Celebrating Adam

I met Adam in high school. When I was 17, we started dating, so with his recent 35th birthday, we have now officially known each other half my life. When I asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate his special day, he requested that we do another day on the lake. So Saturday we invited his parents to join us.  We had a great time just hanging out together, enjoying the sunny afternoon and the refreshment of the water.

Thirty-five never looked so good on someone. I think the world of this man and respect him implicitly. I feel tremendously blessed to call him mine and grateful to walk through this life together. I look forward to the next thirty-five!!

Sunday, we asked some friends to join us for a date night. We chose to do a little progressive dinner starting out with drinks and appetizers at Lost Forty then finishing up at one of our favorite places in Hillcrest, SO.  It was fun to just laugh and visit with great friends who know us so well.  We enjoyed celebrating Adam with delicious food, great drinks and so many laughs!  (I just have to say, Lost Forty's bread with dill and honey butter, was A.MAZ.ING!!!)

Round One...

Round Two...

Our favorite dessert is their Chocolate Sack, which can easily be shared between four people so that's what we did.  Happy Birthday Babe! You are very loved!!!

Summer Sanity - Local Activities To Occupy My Kids

I am just starting to get into the the swing of summer--the free time, the no schedule, the blessed reprieve from constant events.  I must say that while I looked forward to not making lunches every day and having to get the kids up and out the door bright and early each morning that having them home all day, every day, is a bit overwhelming at times.

Two Friday's ago, I'd fully anticipated taking all the kids and going to my workout class, however, when Adam tried to leave for work, we discovered that the spring on our garage door had broken and there was not even a chance of manually opening it.  So, we were stuck at the house until Harmon Overhead Doors could arrive.  That sort of got our morning out of kilter if you know what I mean.  At that point I tried to put together a Plan B that didn't consist of a constant flow of television or playing the Wii.  If I said it once, I probably said it five or six times, "did you ask to turn the TV on?"  I thought to myself, "Oh man, this is just the first day of summer!"  I tried to get them to do Legos, play games, read or do some "school" work pages and journaling, but the combination of rain (meaning we were literally trapped in the house) and the fact that the garage door was stuck (meaning we could not leave the house) made for a tragic combination.  So, I decided then, that I needed to put a little structure into our summer days so I started doing some research on local fun spots.  For those of you Little Rocker's, here's a few local ideas you might try with your peeps this summer and if you have suggestions, I'd welcome the ideas in my comment section.

Movie Fun:

Rave Theatre
Enjoy all rated G or PG movies for just a buck.  Movies are shown at 10 am on Thursdays.  The schedule is:  Paddington (June 9); Alvin and the Chipmunks (June 16); The Peanuts Movie (June 23); Pan (June 30); Home (July 7); The Box Trolls (July 14); The Sandlot (July 21); Norm of the North (July 28); Shaun the Sheep Movie (August 4); and Max (August 11).  It will run each Thursday from June 4-August 6.

Chenal 9
Also has family friendly movies at 10 am and noon Tuesday through Thursday for $3 admission.  The Peanuts Movie (June 14-16th); The Surfs 2 (June 21-23); Home (June 28-30); Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (July 5-7); Puss in Boots (July 12-14); How to Train Your Dragon (July 19-21); Goosebumps (July 26-28); and Hotel Transylvania 2 (Aug 2-4).

Museum Fun:

The Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum is home to the USS Razorback, the longest-serving submarine in the world.  More than just a military museum, it also offers a research library, a theatre, and a large museum area.  It's located on the NLR side of the Riverfront area.  Adult admission is $7.50, its $5 for children 5-12.  All children are welcome but children under 4 are NOT allowed on the USS Razorback tour.  Hours are Wednesday-Saturday 10 am - 6 pm, Sunday 1-6pm

Wiggle Worms-Museum of Discovery

The Museum of Discovery has a program that introduces children 6 and under to science in a fun, interactive environment.  It's held every Tuesday at 10 am and Saturday at 10 am.  The Wiggle Worms 2.0 is a new program for children 12 and under and is held every Thursday at 3:30pm.   It is included in the admission fee.  Programs are: Cool Caves (June 7, 9 & 11); Electrify Sci! (June 14, 16, 18) and Outer Space (June 21, 23 & 24).

Outdoor Fun:
Little Rock Zoo-

Animal Feeding Schedule
9:30 am and 3:30 pm - Penguins
1:30pm - Great Ape Scatter Feeds (observed daily from 1:30 to 2:00 pm, weather permitting.)
2:00pm - Saturdays - Alligator Feeding
Lorikeet Feeding - Nectar can be purchased inside the Lorikeet exhibit
Fish Food - Fish food is available around the park for $.25 to feed the Koi fish.

Witt Stephens Nature Center (downtown)

Geocaching - Downtown 8:30-4:30 Tuesday - Saturday
Fish Feeding - Wednesdays 2-2:30 pm
Alligator Feeding - Fridays 2-2:30 pm
Wild Tales Story Time - Wednesdays 10-11 am  Join a nature center educator for story time featuring books about animals and nature.  Then, take a guided discovery walk outside.  This free program is tailored for children 6 and younger.  Dress for outdoor time.  There is a terrific scavenger hunt that they will give each child (upon request) at the front desk, my boys thought this was a really fun activity.

Downtown & Midtown Fun:
METRO Streetcar

The METRO is a 3.4 mile street car system connecting the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock.  Attractions along the route include Verizon Arena, the Argenta Historic District, Little Rock's River Market District, the Historic Arkansas Museum and the Clinton Presidential Center.  I have only done this with the boys one other time, but they loved it!

The schedule is:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 8:30 - 10 pm
Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 8:30 - Midnight
Sunday 11 - 5 pm

Routes begin at the River Market and it's about a 15 minute loop.
Cost:
-ages 4 and under are FREE
-ages 5-11 are $.50 per boarding
-ages 12-64 are $1.00 per boarding

Splash Pads:

The River Market Splash Pad and the one at Midtown are pretty fun, though I'd suggest going early since it gets pretty crowded and is difficult to keep up with kids as they climb on the rocks and weave in and out of the many fun tunnels.

Farmers Market:

You could hit up several of these activities in one trip if you went and rode the METRO Street Car, went to the Farmers Market to grab some fresh produce then ended the morning by running and splashing in the Peabody Splash Pad.  I think we'll give this a go next week!

Farmers Market Hours are:
EVERY Saturday Starting May 7, 2016 – September 24, 2016
7 AM - 3 PM, rain or shine!

EVERY TUESDAY
Starting May 3, 2016 – July 26, 2016
7 AM - 3 PM, rain or shine!

LOCATION:
400 President Clinton Ave.
Little Rock, AR 72201

Arkansas State Capitol Tour:

To schedule a guided tour of the Capitol, all you need to do is call the Visitor Services Specialist at 501-682-5080.  The free tours of the Capitol Building are offered weekdays 9am - 3pm.  A friend of mine recently did this and said it was really pretty interesting, I'll let you know how it goes.

So, these are a few of my summer ideas to keep my sanity.  If you have suggestions, please share them below.

A Morning on the Farm - Picking Blueberries

Saturday morning we took the kids out to BoBrook Farms to pick blueberries.  It turned out to be a nice, slightly overcast morning, which was a welcomed relief from the last time we were out there in the blazing sun.   It had been raining so the ground was quite mucky, but that didn't stop this crew from picking buckets and buckets of berries.

This little cutie in the rain boots makes my heart want to melt.

We were afraid that we'd missed the window to pick blueberries but were pleased to find out that there was still plenty of fruit to gather up. (You can pick blueberries through the end of June out there.) It's really simple, the kids can do it and it is SO.MUCH.CHEAPER to buy them by the bucket then the tiny plastic container at the grocery store.  We paid $20 for the big white bucket.

Lachlan and Whitney met up with us.  How cute is this little dude?!  He enjoyed playing in the puddles and picking up dirt and rocks, not so much picking the berries.  Emerson decided to share his little bucket with them to help their stock pile grow.

We had a fun morning out on the farm and have been enjoying the fruits of our labor every day!

First Lake Trip of the Summer

My family loves going to the lake, being on the water, spending time together tubing, skiing, knee boarding and wake boarding.  Its really a great family centered activity that we can all enjoy so, at the end of last year we decided to purchase a boat.  We waited til closer to summer time to purchase all the necessities, so a few weeks back we went and loaded up.  I wish this picture did the shopping excursion justice, it simply does not!  We had ropes for skiing, ropes for the wake board, ropes for the tube, ropes for anchors and tying to the dock.  We had life vests and a tube, a wakeboard a knife for emergencies, safety kits for those inevitable moments and much much more.  We'd already started loading items into the back of my suburban when Adam's parents randomly showed up and saw us with all this gear which literally wouldn't all fit in the car so thankfully they took the skies home for us.

After getting all the gear, we were certainly ready to try it out.  So we headed to the lake the past two weekends and enjoyed being on the water, making more memories and watching the kids enjoy what we have come to love!  This summer we are staying at Ouachita Shores, the owner is super kind, helpful and the bungalows have nice accommodations.

The boys were super excited to finally be at the lake, even though the water was a bit chilly, that certainly did not deter them!

We even got Peyton and Lawson up at the same time which was super fun to watch...I'm hoping to do more of this throughout the summer.  Both were nervous that they were going to hit the other one so they didn't last too long, but I was thrilled that they even tried!

Adam and Dad gave the new rack a good go on the wakeboards and I think they enjoyed themselves. Getting action shots is hard, but this gives you an idea of what they did.  There was a little air caught and lots of fun being had.

My Dad loves Kenny Loggins, Danger Zone, so Adam has been super excited to get him behind the boat as the speakers blared the Top Gun hit. I'm pretty sure he had a lot of fun back there!

Little Momma here, sat on the back platform for quite a while debating about whether or not to get fully submerged; the water was really cold.  I did however, get in and enjoyed my first pull behind our boat, though my facial expressions in all the pictures says otherwise.

Whitney gave it a go on both the slalom and the wakeboard, she's still got it!

Our days at the lake were fun just chillin' and hanging out.

Our last night we went out and took a sunset cruise, it was a beautiful sky for sure, but extremely chilly.

Being at the lake is always pretty relaxing but just cruising around watching the sunbeams last glow as they shined down from heaven, really was a spectacular sight.  To be able to enjoy Gods amazing creation with all the people I love, truly was a privilege.