Mashup

 Jack likes to do his best to scare me.  He's often successful.

 Alice likes to wear Jack's helmet.  I'm not really that bad of a driver.

A Saturday at my grandma's house

 Alice took a bat to the face.  Thankfully it was a padded SpongeBob bat, because the way Jack hits, we would been at the ER if it had been a real one.

 Birthday parties kind of make me feel like this.

 This pose is becoming more and more common.

 See?

 Jack made Alice a minifigure disguise.

 Using those baseball skills on SpongeBob instead of his sister.

 Library reading medals!

 Going to see Hank the Cowdog and Monkey Business last week.

I hope you're having a great summer!

Vacation, Part 2

 Saturday morning we were at Silver Dollar City bright and early!

 Jack rode his first roller coaster.  He loved it!

 We split up with the boys for a while since Alice wasn't tall enough to ride everything Jack wanted to ride.

 Giant teacups!

 Jack was nice enough to ride the bugs with his sister.

We had front row seats to see the Wallendas--less than a week before the Niagara Falls walk!

 

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They have a great kids' area with water guns!

 

Alice loved the splash area!

 

After all of that, we went home to the pool to cool off.

 

I was so excited to find a Culver's!

 

Sunday was Jack's 8th birthday.  He woke up at 5:57 to find his own copy of Harry Potter on the nightstand!

 

He was very surprised to get a Kindle, too!

 

While Jack tried out his new present, Alice played in the closet.  She thought this was the best!

 

That morning we went to the Titanic Museum.  This is an amazing place!

 

We wrapped up our trip with some time at Branson Landing.

 

Alice had a gift card for Build A Bear!

 

On the way home!

We were all worn out!  We arrived home to find that a wine bottle had popped its cork and sprayed and leaked all over the kitchen, so I got to spend several hours scrubbing and washing everything.  Thankfully I had just had a few days off from housework!

Vacation!

 In between parties, we took a quick trip to Branson.  I think the last time I was there was when I was 11, so we weren't sure what to expect!

 The first night we were there we drove the main street where you can see all kinds of interesting things!  A tip:  Unless you're going somewhere on the main drag, take an alternate route and save yourself 20 minutes.

 We went to Presley's Country Jubilee!

 We stayed at a really nice condo a few miles south of Silver Dollar City.

 The kids were excited to find a playground there!

 Friday morning we went to the Butterfly Palace.

 They had the best mirror maze I've ever seen!  You could really get lost in it!

 They also have a giant tree to climb.

 Friday afternoon we saw Joseph.  It was really impressive!

 When we did get a bit of down time, the kids liked to have snacks on the balcony.

 Friday night we did a dinner cruise.

 After dinner, there was a show.

 The kids loved running around the boat!

Other than my hair blowing around, I was thinking this wasn't a bad picture.  Then I noticed the photobomb!

More pictures of the rest of the trip soon!

The LEGO Party

 Jack is pretty much obsessed with LEGOS.  Since I am not good at coming up with original ideas, I'm thankful that there are lots of other LEGO obsessed boys with much more creative moms out there!  None of the ideas here are my own, but you can find details on my party and LEGO pinterest boards.

 We had a morning party and served breakfast foods.  It's kind of fitting that I can't get this picture to rotate because the whole morning was filled with goof-ups like this!

 See the jar of LEGOs in the back right?  Remember the centerpiece I showed you before?  I was going to do the same thing, but it seems I'm not too great at tying knots with slippery string.

 Yeah.  They were on the jar for all of about two minutes.

 Water balloons, of course!

 We also had a guessing game.

 Opening presents!  In the background are the party favors.  I made little minifigure cutouts and Jay hid them around the yard.  The kids looked for them and then exchanged their minifigure for a gift bag.  I lucked out and got a couple of the LEGO Party Packs on clearance and we made some crayons with a silicone mold.  I also was able to find the clearance LEGO stickers I got a couple of years ago for .10 per pack!

 I can't find a link for it, but this cake idea came from a recent issue of Family Fun.  It was actually one of the easiest cakes I've made, which was nice since I didn't start it until a couple of hours before the party.  And then I forgot about serving it until I overheard a kid mention cake.  Jack had to go back over to the neighbor's house and ask if they wanted to come back for cake!

The crew--minus 2 that left before I thought of taking a group shot!  Thanks for coming to celebrate our LEGO Maniac!