First Mountain Bike Race of the Season

Six days.  Six days of school left.  Crazy.

My family participated in a mountain bike race over the weekend.  They all did wonderful.  Biker Boy raced in Cat 2 and ended up 14th out of 59.  Not bad, especially since he said he didn't feel at the top of his game and felt out of shape.  Scooter raced in the big kids race (non-competitive), but he went fast and did end up coming in second after one lap (out of a lot of kids).  But he continued on to do 2 more laps, cause he likes to bike.  Chewy did the little kids ride and being the bigger kid of the little kids, she of course came out blazing fast.  And did more laps too. 

And here's the photo dump of it!

Yes, the kids got cookies "the size of their heads" and loved it! (And that one above is nearly half eaten!)  Plus the kids got medals.  I got a pot of tulips!  And the joy of watching my family being happy while biking.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

My Kids and I

Hey Family?!

Yes, you...our loved ones.

There are photos of the kids and I up at my photography blog here.  Biker Boy wielded the camera and took some shots of us.  If you want any of the high resolution ones (mom?  dad?), let me know and I'll send them to you.  My favorite is when the dog photobombed us. 

Have a great day!

Indoor Climbing

We went climbing.  At an indoor climbing gym.  And it was lots of fun.

Biker Boy and I learned how to belay each other and the kids.  I had visions of me flying to the ceiling as I belayed Biker Boy down, but that didn't happen.  There is so much friction on the ropes that I was easily able to let him down while standing on the ground.  It was a lot harder letting down a 37 pound girl and a 44 pound boy.  I think she's 37 pounds, she might be lighter than that.  We have light weight children.  There was also an auto belay system that you could hook yourself up to on certain parts of the climbing wall.  You had to be at least 40 pounds to do that.  The boy loved it.  I think the auto belay system actually helped him climb the wall, cause he got a lot higher than Biker Boy and I could.  It was slightly scary the first time on the auto belay when you let go and hoped it didn't drop you fast to the ground.

So..I'll post a whole lot of photos that probably only the grandparents will get through.  You can see us in our lovely harnesses. 

Overall, we made it nearly 3 and a half hours climbing and bouldering (I prefer the climbing and being attached to a rope).  The little girl was getting tired by the end and all of us were tired the next day.  And sore. 

Who else has been indoor climbing or bouldering?

Stenciling A Wall With Two Colors

I don't recommend it.  Yep, don't stencil with two colors unless you have lots of time or 2 separate stencils.

But thankfully, all that hard work paid off, my little girl loves her stenciled wall. 

This whole affair started when I decided to paint my little girl's room when Biker Boy left for his trip to China.  I've already chronicled the magnetic paint use and how this became a family affair. 

I ordered the Cashab Trellis Moroccan Stencil from Royal Design Studio when they had their Black Friday after Thanksgiving sale.  (I'm not quick posting this stuff).  Chewy picked out the stencil and the colors.  Yellow for the walls with an accent of pink and gray.  I may have pushed for the gray, since I'm eventually transitioning to some gray for most of the house.  So far I only have the boy's room done and part of a hallway. 

I started off great with the stenciling and then it started taking forever.  I started with spraying the stencil with adhesive, but it got a pain to clean.  Just cleaning paint off the edges was a time consuming job.  I eventually would let paint build up on the edges of the stencil and pull it off since it was latex paint.  You can see I started using painter's tape to put the stencil up.  I was so precise using a level and everything to get the stencil straight, but my walls are not level or straight.  So after halfway the stencil started not lining up correctly.  Look close enough at the photos and you'll notice.

I have to stay that the stencil was well constructed and the Royal Design Studio website has great information.  My suggestion is to just stick with one color if you're going to use this design and want to be quick about it.  You could just roller on the color then.  We had to use little sponges and sponge on each color.  Sometimes I would do one color and Chewy would do the other.  If the stencil was made into two parts, that would be easier to put on two colors.  Except it would probably cost more and lining everything up would take more time.

We did this way back in December of 2012.  So Chewy's room no longer looks this neat.  These photos were before we brought all her stuff back in.  But she still loves her wall and that makes me happy!  I just won't be stenciling again for a long time.

But now the cream trim is bothering me.  It doesn't go with her white stuff or with her paint.  Ugh.  Biker Boy doesn't care, so it probably won't get painted.  Cause I'm pretty sure he'll think I'm crazy if I try to paint her closet doors.  And I still have the rest of the house to paint!

Kid in the Car Wash

Yes, my kid isn't the only one who doesn't like car washes.  Actually, she doesn't mind them know, but as a toddler she did not like them.  And to join the bazillion videos of kids who don't like car washes....here's mine:

Awww, that poor baby....I just want to hold her and kiss those squishy cheeks.  Love that girl.  I had forgotten about this video until the kids were sick and watching home movies.  What little kids they were!  Do you like car washes?

Surprise Trip to Florida

Some of you knew that I was planning a surprise trip to Florida.  Biker Boy had to go there on business, so I thought the kids and I would take advantage of it and go along with him.  Except I didn't tell the kids.  And I almost blew the surprise a number of times.  I packed up all their stuff without them knowing while they were at school on Friday.

Then Saturday morning, the boy woke up puking.  Great.  Thankfully he didn't have a fever and after a trip to urgent care (a few hours knocked out my day there) and a dose of anti-nausea medication....the kid was good to go.  Scooter came into "big" church with Biker Boy and I on Sunday and if you know him...he's like me....a shy kid.  But he asked me to go up front with him during prayer time so he could get prayer for all his sicknesses.  Poor kid...he was puking just 3 weeks prior to this time. But fortunately he was all better and doing well by the time we left church to take Daddy to the airport.  Somehow the kids asked if we could take Daddy into the airport, which helped with the whole parking thing.  As we headed into the parking area, Biker Boy told me to tell the kids.  I quickly got out the camera and turned it on.  But I was too excited and didn't focus it, so my movie of telling the kids is blurry.  I asked them if they wanted to go to Florida and they both said yes.  They thought I was just asking and were shocked when it started to dawn on them that we were going to Florida.  It was a great moment.

Then we found out our plane was delayed due to weather in Florida.  When we did get on the plane, it was a ride more exciting than any ride we did at Universal Studios.  I have never felt so much turbulance, plane shaking, and violent dips before.  People were making lots of noise.  The kids did pretty well.  Scooter didn't seem too worried and was sitting next to me (I was worried!).  And Chewy was holding on very tightly to her Daddy's hand.  Our plane had to be diverted to Tampa to refuel and wait before we could continue on to Orlando.  People actually clapped when we landed.  I have to say I was beginning to think if going on this trip was a bad idea between a puking kid the day before and a shaky plane ride. But all turned out well.  We didn't get to our hotel until after 1am.  We were tired!  Biker Boy had to be up at 7am to head to class and the kids slept well past 9am.  We relaxed that day and the kids got another surprise when their Grandma showed up at the hotel!  Chewy's reaction was priceless, love that girl's facial expressions.  We had a fun day playing in the pool.  Oh, and the kids did homework every morning too.

The next day we spent at Universal's Islands of Adventure.  Why Universal and not Disney?  Cause it was across the street from our hotel.  Biker Boy met us there in the evening.  Our first ride we did was one where we got wet....who knew?!  We talked with an employee in the "If I Ran the Zoo" area while the kids were playing and getting wet again.  When he left for another shift, he took us with him and got us on the "Cat In The Hat" ride ahead of the line!  Thank you!!  It was a lovely surprise and that ride was one of Chewy's favorites after that. And we totally recommend eating at the Three Broomsticks in Harry Potter area.  We actually ate there twice.  Good food, great prices on kids meals, and it's entertaining.  There are shadows of things that pop up at different times on different walls, Scooter was getting really good at finding them.  And we did try the Butterbeer (yum...like a buttery cream soda) and the pumpkin juice (like apple cider with pumpkin pie spices).  Skip the Butterbeer lines out on the street and head into the Three Broomsticks to get it.

The next day we went to Universal Studios.  Chewy did not like the ET ride, but Scooter loved it.  They both loved the water slide and the foam ball area in Curious George.  I wised up and dressed the kids in their swim shorts and shirts for the last two days.  I also wore my running gear because it dried faster than the cotton shorts I had planned on wearing.  Chewy was brave and outgoing and got her photo with the girls from Despicable Me.  She also went up and talked to Donkey and Shrek and got her photo with them.  She was the last one to be able to talk to Donkey when we went up and it was super cute.  Scooter is the more bashful one and stood back and watched.  Biker Boy met us there later so we could take Scooter on the rides that Chewy didn't want to do, such as Men In Black Alien Blasters.  We discovered Chewy didn't like any ride in the dark and especially ones in the dark that had fire, heat, or water squirting at you.  She was not acting in the "Disaster" ride when we were suppose to act scared.  They should have filmed her.  

Our third day at Universal we went to Islands of Adventure (we got the buy 2 days get a third day free deal).  We started with Spider Man and of course Chewy did not like that one.  We then went to one of her favorites, the Pterandon Flyers in Jurassic Park.  We then went into the Dinosaur Discovery Center and Chewy got the honor of naming a newborn baby raptor.  She named it Emma and even got a souvenir birth certificate.  Scooter, Biker Boy, and I went to hit some "big kid" rides while Chewy stayed with Grandma in her favorite Suess Land.  Biker Boy, Scooter, and I got thoroughly soaked on the white water rafting ride and enjoyed the Jurassic River Adventure, which was a favorite of ours.  We did the Harry Potter ride through the castle and I was most impressed by the free lockers we got to use....because they used a fingerprint sensor that Biker Boy helped design. Unfortunately the fingerprint sensors to get into the park aren't from the company Biker Boy works for....and they didn't want to take his fingerprint on his first day.  They were rebeling since he works for a competitor!  Oh, and Chewy did not like Poseidon's Fury.  Dark and fire again.

We then got to venture to Grandma and Grandpa's lovely new place in Florida.  It's so nice!  We spent a windy day the beach.  Scooter loved playing in the water and Chewy loved playing in the sand.  We didn't find many seashells, but that's okay.  We all did get a little sand blasted.

 

It was a lovely trip.  Fun to get away, but nice to get home.  I hope your week went well too!

Lemi Shine Shines On

Hard water.  It's our life in this neighborhood.  Seriously, our neighborhood is known in the "water circles" for some of the worst water in the nation.  I'm not kidding. True story....or so I've been told by "water experts."  I'm not going to bore you with the many times I have written about our hard water woes and what it does to things.  Just search hard water in my search box if you happen to have spare time.  Or your favorite show is a rerun...no wait, I'd probably watch the rerun.

About three years ago I wrote about my lucky find of Lemi-Shine.  Love that stuff.  It's a glorious, glorious thing if you have hard water.  I even got my neighbor using it recently!  No commission or anything.

But I was fortunate enough to have Lemi-Shine contact me again and ask me to try out their new product.  I didn't even have to write this post or anything, but since I only write what I think...and I think I love this stuff...I'm going to write about it.  Okay, I love it.  And I'm going to write about it.  Lemi-Shine Pacs!  They're kinda like a super hero of hard water cleaners.  I should have put a little cape on that bag when I took the photo.

It's like Lemi-Shine out of the bottle packaged up pretty and put under the Christmas tree.  It's the original Lemi-Shine packaged up in those little convenient packages that are all the rage today.  Pacs.  I just pop one of those little babies in my compartment of my new dishwasher (seriously, love that thing too) and then I put the dishwasher detergent in the bottom of the dishwasher.

Then the Lemi-Shine works its magic while the dishwasher is running.  This stuff is like magic, like where the magician cuts the pretty lady in half and put her back together.  This stuff gets rid of the hard water stains.  Honestly, it's amazing.

Watch...

Here's my hard water stained glass before being put in the dishwasher.

And here it is after a washing with a Lemi-Shine pack.  I didn't scrub it or anything.

Amazing.  Am I just the strange one to get excited about household products?  Really, this stuff is amazing.  And it smells good.  I love citrus. 

So...if you have hard water stains, try this.  You can even clean your dishwasher with it.  I find mine at Target, but I'm sure it's carried at other places like grocery stores and Wal-Mart.

What do you do for hard water stains?

*Just cause I like to be honest with you...I was given a bag of Lemi-Shine packets to try for free.  I was not required to write a post or give my opinions.  But all opinions are 100% my own.*