Crockstar Chronicle: September 2024

Country Mill

Today Emily had went over to hang out with one of her friends. Said friends' house was just down the road from Country Mill. We hadn't been in several years, so I told everyone that when I went to collect Emily, everyone was going to come so that we could go take some pictures!

Well, when looking up their closing time, it was actually two hours earlier than I anticipated, so we had to collect Emily an hour early from her friends'.

In my head we would go take the pictures with the sunflowers, everyone would spend their $5 on cider and/or donuts and we would be good to go.

How it actually played out was that an hour was not long enough, and everyone wanted to ride the tram and play on the playground!!!

The pumpkin's growth looked like a mini pumpkin!

This would probably be more meaningful if we went yearly, but it's still nice to see them measured!

Grace was carrying around a big ole' purse because she wanted a picture with her polaroid! (see below)

But I did get my pictures! Group shots and individual poses. <3

I think the kids had a lot of fun playing around while I snapped some pictures. Here they are showing Alice how to "Mew."

Butterfly!!!

Super proud of this one, no filter, no cropping! (But also no Alice, so what are you gonna do?)

I liked all of those pictures, but saved the best for last:

Once I snapped my pictures, we stopped briefly at the playground before rushing over to the cafe/store. $5 went surprisingly far here still, I don't think any of mine spent all of their cash!

When I was talking Billy into coming (I was going to take the kids alone, just for the pictures) I told him it would be cheaper if he didn't come, but we would prefer to have him there! A pie, gallon of cider, and a few other culinary delights later, he laughed and said I was right. lol

Not the biggest fan of pictures of myself, but since I took a selfie with literally everyone in the family, I am including them here. Hopefully future me will be less critical of present me. = )

It was such a fun outing, we will be going back next year, hopefully with a little more time!

Oh, and a picture of Grace's picture, of course!

later days

Ear Piercing and Zap Zone

Grace has been wanting to get her ears pierced since Emily got hers done a few years ago, so when Billy planned a Saturday trip to Zap Zone for everyone, I hatched a plan for Grace and Juliet to get their ears pierced at the same time. Grace and Juliet were happy to swap out the 'all inclusive' pass for a cheaper option so that they could get their ears pierced.

Did you know you can schedule a piercing appointment at Claires? Well, you can, and it was awesome.

So, when we got there, we got the big kids passes, found a spot for Daddy to 'camp' and then headed for their appointment.

Grace went first, and was so thrilled, even with the long wait and sorting through hiccoughs (they didn't have two of the same earring sets that we had picked out, and we all know they had to be the same.

Next up was Juliet, who was ready after waiting for Grace. It was a faster turn around though, since I was able to fill her paperwork out while Grace was in the chair.

Happy girl!

Happy, Happy, Ha-ah!

If you just happen to be cleaning out any old post earrings, I know two girls who would love to beef up their collection!

When we were done, we made our way back down to zap zone, where I got each of them a pass for a few attractions. We were there close to four hours! The Texas-Michigan game was on, and I just could not bring myself to root for UT so I was disappointed when U of M lost.

They have this awesome pizza delivery robot!!! The face changes, and it can also change course if it detects an obstacle. I think it's only for parties though.

In addition to the trampoline area, William's favorite was the pixel floor, with various jump quest games. It was pretty fun! He really liked "the floor is lava."