wasn't as hot as it was going to be, still humid, but bearable. And this park was next to the Gulf! We stayed here for about 30 minutes.

There was a hill next to the playground and I thought it would be neat to get Colton running down the hill...or was that a disaster waiting to happen? He had a blast running up and down the hill.

Here is the pretty view from atop that hill...see told you...it's the GULF!

When we were done at this park the kiddos had their first snack and some drinks. I had brought squirt bottle with me that sat in the cooler and I just started spraying each child and at first they were surprised but then they wanted MORE! lol I think this helped them cool down a bit. Then it was back to putting on more sunscreen and off to the next park, which was about 5 minutes around the corner. Here's a picture I snagged.

I didn't bring my camera to the third park. Wish I did b/c the encountered their very first merry go round. They knew about them but had not been on one. WHAT? I remember these things as being much bigger than the one at the 3rd park, but nonetheless, the experienced it and had a blast. This was their favorite park! I wonder why though...all they did was get dizzy on that thing!

I was scared at first b/c it could be dangerous especially for the little guy, but he loved laying down in the center of it while the girls spun it and hopped on. FIGURES! There were a few mishaps...like getting dragged by the merry go round or trying to stop it and end up eating dirt...but they laughed it off and wanted more! Morgan did go down a slide earlier on at this park and came jumping off screaming. Don't you know silly you need to inspect the slides first in case there are any puddles of water at the end?! HAHAHA Her butt was soaked! Ewww! They all thought it was funny. I just told her to make sure her hiney was in the sunlight b/c it would dry up quick...it did!

On to the 4th park. This was a neat park. It had hiking trails, bike trails, some wildnerness (like turtles) and some cabins. We just played in the playground. This didn't last long. They were all starting to get tired and the heat was getting to them a little. They sure drank a lot! So they asked to go to the 5th park. And we did.

Here is a picture of the sweaty rats before unloading to go the final park.

I loved the 5th park b/c it looks like a fort/maze. They loved it too...but still was talking about that darn merry go round! We didn't stay that long here b/c it was already after 1 (we left at 930am) and lunch time was gone and over with. They had filled up on drinks and snacks but was ready to head home and so was I. So I told them I had a final surprise and they were ALL winners.

So we all went to BK. I asked at the drive thru if they still had their ICEEs. They said yes but the flavors were out. WHAT?! NO! That was my final surprise. So I had to disappoint the girls by telling them what it WAS going to be and that we COULDN'T get it. :( I was bummed. I actually had a taste for that since we started the Hop a Park! :( I told them that I had popsicles at the house and that we'd all get cleaned up, eat lunch and have that when outside playing in the sprinklers. They were fine with it. I think they were just hungry and hot and wanted to cleaned off too!

So here are the photos of fed, clean and cool kids enjoying the sprinklers and popsicles. That's a Hello Kitty tatoo on Sydney's face. She won that after one of the parks.

Mallory saying she was cold from the sprinklers so she decided to sit out in the sun. heehee

Oh...I had a fun little way of trying to get the girls to tell me the real flavor of jelly they liked. I'm making some PB & J for lunch on Day 3 at the pool and needed to know which flavor they REALLY liked and made it a little fun. I took the 5 jellies out of my fridge and placed them on this butterfly plate. I had them one at a time see me and do a taste test. To try and see what flavors they liked and also if they could name that flavor. The did pretty good. Not one of them guess all the flavors correctly, but I did find out what flavor to make for lunch tomorrow! ;)

Then after this I popped some popcorn and they watched a movie. I love these next photos. It shows how they buddy up and play.

Sooo into the movie right here.

And Sydney caught me and had to pose. LOL

Breakfast was for dinner. I made so many chocolate chip pancakes. These kids ate up some breakfast! Bacon and scrambled eggs along with the pancakes made for happy, stuffed and tired kiddos. They didn't go down as easily as I thought they would, but at least I didn't have to split them up like I did last night. They were out by 945 and then woke up at 7am! GRRR!