North West Trek with Grandma and Grandpa

So every other Wed. is a 1/2 day for the school district. Since Sydney is morning Kindergarten every other 1/2 day is a day off for her.
I decided that we as a family would take that day to go on family field trips. Yes I keep Isaac home once a month for the field trips.
We've been to the Zoo, the Fair and now NW Trek.

My Mom and Dad decided to take the day off and come with us. I was so excited. It was a wonderful day!

We met my parents at Dennys for breakfast and then headed out to
NW Trek.

There were several animal encounters on the side of the paths.
I've gotten to where I'm really fond of Porcupines!
So stinken CUTE!!!









We made our way to the Tram Tour.
The tour takes you in and around the 435-acre (176 ha) free-range area.
It has big windows which we could open to get a bigger view of all the animals.
The first corner we turned and saw tons of animals. Bison, elk, and even a family of racoons.
Now you think that racoons are nocturnal but the grazing animals are fed in the day so thats when the racoons come out. Fascinatingly adaptable little guys. They are digging up left overs from the elk feeding.


The tour lasted about an hour so the kids snacked as we kept our eyes peeled for animals in their natural habit (more or less).

I dont know whats going on with my blog.... the commentary and pics are not lining up. That means the rest of this post will be photo blogging.

I can summarize by saying it was a wonderful. With a few underwear accidents and lots of smiles.

Later on that night Gandma and grandpa watched the kids for about 2 hours while Josh and I went out with the Colonels and his class. The kids ate pizza and watch
Black Beards Ghost.
When we got back the kids told us all about they're favorite part.
"Get his Guns!!"

On the list for future
Family Field Trips....

The Museum of Glass
The Seattle Science Museum
The EMP
The SWAT department at the
Lakewood Police Dept.
and a few other places.

Not that I'd ever throw my children to the sharks...

So as a stay at home mom there really isnt much to look forward to. Anytime an opportunity comes where I get to dress up and get out of the house, I really look forward to it. And thats putting it gently. I actually plan out my outfits weeks in advance, get help watching the kids, clean my house, shave my legs and put my makeup on.
So when plans fall through to say I'm disappointed would be putting it gently.
Today was one of those days....

After several severe meltdowns from kids and blow ups from me.....
My Snuggle Bug was watching youtube and found this video for me. He wanted to know if I ever felt like this.....
OH TOOOO MANY TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!

What hit me so hard about this video is that
the other two babies dont learn anything from their siblings demise.
I love all my bugs and a big thank you to my Snuggle Bug....
I guess sometimes he does get it.

SUPER CUTE FALL DECORE!!

Inspired Holidays (day 2)

Click on the link above
to see the most amazing pumpkins! I was hoping it was a tutorial but it is a give away, even better!!
Swing over there and check them out!
I love the turquoise and deep blue ones.
Enter the contest yourself.
But if you win just remember who sent
you over there! lol
I sooooo want a set!

Dinner...

For dinner tonight I made Home made bread bowls and crock pot stew.
Love Bug helped me with forming the bread bowls.
They are actually really easy.
This isn't the recipe I used. This one is from Allrecipes.com.

Bread Bowls

Rated: Submitted By: Taste of Home Test Kitchen Prep Time: 30 Minutes Cook Time: 20 Minutes Ready In: 2 Hours 20 Minutes Servings: 8

"Instead of offering bread with you favorite kettle creation, our Test Kitchen home economists suggests serving it inside of these bread bowls!"

Ingredients:

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast 1 cup warm water (110 degrees to 115 degrees) 1 cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees F) 1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons salt 6 cups all-purpose flour Cornmeal

Directions:

1.	In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, shortening, sugar, eggs, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. I just left it in my kitchen aid for about 4 minutes kneading.
2.	Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into eight pieces; shape each into a ball. Grease two baking sheets and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place four balls 3 in. apart on each prepared pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.
3.	For bread bowls, cut a thin slice off the top of bread. Hollow out bottom half, leaving a 1/4-in. shell (discard removed bread or save for another use). Fill with chili, chowder or stew.

When AllMyLove came home today from work he told me about these cookie bowls he saw on Reddit.com. Bowls made out of cookie! He said they cooked them on the bottom of cupcake pans. So I looked it up on line and found a site I could work with of course now I cant find that site. But anyways...
Since I just a bunch of cookie mixes from the truck load sale
I just went ahead and used one of those.
Snickerdoodles!!!!! But you can use any kind of cookie.
So you make up the batch and then get two peices of wax paper. Roll your cookie dough into a ball and then slide it between the two sheets.
I just used my fingers to spread out the dough to a circle.
Then I laid it over the spread bottom cup cake pan.
Just to let you know I put way to much on. They wound up growing way too much. lol
You could probably just over lap the rim, barely. When they bake they'll grow down the sides.

Since mine were still warm when I removed them from the pan I put them in a bowl.
A Snickerdoodle bowls with vanilla ice cream.

And even though I think I totally ROCKED tonight...
I had one child refuse the stew and another act disgusted when I gave him his dessert.
And thats my life....

Love Bugs Swing Dance

Doin the Puyallup

Theres a reason I named the blog this....

Yes I took 3 kids to the Puyallup fair all by myself! I had them wear their camel backs and had their dog tags on with my cell phone number on them. I lost Snugglebug twice (not bad for how many distracting things are at a fair) and Huggabug once. Good thing they are red heads. All I had to do is look at someone , hold my hand to show how tall they are and say, "have you seen a red head go by here?"
People wonder why I dont get scared when that happens.... I guess I just think the best of people. So many times I say people watching Huggabug wondering "who is he with?" I'd wave my hand and say "he's with me!" And they would look relieved. People do care.

We rode lots of rides. We being "them" rode lots of rides. Those bracelets were a pretty penny. I didnt buy one because I was sick from buying theirs. But that let them go on as many rides as time would allow. Other wise it was .50 a ticket and most rides were 6 or more tickets to ride.

SnuggleBug was very patient with the rides. He really wanted to go on the big ones but found out he had to have an adult ride with him. Well I wasnt about to ride. Who would watch the otehr two kids?

He had a good time on the "baby" rides even if he wont admit it.
The swings were the big hit though. Always are.

Mutton BustinWikipedia defines Mutton Busting as

An event where a sheep is held still, either in a small chute or by an adult handler while a child is placed on top in a riding position. Once the child is seated atop the sheep, the sheep is released and usually starts to run in an attempt to get the child off. Often small prizes or ribbons are given out to the children who can stay on the longest. There are no set rules for mutton busting, no national organization, and most events are organized at the local level.^[2]

The vast majority of children participating in the event fall off in less than 8 seconds. Age, height and weight restrictions on participants generally prevent injuries to the sheep

What it really is is HILARIOUS!!!
Lovebug was the best girl by far. She said she liked riding the sheep but didnt like falling off.
If you look closely you can see her flip over.

These guys are Mountainboarders.
Basically they took a snow board and put huge beefy wheels on it. They go down ramps and do all shorts of skateboarding tricks.
Snugglebug was in Heaven! We caught the end of one show and came back to watch the full thing and get autographs and pics later.

After the end of the first MBing show we stayed and watched a circus act. SB was called out of the audience to help lift chairs. He earned a dollar. The guy was pretty funny!

I was defiantly a highlight of his day.

Lovebug was pretty beat by then and tried to take a nap but the show was too enticing. She loved the Silk Arial Dancer.

We got a caremel apple and hit the animal barns.Snugglebug started laughing hysterically when he saw theses sheep. "Mom look at these sheep! They have cloths on!"

Turns out the owners do that to keep the wool clean.
He thought it was pretty funny.

AHHH THE PETTING FARM

My bugs especially loved the Bunny. SOOO SOFT!
and there were goats and sheep

and chicks

and this really cool Goose.
He wasnt in the petting zoo but I loved him. I should've gotten the name.
I call them Angora geese. They has these crazy fluffy feathers. Beautiful.

Then we went and saw all the doggies and asked a bunch of questions. Then to my favorite....
The horses.... Ofcourse the first ones we saw were too big and scary for Huggabug to approach. When he turned around screaming NOOOO he saw the shetlon ponies
"these are my kind of horseys mommy!"

He then proceeded to do a goofy happy dance.

I eventually got him to come over to the draft horses. They are my favorite.
Snugglebug got a kick out of watching them poop. Of course.

They are crazy big!!!! The kids come up to their knee caps!

So the wagon was a life saver.... when they werent bugging each other. I could get to one side of the fair to the other quickly with out loosing anyone to distraction.

We got there a little before 11am and got home at almost 9pm.
Yes that was a LONG day. But all in all... we had a good time.
I have great kids and really enjoyed them.
They were so beat I had them stay home from school the next day and had them veg out!

Till the next adventure.....