We'll see

We may be getting a second house!

Will is trying to talk John into building him a tree house.

"You there....build me my tree kingdom!"

Will's Birthday!

We had Will's birthday party on Saturday.  It was his FIRST party to have friends over.  I meant to do it last year, but the weeks totally got away from me.  We had 3 of is friends from school over for a couple hours and they had a blast.  We played 4 games of "Joker's Playhouse" - a board game of superheros.  That literally filled up the first hour of the party.  (I was a little worried because I didn't have a lot planned out.)  They were all big superhero fans and all wanted to keep playing so that they could each be a different superhero. :)

Then we decorated little wooden treasure boxes that I picked up for the party.  We used markers, stickers and jewels.  They played in Will's room for 15 minutes, during which time they took out an electric fan.  Then we had donut holes, fruit, kettle corn, and ice cream. Honestly, I think the boys were quieter overall than the girls at Katie's party!

That blaze of fire is made up of the donut holes.

Will and his friends scrutinizing a superhero puzzle.

 

 

After Will's party we headed up to a friend's house to go swimming and visit.  It drastically had cooled off so weren't sure how the swimming would go - but their pool is heated and so it was warmer in the water than out.  The kids obviously had a blast - both went down the slide AND the diving board - even without goggles!

 



Almost birthday-eve

Tomorrow is Will's birthday eve.  We've had a countdown going for over 2 weeks now, so we are all a little excited to have it so close.  Thanks to Will's science camp, I got the presents wrapped.  Stay tuned for pictures. 

I was able to get out and do a semi-normal run yesterday with the dog.  He can go about 2-3 minutes and then I can tell he needs to walk.  But his legs are so darn long that my jogging pace is just his quick walking pace, so I think he can go farther when it isn't so hot.  If it's too hot tomorrow for him I may go alone and just walk him in the afternoon.  And the previous "commenter" is right - a dog walk certainly counts as exercise - especially in this heat.  But I don't reach that euphoric "high" that I get when I run for more than 20 minutes.  It's that "high" that kicks my bad energy in the butt.  I almost get there yesterday, but then cut it short in order to have a nice conversation with the neighbor across the street who was out walking.  That was a mood lifter on it's own too.

Today it rained this morning and that squashed our chances at getting out at all.  Swimming lessons started today.  Katie is on Level 3 - they had them jump off the diving board - without goggles (gasp!).  That's a first for Katie.  This is a Level that will be a good challenge for her.  Will is on Level 1, and I think he can do most of the things required of that level, except the back float.  His challenge will be listening. :)  But that goes for all of us.

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Here it is.  It's hot, it's humid and we are busy. :)

Will started science camp today.  It will be good for him to have to pay attention to a teacher for 3 hours a day again.  We start swimming lessons tomorrow.  The kids have gotten so much better at swimming - I'm very proud.  I tell people all the time that Katie and I are pretty much at the same level right now.  After this round of lessons I have a good feeling that she will surpass me.

I'm (trying) to work away like a busy little bee.  It is VERY difficult to keep the kids off the tv, iPad, and iPod during the 3-4 hours I try to work each morning.  Either I let them have an hour of that or I continually deal with getting interrupted every stinking 5 minutes.  This morning I have told Katie that if she lets me work for a bit, she can have the iPad while I take Hans for a jog/walk.

That's another thing - I haven't been running. At. All.  First of all, it's way hot.  But that doesn't really work for an excuse because I used to get up at 6:30 to run in the summer.  I was awake this morning very early and thought about it - but that didn't last too long.  It's fairly cool right now so I guess I better go do it.  It's hard to run with the dog yet - I'd still rather go by myself, but I don't have the time or opportunity to take him on a half hour walk and then come back and do a half hour by myself too.
I know that the exercise will help improve my mood and self image - it always does.  Damn it.