photo and flashback Friday

today:
May 31, 2013... 7 1/2 years old, new haircuts!

last year... May 31, 2012

early June 2011...  5 1/2 years old

late May 2010... 4 1/2 yrs

late May 2009....  3 1/2

May 29, 2008... 2 1/2 yrs... oh Mary - I know you remember these days!!!!!

early June 2007.... 1 1/2 yrs

late May 2006.... 6 months old!  I am about to hand down this full sized playpen.  Best piece of Twin Baby Equipment Ever!  Well, a double stroller is vital, too.

the annual hit-and-run

Remember last summer when someone backed into my van at the public pool?  Maybe I didn't tell that story here.  We were swimming in the pool when someone came over and asked me, "Do you have a gold minivan?  Someone just hit your car.  They are in the parking lot."  So, Lew went out to speak to them.  Well, in that couple minutes, they were gone.  There were 3 adult witnesses.  The guy got out of his truck and spoke to them.  Then he got back in the truck and drove off!  (we are assuming he had no insurance) Anyway, these 3 adults couldn't even agree on the make of the truck, much less tell us his license plate number.  Lew called the police and the officer was like, "What exactly do you want me to do?"  in other words, he knew there was no hope of catching this guy.  Lew said, "I want a proper police report on file for my insurance company so they know how this happened."  We were left footing the whole bill for that repair.  People, for crying out loud - if you witness a hit, get the plate number for the victim.  3 adults.  3.

Well, at least this year's hit-and-run in a swimming facility parking lot looks like it is going to have a free ending.  When we were at the water park on Saturday I brought the camera.  You saw the photos late Sunday.  Well, when I walked back to the car to put the camera away for the day, I found a note on the window.  "Please call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX I backed into your van.  T---"  Of course, being a skeptic, my very first thought was "No way is this phone number real."  Well, turns out it was!  She spoke to Lew last night and will call her insurance office and get back to him Tuesday after the weekend.  We have her name and number.  Let's hope her insurance pays for this whole thing.

Seriously - I do not have a huge vehicle.  It is not like we drive a Suburban or a big ol' Econoline van or something that hangs out of parking spots.

2 spots with scratched/cracked/peeling paint and the bumper pushed outward.

 cracked

 Here is the bumper pushed out....

 ... and here is the opposite side showing how tightly it should be.

This annual event better not become a true tradition around here.

Happy Memorial Day!

the water park

Last winter, we bought season passes to our local water park.  We have not been there since 2001, but we took the chance that the kids would love going.  One cool thing about the passes was that every Sunday from October to the end of March, you were able to go to the park and do one of their "dry" activities...  ie mini golf, rock climbing wall, or the 8 and under kids play area.  (The laser tag was not included in the promotion.  No problem, we probably wouldn't have chosen that activity anyway.)  We did play mini golf a bunch of times.  Remember, we can be outside all year round down here.  Mini golf in January is fun, not something only polar bears would attempt.  So, we took advantage of those fun Sundays.  Still, we did not factor that cost/savings into the price of the tickets.  But, we did know that once we have visited the water park part 3 times, we will have paid for the season passes.

Well, as of today, the water park has been open 4 days.  We have been there for 3 of them!  And, we are planning to go back tomorrow as well.  Right now, they are only open on weekends, but once school lets out in early June, they'll be open every day.  We'll get to go a lot this summer.  I do hope the kids don't think we are going to keep up this pace of going every day they are open, though.  I already have been polling different workers and get the same answer from every one.... NO FRIDAYS!!!  Apparently, Friday is "camp day" and many summer camps will show up with literally hundreds of children.  But, Mon - Thursdays should be doable.  One of their buddies from kindergarten has passes as well, so we have already gone with him once and plan to do that a lot this summer, too.  Two adults on 3 kids is a good number.  The nice thing is that there are lifeguards everywhere, so the kids can climb up the slides and come down by themselves while we wait by the bottom or wherever the tubs are going to dump them out.  Today, Lew barely got wet. He just wandered about watching them climb up and slide down.

Yesterday, I brought the camera to take a few photos and then brought it out to the car.  Here you go.......

Carl and Lew walking into the wave pool.  About every 10-15 minutes, this thing starts up and makes huge waves to play in .  I will try to bring the camera back on another day to take a little video of the kids loving this!   You can also see some of the other slides in the scene here.

Carl did not like this one.  He is not into coming down head first.  Gretchen, however, loved it!  Sometimes, she would have a partner to race with, but every time she loses because she is so light.

 Here's Lew wandering along the lazy river!  This circles the park with several spots to jump out and climb up a slide.  3 of the slides dump you out into this as well.

This is Carl's favorite.  (look up at the top - Lew is getting into a tube up there)  It is fun, but the most tame.  

 Ah ha - here comes Lew... and a cute passenger!!

They love swimming.  This is in the lazy river.  They do not float when in there... not so lazy, I guess.

 She is in there, too.

We all wore plenty of sunscreen, but just to be safe, I have ordered Lew one of those sunscreen shirts like the kids are wearing.  I bought myself one at Sears last week, too.  Gee - there are no pictures of me in a bathing suit to post here.  Imagine that.  I did just buy myself 2 new suits and that rash guard I just mentioned.  4 sizes smaller than my other bathing suits.  Yes, four.sizes.smaller.  You read that right.

This purple and yellow one is Gretchen's favorite.  Maybe mine, too.   You go down from the upper left corner there into that well where you spin around like those things at the mall where you roll a penny or nickel and it circles several times before dropping into a hole at the bottom.  Today, Gretchen and I circled 6 times before getting sucked into the ending tube.... backwards!

Here is a picture of her coming out backwards, too.  She loves it!  

When it is busier, they can race down these slides, but for now, only one side was open.  First Gretchen... 

 then Carl....

 He liked this mat slide much better than the tall one Gretchen liked... feet first!

This big white slide is the scariest.  Gretchen mustered the courage to try it today (all pictures are from yesterday, so no shot of her on it)... and she did NOT like it.  But, she wins the Most Brave Family Member award since she is the only one of us to try it so far.

Should be a fun summer!!!!!

was that really only 3 days?

Wow last weekend was fun!  And super busy!!  and not well documented on film....  so, maybe that will make this weekend review shorter than usual.  Nah, probably not.

Friday afternoon I picked them up from school.   (Well, technically, we can back up to Thursday and say we went to the beach after school.  None of our buddies could join us, but we found kids to play with while there.  Gretchen was the Water Fight Instigator.  Not so bad.  When the 2 new friends declared "Sand fight!" right next to my towel, I had to step in and rain on that parade.  Wednesday we hit the children's museum and made homemade sidewalk chalk... didn't work well.  ha ha)

OK, back to Friday.....

We headed over and picked strawberries.  The kids had homemade ice cream and I exhibited will power.  Then we stopped at Costco to pick up some pictures and snacked our way through the store.  When we got home, we ate a fast dinner and when Lew arrived after work - we headed out to the fishing pier for a Cub Scout Summer Event.  If we go to the 5 planned ones throughout the summer, Carl will earn a special badge.  Fishing was the most "out of our comfort zone" of all 5.  (side note:  tomorrow The BSA will be voting to hopefully lift the ban on gay scouts.  This is only the first step.   After this passes, it is my hope that they will lift the ban on gay leaders as well.  This has been a very big moral conflict for us as Carl asked to join Cub Scouts.  I am not going to spill all my frustrations and guilt over this issue, but I am sincerely hoping that they lift this ban for all individuals.  Maybe I will share more on this topic after tomorrow's first step victory.)  For now, my son is a Cub Scout and it is a positive experience for him and Lew as well as Gretchen & I when we join in.

So, we do not fish.  We do not own fishing gear.  I certainly do not want to touch bait nor remove anything caught from the line.  But, just as we went camping and found other parents extremely helpful, I figured someone would help Carl fish.  Or, we'd check in, walk the pier for 20 minutes and leave.  Well, we were 99% through the latter when one of Carl's Den Leaders and his family arrived.... with an extra fishing pole.  We were going to fish now.  (yippee)  Den Leader and Wife helped their 3 kids get set up and then got Carl ready to fish.  Some boys around us were catching little fish.  We were not.  The other Den Leader, Wife and their twins (Gretchen's best friend from their class at school) showed up.  They caught a fish.  We did not.  Finally, we pulled up our line and discovered both pieces of shrimp had been thieved.  We should have re-baited sooner and maybe the kids would have gotten to catch something.  Gretchen got to touch a fish that Den Leader caught.  Carl wanted no part of that.  We did not stay until the end of the event because Carl was starting to melt down and I did not want that to occur on the fishing pier.  It was mostly scouts and parents, but also some real fishermen.  They were out fishing for King Mackerel at the end of the pier designated for that.  We do not suffer meltdowns often - and I would like to credit Lew and myself for that.  We remove and redirect at the early signs whenever possible.  We left and went home to eat.

fishing pictures....

Gretchen wearing my old Girl Scout tee shirt!

 these doggies played for the longest time!

 reeling in the empty line

 losing interest

 super cute kid

 touching a fish

 on our way out - the group still fishing

Saturday we took the ferry across the river to the Big Toy Event!  We attended this last year and knew it was going to be fun.  It's held at a little air strip.  They give free airplane rides to kids ages 8-17.  They also have a bunch of emergency vehicles and tractor trailer trucks for the kids to climb in.  I think there were more vehicles last year, but honestly, Carl didn't care.  Gretchen was having fun, too.  One of the Coast Guard guys on the boat with her popped his head over the edge and said to me, "She is a trip!"   We stayed there for a few hours even though it was kind of hot out.  Then, we headed back into the ferry town to clean up and have some ice cream.  We also stopped at this cool gift shop slash toy store and everyone picked out a small Webkinz.  We were going to take the ferry home, but Carl really wanted to drive home on the opposite side of the river since he has never done that.  He is really into Google Maps right now and knows his way around the local counties very well.  So, we let him direct us home.  Gretchen was sad.  I told her we'll come down on the ferry some other day and ride it back, too.  I would have preferred that trip home as well.  When we got home, Gretchen and I made freezer jam (she did 85% of the work) out of the berries we picked the day before.  She loves it!  Normally, she wants peanut butter and Nutella, but now she is getting into jam, too.  Well, our homemade jam.  I'm not going to pick up a jar of Smucker's or anything.  Then, we spent the evening playing new Webkinz.

On Sunday, we were heading to the water park.  It opened on Saturday and a friend invited us, but we knew we had the Big Toy Event.  So, we thought we'd check it out.  For a couple weeks, they are only open on the weekend.  Well, as we were walking across the parking lot, our friends were just pulling in. They had so much fun Saturday, they returned.  (If you buy your season passes in the late fall, they are cheaper... and if you go 3x, you have paid for them already.  They are 2/3 of the way there.  ha ha)  We played with them and split up as well.  They couldn't stay as long as we did, but we ended up staying for 4 hours!  The kids loved it!  Especially Gretchen!!!!!  They are fully planning on us going all 3 days this coming weekend.  Last Sunday was nice and empty - we could slide as fast as we could climb.  I am prepping them for the busier summer days.  But, we are really looking forward to a whole summer of being able to go!   I will try to bring my camera one day this weekend and snap a couple shots before putting it out in the car.

So, now it is Wednesday and we're probably heading to the Children's Museum.  We were trying to do the beach, but there is a 40% risk of thunderstorms.  And, we tried to organize a play date, but everyone is busy.  Maybe we'll go by ourselves again tomorrow.  We might try a different beach to keep our little local tour going.

Happy Mother's Day

How about a few recent pictures of me with the Founders of My Mother's Days?    I challenged my online parenting board friends to get in photos with their kids.  So, I made sure I had some to share with them.

Here we are at the classic car show downtown on April 21st

taken on 4.23 after the kids' art show at school

4.27 camping with the scouts

taken at the local gardens on 5.5  It was so sunny, we couldn't look at Lew without squinting horribly, so we decided to all keep our eyes closed on purpose. 

and these were taken yesterday morning after leaving the children's museum.  I am wearing my 2010 shirt.  

 Oh, I have to put the 2010 picture right after this one....