Right before we decided what to do we stopped at Costco to browse around a little and get some free samples. Costco is legit when it comes to killing time, mainly because of their enormous selection of products.
Compared to Petaluma and Santa Rosa, there aren't many activities to do with your 2 year old on a cold day. Except that Rohnert Park has a ChuckECheese!. Ivy and I went with our besties and had a very enjoyable time on a $2 budget! If you don't plan on eating there you can have a frugal good time since they do have two indoor playgrounds that are free. I had about $2 which went towards tokens, and we saved money by buying ingredients from Food Maxx to make a meal at home.
The indoor toddler playground had your standard kiddie rides that nudge back and forth while making entertaining noises. The girls loved those of course! Ivy went on the blue ride with the huge eyeballs three times before I convinced her that it was another kids turn.
As you can see she was not into the idea of me asking her to get off.
"Otro" aka "again"- Ivy
I led her to the train with the Barney on it. This I found quite funny since I didn't know that Chucky was affliated with Barney.
The Bob The Builder ride was by far the most popular! What kid doesn't want to ride on a tractor?
ChuckECheese also had an interactive playground which had a small bus theme playground with a slide that the girls enjoyed climbing onto.
There were plenty of toddler games that required little effort, yet were enjoyable for our girls. Plus, it gave us an excuse to get to play some of these games while "teaching" the girls how to play :)
The girls weren't looking forward to the token games as much as I'd thought. After 10 seconds of each game that required a token they would run away or get frightened. There not even two so who could blame them?
If your kids aren't scared easily you can walk them over to the party area where they have a stage with all of the ChuckECheese characters. Ivy was very brave when it came to seeing them up close, but when I tried to lift her for a closer look she was skeptical. As far as a themed party this would be a great location for a 3-4 year old inexpensive party. Mainly because most of the younger children are not as into the ticket games as the older kids are.
They also have an ice cream dispenser which is my favorite thing at CEC! It is much cheaper than an Ice Cream truck too! In the long run it's better to by a box of ice cream bars, but for a single one this place has great prices.
The girls did not want to leave when it was time to go. They seemed restless.
But they passed out after 2minutes in the car and 30minutes at ChuckECheese!
Recently, life's overwhelming situations were getting to me.
Anybody Else?
Money, babysitting, work, school, groceries, dirty dishes, you name it and it was stressing me out. I tried talking to people about it, but advice from people who are not in your exact situation can be tough to handle.
For everyone, not just myself ;)
Luckily, I came across a wonderful motivator. Roy Savery. His blog had all varieties of useful tips for everyday life that didn't sound generic and "obvious." That wasn't even the best motivation. The motivation came from his E-book. Now I understand that people are skeptical about E-books because most of the time it's just a scam! Not this though, he deserves his $17.95 :) I'm glad I bought it, because the Successful Living Handbook made my stress level go down 10 fold.
It's not just a read, It's an experience
There are area's for you to jot down notes about how you feel personally about the subject. For example, in the chapter take time to be healthy I was able to write down all the things I didn't like about my health. I've been through a fluctuating weight cycle which left my self esteem feeling down. Being able to write about how I felt without out having someones opinion there felt pretty good.
Don't get me wrong people's opinions are great, but they are just that opinions.
Only you truly know yourself.
There are survey's in every chapter to evaluate yourself. My favorite was the Health survey. Here it is so you can just read over it and think about each question. I bet you will start getting an answer that you might or might not want to hear as your reading it. The great thing about this handbook is that the answers you are looking for, are coming for you. They are not coming as an opinion from someone who might light a flame to your insecurities.
Health Survey
Step # 1 What is it I want?
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…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Step # 2 What does reaching the goal mean to me?
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Step # 3 What will it mean if I don’t reach this goal?
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Step # 4 What obstacles will I need to overcome?
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Step # 5
Extra skills and knowledge that I need to acquire
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Step # 6 Other people who can help me
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Step # 7 How will the goal be fulfilled?
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Step # 8 Completion Date / /
There was also a chapter on Self Image. The first tip was
Make up and dress up. The way you look on the outside has a
lot to do with what is going on inside. Look your best and feel
your best
I avoided fixing myself up for so long simply because I decided I was too busy. Making that choice only left me depressed and feeling ugly.
Learn from successful failures - people who have kept on
trying.
This was a great tip. I've heard the saying "learn from other people's mistakes" but this was a positive twist I didn't expect. I loved it. The book is written to give you confidence and optimism. Not to point out your obvious mistakes that you already feel horrible about.
It's never too late to change your perspective on yourself. It's feels so good to let go of unanswered questions that you don't need the answer to right away. And it feels even better to answer your own questions. Reading Roy Savery's Successful Living Handbook gave me a positive outlook on myself and my surroundings. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking to improve their success in their life!
I was able to stroll by the Petaluma Butter and Eggs day parade and catch a few of the floats before I had to head out. Here are some pictures that I took so you guys can take a look and see if I captured any of you! :)
Next year I am going to take my time and look at all the floats with my girl and take lots more pictures!
Regardless of the short time I spent, the parade was really fun AND SO POPULAR. It is basically the biggest event for Petaluma other than American Graffiti. I spoke to Paolo one of the hombres from Tres Hombres and he said that Butter and Eggs day was the 2nd busiest day of the year. Cinco de Mayo being the first. Which doesn't surprise me because they have a gorgeous restaurant (their review coming soon!).
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