On July 31st we went to a bookstore where they were having a few fun activities to celebrate Harry Potter's birthday. I entered a drawing for a gift basket and a few days later they told me I won! I was so excited, mostly because I never win stuff like that and also because the basket had one of the wands that works at HP World! Since Kaylee has been begging to go (and I have always wanted to), that will definitely come in handy one of these days!
I have been feeling that I need to do more things with my kids, especially creative crafty things like I used to. I was searching Pinterest for an idea and came across a box slide someone had created on their stairs. I must have been in an insane mood because I showed it to the girls and we decided to try it out! I was a terrible mother and let Brooklyn go first and the boxes were too thin and she started bouncing halfway down and almost flipped forward and landed on her head! Oops, maybe next time I shouldn't let the toddler try out my deadly activities first... We added an extra layer of boxes and even put some blankets in between and finally got it working pretty good. Brooklyn didn't trust me after that and wouldn't try it again and McKenna was terrified to try it but once she did she loved it. I was impressed with how brave Kaylee was. Even though she tried it once before we added the extra padding and said it hurt, she didn't hesitate at all to try it again the next time! It ended up being a lot of fun and they had just as much fun tearing it apart and jumping on all the broken boxes when we were done. I told them this was probably a once in a lifetime project though! But we'll see if I ever get in a crazy enough mood, maybe it will happen again!
The girls started at their new school and I think they were both more nervous than last year. This year they ride the bus and I have really missed walking them to school and seeing all the faces of the friends and teachers they talk about. I was worried that Brooklyn would really struggle with them gone so I took her to the park and then out to eat at her favorite restaurant- Wendy's. I think she actually really liked having mom all to herself again.
One day when Richard was mowing the lawn, he almost killed this little frog but luckily he saw it in time. The girls loved it and McKenna wanted to keep it. She is obsessed about any kind of animal and spent two solid days outside doing nothing but taking care of (and probably torturing) this little guy. She was so sad when we told her it was time to let him go!
I knew that I wanted to get a punching bag for Christmas this year but I was still feeling so stressed, anxious and bitter about our move that I was hoping I could punch some of my frustration away so I convinced Richard to give me my present four months early! I was SO excited when it came and it has been exactly what I needed. The box it came in was enormous and the girls had so much fun playing in it. We ended up making it into a Rapunzel tower which they decorated with markers and stickers and they played with it for a couple of weeks.
