Jump Street

A new indoor fun place just opened up here. And of course, with our record heat that we've been having lately, indoors is the only place to be. So we took the kids to Jump Street to enjoy the wall to wall trampolines. There was also a mechanical bull, a foam pit, a giant slide (boring) and a giant maze. The kids loved it, except that it's only 2 hours. They could have stayed there all day. But here are some videos of the kids on the mechanical bull. Regan was hesitant at first but the guy promised her he would go slow, so she finally decided to try it. I think she did it maybe 3 times and fell on her face once and that was it, no more bull riding for her!

Vitality

Again, it's been a while since I've posted, but it's been a whirlwind!! I heard about this new company, ViSalus Sciences, they have a 90 Day Challenge weight loss program, and when I heard about it, I was on board. I signed up to start the 90 Day Challenge, and then flew to Orlando for a long weekend with some friends to go to the company's annual meeting. It was a blast and I was only feeling partly guilty as we danced till 3am, or had dinner at Margaritaville, and thought of David back home with the kids. Oh well...they lived! And I had a GREAT time, and just fell in love with this company and all it stands for. Right now I'm starting my 3rd week on the challenge (but not 3 full weeks since I've had other trips that have gotten in the way, more on that later!) Anyway, I've lost around 3 pounds, but the energy I have is amazing! I can't believe how much of a difference I felt just on day one. Anyway, here's a link if you want more information on it, watch the videos and let me know what you think!
www.visalus.crappell.net

(The picture is me, in the penthouse suite of the hotel, the founder of the company, Nick Sarnicola, invited our team up for a champagne toast before the Black and White Party! It was nice, and a nice view as a storm rolled into Orlando)

Got Feathers?

So I guess these feathers are all the rage right now, I've been seeing them all over the place. And of course, Regan wanted her own feathers. So we had a "girls day" which was really just a "return things to various stores around town" day, but she was okay with that. I took her to get her feathers at the spa, and then we went to the Domain and had a ladies tea. She loved it, even though she's not a fan of tea, she got some tart lemonade, and she had a sandwich with the crusts cut off, a pine nut plum scone with jam, fruit and a tea cookie. I had a bacon, arugula and tomato sandwich that she tried to steal (it was yummy) and a cashew salad. It was nice to be "girlie" and sit and enjoy our tea time.

Then we went to Macy's and tried on clothes and then she got to play in the fountains on the way back to the car. It is just so hot here right now, and I was pretty tempted to run through that fountain myself!

Updates

I know I haven't blogged much lately. I guess we've been pretty busy.

We heard about a new charter school in Georgetown, Gateway College Prep, and we went to an information meeting about it, and David really liked the sound of it. So, I think we may be done with homeschooling. Maybe not for good, maybe just for now, but my goal was to always take it one year at a time and do what seemed right for that year. Well, Riley has such high ambitions of going to a military academy and I want to help him realize that dream, so I think in order to acheive it, he really needs to be challenged a lot more at school. He's VERY smart and sometimes VERY lazy, so I think having a teacher push him for a while might be better than having mom push him.

Regan is still working with a tutor, working on the dyslexia and dysgraphia, so we thought she might need some time in a regular school setting again to kind of put those skills to the test. Neither one of them are terribly excited about not homeschooling anymore, but Gateway did a summer bridge program, kind of like a summer camp, where they got to meet all the teachers, meet the kids that will be in their classes, and play games and go do fun things together. They both really enjoyed that, and that way no one shows up to school the first day a complete stranger and not knowing anyone.

Swim team is over, and we are all happy about that. It was getting to be quite the chore to be up and at the pool every morning by 7am. And swim meets on Saturday morning at 5:30 should be outlawed! But Regan had a good time, and maybe by this time next year she will have forgotten the early morning practices and want to sign up again.

And to top it all off, I've been watching Baby Eli for the last 3 weeks until Kenzie could get her first check and pay for day care. He's the cutest little monkey, but man, having a newborn again after all these years just wore me out! He doesn't like riding in the car and half of my life is on the go, so it made things interesting to say the least.

And then there's just the regular, dentist visit for each kid, Riley had to go back 2 more times to have 3 teeth pulled and 1 tooth filled, doctors and chiropractors and all that fun stuff. And when Riley is at work, Regan wants to have "girl day" and go shopping and go to lunch and all that fun stuff that costs a ton of money.

So, I guess we have been busy!