UN- Amazing Jakes

Saturday night we wanted to take the boys to a fun place to eat, so we headed over to a place called Amazing Jakes....I have so many issues with this place, but I'll start with the name. They are false advertising by calling this place Amazing anything! The only thing that was amazing is that I left without punching anyone out! Above is a picture of the boys riding one of the 3 kiddie rides in the kiddie area...which comes to problem #2. This place is massive with a kiddie area of 3 rides. There were also go-karts and bumper cars. They were too short for the bumper cars and after waiting at least 45 minutes in the line for the go-karts, we stepped out because of the massive issues with people line jumping and the employees kept stopping the cars to literally scream at the people who were bumping into each other. Fun times...

The boys enjoyed playing some bowling...that didn't work at first, so mommy had to go search for an employee. Come to find out...all the employees were busy trying to break up a massive group of thug kids that were about to fight.,.later we even figured out that the employees were all friends with the massive thug group. Problem #3: massive amount of thug kids (and grown ups) go to this place.

Problem #4: Probably about 50% of the games actually worked and the ones that worked, didn't spit out tickets when it was suppose to. Problem #5: One girl behind the ticket prize counter. (probably because all the other employees were hanging with their thug friends) Mommy lost her cool behind this counter once with a group of kids that refused to move and let other people have their turn. After waiting for maybe 30 minutes in the same spot, I bribed Gage that we could go to Walmart and buy him some presents instead. It was almost 10pm.

Problem #6: The food S-U-C-K-E-D! No other word to describe it. I will NEVER EVER go back to this place, except maybe during the weekday during lunch to actually get Gagey his prizes he so well deserved! This place pretty much made me lose all interest in ever going back to the mall its attached to. UGH!! The biggest waste of $60...so unless you're a thug, or you feel like going to jail over popping someone...steer clear of Amazing Jakes!

**didn't have much time to take pics because I was afraid that thugs would steal my purse and/or camera, or push my kids out of the way and take over their games (actually happened twice) ** I'm incredibly thankful that I had my crap camera there instead of my Nikon.

A New Favorite Mickey D's!!!

Today was our second visit to the "new Mickey D's by Aunt Sarah's." This is unlike any McDonalds I have ever seen. The jungle gym thingy is pretty high tech and good for kiddos of all ages. (its good for mommy's too that like to see their kiddos when up in the jungle gym thingy). We can spend a LONG time at this McDonalds, which may come in handy when mommy is overloaded with school work. Today the boys went their separate ways and played with different friends...

Very little eating was done, but they had a blast!
(and I have to admit...those touch screen games are kinda fun!)

Stay tuned...

Something I learned in school...

"Teachers who beg, borrow, and steal good techniques are teachers whose students will achieve." Harry Wong

I've been following a certain blog for a while now, and the thing that I really love about this blog is all the neat and creative things this mommy does with her little boy. Since Corbin will be in school this year and has trouble with letter recognition, I stole some of her ideas and added some of my own to get him (and Gage) recognizing letters. Our first "Letter of the Week" was A. The boys had a BLAST making all their "A" projects and activities and now will point out every A they see on every sign, commercial or piece of paper. (not annoying at all!) I'm really glad this idea worked and we will be continuing to do the letters of the week, and I'm possibly going to start doing numbers too, whenever I get my school schedule figured out.

Fyi for those who want to know...school is going great so far. I've been to 2 of my classes and have 2 more to go to. I don't think that this semester is going to be as busy as others...but who knows. I'm taking an English class that teaches us how to teach kids how to write. (middle school ones) and 2 math classes (Problem Solving in Elem Grades & Math Concepts in Educ. Setting) and my most favorite class so far...Teaching Science in Elementary Classrooms! I think this class is definitly going to push me into wanting to teach science for sure.

Until next time...

Cutest Boys EVER!

The boys wanted to play in the bath for a while last night so I played with my camera for a bit. Thought I would doll up the pics a bit so it would at least look a little more interesting. :)

Until next time...

Gagey & his "motorcycle"

Since it was halfway decent today outside, I got the boys out of the house and over to the park! Of course, Gage had to ride his motorcycle...aka a scooter to most people, but if you dare call it that in our house...you will get yelled at by Mr. Gage. It's a motorcycle and he is a motorcycle racer. You can catch him racing almost anytime of the day, usually through our house...but today he got to race "45 motorcycle racers" outside. (his new favorite number these days) If you look closely you can see that his "motorcycle goggles" are hanging on the handlebars. (toy pair of safety goggles from his toolbench)

He also has to wear his motorcyle racing clothes while he rides his "motorcycle." He is wearing motocross pants and a matching motocross shirt under his jacket ...which he threw the biggest fit about wearing...supposedly he can't race with a jacket over his racing clothes!! Mommy won that fight though...and I have a feeling mommy will be fighting a lot more with him in the future about racing! ;)

ALVIN!!!

Today, the boys and I went and saw Alvin & the Chipmunks...the squeakquel. We have been excited about seeing this movie for a while now, but mommy had the brilliant idea to wait and see it when the school kids' Christmas vacation was over. Why you ask?...
...because the theater would be empty!!! I figured it wouldn't be busy, but thought there would be some SAHM's out with their kiddos during the day. Found out there were 3 theaters showing the movie! It was awesome having the theater to ourselves. We could talk, laugh as loud as we wanted and...

...Gage could run around as he pleased!!! Gage probably sat with us for 40% of the movie...the rest of the time he was either across the aisle or in the aisle in front of us! He had some fun...and Corbin & I were able to actually watch the movie!

The boys (and I) loved the movie! It was super cute and will definitly be added to our DVD collection when the time comes! The boys were really excited to have a whole "fee-a-ter" to ourselves too! I hope they know that it was probably just luck and it may never happen again!

Sunday's...

Sunday's can be considered a relaxing, boring, hanging around the house in your pj's kind of day...not in our house! Although we did stay home all day we were busy! :)

The Wii has just become a new family addiction. I think the boys (Michael especially) played Mario Kart for the majority of the day! I stink at Mario Kart, but I love Dance Dance Revolution and I did actually beat Michael and the boys at a game of bowling tonight! ;)

During the Mario Kart madness, Lincoln and Michelle came for a visit! Lincoln had fun playing around with the Zhu Zhu pets, McDonalds playland, toy screwdrivers and motorcycles...Gage joined in on his fun, but Michael and Corbin...never left the Mario Kart game! Above pic is during lunch eating what Gage refers to as "horn dogs." Lincoln is a big fan too! He immediately recognized them when I got them out of the freezer.

Mario Kart finally got turned off and everyone celebrated with some ice cream! The boys are trying to hide their faces from me taking their picture...These actually turned out cuter than if I would have had them pose. :)

Dinnertime is the most stressful time of day for mommy. If the boys don't like dinner, they always demand a peanut butter & jelly...tonight I let them make it themselves. I figure it might deter them to eat the original dinner if I told them they had to make their own...but of course it didn't! Gage's sandwich ended up being 95% jelly 5% peanut butter...imagine that!

We had a great Sunday today even if we were just hanging out at home! Yesterday was family fun day at Grapevine Mills and today was family fun day hanging at the house! Great weekend altogether!