Monday: birthday party

Today was the birthday party with the Grandparents, but there were several things to do first.

We picked blueberries for the party.  It was the best blueberry picking I've ever had.  The berries were big and plentiful.  Isaac picked more than I did!  We got 2.5 buckets in 30 minutes.

We picked up the desserts: Crumbl Cookies for Joshua and an ice cream cake for Isaac.  Turns out, if you go on Monday you get twice the options at Crumbl because they're finishing up last week's options too.

Then we cleaned a bit.  Joshua had started a little cleaning before I woke up, but everyone put in a good 30 minutes.  Joshua and I were hungry, so we had lunch on the early side.

After nap time/screen time I felt on top of life.  I did a little more cleaning, but also finished the globe puzzle.  This puzzle summer has been interesting: the kids are happy to help at the beginning and end, but not in the middle (or for hard parts).  That's ok.  I'll take what I can get.  Anyway, I stuck my hand in the globe to help put in some pieces and Joshua found it really funny.

Since we were on top of life and, Joshua especially, had helped so much without being asked, I let Joshua do a baking powder volcano that he's been asking about.  I originally told him Tuesday, but he was happy to do it today.  The day of the party can be hard because you can't make a mess and you're just waiting.  He did most of the prep and clean up by himself, so it was a win for everyone.

Finally!  Party time.  The cats were being rather territorial over this box.

Joshua got several 10s.  Some candy, keychains, and $1 coins for his 10th birthday.  

Ben and I got each kid some assorted Lego and a UV flashlight.  Several of the Legos glowed under the light, but the light was a hit overall!  They were bringing it all over the house to see what would react and there were some weird discoveries.  (Like one leg of a minifigure glowing and not the other).

(The kids don't love having the same birthday party, but it can be hard getting everyone together in the summer.  The only reason they 'allow' it is because they can each have their own birthday dessert.)

Weekend: date weekend

Dad and Pat took the boys up to the cottage this weekend and they had a great time.

Ben and I spent the weekend at a B&B in Grandville.  Sure, it's not very far away, but if we stay at home I tend to putz around with chores.  I usually relax plenty too, but it's a different mindset when I'm away from home.

The B&B (PraireSide Inn, or something like that) was lovely.  There were lots of thoughtful touches that made the place especially lovely.  The only downside(s) were that our breakfasts, brought to us in our rooms, were on the smaller side.  It was probably the right portion size, but I was hoping for a slightly larger breakfast.  

We did a lot of reading.  Our room was especially cold the first evening we got there, so we went out by the mini pool.  The hydrangeas smelled amazing.

Saturday we finally made it to Bricks and Minifigs in Grand Rapids.  It was a great store!  As expected, there was a pick-a-brick table and we probably spent at least an hour looking through the pieces finding good ones.  The thrill of the hunt was so fun!  I went around the table about three times, and on the third time I was still finding cool pieces that I had missed earlier.

We had Indian buffet for lunch.  We don't have it very often because there isn't one in Holland and it's a bit on the spicy side for me.  But we both found items that we enjoyed and tried several new things too.

Family pictures

 Last month we had our family pictures taken.  So here's the overload, in no particular order:

Now to decide which to actually print - a much harder thing to do!

Thursday: busy day

After bringing Joshua to camp, Isaac and I biked to the donut place.  Upon our return, Isaac started up on his cross-stitch project.  Usually he sits at the table, but Tornado was in his chair so he stood.  

Isaac and I went rock climbing while Aunt C hung out with Joshua.  I had a pretty good day - I made it half way up a VB+ that I previously couldn't start, I flashed (finished on the first try) a V0, got farther on a 5.8 with weird holds, attempted some dynamic jumps with Isaac's guidance, and did a short V1 in the alcove.

In karate we worked on the other bo staff form that we need to know.  The teacher asked us what we wanted to do and after waiting a bit and no one else speaking up, I spoke up.  I would have been happy to let someone else choose, but if no one was going to choose then I would.  Anyway, the form isn't too hard, but I had never gotten through the whole thing well before.  So that was nice.

Then, I won at Space Base!  It's been a while.

Wednesday: reading

 I got home from picking up Joshua and found Isaac reading his book while eating his lunch.  It made me happy.  

Tuesday: 10x

Today wasn't quite as productive as yesterday, but I still got some stuff done.

I did a lot of driving.  I went through one intersection 10 times, between drop-offs and pick-ups.  I was planning on it for this week; having both kids in a camp the same week is nice, but it does involve a lot of driving.

Isaac and I went rock climbing after dinner.  Isaac finished his first V5 route and was pretty excited.

Monday: accomplished

Today I accomplished stuff.  I wasn't really expecting to: I was expecting it to be a normal summer day where I lament about what I'm not doing and do the fun stuff instead.

Joshua had rock climbing camp in the morning.  I gave Isaac an excellent book on a kindle and he read more than I was expecting today.  It's his first time reading on a kindle and it's a great book so I'm not sure why I expected anything different.  He did take a break to play Forbidden Desert with me.  It's a co-op game and we cheated so hard in order to win.  I'm not really sure how anyone is ever supposed to win those.  But it was fun.

This afternoon Isaac had pottery camp.  Joshua decided to rearrange his room during this time, so he was well occupied.  He needed a little bit of help actually moving things, but there's some cleaning that goes along with the rearranging.  He'll need to finish up tomorrow.  This kept him occupied well.

And so, I worked on my to do list.  I finished a few things I had been putting off.  I finished more than I had even been hoping to finish.  I have high hopes for tomorrow, but we'll see what actually happens.

I also had karate this evening and it was a pretty normal class.  Afterwards, they started talking about all the requirements going into the next recertification.  It took me a while, but the terminology is a bit weird.  It isn't a recertification as in 'if you don't do this you won't be certified' it's more 'now you're 1/4 the way through your current black belt level'.  Anyway, I was freaking out a bit.  Half of the requirements I either don't remember well or haven't learned.  There was additional time to required to help with classes.  Mentorship.  Oof.  However, I got pulled aside at the very end and told that those don't necessarily apply to me.  Adults get a measure of freedom - and I was so relieved.  Now, I still might wait to do the recertification as I'm not in a rush to get the second degree black belt.  I'll still look at my schedule to see where I might be able to help out with some classes once fall comes around, but it's nice knowing it isn't mandatory.