Let's Get a Physical, Physical

This year, the school is requiring marching band members to get physicals due to the strenuous and long practices and performances in the heat. Many people don't realize just how much work it is to be in marching band and color guard. We're talking 8 - 10 hour practices per day, several days a week in the brutal Oklahoma heat. It is not uncommon to pass out or vomit during these summer practices. I really admire these kids for all their hard work. And, you know what? They are dedicated and they LOVE what they do! Anyway, we went to get Natalie's physical done, and got the "all clear" for fall guard!

a healthy Natalie is a happy Natalie

And now that she's got the all clear, practice is in full swing. She got to go to guard camp in Muskogee on Saturday, and she really enjoyed it.

She's also teaching Emily flag skills. Emily wants to be a guard girl too, and she will be eligible to audition next May! Hard to believe that this time next year, I could have 2 guard girls!

future guard girl?

Natalie tossing a double

my 2 flag girls

Practice makes perfect.

I'm excited for the upcoming fall season - it really is so much fun to watch the band perform! It will be really neat if Emily and Natalie get to have a couple of years in guard together. I hope that it will strengthen their bond as sisters and friends.

Family Fun at the Kiddie Park

My sister-in-law, Tracy, planned a family road trip to Bartlesville to eat at a bbq restaurant and visit the Kiddie Park. I have heard a lot about the kiddie park, but we had never been. I did know that it was meant more for smaller kids, so Billy decided to stay home with the girls. I thought they might get a little bored. It is a really neat place, and I wish I had known about it years ago! They have about 18 rides (like I said, mostly for the 8 and under crowd). Admission is free and ride tickets are about .25 each. (The more you buy, the bigger the discount) Rides are 2 tickets each. It was a cute little park!

But, first we went and chowed down at a place called Dink's Barbecue. When you first walk in, there's a giant moose head on the wall.

Stephen and Mr. (or is it Mrs.?) Moose

 

Eating out with our family is always an adventure! Shortly after we got our drinks, my almost 4 year old niece, Addi accidentally knocked over her daddy's full mug of root beer. Tracy reflexively reached out to stop the flow of pop and immediately knocked over her own full mug! LOL...and guess who was right across from her...well, it WAS warm outside, so cooling off with a lapful of ice won't hurt, right? Our waitress was very sweet about our mess.

 

The Wideman Family shortly AFTER the pop clean up

Here's Addi and her Daddy or as we call him around here, Uncle Jason

After we ate, we headed to the park. The boys decided to ride the biplanes first.

Stephen ended up in the backseat of this plane

Payton and Evan

Stephen had a short burst of disappointment as he got denied admission onto the swings and the bumper cars (he was too tall.) So, we met up with Aunt Ashley, Jessi, and Papa, and got in line for the roller coaster.

Jessi, Stephen, Addi, Aunt Ashley, Papa, and Karsyn waiting patiently

There they go!

Evan, Stephen, Papa, Karsyn, and Aunt Ashley loved it...Addi was not so fond. She was on Aunt Ashley like a spider monkey!

Payton and Jessi had to wait for the next round, but they got to ride in the very front! I love how Jessi has her arms straight up in the air!

Stephen and Evan on the "spinning ride." I can't remember what it was called...You turn the little wheel in the middle to make it spin faster, and we teased the boys because they just couldn't seem to get it going very fast! The girls went way faster!

Aunt Ashley, Jessi, and Payton - there was a point where they were going so fast that Aunt Ashley couldn't even sit up! She looked like she was going to puke, lol! Luckily everybody kept their barbecue down!

Next, I took the boys to ride the rockets.

I love this picture of Stephen...you can see the joy on his face!

Next, Uncle Jason, Evan, Stephen and I got on the train. The train takes a tour all around the park. 

Stephen

Stephen and Evan - best buds and cousins!

Next stop was the carousel...and I got to ride too!

 

Stephen

Evan

It was getting late and we had just a few tickets left, so we decided to ride the carousel one more time with the girls.

Payton

It was a really fun night! On top of that, Aunt Tracy and Uncle Jason had invited Stephen to come home with them and spend the night. I hear that they had a great time (with little sleep) and went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then shopping for swimsuits. Aunt Tracy bought Stephen some very nice trunks. When Stephen got home the next day, he took a nice long nap! :)

I love spending time with my family - I might only be related to them by marriage, but I love them the same as if we were blood related. God sure blessed me in the family department!

Good friends are blessings!

This week, my friend Tara, who lives in Oklahoma City, said she had to come up to Tulsa for an appointment and would I like to meet up with her? I was excited about this, because the last time I saw her was about a year ago (we do keep in touch online though). So, we made plans to meet at Chic fil-a for lunch and let the kids play together while we catch up.

The kids played for a long time in the play place, while Tara and I chatted. Then somebody else's kid threw up on the slide....EWWWWW....so yeah, it was time to hit the road, jack! We decided to head to a local park where the kids could keep playing and we could keep talking!

Stephen, Ryan, Emily and Emily walking and talking as they head into the park.

The 2 Emily's playing with sand.

Ryan wasn't so sure about having his picture taken, lol.

Here are me and Tara! We've been friends for quite awhile...we actually met online on a "mommy discussion board" - her and our group of about 10 other moms have all become close friends. I'm glad that she lives close enough that we can spend time together occasionally! We are planning a sleepover next month!

It was a very nice day; the kids all got along; and Tara and I had a chance to catch up on each other's lives. I really enjoyed it!

Family Fun Day...It's the little things...

This past weekend, I really wanted to find something fun and exciting to do. I've really been craving being outside in pretty spring like weather, so I was hoping to find something outdoorsy to do. We looked at going to Mayfest, which is an outdoor art/music festival, and something new called "Spring in the Square" which was a gardening show in a pretty part of town with kids activities and free snowcones (and who doesn't love a free snowcone?!) But, well, this IS Oklahoma after all...the Bipolar weather state. We had iffy weather coming in, and we didn't want to chance it.

So, we kind of played it by ear, like usual. First, we went to the "dollar" theatre and saw the move "The Host." One thing I LOVE about my kids being older now is that we can go see movies that are not necessarily animated, lol. I still pore over the ratings - my favorite website for deciding what is or is not appropriate for my little blessings is James Dobson's Focus On the Family Plugged In site. Click here to check it out. I love how it gives very accurate, and objective, reviews in regards to language, violence, and sexuality, as well as spiritual elements. It is extremely helpful. Anyway, based on the review for "The Host" I decided it would be ok for my kids to see. Other than one scene that was a little racier than I expected, it was a really good movie and my kids really liked it (and so did we!)

We then decided it was snack time, so we went to Wendy's for Frosties - YUM!

You don't know what it took to get this picture...they were not feeling very photogenic that day, lol!

Then we went to Barnes & Noble book store. We knew we were going to go eat dinner somewhere, so where better to kill some time, right? I didn't buy anything, but came out with a long list of books to request at the library, lol!

After breathing in the lovely smell of books and coffee for an hour, we went and ate dinner at one of our favorite pizza buffets, CiCi's. It's not the world's greatest pizza, but it's cheap, and has great variety!

After stuffing ourselves, we decided to go home and break out some games. Billy had bought a new one on clearance awhile back and we hadn't tried it out yet. It's called Imaginiff.







Here is another benefit to having older blessings...the games are a little more fun! We had a lot of fun and laughed a lot!

Sometimes the best days are ones that aren't perfectly planned out. The little things can be just as much fun as big, exciting events!

Summer Reading Program Kickoff!

In case you don't know me...I kinda like books. Ok, not really - I LOVE them! Reading is my passion; I am going to school to be a school media specialist, and I currently work as a library assistant for our school system. So, one of the summer activities I most look forward to is our local library's summer reading program. My kids all love to read, however, in the summer they tend to veg out with their electronics more than I like. So, I try to find fun ways to encourage them to read every day. The library's program rewards them for visiting the library and reading by giving them these really awesome coupon books upon completion of the program. There are usually coupons for free passes to the zoo, aquarium, space museum, sporting events, and free food at local restaurants.

Today we went to a "kickoff party" at one of the local branches. They had lots of little activities going on, but they were more geared to the younger patrons. (waaaaaaah, my kids are big! lol) However, they did have cookies and punch, so Natalie, Emily, and Stephen were happy, lol! And we got signed up for the program, and of course did some browsing!

 

Yep, they managed to find a "few" things to read (and yes, I found a few more for myself too!)...Stephen came home with more than 10 books! We look forward to many hours of reading, and many more visits to the library this summer! 

A return to summer....and blogging!

Alright, so if you look at the posts on here, you'll see that I am basically "resurrecting" an old blog. My sister-in-law, Tracy, has been "hinting" that I get back into keeping up this blog with all my family's happenings. Our life is so incredibly busy during the school year (between working, going to school full time, soccer, basketball, color guard, opera, etc.) that I just couldn't fathom the thought of sitting down at the end of the day to blog. Now that summer is here, and our hectic life has slowed back down, it's a great time to blog about the things we are doing during our break. I can't promise that I'll keep it up once school starts up again...but, we'll give it a go anyway! :)

By the way, you should really check out Tracy's blog here. She is a terrific blogger and has an adorable family!