Introducing upstate New York's newest AMAZING water park!

Introducing the newest waterpark in Upstate New York - RITCHIE RIDES! With a beautiful treed setting, fenced and safe, and featuring toddler AND bigger kid slides:


And both are conveniently located together, a perfect harmony! .....usually....


We have a smaller, cozy size so that you don't have to worry about losing your children (UNlike those other huge, impersonal water parks that we won't mention here because they simply can't compare to us. Unless you want to lose your kids for a while, in which case we have a handy, secret gate opening to the forested wetland behind our park):


Our water park boasts sophisticated, cutting-edge engineering of our water flow output by our resident professional water park engineer (you may need to enlarge this photo to fully see and appreciate the degree of sophistication we're talking about here):


Our swim area can also turn into a wave pool INSTANTLY! No more waiting and waiting for the designated times! Because at our park, EVERY time is the right time for a splash!


NO LINES! Our park is structured in such a way that no lines accumulate - everyone has a place at all times! (as long as there are only 3 people, anyway)


And to keep our NO-LINE promise to you, we have friendly on-site personnel to "encourage" park patrons to move along quickly:


Conveniently attached swings (attended by professional childcare park personnel) to entertain your child should he/she need a rest from our slides:


A lovely, shaded eating area where you can eat up and get energy FOR MORE FUN!


Complimentary sunscreen provided by our professional sunscreen applicator personnel!


We also allow double-dipping! Two can go down together! Now what other water park allows THAT, I ask you?!?!


Our park is THE hip place to catch sightings of all the latest in kid swimwear haute couture (Shelby is seen here sporting a suit from the exciting Hanna Andersson 2010 summer collection):


You may even catch a plumber's bum sighting! Woohoo! BONUS!!!


We have manicured grounds cared for by our resident professional landscape architect, with special emphasis on pooper scooping:


Our newest addition for EVEN MORE fun (does it ever stop with us??!? NO WAY!) - Our Rocket Sprinkler play area!


Because nothing says SUMMER FUN like having water sprayed up your bum appearing to make you float in mid-air (you'll DEFINITELY want to click to enlarge this photo), am I right or AM I RIGHT!?!??!? Holla! (This is a good time to mention that we have a professional resident photographer on staff as well, to capture these priceless family memories!)


Conveniently located Time-Out areas, right on the water park edge (which can also double as a nose excavation area - we're ALL about the convenience here at our park!):


Excellent professional childcare supervision, who can run faster than your kids in order to catch 'em and escort them to our Time-Out area:


Don't worry, folks, he IS a trained professional and is not hurting this child, we promise:


So water-loving peeps, come on by! We have plenty of room for all! Well, maybe one or two more.... If they're really small......


HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

Conversations With Connor At the Cinema

During our recent Mommy-Connor date to see The Prince of Persia...


Mommy: Ooooo Connor, they found the beautiful princess! Do you think she's beautiful?
Connor: Yes!
Mommy: But you don't think she's more beautiful than your Queen Mommy, do you?
Connor: Yes!
Mommy: Whaaaat! You bad boy! See if I take YOU on any more dates!
Connor: But Mommy, she has jewels in her hair!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…..time to WIPEOUT!

It’s our family summertime religion – WIPEOUT!

YYYYYAAAAAAYYYYYY!

WOOOOHOOOOO!

We LOVE this crazy TV show showing contestants attempting a huge, padded obstacle course over water. Here’s a screenshot of one of the BEST obstacles that garners that biggest laughs – the BIG balls!:

So, there’s nothing funnier to me (and lucky for me, my 2 little boys have my same sense of humor) than people running into doors or falling down (yes, I also liked America’s Funniest Home Videos and was/still am a huge Chris Farley fan, may he RIP). Yes, I have the sense of humor of a 12-year old boy, always have, always will. Speaking of which, I need a date for the new Adam Sandler movie in a few weeks (Mark is declining on the grounds of being an adult)….anyone? Anyone?

Here’s our Summer 2010 kickoff event, held in our very own living room complete with obstacle courses and our very own big balls! Preparations underway:

Wipeout's youngest contestant, I-Have-No-Fear-I-Have-2-Big-Brothers Shelby!

Connor is so awesome! I dig this kid. He's always up for anything (except averse weather and jalapenos).

Even Mark gets in the fray once in a while. By the way, I do NOT do Mark's sock upkeep. Hello Mark, meet Target - it's a groovy store where they sell new socks.

I love this photo with Noah's foot in the corner (you may remember from my previous posts that I am a fantastic photographer...who needs the whole kid when you have the foot?):

Every summer, Connor laments the fact that he's not old enough to do the actual Wipeout course in SoCal (not that you'd know it from this photo, but well, I had to say something and couldn't come up with anything else). But if he WERE old enough, we'd be SO there!!! *I* however, would not participate (other than burning 1000x of calories laughing my a** off), and Mark is too dignified (aka.....aged).

And hey parents, here’s another bonus – let your kids do a Wipeout activity and they’ll sleep for 11-12 hours straight! Here’s Noah, done like dinna! Bedtime, here he comes!

And, for those of you who live near us and have kids in Connor’s age group, here’s a big secret that I’ll let ya in on early – for Connor’s 8^th birthday party in January 2011, we’re going to throw him a huge Wipeout party. Can you believe he’s turning 8 and he’s never had a big birthday party – we’ve always done family parties and trips for birthdays. So, I’m feeling kinda guilty about that, and I’m going to surprise him with the BIG ONE! But don’t tell Connor, okay?! He thinks he’s going to Maui.

HA HA! Just kidding, of course a Wipeout party would NOT be cooler than going to Hawaii (or would it?!? Hmmm…), but the Hawaii trip is for Connor receiving his black belt in karate, and unfortunately (for our credit card) he’s getting to his black belt earlier than we thought….like, early by a YEAR! Yup, it looks some major events of Connor’s childhood are on a collision crash course destined to ALL arrive in early 2011 - his 8^th birthday Wipeout party, getting baptized, AND getting a Karate black belt with its subsequent Maui reward trip. Plan for your plane tickets now, Grandma & Grandpa! (and whoever else wants to show up – Texas Ritchies? Colorado Davises? – everyone’s invited for the fun!)

Christmas Chicken Chair Update #2

If you aren't already, you may want to familiarize yourself with the ongoing saga of the Christmas Chicken Chair - click here for story #1 and click here for story #2.

Up to speed now? Okay. So, as per my usual getting-ready-to-vacuum procedure, I go around to all of the rooms and put stuff that usually lives on the floor (you know, stuff like ottomans, baskets, Chicken Chairs) up on tables and couches to get 'em off the floor for easier vacuuming.

In the playroom, I always put Christmas Chicken Chair up on the couch for vacuuming.

When I finally got around to vacuuming the playroom, I came in and found that Shelby had actually managed to PUSH the Christmas Chicken Chair OFF of the couch and onto the floor headfirst.


She dislikes it soooo much, this most-fabulous Christmas present ever, that she can't even bear to have it be sitting next to her?!?!?!?

Sa wat dee khraap? ROAD TRIP!!! Yahoooooooie!

I LOVES ME some spontaneous road trips! Thursday morning I woke up around 7:30am and did my usual stuff. And by 9am we were planning a trip to Boston for the weekend!

As you can see, I'm not the only one who was giddy and excited! The boys were crazy excited and just plain nutty. But they were perfect travelers (thanks to video games and Pirate music) and we had a great time! We did have to stop in Liverpool for our first bathroom stop for Noah (for those of you who don't live here, Liverpool is approximately....4 miles from Cicero, our home). So yes, THAT was annoying! After that, drinks were kept to a minimum.


Remember my last post about Shelby being the only one in our family NOT a nerd? Well, see here, this is what I mean - her brothers were...well, you saw that photo above....meanwhile, here's Shelby in all her coolness. Basically, too cool for you. Uh-huh.


The weather was perfect, we had a waterfront hotel with fabulous views of the Harbor. I fear the housekeeping staff had their hands full after we left, cleaning the thousands of handprints off of all the windows.


Oh! Why did we go to Boston, you ask? Whoops! Well, Mark is starting an African Safari company to help fund Soils For the Future (a carbon offset project for Tanzania), and it just so happens there are a bunch of travel show conventions around the East coast during the next few weeks. Here's Mark manning the African Travel Association (ATA) booth:


I sure hope Save the Planet Safaris (click to go the website) makes money because the ATA had the most boring booth in the whole show, and I would absolutely LOVE to design a booth for next year's shows. It only costs $3,000 - $10,000! Yikes.

This would be a good time to mention that anyone who wants to go on a Safari with us who is reading this blog (all 3 of you - Mindy, Carrie & Jamie) can have a 30% Friends & Family discount! Here's our friendly staff, ready to take your call NOW!:


Here's Connor playing the steel drums at the Aruba setup. Yes, they sold me - I am soooo going to Aruba VERY SOON to meet the 90,000 friends I haven't met yet there.


Aruba had the coolest, funnest setup! But watch out Aruba, next year you'll be contending with me, and I'm no slouch when it comes to marketing and advertising displays! *wondering if I can borrow an elephant from the Boston Zoo?* Elephant rides trump steel drums, right?


The Busch Gardens and Seaworld setup was also fantastic and lots of fun, of course. Get a look at this baby kangaroo! Have you ever seen anything sweeter??? Actually, Shelby spent all of her time at these booths cooing at the female staffers and repeating over and over again, "Happy day! Happy day! Happy day!" They LOVED her! So, maybe Shelby was sweeter than the baby kangaroo.


Well, actually, obviously Connor wasn't interested in the animals. As a matter of fact, Connor had several meltdowns during the 2 days of the show. All these countries from all over the globe and all of their marketing materials were in ENGLISH?!??!?!? Connor's still fascinated with languages, and he was absolutely devastated not to see materials in different languages. He even introduced himself to the lady manning the India booth with, "Hi, I'm Connor. I'm a linguist. Do you have any materials printed in Hindi?" SERIOUSLY. The lady just blinked at him and then blinked at me. I just smiled.

We did make a fun discovery later while surfing language sites on the internet. To say "Hi, how are you?" in Thai, you say "Sa wat dee khraap?" Needless to say, Connor and Noah and I entertained ourselves for about an hour in the hotel room asking each other, Hey Connor, so what the crap!?!? Hey Noah, so what the crap??! Hey Mommy, so what the crap??! Much to Mark's chagrin, I have the sense of humor of a 12-year old boy (explaining my love for Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler movies), it's true.

Connor did have a LEEEETLE bit of fun at the travel show - at the kid area jumping gyms, Connor FINALLY lost his first tooth - he's 7 now and it was high time!


I had dreams of getting a family photo of us to document this momentous turning point in our lives, where we morph from being a boring, nerdy University professor family to a cool, globe-trotting entrepreneuring family. Connor wasn't having it, neither was Noah, and look at me with that strained, teeth-gritting fake smile and frazzled hair - that is a "take-the-freakin' picture-now-I've-been-with-these-psycho-kids-for-way-too-freakin'-long-and-I'm-about-to-KILL-somebody" expression. You're all moms, you all know exactly what I mean.


Yeah, well anyway, momentous occasion marked. *sigh* FAIL.

Back to happier times now - Shelby amused herself in the hotel room pushing her friends around in her stroller. I know it doesn't really go with the "vibe" of this blog post, but I just love this photo of her. She's my little sweetie-cheekie.


Like I said earlier, we drove all the way to Boston and back listening to pirate music (from our last Halloween's dressing up our SUV to look like a pirate ship for our pirate family - see that blog post by clicking here) and the Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat soundtrack. We all agree on and love that music, too.

Gosh, that makes us sound so goody-goody, doesn't it? Well, before you give me the Mom 0f the Year award, we also know every word to Britney Spear's Womanizer and I'm afraid that Noah can sing along to most of Adam Lambert's naughty lyrics (Adam is my go-to preschool music).

But I digress. Here's a couple of sing-along videos for your enjoyment, with love from us to you:




Sorry about the unfortunate nose-picking incident there, but I'm too lazy to figure out how to edit the movie down, and besides that, I need some good stuff to show Connor's future girlfriends!



Happy trails!

Happy Valentines Day!

I know there are a lot of folks out there who claim to hate Valentines because it's a holiday solely manufactured to make money or because it makes them feel lonely. HOWEVER, I love ANY excuse for a celebration, and so I take full advantage of Valentines Day, and we always celebrate it as a family holiday! We're all each other's Valentines.

This year we all got matching pajamas (yes, I married a nerd and it has rubbed off on me over the past 17 years and now I fear we're all nerds, except Shelby).


We did a weekend family slumber party in the living room, bringing down mattresses and spending 2 days and 2 nights just goofing off, watching TV, playing games, eating junk food - all the fun stuff in life, y'know?

In the end, we put Shelby up in her crib at night (to protect her from her wild brothers), but at all other times, she was right there in the fray with the rest of us!


A magical Wii moment, Connor & Noah playing together WITHOUT screaming and nunchuks being thrown at each others' heads:


I actually hate sleeping with my kids (but shhhh don't tell them that), so I retreated to a couch, but still couldn't get alone time!


Kids and dogs and underwear showing, oh my!


I think Mark took the brunt of the goofing off portion of our Valentine festivities:


But he was rewarded with this magnificent new tie! I thought giraffes were his favorite African animal, but it turns out it was really gazelles. Oh well.


And one more for the road, Happy Valentines from us to you out there in the cybersphere!

Sleepin' Like an Egyptian

Greetings from the far-away mystical land of Egypt...now present in upstate New York!



I've fallen off the blogging wagon the past few weeks, but with good reason - January was crazy/busy with birthdays, family visits and REDECORATING! Yay! I love Januarys! The photos aren't the best, because I have a crappy camera (or maybe it's me that's crappy with the camera??). I prefer to blame the camera.

Connor turned a whopping 7 years old in January, at which point he informed me, "I've been living in the same room for SEVEN YEARS NOW *insert heavy, dramatic sigh here*and I want a new room!" Fortunately for this kid, he has me for a Mommy and I would never say no to a new, fun, and exciting decorating/remodeling project! Because he and Noah share a room, they had to agree, but also fortunately for Connor, Noah idolizes Connor and his interests, so they decided upon an EGYPT room! This came about largely because of Connor's obsession with languages and hieroglyphics, Connor's new booby-trapped Playmobil Pyramid toy he received for Christmas, AND their borrowed Scooby Doo Where's My Mummy DVD (Angie & boys, yes, we still have this and I promise we WILL get this back to you soon!) which has now been watched at least 1000 times.

Here's a sample of Connor's Egyptian hieroglyphics writing, to get ya in the mood:


ANYWAY, I knew doing an Egypt room would be a big job, so naturally I enlisted my Mom to help out, so she flew out from Idaho for a 2 1/2 week visit, and boy did we make Grandma work!

We hung wall murals and decals and new artwork and light fixtures.



We mod-podged (that's a verb, right?) the Eye of Horus onto drawer knobs.



We painted sand and beetles and put together booby traps.



We hung palm trees and organized a study desk for Connor, chock-full of books about languages, of course, and his beloved Menorah (no, we're not Jewish - we're Mormon, in fact, but open-minded!) that he received as a gift from his current-favorite-person-on-the-planet, Virginia Buffet.



We sewed new duvet covers with the most fabulous Egyptian patterns. (And yes, that IS a dolphin that you spy on Connor's bed, but Connor assured me that his beloved dolphin collection - he has dozens more than you see here - was also quite bored in their old room and would be very happy to live in an Egypt room and after all, Mommy, the Nile river DOES run through Egypt so dolphins could be quite happy there!)



We painted bedroom furniture from the ugly old gangrene-teal to a glossy black. (Major PITA! Remind me NEVER to buy painted furniture again, BUT repainting that furniture had been on my to-do list for 5 YEARS, so I'm a happy camper!)



We built a pyramid! Noah resides on top of the pyramid in the esteemed position of Ra, the Sun God and Connor has the private reading nook/bed/cave that we call the Sarcophagus.



On Connor's first night sleeping in his new Egyptian room, he commented about how happy he was to be sleeping just like real Egyptians do. He didn't believe me when I told him that 7-year old boys in Egypt probably have (or dream about having) Spiderman or Star Wars rooms or some other such "American" rooms.

I suspect that the best part of getting a brand new room remodel was getting to sleep in the playroom for 2 days (while furniture was drying and the carpets were cleaned) and watching movies at night in bed!



Now, to be clear, Connor did NOT have a boring room before - the boys had a beautiful ocean-themed room with elaborate painted waves and such. Here's a small pic of it, because I loved it so much, it was somewhat painful to watch it disappear and I feel compelled to pay homage to it once more (this is my traditional night-before-Christmas photo that I snapped of Connor on December 24, 2009):



But, I DO understand that after seven looooong years things might become boring. I know I'm bored with my whole entire house, so don't be surprised if more redecorating projects come up on my blog - next stop, my office is going to be transformed into......well, something exciting! I have too many ideas to settle on just one yet. Whaddya think of this one?


It's the Glamouroque room from the Roxbury - isn't it DIVINE?? Given that my office is supposed to be a formal dining room and we're going to sell our house in the next 1-2 years, do you think I could stage that to be a sellable Glamouroque dining room? Nah, probably not. Good thing I like to paint!