our week in review

Sunday, May 29th, 2011.
You saw some shots from Sunday in the Grandma's visit post below this one. We visited the arboretum that day. Here are a few more photos from the visit...

Monday, May 30th, 2011.

We spent a couple hours at the beach. Grandma sat by the towels and was ready to make sand castles and dig with Gretchen. Carl prefers to be in the ocean, so even if he ran up to the towels, I knew he'd be back to the water very soon. I stayed in the whole time. The kids had a few snacks as well. Then, we headed home... had lunch... and took a nap....

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011.

Daddy & Grandma left town on the same flight. Grandma was heading home after her visit and Lew was headed to Canton NY for a mini vacation business trip. We had a speech therapy session and then a play date with our classmates at Chuck E. Cheese's. We had never been there before. That was not an accident or oversight on my part. Five and a half years I managed to avoid it. Should have skipped the play date. But, seeing their friends is high on their list of things they love and I would have felt guilty if we didn't go. Apparently, the other kids had all been there before and their mothers/grandmothers were quite comfortable there. Their kids stayed by the games pretty well. One mom said, "Don't worry, they can't leave." They stamped our hands when we entered - all 3 of us with the same glow-in-the-dark number so only I could leave with them. But, Carl was more interested in the animatronic figures up on stage than he was with the games and I had one kid over there and the other kid running with her friends. The mothers mostly sat and visited. Wish I could have talked with them. I don't get many play dates myself, you know. Instead, I was literally sweating from going back and forth making sure Carl wasn't' breaking anything and Gretchen was still there. There was a birthday party going on and someone in costume came out to entertain the kids at that party. Which, apparently, Carl thought he was invited to. He was right in the middle of everything. I was so embarrassed, but couldn't keep him away. At one point, he was right behind the birthday boy attempting to blow out the kids candles! I'm sure I am in plenty of those family's pictures scowling at him and trying to get him away from the guest of honor's coveted mascot.

Then, when this photo opportunity arose, albeit briefly, Carl didn't smile. He was fascinated with his teeth, though. And yes, he is barefoot because he managed to get out of the house in flip flops... which he took off within seconds of entering the place. If you know anything about me at all, you know how enthralled I was to have my child barefoot in a public place.

He did really really love this Bob the Builder ride. I should have counted how many tokens he pumped into it. And given him twice as many. We had a coupon for "buy 50, get 50 free"... so, $12.50 there. And we came home with 47 of the 100. Yippee. Also remember, my kids don't like pizza, so we couldn't go in with the other kids and share a pizza. Nope. $4 per hot dog meal. Only one got eaten. No drink included in the $4. That drink shown was another $2. More than $10 for lunch. Then, Gretchen had the nerve to accept a piece of pizza from one of the moms and proceeded to eat about 1/2 of it. So much for the kid who said, "I don't like pizza. I won't eat pizza." That pretty much is her limit when eating pizza... 6 bites.All in all, the trip to Chuck E Cheese was everything I thought it would be... and more. I knew I had stayed out of there all my life for a reason. They were pretty psyched with their prizes, though. One little girl's grandmother brings her there so often that she knew which machines would spit out the most tickets when you played them. She gave us a coupon for some points to buy these prizes with in the first place. Temporary Chuck E Cheese tattoos. The kids loved them! Phew.
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011.
We met Andrea at school for a session before hitting Costco and Target for some morning shopping. We were in Costco too early to have any snack samples - they were still setting up their ovens. Should have done Target first. Get this - Target doesn't have Coast soap anymore. Grrr.
We did start our shopping trip off right. With popcorn. And, we saved some to bring home for later. It allowed Carl to have his idea of a perfect dinner.

Gretchen & I tried to reproduce a S'mores pizza we tried from Papa Murphy's the other night. I looked up a few recipes online, but it just wasn't the same. Don't get me wrong. It was good and we ate it, but it wasn't like the other night's. None of the recipes called for butter, but I am thinking maybe a little under the crushed graham crackers may have helped. Or certainly not hurt.
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011.
We had nothing on the calendar so we decided to try going to the Children's Museum's cooking story hour. I knew Carl wasn't going to be into it no matter what the food item was, but I figured he could still participate in the mixing and making part. And, he would sit nicely for the story. Turns out, Mary Ellen read the kids Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the snack was going to be porridge. The class was pretty empty - don't know if other kids weren't going to like porridge either or if it was just such a nice day no one was inside at the Children's Museum. Anyway, yes, both kids sat nicely to listen to the story and offer answers when questions were presented. And, as always - Gretchen piped up to talk during the story. When they got to one page deep in the book, Gretchen pointed out, "Miss Mary Ellen - this page has the same picture as the book cover has!" Sure enough - it did. And Mary Ellen was impressed. Me, not so much - I still believe she has a photographic memory.

So, the story ended and Carl announced loudly, "I don't like porridge!"
He did agree, somewhat reluctantly, to sit and make a bowl even if he did not want to try it. Neither one of my kids like oatmeal. I did get Gretchen to try a bite, but she (again, loudly, because if you're going to talk - why not let the whole room hear you, right?) informed us after that "This made me gag!"
I took an entire series of photos because a friend had asked me about summer activities for her triplets and I thought I'd share some reading/cooking ideas... with photos. Besides, it may be the last time we get Carl to agree to go. He did try to drink the milk when she brought it over to mix in with the oatmeal. And he tried the walnuts - not in oatmeal, but he tried them. He does like nuts. I have actually sent 1/4 c of cashews in his lunch for school. that is the amount needed to count as a protein.
Thursday night, Daddy returned from his trip to NY. Every time Lew travels, he looks for stuffed animals for the kids for a present. This time - he found them each a Snoopy. One pink and one blue... they love them! Friday, June 3rd, 2011.
After speech in the morning, we were heading out to pick blueberries. We got 15 minutes from home and realized we didn't grab our buckets. So, we decided to postpone the berry picking until Saturday morning and we quickly pulled into the local gardens. The butterfly house now has residents and both kids enjoyed seeing those. Unfortunately, none landed on the kids. They really wanted one to, too. Luckily, there weren't as many in there as Gretchen & I saw last summer - so not many landed on the ground. They are a lot safer with my kids around if they stay in the flowers and air! We saw some of the other areas on the garden grounds before heading home for lunch.The kids didn't bring their own cameras, but I let them shoot with mine. Here are Carl & me taken by Gretchen, followed by Gretchen as taken by Carl.


Saturday, June 4th, 2011.
We did the berry picking today. Turns out, they weren't allowing people to pick in the fields yesterday - so we would have gotten over there only to be turned away anyway. And - today, they were letting you pick both blueberries and blackberries! The kids are both good at picking. Gretchen is also good at eating.


There were a lot of black berries that aren't ripe yet.

But many were ripe! Those big black ones are sooo sweet! I know they look like the kind I remember as being sour when I was a kid, but if you get a really ripe one - they are delish! They don't have the kind I would call "black caps" here.

Of course, the picking ended with some home made ice cream. Mmmmmmmm!