First Sunday in June.

After church we went to my sister's house for dinner with the whole family. The kids played and the adults talked, and a good time was had by all. (I assume. I guess i can't know that for certain.) We didn't stay a long time - Juanito had started a "clean out the garage" project yesterday and really wanted to get it finished, and i am not about to stop anything that starts with "Juanito had started a clean out the garage project."

He took all the wood scraps that have been laying around the floor and burned them up, making a perfect fire for s'mores. We ate dinner earlyish and then had s'mores and then found ourselves with lots of sunlight left for playing outside. The kids rode bikes and ran around and petted neighborhood dogs and played with the baton.

I talked to my next-door neighbor, who is honestly a really nice person. She explained the different kinds of brittle bone disease, and talked about chicken pox (except she called it chicken pops, and i half wanted to correct her and half wanted to change the official name to chicken pops). I think that she's had an incredibly difficult life, and she's handled it better than a lot of people would have, and even though i probably would never become good friends with her, i respect her quite a lot.

And to finish the night off, Houston challenged me to a game of "Big Brain Academy" on the Wii. Challenge accepted. 

Festival of the Arts!

It's the first weekend of June, which means that today was the Festival of the Arts! Yay!

We went downtown this afternoon and watched some accordion players and some Scottish dancers, and then we headed over to the paint-in. Houston first went to the paint-in when he was technically too young, and he's gone every year, including this one, where he was technically too old. (I honestly didn't know the age limit either time. I'm apparently great at following rules but terrible at paying attention to signs telling me what they are. So if i KNEW, i'd obey, but i'm just...clueless.) So this was his 11th year, i think. Sniff. (Sunrise, sunset!)

Zane dribbled paint all over his à la Jackson Pollock. When he came out, Juanito and i were all, "I like your painting!" and he said, "I accidentally dripped some, so then i HAD to do that. I don't like it at all. It's terrible." Katrina painted an ice cream cone, and Houston randomly painted a banana with "I am a duck" in giant font. 

We wandered through the art, we sat and watched dancers and then went to see the story-tellers, and by that time we were all famished. Juanito went to get the car while the rest of us started walking toward home, and by the time he got to us, we'd made it nearly all the way home already. (We're speedy!) 

And then we had waffles and ice cream for dinner. Because we did. Shut up. It's totally healthy.

And then Beth, Juanito, and i went back to Festival to see "The Mines" play. Our worship leader is in the band, and Beth loves them, so we went to see them, and they were great. Right before them was a dance group that i was completely impressed by. While the other dance groups have lots of songs with really ... hootchie moves (Future strippers of America, as Beth said), this one was really classic and appropriate, and i can actually imagine wanting my children to learn dance there. It was refreshing.

First day of summer vacation! Win!

Last day of school, Donut day!

It was the last day of school today! The last half-day, to be precise. It was also National Donut Day. I picked the kids up from school and we went to get a free donut from Krispy Kreme to celebrate. Yay!

Also today, Juanito got home from his two-day scooter ride. He planned to drive to Detroit and back yesterday, but then it took him 9 hours to get there, so he ended up staying with Beth's parents for the night rather than trying to drive through the back streets of Michigan on a scooter in the wee hours of the morning. He had a great time - explored some old buildings in Detroit, got a ticket for entering a building without a permit, took some cool pictures, and did yoga in the park on Belle Isle. 

Field trip

Zane's class had their year-end party/field trip today. The first half was at the bowling alley. Zane told me, before we even got there, that he doesn't like bowling. He didn't want to bowl. Bowling was boring. He proceeded to be kind of grumpy through the entire first game of bowling, until he realized that he had come in second place in his group. Suddenly it wasn't quite so boring or dumb. He started the second game with a much better attitude, and ended up winning that game.

To be fair, the bumpers were up, and his style of bowling was to run up to the line and just kind of fling the ball down the lane. It generally bounced once or twice off the bumpers before knocking over pins. But then again, his form was no worse than most of the other third graders playing. There were a lot of kids who would walk up to the line, swing the ball back and forth, and then throw the bowling ball in a high arc toward the lane, where it would land with a dull thud before zig zagging sloooooowly down the lane. Some of the kids just stood right next to the ball return and flung the ball from there. I saw several kids accidentally step over the line and fall on their butts. I saw one kid accidentally let go of her ball so that it went backwards towards the audience. It was kind of chaos.

After bowling for about 2 hours (During which time Zane's group finished one and a half games. One. And a half. Games. Two hours.), we went to a park that's about 2 blocks away. It's a great park, with a fun playground and a giant field to run around in. (There were two swings, which were apparently in high demand. In the course of about 3 minutes, i had four different kids come over to me and say, "Zane is swinging and he won't share, and he's been on it for 20 minutes." (He hadn't. I know this because we'd only been at the park for about 5 minutes.) His teacher, who i already think is awesome, made me like her even more by telling them, "He's allowed to swing. You can just wait your turn," and then telling those of us who were sitting with her about a book called "It's OK Not To Share." Which...yes! I want to read that book now.) (I just completely derailed my line of thought with that long parentheses, so i'm just going to go ahead and start a new paragraph.)

I'd forgotten my camera at home (sad!), but Zane's teacher had a camera almost exactly like mine, and she was all, "Here! You can use my camera if you want and take as many pictures as you'd like! I know that you know how to use it! I'd actually really like that, because then i can just enjoy myself!" Me: "OKAY!!!" Her camera is extra-awesome because she has an amazing zoom lens, so i could take pictures surreptitiously. (Insert evil villain laugh.) The downside is that now i've taken a whole bunch of pictures, and...i don't have them.

There was pizza and games and face painting, but everyone could do whatever they wanted - no scheduled activities at all. It was quite lovely. This group of kids - the ones in Zane's grade - are really, really good. Every year, i think, "This class is so well-behaved!" Yay!

Winding down the school year

Houston had a field trip today. Their field trip, apparently, was "Go to the park. Play. The end." But wasn't anything at all planned or scheduled? i asked. Nope. Just ... play. The end of the school year, man. So educational!

Katrina and the fifth graders got to visit the middle school hallway and see what it's going to be like to be a sixth grade middle schooler. Katrina seems to have no trepidation at all. As far as she's concerned, it's going to be awesome.

It was sunny and warm again today, so before zumba we sat by the lake and had ourselves a little picnic. Picnics are the best kinds of meals. Nobody expects fancy food (at least...nobody expects fancy food from me, because i am not the Ma Ingalls type), and everyone's happy to be outside and enjoying the sunshine. Yay!

Dutch Royalty!

The king and queen of the Netherlands was in town today, and someone who was connected with the venue or ... something is also connected to the kids' school, and...voila! Our kids' school was invited to attend the royal visit! They were all given bright orange t-shirts with "Dutch Royal Visit" badges and little pins with American and Dutch flags crossing. They got to sit right up front, close to the stage. Katrina took her camera and took pictures of the royal couple.

I'm kind of jealous!

I made sure to tell them yesterday and this morning how very, very exciting it is, because if our ancestors hadn't moved to America, that would be OUR king and queen. (Zane: "Really?! WOW! ... What are ancestors?")

They we somewhat less than completely impressed, however. Houston was all, "I couldn't even tell who they were. I thought the old people sitting by them were the king and queen. These guys were like...in their 20's." (King Willem-Alexander is actually 48, for the record.) And Katrina was all, "I learned that Dutch people don't have an accent. They sounded just like us."

I think that, when your idea of kings and queens comes from books and movies, seeing a real, live king and queen (without crowns, wearing normal clothes) is probably a bit of a let-down. Thanks a lot, Disney.

End of the school year coming.

It's the last Monday of the school year. According to Houston, he watched 2 movies in school. So apparently the teachers are kind of checking out as much as i am. Houston has a field trip on Wednesday. Zane has one on Thursday. Friday is only a half day. It is so very, very the end of the school year.

Today was sunny and warm enough for sitting outside, writing stories and soaking up the sun. Our neighbors seem to be a bit confused about why my kids like to sit outside and write/read/draw.