Grandparents' Visit

Nelson and Stana came down to watch the kids for a week and a half when I went back to work. I always start about three weeks before the kids go back to school, so I filled the gap this year with my parents covering nearly two weeks and then YMCA camp for the week right before school, to get the kids back in the habit of getting up and out of the house in the mornings.

 One Saturday I dropped them all off at Marbles while I went into work done to get a few more things ready for the start of school.

The rest of the time, as far as I can tell, their days consisted of bike rides, playing in the creek, collecting apples, catching critters and (not pictured) watching some movies.  I'm so grateful that Alice and Simon have such involved grandparents and get to really build a relationship with them!

Alice in between

Meanwhile, I'm still coping with the fact that I have an 8-year-old daughter.  She's some weird child-teen hybrid right now.

Here she is at her orthodontist appointment (she'll definitely need braces, but this appointment determined that we could wait a couple of years.)

"Mom, I'm a burrito!"

I love finding the remnants from her play.

"Mom, put my hair in a bun!....Ok, yeah, that looks weird. How about just a pony tail for today?"

Alice got some hand-me-downs from her cousin that she's really enjoying.

She rocks the purple.

Battleship

Well, at least it's better than Snakes & Ladders!

Red Ripe Tomatoes

Simon gets so excited EVERY SINGLE TIME he gets to pick a ripe tomato.

And he's so generous. He always wants to cut the little thing into three parts so we can share it. (Alice doesn't like tomatoes).

The Mess Makers

Simon and Elli play really well together. They are never bored, never fight, and never expect me to provide any sort of entertainment for them. The only problem is that most of their projects involve giant messes. If they play inside, they build forts and traps and things that always seem to involve the displacement of a lot of furniture, the dumping out of toys, and lots of scotch tape. If they play outside, it usually involves mud or water or chalk--or all three. They will clean up--when prompted and to the best of their ability--but it's hard to keep up with it all. So for the most part, I've just given up.

  

Here they are, right after an outfit change because they both got completely drenched doing who knows what.

A few minutes later, they were covered in mud from their next project...

...which I made them clean up before coming in for the night.

More and more, Simon can't make it all the way until bedtime before needing a shower.  But who am I to interfere with this wonderful childhood?

Camping at Falls Lake

This weekend, we went camping for two nights at Falls Lake with Donovan and his parents (Everett & Christy). We arrived Friday night amidst a stormy forecast, but determined to persevere. The water was warm, so the kids all got their suits on and went swimming immediately. 

After Zac got the tent up, it started to rain, so there was a funny part where we were all on the beach with umbrellas, watching the kids swim.  Luckily, the rain did not last too long, and we were able to make a fire and cook hotdogs and marshmallows.

After a night of light rain and fitful sleep (lots of airplanes landing around midnight), we got up to a foggy cool morning and had eggs, sausages, and of course, donuts for breakfast. This is me before my coffee has kicked in.

The allure of the water was strong, and it wasn't long before the kids were swimming again.

Here's me, wishing I had bigger boobs to overshadow my bag.  Oh well, what can ya do?

The kids generally played well together, but three is always an awkward number. Alice and Simon were often trying to win over Donovan and convince him to go against the other.

For lunch we had tuna noodle casserole and fruit. I think this was preceded by at least two morning snacks. The kids require a lot of fuel when they spend the whole day swimming.

Here I am, enjoying the day!

We had a great dinner, this time at Donovan's campsite. We had hamburgers and corn on the cob and roasted veggies and pasta salad. Yum!  Unfortunately, the campfire cherry pies were ruined because the cherry pie filling was, due to a purchasing error, "no sugar added" and tasted too much like sucralose to be palatable. More like sucraloser if you ask me.

Despite being banned from swimming anymore that night, the kids still went back down to the beach after supper to play. They ended up making clay balls and getting really dirty. We can't win.

After a big breakfast, lunch, dinner plus numerous snacks, the kids were still hungry and crammed in a few donuts before brushing their teeth and going to bed.

We all slept much better the second night. Anticipating the airplanes, I wore earplugs.

The next morning we had pancakes and sausages for breakfast. Donovan turned out to be a big fan of pancakes, so he joined us.

Then the kids went fishing. Donovan caught a large minnow, but I think that was about it.

They played for a while, then Donovan went home.

We let Simon and Alice swim for another hour or so before calling them up for lunch, then heading home.

We did this trip last year in late June, and it was at the peak of my illness and I was sooo sick and it was so hard. This summer is like my redemption tour--where at each place I am reminded of how lucky I am to have gotten my health back.

Alice's HR report on Simon

Alice submitted some paperwork to HR this morning, documenting her constant abuse from Simon.

I mean, she's not wrong.