Just for Laughs

I know I am by far a perfect parent, who really is anyway. We all just try to get by the best we can with as few time outs and melt downs as possible.

I had some quality time with the girls the last couple of days as the hubs was out of town. Apparently there are some Twinkle Toe shoes that are Mcd's kid toys currently - so we HAD to go get them so the girls could put them on their backpacks. Megan has not been eating her chicken nuggets lately (I know it's a shocker to most of you that have seen this kid eat). So Abby and I had finished our dinners and Megs could not have her toy until everything was gone. I continued the multitasking that is a mother's perk (aka laundry). Abby and I had a conversation that went like this:

Me: Abby, can you please tell Megan to finish her chicken mcnuggets so she can have her toy?
Abby: Sure (skips down the hall)
1 minute later....
Abby: EAT YOUR NUGGETS!!!!
Megan starts to cry......however all but 1/2 a nugget were eaten. Possibly out of fear or the Abby pep talk.


Later that night:
Abby: Mom - you are a good mom.
Me: Thank you Abby, I love you too.
Abby: But only with 2 kids.

And that is how we ended the night. Apparently I have my hands full with all that I can handle.

Chicago Trip

This past weekend I took a vacation day and made the lengthy drive to Chicago for my friend Jessie's bachelorette weekend. The reason I drove was to pick up my friend Leann in St. Louis who had flown in from Canada. Then also to carpool with Wendy and Gayle. With traffic and construction we managed to make it from St. Louis to Chicago on Friday in 6 hours, which overall isn't that bad. Plus having 4 ladies in the truck made the time go by quickly with good conversation.


Here is our bacholorette Jessie with Allison - who was also attending her first bachelorette party. She spent the day with my brother Tony and his wife Colleen and had a great time too!


The bachelorette on the prowl! We did take the bear claw with us during the day. I was one of the few trusted Cub fans to keep an eye on it around all of the Cardinals fans.



We've finally made it to Wrigley Field - it was good to see it again!


Jessie with The Bull. There was this whole running of the bull bar crawl thing going on. You can see random "runners" in the background, the Medic, and there were also Flaminco dancers and matadors. Then random Roller Derby girls - Bernie's was a happening place to be!


Here is our GBS photo from the day. This group of girls have been friends since 1995 when we were all at UMR and we still remain close friends and get together a couple of times a year, even with the distance we all live apart. These ladies are the best!

Couldn't help but put a photo in of the newest Papke animal. This is Finn - and he is ADORABLE! Tony and Colleen rescued him from a shelter in IN. He is so mild mannered and lovable! One of the perks of having the bachelorette party in Chicago was that I got to visit with them on Friday and Saturday. This dog is such a conversational piece. Everywhere they walk him he gets mauled by people who want to pet him. He's going to be quite the social butterfly. He was also wonderful with Allison which added to the great time she had with them during the festivities. He reminds me a lot of our dog Buddy, but that is a good thing to see that in Finn.

Just a photo of Jessie opening some girlie presents at the brunch at Meagan's house.

It was a great weekend of friends and family, and a whole lot of walking! We'd all be healthier people if we lived in Chicago and had good public transportation to utilize. That's my theory at least. We hit the road by 7:30 on Sunday and I was back in Columbia by 3 pm. Conveniently Tim and the girls did not get back home until about 7:45 and I got a very nice (and needed) nap in.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school again for Abby. She is now a 4 year old at the T-Bird Preschool in Auxvasse. They have both 3 and 4 year olds, so this year she is one of the older kids. We of course got new outfits for the first day, Megan picked out a dress too - and her disappointment that she was not going to preschool would have made you cry/laugh depending on how your morning was going.


Here we are all ready for our pink pancake breakfast.


Abby at the preschool room ready to go in. As you can see Megan had to come as well. We ended up walking from our babysitters to try to make things easier on Megs. Abby had no problems leaving us. Megan needed some extra hugs from Abby as I think she was sad to see her best friend leave her - even if it is only for 3 hours. So Megan and I walked back to Taunia's and Taunia got her mind off of things with talks of food - that's our Meggers.


Also big news is that Megan is in the process of potty training! It seems to be going well - here she is posing with her big girl panties on. She is doing very well so we'll see how soon we will be diaper free. When there is a post with us having a new fish you'll know.

Couldn't resist the potty photo - we put one in the living room so she can sit and watch TV while she tries to potty. It's already been removed though as she is all about the big potty and just uses the little one for a step.

Another morning photo on the first day of school - not going to quite make it there on the 4-wheeler but still some morning fun.

Odds and Ends

This past weekend was semi-relaxing. We went out on the boat on Saturday with Taunia, John, and Carmen and had a great time. The wind could have been a little less to keep the lake a little calmer but we still enjoyed some tubing and skiing. It is hard to keep the girls out of the tube now - and Abby likes to go faster now, Megan - not so fast.

We were also recovering from being on vacation so all the laundry, cleaning, and napping had to be caught up on. I did manage to finish a project that has been lingering for a while. My sister-in-law Colleen took some really great photos of the Powers farm almost a year ago. I had gotten some prints made and finally have them all up on the wall. I had some difficulties finding frames and I'm not sure I'm that happy with the 5x7 frames but I went with it.



So since I was putting some pictures up.....Abby felt the need to put some pictures up of hers as well.


She added her Coco Keys photo (and as always reminds me that Ashley has one too), a photo of Leann and I from a GBS formal that she likes to tote around, and her T-ball pictures.

Then this is a photo of her dinosaur fossil she made. Had to get a picture of that too.


Last but not least it's Megan with her fish. Tim was wanting to go fishing on Sunday (must not have given him enough things to do to stay busy!). Abby had no desire to go since I wasn't going due to some allergy issues - plus I was making deer jerky. Megan had been talking about fishing since Saturday. Tim said they caught about 12-15 fish, the one in the photo being one of the biggest. The fact that she is actually holding the fish is the big step. Last time we went fishing she just wanted to reel in the line then would run away from the fish. This time she was holding the line and handing Tim worms. Tim was very proud to say the least, and is ready for more fishing.

T-Ball Photos

T-ball has been over for a while but we just got our team photos so I thought I would share. I was hoping for a pose with Abby on one knee - but they had the girls sit like this and of course Abby loved the pink bat so it had to be in her photo.



Now the team photo - I believe we were minus 1 player but this is the whole team. Most Abby knew from preschool so they had a pretty good time. By the last game we could definitely see an improvement in Abby in her fielding. Coach Matt did a great job and Abby is ready to play again.



Thankfully Abby's team had their pictures first - it was chaos after that. I was so happy to be done.

Okoboji Vacation

This past week the Powers family reunited in Okoboji, IA at The Inn. It has been a vacation spot for many years from when my grandparents and their relatives brought their kids down to my family going in the summers as well. Our last family reunion there was in 2004 - and as everyone noticed when we arrived....the place hasn't changed a bit!


This was the "Hub" of the family gatherings. Conveniently it is outside Tim and my room - good ole 304. We had a picnic table and a grassy area behind it great for all the camping chairs, washers, and kids running. Thankfully it was in the shade as well! What you are seeing is KFC night.


Most of the girl mini-cousins (L-R) - MacKenzie, Nora, Caroline, Abby, & Megan.



Saturday morning was the annual Powers Golf outing - conveniently at the Par 3 Course at The Inn. We had I think 6 threesomes golfing. Pictured is Christine, Brett, and Tim.


My extra "help" for golf. I rented a cart (worth every bit of the $8.95!!) so that I could take the kids with me. The younger kids stayed at the playground. They were very well behaved and we enjoyed "zooming" around the golf course.

Uncle Dan looking for his ball in the marsh....or is that the fairway?

Kate showing us how much she enjoyed golfing. From what I understand her better game was the day before with our round with Jessica and me.

Cousin photos again - hanging out in pajamas before bed.



Swinging after a rough round of golf.


Giving our hugs goodbye...Abby already wants to go to DC to visit the Green family - or go back to Okoboji if they will be there, whichever can come first. She recommended next weekend.

Even after the cousins left. We can still have fun squirting Uncle Pat with the squirt guns.

Family photo after the golf awards. However we are missing Erinn and Nora!! I have no idea how they did not get in the photo. Thanks to Kyle, our photographer for the weekend.

And since Blogger always seems to put one photo out of order here is my Uncle Jim and Aunt Beth and my Mom finishing up the 8th hole of the golf outing.


We had a really great time in Okoboji. The week went by so fast and I we didn't even make it to Arnold's Park! Maybe next time..... Between boating, golfing, swimming, lots of eating, and just hanging out with the family and stories, the time was up before we knew it. We missed our family that wasn't there though, so hopefully for the next gathering they will be able to make it. So look out 2013 for the next Powers family gathering!

Boone County Fair and Landen's Birthday

This weekend our buddy Landen turned 4 so we stayed in town to catch up on just being at home. There is always plenty to do, we're just usually not around to do it :)-

Friday night we decided to go out to the Boone County Fair. It had been going on all week but due to the heat we had been avoiding it - which most of the the area was as well. Friday was only in the 90s, so why not!

This year we invested in the "Carnival Pass" for the girls - unlimited rides....it was a good investment.


We started off on the carousel - sometime simple to get warmed up. Then these dogs, which Abby was mad because the button did not make the dogs go up, it was broken.


I thought this boat just went back and forth - but no - it goes sideways and in circles. I wasn't sure if Megan was going to like it or not but she did and rode it a couple more times.

Riding the Lovebugs - these did go up and down.



Riding on the swings. NOTE - height requirements listed for rides are more of a recommendation apparently. You are supposed to be 42 inches to ride this - Megan is more like 38 inches. However everything that Abby got in line for, Megan was right behind her. So we thought - we'll see if they let her in....and they did....on everything! She rode the Tilt-a-Whirl (Tim about lost his dinner on that one), The Tornado (I think I had cold sweats after that), the Bumper Cars - Tim and I got to ride with one girl. We did just about everything other than some cage deal that went in circles.


They also had some exotic animals there - this is actually a Liger (Lion father, Tiger mother) something about breeding the two eliminates a growth inhibitor?? That's what the lady told us at least. These 2 year olds were HUGE - 650 lbs. and they should be close to 1000 within the year. They are the biggest cats we have seen.

Here's a smaller version - we waited in line to go into the cage and then Abby said she didn't want to.

But she did feel the need to go on a pony ride. This is Abby on "Sassy". Since her Big Cedar pony ride she is fearless. Megan still wanted nothing to do with ponies.


This is a Caterpillar mini roller coaster. First time - Megan didn't want to go, Tim had to go with Abby. Second time Abby and Megan rode together and I sat in front of them. 3rd, 4th, and 5th time - Abby rode by herself.


Later that evening they had pig races - last year they had little numbers and there were probably 10 times the amount of people. It wasn't that exciting, but the kids enjoyed it.


What you are missing here in the photo are the goats. They did a goat race after the pig race and I was set to take a picture when they opened the gates. One minor detail....the goats forgot to run. So just imagine about 5 goats running by - about 3 seconds after I took my photo. The red flag holder is Abby - she was the cheerleader for the red pig and red goat - whichever ones they were.

Saturday was our friend's son's birthday. Landen is now 4 and as you can see has a little flare for being a super hero - which of course he does well. After I took the picture and called him Captain America - he took off his helmet and said "Ann, it's just me." It was cute.

And Superman cupcakes for the birthday boy.
We spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing. Thankfully the rain stopped and cleared up just in time for the birthday. Timing was perfect.

Sunday was spent prepping for Okoboji. The boat is now clean(er) and we have started packing so that we'll be ready to go.

Tim and I did learn this weekend that we are too old for carnival rides in hot weather. We think next time we'll bring a babysitter to go on rides with the kids while we watch :).