Squirrels

This morning, Christie and I took the boys to the splash pad and playground. When the boys started eating a snack, the squirrels got pretty interested in us!

Having a bit of a sandwich

Trying out some goldfish crackers

One little guy hid his fish at the base of the tree. I am using "hid" very loosely here.

Resting before coming down for some more

Taking snacks back to the tree

They ate and ate and ate! We watched them for quite a while and might have stayed longer, but a bird pooped on my back. The boys found great amusement in this; me, not so much!

Goin' Ape

Jack had zoo class last Saturday afternoon--the theme was monkeys, apes, and gorillas. All of the kids got these creepy ape masks. Yippee!

Jack with his ape puppet

Eating like a monkey

We also got to go out and see some of these guys.

It was about 100 degrees Saturday afternoon and it was definitely taking a toll. Normally Jack is running all over the place at the zoo, but this time he actually wanted to stop and rest a few times.

We have to cancel our spot in next month's class since we'll be out of town, so hopefully by the next time we go it will not be so hot!

Ice Cream in a Bag

Last week the library had an ice cream program where the kids got to make their own ice cream. Jack enjoyed it enough that we tried it again at home this weekend.

Shaking

Taste testing

It must have been good!

Ice Cream in a Bag

*1/2 cup sugar
*1 cup whipping cream
*1 cup cold milk
*egg substitute equivalent to one egg
*1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add all ingredients together in a quart-sized freezer bag. Seal the top and knead to mix the ingredients. Place in a gallon-sized freezer bag along with rock salt and ice; seal bag. Take turns shaking the bag until the ice cream hardens.

And the Winner Is...

Denise! And conveniently enough, she lives just a few miles from me, so I'll run them by this week!

Summer Reading: Update & Giveaway

Ms. Kim is going to have to start lifting some serious weights in preparation for next summer. As I took a picture of her helping Jack put his name on the reading goal bulletin board this morning, I realized this was becoming an annual thing:

2006

2007

2008

He was more than a little excited. This year he read 50 new books, which took us quite a while since he likes to read the same books over and over.

And onto the giveaway....This time I am including something for all ages. For the littles, there is Caps for Sale.
For kids who are a little older, there is Ruby Holler, by Sharon Creech (who wrote my most favorite children's book ever, Walk Two Moons).
And for adults, there's Before You Kindness, by Chris Bohjalian. This doesn't have the end twist like Midwives or The Double Bind, but it's still a pretty good read.

If you would like to win these books, just leave a comment on this post telling us about your favorite book--it can be any type of book you want. Post your comment by midnight Sunday night and I will draw a winner. Good luck!

Old Friends

Saturday night we were able to get together with some friends from high school--or actually middle school, in some cases. Other than my initial panic over the fact that we were meeting at a restaurant with "sushi" in the name, I had a wonderful time.

Present day: Sara, Eli, Steve, Alicia, Jay

1994: How cute is it that Sara and Eli still have the same pose?

1994: Alicia in English

1994: Jay (I thought I'd better include a nice old picture since his face is blurry in the new one.)

As I was downloading the pictures from this weekend, I realized I had never posted about some old friends I got to see about a month and a half ago...

Our church's high school choir took a trip every summer. My freshman year we went to Washington, D.C.; my sophomore year we went on a prison tour (yes, I said prison); my junior year we went to Alaska; my senior year we went to California. There was so much hard work that went into these trips for all of us kids, so you know it must have been insane for the person who was in charge, but Brother Charles always looked like he was having as much fun as we were.

1991: On the steps of the Senate building with David Boren (Okay, wearing these pink shirts definitely was not fun.)

1993: Brother Charles on the bus in Alaska

Brother Charles retired in June, and as a surprise, many of us from his old youth choirs showed up and sang some of the songs from long ago--songs we could probably sing even if we had been in a coma for ten years and remembered nothing else. It was a wonderful time to get to see him and many friends I hadn't seen in a while.

With Brother Charles and his wife, Linda

1992: At Laura's birthday party

With Laura in June

1986?: Ready to go to camp with Rachel

With Rachel in June

With Chad in June (I know I have some pictures of him at Universal Studios about 15 years ago, but I am not sure Jay wants me in there hunting for them while he tried to sleep, so maybe those will appear on another post.)

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."
-- C.S. Lewis

We Made It!

We made it through one whole week of Dinosaur Camp! This morning Jack was up at 5:55, so I knew he was going to get tired early. When it was time to leave for class he said, "We're going again today? Did the teachers say we had to?" He has had a great time, but he's definitely not up for the every day thing yet!

Going on a dinosaur hunt

Triceratops puppets

They even got a special treat at the end of class!

After class was over we spent some more time in the museum and then headed over to the splash pad. Since we're going out of town tonight I told Jack we would just rest for a bit, and after about five minutes, this happened:

So you know he was tired!

Days 3 & 4

I forgot to download pictures yesterday, so here's the rundown of the last two days in dinosaur class:

Playing "Dino, Dino, SUPER CROC!" This is highly entertaining to watch 4 year olds play.

With the stegosaurus he painted

Seeing how strong eggs are when they're sitting with the pointy ends down

"Yucky" mache

More games!

Some of the class--it's not easy to get ten 4 year olds to stay still in one spot!

Tomorrow is our last day!

The Sidebar

I have finally updated the sidebar a little! Since I got some new books at the library tonight I decided to change the book lists on the side, and if I can ever think of anything to write about myself, I may even add the "About Me" section back in. I will also be removing the blog links soon since I use Google Reader now to check for updates, so if you use the links from here and don't have them marked, you've got a few days to get them saved!

The Longest Day

I think today was the longest day ever. Jack woke up at 6:00 ready to go, because, "Look, Mom! It's mo'nin'!" (If you haven't heard this word in real life, it's "morning," but it's said, "moanin.") So we get up. Monday I planned everything out and then realized I had forgotten about breakfast, so I was happy that at least there would be time to eat, and probably time to spare.

Ha. Ha.

As I was making Jack's bed, I discovered that the cat had thrown up on it. I have no clue when he could have done this since I am not really a heavy sleeper, but there it was. Time for laundry load #1. Then I go to make breakfast and realize that the rest of the peaches need to be cut and frozen--now, before those tiny gnats overtake us all. So I cook pancakes while peeling peaches. And then I start laundry load #2. Somewhere in there I also do my hair and makeup, put dinner in the crock pot, make our bed, track down about 32 library books, and pack the pool bag. We left for class at 9:00 and I was already sweaty.

Class was fun:

After class we went to the mall to play, had lunch, shopped, went to the splash pad, went to storytime, and picked up some macaroni salad for Jay's picnic tomorrow. By the time we got home it was 3:45, which I really think is our longest day out. I don't know how people do this on a regular basis!

At 4:00 I had the bright idea to mow the lawn. About 4:30 I realized it was way too hot to be doing that, but I was committed. I ended up having dinner in my pjs and almost falling asleep when I was putting Jack to bed, but all in all I think we did pretty well for our big day.

And tomorrow we're coming home right after class!

Dinosaur Day Camp

We survived the first day of our week of Dinosaur Day Camp. This may not seem like a daunting task to most, but I have not been required to be anywhere for five days in a row since I left Grace Abbott on May 28, 2004. That's over four years, people! Four years!

Jack jumped right in and had a great time. His favorite things from today were going in the museum when it was closed to everyone else and holding some dinosaur poop. It's right up a four-year-old's alley.

Digging for some fossils

Painting

Walking like dinosaurs

Tomorrow is a long day for us since we will be switching our library time this week. Dinner is prepped for the crock pot in the morning and I am hopeful that we will make it through the next four days without any major meltdowns from either of us. Check back on Friday to see!