Soccer Camp!

We signed Owen up for a soccer camp this summer not really knowing what to expect. Three hours of soccer, five days in a row seems like a lot (and add in 1.5 hours of soccer practice with his travel team) but when I asked Owen if it was possible to have too much soccer he laughed and said no. One part of the day was spent playing with kids his age and then they divided all ages into countries to play "World Cup" matches. Owen was on Spain (the country he had been hoping for!) and his team ended up winning the World Cup on the last day!

Ready for soccer!

I kept track of Paige by putting her in this bubble.

There was a playground right next to the fields so it was easy to entertain Paige before and the kids always played on it together afterwards too.

Spain wins!

Campers!

Summer Date!

Every once in awhile Pat and I go out in public without the kids. It's called a date. It doesn't happen nearly as often as it should but we make up for it by jamming a lot of fun (and usually a lot of food) into it. We went to a neighborhood festival that features food from a lot of nicer restaurants-"date" type restaurants. Not pictured is an ice cream sandwich we split and some little pies we brought home to share!

Ready to feast!

My fancy taco

Pat's fancy meatball sub 

Eating the fancy meatball sub

Eating the fancy taco

Macaroni and Cheese and Mint Lemonade

This was the view from outside the port-a-potties.

The Midnight Monster

I had a flash of brilliance when I was trying to distract the kids at dinner the other night. I started reciting "The Raven" (this really does happen sometimes, other times it's "Jabberwocky" but I digress...) and then I decided to let them fill in their own words. It didn't calm them down, it sort of wound them up even more but I think their poem is pretty brilliant. And when else do I have the excuse to explain what "eagerly I wished the morrow" means? They wanted to do more so we also have a version of "The Night Before Christmas" and "How Do I Love Thee" but we'll start with the first one we did for today. The words they added are highlighted, in case it wasn't obvious enough.

Once upon a midnight monster, while I pondered weak and hollered,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten old man-
While I nodded, nearly playing the Wii, suddenly there came a goblin,
As of someone gently touching the goblin, rapping at my chamber door-
"Tis some visitor," I muttered, "rapping at my side-
Only this and me."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak goblin;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the bathroom.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;-vainly I had sought to play the Wii.
From my books surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost shoe-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name cuckoo-
Nameless here for evermore.

Two Wheeler! (+training wheels)

Paige has graduated from her tricycle to a two-wheeler! A friend's mom scouted out this bike at a garage sale and picked it up for us. It is a princess bike too, just what Paige was hoping for, so she was extra pleased by the whole thing. She wants to bike everywhere now and she's not too far away from doing that. I took her on a bike ride to her chosen location thinking I would have to put her in the bike seat on my bike and somehow sling her princess bike over my handlebars once she got tired but she made it the whole way there and back, no complaints. It was a pretty timely purchase too because it gave the kids a chance to play Tour de France in the driveway.

Swimming Lessons!

I'm going to go ahead and post about things after they're done...the kids took swim lessons five days a week for two weeks and it was really fun watching how quickly they improved. Owen benefited more from the instruction than Paige (more on that in a bit) and learned actual strokes and gained a lot of confidence. On the first day, Paige was totally devastated (tears, etc.) that I wasn't going to be in the pool with her and so was separated into the half of the class that didn't have much swimming skills. It was a shame because she's actually very confident swimmer when we go to the pool just for fun. On the other hand, she made such progress on the whole separation issue that I wasn't disappointed at all but just as proud of her as I was of Owen! They both got something important out of the class and I think I got a little glimpse into what it's going to be like dropping Paige off at preschool in September...

Kids

We had to say goodbye to some dear friends over the weekend. There was a great send-off party involved but for now I'm just posting a picture of the kids from a play-date earlier in the week. I thought maybe the kids weren't understanding the full impact of the move but Paige looked at me sadly yesterday and told me she didn't want them to leave and it was a little heartbreaking. We're going to miss them like crazy but I'm feeling good about the fact that we've already figured out how to meet halfway and they'll be coming back to visit regularly. 

Tall Ships!

We decided to try something new and go see the Tall Ships that were downtown. We didn't know quite what to expect and we were a little disappointed. This is not really an activity for a 3 and 6 year old...The ships were fun to see but you had to wait in extremely long lines to get on board. We ended up only waiting in line for one and then got some kettle corn on the way out to soften our disappointment. There was one fun thing that happened while we were there- a Bay City newspaper photographer took a picture of Paige and me for her website/paper and I found it online later that night (it's the last picture in this post).

Goggles!

Finally!

My usual rule for the ice cream truck is the first time it passes our house after summer starts we split an ice cream sandwich. For some reason it kept passing our house at the worst times! I started to get worried we were never going to be able to buy one so finally when I heard it last week I had the kids stop eating dinner and we ran out, bought one and stuck it in the freezer until we finished our dinner. Then I cut it into fourths and put the kids portions on popsicle sticks because I'm cheap thrifty like that.

Yum!

A couple new and successful recipes!

Grilled Cabbage Wedges with Spicy Lime Dressing-we left out the "spicy" in this recipe. I thought this was great but I think I was the only one. Pat thought it was mediocre but thought it might be improved by grilling the wedges, then cutting it up and mixing in the dressing. I think that would be great as well! We cut the recipe in half but I think half the amount of dressing wasn't enough. I ended up making more dressing the next day and I ate the leftovers cut-up and cold with chicken and onion. 

Asian Peanut Noodle Salad-This picture is from before I put the dressing on...for some reason my other picture was very blurry. It's possible I was shaking from excitement because it looked so good? Maybe... I'm definitely making this again. I substituted apple cider vinegar for the rice vinegar and left out the Sriracha sauce.

Parade!

Our Fourth of July parade was actually on the fifth so I'm still posting it within a week... barely... Owen had the opportunity to march with his t-ball team so Pat accompanied him in the parade while Paige and I waved and collected (awful) candy. We had fun watching and got super excited when we finally saw Owen and Pat coming down the street. Owen had run out of candy at this point but had saved a handful especially for Paige. 

Crafts for the Fourth!

We made a couple crafts to celebrate Independence Day! In the first one, the kids made "fireworks" using cupcake liners and markers. They even went a step farther and added stars, confetti and a moon. They enjoyed it so much they each made two! We put them together on the door in our kitchen and it looked like a big night sky lit up with fireworks. In the second craft, we painted popsicle sticks and glued them together to form a flag. This was definitely the less popular craft, probably because it had multiple parts and waiting-time in between while the paint dried.

Fourth of July!!

I was worried the weather might ruin some of our celebrating but it wasn't a problem at all! I got to go for a run in the morning and when I got home we had a festive breakfast. Then we got to go have a cookout with our families and made it home in time to have a very late dinner and walk to the fireworks with some friends. What a great day! By the time we were walking home Owen was barely able to keep his eyes open. Paige was having a tough time admitting she was tired but was definitely showing it in other ways:)

Breakfast!

The kids dressed for the occasion.

Amazing Cherry Blueberry Pie. I'm making this again. Very soon. (Definitely cut the amount of sugar in half and it doesn't need as much cinnamon as it calls for.)

I know that cutting watermelon into shapes seems very silly but look how cute it looks! There are even some shaped like the United States if you look on the right. Owen was waiting all day to eat one and then took a bite and realized he doesn't like watermelon.

Fireworks! (I believe Owen's facial expression was being exaggerated for the camera...)