Sleep away camp

There is a camp that many Piedmont kids go to called Camp Augusta. I tried to get Parker in the last two years but had no luck. It's always overfull, but once you get in, you are in for good.  This year, all three kids got in.  The girls will be going to a 3 day mini camp from Thursday to Saturday the day after school is out. Parker will be going to a full week two weeks after that.  Elizabeth was a little nervous when I told her about it, but quickly warmed up to the idea when she saw the pictures of the rope course. Parker is going with two other friends and is very, very excited.  He asked, "Do you think I need to bring my own materials for raft building?"  I told him, no, they would supply them.  Miranda said she wasn't thrilled about getting naked in front of everyone and wished there was something she could wear in the shower to cover herself up. I told her it was called a bathing suit. She seemed satisfied with that solution.  I never went to camp, so I'm excited to for them.  Maybe the following year, we can send them all at the same time and Michael and I can have a little vacation of our own.

Affect

Miranda has started talking in a very affected way.  Sort of like a valley girl mixed with a socialite. I'm guessing she picked it up from the highly inappropriate tween australian mermaid show she watches on Saturday mornings but I'm not sure.  She rolls her eyes and flips her hair and laughs in a fake way. It's all very strange and very funny at the same time. Both Susan and Ebba pointed it out too when they watched her recently.

Yet another example of how his brain works

The other day I took Parker to a baseball coach. A friend had organized a trial session with him and about 12 other kids showed up too. He worked with Parker for about 15 minutes and then we left. We were there about 45 minutes total.

As we were driving away, I said to Parker, "How was it?  What did you learn? Did you like it?"  He answered the questions like he normally does, "Yeah, it was good."

So then I asked, "What was his name again?"  Parker says, "I can't remember his name, but I know it had 6 letters in it."  Then he was silent for about 2 minutes and added "J-U-S-T-I-N.  His name is Justin."

Even if I had remembered his name was Justin, I would never, in a million years, said, "Yeah, it had 6 letters in it."

Miranda's Breakfast

Miranda doesn't eat cereal. Which is a real pain in the ass when you are the lazy mom and don't help the kids with breakfast.  She would go without eating since eating is mostly a chore to her.  She'll have a bagel or waffle from time to time. She'll gladly eat pancakes and bacon if I was to make it everyday.

But most school days there is this time where she stands around whining, "what can I eat for breakfast today????"  Today she said, "can you make me something delicious while I get dressed?" Since I had no bacon and didn't have time to whip up some pancakes, I looked in the freezer and found a lean cuisine. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I heated it up, took it off it's plastic tray and she was so happy. She said, "This is quite a breakfast!"  Then she ate the whole thing which is almost unheard of, unless of course the breakfast was bacon or chocolate.

Everyone loves a box

Miranda made this box into a cat bed for our next foster kitty. Zeke found it after only a few hours.

Stuff from today

Parker came home today to say he ran two laps of the track (800 m) in 3 minutes 16 seconds. I told him I didn't believe him since that would make it faster than a 7 minute mile.  He swore up and down he did and told me to ask his PE teacher.  So I emailed her and she said, "yup."

Elizabeth is getting very friendly with this 10 year old in her gymnastics class. They goof off together the whole class which is very sweet and I'm glad she is having a good time.  What she wears to gymnastics and how she does her hair is very important. Today she put on lip gloss.

Miranda paid 3 chips tonight to stay up late. After an evening full of homework and grumpiness, she was so very, very happy to hang with mom and dad for 30 minutes after the others went to bed.

Elizabeth wears a pull up to bed. Her doctor said not to worry or do anything about it until she was  8. She got into a sleepover camp for June for 2 nights and so we discussed trying to a plan to start working on it. Last night she wore underwear under her pull up with the thought that she would wake up when it got wet.  She didn't. She slept right through it. Just like she slept right through the alarm going off in her face when she accidentally set it the other day.  Hmmm...next idea?

Parker told us about his special math time today (on Tuesdays he works with a math specialist and one other 4th graders). He had to get one ounce of water into a cup with only two cups with the sizes 5 ounces and 9 ounces. He really liked that problem.

I went to three markets today. I walked to trader joes after walking the kids to school. Then I drove to Costco. Then, when I forgot the sour cream at both places, I walked to Safeway.

 Now that all three kids are playing minecraft, I decided we needed to get another computer. I told Michael I was going to get one and he got an old one (that minecraft works perfectly on) for free. Yay Michael.

Miranda's dinner comedy routines continue. For some reason,  whenever we set down for dinner, she decides its the perfect time to start acting like a clown.  The others thinks she is hilarious and they are generally right, but it makes dinner a little...no, a lot, annoying.

Cuteness

Chicken hearts

As I've mentioned many times here, my memory has pretty much gone to shit. I barely remember what happened yesterday let alone what happened in my childhood.  But some memories are strong. For example, I have a strong memory of my dad telling us about the chicken heart that ate new york. I don't remember much more about that except that we would sit around listening to "it" or him and then at some point, he (we?) made up the chicken part that ate new corks.  I had no idea what any of it was from and just assumed that my dad made it all up.

So today, I was listening to Tom Hanks being interviewed and he said that one of his early influences was Cosby doing the Chicken Heart that Ate New York.

What?!?

This childhood memory was a Bill Cosby routine? Really?

Miranda and her favorite cat.

Another Chess Tournament

Parker and Jack were a team at a grade level chess tournament today. We were there all day. Parker only won one game but he played against three players rated in the 1000s and he is only 400 so it makes sense.  He had fun despite the losses and his "team" got a trophy since Jack won three games.

A little saturday afternoon Bach

Parker says he played this too loudly.

Rock City

Took the kids to Rock City the other day. Each brought a friend and they had a fantastic time.

Lunch on a rock.

Owen goes down a very steep crevice.

They climbed this.

They were super high.

Miranda helping Beck down.

Tiny Twins Club

These boys were scaring the shit out of me.

Can you see them all?

girls in a cave

More girls in another cave

Once more into the barre

Gonna give ballet another shot. Took a class tonight. I was the fattest and oldest, I think, but still had best technique. Which is pretty sad because I suck.

Sleeping

Miranda's world

"This is a picture of an invisible girl drawing a giraffe but she isn't done yet."

Dim Sum and Magic

I get these emails all the time with kids activities in the Bay Area. I usually ignore them, but I read one of them the other day and it talked about a magic show at Pier 39 so I looked it up, booked the tickets and today we went.  On the way over, Michaels suggested dim sum which was a great idea and much better than what we were going to eat at Fishermans Wharf.  So we had some Shiu Mai, Ha Gow, Dumplings, and pot stickers at Yank Sing before we took the long (in minutes, not in miles) drive over to the tourist trap.  We took at look at the sea lions, played in an arcade (where Parker hit some jackpot and got a zillion tickets) and ate sugary treats until it was show time. The show was as campy as expected, but still totally fun and Elizabeth got to go up on stage.   The weather was gorgeous in SF and it was a lovely outing.

Streamers!