Disney pics!

It's funny for people to ask me if we traveled over spring break, and for me then to say, why yes we took the kids to Disney World, because in fact, we took the kids to Florida and had a myriad of lovely experiences, Disney being just one of them. But if I were to say that we went to Florida, the exact next question would be, Did you go to Disney World? So in fact I'm just cutting to the chase.

These are the pictures from our one day at the Magic Kingdom, which was, in parts, magical, and long, very very very long. But really great, and memorable.

I'll have to put this one up again, because I love the early pink sky and because it's part of the story. I still can't believe that when we got on ferry to head over to the Magic Kingdom at approximately 7:32am, on the bench right next to us sat another family from our school!

Because we arrived so early, we got to do quite a bit, including taking a few pictures without hoards of other people in them!


The last time Alla was at Disneyland, she was three and a half, and we basically waited several hours to meet princesses and then that's all she wanted to do the rest of the day. We did a good job waiting til she was much older to go again, when her interests had broadened a bit. We did see Tiana, though, on our way to It's a Small World.

We escaped to Tom Sawyer island with our cooler for lunch on an open picnic table (imagine!), and I believe Alla will tell you this was her favorite part of the day, feeding this very friendly squirrel. Anyone who knows my daughter is not one bit surprised by this.

We were so excited to find out that a Mickey Bar is safe for Fisher! So he got busy eating his the proper way, and his sister tried to eat all the chocolate bit first, and discovered that when it's 85 degrees that isn't the best plan.

The Killins family consensus for favorite ride? The People Mover. Actually I've always loved that one, but was happy to see my people love it too.

Lest you think we didn't tackle the big stuff, though, we did, and here we are heading into Space Mountain with our 8:00 Fast Passes.

At some point you just figure, you've been up since six, you got there for Rope Drop, you made it through the warmest part of the day, Disney made a special Fisher-safe meal, and it's going to take awhile to get back to Main Street and monorail back to the car, etc., so we just kind of made a decision to stay, why not, and make an entire long day out of it and see the fireworks. But after that we hightailed it out and just crossed our fingers that the kids could keep up.

That was our magical day! But, no, we didn't want to go to anymore theme parks after that. We're good.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Ever have one of those days where you feel like you have just done nothing?

2. I have at least made a fresh batch of granola this morning, and organized the pictures I've just dumped from my camera.

3. We are very nearly out of wine.

4. I am seeing a pair of robins flitting about and hunting around for, we hope, their old nesting spot under the deck. They left this lovely one last year and we're hoping the next ones will be just as industrious.

5. Over the lovely Easter weekend Ron and I got to go out for a nice dinner at a two person table where he had a lobster grilled cheese with a fried egg on top, and I had a massive arugula salad with wild boar hot link. I mean, just getting down all those scrumptious words for posterity. Thanks Nana + Pappi for taking care of the kiddos!

6. We even saw Furious 7 after! I mean, so adventurous and hip staying up past midnight.

7. This afternoon is my volunteer time in Fisher's classroom.

8. Tonight's dinner = tacos and black beans leftover from last night.

9. Finished Everything I Never Told You, which was worthwhile, and I've moved on to Fish in a Tree.

10. Spring is here, I hear, but it's not super evident, and I'm very bundled up. I would like my book and a hot cup of tea, but alas I have to leave the house (see #7). Here's hoping it's colorful where you are!

The Florida Trip: part 1.

When the kids found out we were going to Florida, and leaving in two hours, they were immediately torn about what friends to bring. In the end, the very best ones tagged along and the rest spent a week on Fisher's bed reading books. They're no worse for the wear.

Meanwhile, we traveled from four o'clock in the afternoon, through a very long layover in Milwaukee, and landed in Florida around one in the morning. This here is pretty much what the kids did for all those hours.

Luckily when we got there, we had loads of time for cuddling, or, wrestling, depending on what it looks like is going on.

And eating outside. For like every meal.

Are you wondering where the Disney pictures are? Obviously I haven't gotten to those yet. There are about five million of them.

The pool at our condo, however, was almost as exciting. Needless to say, we spent a great deal of time there.

When we headed over to Downtown Disney to explore and pick up our Magic Kingdom tickets, we saw this awesome human statue. Do they have other, better, fancier titles? I don't know, but he was very cool.

 

And all the while, diabetes traveled with us! We brought a cooler on the plane, we brought it along for our entire Magic Kindgom day, to the beach, to the pool, to a baseball game. Every time Fisher needs to (wants to) eat, we stop, we check blood sugar, we give insulin. For lemonade, for French fries, for a Mickey bar, for an apple, for a sandwich. But it doesn't stop us!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. So ends another month, but this one was a spectacular month, a month in which we saw snow and rain and single digits and sixty degrees.

2. And also a month in which we were able to pull off the surprise of their lives!

3. I think you can feel the excitement and the amazement looking out at that very early pink sky toward the Magic Kingdom for this princess.

4. A month that let us relax together. In warmth. In Florida.

5. And also a month that celebrated the baby of the house turning seven. SEVEN.

6. Try as I might, I cannot seem to stop them from growing.

7. Here, his official 5:46pm photo.

8. In March I read three and a half fabulous books: If Not For This, Gracefully Grayson, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, and I'm halfway through Everything I Never Told You. I would recommend any of them to any of you, they are all outstanding.

 

9. In March, I added a new recipe to the repertoire of meals that every single person in our family likes a whole lot. Thank you, Elizabeth!

 

10. Thanks, March. Keep the goodness coming, April.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. We have a family bet about when the snow will be completely gone from our front yard. My guess is today, since it's been in the 40s and 50s since Saturday, and supposed to be 60 today. But that may be a long short for the parts stuck in the shade. I may have to start chucking it into the street.

2. Because of the nice weather I am anticipating putting on flip-flops later.

3. This has caused me to spend a significant amount of time getting my feet flip-flop weather.

4. All kid winter gear has been washed and hung and in my mind I'm hoping we're done with it til next winter.

5. The heat is off and the windows are open!

6. Book recommendations of the week: Just finished If Not For This (fantastic), and am now starting Gracefully Grayson.

7. I still have not read Gone Girl!

8. I have always wondered what grapefruits taste like in Florida or Texas. I have been to both of those states but not as a grapefruit lover.

9. Fisher's birthday is in 9 days. Apparently he's telling friends at school that he's having a party. News to me.

10. It's Tuesday, which means my afternoon in Fisher's classroom. I can't imagine the level of fidget that will be happening with all this gorgeous sunshine outside!

Spring fever.

We are just beside ourselves with the idea of 30s! 40s! 50s! in our immediate forecast. Right about now people are shopping for swimsuits and shorts and sundresses, but really it's just the thought of green grass, a sweatshirt you can leave unzipped, a carefree smile...that's all I need.

Teeth.

I've been editing.

 

Images from this year. Images from last year. Trying to keep up, maintain, get ahead. There are so many pictures. I often feel superior because at least I am taking the pictures. But there is so very much to be done after that. It gets overwhelming, it gets backed up, it piles high and gets ignored.

 

But I'm into the thick of it now, and uncovering gems.

 

Smiles are changing here. Last week both kids lost a tooth! Both!

 

This is Fisher last year, April, when he lost his first tooth, a bottom one, you can hardly see it here. Smile hardly changed.

 

This is Fisher last month with the first top tooth out.

 

Then he goes and loses the other top one a month later. Secretly I'm kind of glad. I was hoping for that big window on him, since Alla had one growing in before the other came out. It's once in a lifetime you know? Well, we hope. I mean the kid comes in with a bloody lip every other day having slid on the ice or gotten kneed or taking a ball to the mouth. Boys.

 

Ten on Tuesday.

(I know, it's Wednesday morning. Shhh.)

1. If you have not yet partaken in the Starbucks Flat White, I urge you to get one, stat. From what I've read, the Flat White is not a new Starbucks thing, but an Aussie/New Zealand thing of old, that perhaps Starbucks is even messing up. If that's the case, I would surely like to try a "good" Flat White, because these things are coffee heaven.

2. Snow! We got about three inches yesterday! Never thought we'd be so happy for three measly inches, but in a dry, dry winter, you take what you can get. It's all fluffy white sparkly everywhere again, as winter should be. We're still in the market for a good dumping, though, several feet if Mother Nature can manage it.

3. My dear book-loving friend Elizabeth sent me the most exciting news yesterday! Brian Selznick will publish a new book in September! This news must be completely forgotten, because September is a very long time from now, and these are not the months I wish to live quickly, what with birthdays and warm days and baseball and playing outside to do. Still, I will put September 15 on the calendar as a day to spend with that book as soon as it arrives on my doorstep. So I can beat the kids to it.

(I'm afraid I should have saved that bit for last, as I'm really not as excited about the next seven points.)

4. Finally watched the Parenthood series finale, and feel, as with all series finales, Why? It was (was!) such a wonderful show.

5. At least House of Cards returns at the end of the month, and there will likely be a season of The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy tucked into a Netflix envelope at some point as well, but zombies and biker criminals aren't really a good replacement for a terrific family drama.

6. Alla went to her knitting class last night and learned to knit in a circle, which means she can teach me!

7. How often do you run out of produce? It's about 3-4 days here.

8. I ran 48.9 miles in January. Me and the single digits are tight. But also, the warmer days (in the 30s), thank you.

9. On Monday before school, the children and I watched the live webcast of the book awards. You can see a list of all the winners here. I highly recommend I'll Give You the Sun, Rain Reign, and El Deafo.

10. I am slowing getting edited and uploaded bits and pieces of my Project 365, my first-ever (and only) photo-a-day-for-a-whole-entire-very-long-365-day-year. You can see these very few bits and pieces over on the photography blog. I can't lie, the sharing of them is going to be sporadic. I think I committed myself to the photo taking and didn't necessarily consider what all comes after that for three hundred and sixty five photos, but I'm getting to it in chunks here and there, so come back and check in. I'm excited to see the changes of a year, in photographs.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. New England is digging out from 3 feet of snow, yet here in Minnesota, in January, we barely have a dusting. More grass than snow. The whole entire point of winter is snow, so if it's not going to do that, it might as well be spring.

2. Fisher is having a visitor from Children's come to his class tomorrow to speak about Type 1 Diabetes. He is so excited about it being 'his day.'

3. While I was looking through photos to send to the representative from Children's, I thought I'd send along the link to the blog post where I wrote about his diagnosis. I had completely forgotten that there was a short video at the end of it, and oh my gosh my heartstrings. You can read the post here, and the video is at the end of it.

4. The weather here is downright balmy, which is contributing to the epic snowmelt. 30s and 40s are quickly becoming normal, instead of how we'd usually describe those temperatures in January: "hot."

5. Dinner tonight was the last quarter of our Christmas Eve meatloaf that we carefully freeze and save til we can no longer stand not eating it. Sad to see it go.

6. Alla was thankful, yes, for the delicious meatloaf, but even more for the mashed potatoes that so perfectly went with it.

7. That girl had her winter orchestra festival last night, and played lovely. I am hoping that she sticks with the violin.

8. Fisher is looking forward to his first chess club this Sunday at the library, and Alla is looking forward to her Advanced Knitting Class for the next two Tuesdays. Again, at the library. I love our library. There are always like fifteen things waiting for us.

9. I'm just going to say one more time that we would love a big storm. A real good dumping, crippling dumping of snow. We will stock up and stay put, and make fires and play outside. We live in Minnesota, so I feel like we deserve it.

10. So, Super Bowl this Sunday. I do not love football, like at all, but my family loves nachos. Nacho Sunday, then!

My Favorite Books of 2014.

In 2014 I read 58 books, and these are my 5-star picks. I am very happy that I get to sit down with my children at bedtime (Ron and I alternate reading nights, and each have our own book we're reading with them), because this allows me to read more books and push my own reading agenda.

Of the 58 books, 12 were books I read aloud to them.

43 were either middle grade or young adult, but most of those 43 were definitely middle grade. I love middle grade children's literature.

In my 5-star Top Ten here, all but two are either middle grade or young adult, five were read aloud to the kiddos, and two (Flora & Ulysses and The False Prince) were books I re-read from previous years.

Notes about some:

I'll Give You the Sun Goodness those chapters were long, which is not my preferred style of book, as it is harder to feel accomplished if you're endlessly in the middle of the chapter, but it was so worth seeing those two perspectives come together by the end.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and A Man Called Ove tied for my favorite books of the year, though I'll Give You the Sun was close behind.

It is really too hard to pick a favorite middle grade book, so I'll single out Rain Reign, simply because it is the only middle grade of the bunch that I read on my own, versus to the kids.

For read aloud, though, you really cannot go wrong with anything by Jonathan Auxier, and I have a feeling we'll be in withdrawal a bit this year without one of his splendid adventures.

I've now perused the Best of lists from all.the.places. and have made quite a ginormous list to read in 2015. It's quite laughable, however, when I compare the "official" to-read list with what I actually end up reading. Invariably, a kiddo will thrust something surely spectacular in my hands, or something new will show up on my radar, and every December I am left wondering why I didn't stick to my list? Why did I ever make the list?

Because for a reader, half the fun is in the discovery of new books, especially, with the goodness of Goodreads, as they appeal to others.

May 2015 be a happy reading year!

Ten on Tuesday.

(dusting off keyboard)

It's been too long, but there is something to be said for a break. Also Life proceeded whilst I was away from the keyboard, which means there's loads of back material there. Maybe that's the ticket. Just step away for awhile, live life, take pictures, come back and play catch up. I'll think it over, and in the meantime we'll just start 2015 nice and easy with a traditional Ten on Tuesday.

1. It's cold here. Thankfully Ron got me the perfect Christmas gift (from Etsy!), my very own Snock. Don't laugh, I'm toasty.

2. Due to the arctic temperatures, my skin is dry as a desert. Currently on the lookout for a new moisturizer that will make me look less like a crocodile. I wonder when companies formulate moisturizers for 'dry skin' if they really know what dry skin in a Minnesota winter looks like.

3. Over the Christmas break we watched season 1 of the wonderfully British Happy Valley. Highly recommend.

4. I also read two wonderful books, A Man Called Ove and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. Both highly recommend.

5. I believe my holiday photos are still on my camera, due mostly to #3 and #4.

6. Over the two-week break from school, I was rarely asleep before eleven (see #4), and rarely awake before eight. Consequently yesterday morning was quite a shock.

7. We saw two movies, Annie and Into the Woods. Rent the former, GO SEE THE LATTER. Soon.

8. Appetizers in front of a movie (Elf) on Christmas Eve works out very well.

9. One thing I love about December is the onslaught of Best of booklists. One thing I love about January is the forthcoming Newbery and other medals, so I can add even more books to my list for this year, which reminds me that my own Best Books list is forthcoming.

10. As I type this the temperature sits at three above and the windchill hovers at seventeen below, and I am hoping that our school district will close tomorrow and we can have a day at home to do, oh, all the random wonderful stuff we did for the last two weeks.

No shortage of books.

Tonight my lovely daughter told me, after learning that I had picked up new books at the library today, that If there were ever one thing we were short on, it would NOT be books.

Very, very true. We take books seriously here. We probably won't ever have enough bookshelves and baskets for them all. I spent a good chunk of my day at the very least thinking about what I'm reading or going to read next or when I can read again. I hope we are passing this on to our children.

They just finished these books: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (Fisher), and Magic in the Mix (Alla). Both recommended!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Whew! We made it to California and back successfully!

2. We went from flip flops and sweating while out for short walks, to Uggs and temps in the 30s when we landed at home two days later, to snow boots and gloves and back-breaking shoveling the next day.

3. The reunion itself was AMAZING. Can't say that enough, to be around people who you don't get to see regularly, and others you haven't seen since graduation, it was just so fun to catch up. If you happen to be in charge of planning your high school reunion, take some notes from the classy ladies that put on ours: a wine bar. Super casual (well I still had to wear heels, ugh!), lots of mingling, a slideshow (!!) of during and after high school, even gift bags. Seriously, girls, you OUTDID yourselves.

4. So, our flight was delayed coming home and we spent 3+ hours in LAX. In. Instead of out, where the sunshine was. Thanks a lot United. Speaking of which, I still have to go and claim my lame gift to try and make up for making me late picking up my children.

5. And getting groceries. No time for that Sunday night, it was 9:00 when they got to bed as it was. So we ate frozen peas on Monday. But today I shopped! The lady in line behind me at Target, as well as the cashier, both commented on the amount of produce I was buying. I admitted to them I really was starting at zero.

6. Spent 3 hours at the Honda dealer this morning having that airbag recall done.

7. Good thing I had a book: Orange Is the New Black.

8. Now that we're getting down to the end of the year, I've had to narrow down my to-read list, which means prioritizing what I can actually read before December 31, which means the following: Station Eleven, A Man Called Ove, and Rain Reign. I'd also really like to read Unbroken before the movie comes out, but let's face it, I'm going to see that on Netflix, so I have some time.

9. When you've just returned from a short trip, had a snowstorm that impedes driving, spent 3 hours at a car dealer, and then finally done the weekly grocery shopping, you need an easy meal: Crockpot Chicken Tacos, which assumes only that you have some defrosted chicken and a few taco-ish ingredients on hand.

       Brown salt and peppered chicken in a little butter and olive oil for a few minutes on each side. Place in crockpot. Add some chicken broth to the pan to deglaze. (I know it's an easy meal but this step isn't hard, so don't skip it or else you're leaving all those flavorful browned bits out of your taco dinner.) Add in some green or red salsa, stir into the broth and browned bits. Pour over your chicken in crockpot, add a little more salsa and mix around in the crock. Turn on high and leave for 3-4 hours. Serve, obviously, with your favorite taco fixins, which for us  are: cheese, guac, sour cream, red pepper slices, and SLAW. The slaw always makes the taco.

10. Lastly, thank you military service people, who are too many to list, but specifically my husband, my brothers, and my father in law.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Not sure what I feel best about today - voting, running, or selling (yes selling!) the kids' leftover Halloween candy. I can tell you what they were happy about. Earning three dollars eaches for that haul.

2. I went to the dermatologist last week and she told me my daily SPF 15 (that I love) was not cutting it and I needed SPF 30, so there's your PSA for the week: get your SPF 30 on every single day.

3. This weekend is my 20th high school reunion celebration. 20 years.

4. What I'm really thinking of is what I am going to read on the plane.

5. Alla found a new read that she says is going to be as good as Half Upon a Time. She can tell from the first chapter.

6. Dinner has been a nightmare lately. One kid hates soup. One kid hates chicken. I'm going to start eating dinner someplace else just to avoid the whole thing. Anyone want to invite me? I might have a few diet restrictions, too, though.

7. At least we have vegetables. In the regular rotation: broccoli (roasted), carrots (raw), beets (when I can get them, sliced and roasted), green beans (roasted), red peppers (raw), sweet potatoes (sliced and roasted with coconut oil and cinnamon). Of course the grown ups around here have a whole slew of other vegetables we like, so there's often a series of them on the table, but still I think we can expand our regulars.

8. Kids are looking forward to seeing Big Hero 6 this weekend!

9. Kids also have a 3 day weekend this weekend, lucky ducks.

10. The temps are dropping so I am no longer craving the iced beverages of summer. It is time for the Hot Toddy. Cheers!

Sunflowers are the best.

That gardening girl of mine got one lucky sunflower this year to grow big and tall in a pot on the deck, and didn't break when the winds came due to some yarn love. Next year we're hoping to plant tons of them, in the hopes that a squirrel couldn't possibly gobble them all. Until then, we have this beauty to brighten our days.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. It was a warm 80 degree weekend, and then Monday, upper 50s. It's in between time. Too chilly for shorts (I'm trying to convince Fisher of this), but snow stuff is a ways off (hopefully). We went from flip flops to Mom where are my mittens this morning.

2. I personally am now very glad I purchased that lovely fleece in the middle of the summer on sale. It really came in handy this afternoon.

3. This week I'm reading I'll Give You The Sun and it's so intriguing.

4. The school is putting on a musical this year, Annie, and I have a little girl auditioning on Friday! I think the boy in our house is going to get tired of Tomorrow before auditions, let alone the performance in May.

5. One of my jobs that I take very seriously in our family is Library Book/CD/Movie Requester and Picker Upper.

6. As such, it is on my calendar for October 1st to request all of our favorite Halloween reads.

7. I daresay the bathroom is done. Ron's favorite part are the cabinet drawers that catch when they're closed so they close ever so softly. Mine is the light in the shower. It's just everything being able to see in there.

8. Conferences tonight, eager to hear about my rotten children. Ha!

9. The latest request for a pet from our children is for a trained monkey.

10. Tomorrow is October. October is a wily month here in Minnesota. It can be warm, it can rain, it can be windy enough to shake all the leaves from the trees, it can s-n-o-w. Whatever happens, when we meet back here again on the 31st, it will be quite different here on our street.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. The bathroom is almost done. Just almost enough that all the pieces are in place but we can't yet use it.

2. A few images from our trip to the apple farm two weeks ago, where we bought those two pecks of Zestars, which are now gone.

3. Really the best part of any outing for Alla is the possibility of finding new animal friends.

4. We are having an extended run of 70 degree weather which is just phenomenal.

5. The school year is certainly wiping me out, and Ron has taken to calling me a grandma because I'm falling asleep by 9:30 every night.

6. Falling asleep so early means that it is very difficult for me to finish a book these days, even when I'm less than thirty pages from the end!

7. Oh how I cannot wait for Parenthood to start this week!

8. I'm just going to say it. I hate hashtags. Probably that's not going to help with my grandma status.

9. I've been working for months on a canvas with TONS of iphone pics on it, and it's almost done!

10. Well I'm off to Home Depot, such a fun place, to get door stops. Have a great Tuesday!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Fisher wins the prize for first cold of the school year.

2. We are in the throes of our bathroom remodel and it would be an understatement to say that we are greatly anticipating the completion of this project.

3. The kids and I just finished a fantastic book, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. Seriously amazing language. We're onto this author's second novel, and I'm hoping it's not too creepy!

4. In other reading news, Alla and I both just read All Four Stars, which we both wholeheartedly recommend!

5. It's September, which means there are three months left in the year to read books and still so many on my list!

6. Today I ran not only in sunshine but in warmth, so I say that for any day I can run in September in just shorts and a t-shirt, I am grateful. For any day that I am able to do so in October, I may run an extra mile and kiss the pavement.

7. Despite the warmish weather, we had lentil soup tonight, eaten al fresco, and it was lovely.

8. I'm going to have to make a product recommendation here, and it's for a pencil sharpener. Maybe you have a pencil sharpener, maybe you have a few. All you need is this one. My kids are excited about sharpening pencils, and the adults in our house are practically hyperventilating at the sight of such perfectly sharpened pencils.

9. With two kids in school all day, I get an extra day to help out in Alla's class, so I'm quickly getting to know all of her classmates.

10. The biggest news around here is my daughter getting her ears pierced! She looks stunning:)

One perfect day: Fisher.

If I had to pick one perfect day for Fisher, it would start with a breakfast of honey buttered toast and yogurt, along with the sports page, please. Then there would be exactly thirty minutes of reading, exactly thirty minutes of screen time, and then the entire rest of the day would be spent outside with the neighborhood kids playing and running for as many hours as the daylight would allow. And this is pretty much how summer went.

Found this gem taken the last day of kindergarten.

So, school this week has been a bit of an adjustment, but I think that, like most Americans, he has figured out to just hang on for the weekend to restore his very soul.

First day 2014.

Well there you have it, the first day is here and the summer is over. Even though I got them to laugh with a silly Fisher-invented joke, I'm pretty sure that they really feel more like the bottom picture. What are you gonna do? First and fourth grade!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Here we are, at the tail-end of summer, squeezing out every last drop, having all the fun.

 

2. Some days I think if I hear that front door open and close one more time I'm going to go completely insane. And then I remember that this time next week no one's going to open and close that door all day.

 

3. 'Round these parts, school starts the day after Labor Day. As it should be.

 

4. We recently spent a lovely week up north. 'Up north' loosely means north of the Twin Cities. We were approximately two and a half hours north in Breezy Point, which is a lovely little resort with all the amenities right there. It was our third summer there, and perhaps our best.

 

5. The kids "fished" daily, with nets, catching many.

 

6. I am letting my hair turn to straw.

7. This boy finally learned to pump! And he is pumped!

8. A week from tomorrow we are finally getting started on our bathroom renovation. If you've been to our house, you know how exciting this is!

9. I could no longer live where there aren't summer storms. They are just amazing...the lightning and thunder and hail and the hunt for rainbows. One evening we got a brilliant storm and as soon as the lightning stopped, all the neighborhood kids took to the street. Such happiness!

 

10. This is how I feel about the end of August, the end of summer:

 

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Summer. Busy but lazy. Perfect.

2. Alla has just finished From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and then Wonderstruck. I think she is wonderstruck! Seriously, Mr. Selznick, when will you be writing another book??

3. The kids are 75% and 80% through their Mama-made summer reading program.

4. Alla has discovered The Parent Trap, which I loved. She's on her second viewing in two days. We'll definitely have to watch the original soon.

5. This weekend we celebrate our twelfth wedding anniversary, and seventeen years together!

6. This is our last week of summer sports. I always look forward to the sideline time watching them play, and visiting friends. But then I'm ready to get our MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursday evenings back. Maybe go for an after dinner bike ride.

7. Summer has been perfect weather-wise. Cooler than most prefer, probably, meaning warm days but cool enough to keep the a/c off. Fewer beach/water park days, but less sweltering. Good trade-off I think. We seized a rare hot day this weekend, and hit the water park, where both kids did a lot of sliding, Fisher climbed, and Alla rocked the wave pool.

8. The neighborhood kids have a renewed love of chalk this summer, literally filling the street with the fruits of their drawing contests. We're almost wishing for rain just to give them a clean slate. Otherwise, we'll have to start taking over other blocks.

9. Alla has been taking a knitting class at the library. This new hobby is definitely a summer highlight for her.

10. We are headed up to Breezy Point in August, where the kids will climb the fire tower and fish off a dock with nets. See? Summer = simple.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. I've thought about doing a Ten for the past few weeks, but usually by the time I think of it, it's really not even close to still being Tuesday, or even Wednesday for that matter. Summer can be wonderfully lazy.

2. We have our second round of newly-hatched robin babies, so clearly summer is not lazy time for those guys.

3. Lazy summer means to me that we are gathered around the table while the breezes blow in through the screen, book pages fluttering, feeling slow. This is today.

4. The perfect summer dessert is a grilled peach drizzled with honey, homemade whipped cream generously heaped on the side. Must get more peaches.

5. We had a lovely Fourth, starting with a morning canoe on Silver Lake, and ending with taking the kids to see fireworks for the first time. Alla said they were "too pretty for words." Agreed.

6. We of course had our Ron Killins fireworks show at home first, though.

7. Alla started orchestra yesterday, and seems just perfectly suited to this responsibility. I hope that she'll continue to be excited to learn as the days (and years) wear on.

8. Ron and I are nearly done binge-watching the first five seasons of Sons of Anarchy and starting to feel the panic of it ending! At least we haven't watched season 2 of Orange is the New Black yet. Whew.

9. I started the new JoJo Moyes book yesterday and am feeling that this is a perfect summer read.

10. With that, we're off to the library for summer reading prizes, and then the Farmer's Market for (hopefully) something for dinner. These kids sure eat a lot.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Here we are in the second week of summer. The sun is hot, the day is bright. Truly the best days of the year.

2. Our first two weeks are full of swimming lessons in the morning.

3. Kids are busy being kids. Our true summer day is sandwiched between swim in the morning and sports in the evening. The down time is lazy and feels like summer should. A little bit of learning, a little bit of helping out around the house, and a lot of playing outside, Rainbow Looming, and even cross-stitching.

4. Lots of rain. The garden is growing!

5. It's been six summers now that we've done at least one summer (evening) sport, and by now I could have written a book on summer meals, yet every summer I wonder what's for dinner and when we're going to eat it.

6. On today's to-do list: make a 2014 block party flyer!

7. The kids and I finished reading Hoot after lunch today! How amazing is it to finish a book outside under the umbrella!

8. A sports update: Alla is playing soccer again, and Fisher has added baseball to his roster. It is great fun to watch both of them play.

9. This year for summer reading I made each of the kids a list of 20 books and if they read any ten, they can choose their own reward. They still have time to read things they have in mind, but are also being exposed to things they might not pick up otherwise. Case in point: on Fisher's list was Diary of a Wimpy kid, which we'd been suggesting for awhile but he didn't seem interested in. Well, he read that one first and now wants to read the whole series!

10. We have been taking advantage of our drive time to and from swimming by listening to our first audio book of the summer - Escape, which is about the life of Houdini. I would say the kids are interested in his 'tricks,' and Alla wants to find out how he died, but other than that it's reading pretty dry, so I'm looking forward to listening to something a little more energetic next!