Here we go!

I'm a couple days late on this post, but that's life. The day of choice that I'm focusing on is this last Wednesday (June 1, 2016).

I nanny two girls (who I shall refer to as M. (~9 yoa ) and A. (~7 yoa)) 4 days a week. Days 1 & 3 are called "Activity Days" which are pretty laid back and 'normal'. We

• handle any chores that must be dealt with immediately 
• play outside
• read independently
• have lunch 
• do an activity together (which is normally a craft, but they also enjoy board games and the like)
• read a couple chapters of a book I bring them (the last two weeks' selection has been "Hoot")
• watch an hour of TV (if they behave; which they always have thus far)
• do another activity
• clean up

And then I head home for the day.

Day 2 is known as "Theme Day" which is where I take a book and a movie and we read the book together then we watch a movie and the activities of the day are focused around the book and movie of choice.

And on Day 4 I take them out on little "Field Trips". They are fond of the library and anywhere with a jungle gym... they also simply enjoy packing up their activity bags (see how we made them on my crafts page under #1) and riding in my car.

Wednesday was a Theme Day. The theme? Cinderella. The best part? They hadn't seen Disney's new live action one yet! Needless to say, they were excited. But before we really dug into theme day I thought it best to prepare lunch. We made Mac and Cheese (see #1 on my recipe page for ingredients and instructions), and it turned out fabulous:
 
In all of my excitement about lunch I completely forgot to take a picture before serving up the tasty dish. This is probably the easiest thing to make, with the best results.
While the mac was baking we read our book and then decided it would be fun to dress up for the day...
 

That's right! I planned for this! I am a Disney princess after all. I wish I could have gotten a full picture that included my perfect blue shoes. I felt marvelous and M. & A. were very sweet and told me I was pretty... which made my heart swell a bit too much to comfortably fit into this dress (I'm just thrilled that I managed to stuff myself into a dress that I got for a 7th grade dance, and really, I was squashed into this thing; I felt like a hot dog that was about to burst out of its casing).

We then popped in the movie and proceeded to watch it... with A. asking me how it would turn out about every 10 minutes, but hey, that's what kids do. And I'm just happy that she would accept my answer of, "Just watch the movie" each time and not press further.

After the movie and lunch I decided it was best to get back into our normal clothes; FREEDOM! AIR! THAT'S WHERE MY DIAPHRAGM WENT! Did I mention I was so happy? I was so happy.

The day before I had promised the girls that we would make chocolate chip cookies today (this recipe I am keeping to myself because it is mine! I am the cookie queen! Just kidding, it's #2, but really, I am the cookie queen). However, I discovered that we didn't have butter flavored crisco in the house so I decided that we would make chocolate pudding instead (#3). We used my grandma's recipe, it is the best pudding ever, and the girls agreed it was fabulous. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a picture because pudding is something that you don't wait to eat, you just eat!

After this and a round of  pass the pigs I introduced M. & A. to the art of Mod Podge Luminaries (#2 crafts). This was the result:


Left to right, A., Me, M. And these things are beautiful all lit up!

Then I read them some more of "Hoot", we are reaching the end and I've promised them a "Hoot" theme day as well (I'm excited to have pancakes for lunch), and picked up our craft supplies. In the last 10 minutes of my day I noticed that the girls' rooms could use some tiding up and since it was Cinderella day I told them they had 10 minutes to tidy up their rooms as best they could and whoever did the best would win. I was seriously impressed by how well they did, and upon further inspection I decided to call it a tie.

After I left I headed to Zach's house to go to a Royal's game with him and his mom. I packed all the necessary supplies:

 

I didn't get bit or sunburnt; this is miraculous because I am I walking buffet for any bug and I have severely sensitive skin.

I'd only ever been to 2 Royals games before this one. The first one I went to I was 8 and I brought a mitt, didn't catch anything. The second one I went to I went with Zach and didn't bring a glove and wound up getting the worst sun burn of my life... I pealed like a banana. But:

I managed to snag a foul ball hit by Alcides Escobar, which is actually kinda funny because his jersey number is 2, and this was the second game I went to... weird.

This Wednesday Zach asked me if I wanted to bring a glove, I told him no because past rule dictated that when I bring a glove I don't catch a ball, and when I am unprepared... well you saw what happens. He couldn't discount that logic, and since sports tend to be superstitious at times who were we to go against the grain? So on we went, Zach and Kate with gloves and me without.

While the three of us were getting settled into our seats Kate mentioned that we were in possible foul ball territory (just before the foul pole off 3rd base) and no less than 30 seconds later, with the second batter of the game, a ball came flying at us. Zach was hopeful... he stood up, stretched out his mitt (his whole body in fact) jumped, almost fell backwards onto other chairs much to my horror, but he stuck his landing. The snap of the ball hitting the glove was unmistakeable, but it bounced out, and Zach thought he had lost it to a fan behind us. But, by some miracle, the ball had bounced forward right into the valley of someone's back and the seat in front of us. They didn't even notice the gift that was behind them and Zach seized this opportunity.


We're just lucky I guess.



While there, I decided that because this was the third game I had been to in 14 years it wouldn't be horrendously irresponsible (though, in retrospect, totally senseless, but so worth it) to pay for horrendously overpriced baseball food. I got a pretzel with cheese, $9.25, and a coke, $6, followed by a frozen lemonade, $6, and then Dippin' Dots, $5.



I could have gone to Cheesecake Factory with Zach for less money! I am completely appalled by the prices and that I allowed myself to eat this much... that being said these are some of my favorite foods. And a hungry Sidney is one of the worst things any person could possibly encounter, so I figured, for the sake of humanity, it was worth paying close to $30 for food.

And the Royals won! Third time is the charm after all! It was a wonderful day and one certainly for the books.