Category Archives: Family

First Day of School 2017!

29 Tuesday Aug 2017

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It’s finally here.  Even though it is only a half day (and preschool doesn’t start until next week), its good to get them off and running.

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I didn’t have to buy that much for school this year either:

  • 2 backpacks
  • 2 short sleeve shirts
  • 2 pairs of shorts
  • 2 pairs of pants
  • 1 sweatshirt
  • some miscellaneous school supplies (we had about half the requested items)

I’m back!

25 Friday Aug 2017

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We were away for much of August.  That combined with back to school startup has made things a bit quiet around here.  But, we’re settled back in now.  School begins next week.  And, I’ll be back next week to update everything that happened in the interim!

Cool Summer?

03 Thursday Aug 2017

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I am not a meteorologist, but this summer seems cooler than usual to me.  I think we’ve had a typical amount of humidity and rain.  But, the temperatures are another story, particularly during the week.

Since the boys got done with school (the last week of June + all of July), the actual high temperature has reached 90º three times and 91º once.  The other end of the spectrum is even more telling.  We have had 15 days where it didn’t reach 80º, including three where it didn’t reach 70º!

July is typically our hottest month, which an average high of 82º.  That may not seem that hot, but we do usually have our fair share of high 90s days to balance out the 70s.  This year’s highs so far range from 64º to 91º.

Now, I shouldn’t complain.  Mostly its been a great summer to be outside.  But, I miss swimming and its just been too cold for that most days we’ve been scheduled for swimming lessons.  It’s not fun to be in an outdoor pool when its 60º and cloudy.  We had 11 scheduled.  We’ve missed 5 for equal parts 60º weather (lessons are 4-6 pm so even if the high is higher by late afternoon its cooling off) and thunderstorms.  Today is the last day.  It’s plenty warm, but the forecast is for thunderstorms.  We’ll see what happens.

Summer Spontaneity

27 Thursday Jul 2017

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Well, things have been a bit hit or miss here over the last month.  With summer upon us the kids are home full time.  It’s basically swimming, baseball, and whatever else we come up with to do.

This year I’ve been trying to be a little less scheduled and go with the flow.  Unfortunately that means less blogging.  Fortunately, it means yes to other things.  We’ve spontaneously (i.e., ask and go essentially immediately):

  • Gone to the pool.
  • Gone for ice cream.
  • Gone to McDonald’s.
  • Played with our neighbors.
  • Gone to the farmer’s market.
  • Gotten the screen replaced on my phone (not the best, but we did it super promptly).
  • Played some board games.
  • Played some video games.
  • Watched some movies.
  • Read some books.
  • Gone for a walk.

We’ve also, in a more planned way,

  • Played at the park.  Many times.
  • Gone strawberry picking.  This is about 8 lbs of strawberries, or what remains of them.

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  • Gone to the pool.
  • Taken swimming lessons (Less often than I would have liked as we’ve had issues with temps in the 60s and/or rain/thunderstorms, none of which make for good swimming weather.)

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  • Played baseball games.
  • Been to baseball tryouts.
  • One attended multiple baseball camps.
  • Two attended video game design camp.
  • One attended soccer camp.
  • I gave a pile of stuff that had been sitting in the basement to a neighbor for his yard sale.
  • The builder replaced the siding on one side of the house, a result of a manufacturing issue so the vendor covered costs/supplying materials/etc.
  • We went to the town carnival.
  • Plus the standard grocery shopping, though including the farmer’s market because it’s summer.

In summary, I’ll try to post when I can for the next few weeks, but we’re trying to be out doing which is always the priority.

Last Two Week’s Accomplishments – Spring Sports are Done!

13 Tuesday Jun 2017

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Yes, soccer and baseball are finished for the spring.  Now, a short respite until summer.  We would have liked to continue baseball for one more week, as our oldest lost in the second round of the playoffs.  But, it was a tight game to finish out their season.

So, this will be the last post for a while that is sports dominated:

  • We had 6 baseball games and 3 baseball practices.
  • We had 6 soccer games and 2 soccer practices.
  • Our oldest went to the 5th grade track meet.
  • Our oldest had a few extra baseball lessons.
  • Our oldest went on the 5th grade camping trip.
  • We had our last Math Morning.
  • I went to a retirement party for the preschool director.
  • I also met the incoming preschool director.
  • We had a preschool play date.
  • I had a doctor appointment.
  • We attended two birthday parties.
  • It finally warmed up so we went to the pool.  Our preschooler spotted a bunny.

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  • The warm weather must have been exhausting because multiple people fell asleep on the floor.
  • We thought a sky scraper had sprouted in town, especially as the first time we saw it, it was a dark and rainy day.  In actuality it is a church steeple wrapped in scaffolding, which is a bit easier to see in this sunny day picture.

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Spring Schedule 2017 – A Week at a Glance

25 Thursday May 2017

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This is not last week; it is the week of May 7.  But, this is a typical spring week for us.  I’m going to focus in on the 5:30-8:00 hours because, in elementary school, this is when everything happens.  All the parents are home to coach/drive/etc. and the fields are available after the middle school and high school programs are done with them.  Yes, its terrible for dinner.

Sunday

11:30 – 1:30        D: birthday party
6:00 – 8:00          A: baseball practice

Monday

 

5:30 – 8:00          A: baseball game
5:30 – 7:00          A: soccer practice (skipped in favor of baseball game)
5:30 – 7:00          B: soccer practice

Tuesday

5:30 – 7:30          D: baseball game
5:30 – 8:00          A: baseball game
7:00 – 10:00        I had a twins club meeting I skipped.

Wednesday

5:30 – 8:00          A: baseball game
6:00 – 7:00          I had the 5th grade camping trip meeting.  I got a babysitter.

Thursday

2:30 – 3:45          A,B,C: bike club
4:00 – 4:30          D,E: skating class
5:30 – 7:00          A,B: soccer practice

Friday

6:30 – 8:00          Little League night at the high school baseball game.

Saturday (Thankfully not during dinnertime.)

8:45 – 10:00        D: soccer
11:30 – 1:30        A: soccer game
1:00 – 2:30          D: baseball
2:30 – 4:00          B: out of town soccer game

Last Week’s Accomplishments – A Break in the Rain

23 Tuesday May 2017

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It did rain Monday, so that baseball game got bumped to Tuesday.  But, otherwise the week’s schedule played out fully for maybe the first time this spring.

  • Our two older soccer players had travel evaluations.
  • I took the younger two to an animal show at preschool.  Sorry for the blury pictures.  Neither animals nor children were up for staying still.  It’s an armadillo.  Our youngest was particularly fascinated that it could roll up into a ball, softball sized.

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  • We had three soccer games plus four baseball games.  No soccer practices this week between the rain and the concert.  We went to two baseball practices.
  • We missed one baseball game for the 5th grade spring concert.  This wasn’t popular, but school activities take precedence.
  • We went to one playdate and one birthday party.
  • I finally got the car rental associated with the rear ender repair sorted between Commerce and Enterprise.
  • Our oldest had a baseball hitting lesson.
  • I turned in registration for preschool next year.
  • I registered for fall soccer for three and summer soccer camp for one.
  • We went to the BBQ festival.  This is popular every year.

Spring Schedule 2017 – A Day at a Glance

18 Thursday May 2017

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In the past, I’ve written about our spring and fall schedules in one week chunks.  I’ll do that again next week.  But, today I decided to focus on Thursday since for the past few weeks it has been very busy.  The skating class ended last week which has really freed things up.  But, the crossover from winter to summer was particularly noticeable on Thursdays.

8:00 – 1:45          A,B,C,D at school

2:30 – 3:45          A,B,C bike club

4:00 – 4:30          D,E skating class

5:30 – 7:00          A,B soccer practice

6:45 – 8:00          town related meeting (This varies from Little League to school meetings, but Thursday seems to be the preferred day.  One adult goes.)

Somewhere in there we get in lunch and dinner.  Thankfully, we have weekly homework packets this year so there’s little homework that HAS to be done on Thursday.

 

Last Week’s Accomplishments – The Cuisinart Replacement Blade Arrived!

16 Tuesday May 2017

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Unless you have been in hiding, or don’t think about kitchen stuff at all, you probably know that in December Cuisinart recalled about 8 million food processor chopping blades because metal fragments were coming off in people’s food.  You probably also know that they’re getting a lot of bad press because of how long its taking to get people new blades, despite telling them to throw out the old one immediately.

I filed for my replacement blade on December 16, 2016 – three days after the recall went out.  On December 22, I received a form email, thanking me for my patience.  It also said they’d let me know when my blade was on the way.  I received basically the same email again on February 4, 2017.  It also included their much discussed online recipe book (apparently it contains recipes that require the chopping blade), but I haven’t looked at it.

Well, months went by and I didn’t hear from them again until it just showed up on Friday.  I definitely would prefer to have the blade vs another email, but it should be pointed out that they never did alert me that it had been shipped.

Some pictures of the new vs old blade and the lengthy set of instructions (obviously meant to prevent them from being sued by the customer or trash collector that cuts themselves).  Clockwise, its the new blade in its complete packaging, the new blade out of the packaging, the two blades together for comparison, and the old blade packaged for the trash.

I have used the new one and it works fine.  It’s also easier to clean, which is a nice side benefit.  But, it took the full six months to get here.

Other things that happened last week:

  • I managed to get the whole house cleaned, at basically the same time.
  • We hosted a Mother’s Day brunch.
  • The younger boys had their last skating class.
  • I went to the 5th grade camping trip meeting.
  • The contractors came by to adjust the doors.
  • We had 4 baseball games.  We also had more rain and thus rain outs.
  • We had 3 soccer games.
  • We went to soccer and baseball practices.
  • The older boys had bike club.
  • We went to the kindergarten concert.
  • We went to the art show where the 3rd graders’ work was on display.
  • We went to a high school baseball game.

Last Two Week’s Accomplishments – Another One Bites the Dust

09 Tuesday May 2017

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This past week we parted with quite a few pairs of pants, including this one.  There were also a few socks, but mostly pants.  Frankly, I’m surprised this pair lasted the winter.  Gymboree athletic pants have not held up well for us in the past.  Thankfully its spring.

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  • We’ve only had 5 baseball games so far.  4 have been rained out.
  • We’ve had 3 baseball clinics.
  • The baseball players went to the opening day parade.  I made a banner for their team.
  • Soccer games were also affected.  Over two weeks we had 4 and 2 were cancelled.
  • Only 1 soccer practice was cancelled.

The rain policy for both baseball and soccer is age dependent.  It’s also often hard to get enough kids to play a rescheduled game.  I’m not sure how many of these games will end up getting rescheduled.

  • The 5th → 6th grade transition has begun.
    • I went to two meetings at the middle school.
    • We registered for middle school classes (foreign language & music choices).
  • I went to meetings at both the elementary school and preschool.
  • We had two weeks of bike club and skating.
  • We had 1 doctor’s appointment.
  • We had 1 playdate.
  • We went to 1 birthday party.
  • I got out the next bin of clothing for the baby to see what we had for summer / next size.  Turns out we’re in good shape for everything except tops so I’ve been doing a little shopping to fill in that hole.  It’s been tricky finding non-pink (all the bottoms are pink) onesie tops with sleeves, but we’ve managed.