BUTTERFLY, BUTTERFLY, TAKE ALL MY MONEY

Yesterday we spent some time at the Butterfly Pavilion.  It's all part of the Summer Fun Program, wherein we spend way too much money at over-priced attractions in an attempt to keep everyone sane during summer break.  Naturally, the first thing we saw was an over sized praying mantis.

Of course, with all those butterflies flying around, there were plenty of good photo opportunities.

 Like this one.

We really did see lots of butterflies, and I took way too many pictures. 

I won't bore you with all of them all here.  But just in case you want to see more, you can check them out on my photo blog.  After all that picture taking, I was far too tired to make dinner, so we stopped at Red Robin on the way home.  It made me feel much better about the price of the Butterfly Pavilion.

Before dinner, we walked through a sculpture park that T has been wanting to visit.  We saw lots of beautiful art, but that's not important in light of what we saw in the pond.  It was the highlight of the day, and of course, it was completely and totally free.

BRACES: PUTTING YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS

E GOT BRACES TODAY!

I never had braces myself, so I'm not sure how they did it back in the day, but it's all done with lasers now. Really. They put the braces on your teeth and shine some sort of magical light in your mouth and the braces just stick.

It is a bit pricey though. I was actually thinking that besides the magical light, I could get all the stuff at Home Depot. It was just some wires and springs and what appeared to be some needle-nose pliers. I might have to stop by Office Depot for some rubber bands, but I don't mind if it will save me a few dollars.

If you don't have a child in braces yet I have some advice for you. Move to England as soon as possible! They're not so into beautiful, straight teeth over there. I say we follow the British tradition and embrace the "natural" look when it comes to our teeth. In England, you can go your entire life without dental care and still grow up to be an International Man of Mystery. Trust me, it will save you a lot of money in the long run.


In fact, I came across an article just the other day about Do-It-Yourself Dentistry on the BBC's website. You know, the BBC? The BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation. Unfortunately, there weren't instructions for applying your own braces, but according to the article 11% of our English friends have used household glue to stick down a filling or crown and 6% have tried to stick down a loose filling with chewing gum. Handy tips I say, and they won't cost you ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

If you decide to stay in the U.S. and you or one of your children needs braces, I highly recommend Goings Orthodontics. They're very knowledgeable and friendly and they have a lovely facility. They also give you a super fancy electric toothbrush when you get your braces. Oh, and did I mention that we get $100 for every person we refer? So we just need 40 of you to go get some braces and we'll have this paid for in no time.

NAUTICAL NONSENSE

The Summer Fun Program has nearly come to an end, and thank goodness, because it was starting to get expensive. Especially when you visit places like the Denver Aquarium, which is a pretty nonsensical place for a display of aquatic life, if you want my opinion. I get Sea World being in San Diego, but the Denver Aquarium seems a bit out of place to me. It just goes to show you that if you team up with Spongebob, you can sell anything!

Besides the obvious question of why an aquarium in Denver, I came away from the experience with a few other lingering questions. Like why does a tiger live at the aquarium? And why is my husband picking Spongebob's nose and growing a goatee-like beard? Also, if Spongebob greets you outside the aquarium, why don't any of the displays inside incude a Krusty Krab? And finally, why is it so expensive?

My kids didn't seem to have any questions though (probably because they weren't paying) and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Sharks and turtles were favorites, and also seemed popular with the 2 trillion other children at the aquarium on Friday. Of course, we had to RUN through the gift shop, strategically placed at the the exit (you couldn't go over it . . . you couldn't go around it . . . so you had to go through it) to avoid any further spending.

There might be one more trip to the pool in the works before the kids head back to school, at which point I will dance around the quiet, empty house and sing . . . "It's the most wonderful time of the year." Bet you thought that was a Christmas song, didn't you?

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME

Take me out to the crowd . . . buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack's . . . I don't care if it costs an arm and a leg.

Actually, we bought popcorn, Skittles and 2 sodas for $18.50! But that is not the point. The point is, we all had a great time at the ballpark Friday night.

It's all part of the Summer Fun Program, which is basically a plan for spending a lot of money to entertain the children during summer vacation. It was a beautiful evening though, perfect for sitting outside and enjoying a baseball game. Yes, our team lost, even though the boys put on their rally caps in the bottom of the 9th (well not E, because that is just WAY too embarassing for a pre-teenager).

The kids quoted lines from Spongebob all the way home. One of my favorites . . . "What doesn't kill you usually succeeds on the second attempt." But it got me got me thinking . . . if my kids can memorize every episode of Spongebob, why can't they include educational information in each episode? States and capitals, or U.S. Presidents or times tables or something else useful. My kids have learned who David Hasselhoff is, but that is hardly information that is going to help them out in life.