Spots of Time

Star Gazing

It was a late night for the four of us last night, but I think it was all for a good cause.  We took the girls to a local observatory, which has a huge computerized telescope that is housed in one of those fancy shmancy rotating roof buildings. We've been trying to make this trip for six weeks now, but every time we have been able to go it has rained.  Fortunately last night was clear and beautiful, and afforded some amazing views.

I was truly impressed with the telescope; we were able to check out some nebulae and star clusters that our own in-house telescope would never even come close to capturing.  The girls particularly loved the dumbbell nebula, which is basically a big dumbbell shaped mass filled with dust and gas.  For some reason that combination of features really captured their attention.  This was the only picture I was able to snap inside the building, and I had to do it quickly while the "stellar tour guide" was working on something else (I didn't want to interrupt the stargazing).

 

  MJ brought her "star binoculars" along so we could do a little exploration of our own.  Since this observatory is down on the coast, there are very little lights to interfere with stargazing, and as I'm sure you know, that means the stars are clearer and brighter.  We got great views of both the moon and jupiter just with the binoculars.

 

Originally we were only going to stay until 10 or so, but we had so much fun we ended up hanging around until almost midnight.  We felt bad tucking the kids in so late, especially since we all had to get up at six this morning to take our church youth group canoeing.  The girls were troopers and never complained, but I have a feeling they're going to sleep well tonight.  Play now, sleep later, isn't that what summer is for?

Beautiful, beautiful summer day.

Today was just one of those days, sunny, clear, 75 degrees; you know, just perfect.  I got up, took the girls to tennis lessons, and went for a nice relaxing run.  I make no secret about it, the main reason why I put my girls in tennis lessons every summer is that I get an hour to myself every single morning, and believe me I need that hour, oh do I ever need that hour.  After their lessons (and a shower) we hit the bike trail for a trip to our local library.  This summer the girls have gotten into bike riding in a big way, and so far we've gone riding almost every day, sometimes even twice a day.  The library trip isn't my favorite because we have to ride on a busier street for three blocks, but so far the girls have done very well (fortunately there is a fairly wide sidewalk).

I love our little local library, it's just so friendly and quaint.  The librarian knows the girls by name and always complements them thoroughly on their summer reading progress.  Today was drop in craft day:

 

MJ's bike was one of those amazing super-cheap craigslist finds; it fits her perfectly and rides so much smoother than her old mermaid barbie model.  She tells me she can jump mountains on this bike.

 

The girls love the local bike path, especially since it provides a direct route to our local ice cream shoppe, our favorite bakery (where they like to buy pizza strips), a few friends houses, and a playground: 

This is our secret passageway between our neighborhood and the bike path.  According to wonderkid, the tooth fairy and his army of fireflies live in these trees:

 

Independence Day in the Midwest (and another top 10 list)

As some of you already know, we spent our fourth of July weekend in rural Missouri visiting KR’s aunt, uncle and cousins.  When we told our local New England friends where we were going for vacation, they usually looked a little baffled for a minute then asked, Do you have family there or something?  I kind of got the feeling that nobody around here thinks Missouri is an exotic location for a family vacation...  Anyway, with that in mind I thought I would do a little blog post for my fellow Midwestern challenged friends as to why visiting a farm in the Midwest is most definitely an exciting, and exotic destination.  It’s a long post, but trust me, once you get through it, you’ll be all but packing your bags to head out to the glorious mid west for a farm vacation of your own.

Top ten reasons why our trip to Missouri was awesome:

1.  The Local Flavor.  When KR told me he was going bullfrog hunting with his brother and cousins, I laughed because I thought it was a joke.  Unfortunately he didn’t laugh, because, to him it wasn’t a joke.  Once he had me convinced he really was going to wade around in the muck shooting at oversized slimy frogs I got all huffy and told him I thought it was just wrong to go around killing animals for the fun of it, and that hunting should be reserved for animals you’re actually going to eat.  Apparently I’m slow, and don’t think like a real Missouri girl, because if I did I certainly would have known that eating said creatures was naturally the end result of the great frog hunting expedition.  Of course they were…

These five were the ones who did all of the shooting.  Way to go guys! Talk about bringing home the bacon, or, um, amphibian.

Wonderkid, our in-house carnivore, loved eating the frog legs.  Note the bare bone sticking out of her left hand in this next picture, I don’t even know what to say...

 

I didn't have quite as much enthusiasm, but you can't say I didn't try.

2. Mud.  No trip to the country is really complete without a tour of the muddy back roads, especially if said tour involves driving over creeks and hills that seem totally impassable.  It’s even better if you have to be pulled out by a tractor:

 

3. Fireworks.  I’ve never seen quite so many firework stands in one area; apparently in rural Missouri they’re kind of a big deal.  KR’s 12 year old brother was in heaven:

 

Ahh yes, a boy and his blackcats…

Our girls loved the sparklers:

 

KR had fun with the sparklers too, except his were just a tad bit more explosive.  I was a little baffled when he went to pack his protective glasses for our trip, but that was before I had witnessed his cousins’ annual Roman candle war.  I was a little surprised Roman Candles were even sold anymore; I thought they had been outlawed because they blew peoples’ hands up or something.  Once again, I obviously don’t think like a Missouri girl, because everyone around those parts knows Roman Candles still exist, and everyone knows their sole purpose is for shooting people.  Do you think KR might have been a tad bit excited?

 

All of this was just a warm up for the spectacular fireworks display KR’s aunt an uncle has every year at their farm.  I think theirs was better than the fireworks show our city puts on every year, it was seriously impressive.  

4. The Lake.  My ocean loving girls have almost no experience swimming in lakes, and before we decided to spend an afternoon at a local lake they had no idea that all bodies of water aren’t lined with a layer of comfy sand.  They almost started crying when they walked into the water and stepped into mud because they honestly thought they had stepped in poo.  One day I might have to apologize for laughing so hard, but I couldn’t help myself, it really was funny.  It took them a few minutes to adjust but they quickly learned how to step lightly and stay in the deeper water. 

 

 KR’s cousin took us out on his boat for a little fishing trip.  I caught a huge bass, but it slipped out of my hands before anyone else could see it…

 

 

(when the boat went fast, the little dog had a difficult time seeing).

5. Hay bales and country roads, you just don't get enough of either around these parts.  I took this picture while driving around KR's cousin's property:

 

6. Babies. KR’s cousins all live within a few miles of each other and they all have young children and babies.  There was always a cute baby for us to fawn over.

    

7.  Cool dogs, especially the sheep dog variety.

 

 This particular dog would take a herd of goats into the barn for the night, and then will lead them back across the yard, through a fence and into the pasture in the morning without even being told to do it, seriously.  He also sleeps with the goats to ward off all night predators.  I know my fascination totally made me look like a city slicker, but I always thought these dogs needed a human around to issue the commands.  I keep wondering why anyone hasn’t bread a kid dog yet; think of how nice it would be to have a dog get your kids up in the morning, then chase them into the shower. It could also stand guard when they tried to sneak into the kitchen at night.  I could easily get an extra 30 minutes of sleep a day, and I wouldn’t even have to pay anyone for the extra work, it would be awesome.  

Speaking of dogs, check out this yellow lab just waiting for Wonderkid to drop that turtle.  I get that same look in my eyes when I get around chocolate.

8. Critters, critters, and more critters.  One of KR’s cousins lives on a fish hatchery farm.  We were able to hang around while they collected some of the minnows and crawdads:

We also had fun catching fireflies, frogs, and lizards, and collecting chicken eggs from the barn:

The chickens were the girls’ favorites.   

9. Sonic.  I love going to sonic, it’s one of my favorite places to visit in Oklahoma, but unfortunately they don’t have any restaurants in New England.  I’m not a big fan of their food, but they have the best drinks and slushes ever.  My favorites are the diet cherry limeade slush, and the diet cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper; the girls prefer the ocean water slush.  Unfortunately my kids have blue mouths in about half of the pictures we took while in Missouri.

10 Family.  Before this trip we hadn’t seen most of these family members for 8 years, and the girls had no idea they had so many fun cousins. We were also able to spend some time bonding with KR’s parents and grandma. 

 

 

It’s always sad to say goodbye, especially when we live so far from most of our family members, but I’m grateful to have so many wonderful people in our lives and that our girls are able to feel that sense of belonging and connectedness despite the miles of separation.  Thanks for a great reunion guys!

Birthday Fun

I can't think of a more suitable activity for KR on his birthday than a visit to the Air Show. 

 

 

Doughboys are really popular around these parts. For those of you not in the know, they're kind of like the funnel cakes they serve down in Oklahoma except they're much chewier.  They're basically just big blobs of dough dropped into a boiling vat of grease, then sprinkled with powdered sugar.  They also don't come in cool shapes like their superior southern relative.  As you can see, my kids could care less about my opinions on the matter, they'll pretty much eat anything if it's covered with sugar.

 And finally, here is a little video of the birthday boy with his birthday cake.  The girls spent the better part of a week giggling about how they couldn't wait for Dad to try to blow out his trick candles. Unfortunately, things didn't quite turn out the way they had planned:

blowing out candles from Lisa Redd on Vimeo.

KR, being the sympathetic Dad that he is, actually re-lit the candles and pretended not to be able to blow them out.  He's always such a good sport...

  The best part about all of this is that we got KR a new grill for his birthday.  So now we can invite people over for cookouts and not have to warn them about the occasional unruly flame, or the smell of KR singed arm hairs.  It took the girls and me 15 minutes to get the boxed grill into the backseat of my car in the parking lot at Home Depot, and believe me were quite the spectacle, especially when Wonderkid started using her grunt sound effects.  Fortunately a nice old man stopped by to help us lift it that last little bit, which probably made us even more conspicuous, but at least we were able to get it home without having to call KR and ask him come over and unwrap his present in the home depot parking lot...

Strawberry picking

We've gone strawberry picking every year for the past 9 years.  We started this tradition when MJ was a baby and we were living in California, and it has continued on through our time in South Carolina and now New England.  This year, since school got out so late and it has been so rainy, we almost missed our annual trip to the local strawberry farm. The day after the girls got out of school, I woke them up and told them we were going strawberry picking, even if we had to carry big umbrellas and wear goulashes.  Fortunately, the rain abated for a few hours and we were able to pick our berries in the sunshine:

 

 

Wonderkid is always more interested in putting berries in her mouth than in her basket:

When I first moved to this area I was surprised by the number of little cemeteries I saw in seeimingly random places like soccer fields, schoolyards, and highway medians.  I had never lived in a place that had been populated by people long enough to have old gravesites like these.  Even if they might seem creepy at first, I think these sites are pretty fascinating, and add to the New England charm of this area. The girls are so used to it now they don't even think twice about eating their snack right next to a 300 year old headstone:

 

Wonderkid perched herself up onto a field stone wall, while she was waiting for me to pack up the car:

Have I mentioned that I love summer in New England?

Stay tuned for pictures from KR's weekend birthday celebration.

Kitchen fun

While most parents use video cameras to capture the precious moments of their kids' early years and preserve them for posterity's sake, lately it seems like I mainly pull out our video camera to curb my kids naughty behavior.  My kids loathe being caught misbehaving on film, especially if they are fighting. I have to admit that sometimes when I'm at my wits end with these two, I'll pull out the camera and warn them that if they don't stop bickering, I'll start recording (they really hate that).  I know, I know, it's kind of immature and is probably the worst parenting tactic I could use, but then again so is threatening to make them eat gruel (which I might have done earlier today) so it's really nothing new to them. 

Anyway, today it was MJ who was in rare form, which really wasn't fair to the rest of us ,mind you, since we were making cookies for her class.  I pulled out the video camera to try to coax her into somewhat nicer behavior, but I think I got a little more than I bargained for with this kid today.  If you see this video you'll really want to watch through the end, or at least fast forward to 1:20:

Seriously, I just don't even know what to say.  I don't know what is worse, the fact that my sweet little girl let one go and blamed it on her sister, or the fact that my other sweet little girl denies the accusation on the premise that she always laughs at her own farts, and she definitely wasn't laughing at that one.  She wasn't even trying to make a joke with that last statement either (even though it is hilarious), to her it was just good sound logic...

Now, who wants lima beans?

Father's Day, it's all about the food...

I know I've said it again and again,  but I've been truly blessed to have so many amazing fathers in my life, especially KR and my own Dad.  I wish my Dad lived closer so we could spend more time with him, but despite the miles of separation I'm grateful for his presence in my, and my family's life.  If my Dad were here, however,  we would have stuffed him full with a constant barrage of food, just like we did with KR yesterday.  We started the morning out with hot homemade cinnamon rolls, and MJ's famous scrambled eggs.  All of those years of dealing with messy "helpers" in the kitchen has finally started to pay off now that my kids are older, I tell MJ she probably knows more about cooking and baking than most college students:

 

I love the pile of homemade gifts in the corner of this next picture, my girls always manage to come up with several unique gifts for their Dad, these items always seem to upstage the gifts I pick out.  Seriously though, how can any store bought gift ever compete with a fingerpainted burlap poncho?  Personally, I can't wait to see him wear it...

 

For dinner we made his favorite dish, country style canneloni, with bread and fruit salad.  In the past I've always disliked making this particular recipe, because it involves making crepes (which I find to be tedious), this year however, I had MJ help me with the crepe construction and the whole process went much faster. 

 

The girls also helped make and decorate sugar cookies (we made these for church too):

 It was just a happy and relaxing day for us, and KR is certainly deserving, because I don't think it would be possible for him to be a more devoted Dad.  As many of you know, he has a crazy work schedule and often has to take a plane to and from work all on the same day.  Despite all of these crazy hours he keeps, he always manages to be there for me and our kids when we need him.  Over the past year or so hasn't missed one of MJ's soccer games, or one of Wonderkid's swim meets (and believe me there have been a lot of them).  He keeps their practices, lessons, and other events written on his work calendar and schedules his meetings and other engagements around his family's needs.  When he walks in the door after a long day of work or travel or whatever, 100 percent of his attention is always on the girls and I.  Sometimes I know he would probably like to walk in and just sprawl out on the couch in front of the tv, but he never does.  He's always in the backyard playing soccer or catch with the girls, and he plays board games with them on an almost daily basis. He reads to them each night before bed, and prefers to choose the books that he loved (or would have loved) when he was a kid, like My side of the mountain, and Where the Red Fern Grows.  It's no surprise to me that out of all of the books my girls have read, the "daddy books" are always their favorites.  He has a special "daddy song" that he sings to them every night before bed, and they claim it's impossible to sleep without it. He listens to them, he laughs with them, he cuddles with them, he protects them, he teaches them, he loves them, unequivocally and unconditionally. He is everything a little girl could ever want in a father, and we're all so grateful that we have him in our lives.

Beach weather!!! (not really)

It has been cold and rainy outside for more days than I can even count.  I've been dying to go to the beach, but the weather has been anything but cooperative.  Does anyone else remember the 90 degree heat we had around this time last year?  I would take that over this rainy drizzle any day...

Anyway, we've finally decided we're going to have to get out regardless of what may or may not be falling from the sky, so today, after MJ's soccer game, we headed over to a friend's beach house for a little visit.  The beach wasn't warm enough for swimming (and it was a little too sea-weedy for my tastes), but it was perfect for shell collecting.  The fog finally burned off about three minutes after I took these pictures:

 

I can't think of a better backyard accessory for a beach house than a buoy rope swing, the girls were in heaven:

 

 

Finally, in anticipation for father's day tomorrow, I feel compelled to mention KR's most recent fatherly heroics.  Earlier today at MJ's soccer game Wonderkid, not surprisingly, had to use the potty. Since the only nearby facilities consisted of a group of porta-potties, KR took it upon himself to go in before our girly and lay some tp down on the seat (he's thoughtful like that).  While he was busy readying the port-a-potty for his daughter, his sunglasses fell off of his head and plopped down into the john.  Fortunately they weren't expensive, because there was no-way he was going to fish them out and try to clean them off (honestly I don't think it really would have mattered if they had been expensive, that's not a line I think he could ever cross).  Anyway, the best part about the whole experience was listening to Wonderkid re-tell the slightly embellished story to everyone on the sideline at MJ's game, in my opinion that in an of itself earned him the right to be called father of the year. 

It's true...

 

When I was a kid I used to look forward to the end of the school year with eager anticipation.  Between all of the projects, field trips, and games those last couple of weeks of school felt much more like a big party than actual school.  Now that I'm the Mom, however, all of those events have seemed to have lost their luster.  In the past three weeks I've been on five field trips, yes that's correct, FIVE FIELD TRIPS! Why did I sign up for five field trips you ask, well, back in the fall I tried to go on several field trips with my girls but each time didn't make the cut for the chaperone lottery (apparently the school cannot accommodate all of the parents who are chomping at the bit to tag along with Junior to the petting zoo).  When all of the slips came home for the end of the year trips I decided to increase my odds of being able to go on at least one or two trips by signing up for all of them.   For some miraculous reason, however, this time around there wasn't much of a lottery and I was selected to go on all of the trips, EVERY SINGLE DARN ONE!   Which in case you're wondering was about three too many.

Now don't get me wrong, I love being able to be involved at my kids school and I usually volunteer for their classrooms once or twice a week, which gives me a chance to scope out the teachers and the other kids, and also gives me a feel for how my girls are doing in school.  This was also why I've made the choice to work part time, I want to be there for my kids and I want them to know they're my biggest priority.  However, between the field trips and all of the other pta activities I've had to assist with in the past few weeks, I'm starting to feel like I've gone from being just another involved parent to becoming "that mom."  Yesterday when I had to stop by their school to do something for PTA I was actually embarrassed when I bumped into Wonderkid's teacher, especially since I had just spent two full days volunteering for a field trip, and their outdoor activity day, and it had only been three days since she caught me in the hallway before school taking multiple pictures of wonderkid in her news anchor costume. I wanted to say "I promise I do have other things to do besides stalk my kids at school" but I thought that might make me sound even more stalkerish, so I just smiled, said a quick hello, and made a mad dash for the front door. 

Despite all of this I didn't realize how burned out I was until I woke up this morning and thought, I'm going to nothing besides work stuff and laundry all day long, and it actually sounded like an exciting prospect...

In other related news, Wonderkid wasn't the only one who had to endure the embarrassment of having her mom take pictures of her in the school hallway.  Check out MJ all decked out for her end of the year biography project presentation (she was thrilled I let her wear my boots):

She chose to do her project on Marie Curie, the famous scientist who received the Nobel Prize in both chemistry and physics. Since MJ seems to be such a science fanatic, I couldn't think of a better choice for her. She even did a full science experiment in front of the whole class for part of this presentation.  She and KR spent a lot of time working on this project over the past couple of weekends, and I think he had just as much fun with the project as she did; in fact when he saw someone throwing out this 3d presentation board at work he couldn't resist snatching it up before it was tossed in the dumpster.  At least I can take solace in the fact that I'm not the only crazy parent in this house...

Future Correspondent

When Wonderkid was preparing for the first grade's annual career day she asked me for some ideas about potential careers.  I bounced off a couple of ideas like doctor, teacher, nurse, or accountant, but none of them seemed to catch her fancy.  A couple of days later she came home beaming with excitement and told me she had found the perfect career: a news reporter.  In her words, They get to travel and film all sorts of cool things, then they get to tell people about it ON TV!!!  The funniest part about all of this is that even though the thought had never occurred to me to suggest she play the role of a news anchor, I can't think of a more appropriate career choice for this girl.   

Can you see it???

The girls and I planted a ghost in a couple of the pictures on my last post.  One of them is pretty obvious, and the other is much harder to find.  Unfortunately their little attempt to "creep out my blog readers" didn't really work like they had planned, because unfortunately nobody seemed to notice.  I told the girls not to worry, I'm sure people were subliminally terrified... 

It's field trip time

As far as school field trips go, you know when your teacher explicitly tells the whole class not to ask any questions about ghosts or hauntings, that the trip is going to be at least mildly interesting.  This was the case with MJ's latest class excursion to a local historic mansion, for which I was lucky enough to chaperone.  I'm not really a believer in ghosts, but I definitely know what creepy looks like, and I feel pretty confident in saying this house is definitely a creeper:

 

I do feel compelled to add that this was the first room the kids saw when touring this house.  Check out the bizarre faced doll in blue at the bottom, it looks more like a voodoo doll than a child's toy if you ask me (not that I know anything about voodoo dolls).  The tour guide told us they placed the headless mannequin in the room (wearing real clothing worn by the previous occupants) so we can imagine a real girl playing with the dolls.  Seriously I don't want to imagine anyone, real or not, playing with those dolls.  Didn't these people ever watch child's play?

I also wasn't too keen on the "hands on" area, although the kids seem to enjoy themselves.  They had them try on actual clothing items from the 19th century, I always thought things like that were contraband due to their delicate nature.  MJ got to wear the black, feathery, hat looking thing:

 

Only MJ could make something like this look so cute...  She's a good sport, that's for sure.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the infamous body-less dress that sits in one of the mansion's rocking chairs; it's molded by wires from the inside to make it look like it's being worn by an invisible person (and they don't want the kids asking about ghosts?!?). It was definitely the strangest part of the tour.  I wanted to take a picture, but honestly it would have required me to stay in the room alone after the group left, and getting lost in this house was probably the last thing I wanted to do (who knows what kinds of things they don't want to share with the third graders).

In case you are wondering, yes this place does rent itself out for weddings and parties. I don't think they include a doll tea party though, for that you'd probably have to pay extra...

 

At the drive-in

Nothing says "summer night" quite like a trip to the local drive-in theater, and since we've had such beautiful weather lately we couldn't resist a visit to our favorite spot for summer movies.

As soon as we got there, our kids and their friends all piled together in the back of the car.  I took this picture early on in the evening when they were still pretty mello; things got a little crazier once the twizzlers and gummy bears came out:

 

Eventually the bigger girls got tired of all the commotion and created a little space of their own. Don't they look cozy?

 

This drive-in always sells out early, so we had to get there a couple of hours before the movie started.  I'm pretty sure the kids had more fun during the pre-movie playtime, than they did during the actual film.  The Dad's had to stand guard just in case one the kids decided to make a run for it:

  

Love these ladies:

Here is the whole set-up.  Looking at this picture I can see why our kids prefer to see movies this way rather than at the theater:

She shoots and scores

For the past few weeks Wonderkid has been playing on a U8 soccer team.  As I have watched her at the games and practices I have come to the conclusion that she is a talented little soccer player when she wants to be.  For her the biggest challenge in playing this sport has nothing to do with ball handling skills, but has everything to do with being able to resist chatting up the players on the other team when she's supposed to be playing.  She also has a tendency to skip and dance around a lot when she's on the field.  Just this past week she had one brilliant moment of dribbling the ball all the way up the field and scoring a goal, then two minutes later her coach had to ask her to stop playing around in the net with the goalie and pay attention to the game. Seriously, sometimes it's really hard not to laugh...

This picture is blurry, but it gives you the idea of the kind of antics she's always pulling during practice:

 

This girl CRACKS me up!

Party time...

I've recently come to the conclusion that I can either be totally caught up with work, or totally caught up with household chores, but never both.  They seem to be mutually exclusive.  Since I work from home most days, this means my work environment is often less than ideal. Years ago I would have found such conditions unacceptable, but nowadays I'm just grateful to have a quiet house for a few hours a day.  The project I'm currently working on runs through the end of July, and I have little doubt that those last few weeks are going to be quite the challenge.  Needless to say, I'm trying to do as much as I can right now while the girls are in school.  The thought of trying to get anything done in the midst of the summer crazies makes me just a tad bit frightened.

Anyway, instead of spending my lunch break folding laundry like I had planned, I've decided to post some recent pictures instead.  I'll do anything to get out of folding laundry, well almost anything...

This past weekend my friend Andie hosted a fabulous Twilight party.  I'm not really a fan of the books, but I am a fan of good friends, good food, and anything red and black, so it really was the perfect evening:

While I was out on the town that night, KR and the girls stayed home and had a little party of their own.  Since we don't usually stock massive amounts of candy and ice cream at home, this little shin dig required a trip to the grocery store.  I can't help but laugh at the image of the three of them standing in line at the store with their arms full of nothing but candy and junk; seriously, I would have loved to have had a picture of that, but at least they remembered to take a picture of the actual sundaes (and their accompanying diagrams):

The ice cream looks a lot better here than it did when I got home later that night.  I think they might have managed three or four bites each and left behind a brown soupy mess in each of their bowls (and all over the counter).  When I asked them about it the next morning they told me they left the bowls out on purpouse, just in case I wanted to eat some before I went to bed...