Thursday: rocks

All morning we played rocks.  Both children had a rock.  Each rock had a baby.  Isaac's rock pooped a lot.  They loved it.  I put up with it...I could at least get some work done at the same time.

Below is the picture of the rocks family.

Friday: success

I brought the kids to a playground for a bit this morning.  Isaac was doing some monkey bars under a bridge and half way through he decided that he wanted to be on the bridge.  So he just climbs up the ropes on the bridge and got over.  I watched him do all this, rather amazed.

The kids don't love cats in their bedrooms (for somewhat good reasons), but their rooms get rather stuffy in the summer if the doors are closed.  We're using the old crib pieces to try and keep the cats out while still keeping costs free.  (Update: Horizon jumped the gate.  We've now put up the long side of the crib, and it goes up to Isaac's shoulders.)

I successfully donated blood!  I haven't tried for a while because the close location does their drives on Friday, and I couldn't do that and black belt boot camp on the same day.  I had also pretty much just decided not to do it anymore because I only had about a 60% success rate.  But here I was, trying again.  They had to slightly move the needle at one point because my blood was flowing slowly, but everything else went smoothly.  I signed up again.  It helps me take my vitamins.

Wednesday: normal day

It was a pretty normal day today.  We picked blueberries in the morning.  Thankfully, their ice cream machine was working this time.

Isaac went rock climbing.  We were playing a take-away game and it was so fun to watch him figure out new ways to get up the routes as holds kept "disappearing."  In the picture below he was making amazing use of the opposite wall, but there were several times I looked at him and wasn't really sure how he wasn't falling down.

The kids are still doing a good job with decluttering and I am getting behind in the sorting...so the boxes are just piling up.  Oh well...I can always deal with them once school starts.  I'm still really proud of how much they're removing from their rooms.

Tuesday: birthday party

 Joshua said that he wanted a friend birthday party this year.  I told him we were going to request no gifts and he was fine with that.  We ended up asking two kids over (a third I wasn't able to connect with).  We put up some streamers.  We bought a cake - he said it didn't even need to have anything written on it.

It was the easiest birthday party ever.  And I was so thankful for that.

Monday: Sandy Pines

We went to visit Uncle Lee and Aunt Susan today in our yearly visit.  As always, we had lots of fun.  I didn't take as many pictures this time though.

We started with mini golf.  Isaac did a nice job.  Joshua started the holes well, but after about three shots didn't care any more and just got it in.  Then we went around to some playgrounds: most were a hit.  We had a good lunch.

We went swimming!  The air was actually a rather nice temp, so while we swam for about 45 min it wasn't super long either.  The slide was fun.  The kids were shivering by the time we got out.

We made a stop for ice cream before going home.  Aunt Susan gave us some pretty flowers and Joshua was excited to hold them on the way home.  Unfortunatly, he fell asleep.  Some of the water spilled out, although I don't think it was too bad.  The flowers were given to Isaac and I'm pretty sure Joshua fell back asleep.  I crashed for a short nap once we got home and had a hard time convincing myself to get up to make dinner.

Friday: birthday

Today was Joshua's birthday!  We ended up going to Dutch Village.  It was my idea, but Joshua was happy to do it as long as he got stroopwaffles.  I didn't go last year and there were several changes that have happened recently.

The first change was that the kids get a free, homemade stroopwaffle!  They gave Joshua an extra because it was his birthday.  We started out at the ferris wheel, like normal.  The line is slow, and if we get there right away we can usually go twice without getting off.

Next we did the swings.  It was the favorite ride and we did several sets of the ride.  Again, it wasn't busy enough that we had to get off in between rides.  While on the swings I realized the duck pumpers were gone.  That was a bit sad; they were always fun.  The zip line was also gone and the train playground moved to the zipline area.  That was probably a good move; I never saw anyone on the zipline.

A goat!  The babies are so cute.  The barn burned down recently and a new one is being built.  The duck pumpers were also gone.

A new ride was slow-carts.  They weren't terrible, but they were slow.  This was a new thing again and probably only worth it if the line isn't too long.  

Then the making of, and more importantly, eating of the stroopwaffle.  Isaac made Joshua's second one a bit later as we were about to leave because Joshua really didn't want to make it.

A quick break for the playground.  Joshua went sloooooowly down the pole while Isaac managed to climb up it.

One carousel ride.

Joshua did the pumper cars.  Isaac was too tall.

They tried to walk together.  There was a lot of laughter.

And lastly, the kids were found to be witches while I was found to be innocent.

Everyone had a good time, although I do think that Isaac is getting a little old for it.  He was a good sport though, and enjoyed the time he was there.  Next year I could probably get away with just buying some stroopwaffles.

Sunday: life

We had some friends over today.  It meant cleaning the house, and Joshua and I had a hard time with it.  We learned about each other, apologized, and will try better next time.

I also need to remember that food helps.  When he was finally ready to talk I gave him the spoon for the brownie mix and he said that was the best part of his day.