Summertime

Wow, I haven't blogged in almost a month! Can you tell I got a part-time job? It's definitely making my summer go a little faster than usual since I'm not here 3-4 afternoons a week. We've definitely been keeping busy.

The kids and I have had a few slumber parties on the sofa bed. The first time we watched "Because of Winn Dixie" and the second time we watched "The Karate Kid" (the original one). I let them eat popcorn on the bed which they thought was pretty cool. One night we also made chocolate covered bananas. They were yummy!

One day, right before school was out, Jordis and I took our neighbor on a little tour of some of the finer points of south Columbus. She is from Michigan and we've been discussing a little field trip since last year, so we finally made our way out.
We started at Schiller Park.

Then we stopped for goodies at Pistacia Vera. How I love their macaroons. Jordis had a delightful lemon sugar cookie. I forget what Nancy sampled, but it looked equally as tasty.

Next was a trip up High Street to the North Market. We checked out all the booths, grabbed some lunch to go (yummy mashed potatoes and mac and cheese from a local eatery) and continued north. Oh, and Jordis always has to take her picture with this cow whenever we come to the market.

Our final stop was the Park of Roses. It was a few days before the annual festival so the roses should have been at their peak, but it had been so hot at the time that they were looking a little pekid. We enjoyed them anyway. It's always fun to take someone there that has never been. You'd never know that such beauty existed in that busy stretch of High Street without someone showing you. It's definitely off the beaten path.

We've also had some creepy summer storms....

...made homemade donuts....

....been to the park.....

...and discovered silly string.

There's still 35 days until school starts, so I'm sure we'll have some more summer fun in the weeks to come.

Catty

Typically, this is what people think of when they hear the word catty:

cat-ty

adj. cat-ti-er, cat-ti-est

1. subtly, cruel or malicious; spitelful: a catty remark

2. catlike; stealthy

But not at our house. Catty is our former caterpillar. The caterpillar my kids captured in their bug catcher late last summer because he was going to turn into a butterfly. He wrapped himself into a chrysalis and settled in for a time.

Then fall came, and there was no butterfly.

Winter was next and, well, you know.

I put the bug catcher in the garage for the winter. Our very.long.winter. Our very long, COLD, winter. The very long, cold winter that we all thought would never end.

(You get it, right?)

Once it was finally starting to warm up, the kids brought the bug catcher back out and sat it on the porch. I let them continue to believe that this pupa survived the winter and was still undergoing metamorphosis. I didn't want to break their little hearts by telling them that their caterpillar probably didn't survive for seven months outside in the cold.

But apparently the joke was on me.

Meet Catty.

Xander was outside playing one May afternoon and came running in shouting that Catty turned into a butterfly. It was a gorgeous butterfly at that. And the odd thing was that Xander had brought home a butterfly book that day for his reading homework.

The kids wanted to keep it, but we had to explain to them that it needed to be free, so we opened up the door and watched it for awhile.

Catty seemed to have trouble finding his way out, so Jason found a thick piece of mulch for him to hop up on and we brought him out of the bug catcher where he made his way down to the flower bed next to our lilac bush.

He stayed there for quite a bit, flapping his little wings. We thought he was learning to fly, but after a quick internet search I discovered it's how they dry off their wings after first emerging. And then he must have gotten tired of two little kids ogling him and breathing on him, and he flew away.

I hate being wrong, but I'm so glad my kids got to have faith in nature and see that some things are worth the wait.

I need a plan

It appears as though Thursday is the last day of school. That's two days from now. We've all been counting down the days. For different reasons, of course. :-)

I've known this day was coming for a while now, so I've had ample time to make a plan for filling our summer days with things besides TV, Wii and screaming children who like to fight all day.

I've done a LOT of research about crafts, events and local happenings in my community.

And this is the plan I've come up with.

I think it's going to be a long summer.

Backyard Bible School

The week before last the kids attended Backyard Bible School. It's a program similar to Vacation Bible School, but different people hold it in their backyard for four days. The activities director at the nursing home where we attend story time holds it there so the residents can enjoy the kids, and then the last day is at her home. The theme was Son Harvest County Fair and this is what the kids decided to wear on the second day when they were told to try and dress up like cowboys and cowgirls. We probably could have come up with something a little better had they enlisted my help, but they felt pretty cool with these outfits so I just let them do their thing.

By the last day they had learned a bunch of songs and bible verses, which they still know, and they also made fun crafts and ate candy. I attended the last day at Ms. Connie's house and it was quite the affair. She has four acres so there was a lot of room for the 40 or so kids to run around. There was a ring toss, boomerang throwing, balloon toss, and a few other games.

At the end of the day some of the kids got to smash whipped cream pies in the faces of the teenage helpers. The rest of the kids got to "clean" them off with water guns and water balloons. Xander smashed a balloon over this girl's head.

Miss Connie has a slide on the side of her garage and a rope swing that capped off their adventurous week.

Let's go fly a kite!

Xander has a Diego kite he got a few years ago, and we feel bad that he always asks to fly it at inopportune times. But the other day he asked and it was perfect outside....a nice constant breeze, but not too windy.

Jason got it started for him and he was so excited. Aren't my boys so cute? It warms my heart to watch them have fun together.

He tried to guide the kite himself, but it didn't go so well. Thankfully he had a good attitude about it.

The little guy next door came to play on our swing set and he liked the kite, too.

Even Jordis took a turn.

Such a nice night at home, just enjoying the evening as a family.

Summer Thus Far

Can you believe it's July already? Knock on wood we haven't had to put the air on as much as usual for this time of year, so that's been really nice. Yesterday it didn't even hit 70 degrees, so I was one happy girl.

We haven't really been doing too much lately. Xander's balloons are still on the back of his chair. Tomorrow is Trader Joe's day though, so perhaps he'll get a new one. Last time we were there we met an employee who's from New Orleans, so perhaps we'll chat with him. Xander was wearing an LSU shirt the last time we were there, so he stopped us to talk about it.

The kids seem to be enjoying summer so far. Last month we took them to my aunt and uncle's for a family cookout and they got to play with cousins. Neither of them were into the sprinkler but they loved the sandbox.



We've also gone on some family walks and the kids are enjoying their swing set.




A few Friday's ago I took the kids to the zoo and we met up with two of my friends and their little boys. We had a nice time and then ate lunch together before checking out the elephants and stopping for cotton candy on the way out. Not surprisingly, the cotton candy was a huge hit with the kids.


This guy was redecorating with some greenery and a carboard box.


Lunch! Xander's all about it.


This is Jordis with her prom date, Arjun. We've already set them up in the event either of them need a date in 16 years.



Nomey decided to walk, she was too big girl for the stroller, so Xander happily took her place.

Not to leave out Jason...he brought his woodworking tools up to the garage and spent some rare free moments building a shelf to display his stein collection in the basement. He gets the Budweiser Christmas stein each year and also has some random others in the mix. He doesn't have quite the fancy tools my grandpa used to own, but enough to do an awesome job, and it looks great on our graffiti wall in the basement. Jason really likes woodworking and is really good at it, so hopefully he can build his tool collection in the coming years.



It's kind of hard to tell from the picture but all the edges are routered, too. I think the next project may be a stool for Jordis so we can put the frame on her bed and she can still get in by herself, because she has to do EVERYTHING herself. The other night we asked the kids where they'd go if they could drive and she answered "the mall." We didn't even realize she knew what the mall was, but knowing her she'd drive there herself today if she could figure out how. Hopefully we can get through a few more summers before she starts hanging out there on a regular basis.

Hope you're all enjoying summer, whatever it is that's going on at your house.