Party at the Bassetts!

Shelly and Ken invited me to come to their house for a fun time. It wasn't long until Ken and Shelly sneaked off. Something about Mexico, vacations, blah, blah, blah.... Bye Ken! Bye Shelly! Just so you know, when the cats are away, the mice are going to play!

Caden immediately offered to show me what a techno wiz he is. Seriously, does everyone under the age of 30 have an extra gadget gene that the rest of us were born without?
He had no problem streaming in Puss 'N Boots,

Ava enjoyed demonstrating how she likes to flip her head to make her hair fly.

While Kailyn and Jordan were at school, Caden and Chase kept themselves busy with workbooks.

We ended the day on Thursday with a rousing game of "Clue". Team Chase/Grandma won, and we didn't even resort to cheating!

The next morning, Ava decided to send out a 5:30 am wake-up call. Yep, break me in gently, Miss Bedhead! Don't forget, 5:30 Sioux Fall is 4:30 Billings time.  I wish I had a picture of her shocked and appalled face when I was the one to get her out of bed instead of her Mom.

 No wait, I really don't want to see the face again--you kinda hurt my feelings there, Ava!

It was hard to stay mad as she frantically signed "more, more, more"! Apparently the 7 cups of cereal, aplesauce, mashed kidney beans, yogurt, raisins, milk, and peaches she had last night were inadequate.

The fun thing about these Bassett children is that if ONE child gets up, they ALL get up. That story I told everyone about how it was still the middle of the night didn't convince them. Kailyn and Jordan have learned to tell time, dang it! If they all appear to be watching TV at the breakfast counter, well....remember it was 4:30 my time, I'm still recovering from that head injury, and it was an important, character-building 30 minute cartoon called "Adventures in Values". Have I mentioned I have a head injury? By the way, the Bassetts have only one station on their TV and even that is iffy. If the world falls apart while I'm here, can someone email me?

 

When breakfast (and the tv show) was over, it was almost 6:15. The girls have today and Monday off of school. That left time for computer math games and

 reading. I'm surprise Kailyn has a book to read, since I'm pretty sure she reads 23/7.

Then it was off to Xcite---a cool indoor playland for families.

Like Chucky Cheese, you can spent a year's income on tokens to play games and earn tickets.

Here are the three youngest Bassetts, demonstrating how to get the most value from a token.

 The place also had several fun bouncy toys.

The kids played for several hours on the toys.

Even Ava had a grand time bouncing...

...and squealing in delight when Jordan and Kailyn took her down the slides.

The kids traded in $700,312 in tickets for .50c worth of candy. Wow. I did not see that coming!

Of course, we had to stay and eat their delicious food. Think Chucky Cheese leftovers-type quality.

We ate here because apparently Kailyn NEVER gets hot dogs, and Xcite has 3 varieties.

Poor Ava, up since the crack of dawn, could hardly keep her eyes open during the meal, but kept on chewing the food I shoveled in as she napped. After lunch, we bounced for another hour, then...

 used ALL of Shelly and Ken's free ice cream at Burger King coupons. Jordan suggested it. Said we need to celebrate Grandma's being there. How could I argue that?

 It's been a long, active day, and a few of us were having a hard time staying awake on the way home. Despite several attempts, I could not wake poor Chase for an hour after we got home. I know how you feel, buddy! Just don't mess with my go-to-bed time tonight!

Sleepover!!

Tonight Hailey and Makayla are spending the night with us while Amy uses the evening to do boring things like go to a movie and spend time with friends. I picked the girls up from school and headed to the mall. I've had a groupon twofer deal for Build-A-Bear for awhile and decided today was the perfect day to use it.

 The girls each picked a bear (or in Hailey's case, a cat) and rubbed the bear's heart on their nose, left hip, chin, and right elbow to make it worked before dropping it into their chosen bear/cat.

After their bear/cat was hearted and stuffed, the girls gave them a bath.

 I've never been to Build-a-Bear and was a little surprised at the *ahem* generous selection of must-have accessories.  Makayla seemed to have no problem at all determining exactly what her bear could not live without,

including a bear friend and a bear chair.

It was not easy convincing Makayla we would not be spending $9000 on bear paraphernalia that day (or any other day).

We finally tore ourselves away and made it home to try out the bear/cat snuggliness of our chosen item. They seemed to be in working order.

The girls played for awhile,

 and then (as you can tell by Hailey's "concentration tongue") we got busy on a project for Amy.

Target had a great sale on their valentine frames and stickers and I bought a couple for the girls to decorate.

We probably needed a couple hundred or so more stickers, wouldn't you say?

No sleepover is complete without a little nail polish.

Megan (and her endless collection of nail polish) was always my go-to girl for this little adventure, but she refused to come home tonight and help--something about a hot date with yet another RM. Seriously Megan, haven't you dated everyone on campus at least once now?

It didn't take long to figure out that Hailey was the one who had the hardest time sitting still till everything was dry, as evidenced by her splotchy paper towel.

Finally it was brush the teeth time

 and the traditional goodnight "Popcorn Popping on The Apricot Tree" song,

and then our two little angels went right to sleep. 

Oh wait, that was me. I was the one that went right to sleep. These two will sleep until 9 or 10 tomorrow morning, then quietly sneak down to the kitchen and pour themselves cereal, right?

Yeah, it's probably good I'll be up for that broadcast in the morning...

Done!!!

My head is almost completely healed now, although my eye is still slightly swollen. Almost all I have left in my ploy to gain sympathy is a sore rib and a bit of dizziness,

which, of course explains why I spent Thursday and Friday up on a ladder priming and painting the living room/kitchen. I couldn't help myself. I don't like invalidhood.

Stan predictably spent Saturday fixing all of the less-than-perfect spots he could find under my new coat of paint. One thing I've learned about Stan, now that we've spent so much time remodeling together in the last year, is that he is an extreme perfectionist about his remodeling projects. I just wish he'd perfect everything BEFORE that last coat of paint.

You would never know there use to be a six foot long fluorescent light behind a cheap and ugly plastic panel at the top of this wall. I wish I'd thought to get a "before" picture.

I love our new and improved popcorn-less living room.

The removal of the old light and the new recessed canister lights were almost an afterthought--and yet they are a huge improvement we're going to love.

I've already got some ideas for our next do-it-yourself project. You know how it is when you renew and change something in your house. Suddenly that old, stained carpet looks completely unacceptable.

You've Gotta Have A Good Story

When I was a child, I loved to hear my Grandma Kenison tell stories. She told us stories about herself and her pioneer ancestors; Grandma was a great storyteller. One of my favorite stories was about a scar on her forehead. As I remember the story, as a young girl, Grandma had fallen off the roof of a shed, a place her mother had instructed her to stay off of, and cut her head open when she hit the ground. Her mother put sugar on it and told her not to look at it in the mirror. Grandma reports that she did, and promptly fainted. I loved to hear that story over and over again, imagining my ancient grandma as a young, slightly rebellious young girl, forever scarred by her disobedience. 

It was a great story. Each time a received a cut as a child, I secretly hoped it would scar so I'd have a great story to tell my posterity.

Finally, my wish has come true:I'm working on a bona fide head wound scar. Sadly, I just don't have a great story to go along with my healing forehead. It just isn't as exciting to say "I slipped on the ice" as it was to say "I disobeyed my mother and fell off a building".  Hailey and Makayla have examined my wound with horror, asking again and again why I didn't cry, and offering to hold my hand as I cross the ice from now on. That makes me feel like I'm 90.

My stitches have been removed, my bruised face is fading to a sickly yellow, mostly disguised with make-up, the swelling in my eye is almost gone, and other than some dizziness when I look down for too long, I'm healing. But I'm healing without a good story. 

Did I mention I was running from a grizzly bear when I slipped on the ice, which I then fought off with my bare fists? I do have that teensy scrape and bruise on my wrist from that desperate fight for my life. 

Yup. That's my new and improved story, and I'm sticking to it!