The Search for Miss Direction: As American as Slurpees and TV Dinners

So, did you have yours? Did you remember? Please, for the sake of my children who asked pretty much everyone they saw today (if you think I'm joking you'd be wrong), tell me that if at all possible you participated in free slurpee day at 7/11 today. I would like to take the opportunity to personally thank 7/11 for today's event which assured awesome behavior from my kiddos today as they were told we were only going IF they behaved as they were supposed. In all fairness, they've been awesome today slurpees or not and I think we're finally getting in a summer rhythm.

Of course, that being said next week we're going to shake it up again as they are both going to VBS every morning. They are ridiculously excited (almost as much as they have been about free slurpees) about VBS especially since we picked up the music CD earlier in the week. Julie, if you're reading this, my kids know almost all the words to all the songs already. And me, I've got them down pat ;-)

We had a great day filled with a trip to pick up pictures from our trip and Nebraska week so I can get our scrapbook pages caught up, a stop at the library, some great playtime at Inglenook park, a stop at the store so I could get a new pillow (hoping it will help the headaches I've been waking up with lately...), lunch and of course - slurpees! In case you're wondering, Mikayla settled on a combination of watermelon punch and Vernors and Noah went with Blue Raspberry and Vernors.

After another busy week, I thought we all deserved a night to wind down a bit and it seemed like the perfect evening to celebrate the fact that the TV dinner originated in Nebraska! You may remember from Monday's blog that Gerry Thomas, an employee at Swanson's came up with the idea to use up leftover turkeys from Thanksgiving in a frozen meal in 1954, around the same time that TV was becoming prevelant in nearly every household. The idea to market it as "made for TV" made it a hit with over 25 million meals sold at 98 cents each that first year alone.

I found this fun recipe for Homemade TV Dinners that I used a starting point tonight. We picked up a copy of a DVD full of episodes of Looney Tunes (no it doesn't have anything to do with Nebraska, I just thought it'd be fun for everyone!) and settled in for a relaxing Friday night. Last night I had made the perfect dessert to go with our evening Kool Aid Popcorn! This was just for fun and super 'get stuck in your teeth' gooey and the kids loved it. Noah had requested Mixed Berry and Kayla Kiwi Strawberry (blue and pink, who'd have thought??) and everyone was happy. Perfect end to the week - bring on the weekend!

Speaking of the weekend, my boys are headed off to baseball camp with the Toledo Mud Hens tomorrow! This is what Grant and I got Noah for his birthday and he is so excited! Camp is during the day and then they have tickets to the game tomorrow night. (We also got 4 additional tickets to another game, which the kiddos are thrilled about) So Grant and Noah are gone (with the camera) until late tomorrow, so I probably won't get a post up. The Bean and I are flying solo and not sure what we're going to be up to, though she is requesting manis/pedis and bubble bath :) Sounds like fun. I'll be back with an update for sure on Sunday if not sooner, so until then...

Nebraska Fun Fact of the Day: Just north of Alliance, Nebraska there is a place called Carhenge that replicates the historic English Stonehenge with 38 old automobiles placed to assume the same proportions. (You've got to see this to believe it - it *almost* made my "famous for" list this week :) )