The Best Day

Saturdays are usually the day I catch up my house cleaning, laundry, and rest.

This Saturday, I decided to take the boys and spend a little time with them and totally blow off the house cleaning, laundry, and rest.  

It started off at 9 o'clock with a birthday party at the local Jumpers place.  We were late -- 45 minutes late -- but we got there in time for the boys to jump for over an hour.

After the birthday party fun, we went to the Dollar Tree.  I had some items to return not used for the pirate birthday party so I let the boys pick out 2 items a piece.

At this point, Alex and Zach both agreed that it had been the best day and it was just 11 o'clock!

My boys have certain places where they love to eat.  Their number one pick is usually Applebees.  I really didn't want to eat there, so I mentioned another place -- Pepper's.  

Zach --  decided for the boys -- that since it had been the best day that they would eat at the place that Momma picked.  Yay!

And now Pepper's is the boys' new favorite place.  :)

We left Pepper's to go play at a local park.  It is really a neat park.  They have a really cool play castle to climb on with slides, moving bridges, and lots and lots of steps and towers.

The boys loved it.  They ran and chased each other.

Shane on the moving bridge!

The boys even stopped for me to get a picture of them together.

Zach had as much fun as Shane at the park.

Shane made some friends.

And it was quite relaxing for me because there were plenty of places where I could sit and watch the boys.

Once we had been at the park for a couple of hours, we decided to move on to McDonald's for a snack . . . then on to the Air Force Base for the air show.

The Thunderbirds were the main attraction at the air show.

They were awesome!  The boys and I loved the show!
It was really loud sometimes.  :)

They had several helicopters and planes for the children to climb into and explore.

It was such fun for the boys to freely explore the helicopters and planes.

Shane would be very involved with all the buttons and gear shifts of the helicopters and then he'd spot another helicopter or plane to see!

I could barely keep up with Shane.  Luckily, Alex and Zach would run ahead with him and watch over him.  The three of them were about to get this plane started when I finally caught up with them. The man with this plane wasn't paying attention, and almost jumped out of his chair when he saw them moving the propellers! Ha!

I let each boy pick out one souvenir plane before leaving the air show.

Brrrrrrrr .... 

We had a great day.  Alex said it ranked #3 among our family vacations . . . after Dollywood and last summer's cross-country trip to the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains!  I explained to him that this didn't qualify as a family vacation, but I appreciated the sentiment!  :)

And so . . . there you have a sample of "the Best Day" with . . .

                           the Ferrell boys and me!
  

Five Minute Friday: Writer

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Today's Word:  Writer

Hmmmm.  

I've never thought of myself as a writer per se.  

Sure I write as a part of my job.  Being a lawyer, I spend a good bit of time writing whether it's letters to clients, complaints or petitions to file in court, or deeds, wills, etc.

But I don't think of those "writings" as making me a writer.

Those "writings" make me a lawyer.

A writer is someone that creates images or thoughts using their words. . . or records something using their words.

I've been blogging for several years now.  Writing down the adventures of my family and specifically the adventures of my three boys for the world and my extended family to read.

Does that make me a writer?

Maybe.  I do know that writing in my blog helps me deal with the stress of my job as a lawyer, as a wife, and especially as a mother to three wild boys.  

Writing in this blog gives me the opportunity to take a moment  . . . a memory . . . an event in my life and capture it for the future.  To give me and my boys something to record our time together.

Sometimes that time is not always pleasant.  

Writing is a way for me to take the not so pleasant moments of raising three wild and rambunctious boys and putting a positive spin on those moments.  

To reflect and remember that one day . . . the time I found the bent up and broken bed frame from 3 boys jumping on the bed will be a great story to tell of my war wounds in raising these 3 boys . . . 

the time of dealing with a broken window from a misguided BB gun will be another example of the pains I endured in raising these 3 boys . . . 

Yes, these are just two of the not so pleasant events from just this past week at my house.  :)

But now . . . as I write this and I'm reflecting on the broken bed frame and the busted window pane, I'm remembering that these problems will pass, and I will not care so much about the broken and busted items in my house as much as the 3 boys I raised in my house . . . our home.  And these will be stories I will share sometime in the future when remembering this trying time of raising my 3 boys.

These will be stories I will have as a remembrance because I wrote about them in my blog. . . along with all the good stories I share.

So I think maybe I am a writer.  A writer of stories and adventures  . . .  re-counting the tales and the trials of  . . .

                             the Ferrell boys and me!

Shane's Pirate Birthday Party

Last Saturday we celebrated Shane's 6th birthday with a fantastic pirate-themed party.  Here's my little birthday pirate a couple of days before the party.  :)

I had spent a couple of weeks prior planning the party so there was a little build-up of excitement with the boys by the time the actual day of the party arrived.

I've lots of pictures, but I'll try to only show the highlights of the party.  :)

When the children arrived, they got to choose from an assortment of items to dress up like pirates . . . paper pirate hats, bandanas, mustaches, tattoos, and patches.

Dave suggested that we use pool noodles for swords so I used a bread knife and cut pool noodles in half for the children to have pirate sword fights.

It got a little fierce in the garage with all the sword fighting.

I didn't get a good picture of the pirate ship that Dave made out of cardboard boxes, but you get some idea of it in these pictures with the kids sword fighting in and around it.  They loved the ship.

I also painted a pirate picture for the children to "Pin the Patch" on the pirate.

The kids really enjoyed pinning the patch . . . even though I don't have any pictures to prove it.

I also had a plank set up for the pirates to practice walking on . . .

But no pictures of any pirates walking the plank!  Even though they all did it!   This picture is the closest I have of the children walking the plank, but you can't see the plank!  Ha!

Oh wait!  Here's one . . . sort of!  See the child on the far left . . .

We also had the Captain Hook ring toss for the children to try.

I didn't have any ring to toss so I used glow stick necklaces hooked together.

And my sister, Michelle, really helped out with the children and the games.

Between the games and the pirate ship, the children stayed busy playing in the garage.

And then it was time for the Treasure Hunt!  I'm going to post details about the Treasure Hunt in a later post, but here's some pictures of the hunt.

The children raced from clue to clue in the backyard using the treasure map to help guide them to the treasure.

The Treasure Chest was easy to spot once the children saw the giant red "X" marking the treasure spot.

The chest was really a cardboard box painted and filled with sand to hide the treasure.

The children dug and dug looking for the treasure of necklaces, rings, and gold coins.

The children loved the gold coins.

Here's the birthday boy checking out his gold coin . . .

And then it was time to open presents . . .

Thanks to Nana, PawPaw, Aunt Michelle, and his Alabama cousins, Shane is ready to protect the USA as Captain America!

He got lots of other great gifts from his friends.  He said it was the best birthday ever!

 I made a pirate ship cake that morning using Jake and the Neverland pirate character toys.

Shane loved it!  The candles on the sides of the cake were representative of cannons shooting from the ship.  The kids loved it when I lit the candles.

Blowing out the candles that are on two sides of a cake can be tricky!

And after a couple of the children left the party to go home  . . . I remembered I had bought pirate and princess crafts for the children to do!  Oops!  Well, at least Mary Beth got to do one.

And then because being a pirate is not as appealing as being a super hero sometimes  . . . 

Doesn't the world feel a little safer now.  :)  Shane was ready as Captain America!

The party was a success.  How do I know?  It started at 2 o'clock and the last guests left at 7:30!  A couple of the mothers, my sister, and I enjoyed visiting while the children played pirates and super heros for hours outside!  We were enjoying ourselves so much that we completely lost track of the time!

Shane said I was the best mother ever.  

I'm sure that was true on that particular day with . . .

                           the Ferrell boys and me!


I'm linking up to these awesome parties!  Come and join the fun!