Deployment Week Two

This week, we went to the Imax and saw a documentary on Lewis and Clark. They always have tons of Lewis and Clark stuff around here, since they went up the Missouri River, and we just happen to live right up the road from it. I was a bit worried about how the younger kids would do during it, since it wasn't a cartoon, but it totally captivated them. It didn't hurt that I had some Hot Tamales either. It was actually pretty cool. Speaking of the Missouri River, that is what happens to be behind the kids in their pictures even though it just looks like a huge field. We had a hard time finding a spot to do the pictures because the river is so insanely high with all of the snow melting, it is way over the banks. Anyway, we also did the kids school pictures. Its a bit late in the year, but after Elly's hair cut disaster an than the fact that we have haven't seen the ground since right after Thanksgiving (and I like outside pictures) we had to wait. Of course all week it was a nice 55 degrees out, and so Saturday when we went to do pictures, it was 29 degrees out and snowing again. The kids are finally settling into a routine finally. It always takes a couple of weeks after Glen leaves for everything to settle down, and for life to get back to "normal". I have found that having something planned on Saturdays, really helps the kids. It seems to be easier for them to be able to break down the deployment into weeks, or maybe more specifically exciting activities than to have to look at it as a whole 3 and a half month chunk. That is a bit overwhelming for me and I am a grown up. We also found that Buffalo Wild Wings has kids night on Monday, which means 99 cent kid meals. I can feed all of us for $15 dollars which is fantastic. I don't have to cook one day during the week or do dishes. The kids absolutely love it, and it is a relaxing evening for me too. Well that is about it for this week.

Deployment Week One

When Glen is deployed, we do something fun and special every Saturday, so my goal for this deployment is to start updating my blog again. We will see how it goes. I have done a miserable job with it since he got back from his last deployment. I figure this way he will get to see from all of our exciting adventures and see the highlights of our outings. This past weekend we had movie night. That may not seem exciting to most people, but we don't do movie night all that often, plus the kids were excited about pizza and probably even more excited about eating in the living room, since normally that is a HUGE no-no. Oh and it is the only time they get soda. We watch Planet 51 this time, and surprisingly enough it was pretty good. I generally don't like cartoons, but this one pretty good. This week has been busy with Parent-Teacher conferences. It is always nice to talk to the teachers and see how the are progressing. I am very proud of how good they are doing in school. They are very smart kids. We also stopped by the book fair on our way out and the kids each got to pick out a book. They love buying books, but seriously their book case is soooooo over flowing. I think we might have to get another one. Anyway time to get the guys ready for bed, they have had a hard week with daylight savings.