Summer Fun Done

As summer draws to a close we are faced with wrapping up the last few items from our Summer Fun List with the kids. Sure there are technically three more weeks but with the boys starting Kindergarten we are effectively in the fall, thinking about pumpkins, Halloween, and hot cider as we sweat in the ninety degree heat.


August began with a huge rainfall that had me dashing out into the yard, wading through shin-deep puddles and trying to fix our sump pump exterior drain as hail pelted me in the head and bare feet. I returned inside, soaked, and greeted by the boys who had gone into the basement and gotten as much emergency gear as they could to help me out.


Soon we found ourselves at Target buying the most insanely specific set of back to school supplies including things I had never imagined even existed such as pre-sharpened pencils. Why buy a dozen unsharpened pencils for $0.34 when you can get them sharpened for just $6.99?


Back at home a family of Coopers Hawks (which previously I thought was just the name of a restaurant) have taken up residence in our yard. This explains why we haven't seen any rabbits this summer. That and the fact that a family of raccoons also decided to call our yard home as well. Thankfully the raccoons have been persuaded to go elsewhere before they took up residence in our attic as seems to be fairly common around here.


We also took the boys to their first baseball game with Grandad. They are still talking about it and we are still required to play baseball in the yard daily to reenact the game we saw in an alternate reality where the home team actually wins and the River Bandits lose in disgrace.


Much to Elliott's delight we also hit the paddle boats before they closed down for the season. This has not prevented them from asking about going back to the paddle boats again every day since.


We also hit some Pokemon Go raids as a group where Martin and Elliott boasted to the hordes of twenty-somethings about their impressive stable of Pokemon that they have caught.


We also went back for our annual trip to the Renaissance Fair which is always a hit. Every year the weather gets better, we stay longer, and the boys have fewer meltdowns. I'm sure this will all be for naught as soon as we bring Josie into the mix on our annual trip and all hell breaks loose.


We made it to Centennial Beach on the exact last day of the season which was nowhere near as busy as we thought it would be. We got to get a great swim in before retiring our flotation devices for the season.


Josie took extra care before we went to the beach by making sure she lathered up Baba for some fun in the sun.


Soon after Josie began her first day in her new classroom which went over very smoothly.


The boys got to attend their Kindergarten preview and set up their rooms for the school year.


Back at home we were having a drainage system installed so that we could avoid future flooding, hail-related toe injuries, and save Martin and Elliot the trouble of haivng to suit up to assist me by running around the house screaming as I redirect pipes in the yard.


The first day of school was a huge hit. On my first day of kindergarten I was fine until a girl in my class, Chelsea, lost it and fell on the floor screaming at her mother. I remember thinking that she must know something I don't know then I became very emotional.

On the boys' first day of kindergarten I was also fine, that is until I saw the other parents sobbing and I once again wondered what they knew that I didn't and I too became emotional.

The circle is now complete.


The boys are both doing extremely well with their new pedal bikes. They picked it up right away and have gotten by with only minor crash-related injuries. I've been more concerned about what will happen if one of then careens into Josie as she gets used to her balance bike.


Jen flew out of the country for four days and I got to experience dropping off and picking up the kids from school every day which was a lot of fun. It's amazing how fast six hours goes by. It doesn't leave one with time to do very much. I can only imagine what the parents of half day kindergarteners would have done in the past.


The school organized a 5k race which went right by our house and we were able to go watch it on Saturday morning and cheer on the participants as they ran past.


After a failed nap attempt for Josie we all went to the park where the boys insisted on dressing like Mario and Luigi for unknown reasons.


They also befriended some extremely friendly middle-schoolers who were fishing.


The fishing kids were so nice and they showed all three of the kid show to fish, let them all try it, and even gave them some lures to take home as a souveneir.


When Jen was away Josie decided that she would sleep in "Daddy's Bed." This is the nest of spare duvets that I keep beside her crib when I or Jen inevitably end up sleeping in her room to get her back to sleep in the middle of the night.


On Sunday we all went to the boys' friend's house for her birthday party.


It had been planned as an outdoor party but with some raid the kids all ended up in the basement watching Moana in an amazing home theater setup. Needless to say no one complained about this, particularly the parents who all hung out in the bar which was conveniently located adjacent to the movie theater.

To make things even better it cleared up as soon as the movie was over and everyone played outside for the remainder of the party.

With summer wrapping up we gear up for fall. Elliott is already excited for his favorite holiday, Halloween. Martin is ready for colder weather which is more conducive to playing hockey. Josie, she's just ready to wreak havoc in yet another season.

The Zucchini Days of Summer

With July here Josephine was not going to daycare a few times a week for short days. The initial drop offs, predictably, were not smash hits with her. She calmed quickly as we left but seemed unimpressed with her peers. After all, she is used to mixing it up with three and four-year-olds. What was up with this group of children the same size as her?



Nonetheless, she attended school bravely and allowed her mother to have a whopping four hours to get her work done. This was still nowhere near the amount of time she actually required but a vast improvement over no time at all, short naps, or most commonly after everyone is asleep.


Before my parents left we were able to enjoy a few late night pokewalks. We went on a wonderful late night stroll through a nearby park and enjoyed a nice sunset in between catching imaginary creatures with our cell phones.


Seeing the joy on my childrens' faces as they play in their newly constructed playset still does not make it worth the hassel of putting it together. If they didn't love it as much as they do I'm pretty sure I would resent them for the rest of their lives.


The zucchini harvest has been unbearably large, as normal. We've enjoyed (or at least tolerated) zucchini at every meal. One dish was this zucchini carbonara that turned out pretty great.


Josephine has enjoyed Nana's rocking chair. Mostly she's enjoyed standing in it and getting a reaction from her parents.


Martin has been obsessed with sculpting things out of Play-Doh. One creation was this Pikachu.


Jen made zucchini cakes with yogurt sauce one night while I was at work. The children enjoyed them enough so that there were none waiting for me when I got home, a stark departure from most zucchini-based dinners we've made lately.


We surprised the kids with an overnight trip to an indoor/outdoor waterpark which was a huge hit.


Thankfully they had a blast inside, outside, and at the arcade.


It was a ton of fun. The boys are pretty good in the water now but supervising Josephine to make sure she doesn't drown is a fulltime, extremely stressful job.


The boys checked out some books from the library. Elliott picked this seemingly harmless book featuring two children on it dressed like superheroes. We thought nothing of him reading it all the time. One night while I was cleaning up I flipped through the book and discovered it was a graphic novel intended for teens or adults. I learned this by flipping to a part where one of the characters puts on a gas mask and kills his own mother.

Note: pay better attention to what they're checking out of the library.


The only vegetable just as plentiful as the zucchini has been the tomato crop. Tomatoes are a little easier to use and Jen made a delicious tomato sauce by roasting them in the oven.


Jen also made zucchini fritters which we served with a summer vegetable boil with ham to use up most of what we were backing up on.


Elliott has enjoyed Martin's gift perhaps more than Martin and has been regularly shaving in the tub although sometimes he leaves the shaving cream out and Josephine eats it.


Jen was away for a business trip so I took the boys on a bike ride at the park. Martin, who I realize had never really encountered a hill, took off down a steep hill, and went through an underpass as I chased after him. While I ran toward the tunnel he was approaching I had visions of broken limbs but I came to find him startled, but perfectly balanced on his bike having steered clear of any danger. For the rest of the ride he took all hills extremely gingerly.


We also went to the Arboretum. I took this photo of the boys before looking around twenty seconds later to find Elliott was missing. It was a long five minutes before I finally found him. My knees are still a little weak just thinking about it. Luckily the Arboretum serves beer and I had, perhaps for only the second time in my life, a beer before 12:00 PM.


When Jen returned we took the kids to the beach where they both requested to be buried and they wore themselves down leaping into the pool at least one hundred times.


After swim class and the beach I let them watch a movie on the iPad to wind down. It was perhaps the smoothest bedtime in ages.


More zucchini. Grilled with basil balsamic marinade and feta cheese.


We also went to the zoo and I got to see the primate house for the first time which was pretty impressive. Josephine was mesmerized by the monkeys leaping around.


Josie learned a new word, "Cook!" She chants it regularly every night after dinner until I give her a cookie. She then wanders around eating it and leaving surprisingly few crumbs throughout the house.


The boys got medals for soccer. They were already obsessed with medals from pretty much every book and story ever. They think a mayor's main responsibility is handing out medals. That's silly because everyone knows a mayor's main responsibility is cutting ribbons with comically large scissors.


As the summer draws to a close at school they made some nice notes for their teachers and gave them to them at their last day before Pre-K.


Another milestone was their first cousins sleepover. The nighttime chaos was no greater than normal and, surprisingly, they all went to bed with fairly little incident.



We took our second annual trip to the Renaissance Faire. What a difference a year makes. The fact that it was twenty degrees cooler probably also had something to do with it.



We got the jousting in time this year and they were so excited. Every night since then they have grabbed anything they can to make knight costumes and lances. They say to do calming things for your children before bed. What could be more calming than a few rounds of jousting?


Martin has continue his sculpting by making Ninja Turtles and showing them to me.


He also sometimes sneaks up and leaves them right on the side of my bed and, unfortunately, I roll over onto them.


Josie's first days of day care are still a bit of a mixed bag of emotions. Mixed in that her brothers love it and she hates it. She does warm up to it fairly quickly but she now is able to determine earlier and earlier that we are taking her. She does not take kindly to this daily betrayal.


Last night we did "Family Band" which is a common activity before bed where the boys stand on their beds and sing along to Dire Straits songs. First, Elliott arranges the audience on the floor and has us sit down.


Second, they turn off the lights and sing into their sippy cups while jumping on their beds. Josie got into the action by dancing for the entirety of their show and screaming when it was time for her to stop.

Our summer activity list is nearly complete. I feel we've probably made more progress on it this year than in nearly any other year in the past. Certainly better than before we had kids. It doesn't come without a cost and that cost is in pretty much all of our bodies hurting all of the time and in it taking ten minutes to get out of bed in the morning.

I really thought that was going to start up a lot later than this.