A very Katrina-y day

Katrina came to the library with me today, because every day is "bring your daughter to work" day when you work at the library! She picked a good day to come - there was no drama, and she got lots of space to herself and lots of quiet. She started out drawing and writing articles for her magazine, and then eventually grabbed "Divergent" off the shelf and spent the rest of the time reading. I asked her if she liked coming with me because it was quiet or because she got to spend time with me or because it was just fun to come to the library, and she said, "All of the above." But i suspect that "because it's quiet" is a pretty big percentage of the reason.

And then Katrina and i went to "Once Upon a Child" (a store where they sell nice used clothes) because they were having a giant sale and she needed shorts, and let me tell you.... Finding cute and also modest clothes that actually fit a 13-year-old is unreasonably hard. Nobody should be wearing shorts that are that short, especially children. And i will never understand why clothing stores can't all have a conversation and be like, "Okay, THIS is what we're going to call size 12, and THAT will be size 14. Sound good? Okay, let's ALL DO THAT THEN." That would make life a lot easier.

A few days ago, Katrina and Zane brought my giant Harry Potter Lego castle upstairs and were all, "Um...if we promise to be really careful, could we make this?" Zane lasted approximately long enough to build one room, and then Katrina spent the next couple of days working on it off and on, and today she finished it, and it is now sitting on top of the bookcase, being all cool.

Adventure Monday, the first

Mondays are my day off, so this summer we're switching from Adventure Thursdays to Adventure Mondays. Today was the first official day off for Katrina and Zane - the first day that they'd usually be going to school but aren't - AND it's a Monday, so it was the perfect day to start off the summer.

We started the day by going out to breakfast with my parents. Pancakes! Fun! The kids got all you can eat, and Zane finally declared himself full after his 8th pancake. That kid is a bottomless pit.

After breakfast, we stopped at the store and got a giant frisbee thing, and then went to my kids' favorite park. Usually i can know what color shirts my kids are wearing, and then i can easily find them simply by color. And usually a shirt that's bright green like Zane's was would be the easiest thing in the world to spot. But today, there were three giant groups of kids there, obviously from some daycare-type places, and one of the groups had shirts the exact color of Zane's shirt and another group was wearing blue shirts the exact color as Katrina's. So that strategy worked not at all today.

Anyhow. It's the kind of park that's all wooden and is sort of like a castle? Like, with lots of little places to hide and explore and climb on? So the kids ran around like crazy and got all hot and sweaty, and eventually Houston and Katrina got bored and wandered over to where i was. So then the three of us went to the giant field and tried to play frisbee and realized that we are all remarkably terrible at it. However! If you have a giant, soft frisbee and it's a somewhat windy day, and none of you particularly care if the frisbee is dropped more often than it's caught, then it's really fun even when you suck at it! Zane joined us for a little while, got bored, and went back to the playground. Katrina suggested trying to throw the frisbee from one end of the field to the other, to see who could get there first, so we did that, and she totally kicked our butts.

When we were finished playing and Zane still wasn't bored, Katrina and Houston got out their notebooks and started working on their magazines for a little while. (They both have magazines. Houston's is "The Egg," and Katrina's is "The Kat." They are completely ridiculous and carry silly stories that they make up. They're quite entertaining.)

And eventually, finally, Zane was ready to leave, so we all piled back into the car and went to another park, this time to feed the ducks. One of the first things Zane asked me on his very first day off was, "It's summer! Can we go feed the ducks?!" So now we have.

And that was all i could think of to do today, because i just wasn't feeling terribly creative. So we came home and everyone read and played and generally hung out. 

Anniversary + Father's Day

Today is both Father's Day and our anniversary, so we kind of, sort of celebrated both things.

Juanito woke up at about 2:00, and soon thereafter the two of us went out for a late lunch without children to celebrate the fact that we have been married 23 years. (Seriously. 23 years. We got married when we were 22, which means that we've been married a year longer than we were alive before we were married. What?!)

And then we came home and got the kids and headed downtown to walk around and swing on the giant tire swing and take silly pictures and just enjoy the lovely day. And i was reminded, as always, that our kids are the best kids.

At one point, we stopped in Rosa Park Circle and somehow got on the subject of dreams, and after a while, Houston was all, "Well. And then there's my shopping cart dream." The rest of us were all like, "Whaaaaat?" And he said, "Oh yeah. That was a recurring dream that i had. There was a white room with a shopping cart in the middle on a pedestal and it was turning around and around, and that was the entire dream. And for some reason, for years, that was my best dream ever." Bwahahahaha!!!

Last day of summer interview!

(More pictures here.)

Today was Labor Day - the last day of summer vacation, so Beth, the kids, and i walked around downtown. We did the same thing on Memorial Day, and at that point, the entire city was deserted. Today there were quite a few more people there, and Beth made the brilliant observation that the difference is that Pokemon Go wasn't yet a thing on Memorial Day, and a good portion of the people we met downtown today were playing. Also there was a festival called "Laborfest" going on by the Ford Museum, and - possibly connected - the Ford was free today. We agreed that "free" was the most we'd pay to visit that museum, so we checked it out. And we all agreed that the Ford is the most boring museum any of us had ever been in. (Though Zane was excited that he'd been a boy scout.)

We had yummy steak and chicken on the grill and corn on the cob for dinner. We had ice cream cones and s'mores. And we were all sad to see summer end.

End of summer interviews:

What were your favorite things we did this summer?
Zane: "Going to Pennsylvania. My favorite thing was my birthday party, and THEN Pennsylvania."
Katrina: "Seeing baby Amiya. The Aviary. The zoo. Dutch Village."
Houston: "Seeing 'The Secret Lives of Pets.' Going to SkyZone. Going to Pennsylvania and Kentucky."

What are you looking forward to in school this year?
Zane: "Michigan Adventure. Fifty6. Getting more friends."
Katrina: "Friends. The math teacher, because she seems really nice. Having almost all of my friends in my class again. Art class. And a new band teacher."
Houston: "Wearing my Halloween costume to school. Seeing Chauncey EVERY DAY. Getting a locker with a lock!"

Are you ready to go back to school?
Zane: "Yes! I'm actually really excited!"
Katrina: "Yes and no. I don't want to do the homework or classes, but i want to see my friends again. And they have lots of books at school."
Houston: "No. I want to stay in summer vacation forever and ever."

What was the best book you read this summer?
Zane: "The fourth book of Harry Potter!"
Katrina: "'Heart of a Dolphin' or 'The Lost Hero'."
Houston: "Trials of Apollo."

How many books did you read this summer?
Zane: "I really don't remember. Maybe...about ten."
Katrina: "14."
Houston: "10 or 15."

What are some of your goals for this year?
Zane: "Making at least two more friends. Getting all of my homework done. But once or twice i might accidentally have stuff happen, and then i won't get it done...."
Katrina: "Getting all of my homework done on time. Not getting any planner signatures."
Houston: "Turn in all of my work. Not get in trouble once. Follow the dress code. Get good grades."

My grandpa is 97!

My grandpa's 97th birthday was on Tuesday, so today we all gathered at his house for a birthday party.

The party was scheduled for 5:00, but since he lives on the lake and the kids love to play on the beach and in the water, we decided to go earlier than that, so the kids and i got there at about 2:00. We stopped inside to say hello to my grandpa, and the first thing he said was, "Well, i hope you're not here to swim! Because the water is only about 45 degrees!"

And the water was, indeed, freezing. Absolutely, numbingly cold. But it was a really warm day, and when sitting in the sun, it was hot enough that i really wanted to jump into the lake for a swim. For the first hour we were alone. The kids made sand castles near the water, just close enough to get a tiny bit wet while not getting drenched. I walked out to my calves a few times to cool off.

Eventually my sisters came. Jill and i took a walk down the beach. Jackie dared me to go all the way in the lake. I tried. Katrina, Houston, and i all went in together, but we only made it up to our waists before we had to stop and turn around. It was a weird sensation to be standing in water up to my waist and be completely numb from the waist down, but sweating on my top half.

Most of the family was there, except for my brother's family (because they live in California) and my cousin Betsy's family (because they were camping with a group from church). Juanito and i were in charge of making a cute cake, and Grandpa provided the pizza - lots and lots of pizza. We ate. We talked. We caught up with cousins we haven't seen in a while. It was a good time.

Saturday

The boys' friends went home unexpectedly early this morning. Since it's a Saturday, it's the kids' day to get a morning to play on the computers, so while they played (mostly Minecraft), i went over to Beth's house. We sat on her porch and chatted for a couple of hours and i got to eat a yummy cinnamon roll that Beth surprised me with. Mmmm.

This afternoon, the kids started working on a new movie wherein they all become superheroes. For this movie, Emma is playing the Fairy Dogmother, so she was dressed in one of Katrina's old princess dresses. She was shockingly calm about it, even when she kept tripping on the long sleeve-thingies.

Tonight, Katrina and i started fixing a puzzle that i've apparently had since before 9-11, because it's of the New York City skyline, and the World Trade Towers are prominently featured. I've never fixed it before, and after starting it, i know why i've never done it before. It's ridiculously hard. We might finish it, but there's a pretty good chance that it'll end up getting packed back up for another 15 years.

Shakes, sleepovers, and pizza

We started out the summer by going for shakes with Beth, and so we figured that it was only fitting to end the summer the same way. Yum!!!

Houston and Zane's friends, Chauncey and Finneas came over this afternoon and are spending the night. Houston and Chauncey are trying to squeeze every single ounce of fun out the summer, and the little boys were sad that they'd missed out on their sleepover a few days ago.

Beth came over, and we had a very crowded, noisy, and fun pizza-movie night. We watched the fourth Harry Potter movie, since the kids assured me that i'd promised them we'd watch it this week. (I don't remember promising this, but we DID finish reading the book a few weeks ago, and ... sure, why not.)

The final Adventure Thursday of the summer.

(More pictures here.)

Today was the last Thursday of the summer. Sad. (I'm probably looking forward to summer ending about as little as my kids are. I love having the kids home all the time, and i am really, really going to miss having free time with them!)

Since it was the final one of the summer - and i never know if this will be the last summer that the kids want to do adventures with me, or if by next year they'll be rolling their eyes at the idea - i figured that we'd go out with a bang.

The first thing we did was to head to Krispy Kreme for some hot-n-ready donuts. I looked it up online, and according to their website, they have the hot ones until 11:00, so we got there at about 10:30, watched the donuts going through the machine, and each got a yummy, warm doughnut. We hadn't been there in ages, so the kids were all excited.

Next we headed over to SkyZone (the trampoline place), but when we got there we realized that they didn't open until noon, so we had about an hour to kill. Since i'd had a bit of trouble finding SkyZone, we already knew what was nearby, so we headed over to Trader Joe's and wandered around. At one point, Houston pointed at the shelf and said, "Cookie butter!?" and immediately an employee behind us popped up and said, "You can try that over in the corner if you want!" We all tried it and all agreed that we didn't actually like it. After we'd walked away, Zane said, "Usually i like anything sweet, but i was NOT a fan of that."

When we'd walked through the whole store, we still had time to burn, so we went to Michael's and PetSmart and wandered through both of those stores. Zane found guinea pig babies on sale and immediately decided that all he wanted in all the world was a baby guinea pig, and since he still had enough left over with his birthday money, couldn't he please get one??? (We're saying no. Our current guinea pig has had 2 roommates and hasn't gotten along with either of them. I think we need to wait until she dies, and then if people still want guinea pigs, then we can get a pair of them.)

Finally, at noon, we went to SkyZone and leaped around for an hour, after which everyone was hot and exhausted, but completely happy. (Side note: There is a foam pit at SkyZone into which you can leap from the trampolines. When you watch the little kids, it looks so easy! Leap in, crawl back. What i didn't realize is that that method doesn't actually work for adults. So i leapt in and then tried to crawl back, except that i'm big enough to sink, so it's more like crawling/wading through the foam to get back to the side. And then, when i got to the side and tried to climb out, i started to put one leg up, but then in the process i straightened the other leg, which immediately sank, and i quickly figured out that the only way to get out was by pulling myself out by my arms. Which doesn't look graceful when you're surrounded by and covered in foam - foam which is also trying to pull your socks off your feet while you try to extricate them. Luckily, Katrina was standing nearby, videotaping me and giggling. Sigh.)

From there, we worked our way down 28th Street. First the bookstore, and then a stop at Aldi to pick up some food for a picnic, and then a park for the picnic, playing on the playground, and some drawing time for Katrina and me. The playground was pretty neglected and had some broken bits, but it was also old enough to have a merry-go-round and a swing-set that was insanely high, which the kids thought was fantastic.

Juanito woke up and joined us while we were at the park, so he got to do the rest of the adventures with us. We took both cars to the car wash, where we all piled into the van and drove through and then all climbed into the little Rio and drove through again. (Incidentally, it was an entirely different experience in the car. The van is all quiet and the spray and the brushes are all fun and lovely. In the car, everything is loud and intense and it shook the car, and the water started to leak in through the door next to Katrina and me, and there was the added suspense of whether or not the antenna would break off. [It didn't.])

Next we went for frozen yogurt, and then drove over to my parents' house to hang out for a little while. And then, on the way home, we stopped at Goodwill for some last-minute school clothes for the kids.

By the time we got home, it was about 8:00, and everyone was exhausted. Showers were taken, and i'm hoping that everyone fell asleep fairly quickly. 

Orientations and Friends

Today, the students were invited to walk around Houston's high school to find their classrooms and their lockers. We went in the morning and were there for about an hour. First we got a tour from a group of 9th grade girls (to whom Houston barely said a single word). They were very sweet, but probably could have used a map themselves, because they totally took us the wrong way several times. We saw pretty much the entire school, but afterwards, i don't think Houston had any clue where he was going to have to go.

So after they bid us farewell, Houston and i walked through his schedule from start to finish so he could actually get a feel for where his classes would be. Turns out, they're all in one corner of the school, although one class is on floor 1, one is on floor 3, and the rest are on 2. His locker is smack dab in the middle of it all, so he can totally stop back at his locker between every class if he so chooses. Yay! After we'd gone through the schedule once, i handed Houston his schedule and made him lead the way from class to class to make sure he could find his way. About that time, the vice principal, whose office is right there, came out and said, "You guys are still here? I said hi to you a while ago already!" We chatted a bit, and he was all, "Yeah, there was one girl who was timing how long it took to get from band to one of these classrooms earlier!" and Houston and i both immediately thought, "It was Ella." 

We could be wrong. We ran into our friends Ella and Lorelei, who were also walking around for quite a while, doing the same thing we were. For a while, everywhere we went, we saw Ella. And then, later, we ran into a family that has 3 boys, all of whom are friends with my boys - Chauncey, Rowan, and Finneas - and i somehow invited all three boys over to our house for the afternoon. (We got home and Katrina was all, "What?!" so she invited her friend over as well. The more the merrier!)

And here is one thing that is very, very true: boys and girls are different. 

First off, let me say that i really, really like all of my kids' friends - especially these. They are kind and funny and respectful. I have absolutely no complaints about them AT ALL. I would happily have them over on a regular basis.

But while Katrina and her friend quietly worked on making a volcano in a quiet corner of the house the entire afternoon, the boys were just very, very present. They lounged around the front room and played games, watched some youtube videos, ran around outside, laughed loudly, and acted silly together. There was nothing quiet about them. Eventually they asked if they could all have a sleepover, and i said, "Um, sure?" And so the plan, temporarily, was that all of the boys and Katrina's friend Madison would be sleeping here. 

Katrina and i had to go to her middle school orientation, so i left all of the boys here alone (Juanito was at Zumba), and halfway through orientation Houston called and asked, "Can we all go to their house to sleep over instead?!" (Me: "YES!") So instead of five boys, we ended up with zero. And so i told Katrina that she could invite her friend Alex to sleep over too. Sleepover!!!

Sadly, shortly into their fun time at their friends' house, Zane threw up and had to come home. He was totally disappointed and was SO sad, because "I just really, really wanted to enjoy the last week of vacation!" He fell asleep on the ten minute drive home and then fell right asleep when he climbed into bed, so at least he didn't have much time to feel disappointed. 

And now i am praying that he doesn't actually have something contagious. I really, really want to enjoy the last week of vacation!

We went to the zoo.

The kids have been asking to go to the zoo since the first day of summer vacation. I kind of hate our zoo. I've been there what feels like hundreds but is probably actually a dozen and a half times, and it's just kind of boring. And it doesn't have any of my favorite animals - elephants, giraffes, koalas, kangaroos. So i wasn't expecting much. But our school (i'm guessing all of the city's schools) gave us free passes to the zoo, so i had no good excuse not to go. I asked Juanito, my mom, and my sister all if they wanted to come - for free! - and none of them wanted to join us.

Turns out, a few of the animals conspired to make this trip more fun than usual. Yay!

We walked in, and the first animal we came to was a pelican. Houston was all, "That's a weird chicken!" And he continued to be highly amusing and really pleasant company for the entire trip. I really like him.

So the first place we stopped was the penguin house. Way in the back of the penguin enclosure, i noticed what looked like a penguin lying on its back, not moving. I was standing there, staring at it, trying to decide if there was, in fact, a dead penguin in there, when Zane sidled up to me and said, "I think that that's a dead penguin. I don't think we should tell all of these little kids, though...." So considerate. We did tell a random worker outside, though, because they were scheduled to feed the penguins in 15 minutes, and removing a dead penguin with dozens of little kids watching would probably not be ideal. Poor little penguin. (That was not one of the fun things. For the record.)

The tigers were new to the zoo in the last 2-3 years, so we've only seen them once, and that time one of them was hiding and the other was lying waaaaaaay far back from the fence. This time, we started walking up the path, and the tigers showed up walking along their parallel path. My kids freaked out and started pointing them out to everyone, including a group of teenagers with headphones on. The teens all glanced up, saw the tigers, and then sat on a bench with their backs to the tigers and continued listening to their headphones. Houston turned to me and said, "If i ever act like that, please kick me and tell me to stop being stupid. There's a TIGER, and they're doing what they could do in their backyards!"

We were pretty sure that that was going to be the highlight of the tigers, but we were super wrong. As soon as we got to the top of the hill, where the large tiger enclosure was, one of the tigers saw my kids and came over to the glass and walked back and forth in front of it, looking straight at us, for about 15 minutes. It was beautiful and huge and i would love to cuddle it. Y'know, if it wouldn't immediately kill and eat me. Eventually he lost interest in us and wandered off, and all three kids were like, "We have the most amazing luck sometimes!!!!!" (This is the second time we've had a big cat do this. Once, years ago, a few lions did the same thing.)

One other thing that i've never seen before: There was a giant snake - long and skinny - and as we stood at his window, he slithered across a branch, looked around for a bit, and then curled himself around and around and around and around until his whole body was a coil up in the corner on a branch. I had just been wondering how snakes make themselves into a coil, and it was super cool to see him do it! (Also, i can't get over how snakes move without looking like they're moving a single thing on their body. They just...glide.)

Houston was inexplicably tremendously excited about the wallabies. They were all sleeping when we were there - or hiding from the millions of little kids - but he did get to reach over a fence and pet one.

Katrina once again showed herself to be the animal whisperer. Animals are just drawn to her. It's like they know that she loves them. She took pictures and videos of everything.

Zane bounce back and forth between boundless energy, dashing from animal to animal in joy, and being unreasonably sad about everything possible. We were pointing out the animals, and he wanted to be able to find them himself. The stingrays were all dead and he wanted to see the stingrays. The baby goats aren't there anymore, and he wanted to pet the baby goats. There were a billion little kids there today filling the petting zoo and the playground-y things. He was too short to touch the wallaby. (You had to be able to reach over a fence while keeping both feet on the ground, and he was JUST too short.) Just before we left, right after the wallaby letdown, we were standing on the edge of the path, looking at the map to make sure we'd seen everything. Zane was being all sad, and i asked him if he had had any fun at all. He sadly shook his head no. Just then, i saw the bald eagles right behind us, closer than we ever get to see them, and i pointed them out. He was all, "HI EAGLES!!!" and was instantly happy again. We left right away, so i think he now remembers it as being fun.

Anyhow. That was the zoo.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  

Houston's school is doing Grease for the fall musical, and Houston wants to be in the stage crew for it. I'm totally encouraging him, because this is almost the first time he's wanted to do anything extracurricular. He's hoping to do lights or sound or maybe be one of the people who run onstage to move things around between scenes.

For years, i've thought, "Could we show our kids Grease?" and then remember all of the messages like, "If you are trying to be nice and good, that is lame, and you should totally change yourself to be cool and sexy so that the boy you like will like you too," and then i think, "No. Probably not. Sigh." But now! It's Houston's school's musical! He has to see it!

So we totally watched Grease for pizza-movie night tonight, and i sang along with most of the songs because how can i not?! and we giggled a lot and dude... I know that movie is kind of silly, and the actors all look like they're in their 30's (because they are), and the morals are absolutely terrible, but i love it!

Adventure Thursday!

The rest of the pictures from today are here.

It was Adventure Thursday! Woohoo!

The first thing we did, i warned the kids that i'd never done it before, and it would probably be fun, but we might fail. (Katrina later reminded me that we DID actually do it once before. Unsuccessfully.) I'd searched and searched for someplace nearby that seemed likely to lead to success, which brought us to East Grand Rapids.

We followed the clues and found the spot where the first package was supposed to be hidden among a whole bunch of reeds. Houston dived right in and started hunting around, until suddenly he started leaping around and shouting that there were thorns and it hurt. While he was jumping around, i was all, "Well here. I'll hold these pokey leaves back, and you guys can look around them." Zane and Katrina halfheartedly poked around a bit. And then all of us started feeling the pain. And then we all broke out in hives and started itching like crazy. (There was no package anywhere.) Our next clue took us past the library, so we stopped in to see if we could figure out what we'd been digging around in. Houston talked to the librarian and was all, "I think we might be poisoned!" She googled something like, "itchy plant landscaping horrible hives," and the first thing that came up looked exactly like the whatever it was. And now we all know what stinging nettles look like.

Ultimately, we found the exact spot (and knew we were in the right spot!) and searched them all, but didn't find anything. Sigh. The kids all said that it was lots of fun nonetheless. Even with the hives. "It was an adventure!" said Houston. We went to McDonalds for ice cream to distract from the itching. (Though honestly, the itching had mostly stopped already....)

We stopped home and ate some lunch, picked up Juanito, and headed out for Adventure Thursday Act 2. The kids had gotten coupons for free giant cookies from the library summer reading program (possibly last year, though....), so we went and got those. They all agreed that they were completely delicious. And then we went to a park to play. Unfortunately, it had rained like crazy last night (So! Much! Thunder!!!), and apparently kept raining to the southeast of us, because the playground was totally wet and covered in puddles, but the kids totally had fun nonetheless.

Next we used a gift card to watch a movie - The Secret Lives of Pets. It was really cute, and my kids laughed SO HARD. They absolutely loved it.

And then we went to Pizza Hut to use their coupons (also from the summer reading program) for free personal pan pizzas.

So we had lots and lots and lots of fun, and all we had to pay for were some cheap ice cream cones and a pizza for Juanito and me. Yay!!!

A Very Back to School-type day

This morning was orientation for City High. High school!!!

I obsessively checked and rechecked and re-rechecked the list of things we needed to bring with us to orientation. I'm way more nervous about Houston starting at City than he is! But i'm happy to report that i did manage to bring everything we needed. Birth certificate - check. Immunization record - check. Proof of residency, medical form, receipt for the photographer - check, check, and check. I had everything filled out and the money for his locker and activity pass and the PTSA all neatly clipped together and ready to go. And then we got there and went to the new students meeting, and i watched all of the other parents filling out the paperwork while the principal was talking. I might be a bit overly anxious. Or i'm just organized!

The very first station we went to was for locker assignment, and they totally didn't have Houston's name. We went to the photographer, who ALSO didn't have Houston's name. Thankfully, the office did have his schedule, so we know that he IS actually registered! (Of course, his schedule will be changing, because he's switching from band to art, but still! He's registered!) (Also, he's taking Honor Physics! PHYSICS!)

This afternoon we went to Target for school supplies. School supply shopping! The kids have been asking me when we would go ever since literally the first week of summer vacation. This year, of course, Houston's at a new school, and he wasn't given a list of needed supplies, so for the first time, we had to wing it. Katrina and Zane's teachers gave them lists, some of the things completely reasonable, like pens and pencils and notebooks and folders. Some of the things seem unnecessarily picky, like Katrina's "Mead 5-Star 8 1/2 X 11 notebook." And some of the things make me sigh a little bit, like "At least 10 large glue sticks." (They NEVER use all of the glue sticks! Never!!!) Nevertheless, the kids are all supplied up and ready to go!

While we were there, we looked for new school outfits too. Houston's uniform is black or khaki pants and a blue, red, black, white, or grey collared shirt, so he picked out a red polo shirt and some black pants that he liked. He tried them on and then was waiting by the dressing room to show me, and a lady came by and asked him, "Can i try these on?" Houston was all, "Um, sure?" And then, as he explained it to me, "I was really confused about why she'd ask me, and then i looked down and realized what i was wearing...." She totally thought he worked there.

Tonight was book club. Yay! Beth and i went out for dinner together beforehand, and it was fun to get to hang out with her. The two of us don't get much time with just us very often. Book club was fun - we had 6 of us there, which is a good number. There was some discussion of the actual book (The Storied Life of A.J. Fickry), and much laughter and talking about everything else under the sun. It was a good end to the day!

Sunday and Monday!

We had a long, fun day today! We left in the morning for church and didn't get home again until about 11:00 at night. (The rest of the pictures from today are here.)

It was a surprisingly chilly day, except for when the sun was shining, and it rained a touch, but it was lovely overall.

My cute nephew Harrison's birthday party was this afternoon. The party was at my kids' favorite park - Hager Park! It's everyone's favorite park! - so all of the kids under 15 were off playing and having fun for most of the party. There was pizza and cake and presents and lots of awesome people.

After the party we went to my sister Jackie's house to go swimming. Or rather ... we went to her house so the kids could go swimming. It was way too cold for any adults to want to jump into the pool! They loved it and swam for ages, until their teeth were turning blue and they were shivering.

We went straight from Jackie's house to Grand Haven, where we met up with Beth and her niece Emily. We walked down to the lighthouse and watched the sun set, and then walked back to watch the musical fountain. We've been going to see the musical fountain at the end of summer for the past 3-4 years, so it's totally become a tradition at this point. (On the way to Grand Haven, Zane was all, "So this is the week that has the musical fountain?!" Because he was totally under the impression that it was only a once-a-year thing. I blew his mind when i told him that it happens every night of the summer.) It was fun and cheesy and totally great. Both Katrina and Zane fell asleep on the way home, totally exhausted.

Today was supposed to be a lazy day with nothing planned.... But that's not entirely how it ended up. I needed to get Houston's immunization records to bring to registration for high school tomorrow. And Katrina was overdue for the second of three shots. And so i broke the news to her (Seriously. She was beside herself. She brought both of her blankets and a stuffed pillow guy in the car with her so that she could hug them on the way too and from the doctor's office.) and we headed off to the doctor's office. Katrina is a million amazing things, but being tough in the face of pain is not one of her strengths. She wept through the shot and the immediate aftermath and continued to be fairly miserable until we started playing with Snapchat, at which point she was distracted enough that she forgot to be miserable.

We stopped on the way home for a doughnut and then stopped at Goodwill to look for flipflops. We didn't find any flipflops, but we did find a million other things. Juanito and the boys met us there, and we ended up getting coats for the kids and me, shoes for all of the kids, a couple of sweaters, and a few other things. Yay!

We survived a tornado.

Yesterday my sisters and i went to my grandpa's house to help clean it for a bit, and then we headed down to the beach to let the kids swim a little bit. And then we all went out to lunch with my grandpa. The kids sat at one table and the adults sat at another, and it was great fun for all of us. We talked about lots of random things, including the story about how my grandparents met and which provinces in the Netherlands all of our ancestors (on that side) came from. (Friesland, Friesland, Krampf, and wherever the city of Apeldoorn is located. But looking at a map of the Netherlands, i can't find any provinces that look remotely like "Krampf," so now i'm confused.) (Apeldoorn is in Gelderland, which makes me - as someone who liked the movie "A Knight's Tale" - very happy.)

The waves on Lake Michigan were huge, and they all loved leaping around in them. I remember being little, and absolutely loving the days when the waves were giant. Now that i'm the parent, i'm actually quite nervous about it - undertows and all that - so i'm a mean mom who only lets the kids go a short distance out into the lake, both because it's dangerous with the undertow and because it's so insanely loud that if they get any farther out, they totally can't hear me. They had fun, even though they had to stay close to shore.

In the evening, we went to a movie at our church. They showed "Zootopia" in the parking lot, and it would have been awesome, except that they forgot that there were giant lights in the parking lot that came on as soon as it got dark, so it wasn't actually terribly dark out there. As a result, we could only actually SEE about half of the movie - the half that takes place in bright light - because everything that happens in dim light was completely dark for us. Afterwards, Zane said, "It was too bad we were sitting so far down, because we couldn't see as well." Because when you watch a movie on a computer and it's tilted wrong, everything looks dark.... Cute little child of technology.

Today was going to be a completely boring day, filled with sleeping and reading and lounging, and it started out that way. At about 2:15, though, the sirens all started going off, and i looked it up to be sure, and yep! There was a tornado! We all headed down to the basement (Except Emma, who refused, causing the children all kinds of worry. But the basement steps are scary, especially for a dog.), and i started "The Great British Baking Show" on Netflix to keep the kids' minds off the tornado. While we were down there, my dad called to make SURE we were down there, because the tornado totally touched down and was headed straight for us. Upon hearing that, Zane crawled under a nearby end table and started crying. This is part of the problem when your favorite genre is "books about the most dangerous things in the world," because then you know exactly how dangerous tornadoes can be.

After about an hour, we were given the all-clear, and headed back upstairs. We did drive around a little bit this evening, and about a mile from us had lots and lots of downed trees and power outages and closed streets. We saw one tree that managed to take out part of a house and a car. So it might be the tornado that has touched down closest to where i've been. 

Adventure Thursday!

It's a Thursday! The perfect time for Adventure Thursday! (More pictures here.)

My mom joined us today, which was extra fun. The plan was to go to Dutch Village in Holland. We picked up my mom on the way there and followed the directions from Google Maps...and got a bit lost. Or, as we told the kids, we "took the scenic route." When we knew we were fairly close, we stopped at VIPets to ask for directions - it's the perfect place to stop, because...animals! This particular VIPets had a box full of adorable puppies, and all of us spent several minutes cooing over the cuteness. So! Cute!

Eventually we dragged ourselves away from the puppies and chinchillas and several dozen other cute animals and drove the remaining half mile to Dutch Village.

The kids each got coupons for free entrance to the park as part of the Summer Reading Program through the library. So only my mom and i would have to pay ... except when we went to pay, the lady behind the counter was all, "Some people came in with Groupon tickets, and they had to buy 4 but they only used 2," and she totally let my mom and me in for free too. It was SO nice!

The kids and i had been there before, though it had been a couple of years, but my mom had never been there before. We went on the Ferris Wheel (twice) and the kids and my mom went on the swings. We petted lots of animals and tried on lots of wooden shoes. We browsed shops. It was totally fun!

And, when we were all tired and hot and sweaty and thirsty, we headed across the street to Steak 'n Shake for half-price shakes! (Zane: "What if the 'n stood for 'in'?! Steak in shake!") We had a very nice, but incredibly slow and somewhat ... inexperienced waitress. And so, rather than taking about half an hour, we were there over an hour. And she forgot to put the brownies in Katrina's and my shakes. But! Katrina batted her eyelashes at the waitress, and she brought a whole brownie for Katrina to bring home. Bonus!

And that was pretty much the day!

Three weeks of summer left!

Today was the day we had to go to school to sign anything that needed to be signed in person, to make sure we'd finished all of the online forms, and to avoid getting roped into all of the volunteering ever. It also marked the "exactly three weeks until the first day of school" day. No one is ready to go back to school. Myself included.

My kids all wanted to get swim masks, and we hadn't gotten them yet, so after going to school, we stopped at Meijer to get some. Initially, i asked a couple of the girls working there if they had any swim masks, and they were all, "Nope! They're all gone. It's all lawn care now!" Disappointment reigned. I decided to check anyhow, and there, in the very back corner of the store, we hit the jackpot! Lots of swim masks! Three different kinds! In all different colors! Life is exciting!

Seriously, that's about as exciting as life got today. We bought groceries. And another chicken in case Emma's gets lost or destroyed, because she loves it SO MUCH. Katrina left for a sleepover with another friend of hers. We watched the Olympics. There was reading and drawing and lots of chicken-throwing for Emma. So it was a good day, for those of us who are introverts.

Olympics and other stuff

The past several days have been filled up thus:

- Watching the Olympics. I love the Olympics - especially the summer Olympics - and so i get a little bit obsessed. And i'm kind of passing that love/obsession on to my kids. Everyone's favorite is gymnastics; the uneven bars is the favorite favorite.

We all wish that NBC would show more variety. There's fencing and shot put and javelin and equestrian and synchronized swimming and archery and diving and all kinds of other interesting sports, but we really only get to see swimming, track, and gymnastics most of the time. I feel like, when i was a kid, we saw all kinds of different events during the Olympics, but that could just be me remembering things that didn't exist...?

- We tried to go blueberry picking today, but the orchard was closed. There were many sad faces in our car. So instead, we went shopping for school clothes. I feel like i don't want to actually buy many clothes for my kids right now, because all of them have been growing like weeds. Weeds! Houston grew something like 2 inches just in the past 2 months. Buying pants just seems futile! And yet, i supposed i can't just send my kids to school in their underwear....

- I went out for pizza with my mom and sisters to celebrate my younger sisters' birthdays. We sat and talked and laughed and ate delicious pizza. I love my family!

- Katrina had a sleepover with her friend Alex. Between sleepovers and the Olympics, Katrina (all of the kids, but especially Katrina) is getting farther and farther behind on sleep. Everyone is so tired!

- Our friend Keren came to town to visit, and we all went to Beth's house for pizza and Olympics! Beth made cute decorations! And got patriotic glow sticks! And candy in the colors of the Olympic rings! And Keren came up with games to play! With medals! It made the Olympics even more fun!

- Keren and Beth and i went out for pizza for lunch. And then Keren and Beth came over for dinner. It was fun and i love my friends!

- Keren gave Zane a box of slime-making stuff for his birthday, so Zane and Houston spent a long time yesterday making all kinds of slime and gross substances. They thought it was awesome.

Home again, home again!

Yesterday we left Pittsburgh, Karen, and baby Amiya. We were all sad to say goodbye, but there is always something happy about getting home to your own house (and bed!).

Before we left town, we stopped at the Water Steps and the Mr. Rogers statue. We've gone to both before - we've actually gone to the water steps just about every time we've gone to Pittsburgh, and i keep thinking that this time, my kids will  have outgrown it...but no. They still really love to leap around (so dangerous!!!!) and splash and find spots to lie down in the water. At first, Katrina was all, "I'm not going to actually get wet. Just my feet." But by the time we left, she was soaked from head to toe.

The Mr. Rogers statue is sort of cool - there's a whole circle thing behind it that plays Mr. Rogers singing songs on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, which i actually really liked. And i love that they have a statue. But the statue itself? Kind of weird, and - in my kids' opinion - creepy.

The ride home was uneventful. I read nearly the entire book "The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry" out loud to everyone. I started reading it just to Juanito, so he could be entertained while he was driving, but then a few chapters in, i realized that Katrina was listening, and before long, Houston was listening, and they were all completely sucked in. We got home when there were only a few chapters left, and they were all, "Oh. We're home. Sigh."

Emma was SO happy to see us. Ever since we got home, she's been carrying her toy chicken around with her everywhere she goes, and at first we were all, "Huh. That's cute. And weird." And then we realized that that's the last thing i gave her before we left, and it seems to have become sort of her security toy of sorts, and now i'm all, "That's so SAD! And cute. And sad!"

In which we didn't do much.

Karen worked today, so we had a calm day, filled with holding Amiya, resting, and (in the kids' case) playing Wii.

At about 5:30, Juanito brought the mail in to give Karen. She and i were just talking, and when she put an IKEA catalog in the "throw away" pile, i was all, "Oooo! Are you going to throw that away?" And eventually, she said, "Well...we have an IKEA.... We could go tonight?!"

Houston and Zane didn't want to go, but the rest of us piled into the car and headed there! We went through the store fairly quickly, but it was Juanito and Katrina's first time there, and they had fun seeing it. Yay!

National Aviary!

See the rest of the pictures here!

We went to the National Aviary in Pittsburgh today. It's the kind of place where you walk around, and the birds walk/fly around you, and occasionally zoom right past your head, and occasionally walk straight at you and make you nervous that they'll attack, but they're so pretty that you can totally forgive them.

We arrived at the Aviary, got out of the car, and started walking toward the building, and Katrina's shoe broke. Juanito tied it up with string, and it worked temporarily, and Karen (who was coming a bit later) was nice enough to bring her other shoes for Katrina to change into. Shoes are not our friend this trip!

There were larakeets that we were allowed to go in and let them land on us. The kids (and Juanito) all totally seized that opportunity and tried to convince all of the larakeets to land on them. Zane was all eager until one of the birds pooped right near him, and then he was out of there (at least for quite a while!). I am actually completely shocked that none of us got pooped on all day!

There was a giant bird (a Great Argus Pheasant) who enjoys walking around right on the sidewalk, and he's awesome to take pictures of, but he's a little bit nerve-wracking, because he looks like he could do serious damage if he decided to attack. I was crouched down in front of him, taking a picture, and he suddenly and completely without warning let out a giant, incredibly loud honky-squawk. It startled me enough that i screamed a bit and nearly fell over, but still somehow took a picture, and resulting picture is mostly blurry, but kind of awesome.

There was a guy who worked there who was absolutely in the right job. He stood and talked to us about penguins for about half an hour, and then talked to us for a long time in the Rainforest room too. And he was actually really interesting. When i suggested we leave the penguin area to go see the sloth being fed, Houston was all, "But i want to keep learning about penguins!"

One thing that i've learned about us is that we just spend longer looking at stuff than most people do. According to Google, most people spend about 2 hours at the aviary. We were there for over 4 hours, and we could have stayed longer, except it was closing and we were all starving. And you'd THINK it was because i'm holding everyone up, taking pictures, but you'd be wrong. I usually just keep taking pictures because the kids are still exploring/looking/learning. And Juanito is nearly always trailing behind us all. The world is just such an interesting place!