Friday!

Here we are back to Friday already. I really can't believe it, but I totally can.

We're dog sitting this week. Same old story with that.

In short, my kids are having the time of their lives being pet siblings with "their best friends" and I am over here thanking my lucky stars that we never caved to the cute face of a puppy. We (Husband and I) are clearly just not pet people. A week is about my fill of pet care. 

C has been creating art of the dogs, which is actually pretty cute. And I've been making them share a bed. Partly for them to practice before vacation because they will share a bed there and partly because it's one less room to clean. 

This neighborhood has exceptional sidewalks for playing on scooters so we've been doing a lot of that. When both adults are home we even go on scooter walks because they live on a cul-de-sac. But both adults have to be home because M gives up halfway around and C is a little speed demon so... it takes two sets of eyes. 

In today's edition of random thoughts by Madeline... do you ever wonder about whether you could have been happy learning a trade? I just wonder whether I could have been happy plumbing all day. Anyway, that's not to say I am going back to school to learn the art of plumbing, I've never been mechanically minded. But... it's my random thought of the day. 

Today we got a magical cool front coming through and the high is only 70. It won't last but I love opening all the windows and letting fresh air in. It's the little things! It feels like, well I won't mention it but it starts with an F and ends with all. 

Hello August!

No really, how is it already August? Time is just going so fast!

But that being said... I love August. It is my most favorite month of the entire year!

July wrapped up with a bang. I had girl's weekend this past weekend and it was lovely. I spent the day with a group of friends from college. (All but one were ladies I was roommates with at some point.) It was stellar. We had lunch out and then just a lot of sitting around and chatting, which, is excellent use of lady time if I do say so myself. I don't feel quite as balanced out as I did the previous two years so maybe the travel is an essential part of that feeling. Noted for next summer!

July was also Harry Potter month. I saw this meme yesterday and it just made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

My mom did not think it was funny though.

But that was July. And now we are in August. The month of great births. (Mine. My mother.) The month of hideous birthstones. (Peridot. Gross.) The month in which we will take our first epic family vacation. The month of our anniversary. The month school begins.

August is bringing some great things to us in 2017 my friends. Let's see if it lives up to the hype.

Things to Tell I Guess

In today's edition of "I'm done with parenting..."

I don't want to cut grapes up anymore. I mean, I will but mostly because if one of my children did in fact choke on a grape I would never forgive myself for skipping the step that adds about a minute to the routine. But still. I don't want to cut up grapes anymore.

And then there's this. Except let's throw in mom instead of dad then shall we?

We are going to be dog sitting this upcoming week and seriously, I am the most excited to not pay for air conditioning for a week! 

We went to the zoo last night for member's night. It was the best. Seriously, I have never enjoyed our zoo so much. But it was just perfection. The animals were so active. Like even the sloth was moving. 

Seriously awesome. We loved it. All of the fine places we have a membership for close at 5:00 in the summer (and most of them year-round if they're open at all so it's not often that Husband gets to come along for the fun. So thank you members night! 

This weekend is girl's weekend. It got moved up a weekend this year but hot diggity I am ready. In 2015 it was something I really needed. In 2016 it was a refreshing breath of fresh air. And even though it's local this year I am so excited. I picked up one gal from the airport yesterday... it's going to be the bee's knees. Actually, maybe I am especially excited it's local because all of the fun with none of the travel. 

I wish you all wonderful weekends!

Read All The Things

Once upon a time there was a little girl. She had good generous parents, a love of reading and deep appreciation for golden birthdays. That is to say, the birthday where you turn the age of the date of your birth. (Apparently not everyone celebrates or even understands the concept of a golden birthday she has found.)Okay so that little girl is/was me. And wouldn't you know everyone that this year, is finally the year in which I get to celebrate my golden birthday. (Not until next month mind you, but still, the excitement looms.)

I haven't built it up in my mind at all. Except I totally have. There is little chance at all it could be the most magical birthday of my entire life up to this point but I am sure as heck going to try. I declared years ago that all I wanted was to go to Disney World. While we will be traveling earlier than the actual day of my birth because of school (which turned out to be a non-issue because it's not even real kindergarten and who cares if he missed a week) we have made that part happen. It's in my birth month which is close enough right?

Also important to this story is that I love read. I was the kid who got in trouble in school for being too far ahead in the book we were reading aloud in class.

I just love reading. Like it's July and I am already at 35/24 of my Goodreads Challenge for the year. Reading is my jam. Specifically I like to read in bed, but even with a book light it is hard to do while Husband sleeps.

In January 2011 I bought a 3rd generation Kindle that looks like this:

And I loved it. I know that ereaders are one more thing that millennials have embraced that has "ruined the world" and all that, but gosh darn it, it is just so much easier to hold, and read and carry than a bunch of books. I loved my Kindle but as the technology improved it wasn't as wonderful. Sure it works and there's nothing wrong with it, but that whole requiring light thing still put a damper on the situation. 

So I have done almost 100% of my Kindle reading on the app on my phone for the past year or so. Which worked. But it just wasn't as awesome a reading experience as it could have been because all that blue light science or whatever. Oh and the fact that eight times out of ten my phone is DEAD at bed time and I'd have to lay awkwardly to have my phone charge while I read. 

Well since the whole theme of my upcoming golden birthday has been "celebrate early" my parents somehow got on board and last week I received the most wonderful Kindle Voyage with just an absolutely stunning origami case. It is leather and magnetic and it feels so good in my hand. And reading on it is such a joy. Well and it smells great because it's leather.

Oh my goodness, this Kindle is a game changer. I can read outside in full sunlight. (Really hard to do to on my phone, a lot of headaches ensued.) I can read in bed in the dark. And my new Kindle does it all. It's AMAZING. Plus has the added bonus of looking like I am reading a book instead of ignoring my children with the internet. Because no one knows you are reading on the Kindle app on your phone you know?

TOTAL AND COMPLETE SIDE RANT If I hover too much while my kids are outside I am a "helicopter parent" and that is bad. If I sit down and read a book (or even just surf the internet) I am "neglectful" and that is bad. Someone make up their minds already! I safely fall into both categories depending on where we are and how I feel about the situation. END RANT 

I love my new Kindle. It is amazing. I took some pictures that were *cough* not at all staged *cough cough* to show you. 

Though if I was going to take the time to stage the picture I maybe should have tried a little harder because nobody really needed to know the catch all mug in our bedroom contains an adjustable wrench, scissors and measuring spoons among the assortment of loose change and pens. But... that is the reality of my life. I gave you staged real life. 

Don't worry, whether the case is opened or closed it says Amazon on the back. Which I have no shame in, since Amazon and I are in a deep and loving relationship. I just love this little Kindle of mine. Maybe too much. I need to start practicing just a little more self control as I have come upon a healthy dose of this disease: 

But I think the only prescription is more reading, you know, just in case you need me... 

Happy Friday Everyone!

A little snap shot from our week... 

It's been a hot week. So we've been finding things to do to keep cool. We busted out our super fancy inflatable pool and did some backyard swimming. It was a ton of fun. 

Of course we ended up with half the lawn in there too floating around, as you do. 

Yesterday we went to Burger King to play in the morning. Slides and tunnels. Burning energy in the air conditioning. We were going to try out the new trampoline park this week but after reading about the little boy who broke his leg... we decided BK was a better bet. 

Then after we used up some energy we went to see Despicable Me 3! 

It was M's first time going to a movie theater and she did amazing. I was so impressed by here. We got there early to scope out good seats. You know, on an aisle in case we need to sneak out, up a few rows for a good view but not too high. But then there were SO MANY previews. 

Going early turned out to be a good idea because there was a field trip group there and the theater was filled up pretty much, but man. We were in our seats for 45 minutes before the movie even started!! So the fact that M made it through the whole thing quiet and calm, I was really impressed. 

Last night I hosted book club and we read Wonder. If you haven't read it, you should. Then go see the movie this fall. We saw a preview before Despicable Me 3 and I got a little teary so I can only imagine how I will be at the movie. Anyway, read the book!! 

Because a lot of the action goes down at a school, I went for a school lunch theme. Sort've. The lunch box has baggies of pita chips for the spinach dip. Then fruit and dip and Rice Krispie Bars. In the milk crate are juice boxes, bottled waters and little cartons of orange juice. (I didn't figure anyone really wanted milk...)  

Want to Play a Math Game?

Kindergarten Math. I am not a math person. And I sure wish I was British and could say maths because it just seems better and maybe I wouldn't have disliked it so much...

ANYWAY. So I found this game  on the interwebs and this is a great version on Teachers Pay Teachers but I just kind of stole the idea, made my own and didn't pay for the sheets. 

This was the first time I introduced C to Base 10 Blocks but he took to them right away and he really loved the game. Instead of using the ones cubes I decided to have him color. Mostly because M was around I didn't want the ones to be scattered. But I had him switch every other row to help exaggerate the groups of ten. 

So basically we took turns rolling the die and coloring in our squares. Every time we filled in ten squares we earned a "tens" block. And then practiced counting by "tens." C also wrote the numbers he rolled underneath his square. Well most of them anyway... clearly the excitement caught up with him and he missed a few. Also clearly we need to work on writing the number 3, since I was upside down and didn't notice he was writing it backwards the whole time.

Then obviously, when he got to 100 he earned a "hundreds" block. He won mostly fair and square but I think I got skipped once or twice while I was redirecting a rambunctious two-year-old. But we got some good math practice in which is awesome! We'll play again soon with the "ones" blocks, probably while someone else* in our house is distracted or napping. 

Mondays

Monday is nearly over. It was a good one. Honestly, in this last little bit, the "good ones" have greatly outweighed the "bad ones." Not just Mondays. But all the days.

I could go on and on about the family adventure we had on Saturday.

We rode the water taxi across the Mississippi to "Illa-noyd" as C calls it. We took in the "tractor museum" which was fun-ish but there were a lot of grown adult men walking around playing with the machinery. I know that it is a museum for everyone but they were face-timing in the combine etc... anyway. It annoyed me. We walked a bit further for lunch out and rode the water taxi back around to our stop.

So there it was in a nutshell. I could also tell you about book club on Saturday night.

We got together at one of my family's favorite restaurants at my recommendation. We enjoyed pizza and calzones and chatted about everything. And I left feeling full both physically and intellectually. Even of the book sucked. (Which it did. Luckily it was not my pick.)

I didn't take any pictures because I was in the moment. But I wasn't even going to write about it so there you go.

I am well aware of the fact that every note my kid writes isn't actually that interesting or impressive to anyone but his parents and grandparents. But daily I am impressed by what comes out of the end of his pencil. He got a hair cut yesterday. I didn't take a picture but he looks so grown up and it's hard to not think that he actually is getting so grown up.

Bringing us to our ever returning Monday. After a slightly annoyed start to the morning, I opted to make lemonade and we accomplished a lot. We went to the post office, the park (and then had to switch playgrounds due to an onslaught of big kids from a summer program) and the grocery store.

I got my kitchen cleaned during rest time including cleaning out the fridge and the top of the fridge. I mopped. The dishes are done. I also got dinner into the crock pot which essentially took care of that. God bless the inventor of crock pots. (And rice cookers/veggie steamers which took care of the other part of the dinner.)

So what I am saying here is that life is normal but good. Errands mixed with fun outings. Chores mixed with play. The kids even got postcards today from my parents which made it a good mail day. Mondays are a rare breed, they really aren't always fun, but there they are. This one wasn't bad. This one was pretty good. And I am thankful.