AMAZING JAKES

We had a crazy day today - albeit self inflicted craziness, but I was trying to make up for all the shopping that Ethan has been forced to do with me lately. (Scot has reminded me that boys of any age do not enjoy shopping -why is that?).

I took Ethan to his salon, Jack and Jill's, to get a much needed haircut. We love his stylist, Hailey, and have stuck with her ever since she was able to give Ethan a haircut without him freaking out and bursting into tears. The haircut was a positive start to the day, and he left looking as handsome as ever. The torture came next. ( :

My friends Liz, Merideth, Allison & Tara were taking their kids to Amazing Jakes for some afternoon fun and naturally, I couldn't pass that up...so we left from the salon and headed straight for the party. Ethan was thrilled to be there with his friends, and wasted no time getting into the video games and rides. He rode the slime ride multiple times (which is a tea cup ride of sorts). In the picture, he's with his friend Gavin...Ethan is working the wheel and Gavin is simply enjoying the ride (smart kid). The boys always cried out in hopes of landing the more masculine blue cars, but this particular time, it was not meant to be. I then decided it might be fun to ride the mini rollercoaster with Ethan. I knew he wouldn't ride it without me, but the moment the ride started, I wondered why I thought it might be "fun" for anyone. We were jiggled like jello and when we got off, I was extremely dizzy. - which must be a sign that I'm getting old. Ethan's next stop was the Jurassic Park, The Lost World, video game where he was bound and determined to shoot dinosaurs. We easily sat in that one video game for over a half hour, I have no doubt. We played the video game probably 6 times (and when I say we, I mean me), but Ethan loved shooting the laser guns so much, he wanted to keep killing the dinosaurs and refused to leave. He was so attached to the game that I ended up nursing Brynn in there too. I was finally able to pry the gun from his hands so that we could go in search of the others. We did make a quick stop to win some tickets playing Skeeball in the lane next to my friend Allison and her son. I won a number of tickets with my amazing skills, so I told Ethan we could go choose some prizes for him. Typically he loves "prizes" but this time he took off running in the opposite direction. Picture me with a baby in my arms, pushing a stroller while trying to chase down a 2 year old...not pretty. I was getting rather frustrated with the situation, so I decided that Ethan was bound to follow if I headed towards the prize counter on my own. Unsuccessful as I was, I then turned to see Ethan standing on the Skeeball ramp dancing around as if to rub his victory. This is about the point in

the story when Brynn had a blow out. Yes, in keeping with her typical routine, she had a smaller blowout than usual, but still one that would require an outfit change. I realized that Ethan was hungry and hitting naptime, so I quickly picked a couple prizes and hurried off with both kids in tow to the food are where Merideth had pizza waiting for everyone.

Ethan finally settled down and ate some food while I got Brynn changed. I decided that Ethan needed a little one on one time, so I left Brynn in Liz's care and took Ethan to the go cart track for a ride. We had so much fun. We ended up going twice, cause he loved it - but not enough to keep him away from his favorite spot of the day, Jurassic Park, and we went back to play just once or twice more before we left. At that point, Brynn felt just like I did and just wanted to go home to her bed for a nap.

All in all, it was a fabulous day...just exhausting. Ethan, I think we're even. ( :