Category Archives: Uncategorized

Back to the Ocean

Posted on by
2

We have a lovely Maine tradition going on for the past few years. This year we decided to kick it up a notch and stay the night. Truthfully I think about it every year, but this is the first year I’ve gotten my act together enough to book a hotel room. :) It wasn’t the best hotel (motel, really) but we had fun.

I was hoping to head up first thing Saturday morning, but Alan had his company picnic that morning we we did that first. Delicious food, good company, and a little swingset mediation. Good times all around.

image

She “meditated” like this for six minutes. I know because she insisted I time her. It was the longest stretch of quiet from her in ages. :)

After that we headed to the ocean!! We had a yummy meal at Inn on the Blues and then put our toes in the ocean. It was a beautiful night!

image

Such a beautiful night.

image

Boogie boarding past bedtime.

image

I like this picture. :) Handsome hubby. Kids playing in the background. Sweetness.

The next morning we headed to breakfast at the Lobster Cove to take advantage of our “free breakfast” as advertised by the hotel. Turns out it was “free” as long as you don’t eat more than $6 worth. :)

image

Waiting for breakfast.

image

Pre-breakfast selfie.

Then off to the beach to set up camp.

image

The beach was CROWDED by 10am when we got there!

image

Luckily we found a little place to snug in our fancy new red “easy-up” tent. It was an excellent addition the beach gear!

image

This one had chocolate pancakes and pancake syrup for breakfast. Can ya tell!?

image

This one did too!

image

Sand beard!

image

Boogie boarding!  The water was so cold it was painful.  It literally brought tears to my eyes and each wave crashing in felt like torture.  The kids loved it!

image

I love his face. :)

image

Beach babe!

image

Handsome beach boys.

When were were done at the beach we headed for ice cream and taffy. It’s important to get good and sugared up before a long trip home.

image

Can’t do a Maine trip without checking out the taffy shop.

Next summer maybe we’ll try for two nights! :) Good times at the Atlantic!

Cookies in bed

Posted on by
1

We got in bed last night and Alan asked why there were crumbs in our bed. I replied with, “Earlier today I found Eve hiding in the bed, under the covers, with the lamp, turned on, eating a cookie.” Only after I said those words out loud did I realize the full ridiculousness of my days! I laughed very hard. Life with kids.

Eve’s third track meet

Posted on by
Reply

We spent today at Eve’s third, and final (for the season) track meet. It was hot and sweaty and fun. Mandy joined us for the weekend and came to the track meet. Eve has a great time. Fast and friendly. :)

image

We bought a new tent (easy up, one up, awning… there seems to be many names for them). Last night Eve decided it would be fun to make a sign! Good thing we are speedy with construction paper! :)

Eve did the running long jump, the 100m, and the 200m this time. This was the final meet for all of the rec teams in the state. It was by far our biggest meet yet!

Crossing the finish line of the 100m, way ahead of the crowd!

Crossing the finish line of the 100m, way ahead of the crowd!

Eve didn’t do as well this meet. The long jump was slightly different and she faulted her first jump. Also There were so many people that they had to run heats for many of the races. Eve finished her heat in the 100m way ahead of the rest of the runners, but not fast enough to qualify in the finals. She was disappointed because she thought she had done so well. We had a long chat about beating your own time, not just the other people on the track. It was a different experience for her. Then we had to wait several hours before the 200m race and by that time she was hot and bored.

image

Crossing the finish line of the 200m.

Her final scores:
* Long jump – 6’2?
* 100m – 0:19.34
* 200m – 0:41.45

image

Driving home. Eve is protesting Alan’s choice in music. :)

Now we are home and crashed. Alan, Lex, and Mandy are playing Minecraft, Eve is “coaching” Mandy, and I am writing this. A friend just invited us to a local fair this evening for rides and fair food… but we are done. Well, Eve is raring to go, but the rest of us are happy to kick back. Maybe we’ll do the fair tomorrow. :)

Tea house and song garden

Posted on by
1

Eve and I celebrated our last “girls only” week with a trip to The Song Garden and Tea House. It was so cute and sweet. They have a little house all set up for tea, lots of options, books, adorable doll table, and more. Eve loved it!

image

Inside the tea house.

image

First things first, we set Grace (Eve’s American Girl) and her reindeer up with tea. There were lots of other dolls and stuffed animals there to join them.

image

Tea and biscotti for me, hot chocolate and cookies for Eve.

The woman who runs the place was there briefly. We asked her about a neat crystal on the table and she gave us a whole lesson in using a pendulum to answer life’s important questions. It was a fun experience. She said it works with any heavy object on a string, not just crystals, so Eve turned her necklace into a pendulum and we continued the fun at home.

image

Consulting the pendulum on life’s biggest questions.

When we finished with our tea and fortune telling, we headed outside to pick some flowers.

image

The back of the tea house. They had two outdoor seating areas as well. The whole place was very cute.

image

I told Eve she had to smile for a picture our else I wouldn’t buy her any flowers. :)

image

Turns out I like this picture better.

image

Happiness is. (Eve likes to make “American Girl teeth” when she smiles. Pure silliness.)

This sweet outing took us all morning, so we stopped at Panera Bread on the way home for lunch. It was a wonderful end to the girly week we’ve had together.

Bee Sting Update

Posted on by
Reply

Lex got stung by a bee yesterday! Yay! :) Seriously though, after the last incident we have been waiting with baited breath to see how his body reacts the next time. Turns out, pretty good. So good, in fact, that he didn’t even remember to tell me about it until this morning.

He’s at camp this week and yesterday they were sitting in the grass having lunch. Suddenly he felt a sting on his thigh. He said it hurt for a few minutes, but then it went away. Some of the other kids around said they saw a bee by his leg, so he assumed it was a bee sting.

This morning he told me about it in the car on the way to camp. I looked at his thigh when we got there and it has a red, swollen area, maybe 3″ in diameter (guessing, I didn’t measure). It was hot to the touch and he said a bit itchy, but otherwise it seemed ok. At pick up one of the counselors told me about it, apologizing for not telling me sooner, and said the field was definitely full of bees. I checked Lex’s leg again in the afternoon and it looked about the same.

Sooo much better than what I feared his next bee sting would be! I know this doesn’t ensure he won’t have a similar reaction some other time, but at least I think we can relax a bit. Alan think it has to do with the type of bee (or hornet), so I’ll ask at camp tomorrow what kind of bees they were. Test the memory of these poor counselor kids. :)

Bedtime sucks

Posted on by
Reply

We used to have a lovely bedtime routine. I remember it well, though possibly through rose-colored lenses at this point. The kids would do showers/pjs/teeth, then we would read together. Then Lex would read to himself while I laid down with Eve, then I would lay with him. At some point Alan started watching TV with Lex at night, which worked out ok most nights. They would watch TV while I got Eve in bed, and then Lex would come upstairs and I’d get him settled. If Alan wasn’t home, then we fell back to our reading routine. That worked well enough. Lately, though, with summer and late track practices and Alan is now playing Minecraft with Lex and the whole routine is just shot. What’s worse, is that every night is kind of up in the air. Who goes to bed, when, is Alan home, how much screentime has Lex already had, etc. Which basically leaves me spending hours each evening just hanging out, still on-call, waiting for the kids to get in bed. It sucks. Last weekend at family meeting we had a long chat about it. The kids got to weigh in with their thoughts, and together we came up with a schedule for each of them. That was five days ago and we haven’t managed to follow it once. Ugh. One of Eve’s concerns was that she wanted music, like Lex, and she wanted to stay up later. We took care of both things, but then it ended up that Lex also pushed his bedtime back a bit and she got furious that, once again, she’s going to bed before him. It drives her crazy. We have long talks about why it’s ok for them to have different bedtimes. It drives me crazy. We got them both new speakers and I put my old phone in her room so she could listen to Pandora at night. It seems to keep her up rather than help her sleep. Last night I caught her leaving comments and engaging in the social media aspect of Pandora! Eeek! Today she listened to music in her room for much of the day (her American Girl hair salon had a rockin’ beat!), but when I took the music away at bedtime she had a huge meltdown. It sucked. However, the upside to meltdowns is that they wear the kid out faster! She’s asleep now, which is about an hour earlier than she has fallen asleep all week.

The main problem is that they want to do all these big kids things, like reading in bed and playing Minecraft with Alan, but they also want me to lay with them, which I love doing and don’t want to give up either. But that leaves me twiddling my thumbs and unable to settle into anything else, and it leaves me still parenting at 9pm at night. I guess the main problem is I’m tired. Maybe I should go to bed now. I think they are actually both asleep. Sweet dreams.

Lost tooth

Posted on by
Reply

Trying to get the kids in bed tonight. Thunder and lightening. Driving wind and rains. Everyone is unsettled. Finally the storm died down and I got them both in bed. Awhile later I hear Lex at the top of the stair, “Mom, I lost a tooth.” This is the second time he has lost a tooth that I didn’t even know was loose. I remember when a loose tooth was a big deal, but I guess no more. Tonight was the bottom, right canine. That boy is growing up fast.

A Day with Eve

Posted on by
1

I have been getting some serious quality time with Eve lately. With Lex away at camp last week and next week, Eve and I have been enjoying outings and quiet home time together. Today she had a track meet an hour away and the weather forecast was 60% chance of thunderstorms. The boys opted out. Fair weather fans!! Just kidding, it was really a group decision that made the most sense. So Eve and I packed up and hit the road on our own.

It turned out to be a very small meet with just two town rec teams competing. They were pretty flexible on the rules, everyone had fun, and we were done by noon. It only poured once, for just a few minutes. Not too hot. Not too cold. Great day overall.

Eve signed up for the Standing Long Jump, which is different than the Running Long Jump she did at the last meet. I don’t know who makes the rules, but the running jump wasn’t an option this time. She also signed up for the 100m and 200m dashes. She wanted to do 200m and 400m, but for some reason the 400m wasn’t available for her age group.

image

Standing Long Jump

The Standing Long Jump is not her cup of tea. Really she’s only done it twice and has very little idea of the proper form. She also had very little interest in learning and chatted her way through the whole thing.

Later in the day we were watching some of her friends to the Softball Throw (younger version of shotput, I think) and the lady asked Eve if she wanted a turn. Eve said sure, why not. Like I said, they were pretty laid back at this meet. :)

image

Softball Throw. Underhand? Overhand? It doesn’t matter!

Eve ran the 100m and came in a very close 2nd. The winner’s mom showed me a picture and they were both over the line at the same time, the other girl just a hair ahead. It was a pretty cool picture. :)

Later she ran the 200m and did awesome! I think her time was 40s. The coach will send me “official” times later. The race had three girls and one boy. The boy was way ahead of everyone, but Eve was first in the girls. She considered it a win.

image

Rocking the 200m!

I love this picture. Eve and I were walking back from the softball throw and the older girls were running the 800m sprint. Eve saw our top runner heading for the finish line and said, “Oh, I’m going to run in with her!” I love the enthusiasm and the show of support. I have no idea if the other girl even noticed, I didn’t get a chance to chat with her, but it made Eve happy at least. This girl will be running in the Junior Olympics next month!

image

Eve decided to “run it in” with her favorite runner. This girl is Olympic material and super nice.

Her times:
* 100m – 0:18.09
* 200m – 0:40.56 (about 1.5s faster than last time)

After the meet was over a bunch of the team went to Ben & Jerry’s for ice cream. It was less than a half mile away so Eve and I decided to walk. After getting ice cream we decided to go to Dunkin Donuts (seriously) to get me some ice tea for the drive home. Eve wanted to walk there but I wasn’t sure how far it was and the sky was looking threatening, so we walked back to the car and drove. The whole time I was there I kept thinking we should have walked. It wasn’t that far and it didn’t rain. Had we actually walked Murphy may have kicked in though, you never know!

The whole drive home I was thinking that I really should get some proper exercise today, so I decided to invite Lex for a walk. I haven’t had much QT with him lately. He politely said no thanks to taking an walk, and Eve excitedly asked to come with me, so Eve and I headed out for some more time together. Alan joked (kind of) that maybe mom needed a walk to get a break from Eve, but I couldn’t say no to her request to come. She’s so darn sweet and has been super encouraging of me to exercise lately. She wants me to run a 5K with her this fall. Eek.

So off we went. We ended up walking for two and a half hours, a bit longer than we were driving today! The sun came and went, the rain held off, and we had fun. We took a midway stop at the river to sit down and soak our feet. Well, Eve soaked hers, I wasn’t interested in taking off my shoes and socks.

image

Down by the river. I LOVE this girl.

image

Happiness is.

image

Practicing my selfies. Shoulders back, lady!

Now I am drinking a well earned glass of wine and getting ready to watch a movie with Alan. Life is good.

Say what?!

Posted on by
1

“I like brightness.  It’s very good for my fallopian tubes,” said Eve this evening at bedtime.

Eve has been watching a lot of BrainPop lately.  Apparently she has discovered the puberty and period videos.  She has been asking a lot of questions.  I’m good at answering them, but really wish she was still a tiny baby I could scoop up in my arms and nuzzle her bald head.  Sigh.