Tuesday: mattress/cleaning

Today was a semi-relaxed day.  We played and did some work in the morning as we were waiting for someone to pick up an old mattress.  I didn't have a pick-up time, which was a bit annoying.  Anyway, around 11 I was done with waiting so we slide the mattress outside and made a quick trip to Lowe's.

Both boys still fit in the race car carts, and they had a grand time.  I kept telling them they were terrible drivers as the cart swerved this way and that way.  They insisted I was a terrible driver, and the game kept going all day.

We had our new house cleaners today.  It went well.  It was a bit slow, but there is so much to learn the first several times that I was expecting that.  I finished a few quick things after they left and tada!  The main area looked wonderful.

During this time Isaac and Joshua were supposed to clean their rooms.  However, Joshua had other plans.  He cleaned his room during rest time and was all done by the time the house cleaners arrived.  Ha!  I bet that isn't what you were expecting.  It isn't what I was expecting either.

Joshua had his quilt pictures taken today.  Google is rolling out a new thing called color pop, which I rather like.  Oh, I just noticed that there is a bit of color under his arms on the quilt.  But it is still rather fun.

Monday: zoo

The boys and I, along with Dad, went to the zoo today.  The first time we stopped at the bear enclosure it wasn't moving at all, but it started moving while we were next door, so we headed back.

Grey Bear had been in the backpack, but came out to see the bear.  (We stopped by again at the very end, and the bear was pacing right next to the glass.  Joshua and Grey Bear jumped every time it got close.)

We visited a lot of animals.  Isaac could have stayed at most of the exhibits longer, while Joshua was ready to go pretty quickly after spotting the animal.  They both did a good job of leaving or waiting as requested though.

We stopped for some playing at the natural playground and Isaac started pulling the wood around and said he was going to make a lever.  He then told us the parts of a lever and identified them for us...science camp taught him something!

After the zoo the boys had a Klondike Bar at Dad and Pat's for lunch.  I hadn't really be expecting the zoo to take quite so long, hence the ice cream for lunch.  They then invited us to stay for rest time, so the boys got to play with some 'new' toys while I took a nap on a nearby bed.

Joshua and I played Duplos for a little bit, and he gave me a bunch of pieces and told me to make a statue in the middle of the house.  Then he told me it should be a statue of a seagull.  I finished it and he made a few tweaks to make it just right.  Needless to say, I don't think that building seagulls out of Dulpos is my strong suit.

Sunday: class is done

My summer class finished on Friday.  As always, there were some interesting quirks to the class.  However, the most notable this semester was that everyone turned in their work on time or early.  This made the last week of grading quite easy and I even got to submit my grades on Friday.

Now I have a few weeks off before thinking about next semester.  I have most of the prep work (that I need to do) done, so it shouldn't take me more than a couple of hours.

Saturday: birthday

Today was Joshua's fourth birthday.  While he still seems young because he's the younger sibling, when I actually look at what he's doing I notice how 'old' he's actually getting.

His birthday party isn't for a week yet, so we gave him his birthday present today.  He got the Police Legos.  While very similar to the Firefighter Legos, this one has bad guys.  They have already captured his imagination.  He's suddenly gotten very good at putting sets together.  He still likes us to find the pieces for him, but beyond that needs minimal help.

We just ran out of blueberries, so we went to pick some more this morning.  The boys weren't really thrilled about it, so we bribed them by saying we'd get a birthday treat afterwards.

They also got to play on the playground for a bit.

It was a good day, but I'll admit by the time dinner was finished I had heard, "Mom! [Pay attention to this.]" a few too many times.  I'm glad my children want to talk to me, but they wouldn't stop talking!

Friday: conversations

Joshua: do we get to see Grandpa again? 
Amanda: no, two times is enough for today.
Joshua: two times isn't enough!!

Joshua, to Grandpa Paul: Will you bring Grandma Pat to my birthday?
Grandpa Paul: of course.
Joshua: Grandma Pat will make my birthday special.

Thursday: around downtown

While Isaac was at science camp Joshua and I stayed around the Hope/downtown area.  It started with a trip to see Grandpa, as normal this week.  Joshua did a good job of talking a bit before asking for a treat.

We walked around a bit and took pictures of my latest quilt.  It was cool, so the quilt got a trial testing with Joshua.

Our eventual destination was the library, because they were doing a 'Dragons Love Tacos' theme.  Joshua brought his dragon.

Here they are!  With a taco!  We had tacos tonight since...it seemed appropriate.

Next we went back across campus to the art gallery.  It actually went a bit better than I had expected...and I wasn't expecting much.  Joshua liked the speaker with sprinkles on it the best.  He also liked the sculptures and how they changed as you walked around them.  He even suggested walking around one or two, so I'll note the excursion as a win.

Since we had about thirty minutes before needing to pick up Isaac, we made a quick trip to the candy store.  Joshua picked out some chocolates.  We had several, but he wanted to make sure that we saved some for Ben and Isaac (but especially for Ben.)

Wednesday: growing up and fish

Amanda: Joshua, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Joshua: a grown-up
Amanda: That's wise.  Very wise.
******
After science camp today we visited the 'zoo' at Hope College.  The first fifteen minutes were rather full, but then most of the people left and it calmed down.  We were looking at some skulls and I thought one was a shark, but wasn't quite sure.  I encouraged Isaac to ask one of the helpers, but he declined.  Joshua asked!  Joshua went up to him, brought him over, and asked the question.  I think it's the first time that he has taken the initiative and asked a question [of a stranger] instead of having me ask.  We ended up asking all sorts of questions...even leaving a few times, looking at the aquarium outside the room, and then coming back in to ask a question.  Isaac persuaded him to feed the goldfish and the boys got such a laugh out of it!  It was apparently the silliest thing in the world.