We went on a tree walk today, organized by the town’s Tree Society or something. I was surprised that the kids were interested. I think Alan sold them on the idea when I wasn’t around. I suggested they bring notebooks and write down interesting things they learn. They took me up on the idea and Lex took it quite seriously, drawing and detailing each tree we heard about.

His one complaint was that there wasn’t enough time for him to do his drawings and notes before the group moved on. He got frustrated by that.

After about an hour Lex decided he was done. We left the group and went back to a tree he was interested in and he finished his drawings.

Eve lasted a bit longer, but not much. I thought the walk would be through the woods along a trail or something, but it was actually just around their school. There are lots of trees and plenty of variety to discuss. It was a nice morning anyway, followed by lunch at Panera, a trip to the “train station” (model trains), and the grocery store.

This afternoon, after quiet time and family meeting, before the kids even got their allowance money put away, the jingle of the ice cream truck rang out. They grabbed their dollars and headed outside!

It’s interesting how children chose ice cream. Eve picked a Bugs Bunny popsicle with gumball eyes. What flavor is it? Who cares, it’s a cartoon bunny!! She didn’t even know it had gumball eyes until after she bought it.

They got all sticky with the ice cream then went to play in the dirt box in the back yard. Summertime fun! :)

The kids have turned into cavemen at the table lately. Laughing hysterically, jumping up and down, chewing with their mouths WIDE open, etc. I even found Eve on the table one day. Like that’s ok?! I’ve been threatening a manners crack-down for awhile, but of course threats serve no purpose so the other day I did some research (I ? the Internet!) and found a good manners game. Actually, I found several manners games that I merged into our own unique thing.

This evening we created a list of manners we could all agree on. Lex was done eating first so he agreed to be the scribe. We did some brainstorming, came up with ideas, merged, discussed, deleted, and finally settled on six key manners. I am not saying these are all the table manners that children need to know, but these will be the ones we start with.

The first draft of our manners list.

Once we had the list pared down to an easy six items that we all could agree on, Lex offered to re-write the list “because this one is kind of messy and hard to read.” He grabbed the markers and went to work.

The final draft, hanging on the wall in the dining room. I wanted to frame it, but Lex objected.

At this point you may be wondering why Lex is so eager to participate in this manners game. A game that will involve no reading at the table. *gasp* The reason for his eagerness, and Eve’s as well, is that the game involves M&Ms, of which we have 2.5lbs left over from Lex’s basketball cake!

Starting tomorrow each person at the table will get five M&Ms. “At every meal?” they asked. “Yes, at every meal,” I replied. “Even breakfast…?” they ask. “Yes, even breakfast.”  “Wooahh…” said two big eyed children. Each person starts with five pieces of candy and when they see another person (including a parent, a rule that thrills them!) using bad table manners they can take one of that person’s M&Ms. So if I see Eve not sitting in her chair I can take one of her candies, giving me six and her only four. At the end of the meal everyone eats the M&Ms at their place. So if you have a good meal, use good manners, and pay attention to what’s going on you could end up with a nice bit of candy for dessert. If you use bad manners and get silly or spaced out, you could end up with nothing. They are pretty excited about this!

Alan and I discussed the merits of candy at every meal. Other games I saw involved using marbles to earn desserts, but that only works at dinner time and requires me to have dessert available every night. This way everyone gets a little treat and we don’t have tons of dessert laying around. I reminded him that we also used candy for potty training. Maybe the strategic use of candy is just part of parenting. :)

Tomorrow morning, game on! Wish me luck!

Three more days left of school. Wednesday is their last day. Today is field day, a day of fun outdoor activities traditionally reserved for the 5th graders only, but this year they opened it up to the whole school. Fifth grade gets a full day and the rest of the grades get to participate in the afternoon. They even have a dunk tank and the kids all got to vote on which teachers and staff get dunked! The kids are pretty excited. They were looking for volunteers (for the day, not the dunk tank!), but I opted out. I’m just exhausted lately. I had already volunteered to pickup the yearbooks this afternoon, so I figured that was enough for me. :) Speaking of volunteering, I won an iPad for all my volunteering this year! The PTO put an incentive program into place this year to encourage parent volunteers. Each time you helped out you were supposed to sign in on the volunteer log. I did about half the time. I’m there a lot, but because I want to not because of the incentive. The school hosted the annual ice cream social on Friday night, but we skipped it because it was cold and rainy. I was working for Good Beginnings that night and Alan didn’t love the idea of rowdy, sticky faced kids running around in the school cafeteria. Instead he bought the kids ice cream and had movie night at home. At the ice cream social they did the raffle for the iPad and my name was drawn! A friend of mine who was there was madly texting me at work. :) When I dropped the kids off at school this morning the principal gave it to me. Sooo… there’s that.

I have been really looking forward to summer vacation. This year, especially this spring, has been so hectic and despite the regular school schedule I feel like I personally haven’t had any sort of regular schedule. Some days I’m subbing, some days I’m not, some days I’m at Good Beginnings, or errands or whatever. Life, I know. I’m ready for it to slow down for awhile and I’m ready to actually be home for awhile! My house is piling up, my kids are seriously regressing in the nice behavior and good manners department, and I am just hanging on. I have plans for the summer. The kids are dreading it, but we are going to do some serious work on table manners. :) I feel like I’m living with cavemen these days! Add to that the chaos in my house with the still-unfinished bathroom project and the awesome basement project (I owe you blog posts on both of those activities!) and my house is full of clutter, displaced bathroom items, basement debris, etc. Life, you know?!

On that note, I have to run. Three more days of school and they are all full. Then we are done. We breath. We relax. For a few days. Then soccer camps starts up next week and summer travel soon after! ;)

Hi all! I miss my daily blogging habit. Life is busy these days and I don’t even turn my computer on most days! Of course I could blog from my phone, but well, that doesn’t happen daily. What’s on my mind…

My friend Amy had a baby and he’s healthy and growing strong. That makes me super happy.

My friend Julie had a baby who is suddenly at kindergarten registration! That makes me happy. They grow up so fast.

My baby is going on a hike tomorrow to the science museum. He is pretty excited. I think it will be a really fun day for him. I’m jealous that I can’t chaperone because…

Alan and I are spending the week in the basement! Yesterday we hauled everything out and sorted into keep/sell/donate/trash piles. Today we hung drywall and bought framing materials to build a few walls down there. It is taking a lot of effort to say no to everything else this week and just focus on the basement, but I am motivated and eager to make it a functional space in the near future!

Rosy flew to Ireland yesterday. I’m a wee bit jealous about that! Her trip looks amazing!

Joyce returned home from Korea yesterday! She was volunteering at a Cross Fit competition. Someday she’ll probably be competing. Be nice to her ’cause she can kick your butt!

I heard a rumor that Barney is no longer homeless. :) Maybe he’ll send me his new address, if I’m lucky!

Eve chose not to participate in her final soccer practice today. She is not enjoying soccer. I told her that while they play soccer I like to walk laps around the field so I can get some exercise too. She chose to join me and we spent a lovely hour walking around the field and chatting. She is such a great friend. I wish everyone the joy of having a daughter.

Lastly, it’s 9:05pm and I still have three loads of laundry to fold. Someday I’ll dig out my camera from the mess that is my dining room counter and see what pictures I have on it. I read a blog the other day the lady titled “The unblogged.” It was just a bunch of pictures that never quite got a post of their own. It made me laugh because I find myself doing that a lot as well. The unblogged. Sounds sad and forgotten.

Good night all! I’ll be back again… someday!