Last week of summer: Bowling & Chuck E. Cheese

We had to squeeze the last bit of fun in on Friday so we headed out early to go bowling.

I've always loved to bowl--despite not ever being good at it.  I even took a bowling class in college :)  During that class I bowled about 8 games a week, so I got to be pretty good, but those skills have almost all gone away now.  Nevertheless, with 4 kids and a bunch of heavy balls, I decided to sit this one out.  Aaron also sat it out, but he had a good time cheering, looking at all the balls, and playing with my camera.

The kids had a great time--and we still had plenty of time before we had to meet Shanna at Chuck E Cheese, so we decided to bowl another game.  The first game Caroline lead the entire game and beat Carter by 10 points....Alex did the same both games--a steady score of 4s and 6s.  Carter, really came on in the second game and led the entire game--until the last frame when Caroline got a strike and pulled ahead to beat him by 7.  We had such a good time--we will definitely be going back (this was our second time bowling).

We hurried to pick up some lunch, then headed over to Chuck E Cheese.  It was fun having cousins there, but I've discovered that sometimes it is harder to have more people there--when it is just us, they check in with me all the time and it is not too hard to keep track of everyone.  When there are more adults there (Shanna and Grandma in this case), my kids will check in with them, or be with them and they don't necessarily check in with me--they are still fine, it is just more chaotic for me :)

But the kids had a great time--Caroline and Abigail spent most of the time playing together.  Aidan gave Caroline a tour of his favorite games/rides and Aaron was content to climb on games and ride the carousel about 10 times in a row.  A cute little boy and his younger brother (probably about 5/3) were on the carousel once with Aaron and put in the token to ride.  After they were done, Aaron was just sitting on the horse and Shanna, my mom, and I were talking.  The next thing I know, the ride is going again and the two little boys are getting off.  The 5 year old must have put in a token for Aaron to ride.  I kept trying to look and see who his parents were so I could say something to them about what a good kid he is, but I never caught them. 

I had forgotten my camera while we were there, so the only picture I have is this one:

I like it because it shows the personalities of the two boys--Carter calm and mellow, Alex always wanting to do something or pull a face or be funny.  I don't really like my eyes--really, I've looked and my circles under my eyes are not that bad--honest! 

After Chuck E Cheese, we had to take Alex to his speech therapy.  Caroline got lucky and was invited to go with Abigail to her house to play.  So I took the boys.  Alex has a great speech therapist, and the place has lots of toys for the kids who are waiting.  

Carter brought his own babysitter :)  And if you happen to wonder why he is in long pants when it is about 100 degrees outside, all I can say is--it isn't my choice!

After speech, we picked up Caroline and headed to Dairy Queen for a Dilly Bar.  Growing up we loved going to Dairy Queen and getting a sundae, or a dipped cone or a dilly bar.  My recollection of them (obviously it has been a while since I had one) was a dipped ice cream.  You could get chocolate, butterscotch, or strawberry (I think).  They came in little paper wrappers and were so good.

These were still really good...but they only came in chocolate, a little disappointing because I had been wanting butterscotch, but still ok.  The worst thing was that the lady in the drive through handed me a box of dilly bars that looked like it had come right from the grocery store ice cream section--commercial labeling, plastic sealed packing for the bars, etc--really, I felt like I should have just stopped at Kroger and picked them up.  Oh well, that was just my issue--the kids still loved the ice cream.

After that we were officially done with our last week of summer plans.  We went home and relaxed--although I scored a few more points by ordering pizza and giving them root beer with it :)  It was a fabulous day, and not too expensive--by using coupons we only spent $42 the entire day--including the pizza.