Crazy or something like it

I just Satmpeded (sp???) for over 12 hours with my 2 girls in 28 degree C weather... and I'm not even that frazzled! I think I deserve a cookie...wait how many calories does stampeding burn???

Tips for Stampede:

• It was $20 for parking, so I recommend taking transit.for parking though the Impark lot with that old yellow house on it was the cheapest and was monitored.
• The entrance line ups were long so I recommend the 2 for $25 deal from Macs 1) because its cheaper and 2) because it saves time at the gate by getting you into the shorter "pass" line.
• Food is outrageously priced so pack a lunch and bring a water bottle (it's worth it to carry it). If you really want to buy food Weadick (sp?) Ville is your best bang for your buck. We spent $3 on a slurpee/ice cream mixture. That's all the money we spent on the grounds.
• Super dogs tends to take a long time to see- we skipped the waiting in line, I personally feel that that show has declined over the years.
• Tail was alright a little slow in the beginning and a little cheesey but no wait and generally entertaining.
• The free facepainters at the kids BMO area were worth the line up today, they did a great job.
• The Saddledome is a great place to cool off or even snooze in a comfy chair if you sit floor level for events during the day 
• Pack medium- not too light that you forget needful items not so heavy that you have to carry a lot. We  brought a stroller, a small cooler, our diaper bag with diaper and a change of baby clothes, a baby carrier (no hoodies required!), blanket, sunscreen, hats and umbrellas (other than umbrellas everything was used).

So if you consider our ticket price, parking and my ice cream it cost our family about $4/hour to be there or $1/person/hour... not horrible. Anyway, if you are headed down to the grounds in the next week enjoy yourself and be safe.  Hopefully some of my tips help!

Cheers and goodnight pictures to come later! I need sleep :D

The worst shopping trip ever!

In a break day from working and studying (although I read a chapter tonight) I went out this morning to buy groceries, sounds simple enough right? NOPE!! Any mom knows that shopping ...and well life, is more complicated with children. Usually I do alright, the odd loss of patience, once I decided that it would just be better to go home then brave another planned store, nothing like today.

I was in Walmart for almost 4 hours today :(

Zipporah started off the day at 6am which was not my cup of tea, but I decided, "Hey, if I'm up lets be productive!" By the time we checked out our local whole foods market and got some goodies at the dollar store (Is it sad that my retail therapy involved $2 foam sandals?) it was maybe 10am as we were rolling into Walmart. And while I generally find Walmart sorta evil and generally avoid shopping there I find them a more kid friendly option because: the food is cheaper AND they bag my groceries AND they don't make me feel bad if I didn't bring my own reusable bags.

Anyway so we start off ok until we hit the second isle and Zipporah decides that she's too sleepy to carry on and she screamed at the top of her lungs!!! I've dealt with a screaming child before so I tried to play it cool. I was trying all angles, maybe I could calm her down, maybe we could abandon our cart and leave, maybe she'd just fall asleep. Anytime I thought I should just give up and leave she'd settle long enough for me to think it was doable and go back to my cart. I must have been a sight to watch! I was hushing a 13 month old, herding the 5 year old and constantly gathering my things to leave getting half way out of the store and then heading back. Anyway she fell asleep but only in my arms, despite my efforts to make her a little nest in the cart.

So I recalled seeing  on Pinterest that you can fold a hoodie to make a baby carrier (check out the video!) . So in true, "Jane of All Trades" style I MacGyver-ed a makeshift baby carrier out of my hoodie to continue the grocery trip. The only problem was is that the hoddie carrier would only hold tight if I didn't bend at all which meant that I kinda had to just drop all my groceries into the cart. So here I am clanging canned fruits and veggies into the cart with a baby tied onto me with a hoodie, but don't worry... it gets "better"

So just before we hit the refrigerated foods I felt all warm and wet down the front of me...that's right! I got peed on!!! Somehow in our hoodie entangled stroke of genius, her diaper had gotten all bunchy and performed seriously sub optimally.


My only luck for the day would be that there was a sample kiosk handing out free diapers and wipes (because in an effort not to ALWAYS have my hands to full I left the diaper bag in the car.) I somehow manged to get this hoddie contraption off me and changed her diaper. My shirt wasn't as wet as I had thought it would be and the samples wipes where scented so I used them on her and then on my shirt. Put my hoodie back on like a sane person and continued to shop with a cranky 13 month old who hadn't had a long enough nap and a 5 year old who picked up every other product in the store and tried to put it in our cart. Amazingly the only unplanned purchase Abbi contributed to was a box of blueberry egos about the same size as she is. (I said unplanned not unnoticed)

So here is the good part of the blog! Since Mommy almost had  a nervous breakdown in Walmart we came home and played on the slip and slide for the rest of the afternoon!