bird catcher

Amelia and Will also found a birdhouse we keep in the basement.  Amelia decided she wanted a pet bird.  She woke up Wednesday morning, and put on her "bird catching" outfit.  They put the birdhouse out on the deck, added a handful of birdseed, and went in and out all morning trying to see if they had "caught" a bird yet.  By mid-afternoon, they were fighting over whether the birdseed should be in the house or in a trail leading to house, at which point I cleaned up the birdhouse and put it back in the basement.  The end.

Christmas in July

Amelia and Will had a great time playing dress up after the pool on Tuesday.  Amelia decided it should be Christmas in July:

 And one of Seth, being Seth:

cousins pool day

Tuesday we had our annual pool day with the Johnstons!  (Nobody swallowed a penny this year and messed up our plans.)  We packed a picnic and spent almost four hours at the pool.  The kids had a blast!  I forgot to pack my camera, so I borrowed some pictures from Marie.

Pre-cannonball:

 Willie and Millie, headed out to the car:

We stayed close to home on Wednesday, this mommy was tired!

Bounce U boo-hoo

My friend, Nicole, bought a private bounce session at Bounce U, where each kid would cost $3, vs. the usual $9.  (I'm not the only one that loves a good deal!)  She bought it earlier this summer, and little did we know it would be one of their last hurrahs before they moved back to the Midwest to be closer to family.  We are so sad to see them go, but I'm happy that they will get to see their family more often.  (In case you haven't noticed, there's been a lot of moving going on around us.  I'm going to have to sit down this fall and make sure my address book is updated!)  The kids had an awesome time, and all of the best buddies were there. 

special delivery

The little pickup made a big trip over the weekend.  Nathan's parents took little Brian a twin bed, picked up PawPaw's hutch, and brought it here.  Nathan is thrilled.  It looks nice.   We have put all the kids' games in the bottom of it.  One day, I suggested moving the laptop on it.  (It was living in the middle of the kitchen counter.)  That required the purchase of a chair.  I bought a low barstool at Walmart and a director's chair at Pier 1.  We're keeping both, because the kids need the height of the barstool to play. 

last week (again)

Okay, we're going to have to do a week in review again.  Last Monday, we went to Tanglewood Pool to beat the heat before our make-up swim meet.  Seth got a 43.69 in his 25Free, and then I headed into work, eleven minutes late.  I was SOOOO tired by the time I got home.  On Tuesday, we went to a nature program at Tanglewood, this time about streams.  I had no idea this area existed, and I want to go back! 

Tuesday night we had a scheduled swim meet.  It thundered literally as we closed the trunk.  We hung out on the pool deck for awhile, and then the storm got closer, so we hung out in the van for an hour or so.  Amelia is not sunburnt or overheated in these pictures, she had some wacky rash on and off last week.  Seth had a much milder case of if it the week before. 

Wednesday the kids, Colette, and I headed out for an overnight trip to Cary.  Lisa and Michael were there, and Bryan came over for dinner.  I helped Lisa sort through her room and the attic.  I should have taken pictures.  It was impressive!  I came home with a box of Cabbage Patch Kids and two boxes for consignment, Lisa had three bins to take with her, we donated one big garbage bag full of stuff, and trashed another one.  I had to work Thursday night, and it was one of those epic insane nights that only a NICU can have, and of course, I was doing charge.  I got out of there late, slept fast, and was back at the hospital at 7:30 for BLS (CPR to most of you).  It is HOT here, so we decided to go to Cars2.  Loved it!  Saturday we went to the pool, and about had the place to ourselves.  Late afternoon rain foiled our grilling plans (we should know better), so we went to Mi Pueblo. 

Yesterday we skipped church, and at 8am we were in the pool parking lot.  We took the training wheels off of Seth's bike.  It was our first attempt.  It hasn't clicked yet, but there were no tears, so that's a start!  Amelia is super fast on her tricycle!  It was so humid, the camera lens kept fogging up.

We ran some errands, had lunch at Five Guys, and came home for quiet time.  The kids and I hit the pool for about 30 minutes before yet another noisy afternoon storm rolled in.  At least we got to cool off for a little bit!  This week should be a little less busy, with hopefully lots of hours at the pool!

where are they going?

First of all, let me note that earlier this month, Bryan accepted a new job in the Triangle and we are pumped to have him closer to us.  We've already seen him once already!

After Lisa and Michael found out they were assigned to Northwestern Minnesota, everything had to be rather hush-hush.  People were told things on a need-to-know basis.  In June, they made a whirlwind trip to Minnesota, interviewing in three different places.  While in Minnesota, they stayed here:

 And visited her:

One of the places they interviewed was Roseau, Minnesota, which is about 20 minutes west of where my parents grew up.  This is random; the synod did not ask them to interview there based on family history.  Lisa and Michael have accepted calls, each at a different church five blocks apart in Roseau.  It will be small town, cold winter living at its finest, but they are up to the challenge.  The funny thing was that Lisa was able to call their bluff as they were trying to sell the town to them.  Pamida does not equal Target, summer does not last until October.  Lisa did live with our grandparents for a year after graduating college, she knows what to expect winterwise...poor Michael!  Anybody want to set up a snowblower fund for them?

Stumpy Creek

Saturday morning Nathan had his second international distance triathlon of the year.  He was ready, except for his IT band, which has been giving him trouble lately.  We had a few unseasonably cool days, but the water was still warm enough that he couldn't wear his wetsuit:

Coming out of Lake Norman:

And heading out on the bike.  This is the first time I had the kids by myself at a triathlon of this distance, and they tend to get squirrely even at sprints.  I packed a ton of stuff to do, but the park had a playground and a set of swings, and that kept us entertained during the bike.

 Seth's eagle eyes found these mushrooms while he was swinging:

The cyclists flew down a hill to get back to transition, then started their 10k on an adjacent street.  I got the kids set up with Looney Tunes on the DVD player and ring pops (yes, at 9am) and went down the hill to try to spot Nathan.  Mother of the Year, right here! 

The kids didn't get to watch TV long.  Nathan's IT band started barking at him only a minute or two into the run, and he wisely decided to not push it.  The annoying thing about an IT injury is it only hurts when you run.  Rest, ice, foam roller, repeat.  Now that he's taking a break in his training, I'm trying to get up in the mornings to run.  There is a 5k in our neighborhood this fall, and I'm training on the route...I think it's 95% uphill.  Ugh!

how to not get bored at a swim meet

We had an away meet on Thursday.  Seth finally swam freestyle during his events, getting a consistent 46 in both, which is 11 seconds faster than his previous best time.  Proud of you Seth, for trying your best!  We have to arrive at away meets one hour early (even earlier for a home meet), so the kids have had to learn how to entertain themselves in the heat without getting in the water.  The latest rage for the 6U boys is to make armpit farts while waiting in line for their event. 

One of those things I really didn't care if he ever learned how to do.  Oh well.  In between events, the 6U girls entertained themselves by doing this:

Yes, sidewalk chalk on themselves and the younger siblings.  Fun times.

I'm not crazy.

Last night I could not find my glasses.  I'm not supposed to sleep with my contacts in, so when I wear my glasses, it's usually only when I'm reading at night or before I get ready in the morning.  I am blind as a bat, so it's not like I can lay them down somewhere and not notice it.  I could not find my glasses anywhere in our bathroom or bedroom.  I decide to sleep in my contacts, figuring my glasses in the laundry hamper and I'll find them in the morning, or I sleptwalk and who knows when I'll find them.  Unless..."you're not going to blame one of the kids, were you?"  (that was from Nathan).  Actually, I kind of was.  I didn't have to wait all night to find out.  Seth is much more prone to bad dreams and sleepwalking than Amelia is.  She rarely gets up at night, so we don't really have a back to sleep routine with her like we do Seth.  Around 3:30 she starts screaming last night.  She had a bad dream, and wanted me to sleep with her (that's a no-no for Seth, but I didn't know if I'd get her back to sleep without waking up the whole house.)  Then she had to go potty (we gave all her pull-ups away this week).  And then she had to go potty again.  And then she said her chest hurt, but I really think it must have been a gas bubble or something.  I had just fallen back to sleep (in a twin size bed with a 3 year old octopus), when she said, "Mommy, I'm sorry I took your glasses."  A-ha!  "That's okay, we'll get them in the morning."  "No, I'll get them now."  She opens her closet and picks them up off the floor.  "I was pretending to be mommy."  Now that the sun is up, we've talked about how we can't play with mommy's glasses.  But again, since I wear them so little, weird that she wanted to use them to pretend to be me!

Hannah is 4!

Amelia met Hannah at swim lessons, and they have a mutual BFF.  The trio are thick as thieves!  Hannah celebrated her fourth birthday on Saturday.  The girls had a ton of fun playing water limbo,

 ...playing on the slip n slide...

 ...and playing water balloons.

 The party finished up with ice cream and cake shaped like a flip flop.  We had a great time!

G Boogie!

Where I work, in utero staff members' babies get named by our evening shift coworkers.  Amelia's nickname was Chicklet Lourain.  Georgia's was G Boogie.  On Friday, we got together to have the baby shower we thought we might not get to have.  Georgia did fantastic with her heart surgery and flew home on a commercial flight less than three weeks after she was born.  Amazing.  I had bought the beading for Georgia's diaper cake months ago.  As I walked through Michaels last week, I saw the glitter wrapping paper (to use on the base), and I figured Georgia deserved a little more bling than the average diaper cake.  In the next section, I saw the heart wand, and I knew how the cake had to look.  A stop at the ribbon aisle, and I was done! 

We arrived a few minutes before the guest of honor, and Amelia immediately asked me to ask if she could hold Georgia.  Tara said yes, and Amelia enjoyed a quiet cuddle with G Boogie before all the rest of the guests arrived. 

When it was my turn to hold Georgia (much, much later), I was trying to give her a bottle when she spotted her momma holding another coworker's one-week-old baby.  She would not eat one drop.  She was giving her momma the stink eye.  It was hilarious! 

wet week

Last Sunday, we got rained out at the pool.  On Monday, the fireworks were postponed.  It rained Tuesday while I was at work.  It rained Wednesday afternoon.  But we thought, maybe, just maybe, we'd get to sneak in a swim meet Thursday before the rain hit town.  Here is another pre-meet ritual, cooling off by sticking their legs in the water:

We made it to event 11, and a nice rain started to fall:

Lucky for us, Seth's group is corralled under a tent anyways, so we just joined the kids.  And then we heard the dreaded thunder.  After about 30 minutes, they told us the younger kids were free to go.  The older kids waited out the storm, swam one heat of each event, and ended up with our first win of the season!  Seth arrived at practice Friday morning to find it was free play and they got doughnuts at the end of practice.  He wants to win every week now!

7-4-11

Every year that I can remember up until after my freshman year of college we spent the Fourth of July visiting relatives in Northern Minnesota.  It was always so much fun to hang out with our cousins, watch a small-town parade, eat way too much picnic food, and then go down to the beach to play bingo, get popcorn from Grandpa B, watch the aerial show over the lake, and eat some more until it was finally dark enough to watch the fireworks, around 11pm (you think I'm kidding).  You didn't know if it was going to be 40 degrees or 80s degrees, but you knew there were going to be snowmobiles in the parade, you would walk past the old "B" house on your way to the beach, and that the line for the Uffda tacos would be the longest.  It dawned on me that the kids will have their own little tradition, and that makes me really happy.  It all starts with the bike parade.  Seth picked out his decor at the dollar store, and cut out some banner pieces I had printed out to put on the fireplace.  He won best bike for his age group!

Our own little firecracker flat out refused to wear the cute sundress I had bought for her, and then refused to let me take her picture in her decorated stroller.  Miss Independent.  Here we go, parading through the neighborhood!

Kids who participate in the parade get a popsicle.  (At least she did wear red and white...blue if you count the headband)

After the parade, we staked out a primo table with an umbrella at the swimming pool and spent the next four hours playing in the pool with dozens of our neighbors.  We headed home for naps with plans to stay up for the fireworks.  Then we had a huge storm, so the fireworks didn't start until 10:30.  We didn't make it.  We did see some in our neighborhood, and that was good enough for the kids for this year!

swim belt boycott

We were at the pool for four hours yesterday.  Amelia wore her swim belt for about 40 minutes of it, and then boycotted using it, as only Amelia can.  This short clip is from mid-morning.  She was much more brave several hours later!

this week

So I'm behind.  You're getting one big post instead of several small ones.  I worked Saturday night.  Sunday morning, Seth participated in the swim team's swimathon.  On his sponsor sheet, he said he would do 12 laps.  After about 9, he was ready to call it quits, until he realized he was ahead of a 9-year-old that was doggin' it across the pool.  He took a couple breaks, and did whatever stroke he felt like, but he finished with 20 laps!

 Bored with the baby pool, Amelia asked if she could swim laps, too.  She did six!  Good job, kids!

Monday I ran for the first time in ages, and then I had to go to a meeting at work.  The kids went to a neighbor's house, and then swim team, and then I had to work.  Blah.  Tuesday morning, we went on a nature hike at Tanglewood.  It was about animal signs, and the leader had left clues around the trail, as well as stuffed versions of the animals that live in the park.  The only wildlife we saw was an inchworm climbing 10 feet to a leaf, but the other group did see a deer.

Tuesday evening, we had our second home swim meet.  This week's picture is during the pre-meet rally, the kids love it!

Nathan found a stopwatch app for his phone, and we were able to time Seth's relay.  He forgot to do freestyle, but he took 2 seconds of his time from last week.  As we lined up for Seth's next event, there was a big boom of thunder.  The meet was suspended, and eventually cancelled, because we had a pretty noisy storm for the rest of the evening.  Wednesday morning we went to the Y, then to swim team practice, and then back to the pool for our little neighbor's 2nd birthday party.  Isn't she cute?

Thursday we went to swim team, ran errands, and then went to the Lewisville library to watch the movie, "Up".  Then I had to go to work.  Nathan took Friday off (yea!), so I was able to run outside and took over 2 minutes off my time on Monday.  (Somebody asked me if I was out running Monday morning.  I said if it looked like the person was going really slow, it was probably me.)  Seth had swim team practice, and then we went to Bounce U...they were doing a $2 bounce if you made a three can donation to the food bank.  We had family playtime and dinner at the pool, then Nathan rode his bike.  Saturday we both ran (another 30 seconds off my time, yippee!), Seth went to a start/dive clinic at the pool, we had a lazy afternoon, grilled out, and went to the pool after supper.  Today we're having another lazy day, but we're planning another trip to the pool before I have to go to work if the weather cooperates.

Side note:  I LOVE morning swim team practices.  1-it gets us out of the house 2-we burn some energy earlier in the day 3-we can eat dinner together again, like we usually do.   After a month of on-the-go meals, it's nice to sit down and EAT TOGETHER again!

Seth-ito!

Does anyone else's kids start planning their birthday party as soon as their sibling's birthday is over?  That's what seems to happen around here.  And Seth wanted...Skippyjon Jones.  We LOVE the book series.  SJJ is a Siamese cat who likes to pretend he is a Chihuaha when he is sent to his room.  His alter-ego is Skippito Friskito, and he goes on wacky adventures (in the comfort of SJJ's closet) and makes up his own Spanglish along the way.  So I started to search for party ideas, and it was slim pickin's!  I did the best I could, and luckily, Seth wanted to have it at the playground again, so I didn't have to think up too many fillers.  (And just so you know, it was HIS idea to wear the ears from his dress up day at school, he had some crazy hair when we got home!)

 Racing around with the cousins...

In one of the books, SJJ is in trouble because he colored a bunch of chihuahuas on the wall.  So we had a chihuahua drawing contest, which turned into a "how many chihuahuas can you draw" contest...

In another book, SJJ's imagination gets the best of him, and he he gets in "mummy trouble"...

 Not all the kids wanted to participate, but some did!

In the first book of the series, SJJ pretends to battle a bumblebee-ito, which is really a bee pinata in his closet.  This year we found a pull-string pinata, and that bad boy held a LOT of candy...

In another book, "los chimichangos", SJJ's chihuahua buddies, use a burrito to throw him to the top of a building.  We borrowed a parachute from one of the preschool teachers and used one of Elise's Taco Bell chihuahuas. 

And don't forget the Skippito Friskito masks!  The posterboard was actually orange on the back, which worked out great for the little girls, who didn't want black masks.

Seth-ito and his cake!  The weather was beautiful, and I think we had a better turnout than we would have had the weekend before, so it all worked out in the end!

City Meet 2011

Two years ago, Nathan made a name for himself at our pool by smokin' the competition in a 4th of July race.  Last year he was invited to swim in the City Meet, but he had a scheduling conflict.  This year, he made it a priority.  The Aqua Demons were tickled to have him.  He swam in two relays and two individual events.  First came the IM relay.  He did the butterfly leg of the relay, a stroke he hasn't swam since high school.  The kids and I were sitting by the rest of the team, and you should have heard them hootin' and hollerin' about how fast he was, while one of the coaches bragged about his freestyle time.  The guys came in sixth out of fifteen.  My parents stopped at the pool on their way into town and picked up the kids (THANK YOU.  I hadn't had much sleep the night before and was not coping with the kids and the heat very well.).  Anyways, I missed his 50 Free event, but I hear he messed up his turn and still matched his posted time.  He came in 13th out of 39.  (He was swimming against anyone 16+, I think I should mention that as well.)  Then came the 50 Breast.  He smoked it.  Third out of 20-something.  Which is amazing to me, because it's not like he practices with starting blocks anymore, and his workouts are distance, not speed!  And then we had three hours until his next event.  I either people watched, or read, or dozed.  The last event was the free relay.  The guys placed 5th overall.  It was fun!

Fly in the IM relay:

This is for the people who knew Nathan in high school (studying the heat sheet):

 50 Breast:

I didn't get any good pictures of the free relay, just a lot of choppy water.