Last Sunday: piano recital

Last Sunday Isaac had his piano recital.  It was at an outdoor park, but there was nice seating and it wasn't too hot.

We didn't invite anyone to join us since we wanted to quickly head up to Mackinaw afterwards.  I found a motel about 10 minutes from Mackinaw city that was surprisingly nice for the price.  There were some canoes/kayaks/paddle boats that we could have used along with corn hole.  We played a few rounds before bed.

Thursday: hike

We went for our first "hike" of the season today.  It wasn't super long, but it was nice.

We had testing at karate this evening.  Everyone passed, as passing is the default.  Joshua will be taking a break for the next few months.

Saturday: VBS

The worst part about VBS is that the songs get stuck in your head.  There are good songs this year, but the parts I don't ...resonate with as much... are of course the parts in my head.  It's annoying.

I also bought some new sandals.  The old ones were holding together by a thread.  Almost literally.

Last night Joshua decided he needed to sleep on the couch.  He was willing to sleep in his room if there was a partition up around his bed because apparently otherwise his room is creepy.*  Well, the thumbtacks finally all fell out and I don't want to put more holes in the ceiling.  I told him he could sleep on the couch if he couldn't handle it, and he quickly took me up on the offer, unfortunately.  (I was hoping we could just be done with the whole creepy bedroom attitude.)  So today we worked on a new system.  It's still pretty cobbled together with sticks, zip ties, an old baby food container, and the tacks, but I'm a bit more optimistic about it.  (The tacks go into a tack board this time, so it was a better solution.)  Two of the three poles I think will hold well while the third might slip down.  We'll deal with that later as needed.

*When the boys separated bedrooms last time...maybe three months ago?...we had some issues with Joshua sleeping in the loft because it was creepy.  So I hung up a sheet around his bed using thumbtacks put into the ceiling.  They've slowly been coming out, but held up longer than I was expecting.

Friday: VBS

Today was the last day of VBS.  It ended well, but I was not very excited about it today.  Isaac and I were in a few of the pictures posted on-line, but it was just our shoulders and our heads were hidden.  So they wouldn't be very interesting pictures.

Thursday: craft

VBS went well again today.  I have a great group of kids.  They participate during lesson time, they're excited for the memory work game, and can be trusted to get themselves from one spot to the next.

However, their coolness was seen even more today during the craft.  They were decorating crosses with some plastic tiles, and of course everyone is trying to make a pattern and needs specific shapes and colors.  I saw many of them help each other out.  Isaac even took a few tiles off his cross to give to someone, because he didn't care about the exact color of his tiles.  (Although he did have select colors that he was using.)

Honestly though, I thought Isaac's cross was the best of the group.  I like the color and shape randomness.  (It isn't a great picture of his cross, but it's the only one I have.)

In other news, Tornado has been spotted on Isaac's lap several times lately.  His lap must suddenly be large enough to be comfortable.

Wednesday: swimming lessons

The boys had their first swimming lessons today.  Joshua made it about halfway across the lap pool ( so 13m of 25m?) swimming without help right away!  And I thought he couldn't swim.  They are with the same teacher at the same time this year and I think it helped Joshua.  He actually said that he enjoyed swimming lessons, even though in the past he hasn't liked them at all!  Isaac has liked swimming lessons for a while, so that was normal.

The sad thing is that our normal teacher got a promotion and will only be able to do two of the five lessons.  She recommended a few others, but the time frames just really didn't work well for us so we went with a different teacher that I'm sure will be good too.

Tuesday: VBS day 2

Well, there were some pictures on Facebook about VBS this afternoon, but they've disappeared this evening.  The day went fine.  I got a whole bunch of cool teacher points because I stood on the chairs like the kids.  (We're the last row of kids, so while there are a few helpers behind us I don't feel too bad about blocking their view.)

I got a several chores done today too, but I'm trying to resign myself that's it's ok to perpetually have clean laundry in the basket and a mess in the house this summer.  I mean, it'll get cleaned up eventually.  Most of the important things are getting finished.  Mostly.

The pictures showed back up!

My group:

Joshua's group

This one is "find Isaac and Amanda"