Summer Basket List

Summer is over. Well, not really, there is still a month of summer weather left, but summer break is over, and school starts this week, and so we have crossed off as many of the remaining bucket list items as we can. I needed this summer to be something redemptive after last year, which was a sh!t show of emotions and baby soothing and feeling like I was failing everyone around me, and then feeling resentful about the failing, and yeah. This year was better.

I had a page in my notebook where I jotted down ideas the kids named as things they wanted to do this summer (a few times, someone got ahold of a pen and added ideas himself), and we got to almost all of them.

We also renamed it The Basket List because at the beginning of the summer Anneliese could never remember what it was called, so she kept saying that, and it stuck for the rest of us even though she rolls her eyes and refuses to partake of the cutesy rename herself. HER LOSS. CUTESY IS FUN, YO.

And truthfully we didn't even look much at the list because we were busy just hanging out and having fun. Montreat was a freaking delight. Our family road trip was more fun than I ever could have dreamed. And lots of little fun things in between the travels too:

1.) Ride on a ferry. This list was born in April when Nathan, indignant that I would go to Seattle and ride on a ferry without him, made a page in my notebook and put FERRY as the first thing on it. We... didn't actually get to this. But we have Outer Banks camping plans next month, and we will ferry to Okracoke and then Hatteras. The ferry will happen! I promise, buddy!

2.) Visit Northfield. Check and check. 'Twas delightful. Here are all the kids at St. Olaf:

Oh Charlotte. I don't even know, y'all. She just doesn't stop.

Road trip blogs still to come. (They are all half written and still need pics and there's a lot to sort through so eh.)

3.) Crayon A. This is a craft I have been intending to do for years with Anneliese and we finally did it, and it turned out great, and she loves it, and I love it.

NAILED IT. Suck it, Pinterest, I own you.

4.) Go camping. Not yet - this will be with the ferry ride next month.

5.) Eat purple carrots. Okay so Anneliese asked for this for weeks, and I wrote it down for her, even though you can't get any carrots at the farmer's market, much less purple ones, until fall. So this is still to come also. We did, however, make several stews with parsnips, and Anneliese has a new favorite vegetable. (She is an odd child.)

6.) Strawberries. There were no carrots, but there were strawberries, and Anneliese used them to bake her very first dessert for all of us. Bisquick shortcakes, and warm strawberries, and cream she whipped herself, and oh she was so proud.

7.) Cinderella movie. Anneliese saw this with Grandma. That counts, right? (I still haven't seen it.) (I am totally interested, but secretly more for the Frozen short than for the movie itself. Don't judge me.)

8.) Rise Biscuits and Donuts. This is a place in Durham with apparently really great breakfast treats. We never made it there, but I am counting our Duck Donut outing as a check mark on the list for new treat places.

9.) Learn ponytails. Anneliese did it! This is a life skill, I mean really.


(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on YouTube.)

10.) Learn shoe tying. Yeah, no. This did not happen.

11.) Watch Jurassic Park (not with the girls). Yes finally, Nathan, of years-long dinosaur obsession, has seen the original Jurassic Park movie. It totally scared him. But I think he thinks it was worth it. (It still is delightfully scary to me too.) We have listened to the soundtrack a thousand times this summer since then. Currently the girls' favorite song to dance to. We are That Family, apparently.

12.) Tropical Pick'n Chicken. It's a new (to us) local chain restaurant near our house, with Caribbean food and such. Nathan is enamored with it. It's just okay for me. But! We went! Summer dreams coming true over here y'all!

13.) Build legos. Um, duh. Done and done.

14.) Sleepovers. Yes, Nathan and Anneliese, every Friday, all summer (all year actually, but the summer was no exception). These two are best buddies, and never moreso than on Friday nights. We don't understand how they spend all day every day together and still have things to talk about into the wee hours. They say more to each other than they ever do to any of the rest of us.

15.) Baking contest. This got added to the list in summer's eleventh hour, and we still did it!

16.) Read lots of books. CHECK. We have been very library busy. And library days are the best days, aren't they? Let's not forget the afternoon I found the kids all outside reading their library books sprawled on the sidewalk WITH THEIR BEDDING, why children, why?

Seven Quick Takes, Post-Date-Night Random Edition

1.) Mark and I went on a date tonight. It was stormy and it is Monday but neither of those things mean it shouldn't be date night, right? He's just a cool person to have dinnertime chatter with. Also, I had a very Erin order, off the menu: a fried green tomato BLT, except instead of the brie, I wanted the pimiento cheese. And instead of the herby mayo or whatever, I wanted the bacon balsamic jam. And instead of on toast, I wanted ciabatta. (All servers love me, I'm sure. But this is the kind of place where that's okay! Also it was delicious.) And Mark loves me anyway, and doesn't even bat an eye, because he is pretty spectacular. Also I had a beer at dinner and am now writing this with a glass of wine in hand. Hi! Random blog post ahead, I feel sure of it!

2.) I finished a delightful book yesterday. I was promised lovely things about AJ Fickry and it took me a while to find it as amazing as everyone else seemed to find it; the beginning was scattered and I couldn't quite stay on top of the timeline, but then it settled and was sweet and easy and full of cute quirky people dealing with real life problems in cute quirky ways, and anyway. Delightful. Recommend.

3.) Anneliese has had an odd rash, like bright red and swollen, and it was causing us some... concern. We called my mom and she said the only thing to watch for was a fever or fast spreading of the red area, and within a day Anneliese had both of those things, so we took her to be seen and yay! cellulitis! (Has nothing to do with cellulite. True story.) Which means an intensive few weeks of antibiotics (gross-tasting ones, for the record - it reduces her to tears every time but she is being a champ), but 90% of cases will respond to an antibiotic so there is no need to worry, yet, so we won't. Yay gross meds.

4.) Speaking of ailments, Bowden got into the trash while I was grocery shopping and I was annoyed in the moment, from cleaning it up, but then when we got home we realized she must have saved an open can from the mess and she had sliced her tongue open and her whole body was covered in blood and we were all, WHAAAAA??? but then after many wet towels, we figured out where the blood was coming from and what must have happened (and then I felt bad for being irritated about the trash mess, because injured pup is way worse! still her own fault though). Blood from her tongue, she licks her foot, blood on her foot, she licks that and drags blood to her chest, then licks that and blood gets on her other foot, etc etc etc BLOOD EVERYWHERE. I just told that story in a convoluted way but whatever. The end result is that she is wearing the cone of shame for a few days, to prevent her from further licking and aggravating her tongue and getting blood all over herself, and by herself I mean the furniture.

5.) We did another craft! That is two crafts mentioned in two blog posts (three for three, if you count the giant 3 cake, AND I DO) and I'm not statistician or sportsman but that's exactly what it means to be batting a thousand, right? Right? Yes. Okay. So. We painted cars. These were little kits from the Target one spot (which is now the Target one OR three spot, have y'all noticed that?) and you paint the pieces and then put them together, and you have racecars. It was cute. They made them into Friend Cars, with faces. I melted a little, because my love for the Friend Cars shall never fade.

6.) Another Nathan, up in tiny town Minnesota, the land of no-Starbucks-except-the-one-in-his-Target (he calls it his Tarbucks and I roll with it, which is a sign of how much I love him because no, that name is not super clever, yeah I said it), is in danger of losing his gold card status {INSERT ALARMED EYES HERE O_o}. So, being clever friends that we are, we devised a plan where I would use a new starbucks card which he had linked to his account, and so any coffees I buy will earn stars towards keeping his gold card status. Smart, right? I mean, I go often enough that my gold status is not in jeopardy (I think I'm good through 2016, y'all don't judge), and I'm glad to help a fella out. EXCEPT. It turns out every time I swipe that card, his phone app lights up with a reciept, so he knew exactly in the moment every time I'm standing in Starbucks. Which is... often. And I knew he would know, since he would see the stars adding up, but DANG I did not know he would know IN THE EXACT MOMENT, EVERY SINGLE TIME. Clearly I can have no shameful secrets anymore. I am sheepish. But on a mission. So.

7.) I came to the bonus room to switch the laundry earlier, and it turns out THIS is a thing that will scare the sh!t out of a person. HI THERE TERRIFYING *GIANT* OLAF EMERGING FROM MY BABY'S BEDROOM STAIRCASE.

School's Out! Let's Do Summer Stuff!

Nathan is finally (finally) (FREAKING FINALLY) done with school for the summer, which means we are all officially on break! Finally!

(To me it felt like it took forever this year. Can you tell? With all the snow days, they kept adding then taking away then adding back extra days in the last weeks, and since it was several weeks after the girls were done, it just felt like it stretched on and on and onnnnnn. But we're done now. Yay!)

Nathan was surprisingly melancholy about his last day. We kept talking about his last day and summer break in our excited! happy! voices, but he reminded us several times that even though summer break is fun, it means first grade is over, and his time with that teacher and those friends is over.

He smiled for one last bus stop picture but was sure to tell me that he felt both sad and happy at the same time, and isn't that weird? Haaaaa nope. Totally normal. And you are so so your mom's kid, my sweet boy.

So! Now that school break is here, want to see what's on this year's summer bucket list? (With contributions from all three kids.)

SUMMER BUCKET LIST 2014:

1.) Eat at that place that is like a cafeteria. (K&W.)
2.) Swim in the pool.
3.) Make a geo animal.
4.) Plant some plants in our garden. (? So... plant a garden?)
5.) Make banana swirl.
6.) Get a new King friend car.
7.) Go to the beach.
8.) Play with Ali a lot.
9.) Go on donut dates.
10.) Go to Montreat.
11.) Paint something.
12.) Learn to swim.
13.) Write some books.
14.) Make friendship bracelets.
15.) Go to art camp.
16.) Go to lego camp.
17.) Call people, but like on the computer.
18.) Read chapter books.
19.) Learn to play a real song on the cello with the organ.
20.) Go to the zoo.
21.) Have sleepovers with glow bracelets.
22.) Play ring around the rosie but like a tornado.
23.) Go to the airport for a picnic and maybe ride a plane somewhere only if they let us.

(Nathan also came home with this version of a bucket list he made in school. Apparently he would like to hit up both Disney World and St. Croix before he goes back in the fall.)

(He dreams big, I'll give him that.)

Eleven Questions

Okay apparently we are being meme-y on the internet this week and I am not complaining because these things are fun to read, fun to write, and easy on mah brain. Elizabeth tagged me. So. Here goes.

1. What is your favorite type of cheese? I have no real feelings about cheese. Maybe... any cheese that is not smoked? And preferably melted. For to dip things like chips.

2. What are you excited about? Hmmm I... don't know, actually. Sad. I have spent the last few weeks so filled with nerves and dread and worry that I don't think I have been looking forward to anything. Let's remedy that now! *brisk clap* Okay, I think I am excited about summer, at least the kids being home from school part. (I miss them.) I am alllllmost excited about my new iPhone coming this week. (I have never owned an Apple product, and now I will. I don't even know who I am anymore.) And I might get to go on a road trip in August to the midwest which will be weird but also fun and I could totally get it up to feel excited about that. Oh! Oh! And we are taking a day trip to the beach on Monday! Okay I just hit legit excitement. Good talk.

3. How did you celebrate your last birthday? What awesome thing has your dad done this week? (I think I answered the birthday thing in the New Year survey, so I changed the question, don't mind if I do.) Y'all! My dad is retiring from teaching! Teaching, which was a late-ish-in-life career change for him (when I was a senior in high school), after many years (and several master's degrees) in corporate America, which was after several years in the military, and anyway it turns out he is pretty awesome teacher, and has been for almost twenty years now. And he is retiring and his kids and colleagues love and respect him, and we do too. We are super crazy proud of his work and (warning: cheesy ahead) the difference it makes. You should watch this sweet and funny video some of his students made for/about him. Love it.

4. What is on your bedside table? A lamp I used to love and now find incredibly ugly, an alarm clock blinking the wrong time, a booklight, a baby monitor whose mate was abandoned months ago in Charlotte's room, a bottle of gatorade, and all these books. (I am currently reading all of these, save one I haven't started yet. Yes really. I tend to read one novel at a time, and nonfiction type stuff a chapter at a time, rotating through each of them once a week or so. I don't know why. Now that I am trying to explain why I have all these books on my nightstand it doesn't seem like a very good system.)

I am also reading another but I took it off the nightstand before I took this pic because some shiz is private from Some People Reading) (not to you, you can ask and I will gladly tell you).

NOT on my nightstand: my glasses. Even though they should be. I can't find them, again, story of my life, whatever.

5. What do you order from the movie theater concession stand? Small popcorn and the largest size of diet coke (for to share!) because only the largest size gets refills, and I want the option for the refill, even though I never actually get it refilled.

6. Do you have a garden? What’s growing? I have some flowers in some boxes on the deck, planted by the previous owners. (They couldn't pay their mortgage and a third of the house was termite-destroyed, but sure! Keep the flowers alive!) Other than that, I do not garden. Although, Nathan wants to plant some dinosaur garden this summer, some something about prehistoric plants that would have grown when dinos roamed? I might humor him on that. He put it on the summer bucket list! It is now sacred!

7. Any summer plans? Well, the dinosaur garden, apparently. Especially now that I have told the internet about it, I have to. Also learning to get into a rhythm with Ali. Also sitting by my pool and reading, hopefully a lot. Also, a week at Montreat with Nathan again for youth conferences. Also, probably more crying than in some other summers. Just putting that out there.

8. Which TV couple(s) are you rooting for? Julia and Joel. (And, in case we never get to see them again, I will put my emotional cheering into Mindy and Danny instead.)

9. What’s the last thing you bought? I can't remember, so I will go out on a limb and say... something from Starbucks? (Oh wait! The new iPhones. I bought those today.) If I wait til tomorrow to post this, I can maybe say new jeans. I think I might need to make a jeans purchazzie tomorrow, because none of my pants fit, because mono. (Not that I recommend the mono diet. I stridently dis-recommend the mono diet.) Hmm I should take a picture like in a diet ad. Should I do it?

(I did it.)

10. What’s one thing you are passionate about? I feel like I always answer this type of question about apostrophe usage, but that is mostly a joke. (Not really. I am dead serious about it.) But also, I think: inclusive language. I am more and more bothered/ranty/willing to fight about how we talk about things, especially in terms of privilege, and propagating stigma. I know that all sounds like a bunch of nothing but I don't have it in me to be more articulate about it right now. Friday! Lazy! Language! Passion! Something!

11. What are you grateful for this week? My awesome Marky who lets me be as chatty or as quiet as I need to be, always. Another Nathan who makes time for me and our creature-of-habit habits, even when his own life gets crazy. My sister who is always in my phone and understands me. My minivan. My guest house fridge full of gatorade. And warm spring weather that is freaking gorgeous. Oh! And a pool to sit beside in said weather.

The rules say I must now tag eleven bloggers: Emily, whose answers to these things always crack me up. Arwen, who hasn't blogged in too long for my taste. Elsha, who (apparently) already knew I would tag her. And Emu, who can use this bloggity survey to kill time while she is in labor any day now.

Summer Bucket Did-it List

It was an easy first week of the school year with the girls here at home, since they aren't staring back til this week, and verrrrry graaaaadually. (Well, I say "easy" without accounting for the bickering, which I am about sick to death of, and also the fact that Anneliese has been stuck in The Grandparent Hangover That Will Never End, alternating between delightful and then suddenly sobbing, pushing my nerves to the outer limits of human understanding. And without accounting for the heavy job stuff still hanging around like a wet blanket over our ability to feel relaxed, or Nathan side-stepping a little to find his place, and yeah, suddenly now writing this it doesn't sound like an easy week at all.)

*record scratch*

Okay, well it was a slow week together with the girls, at least. I just couldn't make myself do much besides hang out here at home. After we get through our variety of first days this week and the mmo/preschool schedule officially kicks in, it will bring an era of one-on-one time with each of them, which is yay! for me but maybe not as super for them? So I just wanted us to be home and be together for a few more days. Normally I cherish and protect my afternoon quiet during their naps, but these days I have been pushing errands and appointments for that time instead of dragging the girls along in the morning, and reserving mornings for relaxing and playing.

I just want to BE.

Anyway.

(Mark and Another Nathan have been laughing at me for how often I say anyway. It seems it's not just a written tic in emails/blogs, but an out-loud voicemail disease I can't cure myself of.) (Leaving voicemails in the first place is apparently another one.)

ANYWAY.

What am I blogging about again? I don't know. The end of summer? Yes, okay. That.

It was a good summer, y'all! I wanted it to be, I was ready for it, and I was also prepared to feel over it -- but aside from a few frustrating days, I really haven't. Basically this summer taught me that I want all summers home with my kids, and whatever work I go back to (someday) will maybe need to allow that. Like, the content of the work matters of of course, but the "career potential" might matter less than the schedule. (I have to put that in quotes. It seems so laughable. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up! Still! "Career potential." Ha.) So yeah. Our super summer means that kind of thing has been stewing in my head a bit.

So! Super summer! We did (almost) everything on our bucket list:

1.) Eat hot dogs in the back of a pickup truck. DONE.

2.) Throw water balloons onto the side of the guest house. Oops? Totally forgot about this.

3.) Make surprise crayons. DONE, with side effects.

4.) Go to that place where everyone gets to choose their own restaurant. The mall food court, hell slash paradise. DONE.

5.) Take swim lessons. DONE.

6.) Take dance lessons. DONE. (I will post more about this. Soon.)

7.) Go on lunch dates. DONE.

8.) Go to the beach for the day. DONE.

9.) Read 99 books. DONE. Look at sweet Nathan with his complete and stapled list!!

10.) Make a cake that looks like dirt with worms on it. DONE.

11.) Go downtown and go up in that big tower again. DONE.

12.) Camp in the backyard with Daddy. DONE.

13.) Go to lego camp. Oh y'all. This was a heartbreak of the summer. We found out at 5pm on Friday before his camp started (Monday morning) that it had been canceled due to not enough kids having signed up, which, first of all, what. Not enough kids interested in legos? I don't understand. Also, a little more notice would have been great, considering it was the last week of summer and they gave us no time to make alternate plans and oh my heaven he would have been crushed, so good thing we had added Montreat in and were fresh off the heels of that. Boooo lego camp. This one is definitely happening next summer. (Also if y'all want to see Mark's rage face, which doesn't come out very often, cancel his kid's lego camp at the last minute. Rage face!)

14.) Go to the zoo and ask Charlotte what her favorite animal is. DONE. Her favorite is a dutt! (She calls all birds dutts.) (And dinosaur statues too, apparently.)

what is this, Daddy? this is not a dutt.

15.) Have a dinosaur pool party. DONE, and with gusto.

16.) Dance in the car. DONE.

17.) Have sleepovers in Mommy's room. DONE.

18.) Do a picnic at the airport. Ummm we forgot about this too. I went to the airport, more times than I would have preferred, for less glamorous reasons than I preferred (lots of picking up and dropping off and not enough of me going anywhere myself) but we did not picnic or watch planes and we should have!

19.) List item added by Grandpa: go visit Grandpa! (And other various grandparents and relatives.) So all the kids got to visit grandparents at some point this summer, but Anneliese really knocked this one out of the ballpark with a marathon ten-day trip to three different houses. Which was fun for her, and logistically/driving smart, but too achy for me. Will share more pics of that at some point too. You should see the outfits she (my mom?) picked for some of her outings. Internet gold.

Not on the bucket list but also completed: catch the kitchen on fire, have many Starbucks dates, play in the pool a ton, kill a snake with a shovel, have an incredible trips to Chicago and Montreat, watch the trailer for this upcoming dinosaur movie three hundred thousand times (that youtube link has 371 thousand views, and 300 thousand are from Nathan), eat a lot of post-gym dunkin donuts in our sweaty clothes, and drive ourselves nuts trying to solve The Mystery of the Sticker Mail.

That'll do, summer 2013. That'll do.

In Which Ashley and I Sound Craftier Than We Really Are

My sister came to visit for a few days this week (and brought Anneliese home with her! finally! YAY!) and it ended up being good to have her here -- the unbloggable work drama continues, and Mark and I were glad for a distraction. Especially one as fun and funny as Ashley. (I mean, not that I'm not the funny sister. I totally am.)

Mostly we lazed around the house which probably isn't super exciting for her but is a nice change of pace for me (I am terrible about hyper-scheduling us, even with "fun" and "relaxing" things. I have to plan to stay home or I won't ever stay here and just be).

But in between our lazing we did do a couple of summer bucket list things, like... painting the driveway with chalk paint.

Wait that sounds way fancier and craftier than is is. We mixed up cornstarch and water and added food coloring. And gave the kids dollar-store paintbrushes. And let them have at it.

if you look past the kids you'll see the *really* cute part of this pic --
my colorful pretty new flip flops. #piorities
(pretend you don't notice Liam's shoes mmmkay?)

So yeah that was a fun and easy way to kill an hour. Done and done. (We recommend doing it on a sliiiightly less muggy day, or maybe when you're not five months pregnant.) (Have I mentioned Ashley is pregnant again? I have another nephew on the way!)

Also we finally made our dirt pie with worms. Gummy anything would have tasted weird with pudding and cream cheese and oreos, but hey the worms looked cute, and the pie part was actually kind of tasty.

my next career will be in food photography

It was much better cold, right from the fridge, than after it had been out for a few minutes. (I like a denser texture for that sort of thing.) The recipe was pretty easy with kids, too. The secret ingredient is letting Liam take a bite of every oreo before he puts it in the food processor.

(Hey, people know what they're getting into when they eat food at my house.) (Also, toddlers, food, feet, counter, eh whatever.)

Whoa yikes, sanitation score aside, I just made our week sound way more crafty-cooky-planny than it really was. Y'all know we aren't Those Moms, right? Full disclosure. I mean, we also went out and drank beer and played trivia one night, to be clear on what our Type really is. Well, Ashley didn't drink beer, you know knocked up and all. But I did. And I got carded. Which is irrelevant except to say WOOO HOOOO.

(I used to roll my eyes at "grownups" who were flattered to get carded but now I don't care, so I repeat: WOO HOOOO.)

Friday Miscellany: Flying Solo Edition

I think I mentioned that Mark is away on his annual ASP trip, which means it's time for my annual week of parenting, flying solo. Am I being an annoying internet mom if I say it actually gets easier every year? I think the hardest one was the first one. When I only had two kids. Oh and the one where I was 39 weeks pregnant trying to find a tanker truck to come fill up our pool wasn't a breeze either. BUT anyway, this week has been pretty easy.

Besides melting various plastic shapes in the guest house oven, we also did another bucket list item -- "go downtown and go up in that big tower again" -- by request of Anneliese, who remembered our glamorous (not glamorous) trip to the state vital records office last fall to get Charlotte's birth certificate. And wanted to re-create it. Apparently.

So we went downtown, we looked at the big towers, we went into the big towers, we rode elevators in the big towers, and then we ate hot dogs at a sidewalk table in the shadow of the big towers.

It was not unpleasant. It was lovely, actually. Sometimes I am glad when we do random harebrained kiddie ideas.

Now, want to hear something that is unpleasant?

I am feeling pretty pissy that I still don't have my oven back. You would think I wouldn't care (or at least care less) when it's a week without Mark which means I am not cooking much real food, but I do care. It is driving me nuts and taking forever.

Our home warranty is covering the damage, which is nice, but the red tape requires attempting to fix it first, which is also fine, and I totally get that diagnosing the problem and getting approval for parts, and then ordering said parts takes time. I get it. I do. But all our parts came, we still had to wait a long week for a technician appointment, and then when he came, he found that we (of course) need a different part. Argggghhhh.

Shit happens, I know, I know. But an oven is an essential appliance. ESSENTIAL. And I feel like there should be an upper limit on how long it takes the warranty people to fix/replace it before they are in violation of the warranty. Or if their contractors have a several week waiting period to get it fixed, we should be able to ask for a different contractor. Our next repair visit is in August. AUGUST. Our fire was IN JUNE. I am basically going all summer without an oven. Well that's how it feels. It is TOO LONG.

I would bitch about it a lot more except I do technically have a working oven in the guest house, and saying that that isn't good enough makes me sound brattier than I want to believe I am. So.

Anyway.

So now not only is Mark out of town, but Another Nathan left yesterday to lead worship for a huge youth conference for the next three weeks (pray for him! send him a million encouraging thoughts!) AND our Nathan is visiting my dad for the weekend, so it is hella quiet around here. No one should say that about solo parenting an almost-two-year-old and an almost-four-year-old, but it does indeed feel... still.

I miss all my favorite dudes! Marky comes home tomorrow so there will be ginormous hugs involved.

And in the meantime I wanted to record a little bit of Charlotte on video, to share some sweetness with our traveling guys, and also just since I haven't been great about getting her on video of late. (Remember this sweetness from Nathan at almost two?)

So, here is her cute little voice getting ready for bed (and no, she doesn't know her correct name or age and no one is really bothering to correct her, so just go with it) (also try not to notice she does something vaguely Hitlerish with her hands when she says her (wrong) age, which is... yeah, um... awkward):


(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on YouTube.)

Oh and I also realized I never blogged about Nathan passing a belt test at Tae Kwon Do, so I guess this is also a good time to say yay Nathan! He worked hard and passed the test and is one belt level higher (I don't understand all the levels, please don't ask me). Oh and yes, if you remember his previous disappointment, he broke a board. His first real wooden one.

I can't believe how big he is getting. He will be six in a week! A WEEK! SIX! When I could swear I was just pregnant with him. That cannot have been six years ago, when I wasn't even a mom yet. No way. Cannot.

Another Nathan pointed out that I do this every July, get all mommy nostalgic remembering where I was and what I was doing every summer previously, pregnancies and births and such. It's true. Summer brings it out in me. All the birthdays are approaching and I have feeeelings and now I am HYPER AWARE of how much time I spend in memory lane. Um I don't know what to say about that really, since I like being this way, nostalgia feels kind of great actually, but... now I know I am That Way.

And the chromebook battery is dying (dark red with an exclamation point), so that's how this post ends.

Backyard Camping

So, Mark and the big kids camped in the backyard last night.

It's of those summer bucket list things they have been clamoring to do for months, we scheduled it and rescheduled it (rain and work and things kept getting in the way) but had no idea how it would go or even if they would survive all night or if this was going to be the most annoying night of our summer.

But... it was awesome.

(Disclaimer: my experience of backyard camping does not involve actually sleeping in the tent with them. So take my "awesome" with that in mind.)

After dinner last night, we busted out the tent for the first time in years and put it up out behind the pool deck.

We blew up air mattresses and brought them out there. We built a fire pit to have a campfire. (Note: everywhere I just said we you should replace it with Mark but you knew that already, right?)

The kids had never seen a tent before, I don't think. (We have only been camping once since Nathan was born, and we definitely didn't take him.) They were enamored. Once the tent was up, I don't think they stopped grinning til they were asleep.

Since we had no illusions of getting them to go to bed in a tent when it was still light out, we killed some time watching Daniel Tiger (the one where they camp in the backyard, of course, which is where our darling children got the idea in the first place) and then when Charlotte was tucked in, Nathan and Anneliese got to go night swimming and you would think they were swimming with the moon itself in the pool, they were so excited. Exclaiming over everything.

"Mommy said we could stay up SO late, like 8:50 or 9!"

"That campfire smells so good like deeelicious!"

"This is the best day of summer! Swimming twice and book club and camping and OOOOOHHHHH LOOK MOMMY THE POOL IS GLOWING!"

Ha. Yes, sweet children, we do have a pool light. Which apparently you have never been privy to before.

And then when it was dark we made s'mores. Which I don't think Anneliese really liked but she sure tried to like them. (What you can't see in the picture below is that her "special camping" PJs are a pair of Lightning McQueen boys briefs and a hand-me-down Yale shirt.)

And then I retreated to bask in the air conditioning and keep an ear out for Charlotte while Mark and the kids climbed into the tent on one of the hottest muggiest nights in months, and (kind of) slept. I don't think they slept well, and they definitely all collapsed on the couch when they came inside in the morning, but it was enough of a success that we will brave "real" camping in the mountains in a few weeks.

So. Backyard camping. It makes you high on summer and high on your family. RECOMMEND.

Swim Lessons

One for-sure thing that we (Mark and I) wanted to do this summer was put the big kids in swim lessons. Nathan did a session last summer and it made a big difference, although it seems over the winter he un-learned the confidence he gained from it. More lessons this summer were definitely in order.

Because y'all, it pains us that the kids cannot swim. Besides being a safety issue, swimming is something Mark and I both loved from a really young age, and want our kids to love it too. I even taught swim lessons for years, with good success, but now I can't teach my own children. What are we doing wrong here??  (I don't care about strokes! Dog paddle! Float! I don't care! Just be in the water not touching the wall or bottom for like, a couple seconds!) They don't want to be underwater, don't want water in their faces, barely want to let go of the wall. All while somehow... loving the pool? They do! They really do! (I don't get it either.)

ANYWAY. Swim lessons.

On the first day, Anneliese told me, I'm going to swim like Dorie! To which Nathan replied, and I'm going to swim like an Elasmosaurus! (Nutshell much, you two?)

Spoiler alert: neither of them did anything of the sort.

They both did a two-week session and made huge improvements though -- Anneliese will now gladly go underwater when she jumps in. Nathan will gladly hold the wall with his hand instead of leaning onto it with his whole upper body in a state of pure panic. (Baby steps. Baby steps.) And they both will blow bubbles with their noses and put their ears in the water.

And if nothing else, they loved it, so that's a win. They had a sweet teacher who handled the few panicky moments really well. They got to tell their favorite things every day ("My favorite animal is a elephant. Actually it's a zebra. Actually it's a monkey. Actually it's an elephant." Oh, life with Anneliese) and make train noises and play cute games. And we'll do another session next month so they can keep practicing.

Oh and Charlotte, in between bites of banana, would toddle right up to them and wave in their faces while they were with their group. Hiiiiiiii!

Summer bucket list... swim lessons... check.