Major Project

It has been too long since David and I had a Big Project to keep us up late at night once the kids are in bed. Since we now only have one kid at home, we thought it would be a good time to start… Painting. Shelly’s been asking for a new look in her room for years. Now that she’s finally gone for the week, why not see what we can do on a little makeover for her? Here’s hoping we can get it all done and the paint’s dry by the time she’s home in a week!

Fast forward through five frantic days of painting late into the night, poor Eli entertaining himself until bedtime and us parents getting paint in our hair but almost no paint in the carpet. We managed to even fix up the curtain rod, organize her closet and clothes.

Shelly and Archer both arrived home on Saturday morning. Finally, the day of the big reveal. We announced our plan to stop home so the kids could change their clothes before going out for lunch. Shelly started proclaiming that something was different. Before she ever got near her bedroom. She noticed that a chair had been moved and we had new placemats on the table. But finally, we managed to get her to wander into her room. And there she stopped. In the doorway. Silent. It seemed like she would never speak, and doubt started creeping in - wait - doesn't she like the colors? She picked them out herself! Finally, she turned to us, and very softly said "thank you." She loved it so much that she could barely speak. And that was thanks enough for us. She hadn't suspected anything. She had waited for years. And now, she has a brand new room to enjoy for the next 25 years. Because I'm not planning on painting it again anytime soon.

So, what's next? The boys have begun picking out paint colors. I don't know if I'm up for that yet. Anyone else wanna come paint? We'll feed you!!

Off to Camp They Go!

Last week David and Elijah went to day camp at Ohdakota. Four days of Scouting including the standard swimming, crafts, knot tying, camp food, shooting BB guns, archery, fishing, bug hunting and slushies. Ok wait, the slushie thing was the story of this year…. Every year there’s something that kind of sets things apart. (Bee Hive Disaster the most famous so far.) This year, the camp counselors started really drumming up excitement for the slushie machine, and the boys could get commemorative Camp Lyle cups for half price (or something). (Mom commentary - Lyle is now closed, they’re trying to get rid of those cups that have the wrong camp name on them but make it sound like it's a very special deal - Mom commentary now complete.) An hour after getting the kids all excited for slushies, the kids go to the Trading Post and the sign on the door reads “Slushie Macine Broken.” I wonder if anyone cried? Anyway, there was so much disappointment that David took E to the gas station after camp to get him a slushie. Tuesday. NEW slushie machine has been installed (or the old one was fixed?) BUT nothing’s frozen yet. No slushies at camp. Wednesday, finally working, E got his slushie. Sadly(?), the special Lyle cups ran out right before E got to the front of the line so he got a regular cup. But whatever, he got his slushie finally.

The best part of the week was the end, where Eli told David that next year he wants to do camp for two weeks. He was so very sad that the week went so fast. It was so very wonderful that the two of them had four days together to enjoy the sunshine and meeting new friends together. I don’t know if they’ll do two weeks next year, but I hope they get to enjoy at least one week of adventures once again next summer.

{Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the adventures. If I come across any, I'll try to add them someday.}

This morning we met up with Archer’s group and waved them off as they headed out to Scout Camp once again. This has been going on for so long that it almost feels routine at this point. Archer packed everything himself with very little input from us. They had already loaded all the gear into the trucks and trailers yesterday, so this morning it truly was just enjoying some powdered donuts and deciding who was riding with which drivers. Enough hugs and kisses to embarrass Archer and then, “Have fun, seeya next week!” And the caravan was gone. And all the parents went home to go back to bed. Except not us, not this time, not back to bed.

This time, a new event. Definitely not routine. Shelly is going off to her own camp adventure for the very first time. At ten years old, she’s finally been able to join the campers’ world and we dropped her off at Camp Anokijig for her very first week away from home. She’s super excited (horses!), a little nervous (new place, new people, what to expect?) but I’m really happy that she gets to have this experience. I’m confident she’s going to have the best week ever and hopefully she’ll share a few stories with us when she gets home. We’ve given her postcards so perhaps we’ll hear from her. But I’m not holding my breath for that, she’ll probably be too busy to take time for writing. I will admit… I may have almost cried when we walked away from her. She did not bat an eye, she was too busy looking forward to getting started.

And now, we have a week with Eli, maybe this is the first time in his life that he’s an only child? I wonder how often he’ll end up in our bed, since he doesn’t have anyone in his room to protect him from monsters, or pester him with talking, or steal his pillow and blankets when they share a bed. I often think that he gets a little lost in the shuffle and no one hears him because there are too many other voices in the crowd. Hopefully we hear everything he as to say this week. And I’m confident that Shelly and Archer will come back with some wonderful stories to share.

Habitat Day

The company I work for strives to encourage people to serve their community through volunteer work. Since I started there, fourteen months ago, I have attempted to support this mission and once every two or three months I suggest we spend a day working for Habitat for Humanity. Habitat does new construction, but also rehabs older houses that are in disrepair. Finally, after a year of asking the question - when can we do this? - we managed to put together a team of seven people. We all showed up at a house in Milwaukee and spent the day painting. We painted the entire thing. Three bedrooms, bathroom, hallways, living room and kitchen. There were some really bad parts like a few spiders, moldy ceiling and walls, stains splattered everywhere. But mostly there were some really GREAT parts like meeting new people, working hard with each other to do this great thing for someone else. The house still has a lot of work ahead of it, but it was nice to contribute in our small way to helping a family get on their feet with their own place to live. I still have paint in my hair. I wonder when we can do it again?  ;)

P.S. While I was off painting, David and Archer were at a Highway Cleanup with the Scouts. It’s really disheartening how much garbage people toss out their windows with no regard for their communities. It’s really wonderful when a group of people can come together and clean it up. It was nice to hear about the people who honked in support or shouted thanks to the boys as they drove by. Perhaps our own kids will learn to pick up after themselves, after seeing the mess it makes when others don’t?

Fire It Up!

We were supposed to have a campfire when Shelly had some friends over a week or two ago, but it didn’t happen. But we still had all the firewood and s’mores stuff, just waiting for their moment in the sun. We finally broke out all the stuff and had a nice big campfire. The fire was fed by our giant tree branch that fell off the tree earlier this year, some wood from HC we received a year or two ago, and some stuff we purchased. Incredibly, we had enough wood to last five hours. More incredibly, the kids spent the entire time playing together with no major incidents. I just sat back and enjoyed their fun. So much laughter and smiles and screaming with all the fun they were having. I even had a couple friends of my own stop by for some marshmallow roasting. Fun all around!

Fourth Again

Our Fourth clelbrations this year were a little more laid back. No Firecracker Four (and up at the crack of dawn). No fireworks at night (and fight the traffic well past my bedtime). Instead a relaxed drive up to HC for Family time and Pool time and Cookout and just hangout for a bit. Sweet. Then on back to our hometown for the other Family time, tons of cousins chasing each other around, great food, etc. etc. Sweet again. There were some very disappointed Fortier Fives due to missing the fireworks, so I set up chairs on the deck for them to watch the show from home. This used to work. I forgot that the last time it worked, we didn’t have a whole neighborhood of houses behind us, just a field. But now that the houses have popped up, we have absolutely no view of the lakefront fireworks. So that was another disappointment. We’ll try to do better next time around, sorry kids.

Summer Sleepover

Shelly was missing her BFFs so we had some girl time.

Day 1 - Pool, Movie, forgot to do a campfire, everyone sleep on the floor in the living room

Day 2 - Strawberry Picking

We’ve been talking about this for weeks. Years, actually. The conversation goes something like, “Hey, when is strawberry picking? We should do that sometime. Oh, we already missed it? Let’s do it next year!” This year, finally, we’re going to do it for real. We pile seven people into the van and begin driving. We miss the turn and have to come back around to it. And then we’re on the right road, lots of trees but also some farmland and hey look! There it is! I see the sign! Hey, what’s that tractor… The tractor was plowing under the last of the strawberry plants in the field. And the sign on the driveway for the farm said Closed. We missed it. We missed strawberry picking season, and there we were, seven people who had come late to the party again. In Archer’s words, “Tune in next year, when the Fortiers miss strawberry picking once again!”

What a disappointment.

Archer, on the other hand, was happy to miss the fun, he was sitting in the back seat sniffling and barely able to breathe with his allergies in full force. On the ride home we started brainstorming about what to do with the car-full of kids that were expecting something fun to happen.

We settled on the zoo. The boys declined, the girls were happy with the choice. We brought them to the zoo, gave them a little cash and told them we’d meet up later. David and I wandered around at our own pace and the girls enjoyed a little freedom for the afternoon. Everyone wins!

Maybe we’ll get to enjoy some strawberries next year? Stay tuned in….