Robotics and bookworms

Grandmama is here and we've been goofing off. She's been reading books to our bookworms:

 

And, if you have been following the newsfeeds, you'll know that Monroeville has been overtaken by zombies. However, we have a different issue here- robots:

 

The big kids have been busy in the basement for HOURS with duct tape, sharpies, and cardboard boxes. They've emerged a few times to show off their robotic moves and outfits. I love their creativity!

Why I Haven't Been Blogging, Excuse #983754

 

Well, frankly, some of us have been a little twisted up:

 

 

While some of us have been dumped at a new-to-us camp in another state:

 

And we've been inundated with family and the corresponding shenanigans one would expect from said family:

 

I guess in short we've been carpe diem-ing. ;)

 

We've been busy living life in the summertime. More karate lessons, walks with friends, watching movies like The Neverending Story and The Fellowship of the Ring, having popsicles and way too much ice cream, smashing even more mosquitoes but not as many as have been sipping off of us, and tons of laundry.

 

Care Bear spent 4 gloriously brother-free days at Camp Michindoh with about 400 other middle school kids from our church (yes, that's 400, not 40) and says the best part was Gold Rush, like Capture the Flag but harder. She had a good girlfriend in her cabin with her and it sounds like the whole week was amazing. We're glad she had the opportunity to try something new. Ask her all about camp!

 

The kids have been into the Legos, the squirt guns, the bristle blocks, the Transformers, the stapler and staple remover, the Smart Links, the comic books, and the pool.

 

We took the extended family to the pool and had the most exciting time yet. A man fell victim to a seizure, which caught Uncle Kelly's attention and help. The pool was cleared and the EMTs got him more stable and out of there. A little while later a storm headed in so it was everyone out of the pool again. We left just as really big drips started splattering the cars and were in a total downpour by the time we got home. Nobody seemed to mind too much, and the cousins were off and running again in no time.

 

The guys mixed up two batches of homemade ice cream, chocolate and vanilla, and special thanks goes to Aunt Evelyn for being our phone-a-friend help in regards to recipe discrepancies. Both turned out excellently. Both are probably almost gone.

 

Grandmama is on her way here now after visiting with Nana. Tomorrow the kids have orthodontist appointments and karate. Today is sheet day. I'm stalling on lunch.

 

*sigh* Time to go. Happy Monday!

 

It's the End of the World as We Know It...

How did it get to be July already? This year is flying by. We've been out of school for a month now, and the house looks like there are three kids living here. Oh wait...

Yesterday we had a day. I could have sworn it was Monday. We had karate at 10, which means getting Carrie out of bed at 9 (we need to leave at 9:30ish) since she's turned into a teenager this summer. She staggers downstairs, dumps Cheerios into and out of her bowl so that they're all over the counter, didn't hear/ignored the caution that, "it's raining today, so wear your flip flops instead of your good sandals", and makes it into the car...

We make it to karate. Damon puts his flip flops in the locker room, they have class, he goes to find his shoes and- lo and behold- he can only find one flip flop. I know that he wore both of them in there, so I send him back to hunt for it. He comes out again wearing just one. I send him back again, and this time one of the instructors goes along to help him find it. Apparently, it has been tossed over the storage closet. Interesting. And the poor instructor relays the following message: I can get it for you, but it is going to take awhile. It's pretty crowded back there. I said, "we'll be back Thursday. Thank you."

So we leave with the One-Footed Wonder.

Good thing there's a Once Upon A Child right across the street. We found a new-to-us pair of sturdy sandals that strap over the top of his foot and around his ankle, and he loves them.

Proceed to the library. And lunch at Bob Evans with Dada. Then to Kroger. Then to Aldi. Then finally home.

Last night Dada was singing R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)", which you could youtube if you are unfamiliar with the tune, when Damon retorted with much indignation, "you don't know that!" Even though the kids don't know the song, it cracked all of us up. I didn't even know he had been paying attention to what was going on, but he sure mustered up his disgust about the possibility of the end of the world. Yes, it's on the new quote board.

I realize that's all just Carrie and Damon. Let's just say that Thing Two has been out of sorts recently, but it hasn't been his fault as there's been no structure or routine this summer and that's on me. Throw in a holiday weekend to lose any remaining sense I had of "what day is it, anyway?" and a deck that desperately needed stained before the rains began again and the overdue library books because, again, "what day is it, anyway?" ... you get the picture. It ain't pretty.

But hey, it's summer! We're staying up too late and sleeping in (well, Carrie is, anyway. Little Miss slept until noon on Monday) and goofing off. We're reading books, swatting mosquitoes, chasing frogs, rescuing toads*, scratching mosquito bites, running the dishwasher every single day since almost all of us are eating 3 meals here daily, moving from one mess to another to another, getting band aids on our bloody mosquito bites, doing karate, watching movies, finishing The Return of the King, using our pool pass, and arguing with each other while we reopen scabs from mosquito bites.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. Except for the mosquito bites.

Is it just me, or are they terrible this summer!?

*We've named the toad "Abre" because it means "open" in Spanish. We've found him sitting in the kennel, sitting in front of the inside of the garage door, hiding behind the recycling bin, and sliding across the newly stained deck because the water now puddles on top the way it's supposed to. He always looks like, "someone please let me out. Please? Abre! I don't have opposable thumbs!"