Playing in the Rain, Crushing Grapes, Bowling and Our Fish had Babies!

The kids had so much fun playing in the rain a few weeks ago. They just ran and ran and ran in circles, loving being wet!
Even more than the rain, they loved the rainbow! They had never really gotten a good look at one before, so they just laid on their backs and starred at it for a while.
Lately Noelle has been asking Stanton to do her hair. He usually will in exchange for a lightsaber battle. So one morning, this is the hairstyle he gave her. He put every bow she owns in hair, and she was so, extremely pleased with the finished product that she gazed at herself in the mirror for a really long time.
While she was looking in the mirror, Stanton put stickers all over Winston's face.

Later that day we went to the dollar movies to see Smurfs. I love going to the movies with them because they both laugh so loud at the funny parts. Afterwards, we hung out in the the theater lobby for about as long as the movie.
You really get your money's worth at Tempe Cinemas! Michael Pollack should run for Governor! If he can run our state as well as he runs his movie theater, that man and his mustache would win my vote! I met him, and he is super nice!

That night we went to the mall for dinner and fun. That's the night Winston ate the paper fortune from his fortune cookie. The only part I could fish out of his mouth said "winds of change."
So far the only changes for Winston have been his diapers, so I don't think those Panda Express people know what they're talking about when it comes to fortunes.
Most of my friends know that I'm not really a "park mom."
I'm not high maintennace at all in any other area of my life, but all conditions have to be perfect for me to go to the park.
It can't be too hot, there has to be shade, the bathrooms have to be clean, there can't be cigarette butts or dirty needles near the playground equipment, no loose dogs or strange men loitering and prefereably no sand (I prefer wood chips or that bouncy ground.)Oh, and I need to have a Diet Coke to drink while I'm there.
Even though I've never loved the park, we still go. We just usually only stay in the sandy part for a half hour or so.
However, I am happy to say that I've turned over a new leaf, and we went to the train park (I love the train and the caroseul there) with lots of friends and spent 3 hours there!!!!! I let Noelle get filthy. (Stanton and Winston chose not to.) I didn't even flinch when she mixed water with sand, and made snow angels in the mud or poured an entire bucket of sand over her head.
She was happy, so I was happy, and now I'm a "park mom."
And speaking of sand, Noelle wrote her first sentence all by herself. We were playing "beach-school" and she said she wanted to write "The sand is hot." She sounded it out, and wrote it all on her own. It's been like 4 days, and she still hasn't let me erase it. She's very proud of herself, me too (:
We've been going to Chuck E Cheese with our freinds a lot lately! Free tokens from our string
cheese = lots of free fun!
We also went to Jungle Jim's Playland the last week. All 4 babies were trying out their first time in a bounce house. Winston was trying to escape!
Thursday night was the media resort night at the Biltmore, and I've been looking forward to it again ever since last year! It is my favorite thing EVER!
All of the resorts in the valley cook their best dinner item and dessert item, and you just walk around and eat as much as you want. It's so fancy and fun and delicious!
The thing in my left hand, to die for! The thing in my right hand, inside if the egg, I spit it out and made some gagging noises!
I thought it was desert, and for some reason I thought you drank it out of the egg shell, so instead of using a spoon, I took this huge gulp of poached quail egg with black truffle mushroom creme freche and some other grossness mixed in, and I spit it right back out. That was the only thing I didn't like though.
Although, I wasn't brave enough to try the Kobe beef tar-tar or the duck pate. I can't imagine that I would've liked that either.
But I did try the scallops with pumpkin seed risotto, lobster cakes with corn puree, blood orange custard with olive oil ice cream, dark chocolate pumpkin mousse cookies with caremilized pretzel bits on top. The list goes on and on!
It was such an awesome night! Plus, Robert wore a sport coat and looked super handsome! I couldn't stop starring at him!
Then on Saturday I got to cross something off of my bucket list!
Ever since I saw the Ocean Spray commercial, I have wanted to crush grapes!
Paul was hosting the Kokopelli Crush so we met him and Jennifer down there and they helped make my dream come true! (Now if he could arrange for me to eat a Blizzard in a blizzard, that would pretty much complete my whole list. He is a weather man afterall, so I'm pretty sure he could make that happen!)
He got Robert and I up on stage, and we competed for the grand prize (a cruise)next to a very large, competetive grape crusher, who called himself "Saskwatch" and seemed to have drank a little too much fermented grape juice before hand.
I politely told him he was going to lose, and then I asked him for his address, so I could mail him a postcard from the cruise, after we beat him. He made some of his own remarks, a little too inappropriate to type, and the grape crushing began!
Turns out neither of us won. Robert and I got 5th place out of 39, and our pal "Saskwatch" almost fell out of his grape barrel. It was a super fun time!
Then Paul put some grapes down for Stanton and Noelle to crush. They were a little apprehensive.
After that, I tried my hand at blowing a conch shell. Turns out, I'm not too bad for a first timer! I can make a very loud high pitched noise come out of that sea shell. It must have something to do with my trumpet playing skills!
That night we went bowling with our buddies! The kids all had the time of their life! They seriously loved it!
Melissa loved it too cause she kept getting a billion strikes! Her bowling alley victory-dance moves were pretty sweet too! Good times!
And last but not least, our (plastic) fish "Glub-Glub" had babies, 6 babies to be exact. The amount of babies she has is directly related to how many Chuck E Cheese tickets we win.
So, Stanton and Noelle have named them all, "Flower," "Fancy-Flower, "Mimi," " "Blub-Blub," "Fang" and "Wolfie."
So far it's been a nice experience being pet owners. One morning, I even came down stairs, and Stanton and Noelle had poured a ton of Goldfish crackers into the fish bowl, and I said, "Oh my goodness, what are you guys doing?"
And Stanton said, "Our fish wanted to have friends over."
I could not even stop laughing! I love having kids! They are so much fun!