A Quiet Week

Having only two kids home has made for a very quiet week. Christopher spends a couple of hours each morning at "Art Camp" run by our neighbor kids and the afternoon at rock-climbing camp. Nicholas and I have been walking him to Art Camp -- Christopher rides his bike and so does Nicholas. Chris is practically there by the time we get down the driveway, but Nicholas has had so much fun riding a big bike with training wheels that we go with Chris even though he doesn't really need us to go with him.

The first day Nick went flying down the hill and couldn't remember how to brake. My friend's parked car stopped him and fortunately Nick was fine as was the Hummer.
He's chosen to walk down the hill from now on and is practicing braking on the flat the whole way home. It makes for a very slow journey, but it's summer and I can say in all honesty WE HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO DO! I feel like this is the first week in a very long time that I can say that and it's WONDERFUL!!! I did remember late last night that I have sharing time on Sunday and dreamed all night that I'd arrived at church and had forgotten to prepare. Aside from that, I HAVE NOTHING ELSE I HAVE TO DO. Wow!! I did decide that it was the right week to focus on potty training. Again, Nicholas goes potty when I tell him to and when I don't tell him to he doesn't. So I don't know if we've made any progress. But at least I can say I tried.

Monday night we went to a Bees Baseball game. Last night Dan was out of town so I called a friend and we took the kids to play in the park and had a picnic. It was so relaxing to sit and talk with a friend. I am usually not so spontaneous, believe it or not, because I think of a million reasons why a friend would not want to go or couldn't go so last minute. But I went crazy and called anyway and she could go! It was a great evening.

I've tried organizing Nicholas and Christopher's rooms, but have progressed about one toy a day. Instead I'm spending loads of quiet time reading Jane Eyre and catching up on magazines. I will be happy to have my big kids home at the end of the week and I wouldn't want life to be quite so quiet all the time. But for one week, this is bliss!

Good Memories From Sesame Street

Courtney and Marty are off to Gram and Papa's house. Have fun guys!!! On the way to the airport today somehow we started singing Sesame Street's "The Ladybug's Picnic." (for some reason...) That brought to mind an image of another song but couldn't remember the tune. Knew there was a phrase about artichokes and "that's one of our little jokes...ha, ha, ha." We remembered the characters were green dodo birds or alligators or something like that. Then remembered the alligator was a different song. Also remembered something about collard greens that were getting washed. Thanks to YouTube I found it all and thanks to Blogger I'm posting them here...Ladybug Picnic, Ten Tiny Turtles on the Telephone (ohhhh...they were turtles!), and The Alligator King -- a very fitting Father's Day song. I'll probably keep posting Sesame Street skits because they're so fun and brings back so many memories! (Given that I was only allowed to watch PBS, they're essentially my only TV memories. Although who remembers Electric Company and 3-2-1 Contact?!)




Unbelievable that I just found this!

Gardening

For the first time I've planted my own containers. I had them all done by Mother's Day, just like my friend taught me. They are looking awesome and I'm feeling really good about successfully having tried something new. I have 15 containers in all, so the practical side of me also made an excel spreadsheet detailing all the plants I bought, what was planted in each container, where it was purchased, how big it was, how much it cost and sun and water needs. So next year won't be such a guessing game!!

Sunday Afternoon--The Whole Summer In Front of Us!

Nicholas and Dad going for a ride in the race car. Christopher enjoying his Healy's. Marty devouring the book series "Shadow Children." Courtney devouring "New Moon" from the Twilight series. We also took a family bike ride with Nicholas on the back of my bike and Dan patiently coaching Christopher in his first experience of riding a bike on the street. Summer's off to a great start...

Marty's Birthday -- The Last Day of School

We were getting a little nervous about Marty's outdoor water birthday party because it downpoured non-stop Wednesday and into Thursday morning. But by the time the last day of school was over, the rain had stopped and the sun even came out a bit. All the kids had so much fun and entertained themselves so well that when their moms came to pick them up by 5:00, I sent the moms home without their boys saying we'd call when they were done playing. They all ended up staying until 10:00 which was Marty's original birthday party wish anyway. I didn't go for it imagining an exhausting nightmare -- electing a more traditional party -- one with a timeframe. However, the day was absolutely wonderful because the kids were so good so I didn't see any reason to send them home. Welcome Summer! Happy Birthday, Marty!

Nicholas' Day Out

Thomas the Tank Engine came to Heber so we spent a rainy Memorial Day riding Thomas. Nick wore his Thomas shirt, of course. Thomas has been a big part of our lives for about 9 years. Nicholas was sooooo excited to see Thomas and ride the train!

New York Misses You!

We moved to New York exactly 11 years ago and one of our favorites was H&H Bagels just one block from our apartment. Over Memorial Day we went to Heber and in that small town we saw this sign:

We miss you New York!