Summer of doing things

This summer the kids said they wanted to do things. I asked what that meant. I got funny looks back, but we came up with a few things to do.

J wanted to do experiments from his Dangerous Book for Boys, but we didn't have all the ingredients. I googled some stuff and came up with growing salt crystals.





Wowa came over last Saturday to help A make clothes for her newest American Girl. She wanted to make a bag for her too. She's making the pattern from scratch.





We made butter & soft pretzels. The combined result was yummy.

The swim meet

I made the kids join swim team with the promise they wouldn't have to swim in the meets. Luckily the coaches wore them down and they decided to swim last night. Both A&J did great!


J swam a freestyle relay, freestyle & breaststroke








A swam freestyle & breaststroke








The boys after racing was done

Frankenstein

This post is for my friend Susan so she knows that it happens to lots of kids.

This afternoon I was gathering the kids up for a special trip to Target to get Father's Day presents. We were so close to leaving. Everyone had gone potty, everyone had their shoes on, everyone was headed to the door.

I went to the kitchen to look for my keys, heard B running through the hallway, then a very loud thud & a scream. A bad scream. DH & I both came running, I picked him up first. B was holding both hands to his forehead. He had gone head first into the door frame. Even though he hadn't moved his hands yet, I knew it was bad. I looked down and there was blood squirting between his fingers all over him and me.

As I headed to the kitchen for rag to stop the bleeding, I told DH to stay with A&J. Then I realized I couldn't drive the car and hold something on his head, so we all headed out the door.

We ended up at the local emergency room and an hour and half later, B had 6 stitches and a green popsicle. The worst part about it is the 7 day ban on swimming. He's not going to be happy about that, and I'm not going to be happy dealing with him being unhappy when I say no to the pool. But at least he is okay.


The bloody batman shirt. He cried when he realized it was ruined.



He wouldn't sit still for the pictures.



Evidence of the green popsicle!

Summer afternoon

We had a busy summer day yesterday. VBS in the morning, play date with a friend, stroke clinic for swim team and a t-ball game.

B played in the baby pool while A&J did stroke clinic.



He started swimming freestyle because he wants to swim on the swim team too.



A&J are improving at stroke clinic.



After swimming, we headed to t-ball. I had a hard time taking pictures. It was darn hot and there was no shade. I spent most of my time hiding behind other moms' umbrellas. Both times J was up to bat, I missed it. Finally he got to 3rd base and was standing next to DH who was coaching 3rd. I went to get a picture of the two of them together, but just as I got to focus on them, J had to run. I missed a great picture of him crossing home plate.



UnfortunatelyLuckily we have 3 games left so I'll have more picture taking opportunities.

I met some friends for dinner at Fernando's. I had fish tacos & a frozen margarita and a couple of hours of good conversation. It was a nice way to end my busy day.

Piano lessons

J's been asking for piano lessons for awhile. I tried to find some for him last fall. It turns out they were either too expensive or they were full.

I got a cold call from some woman in January asking about giving piano lessons in my home. She gave me several references in the neighborhood. I thought about doing it but it wasn't a good time to add something else to my schedule. She was persistent, calling back every few months to see if I was still interested. Every time I told her it wasn't a good time to start.

Finally this summer she called again, and I decided it was finally time to start.

Mrs. K showed up this afternoon. When she drove up, DH asked me if I hired some hippie teacher. She was driving a beat up Volkswagon bus. She is a old lady. I had guessed as much from our phone conversations. She carried a hand stitched patchwork bag. Her clothes were crazy old lady polyester duds. I wasn't too sure about her.

However, the lesson went well. J loved it. She played a rag version of "Oh, when the saints" for him at the end of the lesson and told him that some day he would play the piano just like that.

As she left, I got worried about her. Here is this poor old woman who has to drive around teaching piano lessons to make money, carrying her beat up old bag, driving a van that looked like it was about to fall apart. As I said goodbye, I said a quick prayer that she didn't actually live in that van.

Latest Harvest

Today we pulled our first carrot. It wasn't much of a carrot but it was tasty.




I cleaned it and sliced it into 5 pieces about 1/4 inch thick. Each of us got a small taste. Unfortunately, I didn't know much about growing carrots and didn't realize that carrot need pretty loose soil to grow long. We planted them in our compacted, hard texas clay so our carrots will probably all be the size of baby carrots.

We had a busy day.

Morning - cleaning (still), weeding, shopping trip to Target with Shannon,
Afternoon - t-ball game, pick up Wowa's mail with side trip to the water wise garden tour, visiting with friend,
Evening - DH went to the race track, kids & I went to dinner, made another trip to target & stopped at the movie store.

It was almost 8pm when we got home. I did a bit more weeding while the boys cleaned up the backyard. Even though it was late, I got them jammied and put them in front of a movie with a threat that any hint of screaming, arguing, playing, disturbing or erratic behavior, the movie would be turned off and they would all go to bed.

It's working so far.

Slavedriver

So, the kids have been out of school for 3 days now. I'm still sane, but I'm not sure how long it will last.

I actually got sick of hearing them tell me how bored they were and asking me what they could do that was fun by Monday afternoon. It had only been hours since they got out of school for the summer.

I decided to be mean. I told them we would do nothing fun until their rooms where clean. I didn't mean pick up the dirty socks and throw the toys in the closet clean. I meant go through the whole desk and throw out all the toys with missing parts, put aside unused stuff for donation, recycle all those spelling tests. I meant clean.

Monday afternoon J & I had done a pretty good job on his room. His closet still needs to be tackled but I'm holding off on that until Saturday morning when I don't have work hanging over my head.

However, A is taking her own sweet time. She has cleaned in between fits of moaning that I'm the meanest mother in the world and it's not fair that the boys are playing outside while she is cleaning. Slowly but surely, it is getting done.





I'm sad to say that this is a drastic improvement on her desk. If you can believe it, 75% of the junk that was on top of her desk is gone! I can't wait to get to those bookshelves.





There was a chest under all those books and clothes!





This space makes me happy. The table was covered with bits of string, papers, pretend food, forts, beds and pillows. It was a makeshift house/hospital/school for all of her dolls. It is empty and so refreshing.

I'll keep the whip swinging and hopefully the rest of the room will catch up.

Free for the summer

Yesterday was the last day of school. It's officially summer time.


The 4th grader


The 1st grader



I think B is starting a new trend. We had to pick the kids up at 10:30 at the park across from school. At 10:15, I realized that we needed to get going and B was still in in pjs. I got him dressed and ran around looking for keys. B decided he didn't want to go, he wanted to stay home and finish watching Dora. His solution to getting to stay home was to strip. I, on the other hand, could not leave him at home alone. So this is how we went to school.




Yeah, he's not too happy. He finally agreed to get dressed when I told them we were going out to lunch for the last day of school. Hopefully I don't have to bribe him with chocolate milkshakes to get him dressed for the rest of his life.