Axe throwing

New area for new experiences!  Who knew we would one day be throwing axes for fun.  I didn't.  Ha ha!  I found the discount on Groupon and figured, why not.  And it was totally fun!

Ha ha, what exactly is Graham up to behind Bobby inside that throwing cage?!

Well, it seems to be quite easy.  Just fling that axe, right?  Well, I think Graham was the one that figured it out first:

And Daddy?

He is obviously very enthusiastic!

Nope! Denied on the first try!

Charlie and I were also struggling in the beginning:

So close for Charlie! In the meanwhile, Graham is experimenting on throwing with 2 hands.  Nope! No workie! We are all sticking to the one-arm throw.

Our session was for 90 minutes and by about 30 minutes, I have to say we definitely improved from when we first walked into those cages for the very first time:

Woo hoo!! Feels so good to hit the board and strike the bulls-eye too! :-)

The little targets on the top left and right were the most difficult.  And those were worth 7 points.  I hit one once (yes, I was actually aiming for it!):

And Bobby hit the one to the left. That was the more difficult one to hit, I thought:

Daddy is doing the "Salt Bae" thing.  It's a chef and that's sort of his signature move.  Ha!

Well, as you can see, things got really interesting.  Axe is stuck in the board on the handle side?! Graham somehow managed to do this:

He also managed to stick it on the other side of the blade.  Ha ha!

Well, Mommy was the sore loser on our first game of 3 matches:

But totally redeemed myself on the 2nd match. Yay!

Although, I think I was also the one with the most 0s but then also the most 5s.  LOL!!

The place was empty except for us when we walked in, so it was nice for them to give us 2 cages. We definitely got our monies worth:

The boys would throw the smaller axe on one side and Bobby and I would throw the bigger axe on other other bay.  I could not make the little axe stick on the board to save my life!  Every single throw... the axe just bounced off the wall.  I don't know how Graham did it.  His percentages were really good.  His advise was to "throw it harder".  Yeaaaah... that didn't work either.  LOL!!

A TOTALLY fun day! I'm guessing this won't be our last time axe throwing.  Well, actually - the minute we got home, Graham went looking for our hatchet and threw it at one of our trees:

It's a bit dark in the photo as it was late in the evening, so I'm glad Graham hit his mark on the tree and didn't lose the hatchet in the bushes! :-P

Graham and Charlie did also make a remark in the throwing cages that made me laugh.  They said they can't run away from Mommy now because I'm pretty accurate with throwing the axe.  These kids, I tell you! Never a dull moment. LOL!!

Recent happenings

Just some recent happenings around the house.  It's crazy how some of these bins have never been opened since our move over 1.5 years ago.  Yikes!  Well, a few of these bins broke during transit.  When in doubt, duct tape! :-)

The local library hosted a sewing class recently - to sew a fidget quilt for people struggling with dementia:

I never thought that would be a thing for people with dementia.  I thought fidgets were for kids/people that struggle with keeping their attention.  Well, thankfully you can't really see those sewing machine stitching because mine were not very straight!  

I didn't have time to finish up so I left it for the librarians that work in the Maker's Lab to finish up.  What a neat project though!  The library recently bought 6 sewing machines that you can even borrow for a week at a time.  I do have my very own but it always takes me forever to thread it.  Maybe I just need to use it more :-P

Back to trying to find a different drape for the living room.  The lighter one (to the right) with ferns was just too white.  It clashed with our other tan lace ones in the room.  These blue ones with birds is a keeper!

And I finally removed this wobbly shelf that's behind my chair.  I've moved it downstairs for a more stable one:

You can sort of see the new (used) shelf here, but this photo was actually taken to show my late dad's bow.  My sister passed it along to me recently when we went to visit during her surprise birthday late February.  She had brought it back from Malaysia years ago:

I finally hung the bow up last Thursday, which coincidentally was the 100th day since his passing.  It was weird I had chosen that particular day to hang it (without knowing its significance) since the bow had been sitting on the floor prior to that for weeks!

Meanwhile, back in Malaysia - the signage of my dad's pharmacy is being taken down.  The big one across the front of the store front, as well as the sign for the lab:

The guys were having a tough time getting this one off, and it just made me chuckle a little because I knew my late mom was also probably playing a trick or two on these guys.  She loved that lab and worked so many hours taking blood and processing them.  I miss both my mom and dad so much and it was definitely a sad moment to see these signage come down :-(

Well, on a less delicate topic, Bobby and I tried a new restaurant in Libertyville and it was a hit!  Loved the breakfast sandwich and the scrambled eggs bowl with diced potatoes underneath:

I didn't care for the sauce that they put on top of my scrambled eggs, but the chili sauce that they had on the side was yummy!  It actually reminded me of the ones in Malaysia so I bought a bottle of it to bring home.  He he!

And speaking of home, I seem to be buying plants that we had in our old home back in California!  Here's the recent Birds of Paradise:

The gal that sold it to me said that it's never flowered before.  Hopefully someday we'll see it flowering.

The leaves were struggling a bit, which is why she decided to sell it.  I have it now in a south facing window, so hopefully it will be happy!

The other plants that I have bought recently are a weeping willow and a yucca plant - both were in our yards back in California. And I had bought a small lemon plant during the first few months when we moved, so that's also in the house.  It's too bad these plants have to be wheeled/carried in and out of the house depending on the weather, but it seems that is the way it's done here in the Midwest!

The old potatoes were growing again in my kitchen drawer!  So I cut them up and put them in the soil:

I covered it with more soil and right now it's sitting in the garage.  I've decided to buy an indoor growing light.  It showed up today but while I was turning the light-tube, the plastic casing started to bend in a funny way.  Thank goodness for free returns online! So hope to get a new one tomorrow.  I've started to grow some seeds indoors too - so far nothing sprouting yet so hopefully the new light will help.  Fingers crossed!

I recently suggested that our neighborhood host a gardening event for the kids. And so the Youth Committee (which I'm also a part of) agreed to have the even to coincide with Earth Day in April!  And of course, I also suggested we teach the kids how to make newspaper pots for their seeds.  I think I finally figured one out that's simple and easy enough for all the kids:

I didn't think I was that passionate about gardening but I guess I really do enjoy being out there in the garden!  A lot of the bulbs from last year are already sprouting but these next 2 days are going to be very cold (below freezing).  Hopefully they all survive.

And finally, speaking of survive... looks like Charlie's has been playing too much video games and nap time has finally caught up to him!  So you're probably thinking, that's Bob on the couch. And yes, that's Bob but if you just look past his armpit, there's Charlie laying on him.  Awww, too cute!

And Graham is totally bundled up in his brown blanket on this other chair to the left of the photo. Ha ha!  We are a lazy bunch for sure and we do love watching TV/movies as a family! :-)

By the way, Bobby started his new job yesterday.  Woo hoo!!  And that also means I get the whole house back to myself again.  Double woo hoo!! LOL! It's been a long time coming and Bob is super excited.  Perhaps this job was only meant to come by at this time because if he did have a job last year, I wouldn't have been able to fly back to Malaysia all those times to see/care for my late dad (4 times from July to Dec!).  Good news also is that Bobby's commute is not too long so he can be home in time for dinners.  Let's hope it stays that way! Go get 'em, Bobby/Daddy!! XOX

Sis' milestone birthday (end of Feb)

My sister turned 50 years old at the end of last month!  I used to think that when my late mom was in her mid to late 40s, like that was old.  And now my sister is 50 and that will be me in 2 more years.  We are getting old for sure.  Ha ha!

It was supposed to be a surprise birthday trip to MN but I guess my sister's hubby decided to tell my sister because he didn't want to clean up the house by himself.  I suppose if he did, my sister would have probably suspected that something was going on.  Oh well, not quite the surprise that I was hoping for, but she was still so super happy when we showed up at her doorstep :-)

We decided to drive right after school pickup on Friday.  Probably a good thing because there was bad weather coming towards us. And looks like we would drive all evening into it.  We eventually stop at Wisconsin Dells for the night:

The boys do love all the extra games that they have in the lobby at this particular hotel:

I think it's a bit rowdy for me.  Call me traditional!

We went out for a quick dinner at another German restaurant.  Although it was probably mostly bar than restaurant. The boys order a cream soda and I think the other one was a root beer? I can't remember now - all I do remember is the amount of sugar that in each bottle. How is this legal??!

60g of sugar in one bottle and 57g of sugar in the other.  That's like 15 teaspoons of sugar or almost 1/2 cup!!!

So needless to say, we are not ordering these drinks ever again.  Sheesh!!

Here's the snow tonight:

And the next morning... icicles!

Glad we decided to stop early last night.  Although, that means another 3+ more hours to my sister's!

For lunch, we decided to stop over at a fast food restaurant.  I was wondering why we did, but we were actually at a Play it Again Sports to see if we could trade in Bobby's ski boots for another pair.  He is still struggling so much to get into them despite loosening out those little things at the back of his boot. Nope, no luck at this location!

Anyway, Charlie orders a double burger with bacon! 

And Graham opts for just a regular cheese burger.  Ha ha!  Theses kids, I tell you.  Couldn't be more different:

Charlie is such a character:

By the way, he didn't actually finish his entire burger.  I think he only went through about half of it. He didn't think it was going to be that big!

At night, the adults all head out for a nice dinner, including two other couples. Happy Birthday, Sis! 

I gifted her a cloisonné necklace that I found in an antique store.  So glad she loves it! :-)

Thankfully, I also did remember to bring over her Maggi instant noodles that she could not bring back with her after our trip to Malaysia last December.  Ha!  Us and our instant noodles!! :-P

The next day, we decided to visit the Museum of Illusions at Mall of America.  This mall is so massive that it even has an amusement park inside.  Woah!!

Caden, my sister's younger son (2nd from left) has grown so much since the last time we saw him. And that was just last August in Malaysia.  Looks like my boys have a long way to go to catch up!

Trip to the loo first before we head into the museum. Oh my gosh, this is like the longest hallway ever to the loo.  Ha ha!

Things are already interesting at the first exhibit within the museum:

Everyone is leaning!

This kaleidoscope was pretty cool.  Everything on the screen was actually in motion here, as if you were looking into a kaleidoscope while turning it:

We-fie! So glad we were all able to be together today:

Here's a funny video.  Somehow I didn't get the same sensation when I was going through this tunnel.   I guess I wasn't doing it right.  But it was sure funny watching the boys tip over! LOL!

This was a fun illusion, although I don't think Graham and Bobby were doing this one right.  This is how it is in reality:

And once you take the photo and turn it over on your image setting,... yup, they are definitely not doing it right:

So my sister and I took things into our own hands and climbed up this metal structure:

Thankfully we weren't actually hanging upside down from the ceiling!  But my sister did have a tough time getting down, and we had a good laugh.  Ha ha!

Mirrors can create such funny illusions!

And this is what Infinity literally looks like!

It truly is amazing what mirrors can create:

Here's what a mix of my sister and I would look like:

And top half of Bobby and bottom half of me??! LOL!!  Funny thing was Bobby didn't know that's what I was doing with my legs, so we had a really good laugh when we saw the photo :-D

This was a fun room too.  Those standing on the right would be a lot larger than those in the left corner of the room. Charlie is almost as tall as Caden here!

There's a TV screen in the room so you could also see yourselves:

Graham being silly and poor Charlie crouched down in the "tiny" corner:

Another we-fie! Charlie's definitely larger than me here and look how tiny Graham and Bobby are.  LOL!

This was probably my favorite illusion:

Oh my! we are hanging off the building!!  Except for Graham, who is sitting crossed-leg upside-down. LOL!!

My sister and I tried to do the same but you could see her actual arm at the bottom of the photo.  Looks like Bobby didn't stand on the right spot to take the photo:

Do you see how we're doing it yet?  We are actually laying down on the floor - you can see me and Bobby at the bottom left of the photo below:

And the image is reflected on this large slanted mirror above, and now we look like we are hanging off the building! Well, I'm falling and Bobby has jumped off the floor to reach me?! So many ways to interpret this.  Ha!

Infinite number of me and my sister?!  I was so afraid of losing track of where the door was in this room as every part of it was a mirror.  Ha ha!

This was too funny :-)

Too cute that I had to try it for myself:

Ha ha!  I actually had to crawl into this exhibit.  Totally worth this photo! :-)

Floating prisms - again, they were actually half prisms reflected on a mirror:

Bobby is seen playing cards all by himself here:

It's more realistic when I crop myself out multiple times from the photo above.  See what I mean?!

It's crazy how our eyes really play tricks on us.  Check out this video:

Wait, what??! LOL!!

We couldn't get this red dot out from the bottom of the table no matter what we did.  Urgh! One day, we will have to go back and spend more time on it.  Ha ha!

More illusions... I was debating that perhaps I could draw one of these on our wall at home:

Or this one? Do you see a vase or 2 faces??

Crazy stuff!

Happy Birthday, Sis!  So glad we got to do this today :-)

O.M.G, this is it!!

This large mural was upstairs by the food court.  My sister got a kick out of me taking photos for my next inspiration. Yes, this will be it for the wall in the house :-D

I'll let you know when it happens! Or until I find see another mural and change my mind (again!).

This is how tall Caden is - taller than Bobby!

But no one can be more dramatic than Bobby.  I was actually trying to take a photo of all the hanging lights in the background:

Daddy definitely makes life interesting - also our entertainer.  This is Bobby singing on our way home.  He obviously didn't know that I was recording him in secret :-P

I'm not sure how he ended up singing the Star-spangled Banner. This is what a 6-hr drive can do. LOL!

And my sister received her rosary bracelet the next day on her actual birthday.  So happy she loves it!

A quick but fun trip.  Glad we were able to see my sister and her family again.  It's been difficult for my sister since our dad's passing last December.  So glad we live closer to each other now. XOX