Wednesday: fort

Isaac made a fort today, right around lunch time.  I was too big to get in it and I didn't push the point as I wasn't really sure I wanted to get in it.  I told the boys that if they made a spot where they could eat they could have lunch in there too.

By the end of the day it had a gazillion toys and a light.  But they were happily entertained for a large chunk of the day.

Monday: birthday party

Today was Isaac's half birthday party.  He's 5 1/2.  It's a bit early, but next week we're rather busy.

He took decorating his lemonade cake very seriously.  There were a gazillion sprinkles on it.

We decorated.

And people came!  The menu was spicy hot dogs (and other sausage and bratwurst), pineapple, crunchy beans, and chips.

I had the table set up outside for dinner, but a half hour before hand the temperature felt like it was dropping and the rain chance was rather high and it was windy.  I think moving inside was a good plan, but it was a bit warm.

He also got several presents he was very excited about.

Sunday: Happy Father's Day

Today was a rather normal day; I didn't do anything too special for Father's Day even though there are great dads all around me.

Today was a perfect puddle day though.  There are several requirements for a perfect puddle day...
1. There needs to be a puddle.  Usually this means it needs to have rained recently.
2. It can't be too cold out.  (Having number 1 and 2 at the same time is surprisingly hard.)
3. We need to be on our way home and not really in a hurry.

We played some Legos, as normal.

We got together with Ben's family for dinner.  Our gift to Larry was some Miracle Berries...they are supposed to block the sour sensors in your tongue for a limited time and change the taste of food.  They worked pretty well, although not everything changed quite as much as I was hoping.  Sour Patch Kids tasted completely sweet.  Strawberries were delicious and tasted like they were coated with a bit of sugar.  Grapefruit was good.  The lemon and lime were still tangy, but edible.  Bitter stuff didn't change at all like I was hoping.

Saturday: strawberries

We went to pick strawberries this morning.  We almost didn't go because it finally rained last night and it looked like there might be a little more rain coming.  The boys decided that they still wanted to go.

Isaac had his winter boots on, and it was a good thing.  There were dryish paths, but I don't think I could have kept two kids' feet mostly not wet.  It didn't rain while we were there, so that was nice too.

We didn't get a ton of strawberries, but it was still a nice outing.  And these strawberries are delicious!!  It was well worth the trip.

We gave Ben his Father's Day present early.  (It was Legos, of course.)  So we spent more time in the basement working on our sets.

Friday: this and that

Isaac made a duplo machine this morning while I was making curry.
(Joshua is playing on a big piece of brown paper in the background.)


Then we went to close beach.  We took a kayak, which was really a rather nice way to get there.  We almost left after about a half hour because I was done playing "look for tiny rocks in this big bucket of sand."  However, the boys started pouring water into a hole near the top of the beach and watching how it went down.  Then Isaac made some channels.  An hour later we finally left for home.

We received a delivery and the box was coming apart.  I finished taking the box apart to make sure all the pieces where there (they were).  The boys can't resist the lure of a box though.

Thursday: rumba

Isaac finally finished cleaning his room for the week (although to be fair, it was a weird week).  So it was time to rumba.

Isaac was excited to play "keep away from the rumba."  He invited Joshua to come play too.  They closed the door.

Fifteen minutes later I hear, "Joshua, do you want to ride the rumba?"  I went down to the basement.

Fifteen more minutes pass, and they come out of the room.  Isaac's hair is wet; he played "keep away from the rumba" so hard that he got all sweaty.

****
Joshua got to see Dad before picking up Isaac at science camp.  He got to see the robot wheel, something that we had told the kids last time that they might never get to see.  (The accelerator is now called "robot wheel," because that's apparently the coolest part of it.)  When the robot wheel moved, his mouth opened in amazement.  Then he got to move the robot wheel with the buttons.  He proceeded to take advantage of the time without Isaac by asking what every piece of equipment did.

Isaac was very jealous that Joshua got to see the robot wheel and he didn't.

****
Aunt C stopped by to add some more flowers.  She hollered goodbye to Isaac.  Isaac ran outside to find her and they talked for a while on the porch.

Wednesday: Joshua's special thing

We looked for my dad again today before we picked Isaac up from camp.  He was gone, so we continued on our way.  (I'll admit, it would have been nice to see him, but I think Joshua really likes to push the buttons on the elevator without his brother.)  We stopped by the VanKley musuem to look at the fish.  There was someone inside, so we got to go in.

Amanda: Look at me.
Joshua: all the fish are looking at you!

Do you see all three Nemos?

Here they are again.

We looked at the other animals too but didn't spend much time as it was about time to get Isaac.

Isaac: today we got to use chemicals.  Real chemicals!
Amanda: really?  Did you use them or the teachers?
Isaac: I did!
Amanda: what did you use?
Isaac: lemon juice, milk, dish soap.  We put a piece of paper in them
Amanda: oh, did you test the pH?
Isaac: what's pH?
Hmm...hopefully they just used different terminology and it wasn't that Isaac completely missed what was going on. :D

Tuesday: afternoon

Isaac has a chemistry science camp at Hope most afternoons this week; that's his special afternoon activity.

Joshua's special afternoon treat has been going say hi to Dad after dropping off Isaac.  We found Dad yesterday, but not today.  So we tried again after picking up Isaac.  We managed to find him and both boys got a treat and got to push assorted buttons for the accelerator.

Monday: the day

This morning we had a pest inspector come to look in the attic; a few night ago I heard an animal.  The boys were interested in what she was doing, and she said she was going to see if there were any animals in the attic.  Joshua said, "Monkeys?" with a hopeful lilt.  "No," she replied, "although that would make my job more interesting."  "Elephants?" Joshua tried next.  "I think those would probably have fallen through the ceiling," she responded.

It turns out we have some bats.  Not many.  Good since bats aren't too bad for anything, but they're rather expensive to get rid of.

We played outside for a bit after that.  Joshua wanted to bounce some balls.  Isaac made an elaborate sidewalk chalk obstacle course.

There were lots of lasers, arrows and bombs to jump over.  Then there was a section where I had to answer jokes correctly.  Things like, "how did the chicken cross the road?"  (It flew.  I got it wrong.)  "How did the chicken get in a jam jar?" (It got jammed.  I got it wrong on a technicality.)  "How did the chicken get on top of the house?"  (It jumped.  I received partial credit for saying it flew.)  I eventually only responded with "it flew" and so the questions changed so that I gave the right answer.  Then I had to do the chicken dance before I reached the end.

What else...Isaac has a science camp this week.  He seemed to enjoy the first of four days.  (Although he was sad not to get quiet time and ipad time today.)

Sunday: Legos 2

Here's the quarry Ben made for the digger a while back.  We've moved most of the sets to a different area, but wanted to get a video of it even if the digger wasn't there.  (Ben and I have been taking pieces from it for the various sets we're putting together.  So far we've managed to get it back together, but there will be a day it doesn't work.)

Here are Isaac's machines.  When you only have a few together they work well; when we tried to put them all together it was just a little much.  Maybe we'll make them again when he's older and can fiddle with them a bit more.  (The video isn't great.)

Ben finished the Saturn 5 rocket.  It was supposed to be a gift for him, but we have two boys that like to do Legos too.  However, it worked out really well...there was a lot of repetition, so Ben did two parts and Isaac would do two parts of the same thing.  Ben found it very interesting to put together.

(We've cleaned up recently, but you can see some bins in the background.  We finally gave in and sorted all the Legos by color.)

Joshua has enjoyed helping me, although we haven't spent as much time working on ours.

And one more of Joshua helping Ben.

Saturday: Legos

We continued the Lego sets that we started yesterday; Ben with the Saturn 5 and me with a corner cafe.  Or, as Joshua reminded me many times, my Mother's Day Legos.  Joshua likes to help me and Isaac is helping Ben, so it works well.

Isaac also finally finished some Lego machines, like Rube Goldberg reactions, that he's been plugging away at for a year.  Next we'll need to bring them upstairs and have them all go in a row.  And then maybe take them apart. :)

Friday: pizza

Amanda: Pizza's here!
Joshua: I'll get it.
Amanda: uh, ok.
Amanda starts to walk around to the front door.
Joshua opens and closes the door.
Joshua: I've got the pizza!
Amanda looks at the flat box Joshua is holding, slightly bewildered.
Amanda realizes Joshua just picked up a box that was by the front door...it does look like a pizza box when it is laid down.

Iowa finish

Here are some of the last pictures from our trip.  We didn't take a lot, and I realized we didn't get one of all the adults together.  Oh well.

Brian gave Isaac a bike ride.  Isaac loved it, although said he got a little scared on the turns.  He said it was better when he closed his eyes.

Saturday we went to a street fair and the boys got a ton of loot, including a balloon animal.  This is Joshua with his three bears.

Isaac made several machines out of a new type of block.

We found a place on the river to play Sunday night.  The kids had a great time.

Brian read a few books/devotions to the kids.

We also went to the aquatic center Monday before we left.  Isaac went down a large water slide...I was rather surprised at this since he usually doesn't go down any water slides.  I tried to catch him, but they let two people go at once and the other child was in the middle.  I got to him quickly though.  The look on his face as he was going down was sheer terror, and he was shaking when I got him.  I just told him how brave he was...I really thought he'd go back down the steps.  Anyway, we went to the lazy river next and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy that.

Thursday: could have gone better.

We got on each others' nerves today.  I don't think we've had this many tears/yelling in quite a while.

While there were a variety of things that we didn't agree about today, one of the problems was that we had a zillion spills in the last 24 hours.  I only lost my cool during one, which tipped over a glass of tasty water onto the Ipad.  This is tasty water from some crazy process that Isaac and Joshua were doing and was very potent and was rather hard to clean up.  I dumped a bunch down the drain in a frenzy and that caused crying.  Semi-justified crying I suppose, but I was so sick of cleaning up spills.  Needless to say, there is a new rule...it either needs a lid or needs to be in the fridge.  This wouldn't have helped most of the spills today, but maybe my counter won't be so cluttered with water cups.

We also had the following conversation.
A: who drew on the wall?  (I didn't lose my cool with this one as I knew the marker in the bathroom would be easily removed.)
Isaac: oh, that was me.
A: why didn't you clean it up?
I: because it was pretty.
A: no more drawing on walls.

In good news we went on a boat ride and had some donuts.  Ben will be home later tonight.  And tomorrow is a new day.

Wednesday: life

Flurry has been rather cuddly.  She misses Ben and I'm the second best.

I added a second handle to the screen door.  I was sick of Joshua not being able to reach the handle.  I saw Isaac using it too...it's probably easier to reach.

It was a great day for laundry.  I actually got the first load out in the early morning, and everything had dried by the time we got back from our errands.  I also got a removable one for the deck, so that I can put some laundry in the sun in the afternoon.  It is also short enough for Isaac to be able to help.

We

Tuesday: home

We're home!  I hope to get pictures from the final few days up shortly.

We left Monday night and the trip home went very well.  I did a few stops on exit ramps to arrange this or that, but it was easy to quickly get back on the highway.  Chicago was so easy to get through, along with Indiana.  There was some construction in Indiana that looked like it could be a nightmare, but I breezed right through it.

My goal had been to get through Chicago and the three lane highway.  I was still doing well, so we went all the way home.  (Isaac really wanted a hotel.  At all the gas stops he pointed them out to me.)  I was rather buzzed though; I had been a bit nervous about driving so long with two little boys.  I did a few email things and went to bed because it was super late, but it still took me a while to get to sleep.

Today I had planned to sleep in, staying on central time and having breakfast/TV ready for the boys.  But Joshua needed just a bit too much help and then I was awake thinking of everything that I needed to do today.  So I got up and got started.  It was a busy day, but good.

Friday: gardens

This morning we went to the local gardens. They had a scavenger hunt in sculptures made out of trash washed up on ocean beaches, and the kids enjoyed it.

Isaac was really excited to see this fish.

at the last sculpture there was a pool and the kids got to throw in a penny. Isaac wished that he could be a grown up so he could have as many treats as he wanted to eat and watch as many [movies] as he wanted. Then we went to the butterfly garden. Joshua was scared at first, but the lack of scary butterflies calmed him down quickly. Isaac loved it. There is a brown butterfly on the branch in the picture and when it opened it's wings it had a beautify blue. Isaac tried very hard to get a picture for me but I don't think he succeeded.

we went to an art walk downtown after dinner. We found free ice cream and enjoyed seeing assorted craftspeople. There was one music group that Joshua danced to quite a bit.

Thursday: pronouns

I had the wrong funny story for Joshua earlier. It was funny, but you may have had to be there. Here is the conversation that has happened at least three times this vacation... E: she is saying something. Amy: no, Joshua is a boy, so you need to use 'he'. Joshua: woof woof Amanda: we know. You're actually a puppy.

Thursday: pepper and picnic tables

Amy: this table is so sturdy Mr. Brian could dance on it. Kids: whoa. Everyone finishes lunch. Brian comes home. Joshua, instantly: can you get on the table and sing? We had baked potatoes for dinner. Isaac discovered he likes pepper, or at grinding it. He put a spot of pepper on every bite, front and back, before eating it. He also said he put some pepper on a grape. It was good.

Wednesday: playgrounds

Today we went to playgrounds!

In the morning we joined Amy with her playground group.  The boys played on the normal equipment, but there was also a bandshell to run around in. For several minutes Joshua would run, come back, give Bear a hug, give me a hug, and start the cycle all over again.

. After nap time we went to a park that had several different little playgrounds and a walking trail. I liked the trail, the boys liked the playgrounds. At the end the girls tried teaching Isaac how to climb a tree. I don't think he got much farther than what you see in the picture.

All in all, it was a lovely day. There were a few more tears than normal, but for the most part they were justified and due to minor injuries.

Tuesday: a first - motion sickness

The boys and I left on vacation today.  We were able to fly, which made the whole trip wonderfully shorter and less stressful.

However.

I got air sick on the first leg.  I've been queasy a few times in the air, but usually don't get motion sick.  This time I did.  It was like the first three months of pregnancy...but only for an hour and a half.  (I'm not joking at all...it is exactly what I felt like when pregnant.)

Joshua got sick on the second leg.  That was worse because he didn't tell me that he wasn't feeling good.  Yay for wet wipes.  We were pretty close to landing by the time I had everything cleaned up...it was fine in the end. Bear had to go in the washer with everything else, but luckily Blue Bear was able to sub in without a problem.  And I didn't feel sick (mostly) during the second leg, so that helped a lot too.

But we were there so much faster!  It was worth it.

Monday: memorial day

We went to the Memorial day parade today.  Joshua clapped the whole time for everyone and it was sweet.  He might not yet understand why he's clapping, but he just kept on clapping.  The bands weren't too loud for him either, which surprised me a bit.  He wants to march in a parade next year.

Isaac also did an excellent job, waving the flag that he was given or clapping.

We went home and I touched up the deck with paint/stain.  (It's a weird combo.)  Isaac started helping me and I was glad for the company and the help, but he was all over the deck.  He left after about five minutes and I was able to finish much more methodically.  (In other news, the power washer started without significant problems.  Yay!)

We finished off the day with family for dinner.

Sunday: thunk

THUNK...THUNK.

Ben and I hear this in the office shortly after the kids have been put to bed.  It's loud.  We rush up the stairs and I'm expecting that someone fell out of bed.

We hear Joshua making noises and go in.  He's still in bed but starting to cry.  After a quick, confused glance around the room we discover that the light fixture, a hemisphere, had fallen off.  Both of us were surprised that a) it didn't break and b) it bounced.

I sat with Joshua for a few minutes while he recounted, several times and in detail, about how the light went boom when he was in bed and it was scary.  But I expect it was very scary and he was either just asleep or just about to fall asleep, a time when everything can be a bit scarier.

Saturday: manners

We're all playing Legos in the basement.

Joshua: I'd like pizza.
Ben: hmm, you didn't have a snack.
Amanda: Would you like to go get some fruit snacks?
Joshua: yeah!
Amanda: Can you ask Isaac if he would like some?
Joshua: Isaac, do you want some?
Isaac: No.
Ben: No thank you.
Isaac: No thank you.

Joshua is half way up the stairs.
Joshua: Thank you Dad.
Ben and I smile at the random thank you.
Joshua: Dad, do you want some fruit snacks?
Ben: sure

Several things interrupt him and he ends up downstairs before getting the fruit snacks.
Amanda: ok, did you want to get the fruit snacks now?
Joshua: yeah! and for Dad. But not Isaac.
Joshua: do you want some Mom?
Amanda: no thanks.

Friday: a comedy in review

Today was actually a pretty good day.

As we were pulling into the garage from our morning errands, I mentioned that this weekend was garage sale weekend in our neighborhood.  Isaac looked slightly shocked and said something like, "Are they going to take part of our garage?"  I thought he knew what a garage sale was, but apparently had forgotten.

So after nap time we got on the bikes and took off.  We just saw our first set, far but not too far, and were going up a little hill when "pop!"  The first thing I thought was that my bike pedal had fallen off.  Dad just put new ones on; maybe something wasn't quite right.  I looked down, and the pedal was unsurprisingly still there.  Then I realized that the pedals were spinning quite freely; the chain had broken.  I walked the bike the short distance to the garage sales.

We pushed the bikes back home.  Joshua was ready to be home and already had his shoes off by the time I realized the chain had fallen off my bike again.  I had just hung it over the middle bar and thought it was fine there.  Apparently not.  I scooped Joshua into the stroller and we started looking for it.

We got almost all the way back to the garage sales before finding it.  Ah well, I had been hoping for some exercise anyway.  We were running and walking when Isaac fell and complained that his ankle really hurt.  Isaac went in the stroller and I carried Joshua the rest of the way (about two houses worth).

Isaac seemed to be able to put some weight on it and said it only hurt medium at home, so we elevated it with a cool pack for a bit.  He started walking on it shortly after that, so thankfully everything seems to be ok.

One of the things we got at the garage sale was Mastermind.  Isaac likes to be the person that hides the pegs.  He's getting better at figuring out how to do the pegs that tell if you have a right color/location, but he isn't perfect at it yet.  Unfortunately, this game kind of needs you to be perfect at it.  I've won anyway, sometimes due to Ben's help and sometimes because I was able to guess what he did wrong.

Thursday: somewhat of a graduation

I've been seeing all these pictures of friends' kids graduating from preschool this last week.  Isaac did have a ceremony, but today was his last day of preschool

He's been excited about the last day for a week or so now, but apparently had some tears at nap time.  I understand them though...new things (like summer break especially) are fun, but it can be sad to know that something else is coming to an end.  I only got a picture with one of his teachers as the other wasn't there today.

Joshua might understand what's going on; I'm not completely sure.  I've said that he's done with the wobbler room and that it is summer vacation, but I haven't mentioned that next year he's in the 3 year old room.  Although he had some good times there, he has been rather sure about not going back for a few hours at a time lately.  Hopefully he just forgets.  I only got a picture of one of his teachers too.

To celebrate, we went out for dinner with ice cream.  Such excitement over ice cream!