From the Snack Factory

We've been at church every morning this week for Vacation Bible School (VBS). I'm in the kitchen for the 3rd year and the kids are in their respective age groups, with school friends along for the ride this year.  There's been lots of transportation/playtime coordination with these extra kids and I've been pretty pooped every day...but there's still the entire afternoon to fill!  Ah, the "slow" and "quiet" quality of summer.  ;-)

As is the tradition at our church, one age group each day comes in and prepares the snack for everybody at VBS-- which this year is 470 people (including youth leaders). Then there's a second wave where everybody comes in to get their prepared snacks.  Of the five days, four of them were "sweet" and, sure enough, we had the most number of complaints about the one day's non-sweet treat. 

Monday:

 (animal crackers, then goldfish, then corn chex, then a gummy worm)

Tuesday:

 (two sizes of marshmallows plus pretzel sticks for kids to make a "fort" if they wished)

Wednesday:

 (tortilla with pizza sauce and cheese stick, rolled up)

Thursday:

(graham cracker with marshmallow fluff/cool whip mix and then chocolate chips in shape of a cross)

Since nothing ever goes quite as planned, Miss C developed a fever yesterday so she will have to miss the last day of VBS. Thankfully, we were able to figure out coverage-- while the BG does have to leave to go to some football stuff, our neighbor can fill in the gap until I get back home.  I'm listening to her right now as I type this and she sounds 100% normal.  A friend mentioned having heard others talk recently about a fever that pops up and disappears just as quickly, so hopefully that's all that is.  With the 24-hour rule, though, she has to stay home-- and is super bummed.  It's been a great week learning about how we're all Created by God and Built with a Purpose!

Food--Exercise--Food

In other words: Tasty Bookends!

Last night was our first "away" swim meet.  I decided to kick it old school with some Knox Blox just as Brother and I ate at our Houston summer swim meets back in the 80s:

(When I offered some to the moms around me at the meet, they all seemed disappointed they weren't spiked.  Ha!)

This guy once again swam 50 Free and 25 Back.  Dropped a couple of seconds in the Free so that earned him some Doritos (unpictured):
 

Report cards also arrived yesterday and looked good so we celebrated it all with our first trip to the "famous" soft-serve place in this particular town, which our family blog readers know as the local HS football capital.  I'm never interested in ice cream during our fall treks up there, however.  Late June?  Bring on the hot fudge!

Wordless Wednesday

Twenty Years

I hardly ever do this but, after rooting through a big box of pics to find one I wanted to post today on FB, I realized I didn't pull out any different ones to include on the blog.  So I'm double-posting today, on the 20th anniversary of my high school graduation...

Field Day Reunion!

As some of you saw on FB over the weekend, we headed back to our former church to join up with our old "Young Adult" friends--and all the kids that now exist--for some Saturday morning fun!  The first ever Field Day was held in 2007 and was an adults-only activity since the onslaught of children had not yet arrived.  (Here's a link to 2008's event.)  The event died out after a few years but the original planner decided to organize a 10th anniversary Field Day...and we joined in!

I served as the Event Photographer, which got me out of having to do too much activity!  ;-)  A few shots of the fun:

By the 2nd annual Field Day in 2008, there were four babies.  While one has since moved away (actually, to Grammie's 'hood, of all places), the other three were present for the Reunion Event:

Friday Flashback

I know snipped photos appear more interesting than just a link, but today's flashback is to a video on June 23, 2010 when two-year-old B talks solar system!  Makes me giggle.

B names the planets

Happy Friday!

Off and Running (er, Swimming)

Yesterday was Miss C's first official day of "pre-team" practice.  She is super excited to be in a group with several friends:

Then last night was the first meet of the season for B.  ("Big" swim team started the day after Memorial Day so he had three solid weeks of daily afternoon practice these last weeks of school).  For never having done real swim team before (and starting at 9 years old, which means he missed all the "8 and under" years and now has to swim a 50 freestyle--down AND back), he's really taken to it.  He has quite a smooth stroke and we look forward to watching him get faster and faster over the next month!  (He also swam backstroke.)

Each family has to volunteer for 6 jobs over the course of the season so the BG and I both worked last night.  He helped with the grill for a couple of hours and I worked with the "Ribbons" team.  I am so impressed with the efficiency-- there are people entering times into a spreadsheet on a laptop which is connected to a printer right there at the table that then prints labels for every swimmer in every event with their time and place, and then our job was to label all the ribbons for each event and file by family name.  Then today, all the ribbons will be distributed to the families!

This girl was quite the cheerleader-- and the red gatorade-drinker!

Wordless Wednesday

Tastiness in an "Instant"

We bought ourselves an Instant Pot last week thanks to a big sale and then determined a good way to break it in would be to google "instant pot" + "[insert one of our CSA veggies]" since we're once again doing a biweekly CSA pickup.  Before that, however, there was some preparatory reading and testing that the BG was happy to do:

I'm glad we did this first project together because there was definitely a learning curve with some of the features.  But man, the results were tasty!

"instant pot" + "broccoli" = (Extra Green) Instant Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup

(with the CSA kale used in place of spinach).  SOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD.

Deja Vu

Four years ago this month, I popped up north to meet AKHG's first baby:

Yesterday, I met AKHG's third baby-- and, in case you have ever wondered why AKHG has been my bestie since I met her in the 9th grade, it's because she's the kind of person who thinks purposefully about outfit choices.  Does the onesie  look a bit familiar?

Miss Abigail was born in early May to parents who are always up for adventure.  They decided to escape Saturday afternoon for a trip south to a hotel overnight + museum visit.  Our house was on the way home so they stopped off yesterday to hang out for a few hours.  Such a treat!

Friday Flashback

Today is the last day of school for the kids and that makes me think about Mr. B's last day of preschool, four years ago:

It's fun to read the above paragraph now and realize just how many parents/families/friends we've made at the elementary school over the last four years!  Just takes time...and willingness to jump into some events/activities to meet others!  Yay for friends!  Yay for summer! (okay, not really, because you know I hate being hot!) Yay for FRIDAY!

Communicator in Training

Miss C took it upon herself (completely independently) to make a card for each kid in her class:

Some of them were slightly different, but here's the general theme (the drawing is of the recipient specifically):

I also taped a bit of her "presentation" about the "keepsake" she's taking to school today.  Unfortunately, I ran out of storage before she got to the part about how "it's from the 1980s!"  She did manage to get in the part about how she comes from a family of "collectors"!  :-)

Friends Down the Street

Glimpsed this foxy creature earlier this morning on a walk:

And came across this slow-mover the day before:

(This angle makes me think I should have checked to ensure Stumpy was in his/her dwelling place but, in real life, this side-of-the-road turtle was smaller and rounder!)

Questionable Headgear

But hey, at least he felt well enough to go to stool, er, school yesterday!

We actually broke heat records with our local temp of 95 degrees.  Today is supposed to be even worse with more humidity.  Ah, summer....except, you know, it's still technically spring!

Monday, Monday

Someone's looking good for her last Monday of the school year!!

Just kidding.  I snapped this pic yesterday when she wandered into my room looking like this, completely out of the blue, singing an original composition called "I Want to be a Princess."

Her brother woke up feeling bad Saturday morning so he stayed in bed all day.  I had some obligations to take care of so I was in and out.  Yesterday, however, the BG was away at a 7-on-7 football tourney so the other three of us were homebound.  The B-man didn't have fever yesterday, although he still clearly wasn't feeling normal, but I still had hopes for a regular school day today.  Of course he awoke saying his throat hurt--so I'm about to have to go figure out if that's a legit concern or a diversionary tactic.  Ah, parenting.  Such a game of "I have no idea what I'm doing."

Oh, and PS: the plants are tomatoes, cantaloupe, and okra!  And two blueberry bushes! 

Friday Randoms

• I feel like "Jeopardy Geoff" should log a vote for the plants in the garden, so I'll hold off on giving you the deets.  (I KNOW YOU ARE ALL JUST HANGING ON WITH EXCITEMENT!)
• As you might recall, I was very involved this year with the school yearbook project.  I took a bunch of the photos, handled the creation of the entire class portrait section and also did many of the other activity layouts, as well as the final editing and proofing.  I have been super nervous about the books arriving in print--what if I missed something?  what if people aren't happy?--but after spending Tuesday morning sorting and distributing them to students, I've only heard positive things!  Yay!
• Shockingly, given that I've kept up this blog thing for 9.5 years, I really love curating and editing photos! ;-) So I'll be doing the yearbook again next year...and also being all Presidential.  PTA Elections were held Tuesday night and I'm really doing this.  Not sure why I committed to such a massive four-year commitment (two as VP, two as Pres) but here we go...
• B-man has an orthodontist appt. this morning at 9am.  Last time, I took both kids since, you know, it's illegal to leave the younger one at home at all, let alone to get on the bus herself.  There were lots of tears-- she HATES missing school.  So this morning, we're leaving super early to drive (the other direction) to drop her off with a friend.  Which makes me realize I need to get going with lunch-making, getting dressed, etc...  

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Productive

I probably mention this every year but, in our school district, HS seniors stop coming to school at the end of May and then there's a 2-week period of time after that where graduation ceremonies from all the district high schools take place at an offsite location on a rotating basis.  Every other student still comes to school through the second week of June, but classes are always cancelled on the day that the individual school has its graduation ceremony.

Yesterday was that day for the BG's school.  For years and years, he would trek to the graduation ceremony but it became increasingly clear that it was a lot of hassle for very little payoff (i.e., he never actually interacted with the graduates at the event) so he has started taking advantage of the other option for teachers: taking a day of leave.  Unlike the vast majority of teachers who protect their leave so they can use it on fun things throughout the year, he OBVIOUSLY never does that and has approximately 123, 456, 789 days saved up from his 14 years in the district.

In any case, it's a WIN for me because we get to hang out together-- and this year was especially exciting since it's the first time both our kids have been in all-day school!

SO: we got the kids off to school and then took our time getting ready to head out.  (I always get sucked in to a bunch of different online "tasks" so that's par for my course.)  We finally left around 10am and started at a delightful newly-discovered breakfast spot, followed by FIVE (!!!!) retail errands.  Two of those errands involved returns (hooray for getting money back!) and, while we did procure some new items at both of those locations,  they were items in need by various members of the family (hooray for getting things crossed off the to-buy list!).

We ended up at Home Depot because, as you know, the BG always likes a good project.  I did my part matching the flatbed cart:

We don't really have much faith that it'll be as productive as we were yesterday on our day date, but we're gonna give the ole garden another try:

The final deer-proof (fingers-crossed!) result:

 (He also purposely put the dug-up grass around the base of the fencing to "keep the bunnies out."  Good thing he's a thinker!)

He dug up another space not too far away to plant those taller plants that can be seen on the cart.  So there's a total of FOUR varieties of "culinary" plants that we selected from allllll the options.  I'd say, of the three varieties (each x2) in the patch above, one is for the adults, one is for the kids, and one is the plant you're just supposed to grow in summer.  The taller plants in the other patch are a variety the BG just really wanted.

Any guesses?

(The basil and cilantro plants got placed in a planter to be left on the deck, so those don't count!)

Wordless Wednesday

(only a CRINGE!)

Root Toot Tootin'

I remembered loyal reader Susan's warning about elementary recorder concerts so I went to the school yesterday afternoon with some trepidation.  All the 3rd graders sat in rows on the gym floor facing the entire 2nd grade (in a "hey, look what you get to do next year!" thing) as well as a few rows of chairs for parents.  The music teacher led them through about 10 songs, each increasing incrementally in difficulty, with some information about each one.  I have to say: my ears didn't bleed at all!  With the exception of a waaaaaaaaaaaay too slow rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In," it was almost downright pleasant!  :-)

I felt the need to rebel against all the parents videotaping (er, phone-taping) the entire performance, so I didn't record at all.  Got a quick shot of B with some friends afterward:

Bonus: you can see he finally lost his mop-top!  Summer cuts came Sunday for both guys!

Out of the Blue

(And into the YELLOW, per this pic...)

Our Saturday took a very fun turn when we heard from Big D that their travel plans from somewhere north of us to somewhere south of us had gotten held up by mechanical difficulties and they were going to have to spend the night near our local airport.  When does one ever get an impromptu visit with Texan relatives?!  Thankfully, we didn't have any evening events already scheduled so we headed out to pick them up for dinner.  As it turns out, the restaurant was inside a mall that has a Lego store and negotiations began immediately.  Poor Big D and Kathy-- they just wanted to get home and instead got sucked into some shopping!  ;-)

(And yes, Miss C asked if she could wear that dress.  I told her that Big D would have JUST seen it on the blog--violating all my rules of clothes-wearing--but she really wanted to. To his credit, he recognized it immediately!)

Friday Flashback

[The ORIGINAL "Mini"]:

Mini's First Maxi

She's ready for summer-- rockin' the maxi dress!

And I don't actually think her hair is quite this dark--the filter added some shade.  I imagine her tresses are gonna lighten up this summer, though-- we're already in "go to the pool every single day" mode with the B-man doing official swim team.  It was 66 degrees (AIR temp!) on the first day of practice Tuesday but he survived.  Yesterday was bright and sunny all day until, literally, 5 minutes before his practice was to start when the clouds came rolling in along with thunder and lightning.  The local weather people are calling today a "10/10" on the pleasant-ness scale, however, so I think he'll be getting in some exercise later today!