summer vacation

We are very busy.  Some days, I don't even turn on the computer.  My social network friends are living their lives without me most days.


School got out on 6/7.  Since then (20 days) we have:

1. gone to the beach twice
2. gone to the children's museum several times for water day, classes and playtime
3. picked berries
4. gone swimming almost every Saturday
5. gone to the outdoor movies by the lake at dusk
6. played lots of legos at home
7. met Daddy for lunch a few times
8. jumped in big puddles
9. gone on a bird hike
10. shopped at our favorite toy store... for legos and craft supplies, of course
11. had that Father's Day and mural photo shoot day... yes, that took most of a whole day
12. gone to bouncy houses at our Thursday night favorite restaurant
13. gone to the library big kid story hour twice
14. gotten haircuts
15. gone to a local blueberry festival (where we saw a beloved teacher form the kids' year in the pre-school 2's Room as well as their current music teacher)
16. played legos at home
17. bailed on going to our favorite restaurant's 30th anniversary party because of the insane crowd. boo.
18. bike rides
19. celebrated Father's Day - the kids made Daddy a gourmet breakfast - and we had a Hot Dog Party dinner
20. read tons of books
21. gone to the arboretum - with art supplies and plenty of quarters to buy food to feed the fish in the pond
22. gone to the $1 movies twice
23. I had a phlebotomy... (my feritin was only 7.4 before that phlebotomy... I am dragging now.  Not tired, but very fatigued.  My mind is awake, my body just can't quite keep up like I want to.  Hope that builds back up soon.)
24. that day, I was too run down to make lunch - we were forced to go to our favorite drive-in!
25. I won a ribbon in my camera club's final competition - they take the whole year's ribbon winners and have an outside judge award ribbons to the top 20% of those.  My photo of Gretchen... Tooth Fairy's Challenge will hang in an exhibit through the summer!  I printed a huge canvas of it!
26. went to a lame Lego event at Barnes and Noble
27. played more legos at home
28. made videos of the kids reading their favorite books right now (I'll upload them soon)
29. pulled out teeth - well, Carl did.  He's lost 2 since school let out.
30. went to a kids' book club discussion for the Magic Tree House - the series we are reading at bedtime.  Cool event.  Barnes and Noble redeemed themselves after the horrible Lego event.
31. ate breakfast at the Waffle House
32. spent 3 days/2 nights without Daddy here while he traveled to northern NY on business
33. went bowling
34. did I mention playing legos, legos and more legos?
35. took Carl to the eye doctor
36. went to the Farmer's Market / Kids' Day

That's all.  

And, our calendar is not freeing up any time soon.  Friday - we are going to the library for the kids to participate in a program with service dogs.  The children get to sit down and read stories to a dog.  It will be a one on one thing, I think.  It is popular, so my kids are sharing one time slot.  I don't know if they will go in together. Hopefully, they will enjoy it and we can get 2 slots from here on out.



How about a few gazillion photos?????

children's museum

bird hike - she is looking at a heron - can you see it?

the new legos and craft project

new haircuts!  and watering the flowers that same day.  That was June 15th.  You see Carl is wearing an I♥NY shirt and Gretchen is wearing her birthday cupcake jumper... in honor of Grammie's birthday, of course!

Blueberry festival berries with popcorn makes a perfect snack!  We bought a flat of berries and ate them in 48 hours.

Father's Day Hot Dog Party and the breakfast the kids made for Daddy (we each had a plate, actually)

Arboretum

 Carl after losing 2 more teeth!  8 each now.

 bowling!

 ... and here is our poster board of Things To Do This Summer!  We are checking off lots of cool stuff already!!

Father's Day tradition

Last Thursday, we actually pulled out the new grey paper before we did the birthday mural.  As soon as I got everything set up (the roll of paper is 9 feet long - it was pretty acrobatic getting it out of the garage and into the house and then into the kitchen and then onto the stand!)  the cats came out to investigate.  Molly checked it out and left.  She knows when she might have to pose and wants nothing to do with it.  She is so hard to get to look at the camera.  Not Angus... he plunked his little self down on that grey paper and we had a challenge on our hands to get him out of the way for some pictures.  So, he makes several appearances this year.

Happy Annual Father's Day Dress-Up pictures.....  you know the drill... definitely click on the first one and scroll through them that way because they are much crisper and look better.

Molly has had enough.

 Not Angus, though.

This one is so great because Carl is wiggling his tooth.  He finally pulled it out 2 days later, but at the time I was trying to take pictures - his hand was in his mouth 99% of the time!

Happy Birthday, Grammie!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Happy Birthday, Mom!  The kids worked on this all afternoon.  Carl thought it was well worth skipping nap to do.  

Happy Flag Day!

So, the other day, I didn't have anything listed as what we were going to do on Thursday.  Well, this morning, we took the van over to the collision shop to set up an appointment.  Turns out, they can't get us in until early July.  Whatever.  I've been driving it for a couple weeks with the big ol' dent already.

I never told you the story.  We headed over to the city pool on a Saturday afternoon. Not even 30 seconds after we got into the pool area (Lew hadn't even had time to get his toes wet) a lifeguard approached me and asked, "Do you drive a gold van?  Someone just hit your van."  Lew headed right out there because someone said the man stopped.  Well, by the time Lew got out there, the guy had left.  He backed into our van... which, about 1 minute earlier would have had my husband and son right exactly where he hit it....  got out of his big pick-up truck, spoke to 3 witnesses (THREE), got back in his truck and left.

THREE (3) witnesses.

Guess what?  They couldn't even agree on what state he was from.  THREE ADULTS witnessed a hit and run on my van and not one of them got the license plate number.  They didn't know what make and model truck it was.  Nothing.  Just "black pick-up truck with shiny rims and big tires."

But really, let's say you plan to hit and run... why on earth would you stop and speak with 3 people first?  Why not just literally hit and run?

Lew called the police to file a report just for insurance.  So, we're out our (fairly low) deductible and my van looks like I can't drive in reverse right now.  I know people are cringing as I back out of parking spots - assuming I'll hit them too.

Anyway, that was long, eh?  So, we went over there this morning.  Oh, first, Gretchen worked on her newest craft project - a jeweled box she picked out yesterday at the toy store.  They were offering kids a $5 gift card if the kids brought in a good report card.  Both kids got all 3s!  3 being the best... unless you are speaking of clueless-license-plate-oblivious-accident-witnesses.  Last quarter, Gretchen had all 3s and Carl had a couple 2s.  One in handwriting.  Not surprising for a little boy who receives OT for his small motor activity.  Well, this quarter - he improved to all 3s!  A 3 in handwriting was surely something to celebrate!  I told them I would give them some extra money to put with the $5 from the toy store.  I knew he'd pick Leogs and she'd find something creative.

Well, he picked a Lego set with an SUV and a trailer that carries 2 little motor bikes.  He and I put it together when we got home.  And, he did all of the putting together.  In the beginning, I showed him which pieces the directions were asking for and how to position them, but he did all the sticking them together.... shhhh... OT exercises... he doesn't know he was really working.  But, by the end of the directions, he was looking at the diagrams and finding the pieces and positioning them all by himself.  This is the first set of Legos that he has done that.  Lego Milestone!

And Gretchen choose a heart shaped box that came with a gazillion little sticky jewels.  Stick by number.  She is doing it all herself and rocking it!!!  She also picked a little stuffed Hello Kitty.  Who doesn't love Hello Kitty?

So, back on topic.  Craft.  Collision shop.  Lunch.  Then, we took our annual Father's Day dress-up pictures. I'll share those Sunday.  Maybe Saturday.  Then, we also did a big craft project that I will share tomorrow.  That took us right up to dinner and Lew coming home.  Thursday is Kids' Night at one restaurant and we usually go each Thursday.  Every other week, they have a bouncy house and one Thursday per month they have a magician who roams the dining room doing tricks with the kids.  He is so cool.  They loved tonight's tricks.  He recognizes us, so he tries to do something new with us each month.

So, we were pretty busy today.  Oh, we made this big poster board list of things we want to do on our summer vacation.  They are having so much fun crossing things off!  I'll have to take a picture of the sign to show you how much fun we are going to have in the summer of 2012.

Oh PS... bird hikes... not really Carl's "thing".  I think we'll skip next month's.  Wish I had someone to watch Carl because Gretchen did enjoy herself.  She had the binoculars and was able to spot a couple they were pointing out.   I'll probably have to wait until they are back in school to go on another one.  Honestly, I am not that interested in birds.  I just love the 8:00 walk through the local gardens with people who are uber excited to hear a song and see it's singer.  90 minutes of peace, quiet, and looking up into trees.

a little rain today

We were heading to the arboretum this morning, but it started raining.  So, we did a little Father's Day shopping.  (We didn't buy anything, but we do have the perfect gift for Daddy.  I still have a photo shoot to organize, too. As you recall, I work best under pressure.)  Then, we came home for lunch.  Neither kid was happy about that.  Oh well.

And, this was waiting for us when we got home.....

After, they took off their dripping clothes and put on their bathrobes.  They were so cute for the rest of the day being all lounge-y and everything.

Yesterday, the twins got their first real lesson in getting stood up.  We've been stood up in the past, but up until now, it would be times that I had not told them about.  We do not live near our families or some of our longtime friends, so people have to travel to see us.  And that doesn't always play out as planned.  So, after learning the hard way, I usually don't tell the kids about stuff like this.  A friend who is here visiting was supposed to call us to go hang out, but we never got a call.  I wish I had not told the kids about the potential visit, but I felt confident it would happen and I like them having something to look forward to, you know? The first thing Gretchen said to me today was, "Maybe they will call us today!"  (nope) I am hoping that they just got caught up in the family vacation fun and innocently forgot us.  But, I will admit, we were all disappointed.

Tomorrow morning - a bird hike if it is not raining in the morning.
Friday morning - haircuts!
Saturday - a berry festival we go to every year!
Saturday night - our favorite restaurant (we are totally regulars... Carl & Gretchen are like Norm was to Cheers) is having their 30th anniversary party.

So, I may be too busy to post in the next few days.  Summer is off to a busy and fun start!!!!