More Summer Fun

I am just having so much fun with my little people this summer!!! Jacob has been enjoying having friends over, going to friends' houses, and just in general not being at camp. And I am enjoying that as well.  I also love getting to "kidnap" Morgan from her daycare once a week. She screams when she sees us, runs over, and yells bye to all the sad kids watching from a distance (I do feel bad for them...) But don't feel too bad for Morgan on the days she is there...she runs that place. It is the same place where Jessica works, the same place she went for 3 years before starting school. So all the teachers know her and pretty much let her run wild all over the place, letting her stop in random rooms to "help."  But she still loves getting her day with us and once in the car asks, "where are we going today?"

We visited the Pink Palace recently, which they both loved last year, but are bored with this year. The Pink Palace offers a free "summer" membership each year, so you really can't pass it up. Except of course that Aunt Shae is a sucker.  And there is a gift shop. So we bought rock candy (a MUST) and a volcano kit. More to come on that in a later post. The best part about the visit this day was that there were random employees spread throughout the museum with tables and different "artifacts" to hold and learn about. Here they are in Civil War getup:

 Just love wearing them out...

 We went to the movies one day.  The Malco does a "summer" movie session where they show last year's movies for just $2 per person, and you can get popcorn/drink/candy for $2 each also. It's a good deal, unless you are Aunt Shae, a.k.a. "the sucker" and you stop at the candy store to let them load up their priced-by-the-ounce bags...

Our most recent adventure, and I do mean adventure, was downtown Memphis. I am not sure what I was thinking when I decided that it was a good idea to take two 6 year olds downtown by myself, but it really turned out to be a great day!! I was totally nervous though, not only to be downtown with them, but because I had decided we were going to travel by trolley. Cheap and fun, right? Yes, but take into account I had never really used the trolley system before, and that I actually had to change trolleys...well, you get the idea. But we did it!! When the day was over I stated how relieved I was that we didn't get lost anywhere, and Morgan just looked at me for a really long time. I know exactly what she was thinking...

 First we started out at the Peabody to watch the ducks march in.

 The duck master is giving the presentation, telling the history of the hotel, how the duck tradition began, etc. It was interesting for me. For the kids, it just built the whole thing up as a really big production about to happen...

...then 4 ducks waddle in and...drum roll please...jump into the fountain!! Jacob said, "well, that was boring."  Morgan (always much sweeter in her sentiments) asked, "can we go on the roof now?"

So we went on the roof. This is in front of the "duck palace," the place where the ducks sleep at night.

Looking out over downtown...

 This totally reminds me of the pic from the "Shout Out to Anderson" post where these two are poking their faces through my back fence to watch the tractors....sniff sniff...I guess that explains why I took, and posted, 3 of them...sigh...

 You can see the Redbird Stadium...

 Jacob "found" Grammy's building...he was actually close.  We couldn't actually see her office building, it was behind the one he thought was it, but I didn't tell him that. He said he was able to find it faster than Morgan and I because he wears glasses...

After the roof, which was much more exciting than the ducks, thank goodness, we met Grammy for lunch.  After lunch, the real adventure began...

Waiting for the trolley

They loved the trolley. Mom even offered to pick us up from Mud Island so we wouldn't have to ride it back to our car (because it moves slowly of course) but they wanted to ride it back!

We rode the trolley to Mud Island, which is free, you just have to pay to ride the monorail if that is how you want to get across (as opposed to walking). Of course we chose the monorail!!

And once we got to Mud Island, they had a blast. They could have stayed MUCH longer than we did...

It's hard to see Jacob's face in this next one, but he is pretending to be Godzilla, standing on the bridges...Morgan is of smiling sweetly  ;)

 Getting soaked...

 If one poses one way, the other has to also...

This Is For Aunt Debbie

I decided this summer that I was going to do as many fun, cheap (if not free) things with Morgan and Jacob as possible. This decision came to me after I enrolled Jacob in a 3 day-a-week camp that included going on a field trip one of those days, the icecream truck coming another, and other fun groups coming to the school on the other day (like fire trucks, kung fu teachers, etc) and making sure I picked a place where he would know some kids starting out (FOUR to be exact)-only to have him HATE it. And I mean HATE it. Turns out that by using the term "summer camp," Jacob thought he would be literally camping. Jacob is all about knowing EXACTLY what is going to take place, and all about being TICKED OFF if that does not occur... And he thought I would go on the field trips with him like I do for school field trips. I could have viewed this as a growing experience and forced him to suck it up, I know. Afterall, there wasn't a solid good reason for him not to like it. But then I decided this was his summer, and there would be plenty of other life opportunities for him to grow through misery. Add to that I have two money-hungry stepdaughters who are of age to babysit, and you got yourself a kid whose mom doesn't make him go to summer camp while she works a few days a week. Fast forward to my brilliant plan of making this a fun summer for him and Morgan. I had a few things on my list already, and it is growing. I am actually excited about the whole business. Here is what we have done so far:
Morgan spent the night one night. We had tried this before, but it didn't work. Now they are old enough for it and they had a blast. We rode bikes up to Jake's school that evening. Aren't they cute???

 They wanted to sleep together in Abby's bed, not in Jake's bunk bed...cute...

The next day we went to Lichterman Nature Center (free passes-sweet) and hiked all around. We packed a backpack with drinks, they thought they were really roughing it...

 Lilies for Lily!! We probably weren't supposed to pick them...

 We also stole a few goose feathers...

Who needs expensive store-bought hats???

 Melissa and Nicole, as you can see, she has true Garzoli blood in her. The hotter the day, the bigger the hair gets...

 They also feed a different animal each day at the center. When I called ahead that morning I was told it was going to be the snakes that day.  But apparently the lovely lady answering the phone has no inkling of what it is like telling two 6 year olds they are going to get to watch a snake eat, only to arrive to find out she made that all up because the schedule printed on the door clearly says it is turtle day. Thanks lady. The turtles eating their blueberries were cute and all, but we were bummed. But....Sonic saves the day again!! One of the volunteers feeding the turtles used to work for us and got the snake out for us to pet!! Yay!!!

 Then, to complete our educational hike, as we were leaving, we spot this dead (apparently fried from the Memphis heat) baby duck right outside the front door....I said, gross. Morgan said, aww, poor duck. Jacob said, cool. Boy genes in tact, check.

 Aunt Shae can knock you out...

This was just one of our days...more to come Aunt Debbie, I promise!