And women at play…
The women, of course, did lots of work today too, it just wasn’t as sexy at this swingset construction! But just until you see the cake tomorrow!
Men at work
2
So it begins…
Eve came home from school today and asked me to put her hair in two ponytails. She was very particular about how it should be done. Eventually she told me that a friend at school had her hair that way and I had to explain to Eve that that girl (and all the other girls in her class) had much longer hair. She settled, happily I’m pleased to say, for this hair-do.
Three on the gator.
I left my camera inside this afternoon. Silly me. Cell phone pics will have to suffice.
The swing set has arrived!!!
Those delivery guys do like to keep me hanging! After a bit of misleading tracking information on Friday (grrr!) the delivery truck finally made it here today, at 5:45! But boy was there excitement in the air. We were outside riding bikes, enjoying a break in the rain, when my usual call of “Car!” changed to “Truck! The swing set is here!!” (ok, the excitement in the air may have been created by me!)
The kids oohed and aahed at the ramp on the back of the truck that raised and lowered. They offered to help the sweaty, overweight delivery guy. I even offered to help him and he said keeping the kids out of the way would be the best help :) Of course! They danced and sang and merriment ensued.
Here it comes!
Dancing for joy!
Happy kids
Now we have three large boxes of swing set parts in our garage and the forecast looks like this:
A rainy forecast
Hopefully we’ll have enough time between showers to get that thing built! And hopefully we get some sunshine on Saturday! Otherwise I am going to have a houseful of sugared up kids! Maybe I’ll send them out to play anyway, despite the rain! :) (Do you think there are enough exclamation points in this post?!! Do I need a few more?!!!)
Invitations
I can’t find a photo of the invites Lex made for his bowling party (is it possible I didn’t take photos?!?) but it was cute. It had a bowling pin and ball on the front and said Happy Birthday.
Here is the invitation he made for the neighborhood kids.
Happy Birthday. I'm not sure why, but on each of them he made the "day" a the end small and seperate.
I am turning 6!
I love these invitations. I love that he happily made them. I love that the idea was all his. I love that he writes “I am turning 6!” on them. The whole things amazes me and just makes me beam with pride and love. He is turning 6!
Knocking on a neighbor's door.
Quick update
I just realized it’s been four days since I last updated the blog! Eeek! Sorry! :) Lots going on I guess. Alan and I have been trying to go to bed earlier too, which leaves me with little time for blogging. Right now Eve is having quiet time with Dr. Seuss audiobooks and I’m turning my back to the dirty kitchen in an effort to get caught up on the important computer things.
My brain has been wrapped around swing sets, garage clean out, and birthday party plans for next week. The swing set is on it’s way and should be here this afternoon (I HOPE!). The garage is clean and I’m now dealing with a flurry of freecycle emails in an effort to avoid massive dump fees. It’s amazing the things people will take from freecycle.
We have three days of cake coming up. My little, low-key family party this weekend has grown into a neighborhood shin-dig, plus a few friends from a bit farther away. It’s taking a lot of restraint on my part to not invite everyone I know :) We gave the party a theme this week “Playing in the dirt” and Lex wrote invitations and delivered them around the neighborhood. I’ll post pics of them later. Actually, he made Eve do the final delivery because he got a sudden case of shyness. Good thing she was there and happy to help!
Next Wednesday we will have another round of cake (cupcakes really) for school. And the following weekend there will be one more cake for his party with friends at the bowling alley. We went to a party there once and the child invited the entire class. About half came and it was chaos. I told Lex he could invite four friends only! Hopefully they all can come. I think with them, plus him and Eve, that will be a manageable number of children :) I’m going to make a bowling pin cake for that party! Then I’m going to boycott cake for a long(ish) time! Maybe.
I started running again and made a few changes to my Weight Watchers process, and I’m hoping those things combined can help me combat the upcoming cake week. I do like cake.
Hmm… what else? Oh, yes, I’m working on a new chore system for the kids. More on that later. They are driving me crazy with the bickering and bad attitudes… so I’m going to put them to work! Just kidding. Sort of. I think they are old enough for some real responsibilities around here so Alan and I have been discussing the logistics of how to make that happen. Charts, stickers, marbles, money, allowance, etc. I’m sure I’ll be super proud of whatever I come up with and want to tell you all about it. I hope.
Ok, that’s all my tired brain can think of right now. Next post will include pictures. I promise! In the meantime, cross your fingers and hope that swing set delivery happens today. Otherwise my brain might explode!
A new toy
I broke down and bought a Swiffer Sweeper Vac. So many people say it’s wonderful but I have resisted spending money when I can just use a broom. A good old fashioned broom. But my kids drive me crazy with their crumbs and I just don’t sweep enough, so I thought I’d give this a try. It works well, and my unexpected surprise is that the kids love it too! Eve vacuumed the floor after snack and after dinner today. We started talking about chores again (more on that soon!) and she asked if this could be one of her chores. A-OK!
Here is a totally unrelated video. They bicker a ton lately so I love catching them in sweet cooperative moods. We had a really nice afternoon today. I love when things go smoothly.
Planting peppers and peas
We are entering our fifth summer in this house (wow!) and I still do my gardening by the seat of my pants. Hmm… let’s throw a few seeds here and see what happens. I like to think I’m a logical, organized person, but I’m pretty sure I’m not really. I plan the heck out of some things, such as an eight day car trip for four people, but other things get barely a thought. Poor gardens.
We joined a CSA this year so I wasn’t going to bother with a vegetable garden. I was pretty confident in that decision, but as the snow melted and my sad little garden bed appeared I started having second thoughts. I also thought the kids may be more involved this year, a thought I have every year! So on impulse at the garden store one day I bought peas (because they’ve eaten those from the garden every year!), peppers (because we haven’t tried them yet and Lex usually likes peppers), and pumpkins (because, well, because I wanted pumpkins).
Today we went out to spread some grass seed, which was purchased with zero research and thrown around a dry lawn by two kids… I expect a lush lawn in just a few short weeks. Once that was done the kids wanted to keep gardening so we planted the peas and peppers. Is it the right time? Who knows. Who cares. I looked up our latest frost date awhile ago and it was something like early June (ahh, Vermont). I asked Lex to read the directions for the peppers to me while I put a layer of topsoil down. I had to convince him that it’s ok to skip the “plant inside and slowly migrate outside” steps. I’m sure it will be great. I’m expecting large, juicy peppers in just a few short weeks.
Planting peas
Planting peppers
Anyhoo… hopefully something grows in the backyard (the dandelions are doing quiet well this year!) and we will enjoy a bountiful supply of fresh veggies from our local CSA all summer :)
Gator time!
We broke out the gator this afternoon to move the leaf mulch pile. We need to make more room for our swing set so those silly leaf mulch piles had to go!
In this second picture he was explaining to her how to navigate a tight area, then he quietly slipped his hand on the wheel and helped her. It was sweet.
Fun at the playground
We invited a few school friends for an impromptu playdate after preschool today.