Labor Day Fun!

We were lucky to have a fun day at Lagoon with cousins and Papa and Pluba! Such a great way to say good-bye to summer and welcome in autumn!  Heather and her kids came up and we went to Lagoon! It was so much fun! 

We rode rides and laughed and did not stop all day long! Some of my favorite experiences include: 

- Watching Lucky Dragon and Koala Bear ride a ride together and see their joy as they laughed together. As they went by with their hands up in the air, they were so full of enjoyment! Nothing beats seeing your children be happy--genuinely happy. 

- Seeing how Lucky Dragon and Koala Bear want to ride together on the rides and that Lucky Dragon would hold both their masks while on each ride for his sister. 

- Doing the adult sized bumper cars with all of us! The chaotic craziness was so much fun! We went several times in a row so we could have get back at each other. (we are not competitive at all! HAHA) 

- Having Ginger join us for the day. She was in the wheelchair so she could see it all! I *almost* got her to ride the Rocket Re-entry ride with us. But she got out of the chair and while I was putting it away she walked right out of the ride to the exit! LOL! Next time...next time! We were able to get her on the sky tram and the train to see the animals after though. 

- Running through the splash pad while pushing Ginger in the wheelchair so we both got wet! We both laughed so hard. 

- Riding the Cannibal with Pickles and holding her hand so she kept her hands up the whole time! 

- Listening to Lightning want to ride Cannibal all day then chickening out literally as we were getting onto the ride! hahaha

- Riding a spinning Ferris wheel with Pickles and she got locked in upside down. I laughed so hard I could barely breathe! I am not sure she thought it was as funny. 

- Having Lucky Dragon love all of the big rides. Both of our Muggles are adrenaline junkies. Koala Bear is just too short for some rides. Someday she will be tall enough and we can all ride together. 

- Riding the log flume with Pickles and she and I did not get wet at all. 

- Going on Rattlesnake Rapids and all squeezing into one raft. We laughed so hard and got SO wet! 

It was a fun day for sure!

Exposing Our Inner Marie Kondo

For the past year Lucky Dragon has started to pick up on the value of money. We let him go "work" with me a few times and he learned that working harder and faster allowed him to get paid more. He loved feeling "rich" and was proud to put some into his "mission savings" and to pay his tithing on Sunday. 

Since then he has been obsessed with ways to make money. A few months ago he asked if he could load up some toys into the wagon and go door to door selling them to neighbors! We told him that was not really a good idea (you know...COVID etc). But we told him we could do a garage sale. It took a few weeks between Lady Hiva being in Hawaii and school starting again, but we finally pulled it off!

I was so proud of our two Muggles. They worked hard to carry items, choose which toys they wanted to sell, and helped me organize well into the night to be ready for the next day. We unloaded stuff from all rooms in the house. It is amazing what you collect over the years. One thing about our life style of moving every 2 years, we did not have a bunch of junk...but this house we are 3 years and counting! YIKES!! 

Koala Bear was good about putting tags on. It was good practice for her to do numbers. She now knows what things like "twenty-five cents" and "Seven dollars and fifty cents" look like. I would tell her the price and she would happily dance over to her own music (literally dance and shake the booty the whole way) to price it while I moved on to the next item. 

Lucky Dragon was SO excited to make money on his items. We allowed him to set his own prices. He wanted to make the signs for them too. I loved the one sign that he made that had a dollar bill drawn under it and he included "IN GOD WE TRUST." This guy does not miss any details! 

During the sale, Lucky Dragon and Koala Bear kept playing with the items that were out. We had to laugh as they had not played with them in a year, but when it was time to see them go...they were all of a sudden interested. Lucky Dragon kept asking if he could have some money so he could "buy back his toys!" hahaha! I would have to explain we were trying to not have so many toys. He would remember and then be alright again for a few minutes! 

The day came and in 4 hours we sold nearly everything that we had out. We have a few items left and we will try to sell them online. We were happy to get rid of the stuff and to save for our trip to Walt Disney World...whenever that will be! Thank you, COVID. HAHA.  

I felt satisfied for de-cluttering a bit, for seeing how hard the kids worked, and for making money on items that were unused and just sitting in the house! Maybe next time we can raise the stakes! :) I cannot even tell you how happy it made me to see all of the empty bins at the end of the day!