Fun Mommy

After the MOPS leadership retreat, I felt like I owed my kiddos a fun summer week! In the previous couple of weeks, I had felt like I was buried in MOPS work, or just carting the kids around to all of the events/playdates/activities that were on our schedule already.

Before we finished school in May, I had BIG plans to go to the beach every week. I also had BIG plans to go to Soak City every-other week. And much to my dissapointment, our summer break is over at the end of July, and we hadn't gone to either of those places ALL SUMMER! :0(

I was determined to abandon all things "boring" (not really, but hopefully you know what I mean), and be "Fun Mommy" all week!

On Monday, I had planned to go to the beach, but instead we went to Soak City. On our way to Soak City, I had called my friend "2-B" to invite her to go to the beach with us on Tuesday, but wouldn't you know it, while we were on the phone I found out she was on her way to Soak City with her kiddos too! We got to spend the day with our friends at Soak City! I took zero pictures of our 1st day of "Fun Mommy", but we truly had a BLAST! I hadn't been to a water park since I was in High School (over 10 years ago) and it was really neat to experience the fun through the eyes of my little ones. The most interesting part to me is that Wyatt is SOOO afraid to ride anything that resembles a roller coaster at an amusement park...but when it came to the water park he was DYING to go on even the tallest and twistiest of water slides...unfortunately he was way too short to meet the riding requirements. :0(

On Tuesday, we went to the BEACH! Woohooo! Finally! We met Katie and her kiddos there. My kids and I arrived about an hour before Katie did, and I scoped out the BEST spot! Someone had dug this AMAZINGLY HUGE hole in the sand, and I knew that would make for some great beach fun!



My pretty beach baby...





Usually when Katie and I venture to the beach, we let the kiddos play and we lay in the sun chit chatting. But antics like that don't happen on "Fun Mommy's" watch! Before Katie had arrived, my kids and I were sprucing up the big hole with a perimeter of sandcastles around it. Katie had shown up with her kids, and we all went to work together adding flare to our domain.

After sand fun, we went in the water and splashed in the waves. I took the kids out "deep" and they thought that was super cool. Katie then watched the kids playing in the shallow water, and I got to hit the waves solo (I know, not very "Fun Mommy" of me).

Katie brought me a boogie board, and I brought my "A-Game!" My boogie boarding skills were on FIRE! I was catching every wave I wanted to catch! The surf was incredible! I could have rode those waves for hours! I don't know what it is about boogie boarding, but I love it! I thought I was hot stuff, the kids and Katie thought I was hot stuff, and even some strangers came up to me and said how good I looked out there! (HUGE SMILE!)

On Wednesday, we hosted a pool party at our pool for all of our MOPS friends. We had a huge turnout, and the kids had a blast! In the late afternoon I took Beatrice to her modeling debut...no worries, I'm sure this will be a solo modeling experience. :0) One of the ladies in our MOPS group is a professional photographer, and she had asked if she could use Beatrice as her model for her Summer Portfolio and marketing material. This was not a paid gig, but in return we will be receiving the edited photos on a disk. Beatrice did really well. She made it through 4 of the 6 wardrobe changes. But towards the end of the 4th cycle, she kept messing around with her accessories, and was no longer wanting to cooperate with poses, etc. We called it a day. I have received 1 teaser image from the session...



I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!!! :0)

On Thursday, we went to Sea World with my sister Jenni and her crew. We got to see the new Turtle Reef exhibit...



We rode on the tall Sky Tower...



And we saw the newest Shamu Show...



I usually pack our lunch, and make our adventures to Sea World a cost-free event...but "Fun Mommy" is kinda spendy...not only did we get frozen lemonade, and 2 buckets of popcorn, but the kids also got Shamu Shaped Ice Cream Treats!



On Friday, we pretty much chilled at home. I had 2 baking orders to complete. "Fun Mommy" had bought the kids "activity packs" on a whim at the grocery store earlier in the week, and Wyatt had a bunch of Scooby Doo work to do, and Beatrice had a bunch of Care Bears work to do. I had also baked extra cookies and cake pops from my orders for the kids to decorate themselves, but they never got around to do them.

Here are the Baseball Cake Pops I did...





And here are the Bumble Bee Cookies I did...





So that's it for "Fun Mommy!" I am glad that super hero made an appearance this summer, but boy was it exhausting, LOL! In all honesty, I'm not sure the kids really cared that we did all of these things. I think I was just feeling bad that I hadn't taken them to the beach and stuff, but they hadn't even been asking to go to the beach, LOL! The kids seemed to have as much fun this week as they had had when we were doing all of the other things we have done this summer. But again, even if this week was just for me, that is enough reason. As moms (or maybe I'm just the only mom???) we carry guilt around...are we doing enough?...are we doing too much?...yada, yada, yada...and for 5 days I was guilt-free! And that is just, well, Priceless.