Just Us

 I spent a lot of time watching the Olympics on TV.  I think my kids are happy now that it's over and they can watch "their shows" again!  We did put together this cool lego dragon though so it's not like I ignored them completely!

 I was so excited to take the kids to IKEA last week.  Ellika is finally in underwear (I can't say potty trained yet because we still have more accidents than we should, but I figured she'd be fine for an hour) and she is tall enough to go in and Owen would love having a buddy in there with him.  And I was so looking forward to an hour of shopping by myself!  Well... didn't happen.  Apparantely not all IKEA's are the same.  It didn't matter that she was tall and potty trained, she had to be three!!  Ahhhh, we were so close!  And her birthday is at the end of this month, but I didn't want to fib on this one because I could totally see them asking her when her birthday is and she would tell them and then the truth would come out!  So of course there were big tears because she then had to shop with me (the tears were from her just to clarify) and so off we went leaving Owen there.  After about 15 minutes, by beeper thingy went off and I spent the next 10 minutes wandering around IKEA trying to get back to him because he apparently didn't want to stay there by himself.  GRRRR.  I was so not happy at this point. 

 We decided we all needed lunch to make us feel better.  IKEA redeemed themselves with a really good kid's box lunch and we were able to get the few things we needed there, but it certainly wasn't what I had in mind.

 IKEA and Costco are near each other in a big shopping area about 30 minutes from our house.  I love going to Costco because unlike IKEA, they are ALL THE SAME!!  It feels like I'm back at home as soon as you walk in the big Gian doors

 For most of the Olympics we have been watching BBC, which is obviously British television, so TEAM GB (as we heard over and over again) didn't do so well the first few days. I think it was about day 3 before they had their first gold medal.  Owen and I decided to show our support!! 

 Luckily we had Ellika to represent  USA!

 A big shout out goes to my brother Jeff for hooking up a sling box for us in his home.  Through the miracle of modern technology, we can now watch TV straight for America.  It still cracks me up that I can watch the Boise news channel and see commercials from Twin Falls.  I haven't had that for over 11 years!!  Thanks Bud!!

 I promised the kids that if we got the house cleaned and all the laundry done then we could go to Barleylands for a couple hours.  It was great motivation!  They had free facepainting and Owen was very excited to get made up like Spiderman....

 The girl said she'd never done Spiderman and asked if a spider was ok.  Owen was more than happy with the spider and asked several times if it was still on. 

 Love the bouncy pillow.

 And the big tractors.

 We are attempting new hair styles for Ellika... this was day one of pig tails.  You can't see them too well, but still a funny picture.

 And then off to the park.

 Owen drew a picture of us going to the park.  Him on his bike and Ellie on her scooter.  I thought it was a good picture. 

One one of our trips to the park last week, Owen rode his big bike. He did great.. until he had his first big crash.  He was wearing his helmet and wasn't hurt except his confidence.  After a few minutes I did convice him to get back on and ride it again.  Then the very next day he decided to ride his scooter to the park and lo and behold another big crash!  This time he bounced on his belly and face on the pavement.  He scraped up his nose pretty badly and a few other scrapes and bruises.  Poor kid.  Again, I had to do some convincing for him to get back on, but he did it.  I guess that's all part of growing up.