The Big No-Kid Anniversary Weekend

This past weekend, David and I left the kids with my parents and headed to the town of Saugatuck, on the shores of Lake Michigan.  It. was. amazing.  We spent most of the first night grinning and saying over and over again, "Can you believe we're here WITHOUT kids?!?"

By Saturday morning, we had quickly acclimated to being without kids and spent the day walking through Saugatuck and drinking a LOT of wine (in 1/2 oz samples) at the Fenn Valley Winery festival.

We also got a tour of the vineyard and learned about some of the crazy contraptions they use on the vineyard.

In the evening, after another fabulous meal (calories, schmalories!) we spent two hours hiking along the shoreline and then watched a gorgeous sunset.

And all weekend long we ate like there was no such thing as a food allergy.  If it had real butter or eggs or nuts in it (or better yet, all three!!!), we ordered it.  And frequently photographed it, so we could later reminisce.  "Remember that one time, at the B&B, how we ate blueberry pancakes?  With real butter?  Or that time I had ice cream?  REAL ice cream?  With pecans in it?"

We returned to pick up the kids to find that my parents had run the kids ragged (and vice versa!) with trips to parks, baseball in the yard, bike riding and more. 

And they had missed us, and we had missed them, but that perfect amount of missing -- enough that you are happy to be reunited but not so much that you would change any of it.  It was a fantastic weekend that left me feeling so lucky to be married to a phenomenal guy, to have these two incredible kids and to have awesome parents who let us get away from our two incredible kids for a little while!

Cameron Writes

For his recent graduation from kindergarten, Cameron was given a Dr. Seuss book called "A Book About Me."  The first day of summer vacation, he woke up anxious to work on it.  For hours, he counted his freckles, he reflected upon his favorite foods, he considered his future.  Much of the contents of the completed book were no surprise to me -- I know the kid fairly well, it turns out.  But on a few pages, his answers were unexpected.  Like this one.

He's fairly literal, it appears.

Some of his answers were so, so "Cameron, age 6" that I could hardly stand it.  I think this page is my favorite.  It reads "When I Grow Up, I Want to Be Legomaker."  I also love that, in the list of possible career choices, Cameron crosses one out.  It said "Indian," and right above it is the ever-popular career choice of "cowboy."  Cameron explained his editing to me quite heatedly.  "Can you believe they put 'Indian' here?  Indian?  First of all, they prefer to be called Native Americans.  And second of all, uhhh, it's not like you can grow up and be like, 'Oh, I want to be a Native American.' They're real people!"  I love that kid so much. 

He's so awesome. 

For my birthday, I found this on my pillow.

It reads Y YOW YON YOU ARE THE BEtSt MOM YOU CAN HAV tIhS

His spelling is usually a bit better, but he did this in his bunk bed after we thought he was asleep.  And that's an honest to goodness Susan B. Anthony folks.  No quarters on MY birthday!  Cameron keeps asking me what I'm going to spend it on, flummoxed by my answer that I am going to keep it forever.

Whew.

Golly, it's been a while!  Where have I been?  Well, let's see.  After my last post, we went to Michigan to visit with my grandparents.  My grandparents got to see all of their great-grandkids at once!  We had a wonderful time.  Cameron played in the water and Matthew spent the day working on his fast ball.

The boy has an ARM!

Then, we came back home and my week of chaos fun began.  Here are some photos from the week.

Fishing, bowling, hiking, putt-putt and more!  Oh my, there are so many funny stories from this week!  So many adventures!  So many memories!  You should have heard what Matthew said!  And you wouldn't believe what Cameron did!

But me?  I can't tell you any of it.  David stayed home with the boys this week. And me?  This is what I did.

Okay, so I've got a photo of scooping work for my Practical Life album.  Shoot, is that a drop of water on the table?  Where the heck did that come from?  Okay, stay calm, that's fine.  I'll just crop it out.  Augh!  The beans are in the bucket on the right!  They're supposed to be on the left!  Left to right, indirect preparation for writing.  Dang it.  Can I turn the photo over so the beans look like they're on the left?  Oh, shoot, that would make the ladle look like it was handle up instead of handle down.  ARRRGGHHHH!!!  Where's my notebook?  To do:  Take new photo of bean scooping work.  BEANS ON LEFT.

I started training to become a certified Montessori teacher and this week was our intensive.  All day, every day, ending with a miserable drive home in rush hour traffic with a broken air conditioner.  I had Montessori dreams at night, when I finally went to bed after reading and lesson planning and journaling.  It's been a long time since I had those kinds of dreams.  Like when I was taking physics.  Or calculus, oh, the calculus dreams!  At least Montessori dreams don't involve derivatives but let me tell you, you CAN have a nightmare about table scrubbing.  The basin, the bucket, the scrub brush . . . oooh, I get panicky just thinking about it.

Good news is, despite being exhausted, I loved it all and am really excited about this new direction.  And the boys had the best week ever with the best daddy ever -- just in time for Father's Day!

Mr. Clean

On our first official day of summer vacation, I offered the boys a long list of fun activities.  We could go to the pool!  We could go to the museum!  The zoo!  The park!  No, no, no.  They just weren't interested in any of the options I gave so, vexed, I said, "OK, you two can sit around and do nothing all day if that's what you want.  I'm going to clean the floors."

"Oooh!  Oooh!  Me!" shouted Matthew, waving his hand in the air as if he were channeling Hermione Granger.  "Can I clean the floor?  Please?"

In a word? 

Yes. 

Yes, you can clean the floor.

But if you want to scrub the toilets you'll have to be reaalllyyy reaalllyyy good.

PRIVATE! KEEP OUT!

Cameron has started keeping a journal, which warms this writer's heart.  He decorated the cover, used the first few pages to write some stories and draw some pictures, and then decided to make it a "private journal."  Each night, he retrieves the private journal from it's hiding place, writes the date and then records the events of the day.  Occasionally, he climbs down the ladder of the bunk bed and finds me to ask something like, "How do you spell 'Memorial?'" 

He's quite proud of his private journal, and shows me his private entries every morning.  Earlier this week he suggested that he might take his private journal to school and read the class a few of his private entries for news time.  "That would be fine," I told him, "except a private journal is not really private if you read it out loud to your kindergarten class."

"Ahhhh," he replied, tapping his chin as he considered this.  "You have a point.  Maybe I'll share my rock collection instead.  Hey!  Do you want to read what I wrote in my private journal last night?"

More than Expected

Lady at store, to Matthew:  My, you are a BIG boy!
Matthew:  Thank you.  Actually, my daddy is VERY big.  He is bigger than me.  But I am getting stronger and stronger!

Things You Don't Have to Tell Me

3:37am

Matthew:  Moooommmmyyyy!!!  Moooommmmyyy!
Me:  What Matthew?
Matthew:  I'm soooo tired.

Time to Limit the Juice

Cameron:  Mommy, isn't it interesting that I'm a Tropical Blend?
Me:  What?
Cameron:  I'm a Tropical Blend!
Me:  What do you mean?
Cameron:  Weeellll, Daddy's family is from Ireland, right?
Me:  Well, some of his ancestors were from Ireland.
Cameron:  And are YOUR ancestors from Ireland?
Me:  No, my family is Polish and . . .
Cameron:  SEE!  I'm a Tropical Blend!

A blend, yes.  Tropical?  Not so much.