Visiting Vacationers

I have a lot of pictures that I want to share, but getting them off the camera, onto the computer, picking my favorites... too much work right now, too late at night.

Anyway, let's just day the last two days have been exactly what "summer vacation" is all about for the kids. (And the moms just try to keep up.) Leah brought her clan to town for a visit!! SO GREAT!! Monday was all about pool time. That was it, and that was more than enough. All of the typical stuff happened - "Mom watch this!" and "Walk don't run!" and "Stop splashing the little kids" and you get the idea. We were all wrinkly by the time we got out, completely exhausted and that was so much fun!

Tuesday was all about cramming in as many activities as possible into one short summer day. Zoo (birds attacking Leah), beach (just the sand, not allowed in the water), Sugar Shack (cause kids can never have too much sugar!!), playground, mad dash back to HC for supper with Denise and Lulu, and somehow there was more pool time squeezed in there too.

Thousands of thanks to Mam-aw and Bampa for hosting the party and feeding us all, you guys are such great sports!

P.S. Leah, you were such a great sport about feeding those birds! Even though they came uninvited and landed on your back when you wanted nothing to do with them. Just think, Hailey will only remember the part about how cool you were when you took her to feed the birds. :)

In All Directions & Catching Up

There's a whole lot of planning that's required for one simple little weekend at Cub Scout Camp. Phone calls, text messages, notes on the calendar, check the calendar again, check the packing list four hundred times...

Tomorrow Archer and I will go to camp, Grandma Sue will come watch the other two until VBS starts and Shelly will go there, then Grandma will take E home with her. David will pick up Shelly from VBS and E will stay with Grandma until Saturday. Shell and Dad will have some special time together at an art studio painting a canvas and who knows what else. E will have some special time with Grandma, and Arch and I will be... I have no idea what we'll be doing, except this. It will be REALLY hot out, and we'll be outside all day long, baking in the sun. We get to sleep in a tent two nights in a row, enjoy camp food, and who knows what else. After about a hundred trips in and out of the house to pack more and more stuff in the trunk of my car, I'm already exhausted and we haven't even left yet! It should be a great weekend, my only small bit of sadness is that we'll each be off in different directions, E south with Grandma, Shell north to the art class, and Arch to the west at camp.

On another note, four of us spent the morning at the beach today with some friends, together, first overheating in the sun, then freezing in the water, back and forth until finally, at 1:00, the kids were "STARVING!!" and we had to get back to our air conditioned houses and food.

This week Shelly has been at VBS with her cousins while I hang out with the boys. On Monday we had another archery lesson. E enjoyed watching for blackberries along the trail as Archer tried out a range we hadn't seen before. This archery thing is kinda fun!

We also went to school to help with some weeding and playing in the sprinkler, followed by a visit to a friend's house for some playing in the mud, I mean more sprinklers.

Pictures courtesy of Mary

There was a visit to the office to water the new shrubs (brought back a LOT of memories for me doing the exact same thing when I was pretty close to Archer's age!), followed by a trip to DQ.

Way last week (I can hardly remember it) we went to the Pack Movie Night with all the other scouts. There were water games, great food, a piece of Swiss cheese on the pavement (?) and finally, we all settled down for the movie in the parking lot. Followed by a screaming loud game of "Cheese Touch!!" (you and I would know it as tag, you'll have to watch "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" to know what that's all about).

And finally, here are a few catch up pictures that I never got around to posting before...

Back in May, Archer had his spring concert, Bampa Bampa (that's Grandma and Grandpa, of course) came along, it was a bit rainy that day.

Thanks for the pics Bampa!

When we took our little road trip to the farm, David caught this nice fish, I was only just a little envious after spending the whole time reeling in weeds. :)

I guess we've been just a little busy over the last week or two?

Get Away

Sometimes you just need to get out. Tonight David took us for a little drive around town and it was just what we needed. Thanks Honey.

(Also thanks for letting us jump out of the car to check the beach, I'm soooo ready for beach weather to come.)

SV 15: Improvise, Be Spontaneous, & Get Ready for Fun!

Today we tried to go to the library. No such luck - it was closed. Perhaps if I ever watched the news I would have known that travelling to downtown Racine today would be difficult. I don't watch the news so I didn't know that President Obama was coming for a visit. When we got downtown and the roads were all blocked off, and there were people standing around everywhere and police officers at every intersection I still didn't catch on. Someone told me, I felt dumb for not knowing and then the kids and I walked off. Crying. The kids were crying, not me. Because when the president comes to town and the library is closed the disappointment of no story time outweighs any interest in seeing someone important. Quick Mom, think of something fun to do to make up for missing story time. Quick! "Beach!" I blurted out.
The tears quickly dried at the mention of a trip to the beach and the rest of the morning was focused on nothing but the beach. Beach, beach beach... "Can we go to the beach yet? Is it time to go yet? Are we being good? Can we go?" After a small detour to see if we could catch a glimpse of the president's entourage (no luck) we finally arrived at The Beach. The Sand. The Water. The Sunshine. The Fun!

I'm so glad I didn't take a book to read, I would have missed out on the fun. We built towers and dug holes, buried our feet and then our hands and then a bunch of rocks. Raced each other, built paths and roads and walls. Then we played in the water and I was really surprised that Shelly had as much fun as she did, I kept waiting for her to cry when the waves splashed in her face but she and Archer both just squealed and screamed and laughed. I was cold with the water up to my knees and then I realized that my knees equal Archer's thighs and Shelly's waist. My hips equal his shoulders and her chin. They were in quite deep and still having fun in the chilly water. We got out for a little break to warm up and then they wanted to go back in but I said we couldn't because Shelly was still shivering. "No I not shivering!" she exclaimed and then stood as perfectly still as she could. Archer claimed "we never get cold, remember?" I admired the sheer effort required to willfully stop shivering so we tried the water again but it was just too icy. Time to get dried off, warmed up and head home. And once we were in the car he said, "we're always hungry, remember Mom?" That means snack time, of course!

I was surprised at how upset the kids were about missing story time but we sure made up for it with the fun later on. The weather was nice and the kids played so well that I didn't have to referee any disputes the entire time we were there.  Thanks kids, you guys sure know how to have a great time and I love getting to tag along with you!