a few ribbons more

It's fair week again, which means that my lovely and talented mom has been hard at work, culling the best quilts and crafty projects from the past year to enter. And check it out: she even entered my window! I salvaged that window from our last apartment in Chicago, and bought an antique quilt remnant on eBay to turn it into a picture frame. She changed the pictures that I originally had in it, though. Sadly, my creative recycling of old stuff didn't win any prizes. However, my mom did win the Ultimate Grand Super Prize Award (as you may remember from last year, I don't speak in the language of 4-H ribbons, but I do know that this one was the best in its class) for the charcoal drawing she did of Loni and Max (above). I think she captured Max particularly well, right down to the little half-smirk. Amazing, considering that she decided to draw it around midnight the night before projects had to be turned in. But apparently, like Gram's Midnight Noodles, some things are just made better in the wee hours.

more swimming

Last night, the boys and I made the trek to Crown Point to visit Kent, Popi, Stephen, Nick, and Maria. I had some things that I had to pick up there, so we decided to invite ourselves over to use their pool while we were there. Thankfully, our gracious hosts didn't have a problem with that, because the boys had probably the most fun yet of all our swimming expeditions this summer.


When we arrived, Kent had the grill going, so we had a nice dinner of burgers, dogs, and pasta salad. Stephen was happy to show the boys his impressive fort, and Maria and Nick were great at keeping them entertained so I could have an actual adult conversation with Kent and Popi. After a while, we all got into our swimsuits and got into the pool. Kent and Popi even had some flotation devices, so I didn't have to hold the boys up the whole time. I have to say that Liam really loved paddling around in a lifejacket, even if it was pink and emblazoned with Barbie logos.


We spent a very long time in the pool, and Liam even went down the water slide quite a few times. This was a procedure that required tons of assistance: Kent and Nick had to stand on either side of the slide and hold Liam's hands so he wouldn't go down too quickly, and I had to catch him before he went underwater. I'm sad to report that Liam hasn't figured out that it's not a good idea to lock his legs straight out in front of him when someone tries to catch him at the bottom of a slide; as a result, I'm pretty sore today from several hard kicks to the chest. He also did end up going underwater a couple of times, and cried when he came up. But he always wanted to get back on the slide immediately, so I guess he wasn't too traumatized by it. Sorry, no pictures of him on the slide. Popi took some with her camera, but I didn't have the presence of mind to suggest that she put them on a disk for me or something. I'm sure she'll send them to me eventually, and when she does, I'll post them.


After swimming, the boys took showers (aren't they growing up fast?). I'm pretty sure it was the first time that Max has ever had a shower, and he was pretty skeptical at first, but then didn't want to get out. Then they spent another hour or so just running around the house, squealing with delight as Maria chased them. I finally got them into the car by 10:45 p.m. (!!!) for the long trip home. Believe me when I tell you that we were all exhausted.

lake latonka cookout

By Sunday morning, I could no longer put off the mountain of work that was on my desk. It was a real shame, because my step-grandma's boyfriend, Ray, picked Sunday afternoon to have a family cookout at his home on beautiful Lake Latonka. Fortunately for the boys, Aunt Bethany and crew came to pick them up. It was a triple bonus: the boys got to do something new and fun, Mike got to get a little rest, and I had the afternoon to really hunker down with my deadline.


And from the reports, the boys really did have a lot of fun. They ate like we'd been starving them all day. They "swam" out in the lake. Well, mostly Max swam out in the lake. That kid is fearless. He had no problem walking out deeper and deeper. (He was like that when I took them to the pool on Wednesday, too: he kept walking out until he went underwater, and when I picked him up, he just laughed and squirmed to get back down in the water.) Liam reported that the water was too cold for his taste, so instead he spent some time gathering shells, then he joined Loni and great-aunt Cathy for a spot of fishing at the end of Ray's pier. When he came home, he gave me a detailed account of catching a fish (sorry, no pictures). He said that he touched it, and that it was wiggling a lot because it wanted to get back into the water. He said it was "this big" (only three or four inches, according to his hand gestures), so I assume they threw it back. At any rate, looks like a fun time was had by all! Well, all except for me, slaving away at my desk...

brownie disaster

Friday night, while I tried mostly unsuccessfully to get some work done, Loni was here with the boys. Liam was grounded from going to any parks or watching any of his favorite TV shows because of a series of hitting infractions (he was inexplicably mad because I've been picking them up from daycare every day on my bike). Since their options were pretty limited, I asked Loni if she wouldn't mind making brownies with the boys. Actually, I gave her the option of either making brownies or getting out the play doh. She may have thought that the brownie option would entail less mess and hassle, but if so, she was sadly mistaken.


See, Loni made the rookie mistake of putting the bowl of brownie powder mix where the boys, namely Max, could reach it while she assembled the rest of the ingredients. She turned her back just for a minute, and when she turned back, Max was wearing half of the powder, minus whatever he managed to stuff into his little mouth before she turned around.


They somehow managed to add the rest of the ingredients and get the brownies into the oven, at which point the boys decided to give Loni a mini-makeover with Mr. Potato Head parts. I'm not sure exactly why the manufacturers gave Mr. Potato Head big green hoop earrings as part of his standard ensemble, but I have to say that they really do something for Loni's look. (Also, I feel compelled to add that yes, Loni is in fact wearing clothes in these pictures, no matter what it may look like.)


While the brownies baked, the boys invaded my office space and succeeding in getting me to finally lay aside my mostly fruitless attempts at work in favor of watching funny cat videos online. For some reason, these two think it's just hilarious when a cat dives for a beam of light on the wall, only to slide down the wall screeching, or when a cat makes a grab for a ceiling fan cord, only to take an unexpected ride on the blades.

handy manny

We've been working on this big gardening project for weeks now, digging up all of the stones in the flower beds and replacing them with mulch. When we first started the project, we were pulling out the stones by hand, which was a labor-intensive process, to say the least. I researched sifter options, but oddly enough, they don't sell them at your local big-box hardware store. My dad said he had all the materials to make one, but the problem is that he's so busy that many projects get pushed off to that future, misty occasion when he doesn't have anything more pressing to do. I ordered a sifter from eBay, and it worked fine, but it was small. It took ten long hours of sifting and digging just to get five or six feet of the flower bed ready for the mulch. (In my defense, I also had to work around and dig up a giant and incredibly tenacious yew stump!)

Luckily for us, Mike has really discovered his handy side in the last couple of months, and he built a sifting machine. Basically, it's a box with a screen on the bottom that slides along a frame, keeping the rocks up top while the sifted dirt falls into a neat pile below. It's a lot more physically demanding than my little hand-sifter was, but it gets the job done a lot more quickly. So take a moment here to admire Mike's ingenuity and creative building skills. Woo hoo! At this rate, we may actually have the project finished before we get our mortgage paid off (in 29 more years).

liam loves the water/liam hates the water, or: the saga of swimming lessons

Last week, Liam started swimming lessons. On Monday (his birthday), he refused to get into the pool. He mostly just sat on his towel and watched.


Mike had the night off from work, so I got a brainstorm. We picked the boys up from school that afternoon and headed back to the pool in the hopes that Liam wouldn't be so afraid to get in the water if we were with him. Success! Not only did Liam go in the water, he loved it so much that he didn't want to get out. Max, too -- in the changing room afterward, he kept asking to go back in "big bathtub."

But did this success help with the swimming lessons? Of course not. The momentum was broken on Tuesday, which was a "safety" day for the kids, meaning they had to watch safety videos and weren't allowed to go back in the pool. Wednesday rolled around, and by that time, Liam was back to his old trick of staying on his towel. He did manage to dangle his feet in the water a little bit, but that was about the extent of his involvement.


By the end of the week, he was throwing such horrifying fits at the mere suggestion of going to swimming lessons that we decided to throw in the towel. I guess he's just not ready yet. A mommy/daddy-and-me type of class would probably be much better for him, so he can get involved and still have us with him, but the only one they offer around here is three times as expensive as swimming lessons at the pool. So I guess we'll try again next year, but I'm genuinely pitying the teacher who gets them then. Max will be old enough to start lessons, so he and Liam will be in the same group, along with cousin Jimmy. The three of them will be enough to terrorize any unsuspecting swimming instructor.


In the meantime, the boys are loving playing in their kiddie pool, and I have plans to take them back to the big pool at least a few more times this summer, in the hopes that the more comfortable they become in the water, the more likely it will be that they'll actually participate in swimming lessons next summer. Keep your fingers crossed!

achoo

I've been dealing with a cold this week, which isn't any fun. The boys have been very sniffly too, with runny noses and coughs. But today, at Liam's four-year checkup, we discovered that he does not have a cold. That's right, he's got allergies. Just like both of his parents. The doctor recommends that we start giving him Claritin (!!!) to alleviate his symptoms. He seems a little young for regular medication like that, but I guess we'll try it and see if we notice a real improvement. It does make me wonder about Max, though. He's had the symptoms too. Their "colds" never really seem to go away. Huh.

fireworks

Went to the fireworks Saturday night at a small airport near my parents' house. It's nice to go there because my dad and brother are among the firefighters working at the event, so we get to stake out a great area right along one of the runways. It's not crowded, so the boys can play pretty freely. There's sort of a mini carnival atmosphere. Bethany and Joe took the boys to ride on a huge bouncy slide and get sno-cones, which they really loved (both, but especially the sno-cones).




We all brought food and had a lovely cookout, then once it got dark, we watched the show. The boys were thrilled. They oohed and ahed at every firework. They even gave names to some of them. "That one looks like popcorn!" "Look, it's an octopus!" It was funny because there is no musical accompaniment to this show, and the boys were really loud, so I could hear people giggling at them from down the way. At one point, I said something to my mom about not being used to being at fireworks shows with no music. She looked at the boys (who were again oohing excitedly), grinned, and said, "I like their music just fine."



After the show was not so great. I turned my back for a minute to help Liam find Mike, and when I turned back, Max was gone. It was 11 p.m. and pitch black except for the headlights of all the cars trying to get out. We were all searching and calling for him for a few of the scariest minutes of my life, and finally Klaudia found him. He had run toward the tarmac where all of the cars and trucks were queuing up for the exit. (That's also where my dad and brother were, helping direct traffic with the other firefighters, so I like to think they would have spotted him if Klaudia hadn't.) Needless to say, once we had Max back, we hustled out to the car, and didn't let him out of our grasp until he was safely at home and asleep.

everyone loves a parade

We kicked off our Fourth of July festivities with a parade in Walkerton. The boys and I got there early and staked out a space in front of my grandpa's store. We were soon joined by the boys' new uncle, Joe -- that's right, congratulations are in order for Joe and Bethany, who tied the knot earlier in the week! -- Laura, Kelsey, Emma, Jimmy, and Gracie. Yami got to come out for a few stolen minutes of parade fun away from the chaos of the store's annual Fourth of July sale. And just about everyone else, it seems, was IN the parade. Loni and Klaudia did cheerleading routines, while J drove a truck and Bethany walked alongside the cheerleaders and handed out candy.




They may have been to a parade before, but I think this was the first time that they really understood what was going on, especially the part about getting candy thrown to/at them. Liam was more into gathering up as much as he could to put into his bag, while Max was definitely more interested in eating the candy as soon as it was acquired. Every time I turned around, he had or was trying to stick something in his mouth. He managed to unwrap a peppermint candy, which he did not enjoy, and I thought that would encourage him to leave the candy alone. Oh, but no -- the next time I looked, he had eaten half a Tootsie Roll, wrapper and all. At that point, I got him settled with Yami on a chair and gave him a small box of Dots, which kept him occupied for most of the rest of the parade.




While the parade itself was lots of fun (many firetrucks, marching bands, and politicians -- you know, all the typical parade fare), the kids may have had more fun afterward. We drove over to the elementary school, and ran off some steam with Laura's kids in the playground (another new one!) so the boys were nice and tired by the time we got home at 9:30. A late night, but a fun one!

hosta heaven

Recently, Mike and I went with my parents to visit the most amazing nursery. Becich's Perennial Farm & Landscape Nursery is home to hundreds (thousands?) of varieties of hostas. We have quite a few different hostas around our yard, and Mike has been slowly consolidating them into one shady hosta garden outside our living-room window (eventually the plan is to add a winding path and maybe a bench), but the hostas at Becich's were just incredible. Rows upon rows of potted hostas, and that was just the start.



Becich's has all the normal nursery-type setups, the greenhouses and displays you would expect, but it also has something wonderful: a three-acre woods with plants on display, growing in their optimal natural conditions. We spent plenty of time just wandering around, looking at the different varieties along the path. We probably would have spent more time, but the mosquitoes were killer. Which brings me to my next point about this place: personalized service. We not only got a very detailed lesson on hostas and a tour from owner and horticulturist Tim Becich, but he also gave us a can of bug spray to take with us so we could browse the hostas in peace. It's really a place like no other I've been to, so if you're ever in our area, and you want to pick up some great plants, try Becich's in Knox. We ended up with five new varieties of hostas: Curlew, Rusty Bee, Maraschino Cherry, Lakeside Neat Petite, and my personal favorite, Elvis Lives.