…you’re eating cotton candy at 10:00am.
(And very special birthday wishes to my very own mama. Hugs.)
Category: Ellery
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Diversity festival
We hit up the local diversity festival. The Youngest’s favorite part was the animal area—alpacas, llamas, chinchillas, and goats.
I think there’s a loose connection with the animals and their country of origin, but for the little people, diversity was all about the wide range of things we could pet and feed handfuls of corn.
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Portraits
It’s clearly been a while, and we’re way out practice. I won’t even tell you what happened behind the scenes to make these photos happen.
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Parenting at extremes
Remember the math genius from yesterday? Today that math genius threw a massive tantrum at the school pick-up line because I managed to forget his Nintendo DS, and he absolutely needed it to make it through Ellery’s gymnastics lesson, because, clearly, without it he would die.
(This is where I confess I kind of forgot we had gymnastics entirely, and had to call Tom to throw gymnastics clothes into Ellery’s bag before he brought her to school.)
Then Shep screamed, at the top of his lungs, “I hate you!” In front of the Head of School, where I now teach. In front of the parents of the preschoolers, whom I teach. It was mortifying.
Then at gymnastics, Neko and Shep ran around like wild monkeys for an entire hour, and even when I asked them to stop playing with that big rolling thing for the fifth time, I looked over, and Neko was steamrolling Shep with that same big rolling thing.
And after we returned home, and I was at the end of my rope, and sort of wishing someone had been just a little bit hurt with the big rolling thing, because at least then my point would have been proven, I rounded the corner and found myself face-to-face this Playmobil scene.
And then I had to love my kids again. Like bunches and bunches.
But they still exhaust me. And they better not touch that big rolling thing next week.
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Catch the wind
http://player.vimeo.com/video/28275361
I’ve been tracking Irene on the news, thinking of all our friends on the east coast and hoping for the best. Although the hurricane seems to be less destructive than anticipated, we’ve been thinking of strangers who are sitting directly in the path. The inevitable gathering of scattered pieces when it is all over.
Today Tom was outside with Ellery, moving an old tarp. It’s gorgeous and sunny today, albeit a bit windy—our little piece of Irene, perhaps. And then something magical happened with that old tarp and the wind, and lumped together with all the unrest in the world, it reminded me to be thankful for all my good fortune all over again.
(I’m also wishing a very happy birthday to my amazing sister, Bonnie!)
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Vacation: Days 3 and 4
I know, after all those pretty Harry Potter pictures, this is a really bad one to throw at you. But it’s the only photo I took in the last two days.
The vacation, although filled with good company (hooray for R+D!) and good potential, has taken a bit of a downturn. The beach house is not quite living up to what we had in our imagination.
Now, I should say, we’ve been very lucky with online house rentals up until this point, so I suppose we were due for a dud. The house was nice enough, but it just had…issues.
The worst of which was the mosquito problem. We have also discovered that Ellery is QUITE allergic to Florida mosquitos. She got all these bites in the 30 seconds she stood by the hose area so we could wash the sand off of her. If you count carefully, you will find 14. There are countless more on other parts of her anatomy.
Speaking of sand, the beach is a bust. The waves are rough and the beach is full of trash. This was quite surprising, as, you know, the beach was a bit of a selling point and all.
The pool has been nice, but is full of sand. It could use some gentle love and care, and loses a few extra point on account of its proximity to the mosquitos.
There are other weird things, too. About half an hour after Tom and I began unpacking, we realized our bedroom had no door. The only trash can in the whole house was in the kitchen. We were missing important cooking items like saucepans and cookie sheets. And the blinds were broken, permanently shut, obscuring our view of the ocean.
Despite all this, we’ve had a great time swimming, playing, and laughing. Because really, with company that good, we could be just about anywhere.
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Vacation: Day 2
A few weeks back we told the kids we were going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter while we were in Florida. And I’m not kidding when I say, it was like Christmas in our house. The kids went wild.
So first thing this morning, we made our way to Universal, and people, it did not disappoint. I was amazed at all the details and how much it looked like stepping in the movie. The kids picked out wands and shopped for chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott’s beans.
We rode the hippogriff roller coaster (Ellery declared it WAY too scary, but Neko and Shep loved it).
Selfishly, I wanted to spend hours there, exploring all the details of the stores. I also wanted to ride the supposedly amazing ride, where you zoom around Hogwarts, but none of the kids were tall enough.
I suspect I’ll go back one of these days, and spend all the time in the world on the finer details. But in the meantime, I can’t stop smiling as the kids play Hogwarts in our hotel room with their wands (thank you Barb!), brooms (thank you R+D!), and a few other finds.
Truly magical.
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Field Trip #5: Rocket science
This was one of our best field trips yet! We went to a local organization that teaches kids about space. For about an hour they talked about the physics of flight (in a very simple way), and then the kids got to make their own rockets and launch them into the air.
The day before the last space shuttle launch, this couldn’t have been more perfect timing.
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Haircuts
We were lucky enough to schedule triple haircuts at the salon where I get my hair cut. In one quick hour, all our children looked fresh again.
I had to giggle, as we were the only ones in the salon, and it looked like they were all getting prepped for some sort of television show.
I should note that Ellery adored the whole experience, and I predict will be a girl who will adore spa days. She just couldn’t stop smiling.
(Some photos taken by my amazing husband.)
