Weeks 34 & 35: School, swim, and stuff

Pictured from the last two weeks:

The aquarium. We lost a couple of fish (one each week) and are not really sure why. The kids took it well though, and we had very basic burials for them in the back yard. The tank seems good, we're not overfeeding, and the other fish seem to be thriving so we're not sure what happened. We'll probably try to get a few more in the coming weeks.

Charlotte had her first Girl Scout meeting, where we sang songs and did crafts and yoga. All levels meet together some weeks, and other times she and the other Daisies will split off to work on their own stuff. She loved it.

Thanks for all the birthday gifts!

We went to school open houses. It was our first time at the middle school where we met all of Zach's teachers and the next day visited Gabe's and Charlotte's classrooms.

We made slime again. No glitter this time (I'm still finding it around the house from last time). Gabe's specialty is making slime bubbles.

We went to the pool. The last Friday night they were open (before school started) was only about 75 degrees, and we were one of only three families who came. Frank and I did not go in.

Also the weekend before school started, Frank took the boys to a cub scout water event they have every year where the big attraction is a slip and slide. While they were at that Charlotte and I decided to sort some Legos (they've all been playing with them a lot), then it was time to visit the dance studio for sign-ups.

First day of school photos. Zach was excited to read me his schedule as soon as he got home the first day. And Charlotte birthday photo. She's very excited to have some of her friends over for a party in a couple weeks.

Pool again, for closing weekend, though Zach ended up having a cold and was feeling pretty miserable after only a short time. It was fun while it lasted! Goodbye, summer!

Weeks 32 & 33: The fish come home

Two weeks ago, on a Monday afternoon, the kids and I drove two hours in the van, along with our good friends from down the street and their mom (yay for eight seats!) to a birthday party at an incredibly fun water place. We spent five hours at Wonderland Waterpark at Ace Adventure Resort, floating, climbing, sliding, swimming, and digging in the sand. The kids really didn't want to leave. They were all pretty adventurous with the climbing! Charlotte also loved just floating/swimming around in the lake. And of course they enjoyed lots of friends video game/movie time in the car to and from the party.

Charlotte is the happy owner of a hand-me-down pink rose cottage, currently hanging out on the deck.

I decided we should take the time to thoroughly clean the porch. Frank helped me remember how to set up and use the pressure washer. We sprayed off the chair cushions, but they were in a pretty sad state after being outside for so many years, so I replaced them. Charlotte has been spending a lot of time out front doing chalk, bubbles, and scooter, insisting on my presence most of the time, so I needed somewhere clean and non-bug-infested to sit.

Now crossed off the kid to-do list for the year: make slime. It's not my favorite activity, but I let them finally use up some glue and a whole lotta glitter.

And we finally got a fish tank! After visiting multiple stores a few times and researching online we decided on all the parts and then had to acquire them. We had to order and wait for the stand. We had to set up the tank, condition the water, and run the filter for 24 hours. We had to figure out how to make the must-have treasure chest bubble more slowly (go Frank!). We had to go to three stores to find the glo-fish the kids wanted. Finally a few days ago everything came together, and now we have six fish that were active and entertaining the first day and have been less so since then. But they are ours, and the kids have enjoyed feeding them and assigning them personalities. There's Pencil, a yellow one, Jigglypuff (Pokemon), a peachy-pink one, Tiger, a red striped one, Blue Jay, a light blue one, Skeleton, a translucent one with a bit of dark blue, and Clefairy (Pokemon), a hot pink one.

Originally Charlotte had wanted to name her pink ones Pinky 1 and Pinky 2, but she became really unhappy when I said "Let's not have names with numbers." It was a disagreement the whole way home. Then when Zach suggested the Pokemon character names she was suddenly fine with them.

I think we've got Gabe's room/guest suite all set up (for now at least). He really wanted an unconventional arrangement of his bed floating in the middle of the room so we just went with it, even though I think it would seem roomier basically any other way. It's set up like there's a little hallway into the room, there's the Lego table, pulled out with more room to sit at it, the guest bed corner, and Gabe's apartment. It's kind of funny that he has the biggest room but the least belongings.

Week 31: The great room swap

Last week was the first time in a while that we had almost nothing going on, and the kids came up with a way to fill that time. After some discussion we decided that Zach could move into the guest room, and the guest bed etc. could go into the big room with Gabe. We spent most of the week cleaning and organizing as we moved things around. Zach is super excited to have his own space (as is Gabe--photos of his rearranged room coming soon!) Charlotte took forever to clean her room while this was going on, but as always she comes through eventually.

We also took Zach to the track to work on a Boy Scout fitness requirement, picked up glasses, got haircuts, went to the pool at least twice, ate at Chili's, looked at fish tanks, and went to Sweet Frog. Also, Charlotte is officially signed up for Girl Scouts! Meetings start in a couple weeks. We're trying to get the most out of summer, but I'm bustling around in the background trying to get us organized for the start of school.