Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

Today started out gorgeous. Daddy let me go for a run when we woke up while he and the boys played. Then as he did his back exercises, the boys & I enjoyed playing outside. We decided to get some food to grill out that evening. Eventually the boys napped and we finished the movie we had started the night before (which was actually kind of disturbing but good...called 'the machinist'). We had all sorts of plans for outdoor fun when the boys woke up!

But then the heavens let loose... the dark clouds loomed and then bolts of lightning lit up the entire sky and thunder shook our entire house. It was an all-out storm with the downpour to boot. :( :( :( Joshua was sad he couldn't go swimming with Daddy like we had said. We were also disappointed. We talked about what to do, and we decided that maybe a night at Chuck E Cheese would cure our weather blues.

Daddy printed out a coupon and we headed out during a break in the rain drops. Then it let loose again and the lightning bolts were amazing with the LOUD thunder and rain to the point you couldn't even see. Shawn said "no one in their right mind would go out in this" so we knew we'd be in luck for an empty night at Chuck E Cheese and we were right! (We obviously are not in our right minds.) There were maybe a couple other families in the entire place. The boys could ride or play with any game they wanted to with no wait or sharing.

The last time we were there, Caleb was in an infant carrier and Joshua was terrified of the moving cars. This time was a completely different story! Both boys LOVED the games and rides. And while most of the machines had been out of order last time, only one ate a token this time.

We ordered ham & pineapple pizza and drinks and played while we waited for the food. We ate an extremely quick dinner and then continued playing afterward.

Joshua all too quickly got the concept of "gimme money, Daddy!" He put the coins in the machines of his choosing and then would come back asking for more while Caleb required more help.

Shawn was very sweet to take us on this Memorial Day adventure. We had been bummed to miss our plans, but we decided to take the lemons dealt us and make lemonade.

Most of our pictures were fuzzy... some of that is the camera, some is the batteries, some is the lighting, some is the movement of our kids and some is just plain ol' user 'error.'

Daddy shot hoops with the Bean, the boys played on the phone, and both boys LOVED the ducky game as usual (where they try to knock the ducks off the track).

Joshua was able to climb the 'bigger' slide this time, while Caleb stuck with the smaller one. They both liked the 'feed the dog' game, too, and Joshua didn't even need any help with it.

We ended the night with Daddy & I playing the 'squirt-the-target-with- water' game (and he won) and the boys playing the cars racing game.

I loved Joshua's face in the above picture and Caleb's in the picture below.

It was a fun night! And hopefully the weather will be nicer later this week that we can swim again and grill out. Happy Memorial Day! Here's to a four-day work week and the last week of my 20s.