Out with the old, in with the new!

We went to a "Kid's Caravan" this morning and helped bring the last remaining books from our old library to the brand new one 1/2 mile away.  It was cool outside but the rain held off and the walk there and tour of the library was nice (granted the walk back was not...tired kids).

The old Northeast Branch Library was in an old strip mall

Had a great turnout for the caravan

Ben knows how to play his cards right

About to cross the grand threshold

Sitting at the laptop computer bar

Now, you should know that I am a lover of libraries. I've gone regularly since I was a kid. BUT...it really is amazing what the government can do with public money.  All the new A2 libraries have top of the line architectural design, glorious furniture, woods, tiles and accents.  SO...I have mixed feelings about what seems to be a redistribution of wealth (we have very high taxes) to provide this for the community as a whole, leaving me unable to afford it for my own home!  Though, at the same time, it sure will be nice to hang out in.  Hmmmm....

Have you heard?

Sunday's are our "no t.v., no computer" days at the house.  So what's a kid supposed to do?

Can it really be Saturday night already?

Must be time to break out some more 80's tunes!

SP and I had a little time out to ourselves from 4-8p.m. while the two big boys were at a birthday party and the two others were home with the sitter.  Nice to have some time out together at that hour and then still have the night at home, (though you still have to do bedtime if you do it that way!).  Because, it means we can now dance around the kitchen to some of the songs I hear being played on Lara's bedroom radio during the weekend "Flashback" show.  Funny that the 80's era is now  a "flashback"!!  So, what's on the playlist tonight?

99 Red Balloons

Check it out in both the original German (99 Luftballons) and their follow up in English and follow the link to Wikipedia for some fascinating history of the song. (-:

And today's post is . . .

Dance Camp Recital

Lara's been enjoying the week long dance camp she started going to when she was five (or was it six?).  Anyway, she was young and it was a long day learning all the different dance genres, a craft time and an hour long rehearsal daily for the end of week recital.  9:30a.m.-3:30p.m. and she was eager to head out the door every morning.  This year she was excited to dance to numbers from Mary Poppins, Singin' in the Rain, Going to the Chapel and more.

If I had the time or energy I'd make a nifty slide show (or figure out how to post a clip of video) with some topical music, but this week of running around to camps, hauling various children in and out of cars, finding parking in the city, lining up nap time so the youngest could handle this schedule, along with the usual running of the house, has COMPLETELY DRAINED ME!  I have no idea how mom's that regularly do this kind of running around for their kid's schedules can handle it.

Yesterday's post was supposed to be . . .

Roses and Rain

I've grown (and have tried to grow) many things so far, but this summer marks my first go with roses, and I LOVE them!!

Rain

The boys are sitting on the garage steps taking in the torrential rain that hit yesterday afternoon (double click the picture to see it pelting down).  It really was some fine entertainment if you can stomach the VERY gusty winds without thinking the house is going to blow away.  I insisted they stay on the steps while their mission during the 10 minute rain was to get me to step inside for a millisecond so they could make a dart for it!

Wednesday Friends Day II

William had his own little "playdate" today with a girl who shared his due date (I think it was July 28th).  The big kids are still off at camps all week and he's been enjoying time at the house without all their activity.

This boy does everything with great vigor!

One of William's favorite snacks, POPCORN!

And, I got a great video today of William "La, la la-ing" the song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" so now I'm in full force mode to figure out video posting.  Too bad I'm too tired to do it tonight!

One of those days

5:45-7:15a.m. - Master's Swim (still darn cold!)

8:00a.m.-9:00a.m. - MRI to check out my knee (I would like to be able to run, I think (-:)

9:30-11:30a.m. - garden, play w/ William, make lunches

12:00-1:00p.m.-Bring lunch to the big boys, play on playground, get them to soccer

1:00-1:45p.m. - Grocery shop

2:00-2:45p.m. - make the 1st half of a meal for a new mom (new baby)

3:00-3:50p.m.- Pick up boys, then Lara from camps

4:00-4:42p.m. - Finish making the meal for the new mom & feed the kids

4:43-5:25p.m. - Drive the meal to the mom and get the kids to swimming lessons (swimming started at 5:15, this was a last minute addition to the week because the Y was offering free lessons and the kids wanted to do it)

5:45-6:45p.m. - Swim with the little boys then joined by Lara and Ben for fun

7:15p.m.-8:30p.m. - Eat lemon/oregano rubbed grilled chicken (thanks for grilling SP) standing up, read "Fred Fireman", diffuse a huge fight, sing some bedtime songs and call it a night!

Every now and again I'll have a day that is really scheduled to the minute...and today was that day!

Whew!!

Off to do my nightly 5 pages of reading ("Six Wives, The Queens of King Henry VIII") in a book with 880 pages!!!

Reducing my carbon imprint one load at a time!

I wonder if Al Gore hangs his skivvies out on the line?

(-:

It's "camp week" at the house.  Somehow the schedule this year lined up so that almost all the kid's camps are happening this week.  Lara's off at musical theater/dance camp from 9:30-3:30 and the big boys are at VBS from 9-12 and soccer (at the same place) from 1-3.  After running up to meet the boys for lunch and get them ready for soccer, William fell asleep on the way back and if all goes well I have time to myself until 2:45!!  Wow!!  Not sure what to do first; laundry? dusting? vacuuming? dishes? windows?  toys off floor?  read the newspaper? (-:  hmmm, I wonder what I'll choose?

It's Saturday night and I'm from the 80's

So what does that mean? Check the playlist and do the Safety Dance!

(-:

Field Trip Fridays

So, I think I like how some of my days sounded this week (Tuesday's Tennis, Wednesday Friends Day and now Field Trip Fridays) and might try to make those a guide for our weeks to come.  Won't work next week with various camps for the kids but I do like Field Trip Fridays and am going to try to keep that one up (especially with the Museum Adventure Passes available).  Today's trip was to the Toledo Zoo and a good, though tiring, time was had by all!

Oh, and after some one said "Go Blue" to us with our U-M hats on Lara said "Should we really have these on in Ohio?"  (-:  Funny, I NEVER think along those lines (and yes, we saw quite a few Ohio State shirts).

In Case You Were Wondering . . .

Your body will NOT warm up after an hour of swimming when the air temp is 50 degrees and the pool water is 68 degrees (pool heater broke)!!

p.s. I'm still cold, 3 hrs post swim

Wednesday Friends Day

Everyone (but William, though he's a pro at tagging along) had "play dates" today.  Not sure when that phrase came into vogue, I should look it up, but it seems to be here to stay.  I don't really like it and am not sure why other than it seems like too official of a word for just getting kids together to play.  Ah well, Lara had fun at her friends today and the boys had fun with two buddies over for themselves.

These pictures are the result of my three week search for one missing LIBRARY VIDEO!!  It's due on June 24th and the clock is ticking.  Yesterday we dumped out all the toy bins in the boy's room in my seemingly never ending quest to find some Mutant Ninja Turtles lurking about!  Ughh.

Finally a bit of dialogue overheard while we brought some friends home this afternoon.

Child #1:  "When I was in  preschool this big kid punched me in the eye and gave me a black eye."

Child #2:  "How old do you think he is now?"

Child #1:  "I don't know, maybe seventeen or eighteen.  I heard they sent him back to preschool because he wasn't behaving correctly in second grade!"

Tennis on Tuesday

So, I can't figure out how to add video, but I can figure this out?  Oh brother!  Anyway, had a nice cool day today to hit the courts  (however the "nice cool day" did not pertain to my swim this morning, 51 degrees at dive in time!) and all (most (-:) of the kids love to "play."

Constant quest to figure out video!

I'm always on the prowl for how to post my little videos of the kids.  I don't want to put them on youtube and send them over because even though this little site is open for viewing, youtube is a little more exposure than I'd like.  So...I've purchased QuicktimePro and have had no success figuring out how that can help me "condense?" my video to make it small enough to post (or whatever the technical language is) and I've searched a bit on "help" sites with no luck.  The latest is the slideshow site I found allows you to upload video (took a looooong time) and share it.  Of course "an unknown error" occurred after I hit "share" but it allows me one more option that I'm just about to try for the fun of it.  This is not premier video of the kids and I have a problem remembering that the camera doesn't like me to hold it vertically (the picture will fix half way through), but here goes.  Click here!  

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                        AARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!                         

Plymouth Township Sprayscape

One of our favorite hang outs in the summer is a public park in Plymouth.  The kids always have a blast here (Lara not so much with the water, never has.  But, there's a wooden structure just past the pavilion and she and her friend spent most of their time there today.)  The boys on the other hand live it up!  I have to say, for how proud A2 is of their park system they have nothing to rival this type of family park!!  No fee for anything!

No standing water means no running after the 22 month old. (-:

So helpful to the little guy (except of course when they pick him up and put him under a spout!).

I just love Harrison's face here, (click to enlarge).

These brothers really do have a great time together! (and yes, that is a slight "bunny ears" that Harrison's sneaking behind Ben's head) (also, can't remember if I mentioned Ben came back requesting an even more extreme "buzz" so there it is!)

Good clean fun! (-:

BBQ & Bonfire

I'm exhausted!  But in a good way.  Tonight we hosted a BBQ/Bonfire party for families that chose to "bid" on it at our school fundraising auction.  I'll post more on delicious recipes later (can you believe I'm still doing "roasted"veggies, just the summer version on the grill, oh but they were sooooo good...if I do say so (-:).  Anyway, I'm shot but here's a picture from one of the games I mentioned earlier.

The Great Foot Freeze

Filled balloons with water and trinkets, froze them, cut the balloons off and put them in a tub filled with cold hose water. The kids had to see how many they could get in a minute by picking them up with their feet and putting them in a bowl.  Good fun!

Balloon Day!

We had fun blowing up a bag of balloons today.  After playing with them all morning (skeet shooting with a nerf gun, whizzing them around as the air blew out, volleyball and more) Lara decided to decorate the ficus tree.  Then she declared we needed to leave it for our party tomorrow!  And we will!! (-:

I used another bag of the same balloon to make "ice balloons" for a combination of a couple ideas from the "water fun" link I posted yesterday.  I put little trinkets in a ton of balloons (bouncy balls, rubber bracelets, fancy erasers) then filled them with water (size of a large lemon), tied them and stuck them in the freezer.  Tomorrow, we'll cut the balloons off and we'll play "The great foot freeze" game that you can find at yesterday's link.

Kids Car Wash & Water Fun Link

Got the kid's car wash up and running a few nights ago.  This has been a hit for the last few summers and this year we added a new feature, making it into a rainforest with tree-pruning remnants.  It usually stays standing for a while and they're old enough now that they can put it back together (most of the time) if they knock a piece off.  Comes apart easily to store for winter and has decorative add ons that I didn't bother with.

Oops!

Also:  After finding the car wash link I poked around for some water fun games that don't include a pool (very important since we don't have a pool!).  Found a great bunch of fun/easy water games over at Family Fun Magazine and we'll be doing some this weekend for a BBQ/Bonfire party at the house.  My faves are; Cold Potato, The Great Foot Freeze and Water Volley Balloon.

Finally:  I've re-instituted "Quiet Time" in the afternoon for the older kids while William naps and, I know, it's only been a week, but it's working.  Basically the kids go in their rooms and play games/puzzles/books for at least an hour.  Ben even walked through the kitchen this afternoon after getting a book from the car and said, "I like this quiet time in the afternoon."  After that "mother-of-the-year" scenario I should admit that I also feel like I'm losing my voice from yelling at them this morning to stop killing each other...and so it goes...

Hmmmm...

Ben:   Hey mom, did you know dogs can die from haircuts?

Me:  They can?

Ben:  Yeah, they get their haircut and then when they're out walking around, they pass another dog and it laughs at them in dog language, and...they die.  It's weird.

Me:  Hmmmm...

Music Day

Well, well, well...I've figured out a new feature!  Not sure if I'll have the time to figure out how to fix the picture quality but the slide show was a fun discovery.  Anyway, yesterday the kids started pulling out the various instruments I've collected and had a regular ol' jam session (that is until William decided to use the cello bow as a weapon!).

And, that's a wrap!

Our YMCA T-ball/Coach pitch season ended with the last game Monday night.  Kids had fun (although I'm sure the team opposing Harrison would have appreciated him not playing umpire by calling out their strikes in his loud, Bugs Bunny-like way.  Steeerrrriiike!!!) and we enjoyed chasing William around for 2 1/2 hours (loads of sarcasm).  I'm not huge on lots of extracurricular running around at this age so when I find something for all three on one night, we take it.  Just makes for a bit of a longer stretch finding ways to entertain our very busy 22 month old (tomorrow, the 11th!).

Harrison on 1st, Ben on 2nd

Ben on 1st, Harrison on 2nd

(He's always ready for a great smile)

Oh, those brothers! (-:

Our first "coach pitch" kid.

Way to go Lara!

One Happy Girl!

Little bit o' fun

There's really nothing like playing "javelin thrower" with an eight foot long balloon and a couple of boys!

Yep, this one got me mid "click."!

Peony Peaking Party

It's not too late.  If you're in the area, head on over to the Arb and catch the sights and smells of the peonies!  We all had fun comparing the wide array of fragrances.

Lara took this gorgeous shot! (it's now my screensaver)

Yep, that's a bee!

The Last Week of School!

Well, it's here...the last day of school.  It's been a really fun week for the kids with field trips on Weds. and track/field day at school on Thurs. in addition to a nice a relaxed pace in class (ice cream parties, movies, treats and an oh-so-little bit o' learnin' (-:).  They've earned a week like this after working hard all year, very good students they are!  Here are some highlight photos from the week ending with a trip to the lake yesterday after school.

This guy has a bit of a competitive edge, look at that focus!

 (-:

End of the year field trip, what a happy boy!

Though she didn't catch anything, she developed a sweet side-arm cast!

So, I have great optimism for the summer, lot's of fun things to do with the kids and William's not taking two naps/day like last summer.  Let's check back in a week shall we and see how that optimism's hanging in there! (-:

Ptooey!

This morning, around 6:03a.m., I had my first mouthful of bug while swimming fly during a set of 12, 100m IM's.

PTOOEY!!

And

Because of those 12, 100m IM's, I don't believe I'll be able to brush my hair tomorrow!

(-:

The Funny Thing Is . . .

The funny thing is, for how much this boy loves putting on hats, it would be nice if he'd keep one on out in the sun with that wispy, blond hair!!  Perhaps if I offer him a cowboy, construction or Bavarian Alpine hat I'd have some luck!