Monday, April 30, 2018
Saturday, April 28, 2018
End of April
It's been a busy couple of weeks around here!
Adam started t-ball this week through the local rec league. The nice thing about it is that it's only an hour a week, same bat time, same bat place. The tough thing is that the city doesn't assign coaches, so the parents have to cobble it together, and as we all know, the worst part about youth sports is other parents. Thankfully, his team is nice kids with helpful parents who want them all to have fun. Disconcertingly, Tim is the head coach, because he's the only one who played baseball as a kid.
Good news, there wasn't any crying! We did some fielding with the kids, let them do some batting practice and then had them hit and run the bases, and also encouraged a lot of cheering for each other and high fives. It was a fairly productive use of a Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, Ellie is killing it at gymnastics. After four months of Friday classes, she's now a better gymnast than I ever was, and I think I did it from third grade to sixth grade? Maybe seventh? She can do the splits all ways, and has figured out the back walk over.
That turf is really paying dividends as a gymnastics mat.
I thought we'd made it to spring without any gross health melt downs, but the season wasn't quite done with us - Monday night Adam got sick right around bed time, and ran a fever most of the day Tuesday. He and I went for a walk down on the trail, and he LOVED seeing all of the fairy houses that are currently in residence.
It was also probably his last ride in my trusty single BOB stroller - I'm giving it to a friend at her baby shower next weekend, and as it stands, Adam barely fits in it with his long, tall body. But it's been a good companion, and was worth every penny of its 2012 purchase price. We'll miss you, old friend!
ENOUGH ABOUT THE KIDS THOUGH, RIGHT? Last Saturday night Tim and I went to the Special Olympics 50th anniversary gala with eight of our friends, which was awesome.
The dress code is was red, black and gold, and I think we did an adequate job. It was so fun to be there with everyone and support Sara - all of our table mates love her too and had a great time seeing what Special Olympics is all about. We donated, we drank, we danced, we had a blast.
So, of these girls, I'm the second to smallest. But I wore flats that night, and all of the nearly 6 foot tall gals wore towering heels. I basically had to run to keep up, like a tiny, glittery Hobbit. But it was worth it!
ENOUGH ABOUT MY OUTFITS THOUGH, RIGHT?
Lucky-Lou, doing some snuggling
Taco Tuesday's Tutoring Service: caring instructors available seven days a week.
Adam started t-ball this week through the local rec league. The nice thing about it is that it's only an hour a week, same bat time, same bat place. The tough thing is that the city doesn't assign coaches, so the parents have to cobble it together, and as we all know, the worst part about youth sports is other parents. Thankfully, his team is nice kids with helpful parents who want them all to have fun. Disconcertingly, Tim is the head coach, because he's the only one who played baseball as a kid.
Meanwhile, Ellie is killing it at gymnastics. After four months of Friday classes, she's now a better gymnast than I ever was, and I think I did it from third grade to sixth grade? Maybe seventh? She can do the splits all ways, and has figured out the back walk over.
That turf is really paying dividends as a gymnastics mat.
I thought we'd made it to spring without any gross health melt downs, but the season wasn't quite done with us - Monday night Adam got sick right around bed time, and ran a fever most of the day Tuesday. He and I went for a walk down on the trail, and he LOVED seeing all of the fairy houses that are currently in residence.
ENOUGH ABOUT THE KIDS THOUGH, RIGHT? Last Saturday night Tim and I went to the Special Olympics 50th anniversary gala with eight of our friends, which was awesome.
ENOUGH ABOUT MY OUTFITS THOUGH, RIGHT?
Friday, April 13, 2018
Shark Bait, Hoo-Ha-Ha.
So, our daughter is a shark.
She has been waiting to lose a tooth FOREVER. I mean, a year ago she'd come and tell me she had a wiggly tooth, and I'd try the tooth to find it was about as wiggly as one of my permanent adult teeth. Most of her classmates have the majority of their new front teeth in, but there's Ellie, still milking those baby teeth. And while we were waiting, her adult teeth started coming in behind the baby teeth, thus making her a ferocious land shark lady.
The teeth finally started getting wiggly, but showed no interest in going anywhere. I've wiggled them, I've tried to yank them out, I've sent Tim and other adults to do the job, but those babies were hanging in, and I just kept telling Ellie, you have a dentist appointment on the 12th, and if they're not out by then I bet Dr. Michelle will want to pull them.
And lo, yesterday was the 12th, and Dr. Michelle did indeed think they needed to come out so that her permanent teeth wouldn't be further jacked up by their predecessors overstaying their welcome. Ellie LOVES the dentist, and even having two teeth extracted didn't dampen her excitement (probably because of the laughing gas.) She actually laughed after they yanked out the second one! And thankfully, this time Adam actually sat and let them clean and x-ray his teeth. Six months ago he let Dr. Michelle look in his mouth and then screamed about the rest. Also thankfully, I was worried that one of his front teeth was going to die after he fell flat on his face in Chicago last summer, but the damage wasn't too terrible and though it went gray for a bit, it's healed and looks almost completely normal now.
After the dentist, we got a Frosty and then went out to Tip A Cop dinner with Gigi and Grizz, where I warned Ellie that she wouldn't be able to show her teeth around at the table. But she was able to put them under her pillow, and this morning woke up to find two gold dollars, which I think would make Grandpa Howie happy. I love thinking about how much he enjoyed the gold coins. Quote "I like to leave them as tips, because the waitress thinks she's only getting seventy five cents, but she's really getting three dollars!" Also funny - when I went to the bank to get said gold dollars, the banker only had 19 in his drawer, which was fine. But he did offer I could order them in a box of 1,000. First of all, how many teeth do you think my children have? (maybe more, if Ellie really does turn out to be a shark) and second of all, who needs a thousand dollars in gold coins? How do you even put them in your car? Where do you store them? I imagine it's beyond heavy. Nineteen should do me well for quite a long while.
The teeth finally started getting wiggly, but showed no interest in going anywhere. I've wiggled them, I've tried to yank them out, I've sent Tim and other adults to do the job, but those babies were hanging in, and I just kept telling Ellie, you have a dentist appointment on the 12th, and if they're not out by then I bet Dr. Michelle will want to pull them.
And lo, yesterday was the 12th, and Dr. Michelle did indeed think they needed to come out so that her permanent teeth wouldn't be further jacked up by their predecessors overstaying their welcome. Ellie LOVES the dentist, and even having two teeth extracted didn't dampen her excitement (probably because of the laughing gas.) She actually laughed after they yanked out the second one! And thankfully, this time Adam actually sat and let them clean and x-ray his teeth. Six months ago he let Dr. Michelle look in his mouth and then screamed about the rest. Also thankfully, I was worried that one of his front teeth was going to die after he fell flat on his face in Chicago last summer, but the damage wasn't too terrible and though it went gray for a bit, it's healed and looks almost completely normal now.
After the dentist, we got a Frosty and then went out to Tip A Cop dinner with Gigi and Grizz, where I warned Ellie that she wouldn't be able to show her teeth around at the table. But she was able to put them under her pillow, and this morning woke up to find two gold dollars, which I think would make Grandpa Howie happy. I love thinking about how much he enjoyed the gold coins. Quote "I like to leave them as tips, because the waitress thinks she's only getting seventy five cents, but she's really getting three dollars!" Also funny - when I went to the bank to get said gold dollars, the banker only had 19 in his drawer, which was fine. But he did offer I could order them in a box of 1,000. First of all, how many teeth do you think my children have? (maybe more, if Ellie really does turn out to be a shark) and second of all, who needs a thousand dollars in gold coins? How do you even put them in your car? Where do you store them? I imagine it's beyond heavy. Nineteen should do me well for quite a long while.
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Spring Break! (and other stuff)
Man, a lot has happened since the week of Adam's birthday!
First of all, our cousins came into town for their spring break, which was awesome. It's so fun to see the four kids and how they get along and how they play or how they don't get along. Basically, everyone loves Ellie and wants her full attention, and with Adam starting to drop his naps, he was a real pisser to everyone. But he was slightly less of a turd to James than he's been in years past? So that was good.
They had a good parade in preparation for Olde Ellison Bay Days, and they did a lot of Easter egg hunting. We also had a party for Jackie's grandson over at her house, which resulted in my kids swimming in the hot tub in their skivvies, and ended with an enormous dance party. Two thumbs way up.
Then we went to bed early on Sunday night, because the car arrived to pick us up before six am on Monday morning, for our big spring break family vacation to Hawaii. There were twelve of us in total going, on three different flights (so much for coordinating!) Twelve of us in total, including Auntie Sara. We had an uneventful flight, and then a fairly quick shuttle ride out to the Disney Aulani resort.
We spent five days without really ever leaving the resort. They had tons of pools, and a beautiful beach in a quiet cove. We were sharing a suite with Kristen, Jeff, Lexi and Judd, and our friends Todd, Sara Jo and Whitney were four doors down the hall. It worked out well! Three of the kids slept in our living room on pull outs, Kristen and Jeff had their own room, and then in the room with two queens, Tim slept with whichever one of our kids was not in the living room (the boys and girls traded off on sleepovers) and since it was a family vacation, I slept with my sister, like it was 1988. It worked out pretty great. The kids would get up early-ish, since they don't understand time zones, but then we would plug them into a movie on the iPad using Jeff's five way splitter (amazing!) and they'd eat cereal and relax until the parents got up, hunter-gathered coffee and breakfast, and then every day we were down at the pools before 10am. The boys swam until after lunch (and then had to nap or die) and the girls stayed in the water for up to six hours at a time. They were FISH. The great thing is that we had so many adults that we could do shifts taking them down the lazy river or slides, and other than the one big pool (which we only went in once) they could touch pretty much everywhere we went. The beach was also fairly placid and calm, though on day one Ellie and Adam did swim out to the bouys and back with us (Adam rode on my back on the way in, which was the toughest workout I've had in awhile.)
Then most days we'd be back and showering around four. The kids had a couple of engagements in the daycare, which allowed the adults to have a cocktail or two (without kids, don't get us wrong, we were definitely ordering booze by 11 most days. SPRING BREAK!!!) One night they were able to stay through supper, and we went to the Four Seasons next door and had an excellent meal in their fish restaurant.
We couldn't have asked for better company or more fun as a group. However, the resort itself left a ton to be desired. We paid a premium to be there during a peak time, and the service was subpar at best. I had more than one person tell me something wasn't available or working because "it's spring break." Oh really? I wondered why my kids were here with me. We just weren't able to take advantage of everything we paid for, which was a big disappointment. Not to mention, all five kids broke out in rashes from the chemicals and pee in the pools. I was glad we hadn't come before Easter or stayed another day longer - they'd wrung just about all of the fun out of the resort that they could.
I also wish we might have done more touring around, but we were out at the resort, not really close to anything. We did manage to walk a few doors down to a really fun luau on Wednesday night, and all of the kids got to go up on stage and dance, which they thought was awesome. It was a super fun night, and a nice change of pace. And thankfully across the street was a grocery store and an ice cream place, so we could feed the kids a steady diet of peanut butter sandwiches and ice cream.
In the end, a great trip with great friends and a great family. I was so proud of what great travelers the kids were, and definitely loved the few moments they'd leave their friends alone and snuggle with me on a tube down the lazy river. And of course, if the kids' spring breaks match up again next year, we'll get some good commune living spring break going!
First of all, our cousins came into town for their spring break, which was awesome. It's so fun to see the four kids and how they get along and how they play or how they don't get along. Basically, everyone loves Ellie and wants her full attention, and with Adam starting to drop his naps, he was a real pisser to everyone. But he was slightly less of a turd to James than he's been in years past? So that was good.
They had a good parade in preparation for Olde Ellison Bay Days, and they did a lot of Easter egg hunting. We also had a party for Jackie's grandson over at her house, which resulted in my kids swimming in the hot tub in their skivvies, and ended with an enormous dance party. Two thumbs way up.
Then we went to bed early on Sunday night, because the car arrived to pick us up before six am on Monday morning, for our big spring break family vacation to Hawaii. There were twelve of us in total going, on three different flights (so much for coordinating!) Twelve of us in total, including Auntie Sara. We had an uneventful flight, and then a fairly quick shuttle ride out to the Disney Aulani resort.
We spent five days without really ever leaving the resort. They had tons of pools, and a beautiful beach in a quiet cove. We were sharing a suite with Kristen, Jeff, Lexi and Judd, and our friends Todd, Sara Jo and Whitney were four doors down the hall. It worked out well! Three of the kids slept in our living room on pull outs, Kristen and Jeff had their own room, and then in the room with two queens, Tim slept with whichever one of our kids was not in the living room (the boys and girls traded off on sleepovers) and since it was a family vacation, I slept with my sister, like it was 1988. It worked out pretty great. The kids would get up early-ish, since they don't understand time zones, but then we would plug them into a movie on the iPad using Jeff's five way splitter (amazing!) and they'd eat cereal and relax until the parents got up, hunter-gathered coffee and breakfast, and then every day we were down at the pools before 10am. The boys swam until after lunch (and then had to nap or die) and the girls stayed in the water for up to six hours at a time. They were FISH. The great thing is that we had so many adults that we could do shifts taking them down the lazy river or slides, and other than the one big pool (which we only went in once) they could touch pretty much everywhere we went. The beach was also fairly placid and calm, though on day one Ellie and Adam did swim out to the bouys and back with us (Adam rode on my back on the way in, which was the toughest workout I've had in awhile.)
Then most days we'd be back and showering around four. The kids had a couple of engagements in the daycare, which allowed the adults to have a cocktail or two (without kids, don't get us wrong, we were definitely ordering booze by 11 most days. SPRING BREAK!!!) One night they were able to stay through supper, and we went to the Four Seasons next door and had an excellent meal in their fish restaurant.
We couldn't have asked for better company or more fun as a group. However, the resort itself left a ton to be desired. We paid a premium to be there during a peak time, and the service was subpar at best. I had more than one person tell me something wasn't available or working because "it's spring break." Oh really? I wondered why my kids were here with me. We just weren't able to take advantage of everything we paid for, which was a big disappointment. Not to mention, all five kids broke out in rashes from the chemicals and pee in the pools. I was glad we hadn't come before Easter or stayed another day longer - they'd wrung just about all of the fun out of the resort that they could.
I also wish we might have done more touring around, but we were out at the resort, not really close to anything. We did manage to walk a few doors down to a really fun luau on Wednesday night, and all of the kids got to go up on stage and dance, which they thought was awesome. It was a super fun night, and a nice change of pace. And thankfully across the street was a grocery store and an ice cream place, so we could feed the kids a steady diet of peanut butter sandwiches and ice cream.
In the end, a great trip with great friends and a great family. I was so proud of what great travelers the kids were, and definitely loved the few moments they'd leave their friends alone and snuggle with me on a tube down the lazy river. And of course, if the kids' spring breaks match up again next year, we'll get some good commune living spring break going!
Aloha Aulani!
Character breakfast, morning 1
Breakfast the rest of the week
Lazy River
Auntie and Adam after a tube slide
Many fierce tic tac toe battles
The Beans admiring their hair and make up pre-luau. I can only imagine what they're going to be like before attending prom in 10 years
Luau silly faces!
Ohana means family
Dance Break! (Jeff in the plaid, Ellie and Whitney)
Beach time building Todd Town
Beautiful dinner with beautiful friends
Sisterly cocktails
Sisterly facials. Don't we look young?
Final ice creams
Aloha Hawaii!
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