Eight years ago today (7 a.m. to be precise), Accalia's entrance into the world started my journey in motherhood. I'll be forever grateful to her for allowing me to be part of it all and to bless me with her patience, understanding, humor and love.

The past couple days have been a lot of fun. Cory couldn't come home early enough Wednesday afternoon, and we were able to take off to Mitchell by 4 p.m. We checked into the Holiday Inn and went next door to get supper from Dairy Queen. Then we went swimming for a bit, although it was pretty cold in the water. Cole preferred to spend most of the time in the hot tub, Accalia was busy chasing after Cory, and Ella had me going back and forth between the big pool and wading pool. Once we were dry and warm again, we drove around town a little bit to see some old haunts. Then we went over to Cory's brother's house and hung out for a while before the movie.

We all enjoyed Shrek the Third, but by the time it was over we had decided it would be smart to head back to the hotel rather than trying to make it through the second feature of Spiderman 3. So we got the kids settled in bed and asleep, and then Cory and I decorated the room with streamers. Accalia had requested that I pile her presents up on the bed so she'd wake up to see them right away in the morning, and I managed to do that just before she woke up.

Here's Accalia enjoying her present opening:


Before leaving Mitchell, Accalia and Cole really wanted to stop at the Corn Palace to see the inside. Since we had never actually done this while living in Mitchell (the inside is used for basketball games most of the time when there's not a tourist purpose), we decided it was probably about time. Here's what the Corn Palace looks like on the outside this year:


Here's our corn-y picture from the inside:


Accalia and Cole weren't quite sure about the photo op across the street from the Corn Palace:


While we were at the Corn Palace, Cory discovered that Weird Al Yankovic is performing at the Corn Palace Festival in August. There was no stopping the man from buying tickets, so guess what we'll be doing August 25?

After all of that excitement, we headed to Sioux Falls and lunch at Gigglebee's. I think we've decided we like Chuck E. Cheese better for several reasons, although there were some cool things such as Wilbur the Robot bringing us our meal. Cole loved the play area with the ball pit, and Accalia and I duked it out on the bumper cars. Ella was so disturbed by some of the parents there (my favorite was the mother calling her little girl a brat while we waited in line in the bathroom) that she was driven to drinking while flying in the helicopter ride:


Before we left Sioux Falls, I did get to make my stop at Barnes & Noble to pick up my stack of magazines. Hooray! Now I just need an extra couple hours in the day to read them all.

We made it home just in time to go to the chiropractor (sweet relief!) and for Cory to head to his one client of the evening. Then we had a birthday supper of sweet corn and hot dogs and cheesecake. Accalia had swimming lessons after that, and the rest of the evening has passed pretty quickly.

Tomorrow - depending on the weather - we're getting together with friends at the park in the morning and going to a birthday party at another park in the afternoon.