Summer!

And so it begins.

Summer vacation.

I do not fear it anymore. I have resigned myself to accept the change in...in...everything. Absolutely everything.

The first few weeks are the hardest, of course, as we all adjust to being around each other a lot more with less to occupy our minds and hearts. I imagine retirement is a little like this.

DAY ONE

Take that, Summer Reading Program!

Robert builds a castle out of books in the middle of the living room. Alice dashes off to try swim team with friends. James likes having a few more people to play with. Matthew has toileting accidents. Kids grow tired of each other and bother each other nonstop. Bickering, hurt feelings, explosive tempers, and no quiet time. We try to move a thousand pounds of rocks into our backyard (no joke), but it's slow going and I am wasted from all the rocks I moved the day before.

DAY TWO

The neighborhood kids come over and play all day with the kids. We move some rocks, do some gardening chores, and play, play, play. That night, Erin arrives! Family morale lifts immediately (Erin has that kind of effect on us).

DAY THREE
We haul more rocks, but the kids are actually happy about it now that Erin is around. Bobby does most of the heavy lifting this time. And when we've moved enough rocks, we begin this:

Simple beginnings. Strong foundation.

An 80sq ft club house (with additional loft). The rocks make up its foundation. It's a gift from Erin, who has come out to help us build it and break it in. Last summer, when we went to the lake with Erin and my parents, an idea was born. Erin and the kids talked about a club house they could play in together and camp out in. This is the end product of that dreaming. The kids earned money to help pay for it. They've been involved in every step they could. Our generous neighbors have donated rocks and paint and other supplies.

It's been a full time job for three adults to manage the kids and build the playhouse over Memorial Day weekend. I'll post more about the process later. We are 80% done today and it's beautiful and fun and just exactly what we've all been hoping for. Tomorrow, they will paint and we'll put on the finishing touches. Can't wait to show you more!

First Carrot Harvest

I planted two types of carrots this spring: baby carrots and regular carrots.

Okay, okay, stop laughing.

Growing baby carrots was an experiment. Those perfect bags of miniature carrots all washed and peeled for me, ready to eat, have been my veggie go-to ever since I first allowed myself to purchase such a luxury. It turns out that "baby carrots" are actually fully grown carrots, not babies. They're just a variety that's been bred to be really, really little.

And here is our spring baby carrot crop:

James got to pick the first few by himself. We had to save the rest of the picking for when Alice and Robert got home from school.

Mmmmm. Slugs.

We washed and prepped all of them at once. The peels were so thin that I couldn't tell if they came off in the scrubbing or not. Didn't matter. The carrots were yummy. All the kids tried a few. The root texture was more tender than the store variety, but the flavor was not as sweet. And it was distinctly more carroty-tasting. In a good way, I think.

Do you see their funky shapes? These carrots were planted indoors and transplanted outdoors when they were already a few weeks old. That extra effort got us a crop of carrots in May, but my amateur transplanting technique shaped almost every root into a J. Ha ha haaa!

I'm guessing our full-sized carrots will have a similar shape.

I'm also wondering if I could spell my name in carrots next time. Maybe try a whole alphabet?

Little Kid, Big Watering Can

Matthew helped me water some new transplants today. Totally boring, kinda stressful, until I stood back and watched this teeny little kid lugging a big watering can around. He can barely lift a quart or so. Made me smile. Took a video. Or two.

Preschool Program

Our preschool always has a year-end "Moving On and Moving Up" Program. They keep it short and to the point, which I appreciate, because my kids are only sitting still for the cookies afterwards :)

James, James, James. This boy is something else. The line order was arranged by the teachers and James just happened to be front and center this time. I was curious to see how he would cope with so many eyes on him.

True to third-kid fashion, this is the only picture we captured of the evening. James is in there, I promise.

Well, he turned into a goofball.

The kids sang a few of their favorite songs from the preschool year. I had heard James singing almost all of these to himself at some point over the year, so I knew he knew the words, but he opted for the gaping codfish approach. He did the hand gestures like the other kids, but instead of singing, he just gaped his mouth wide open and closed for each word. Total goof ball.

That is, until the song "The Fruit of the Spirit" which seems to be one of his favorites. Then he sang along swimmingly. Ms. Rohrer asked the kids to sing especially loud for that one, and James was ALL over that.

I dunno. I feel like once I get a pretty good idea of who James is, he changes a little and I can't predict what he'll do anymore. Maybe I just haven't really figured him out yet. Anyway, he likes to be silly. He likes to be sneaky. He likes a good practical joke. Just the other day, he and Matthew were playing near a patch of wild yellow flowers near the big garden. James told Matthew to hike up his really long shorts and walk right through the middle of the patch. It turns out, the plants have little pokey hairs all over them and James was trying to get Matthew to experience them for himself. Little stinker. I do hope James stops pulling those pranks before he loses Matthew's trust entirely.

After the singing, each of the kids was invited in turn to get a certificate and a prize while Ms. Rohrer announced where the child would be going next year and what he/she wanted to be as an adult. James will be returning to Wee Disciples for another year and he wants to grow up to be Batman.

James came to sit with us, certificate and prize in-hand. All smiles, all glee, all happy with himself. James is one of those kids whose eyes truly do "sparkle" with pure glee and/or the trickiest tricksterness. When Ms. Rohrer said we would be praying over the refreshments with the "Superman Prayer", James totally lit up...*sparkle*...let's see if I can remember it right...

Superman Prayer
(roughly to the theme of Superman)

Thank you God for giving us food.
Thank you God for giving us food.
For the food that we eat,
And the friends that we meet,
Thank you, thank you God...
For giving us food.
(dun dun dun duuun duuuun dun dun dun duuuuuuun dun)
Amen


Of course, James changed "meet" in the fourth line to "eat" and looked up at me with that big, pebble-toothed grin *sparkle*

*sigh*

Love this kid to bits. To bursting, actually. He's a mystifying little ball of prankster sometimes. A lot of the time. But his love and attachment to me is so, so deep and so, so real that I'm obviously biased. Perhaps if he didn't hold me in such high regard, I would have less patience for his shenanigans ;)

Watermelon Bubbles

Yup, I live with a bunch of crazies. This one is snorkeling in his watermelon: