Fun Weekend to Leavenworth with our “highest bidders”

In February Dan and I auctioned “ourselves” at a church service auction. “Date Night with the Ostler’s.” Our friends, Kate and Clint Armitage were our highest bidders. After spending $100 on us we couldn’t just take them to dinner and a movie so we started planning. Dan and I came up with… a trip to Leavenworth. We invited a few more friends and turned it into a couples weekend.

One of the stores I forced everyone into was an “old photo” store. You know the kind where you get dressed up in old fashioned clothes and have your picture taken. Dan and I had done this before on a previous trip with my brother and it was a lot of fun, so I thought it would be a lot of fun to do with this group of friends.

They handed me my outfit and once I realized how little fabric I was going to be squeezing into, I thought, “this is not going to be pretty.” It was then that I remembered why the picture from 2 years ago was so much fun…..Because in that picture I was dressed like a man. This time…….not so fun……had to put on a dress.

Above – This years pic. Below – 2 years ago.

All in all, it was a fun time, and this years pics made for some great memories.

Silverwood

The kids each earned a free ticket to Silverwood for reading in school this year, so we made a quick trip up today to RIDE SOME RIDES!

Here's the kids picking out their favorite rides on the map.

Hailey's favorite. Timber Terrors.

The kids loved all of the rides involving water, and after this one we were completely soaked.

We had fun shooting "cannon balls" at Alaina and Ky in their tanks.

Alaina started the day with Aftershock as her favorite ride but then switched to Tremors.

I think Tremors ended up being the family favorite.

Kase said he loves the one with the camera that takes your picture when you go through the tunnel (Tremors). He loves seeing what everyone looks like after. It's funny to watch the kids try to compose themselves and pose for the picture a certain way when really inside they are TOTALLY freaking out :)

Ky offered the kids some of his quarters to use to spray him while he was on the bumper boats. They said, "GLADLY!"

Fun with Cousins!

This week we enjoyed a quick visit from my cousin Genise and her 3 adorable children. We packed a lot of activities into a few short days. Family BBQ/Swim party at Carol and Dennis' house. Taco Sunday/Game Night at my Mom and Dad’s house. All of the cousins in town got together with our kiddo’s for a little playdate in my backyard and had fun in the pool, playhouse, trampoline, and slip n slide. We had a “girl’s night out” which included a little night swim, games, homemade milkshakes, and a few prank calls :) Then took all of the little rascals to one of the free summer movies, at the mall, and then swimming back at aunt Carol's the next morning. Fun couple of days! Thanks Guys!

Slip "n" Slide on Steriods

As if a 9 foot tall, blow-up, Slip N Slide isn't fun enough... let's try adding a trampoline to the mix.

Oh... Aren't babysitters great!

WARNING: When you hire a nephew for the babysitter, common sense goes out the window. Case in point: you may come home to stories about your children being duct taped to a lawn chair and doused with the freezing cold hose and then bounced on a trampoline while tied up from head to toe.

I guess you get what you pay for... and apparently, we're not paying Kayleb enough.

Thanks Lay-lub.

Ants and Air Freshner

I don't know about you, but this summer... WE HAVE ANTS!

Whenever the kids see a massive pile of ants devouring a piece of food outside, they freak out and come running into the house to ask for some ant spray, which I have to reply," Sorry guys, we don't have any ant spray.

After the 20th time of the kids wanting to take care of our little ant problem and asking me for "Ant Spray" I naively explained to our kids that when ants invade the home or driveway to attack the popcorn, popsicle sticks, or other dropped crumbs of food, we could simply spray them with anything to kill them. I told them water, Lysol, or any other poisonous aerosols, like air freshener, windex or even hairspray would do the trick. I didn't realize that this would start an all summer long obsession with spotting ants and making it their mission to DESTROY them at all costs.

It took a while for Dan to realize why it was constantly smelling like orange air freshener when he came home from work. Let me rephrase...not just smell like it.......but choke you out with it kind of smell. But once he discovered that the kids had burned through a couple of canisters of their favorite "ANT KILLER" called Pure Citrus Air Freshener, it all clicked.

Well, the fun part of the story starts when Dan wakes up one morning and moseys out to the kitchen to make breakfast for the kids. Upon opening the fridge and getting a huge whiff of the ever so familiar spray, our oldest Alaina blurts out.

"Hey Dad, don't worry about anything, we fixed the ant problem for good. Hailey sprayed all the food in the fridge with the ANT KILLER (orange spray) since the ants only look for food. This way no matter where the food drops in the house, they will stay away."

That's right folks.........Hailey, our little creative genius, sprayed the eggs, the vegetables, the butter, the condiments, the EVERYTHING in that fridge to insure that we had no more ant problems.

Kudos to the kid that thinks outside the box.

Are we supposed to get mad at them for being so proactive and thinking so creatively? We just laughed, and then taught them the downside to their decision. :) Guess we should have clarified the Ant Killing rules a little better when we introduced the concept to them in the first place.

Costco, here we come :)

Surf and Slide Water Park