Who’s paying attention?

I left my computer on last night because I have lots of windows open and didn’t want to lose my places (birthday party planning in action!) When my computer is on it’s like a light and I am the moth. No matter where it is or where I am, I’m drawn to it. Hence the reason I normally leave it off when the kids are around.

However, this morning it’s on and I’m sitting at my desk, lost in the Internet. Eve is on the floor playing with a puzzle behind me. Just now I said, “I’m not doing a very good job paying attention to you this morning sweetie.” She replied with, “It’s ok, I’m not doing a good job paying attention to you either.” I guess we’re even then. :)

I’m going to attempt to disengage from the computer now and go exercise. Continuing to ignore my daughter. Sigh.

I actually ended up doing a series of Hulu exercise programs with Eve right by my side. It wasn’t the greatest workout ever, calorie-wise, but it was fun and we were together. Well worth it.

Flower love

We planted chocolate mint and freesia today. The chocolate mint (repotting, really, Lex and I bought the plants already growing at the Home Depot!) went into an old pot of dirt that had something else growing in it last year. I don’t remember what. For the freesia bulbs I dumped a bag of manure on the wood mulch where our tree came down last year. Then we tucked the little bulbs right in and poured a bottle of water on top. I’m a top-notch expert gardener, have you noticed?

eve gardening

Garden girl

Lex and I packed up and started to move on to something else. Eve sat there for awhile, patting the dirt. Then she said, “Aww… I love these flowers. [brief pause, more patting] I want to hug the cow poop.” How can you not laugh at that girl!?!

Moring hair salon

Eve’s Hair Salon was open this morning with one extremely patient patron.

eve and rosy

Stylist Eve, hard at work.

Later, while Rosy showered and de-barretted her hair, Eve let me take a turn at it.

braids p1

This is how I wanted to do it. I think the braids coming together with flower clips is adorable.

funny face

This is what Eve thought of my idea.

braids p2

She wanted the three braids left apart. Since it's her hair I decided to let her make this decision. Aren't I a generous mom?! :)

Photography by Lex

Oh, what a day!

We had a very busy day today! We started off, bright and early, at a 5K. Rosy, Alan, and I gave it our best shot. It was a VERY hilly course!

image

At the post-race shin-dig Lex made a friend. She also ran the 5K (and beat me by half a minute!) and took first place in her age group. She was very nice to Lex and taught him how to make an origami crane. Lex was very excited.

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Then home for lunch and quiet time. I barely made it through half a chapter of Harry Potter with Lex, dozing off and on. Poor guy.

After quiet time we headed to the local skating rink! The kids got skates from my parents and so far have only taken them on the street. That changed today! My dad brought his skates and we had a great time! We got there just half hour before the closed, but I think that was about enough. Eve was exhausted by the end. I was so impressed with them. Eve walked on her the whole time and Lex started skating properly, gliding or whatever you call it. After all skate was over they started prepping for a roller derby match! They told it it would start at 4:30 so we stuck around, hoping to watch some. Forty-five minutes later it still hadn’t started and I was told it would be another half hour. We left. It was a bummer because we were all excited to watch the roller derby match, but we got to watch a lot of warm-up drills and now we have yet another excuse to go back! Or check out an old friend who skates in the derby at Interskate 88!

skates on

Skates on! (and yes, I am the mother who lets her kids go out in public dressed like that!)

skating p1

They're off and rolling! I was happy with how well I could still skate after many, many years of not skating!

skating p2

Grampa Tom and Eve. Dad was so good he had random strangers checking him out! I guess skating is like riding a bike, you don't forget how. :)

lex

Lex was quite the ladies man today. It must of been his dapper PJs. At the skating rink a girl a bit older than him kept trying to hold his hand and help him skate. He wasn't sure what to make of that.

They were both fascinated by the lights. Lex spent a lot of the time looking up, watching the changing light patterns. Eve kept says, “I wasn’t expecting it to be so dark! I wasn’t expecting such beautiful lights!”

resting eve

Eve was worn out!

all done

Skates off. Everyone was tired! The kids will sleep well tonight!

roller derby

We had a little snack and watched the roller derby girls warming up.

tired eve

Tired Eve.

tired lex

Tired Lex. This part was ok, but then he got a second wind and started climbing in dangerous places and got very spacey. That's when I decided it was time to head home.

Then, to top off our evening, we rented Mr. Poppers Penguins and had a picnic dinner in the living room, complete with cookies for dessert. I think we all will sleep well tonight! Oh, what a day!

Bike/Walk to School

The Bike/Walk to School program started up again last week. I volunteered to have a station on the bike path last year and it was very stressful because Lex wouldn’t walk without me. We ended up late a few days, or relying on Alan to get him to school, and generally stressed every Thursday. I think it’s a great program though. This spring they were short volunteers so I found myself stepping up again, just to keep the program going. The coordinator kindly gave me a spot that had nearby parking so we could drive there if necessary. Defeats the purpose of bike/walk to school, I know, but you do what you have to do.

Last week the weather was beautiful and we gave the bike thing a shot. Everyone had fun. We ended up being five minutes late to school, but we weren’t the only ones. Let’s hope tomorrow morning’s rain holds off for a few hours!

These are from last week:

riding

Poor Eve had to ride her tiny bike (it made me think of a stunt bike, or a clown bike!) because of a situation with her other bike that is too detailed and dull for me to write about. All is set now so hopefully tomorrow she'll be off and riding with her regular bike.

chalk

I brought sidewalk chalk along so the kids wouldn't get bored while I worked. Work = watching kids on the path, making sure no one gets hurt, helping them cross a little side street.

eve

Eve drew pretty pictures.

lex

Lex drew a welcome message and a hopscotch board. A very little one. :)

I suspect tomorrow won’t be as beautiful. Hopefully the adventure will go smoothly though.