Tag Archives: bounce house

A Mani-Pedi Treat & Bounce House Feat

07/23/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

I know, the moment she reads the title to this post, by wife will shake her head at the fact I just said “mani-pedi”. Honestly, I feel slightly weird every time I say, but I still do. It’s just easier than saying the full words, “manicure and pedicure”. Plus, it is in this online dictionary.

Mani-Pedi’s aside, my aunt Tammy, uncle Paul, and Grandma from Pennsylvania came down to visit my mom and have an early 60th birthday celebration with her. Kelley, Avery, and I didn’t see them every day they were down, but we met up on three on separate occasions. I’ve found that I’m spending too much time blogging and not enough family time which creates way too much stress, so I’m breaking up each outing into three parts; this post is 1 of 3.

Uncle Paul is the only brother out of the four kids my grandparents had on my mom’s (G-Ma’s) side, so he knows a thing or two about what ladies love. That’s why he treated all of the ladies, my mom, Tammy, Kelley, and Grandma, to a lavish mani-pedi treatment while he, Avery, and I went to the same bounce house Avery has been to a few times. Credit to my awesome wife for setting up the hand and foot treatment for everyone!

Before we did anything, we all met at a new restaurant called Mod Market for lunch.

This was our first time to see them since they arrived, so there were plenty of pictures. Of course I had to get one with Grandma! She was here when Avery first entered the world!

Then over to Paul and Tammy for more picture-taking love.

It’s crazy to think back to when I was just a little boy and they would pick me up from the airport when I flew up to PA during most summers. #TimeFlies

After lunch, the ladies were off to have their hands and feet given the deluxe treatment while Paul, Avery, and I went to see Avery accomplish a feat at the bounce house. In the past visits, I’ve had to mostly just carry her up and around everything and she could hardly bounce. This time, she was able to crawl up and into most of the inflatables and took off on a bouncing frenzy!

I still had to carry her up climbing obstacles and go down the slides with her, but I’m not complaining, I love these things!

There were more complicated houses that I took her through as well, and once again, I’m pretty sure I had more fun than she did. Probably didn’t help with the way we exited…

Just a little push here and you can do the rest, right, Avery? Aannnnddd….

Oops, wrong. I made a quick recovery and busted out in dance urging her to join in.

Despite the picture, she actually rocked a few dance moves and had Paul quite impressed. But then I had to go and ask her to do high knees which she always does when we say the word, and she busted hard flat on her face. Crying, no, screaming, soon followed and that marked the end of the bounce house. She had a busted lip with a little blood dripping down from her tears (or was that snot?) so I made a quick clean-up at the bathroom before taking us home.

The crying continued the whole ride home, but Paul and I were able to carry on a conversation without having to raise our voices…….too much. The girls were still enjoying their treatment so Paul and I just spent more time sharing stories while simultaneously trying to calm Avery who was, yes, still crying. Then, lo and behold, would you believe something got her to settle down? She wanted nothing to do with Daddy, but Great Uncle Paul worked his magic!

Yep, as long as he held her, Avery remained a happy camper. She even showed him the trees in our backyard. Or was it the dog? I can’t remember. He tried to set her back down a few times but she wasn’t having it, he must hold her all the time!

Luckily, with three grown boys of his own and a long-time high school math teacher, I’d say he has just a little bit of patience, so he kept her happy until the ladies arrived. It didn’t help that we had passed the normal nap time, or at least I’m using that reason to explain her aversion to Daddy.

After a short chat with everyone, they left to go explore more of the surrounding area and we attempted to get Avery to take some kind of nap. The nap never happened. Maybe if Paul stayed to take a short siesta with her we would’ve had more luck.

Our first outing with the family was quick, but it was great to see them as usual. For our next place, and what you’ll see on my next post, we visited a somewhat nearby craft brewery, Revolver Brewing. It was an hour away, I was a grump (sorry everyone), and I’ll fill you in on the details soon.

Do you have family out of state that you are close to?

Do you get to see them on a regular basis?

Is saying “mani-pedi” acceptable for a guy? For anyone?

Parenting

Jumping Dads and Beer With a Friend

04/02/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

April Fools’ Day was supposed to be a fun day at a nearby park with our Dallas Dads Group, but Nature wasted no time living up to the term “April Showers”. Just hours after midnight, it rained, and continued with storms all throughout the day.

Luckily, when scheduling this meet up, I had an indoor backup plan for the bounce house we went to for my first scheduled Dallas Dads Group event. I was looking forward to being outside with other dads and our kids since Avery and I had a good time when we went last week. Avery even ran sprints across the soccer field with me!

Soon, that awesome playground in the background will be more than just a giant mulch pit for her to throw wood pieces! The whole mulch thing is why I decided not to be too upset about our change of plans and figured some bouncing action would suit all of us just well.

Two other dads were able to attend, one with an almost 3 year old son, and the other with a 1 1/2 year old daughter. The father-son duo were making their way through all of the bounce houses like a tornado in a trailer park. Both were jumping and playing non-stop, and I’m not sure who had more fun; kid or adult.

Meanwhile, the other dad and I had to help our girls around, but they still had plenty of play time too. Well, after the initial shell-shock phase where the look on their face is saying “Where the hell am I?!”

That soon passed and Avery was in a basketball bounce house doing her best to keep on her feet. Poor girl kept tumbling as you would expect from an already unstable toddler in an inflatable house. Not that I helped by jumping all around her. Just helping to work on her stability is all!

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I tried lifting her to the rim so she could make a slam dunk, but Avery refused to let the ball go. Guess we still have some work to do on teaching her the game of basketball. Not that I know much more than trying to get the ball in the other team’s hoop.

What I loved most about our dads group was that all three of us dads were getting in there and jumping around with our kids while the moms that brought their kids were either sitting on a bench or standing outside watching or on their phone. Okay, moms reading this, don’t blow up on me! I’m not saying all moms do this, I know that’s not true, just the ones that were there while we were.

We good, caring mothers? Good. 🙂

Before we parted ways, we had an employee snap a shot of us dads with our quickly expiring toddlers.

Good times for sure.

Avery and I stopped at Sprouts on the way home to pick up a few groceries. I found a new kimchi I’ve never seen before and can’t wait to try it. Fermented food is packed full of gut healing goodness and it’s great as a topping on a variety of things.

Once home, I knocked out a quick tabata kettlebell workout with Avery and went for a walk with her and Abby (our Golden). I fed Avery lunch while making dinner for Going Mom and trying to eat something for myself. Kelley had a dentist appointment and was coming home early right after.

My wife was nice enough to let me out of the house alone so I could meet an old friend at a local pub for a few beers. I didn’t want to appear too eager to get out, but I left before nap time was over with good beer on my mind.

Don’t worry, I didn’t have a lot, and made it back just in time to sit down for dinner at our usual time; late. It’s always nice to catch up with an old friend and to have good beer while doing so, hopefully we’ll meet again sooner rather than later.

It was a long but fun-filled day, and can’t wait to go to our next meet up with our Dallas Dads Group. Maybe next time the weather will hold up and we can make it to the park!

I'm waiting on you. — I’m waiting on you.

If you had to choose, would you pick being outside or an indoor venue like a bounce house to be with your kids?

Have any long time friends you like to meet with every now and then to play catch up?

Life, Parenting

Friends and Strangers at the Bounce House

03/05/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Have you ever been to a bounce house? Think of those giant inflatables that fill the backyards of homes for a kids’ birthday party, only it’s all indoors and filled with 10+ giant inflatables! In other words, a kids’ (and most adults’) wonderland!

As part of our Dallas Dads Group, I scheduled a Meetup at a local bounce house called Jump For Fun (fitting name I’d say) for us dads to gather and have fun with our kids. We had 4 dads attend, including me, and we each had one kid. It was hard to sit and talk with the other guys since I had to keep my eyes on Avery. She was all over the place!

Okay, so not first, but she started moving after warming up to her surroundings.

Until I put her inside one of the inflatables……

Yeah, that was her first and last time in that one. Not sure what made her so upset, but I blame her current teething issue as the main culprit. Once back out on the floor though, her mood changed back to happy status.

But we obviously didn’t go to a bounce house to run around the floor, so grabbed Avery and we went through several of the fun-filled obstacles together. She was confused at times, but I could tell she enjoyed it overall. But man, it was difficult trying to traverse some of the slippery inflatable steps with Avery in one arm! Regardless, we did it plenty of times, and even took on Batman!

He was all talk. One of our neighborhood dads and friends, Jason, was there with his daughter, Zoey, and we took turns taking our girls down a giant slide.

Avery, with her cutting teeth, had her hand in her mouth most of the time we were there. Nothing a little tickling can’t do to fix the hand-in-mouth issue.

Jason and Zoey were able to go up and down several times in the time it took us to go once.

Zoey is older and she was having a blast running all over the place. Notice, no hands in mouth for her since she has all her teeth!

While wondering around, Avery made a new, older, friend who seemed to like picking her up.

Seemed sweet and innocent enough, until she dropped her like a hot potato!

I guess they made up though, and the girl was more careful afterward.

I don’t know if it was the trauma of being dropped, her cutting teeth, or just because she’s a sweetheart, but Avery went up to a lady sitting on a bench, took the magazine sitting next to her, and held it up as if asking her to read it. The kind mom of two boys, Katie, kindly held Avery in her lap and read a little. Avery seemed to enjoy.

Everyone had a great time and we’re hoping to make the place a regular meetup for our Dallas Dads Group soon. Maybe next time Avery won’t be in the middle of teething and actually smile for a picture.

Eh, it wasn’t crying, so I’ll consider it a win in my book. Whatever book that is, I don’t know. I’m happy with the group of dads that met up and hope to be able to talk with them more next time. Which, thanks to our awesome group, we’ll have the chance plenty of times in the near and distant future!