The Saturday 7

I'm going to attempt to crank this out before midnight. If you're not reading it until Sunday, it's your own fault for not staying up late enough for me to finish. :-D

1. We are starting school on Monday - as in, like 2 days from now. Oy. We spent much of the week re-organizing the school "room", printing worksheets, double checking my lists, etc. People keep asking me if I'm ready and I keep saying, "I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" Haha. We just have to jump in and do it. I need to see how it goes and then tweak it to fit us. I created a bunch of bins for Levi and made a whole list of ideas for me to bring out when he's getting disruptive. By this time next week, I'll have an official update for you!

2. On Tuesday, I took Levi to get his haircut. He's had his haircut a few times before, and while he doesn't love it, he usually tolerates it. At least until this week. He was a terror, screaming and crying and trying to get away. I had to forcibly pin him down so the stylist could finish what she started. And even then, she wasn't able to get it all perfect. I finally just said, "Ok, that's good enough." Haha. Don't look too closely around his ears if you see him in person. After the haircut fiasco, we headed to the library, where he was a bully to a poor little boy trying to play with the shopping cart Levi wanted. I took Levi out of the library kicking and screaming 3 times in an effort to get him under control. Finally, I just dragged him inside, told the girls we had to go, and held him under my arm screaming at the top of his lungs while I checked out the books. Then I got to take all 3 of them to Meijer! Levi refuses to sit still, Lena is constantly up and down/in and out of the cart. Lucy can't walk more than 3 aisles without whining that her legs hurt. And all 3 kept trying to throw stuff in the cart when I wasn't watching. Sometimes, I really feel like a failure as a mom. The ironic thing is that Tuesday morning I decided I was going to get serious about dieting again. I've gained back 6 of the 10 pounds I lost and I'm back to hating myself. But how do you think the diet went after the day I had? Lol. #icecreaminbed

3. All summer, the girls have been begging to go to the "Grant playground." It's actually a couple different playgrounds at the Grant elementary schools, so we had to go before school starts. I'm kicking myself for not going earlier in the year and getting more use out of it. They were awesome! The first one had lots of fun slides and swings and zip-line type things. Then we walked down the hill to another playground that was even better. There was a huge sandpit with all kinds of trucks and buckets and shovels that Levi was enamored with. And there was a cool jungle gym that the girls loved.

While we were there, it started to sprinkle just a little. We were hot, so it felt good. But then all of a sudden the floodgates opened and we got caught in a downpour!

My hair looks ridiculous when it's wet. Lol.

Fortunately, the rain passed pretty quickly and I had dry clothes in my van for the kids. But I drove home sopping wet. #momlife

4. I taught the girls to play Skip-Bo this week. I feel like it's a rite of passage - especially in our card-loving family. But it's an exercise in patience. I've never said "discard!" so many times in my life.

5. Levi's been making incremental progress with potty training. We're not doing it hardcore. He's still wearing diapers. I just have him sit on the potty chair a few times a day. Once in a while he'll ask to go - especially if he wants candy. He's getting good at going on command - although it's usually just a few drops (#tmi). But it's a start. I feel like he's already ahead of where Lena was at 3.5 years old. Haha. Poor, anxious Lena.

6. Today we finished out summer with a bang by taking the girls to Michigan's Adventure for the first time! I love waterparks and have been wanting to go for years. I'm pretty sure the last time I went was right before I got married - 13 years ago. And it's been even longer for Justin. So we left Levi with my mom and headed over to the park. I was flabbergasted by how expensive it was. We got a slight discount on tickets through our credit union, but they were still astronomical. Parking was $15! Renting a locker for our stuff was $15! I'm not even going to tell you how much we paid for a 16" pepperoni pizza, 2 Bosco sticks, and a coke. But we had a blast. Unfortunately, it was really busy. I'm sure everyone was doing the same thing we were - getting in one last trip before school starts. Plus it's a Saturday and the weather was beautiful. But Justin works out of town all week and we didn't have anyone to watch Levi on Friday, so we joined the masses today. We were in the park for over 9 hours, but didn't even get to do all the rides we wanted to. Because we had to wait for e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. We waited to go through the metal detectors and have our bag searched. We waited in line to use the bathroom. (Well, the girls and I did. Justin was in and out before we even got in!) Justin and Lucy waited almost 2 hours to ride the Mighty Mouse (and Lucy hated it - way too scary). Lena and I waited again to use the bathroom. We waited in line for ride after ride. Then we waited to order pizza. After which we waited for the pizza to be ready. We waited in line again to use the bathroom (Lena has anxious bladder syndrome). You get the picture. Lena's still a little young/short to do most of the rides. And those she could go on, she refused to do without me. Many of them wouldn't allow an adult. I thought she'd love the lazy river, but she screamed that she wanted off for the first 10 minutes. Finally, I let her off the tube, and she loved just swimming freely. Eventually, we got a double tube so we could do the waterslide together. Justin and Lucy each had singles, we climbed up a thousand steps carrying our tubes, got to the top of the slide and the girls instantaneously started freaking out. Lucy flat out refused to go and opted to walk down all the stairs instead. Lena only went with me because she couldn't bear to go down the stairs without me. But she screamed the entire way. Lol. Eventually, Lucy did the double tube with Justin twice and me twice. And Lena actually really liked the "Big Dipper" - which is a kid coaster that adults can ride as well. The whole thing is just a logistics nightmare. What do we do with our bag while we're on the rides? How do we juggle both kids who want to do different things? How do we find each other when our phones have no service in the park? We rented lockers in the amusement park instead of the water park, which was a big mistake. Justin had to walk all the way back to get cash when we realized the only way to get a double tube was by renting it. Then I shoved the change into my swimsuit top because none of us had pockets! Haha. It was exhausting and expensive, but overall it was a good end to summer.