Week of FUN!

My sister Celeste started this idea last year and we continued with the tradition this year, with a little more organization than before. The "Week of Fun" is basically the week before school starts. We plan something fun to do every day to make sure we get in all the last bits of summer fun before the first day of school. We started last Wednesday and ended on Tuesday night. Some of our activities involved Celeste and her kids and some we did on our own.

Wednesday: McDonald's!

Many of you may think McDonald's isn't fun and it isn't particularly something we haven't done in the past (which shouldn't surprise those of you who know me!) but it's something our kids love to do especially now that we are in an area where there is a nice, big play area for them to play on. My sister and I basically just sit back with our fries and unlimited Diet DP on tap and watch the kids go crazy for a couple hours, when we take them home for naps. It's perfect for everyone. Adam even came over from his office, which is across the street, to see the kids for a little while.

Madelynn is still too small to actually climb but Olivia and Rix and Bryce help her up so well.

Olivia on the (dirty) slide. My kids get Purelled after the play area. Ew.

Jack when I said "smile for me!"

Thursday: Celeste's house and Red Robin

Celeste invited us over to play in her backyard and take advantage of what will probably be the last nice day of 2010. We brought the kids' swimsuits and let them play in the sprinkler as well as eat lunch with their cousins. One of these days I will have a fun backyard, but since now I don't even have a backyard, we love to go over to Celeste's house instead. We also went to Red Robin, but that was in my last post about Adam's birthday and I don't want to re-post the same pictures, so you'll have to scroll down and see them. All I can say is my kids love Red Robin. They love picking out their own meal from the pictures on the kids menus and getting their own drink. And the all love Red when he's there, so much that I'm pretty sure Madelynn and Jack think he's a rock star of some sort.

A golf club? Where is her mother....

The kids love putting the sprinkler under the trampoline, although it always ends up in the middle of the yard and somehow being used as a weapon.

Friday: The zoo!

Last year, Celeste and I went to the zoo at least three times, but this year we hadn't been once. I think mostly because Celeste didn't renew her zoo pass this year and we didn't really have a reason to go. Olivia finished the reading program at the library this summer, though, and got a free pass so Adam and I packed up the kids and a lunch and headed out to the zoo. It was a warm day and perfect for us. The kids loved the aquarium the most and Madelynn could've stayed there all day. We also saw the new tiger cubs and the seals, monkeys, walruses, and penguins. Olivia was really excited for the penguins, but they were all sleeping. She was super excited for the elephants too and watched them for a while.

We just missed the feeding show, where they throw in the fish food and all the fish come up to the surface, but the kids still loved watching them swim around. Jack was mostly excited to see Patrick Star (a starfish). He's a little obsessed with Spongebob Squarepants, much to my dismay.

Always posing.

My "proof I was there" photo.

My kids are crazy.

The new clouded leopards they have at the zoo. I'm loving Madelynn making herself cozy right up front.

Madelynn is actually being stubborn here, although she's super cute at it. We were supposed to be following Adam and the two older kids but she climbed onto the bench and wouldn't move. I'm pretty sure this was nap time too.

The play area! We stayed here for a while. They have a slide and some climbing toys and my kids loved it. Jack is on a "spider web" that last year he had issues climbing but this year he totally mastered it.

Saturday: Playing at Nana and Papa's house

On Saturday I actually went with Celeste and my mom to the Seattle Premium Outlets, which are over an hour away from me. I was gone from 9 in the morning until after 4pm and I was tired from all that shopping. We found some great deals though at Carter's and Gap and Osh Kosh, to name a few. It was so much fun to go shopping with out kids and with my sister and mom. Adam took the kids to my parent's house while my dad was there and they played and ate lunch there. Adam took Jack and Madelynn back for naps, but Olivia and Rix got to stay with Papa and go with him to run some errands and come back to his house and play the Wii. When I got back from shopping, Adam and I took Jack and Madelynn to a friend's one-year-old's birthday party while Olivia played the Wii some more. I'm thinking she played about 4 hours (!!!) and she still cried when I picked her up ("I want to buy Wii Sports Resort!" is what I heard through the tears on the way home). Nana also trimmed Olivia's hair for me while I was gone, which saved me some money! The kids had a fun day, I just didn't get any pictures.

Sunday: Back to Celeste's house!

This was actually our day off, but my cousin Sara was in town with her family so we all met at Celeste's house for dessert. Celeste was nice enough to feed my family dinner since the get together was last minute and our dinner plans would have taken too long. Thanks Celeste! It was fun to see Sara and her husband and her two kids. The children just ran around outside and ate brownie sundaes before we all headed home. What do you expect, it was Sunday! I think they still had fun.

Monday: Odyssey 1

Odyssey 1 is kind of like a Chuck E Cheese's, but not as big and way more fun. I thought so, at least. They have a laser tag place, arcade and huge play area. Seriously, I couldn't see my kids for most of the time! Celeste and I had a coupon to use where the kids got access to the play area, a personal pizza and a soda for $8, so we went there for lunch and play time. The pizzas were big enough to feed the six kids and Celeste, Adam and I. The kids were in heaven for a couple hours. There were lots of things to do and places to climb. We will definitely be going back there because it was well worth the money. It was really hard to get pictures too because the kids were literally non-stop the whole time!

Olivia seriously took care of Madelynn the whole time. She made sure Madelynn could get up places and through tunnels and over bridges and I didn't even ask her to do that. She really is a great big sister.

Jack and Bryce- like I said, non-stop.

They had  small track and these cool little cars that go when you move the levers back and forth. My kids didn't get quite the hang of it but were able to get around the track a little.

Pure trouble here.

Professional hoarder. She carried at least one ball with her the whole time and sometimes it was three. The blocks in the background are like super huge legos and the kids had fun with those for a while too.

Again with the posing.

Jack had to pose too. His is more of a "fight/ninja" pose like usual.

More balls to hoard!

Olivia and Madelynn trying out the cars. Madelynn just mostly sat but Olivia was pretty good.

I can't believe she's in first grade already! Stop growing up!

Madelynn loved this slide. It was just her size and super easy to climb up.

Tuesday: Meet & Greet and Cold Stone

On Tuesday Olivia and Jack met their teachers at Park Lodge. Jack doesn't start preschool until he turns 4 at the end of the month, but he has been so excited to meet his teacher. Olivia gave her teacher the school supplies and found her desk and cubby. Rix is not in her class this year (on purpose) but she does have some friends from kindergarten in her class. Rix's class is right next door and they have recess and lunch together. After dinner we took the kids to Cold Stone to celebrate a new school year.