Thursday: field trip

Today was the big field trip day!  They were unable to get a bus driver, so parents were driving.  That was probably the part that made me the most nervous.

And rightly so!  Google maps told me several times to take an exit that was very clearly closed.  Very closed.  It obviously rerouted me right away, but I couldn't tell if it was just sending me in a circle to go to the closed exit again or it it was properly rerouting me.  I took a quick detour to a parking lot to assess the situation, realized it had properly rerouted me, and we were back in business.  The other issue was the that parking lot had changed so that you had to pay to enter, using a credit card, with a crazy complicated machine that you couldn't see the screen because of the sun and the enter key ink had been rubbed off so it was hard to tell which one it was.  If things went well it took about a minute.  If things went poorly it was taking about three minutes.  There were at least twenty cars.  Needless to say, we were a bit late for our Capitol Tour because of it.

But after those fiascos the day went very well.

This was a class picture, but I zoomed in on a small part.

The tour guide did a great job giving details, information, and answering questions.  The Senate was in session and it seems like every tour group guide gives their senator a card so that they can be welcomed by the entire senate.  The senate did a great job clapping and welcoming us, even though they probably need to do it at least three times an hour whenever they're in session.  That would get so annoying.

After lunch we went to the Michigan history museum.  It was also pretty cool.  We had a docent guide us through the first floor and it was so much more fun to listen to him than try and read the signs.  The signs were good, but he added the details that you might not otherwise pick up.  We had to do the upper floors by ourselves and we went through them pretty quickly, but it was still very interesting.

The drive home was uneventful.  We listened to a Brains On! podcast about elevators, which I also found interesting.  I wish I could remember things better, because in a few weeks I probably won't be able to tell you much of the history behind elevators.

Wednesday: productive

After yesterday's sleepy day, today felt very productive!  Groceries were purchased in good time.  (Yogurt cups are still somewhat gone and orange cinnamon rolls are back to being gone, but I think I found everything else.)  

I'm driving for a field trip tomorrow, so I finished cleaning out the car.  It's been one of Isaac's chores the last few days, and that helped a ton.  I did a quick vacuum and emptied out some of the stuff from the passenger seat, so it's all ready.

I did the painting for the quilting room.  I'm not sure why I thought I'd be able to finish the room yesterday; the paint was the next thing to do and it would need to dry over night.  I ended up using a roller to get some large swaths of wall...the walls were a mess when I started to look at them!  I know we did some of the dings, but surely we didn't do all of them.  There were also a lot of scuffs that wouldn't come off with magic eraser either.  Anyway, I do feel like it looks nicer now, but some of that might just be my imagination.

I had lunch with a friend!  We ended up talking for 1.5 hours...I was fine with that, but it's the middle of her work day and I felt a little bad about that.

I drove Grandma to the doctor.  This was quite easy, as expected.  I was slightly worried finishing with enough time to get the boys, but it worked out just about perfectly.  (And the back-up plan was just to have Grandma come with me to get the boys, so I wasn't really worried.)

The evening was a bit crazy...the kids seemed especially hyper.  They ended up going to bed a little early because Isaac wasn't feeling great and Joshua had some screen time in bed.

Tuesday: sleepy

I had some plans for today, including finishing up the quilting area for O:CtH.  (Yes, it's still going.  It's still super slow.  There are just so many other things to do!  I'd like to get this area done before school is out and then pause for the summer.)

However, it was a sleepy kind of day.  I still got many smaller things done that needed to be finished, but I didn't get the quilting area looked at.  Oh well.  There are still a few more weeks before school is out to finish.

Last night I went to bed only to discover Joshua was sleeping backwards on the bed.  Obviously.  He switched about an hour after I went to sleep.  I didn't think that he slept all that well, but today he said he slept really well.  

Bouquet

 Isaac picked a bunch of little flowers for me yesterday during Bible Study.

Weekend

Friday Ben stayed home from work and we celebrated our 18th anniversary.  We mostly did normal things, but we did them together.

Saturday we started the sprinklers.  It's always a fun time for the boys, but by the last zone Joshua was cold and they don't enjoy the stationary ones as well as the ones that move.  So Isaac ended up finding several of the hidden sprinklers in the last zone by himself!  It felt like a milestone, even though it's something we only need to do once a year.  The sprinklers went really smoothly this year...until the last one.  Isaac and I spent about 10 minutes looking for it before we finally found it.  I was about to give up, but really didn't want to call the sprinkler people just for one silly one.

Today Joshua and I finished a 300 piece puzzle that we've been working on for a few weeks.  It was the hardest puzzle I've done in a while, and it was only 300 pieces!  I ended up finding pieces that fit and giving them to Joshua one at a time.  I usually didn't even need to tell him what region it went to, but it was otherwise rather overwhelming.

Thursday: the day

Dad came over in the morning to help with a home improvement project and he managed to do two fixes in about fifteen minutes.  It was one of those wonderful times when the fixes weren't nearly as involved as I had been expecting.

Errands also went pretty quickly.  Groceries were short.  Last week I had a huge list and this week I had a nice short one.  The only thing out of stock is yogurt that the boys like.  They like assorted smooth yogurts, such as creamsicle, cookies and cream, and lemon.  The yogurts were mostly out last week too, so this week I found a honey flavor in a big tub.  We'll give it a try.

The boys had a half day of school, but we didn't go to the parade.  Honestly, they seemed like they could go either way and it was going to be hot.  (I also saw a Facebook post saying that it was super busy and if you didn't have seat reserved by early morning you weren't going to find any.)  I took a long nap instead.  The boys had some screen time, then some play time.  Then they played on the beach and I read in the hammock.  They don't really need my supervision at all; it's just a nice excuse to read.

Wednesday: Happy birthday!

Horizon and Tornado turned four today!

Tornado really seemed to be gloomy about it.  I barely saw him all day and even when he did show his face he seemed lethargic.

Joshua cared the most about this birthday and made them some houses.

Tornado, after being grumpy and trying to escape his birthday celebration saw the little house and went right in.  Zoom!  Such a good cat.