Memorial Day Weekend
We had a wonderful time celebrating my grandma's 90th birthday. The family gathered in her honor for a wonderful visit.
We made it over to my grandparents' farm after the party, so the youngest generation could experience a jeep ride. Growing up, my grandpa took all of us kids all over his farm in his jeep. As my brother told the kids "This is what we did instead of a four wheeler." The kids all agreed it was pretty fun. Nice and bumpy.. exciting that we almost went backwards into the creek, we saw some horses, and when they told Kevin to drive faster, he did.
The boys played with their cousins.. well, 2nd cousins, or perhaps 1st cousins once removed, or 2nd cousins once removed. It gets a bit complicated at these gatherings, getting the name of the person right.. Grandpa Pete vs. Uncle Pete, depending on who you're talking to. One person's cousin is another person's uncle, two people had the same name, so, you have to specify WHICH Kevin you're sending the kid to go talk to. Anyhow, it is fun to play with kids your own age, and very free run of the farm.
We have had surprisingly few meltdowns today, since it is very boring at our house. I did mow the lawn, so they could set up the croquet set. Alex somehow managed to get one of the wickets on the roof of the house. It's probably not as much fun to play with your brothers as it is to play with a bunch of cousins.
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Last day of school
This would be a good spot to put the boys' spring photos.. but their stuck on my dead laptop. You'll have to trust me, they're cute.
I pulled out the school days books, to have the kids sign their name, and answer a few questions.. friends, favorite subject, ect. Caleb's book is fat, filled with photos. Jonas' is thin as can be... very few photos. Oy vey. I am good about doing the written stuff, I figure I can go in and fill in the photos later. They can never duplicate how they write their names at each age.
Alex is the only kid that examined his book, and realized with delight, that he's picked video games for his hobby since he was three years old.
On to the fun summer months. Anyone else hear it in your head? School's out for summer!
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French fries, 86* the grease
This week is what will will be on the paycheck that I receive right before vacation. So, I have been working evenings this week. I am now up way past my bedtime, four nights this week. I just have to think positive vacation thoughts.
Last night, someone ordered a burger and fries, but they didn't want any grease on their fries.
Hmmmm.
I should add, that my work clothes perminantly smell like grease. They are washed seperately from everything else, but the smell never goes away. When I have to wear a coat, and hang it up in the kitchen... it smells like grease. I wash my hands 100 times while I'm at work, to try to keep the grease off of them. My co-worker found a package of clips for lightbulbs last night... way on the back of a shelf... it had been there awhile, because there was a film of grease on it. We have 10-20 five gallon containers of oil on hand at all times. One gallon of it hangs out on the grill top, for cooking anything and everything.
Ummm, sure. No grease with those fries.
*I'm assuming everyone out there knows the lingo... 86=leave off... in kitchen talk.
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Fun day … part 2
So, today was the 4th, 5th and 6th grade fun day. What a different day. about 1/10th the parents, and a different lecture from the P.E. teacher. A much stricter, "no mouthing off, or you'll be done" type lecture. (but sterner than that even). Not nearly as much doing the fun activities, more standing around, drinking soda. There were a few activities mixed in though. The parents mostly stood back, pretending they weren't there, so their kids were not mortified to have them there. Although, some parents were walking around with their kids.
I did get a few photos of Caleb doing activities, but mostly I have shots of him standing around, drinking soda. Here he is at the fast pitch station. They were measuring the speed of the pitches with a radar gun.
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Fun Day… part 1
Today was Alex's Fun Day at school (Caleb's is tomorrow.. next year I'll get to go to it three different times.)
He's at an interesting age. He didn't acknowledge that I was there. No hello, no hug (last year I got a hug), not even a smile when he saw me. Jonas and I followed him and his crew from a distance.. no need to embarrass him. At some point, other kids started saying hi to their mom's.. so, he did come over and talk with me a bit.
Later, while we were watching an activity dominated by boys, he shouted out to me, to hold his money.. he was up against a THIRD grader.
Later, a different side of him appeared, he set his money down on the ground (they sold snacks.. that's why he had money.) to play a game, and when he finished, and went to get his money, it was gone. He came over to me, fighting back the tears, because someone stole his last quarter. I gave him another one, told him, that was all I had, to put it in his pocket. I got a smile, and off he went, to find his buddy.
Jonas was a patient kid. It can't be easy to watch your big brother do fun activity after fun activity. There was no place to sit, it was a lot of walking. But, he had his music, and he got a soda. After we were done he got to play on the playground for awhile. The preschool class happened to be there, I explained after he left.. he might get to be in kindergarten with some of those kids.
I'm looking foward to seeing how thrilled Caleb will be to see me tomorrow. He knows I'm coming. I told him I had a note that invited me, so I was coming. But, he wasn't terribly excited to know I was coming. Perhaps the fact that other kids have parents there will ease the pain.
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Our summer vacation… and McDonalds
I found this great website..
You put in your starting and stopping points, and it will tell you where every McDonald's is on your trip! Wow. Now we don't have to eat out of a cooler. *ahhhhhh*
I've been working on planning out entertainment for the kiddos, for our long car ride. So far, I have decided on:
- Travel Journals. A simple bound sketch book, I provide the writing utensils, and I will encourage them to write and draw what they are doing each day. I will also provide tape, to add post cards and flat trinkets. In the past, we've gotten a photo album, and added post cards from every stop to the book. This is taking that idea up a notch. I'm thinking, that they will get the journals first thing in the car, in the morning, and after we stop at rest stops (so we can tape in post cards.)
- Activity Binder. A 1/2 inch three ring binder. One per kid. Filled with maps of where we're going each day, then activities. Mazes, puzzles, word games, ect. This is still being worked out in my head. I'm envisioning dividing it up by days, and each days worth of stuff will be themed based on where we're going. So, word searches with a colorado theme for day one of the car ride. This binder will come with a pencil pouch in the front, that will have writing utensils, stickers, and anything else needed to do the activities. These binders will be *treats*, not in the back seat at all times. This should make them more valuable and exciting.
- Bag of Fun . In a bag, I will put names of games. (I have 12 games so far... I'm still searching.) Mostly these are games like 20 questions, counting cows, I spy, ect. Mostly these are word games, so the driver can play along too. I did find some new and interesting things. So, at some point, each day, someone draws the name of a game, and we will all play the organized game together.
These are my brilliant ideas so far. For a fun car trip. We also have the standard mp3 players, gameboys, and dvd player, but, those too, will be treats. Too be passed out at various times of the day. A very overly organized car trip is in the works. One that hopefully will have the kids looking back in aww, at how they were not possibley bored while traveling 3000 miles crammed in the backseat of a car.
At least we'll know where all of the McDonalds' are. There are ten McDonalds between Riley, KS and Colorado Springs, CO. Day one, is under control.
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a bit unmotivated
I've spent about 1/2 of my day on various rewards sites. I'm trying to get a bit more money in before vacation comes around.
What I really need to be doing is building a stone staircase in my flower bed. I have a pile of plants to plant, and I need to get the stairs in, before planting more.
I also need to be working with Jonas on a piano piece that he is suppose to play for his great grandma. Instead.. We're just watching kids shows.
It's a lazy day, filled with a large to-do list.
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My baby’s growing up.
It was Jonas' last day of preschool. I told myself, to look forward to the future.. .don't be sad over the past. I didn't shed a tear. I did good.
All of the preschoolers lined up where the teachers couldn't see them, and walked into the classroom this morning, each carrying two flowers, one per teacher, for a one of a kind flower arrangement. It was a very touching moment.
The teachers gave each of the preschoolers a scrapbook of their year at school. We ended our day by playing and having a picnic at the park.
He's offically ready for kindergarten.
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the blasted weather
Yesterday I was steaming. It was so hot in our house. I dug out a fan, from it's winter resting place, and swore I would dig out our AC units next. Time to cool down the house.
Today, I'm freezing. The house is shut up, I am wearing a long sleeve shirt, no sandals for me today. Cold cold me.
On a brighter note, I have spent my day printing off bingo cards for our vacation. I found two different varieties of car bingo. I am looking for a good printable version of road kill bingo still. I have a few scavenger hunts printed off, and a list of states, for hunting down license plates. I will laminate all of this stuff in the near future.
I found the hotel we'll be staying at in Salt Lake City. I couldn't talk Jared into the BEST breakfast in Utah. So, I found a Holiday Inn Express, that provides a *free* hot breakfast, pool, and coin laundry. Those were our requirements. It's within our price range, and we get to tell plenty of jokes that next day... "No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express."
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Meet me in St. Louie
We had a fun fun fun weekend. We went to St. Louis, to celebrate some very close friends of the family's 45th anniversary. Caleb insisted, that he was not going to St. Louis for the party, not to see his grandparents, not for the arch, or anything else we could do... Here's what Caleb got up at 6am for, sat in a car for 7 hours for, and would do it again in a heartbeat...
- It was a lovely party. It was a surprise party, and the happy couple was TOTALLY surprised. Kudos to their kids, for pulling that off.
- The hotel had a great indoor swimming pool, so we swam for awhile, enjoyed a mother's day brunch with my mom, and this group of close friends.
- We *got* to go to the brewery. Just what every mom wants to do on Mother's Day. Here's the kids, posing in front of the clydesdales. I think they are sick of posing for photos.
- After the free tour, each person over 21 gets two free samples of anything on tap, 11 ounces each. It's quite a good deal. They also had room temperature soda. yum.
- We also went to the arch, and even went up to the top, as a little bonus treat.
- We enjoyed the view of the Mississippi River, after we finished shopping in the gift shop. We even learned that the Arch is a National Park monunment. So, we were able to use our national park membership for a good discount, and got the boys' national parks passports stamped.
- Our final stop in St. Louis was next to the airport, where we got to watch planes land. We couldn't find the park that use to be there, but did find a spot that worked.
It was a whirlwind trip. Two action filled days. We arrived home after midnight. I think only Jared and I were feeling it today. The boys seem nice and perky. Alex told me, that he tried to tell the kids what he did this weekend, but they didn't know what the arch was.
We also used this trip as an experiment, to find out what we will want to do differently when we travel this summer, in the same car, three bored boys in the backseat, for hours upon hours.
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