Surprising the Boys

Cory had an ENT check-up in Athens at 9:30am, and I thought it would be a great time to try out the new splash pad. I thought I'd make it a surprise and got up early enough to pack swimsuits/towels and lunches  in the car before they woke up. The night before was the last night of VBS at church, so it turns out they both slept in and I had no need to wake up as early as I did. I guess I was the one excited. We took Cory to his apt., and headed straight to the park afterwards. I thought we'd pull up in front of the water park and I could say, "Surprise!" but it's actually set back down a looooong walkway and you can't even see it from the road. So we parked and Cory's like, "Where are we?" I told him what we were doing and then he got excited about it! Both boys changed in the parking lot (not me!) and we set out to see what this new place was all about!

 

 

 

 

 

I've made it somewhat of a mission to find places that both boys can enjoy. Cory's so good about coming along for Easton's playdates, and Easton always sits out for Cory's "big kid" things, that I'm always looking for things they can do together. Pretty much anything with water covers it. They both had a blast here, and it was small enough that Cory could roam the whole splash pad and I could comfortably see him.

Easton was precious when he found the letter that his name starts with. He kept saying, "E, Mommy, it's E." I was so proud of him for recognizing it too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love these next few pictures. Cory is so mindful of Easton being smaller and he always looks out for him when they're playing together. He saw Easton near the bigger kid splash buckets and he picked him up and moved him to safety, all on his own. He kept wanting to hold Easton's hand, but Easton was the one pushing him off, wanting to run all over the place. I think Easton thought Cory was preventing him from finding more water, ha ha. Here's the two of them together and I just love Cory watching Easton's face, making sure he's okay.

 

Just love those two. You remember when you're a new Mom and so in love with your first baby? Then you get pregnant with your second and you wonder how you could really love that second baby? I would worry that I wouldn't love Easton enough, because I didn't understand how I could love more. Then he came and I can't explain how, but you just have more love to give for this other child, who's not like your first, but this different, second child. Then you see the two of them together, and your heart just feels so full, I can't describe it. So then I'm the Mom getting teary-eyed in the water park watching her kids, but luckily it's hot and I'm sweaty and no one knew I was having a moment there. 

 

 

 

 

Soaked!

 

 

Where's that kids Mom?

 

 

 

 



Your $1 admission included the splash pad and their playground. It was actually a nice setup with a covered pavilion and next time we'll plan on eating there. Again, the playground area was small enough that I could see Easton and Cory at the same time, and the whole area was fenced in.

 

 



Monkey see, monkey do.

 

He thought I was going to let him do it!

 

 

This one cracks me up. I'm trying to take his picture not even realizing he's hanging there. I thought he was standing. He never said a word, just hung on tight and waited for me to grab him.

 

We don't look alike, do we?

 

 

 

We stayed for a couple of hours and then Easton just flat out burst into tears, so that was my cue. They ate their lunch in the car on the way home (did that on purpose to avoid napping in carseats!), and Easton went straight down for a nap once we walked in. On a side note I was really happy he never needed his Little Swimmer diaper. I wasn't sure how he'd do around the water being a "freshly" potty trained toddler, but he told me every time he needed to go. Now I know he can do it in just his swim trunks. Cory didn't mind leaving either, he said he was ready to eat and play his new DS game at home. Love my boys.

Free Spark!!!

It's no secret that I love me some Spark, or any Advocare product I've tried actually. I was feeling just blah as a Mommy in general and wanted my energy back. Every afternoon around 2pm, the sleepies would hit me, and I would find myself either napping on the couch or eating some sugary snack to appeal my sweet tooth. It became this afternoon routine and I was more than happy to try a sample of Spark from my good friend Emily, who is also a distributor. I loved the mental focus it gave me without the jittery heart palpitations that so often come with energy drinks. I felt more like my old self and breezed through the afternoon without the slightest yawn. I put in my order. :)

Now that summer is upon us, I've been changing up the flavors that I was drinking over the winter and LOVE the new Pink Lemonade!

I was once a skeptic of Advocare too, in fact I only started with the Spark, and then after I fell in love with it, started my 24 day challenge. I became a distributor (no quotas or minimums to meet) receiving 20% off, and now am at the advisor level receiving 40% off (still no quotas or minimums). The best thing about the transition from 20-40%? These products sell themselves, and I didn't have to work too hard to get there. That's why I can't wait to give away a box of Spark to another skeptic, wondering what they hype with Advocare is all about. I am a lover of all things coffee and sweet tea, so I was SHOCKED at how easily I dropped that habit and picked up water. Like I love my sweet tea so much that I couldn't wait to prove how wrong everyone was about giving it up, and couldn't wait to try it again after my 24DC. Taking that first gulp of tea after the 24DC was a huge wake-up call to how much sugar I had been consuming daily, and wasn't even thinking twice about it. In fact, my body had other ideas and demanded water- and still does! I don't go anywhere without my trusty water bottle anymore! Here's a comparison:

 

 

 

 

I know you'll love it as much as I do, so I came up with a Spark giveaway!

 

 

 

  Here's the rules:

 

• Go to my Advocare site, click on shop, and browse the products. Come back to this blog here, and leave a comment with 3 things you'd be interested in trying or hearing more about.

 

 

• Make a minimum $20 purchase. It can be anything! From the breakfast shakes, to a bottle of Omega-Plex, to the 10-day cleanse. I'll receive an email confirmation of your order automatically.

 

• All new orders must be placed through Wednesday, June 19th- Wednesday, June 26th, 11:59pm. I will randomly select a winners name that Thursday morning (cause you know I won't be up at midnight!) and will ship your flavor of Spark directly to you!

 

 

I can't wait for you to try Advocare! I am so confident you will fall in love with it, just like I did. Email or text me any product questions before you order to ensure you're getting what it best for YOU.

 

 

 



 



Sandy Creek

I love that Sandy Creek Park is so close by and has the perfect little beach area for the boys! Easton loves the sand and Cory loves to swim so keeping an eye on both is easier in this smaller park. We go during the weekdays a lot to avoid crowds and I haven't seen it overcrowded yet. Easton is free and it's only $2 per adult. $6 for a family day? Win!

This trip we decided to go in the evening after Heath got off work and we just grabbed dinner to go, and ate there. We left the house around 5pm, and got home around 9pm. I know, way later than usual for us! I've been trying to include Heath more in the fun things since I usually get the boys all to myself while he's working. Typically that leaves us with Saturday, but that's not enough time for Cory to have Dad time, so I've been planning more weekday evening things.

I never know what to bring: camera or video camera? I always want both, so this time I tried the "picture" feature on my camera and they turned out a little grainy, so please bear with. Some of these pictures have been posted to Facebook already 'cause they are too cute, but here's the rest.

 

 

Oh I have to write this down or I'll forget and I want to remember it later. There are 6-7 steps to get to the beach area and as soon as Easton's feet hit the sand, that's the spot he wants to immediately play in. He won't go any farther and we have to carry him crying to a spot that we're ready to put our stuff down. It appears as if he's resisting the beach and I'm just like, nope, folks he's fine, he just wants down right now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Love that face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was such a fun Friday evening! I realize I have more pictures of Easton, but only because my other little swimmer made friends with two boys his age and they were in the lake playing the whole time. I have more video of him doing his water tricks. :)

 

 

We let them air dry at the small playground they have and then took them home where they both asked for a second dinner. Love my boys!

Fun and Free Family Activities!

 

Being on a budget can affect you two ways:

1. Never leave the house, wondering how in the world people afford Six Flags with children.

or

2. Find those cheap (or free!) local activities that get you and the kiddos out of the house, and having that fun family time without breaking the bank to do it.

After going with option #1 for awhile, I decided it wasn't working for me, and sought out option #2. I still wanted to spend fun time with the kids, and get them out of the house this summer, and knew I had to do some research in order for that to happen. I've compiled a small list of some local events that my kids have loved, and I'm so excited that I can write them all down here and have them to look back on next summer! Feel free to try them out too, share your experiences here, or add to my list! We'd love to try out something new!

• NEW Splash pad in Athens! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151394079391890.1073741833.47591016889&type=1. The fee is $1 per person and operating hours are Tuesday-Sunday from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. 

• Gwinnett Braves in Buford! Their lawn seats are only $6/person. http://www.milb.com/tickets/singlegame.jsp?sid=t431

• FREE bowling! Yep, go to www.kidsbowlfree.com, sign up for your children, and pick your location. It emails you passes weekly that allows your child to bowl 2 free games per day.

• Here's the website for Mall of Ga's free kids movies and concerts all summer long: http://occupymyfamily.com/2011/05/29/free-movies-and-concerts-at-mall-of-georgia-may-august/

• $1.99 kids movies in Athens: http://www.moviefone.com/theater/georgia-square-mall-5/6594/showtimes

• Funopolis, Commerce- be very careful with this one. Their individual attractions are priced affordably, it's when you combine ALL of them is when it becomes expensive. We tell our children beforehand, we are here ONLY for the inflatables, and when the time is up, we will be leaving. You can jump on their indoor inflatables for $5 a child! Generally we hit up Chick-fil-a (with coupons) afterwards for lunch.

• The Pottery Palette, Commerce- choose your pottery piece to paint, make it your own. Prices range up to $10.

• Home Depot Kids Workshop- review the schedule for the next Sat near you, but it's free projects for the kids. The next local one is July 6th, 9am-12pm.

• Jefferson Library- Storytime on Tue and Thur at 10:30am. Review their schedule for their Civic Center shows, Thursdays at 2pm. Upcoming events include a puppeteer, petting zoo, and a juggler, all free.

• Splash Zone, Gainesville- Water park! Under 2 is free, and ages 3-59 are $8.

• Everland, Buford- Indoor playground! Under 10 months are free, 10 months-2 years $6, 3-12 years $10.

• Tubing- Helen, up to $5/tube. Dahlonega, up to $6/tube.

• Website for Athens parents, full of local events, some free, some cheap: http://athensparent.com/calendar/

• Jefferson pool schedule: http://www.jeffersonrec.com/PDFs/athletics/schedules/2013%20pool%20schedule.pdf

Parks:

• Duncan Creek Park, Hamilton Mill- huge playground!!! Both my boys love it and it's hard to find something they both enjoy with the age gap. They literally run to it, and it's free.

• Sandy Creek Park, Athens- they have a beach! $2 for anyone aged 4-64.

• Hurricane Shoals Park, Commerce- free and bring a tube for the water!

• Memorial Park, Athens- playground, lake, and small zoo, all free.

• Yellow River Game Ranch, Lilburn- it's a drive, yes, but my kids love to see all the animals! The deer will literally walk right up to you. $7 for ages 2-11, $8 for above 11.

Local Festivals (free) :

June:
City Lights Festival, Commerce. Last Sat of the month.
Freedom Festival, Jefferson. Last Sat of the month.

July:
Celebrate Braselton, Braselton Park. July 4th.
July 4th Festival, Nicholson. First weekend in July. The past few years they've had inflatables, games, pony rides, and vendors selling food/drinks and other assorted items. It's HOT, but they have a great time.

Maysville Baptist Church

Join us on Wed. nights! It's free for everyone. Men's study in the Refuge, Women's study in the choir room, Youth games and missions, and nursery for those under 4. I LOVE it, the women that I have met on Wed. nights have been fantastic. It is a place where I can go and know my kids are safe, happy, and I can have my "me" time. These Wed. nights have made a huge impact on me. They serve dinner beforehand, oh...and I don't know how much it is....sorry guys, someone help me. But if you work and feel like you couldn't handle picking up the kids after work, making dinner, cleaning up and driving to church, then don't. Let Maysville cook it for you, easy clean-up, and you'll leave full in more ways than one.

Upcoming: VBS, June 23rd-27th, here's the site for the free week of fun: http://maysvillebaptist.net/#/upcoming





                                            ...........and...........




KIDS EAT FREE

Buffalo's, Athens.                                                                                   All day Sunday

 

Mama's Boy, Athens                                                                                Sunday nights

Cici's Pizza, Athens.                                                                        Monday 4pm-close

Barberitos, Athens.                                                                          Monday 4pm-close

Your Pie, Athens                                                                   Monday w/adult purchase

Beef O' Brady's, Jefferson.                                                                     Tuesday 4-8pm

DePalma's, Athens.                                                                             Tuesday evenings

Joe's Crab Shack                                                                  Tuesday kids eat for $0.99

Stevie B's Pizza, Athens                                   Wednesday kids eat for $0.99 after 5pm

Captain D's, Commerce                  Thursday, 2 free kids meals with an adult purchase

IHOP                                                                 Daily 4-10pm (or should I say nightly?)

Chili's                                           July 9th-11th, with coupon* (free from their website)


I hope your family can get some good use out of this list! I like to plan fun activities for my kids at home, but this is my go-to, last minute list for fun things to do that are within 30 minutes or less.

Please, please do not get upset with me if a business changed their prices or hours, I would never purposely try to mislead you. Always call before you go to make sure the prices/days are still valid, and if something's changed, please let me know and I'll change it on here!

Happy Summer!

The Empty Room

For those of you intellectuals who read the title and clicked to read about my metaphor for life, sorry to disappoint, it's summertime and I have no genius philosophies to share today. This is literally an empty room, and I have no idea what to do with it. I need your help! It started as a toy room, which then meant my living room became this catch-all space, so the toys went back into bedrooms. It was my exercise room, and then my treadmill died, and Easton liked to get into everything, so that didn't last long either. Since it's a carpeted area we stayed away from making it a dining room. One day, in my forever home, I will get my dining room. Until then, I have this empty space to fill up and it's driving me bonkers looking at it.

See? Ready for something...but I don't know what. We've never painted, because I didn't know what kind of room it would be, and same goes for our gorgeous "chandelier" you see hanging there. Again- make it a fan, a light, a real chandelier? I can't decided until I know what kind of room this will be.

Here's the layout for those of you willing to give me some input:

 

That's what you see from our kitchen. It's totally open with no doors.

 

 



 

Here's what you see when you're inside the room. Kitchen opening on the left side, open to the living room everywhere else.

Tips, thoughts, suggestions? I'll take them and thanks!

King Green

When we first moved in our house, we knew the lawn needed some work, but it was October and I was pregnant with Easton, so naturally we put it on the list for the next year. Well, Easton came in April and HA HA. I think I just struggled to function that summer and so again, the lawn was ignored. Finally, the next summer I looked into some landscaping companies, and decided they were way too high and since I was at home and love working outside, i.e. tanning, I would do it. Hats off to those with a green thumb because I killed every flower I planted, walked into every hidden bee's nest, stepped into every ant hill, and haphazardly lopped off low-lying branches. I put down bag after bag of weed removal, fertilizer, grass seed, sand, water, and nothing worked. At the end of the summer I gave up. I am pretty stubborn, but knew when to quit.

Most of you know my little journey with Advocare, and after discussing it with Heath, we decided to invest in one of those lawn care companies, and take it straight from our Plan B income. I called around to gather prices and all of them were within $5 of each other. Heath and I were trying to decide who to go with, when I received one of those automated phone calls from one company, letting me know of my new enrollment and telling me they'd be out within the week. Wait a minute...we didn't sign up for anything yet?! What's funny is since they were actually the cheaper company we were leaning towards them, but then after they signed us up for service without our permission, they were out of the running. We ended up choosing King Green for many different reasons, one of them was their no-pressure tactics, and the biggest one being their personalized service. The other two companies I called asked me the square footage of our lawn (which is hilarious in its own) and quoted us a price. King Green came to the house to measure the lawn that needed treatment, and then explained what weeds we had, which ones would be the most stubborn to treat, and which ones were warm weather, meaning we wouldn't even see a difference until it was above 80. They assured us it would take time, but they would make our lawn look great, and there was no contract to sign. If we were unhappy at any time, we would just call and cancel. They come out 8 times a year, and explained what they would be doing each time. My friend Amanda, who I went to high school with, works there and also explained that if we wanted to skip some treatments we could, but there were a few treatments not to skip, and she mapped out the details. It was wonderful to not try to be upsold or pressured in any way.

King Green has only treated our lawn twice so far, but you can see the HUGE difference for yourself in the pictures. Each treatment is 6-8 weeks apart, and I believe they first came out in March. They were running a special the first month, and we received $25 off. I felt confident knowing if I didn't see a difference in 8 weeks, I had only paid $30, and we would just cancel.

Here's the before:

 

 

 

 

Pretty bad, right? I know, we were ashamed.

Here's the after, just 2 treatments later:

Doesn't even look like the same lawn does it? It's amazing! I feel fancy schmancy.

This one's my favorite as it shows the difference in where our lawn ends, and our neighbor's starts. We're on the right, they are on the left.

There's like an invisible line between our houses, it's crazy.

I'm loving our lawn as it is, and King Green is still calling it a work in progress. I can't wait to see it a year from now! Finally a lawn to be proud of. You know it's bad when our neighbors even drop by to tell us they like what we're doing to our yard. :)

Is King Green paying me to say this? I wish. Just a happy customer. They do have a referral program where if you decide to start service with them, and tell them I referred you, and they will take $25 off your first treatment and $25 off one of mine. I'd highly recommend them if your looking for a more personalized experience that's actually affordable, with no fine print!

Here's their website if you want to check out their details: http://www.kinggreen.com/!