Pool Time

Today was a grey sort of day and yet the kids still wanted to go to the pool. Normally I go in with them, but it was only 81 and the pool’s temp was 87. Not exactly my kind of combination. So instead I sat in a chaise, called Meryl and then took pictures.

Rebecca had fun playing with another girl.


poolgirls
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Meanwhile Max did his own thing.


poolMax
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Jake was having fun playing with the other kids at the pool.


poolJake
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

And so was Nate.


poolNate
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Here is one more that I couldn’t resist, because it’s so cute.


Poolchat
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Rebecca stretched out beside the pool chatting with Max.

They all had a good time today. However we did have one little oddity when it was time to go. Normally I have to pry Nate and Max out of the pool, but today Nate was first to ask to go. Max then quickly seconded the motion. Jake and Rebecca meanwhile kept asking to stay just a bit longer. It was quite a switch in behavior.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

A couple of things overheard this weekend.

Larry was on the couch with kids watching some sort of kid friendly show. At one point a one female character turns to another girl and announces that a particular boy is cute. Rebecca’s immediate reaction was “No! Boys can’t be cute!” Larry responds “You’re right.”

I had on a streaming video on the computer that at one point featured some scantily clad pretty young things dancing. The first reaction from Rebecca was that they were “nakey.”  I pointed out that they were not naked, but wearing bikinis. Then they wanted to know why and I explained that this was filmed in the desert and it is very hot (which I admit is only a partial explanation.)  After a bit Nate announced that he did not want to watch the “hot girls” dancing. He did not like it and wanted nothing to do with the aforementioned “hot girls.” Rebecca meanwhile was enjoying the music and had no problems with the girls.

We’ll see how long those opinions last.

A Series of Tubes

Remember a little while ago when Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens made his now infamous remarks about the internet?

I loved what Meryl did and I thought that was that.

Fast forward to last week, while I was reading those fine folks over at The Llama Butchers I followed a link on over to Agent Bedhead where I ended up following a completely different link to The RCP Blog. (Yes I meander all over the place and click on all sorts of links).

And here is what I saw:


It’s brillant. As we used to say “I’ll give it an 85. It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.”

A Plateful of Summer

I thought I would end this week with a nice plate of tomatoes.


tomatoes
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

As I mentioned before, I like to slice them up, drizzle some balsamic vinegar, add freshly chopped basil, a dash of salt, and a bit of ground black pepper. I then let the whole thing sit for at least an hour.

Mmmm, now that is summer.

I have a mixture of traditional red tomatoes and yellow tomatoes. I love the visual effect of the two varieties together. The differences in taste are also heightened when you get to try them side by side.

I’m looking forward to dinner.

Oh and have good thoughts for Meryl. She is stuck in the hospital today and is itching to get out.

Child Labor

Sometimes it’s a good thing.

Today we did a little mulching of the front planting bed. The boys were having a very good time loading up Nate’s wagon with mulch.


mulch
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Rebecca was a little less enthusiastic and spent the first 15 minutes claiming she was tired and needed to lie down. But after I had a brief discussion with her about money and how if she doesn’t work she doesn’t earn anything, she came around.

We worked for little over an hour, which seems to be the limit for my work crew. They really did try their best and we had only one argument. It was over who got to use the pitchfork. I decided that they would take turns. After each wagon load they would switch off on the tools.

While the wagon was being loaded I pulled weeds from the driveway. Rebecca joined me and found her job. She would collect the pulled weeds in her bucket and dump them in a predetermined location. Max and Jake would pull weeds and load mulch, while Nate concentrated on the mulch. Everybody would join in when the mulch was spread.

It is a slow process with all my helpers, but they are learning about earning wages. Max already has his eye on a toy tank and is almost halfway there.

Artist of the Week: Rainbows

Yesterday I was griping to Meryl how it was too hot and I had a bunch of over amped children running amuck through the house. She helpfully suggested that I throw them all outside. I replied that it was too hot. They last about 5 minutes and come back in all crabby and overheated. Then Meryl suggested the sprinklers.

Oh yeah, we’ve got a sprinkler system.

Once I was off the phone I announced it was sprinkler time. Then there was a mad dash for bathing suits and bug spray while I turned on the sprinklers.

They had a great time.


sprinklerJaKe&Max
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Well at least the boys did. Rebecca only lasted about 10 minutes.

Anyway, Nate noticed that the spray from the sprinklers was making rainbows.


rainbow
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

He spent a good 15 minutes playing with the sprinkler’s stream to make even bigger rainbows. So Nate gets tapped as the Artist of the Week for his efforts in water refraction.

Update:
Sorry about the original lack of pictures. Blogger and Flickr were not on speaking terms earlier and I had somewhere to go.

Dog Days

It’s too hot.

When I let the dogs out this morning at 7:30 am it was already nasty outside. It’s hot and humid and it is only going to get worse as the day drags on.

John and Nate have the right idea.


John&Nate
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Just stretch out and take a nap in air-conditioned comfort.

Maybe we’ll go to Costco, but we will definitely not be doing any mulching.

It’s too hot.

Doughnuts

Our big event today was to head on over to Krispy Kreme and have some doughnuts fresh off the conveyer belt.

The hot light was still on when we arrived and we spent a good hour eating doughnuts, drinking milk and watching the donuts go by.


krisykreme
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

The high point of our visit was when one of the doughnuts got stuck in the conveyer belt.




It got trapped between two levels and was ultimately sheared in half by the pressure of the oncoming doughnuts. I wasn’t able to capture what happened next. The bottom half dropped into the tub of glaze below and the top half continued on with the rest of the doughnuts. The funniest part was that chunks of the fallen doughnut were sucked up by the glaze pump and we got to watch them rain down in the glaze “waterfall.”

It’s just nonstop entertainment here.

Meryl says I need to get out more with other adults.

Sleepwalking

My brother, when he was a child, used to sleepwalk. It was an uncanny thing. He would walk about with his eyes wide open, carry on conversations, go back to bed and in the morning be completely oblivious to his evening adventures. He, fortunately, never went outside, but would navigate staircases with ease.

Generally it wasn’t a problem unless we were visiting a particular relative’s house. My Aunt was very safety conscious and had an elaborate alarm system that had monitors on all the doors, windows and hallways. It was a huge pile of a house in an isolated location. When we stayed over she had to disable the internal alarm system or my brother would set it off during his night time wanderings. Mind you he didn’t wander every night, but it was a consideration when we stayed over.

Last night Jake paid us a little visit in the middle of the night.

We heard an anguished cry and then Jake shortly appeared in our room. Larry got up to console Jake and asked him what was wrong.

“Dad I couldn’t find you, I thought you should be by the shield generators.”

Larry: “What?”

“I thought you were by the shield generators.”

At that point I broke in. “Larry, he’s asleep. Jake is sleepwalking.”

As I led Jake back to bed I explained to Larry that my brother was a sleepwalker. Jake may look and act awake, but the Star Wars influenced statement was clearly from someone asleep.

When I tucked Jake in bed he quickly snuggled in and a small smile briefly played across his features before he settled into a more restful state of sleep. That confirmed he was sleepwalking. Whenever Jake is upset enough to cry out, it takes a very long time to calm down.

This morning he had no memory of his night time visit.

sleepingJake
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

In the Garden

Today I did some work in the front planting bed. It has been neglected and is need of some attention.

I admit I’m not the most ambitious of gardeners. I have a naturalistic approach with a Darwinian edge (if it dies it probably wasn’t meant to be there). I don’t like sculpted hedges and believe pruning should only be done to remove deadwood and maintain pathways. However I should still weed out the bed and throw down some mulch.

The main reason that I have been lax has been Rebecca. Previously, whenever I have worked out front, Rebecca would go on walk about. At first she would help out, but after a brief while she would hot foot it to the stream aka the glorified drainage ditch along our property. I would have to stop and drag her away. The water is usually not very deep, but it only takes a few inches. There is also an enormous culvert beneath the roadway for the stream and she loves to stand on the top and look down. This is what really scares me. It is a good five foot drop down to some very slimy concrete and jagged rocks.

Anyway, at four and a half she is finally old enough not to go wandering off.

So after dropping off Nate at tennis we came back home to do some weeding. Jake quickly understood the task at hand and was a good worker, but the wee ones needed a little more direction. For ¾ of an hour I got to listen to “Is this a weed mamma?” every five minutes. At first it was just Rebecca. Max was uninterested in helping out until I pointed out that this was an opportunity to earn some money. Then Max decided that he could indeed do some weeding.

We made some good progress even with Rebecca fading out after half an hour. She doesn’t handle the heat at all and I understand. Both Jake and Max were very helpful. We should be able to get the planting bed straightened in short order. Then we can do the fun part of spreading the mulch. Nate is looking forward to this and pled with me that we would not start doing it without him.

It’s Broccoli, Dear.

Nate is a really fun little guy.

beachNate
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Look at that dimple.

He loves going to the beach; running around, digging in the sand and frolicking in the waves. He hasn’t encountered a sport yet that he is not game to try. The folks at Peak love his enthusiasm. His baseball coach calls him sparkplug.

Fruits and vegetables, however, are another thing entirely.

He refuses to eat anything green. He grudgingly eats a couple of raw peeled baby carrots at dinner. Corn is one of the few veggies that he actually enjoys. He likes French fries and potato chips, but all other forms of the spud are no good. This includes *gasp* latkes.

With fruits we have a few more options. Clementines, apples and melons are acceptable. Sometimes grapes are all right. The rest of all the yummy fruits out there are suspect unless they are in jam form and safely tucked into a peanut butter sandwich.

Tomatoes (It’s a fruit! It’s a vegetable!) can only be eaten in sauce form, i.e. pasta or ketchup.

The tomato thing I can understand, I refused to eat raw tomatoes until about 10 years ago. I then finally got over the texture and learned to appreciate the taste of a fresh ripe tomato. Mushrooms, on the other hand, are still vegetable non grata.

Anyway, I wish I could get him to eat more fruits and vegetables. Jake was a very picky eater for years, but just recently he has started to broaden his food horizons. Maybe it’s an age thing and Nate will ultimately out grow it. For now I guess we’ll keep giving him vitamins and keep on offering him a variety of foods.

But until then, I keep thinking of this cartoon whenever I serve him vegetables.

Artist of the Week: Post-it Art

This week’s artist is Rebecca.

rebecca
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

This picture was taken at Nate’s baseball picnic. She was having a grand time playing with a girl just her age on the playground equipment next to the field.

Anyway, the piece in question was a little drawing she made a few months ago on a post-it note.

littlecreature
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

According to Rebecca “It is of a happy dog. His mouth is open because he is licking and is happy.”

When I pressed her for more details she that was enough. It is a licking dog.

I think it is a charming little picture. It almost looks like the dog has on a little hat. Most of her drawings feature a large creature/person with a small pet, usually a dog, at its feet. This is one of her very few pictures of a stand alone dog and one of my favorites.

How Does Our Garden Grow

The green beans and the cucumbers are really taking off. We even had a tiny little harvest of a handful of green beans last Friday.

I like our little garden out on the deck. You get to really see the plants grow and produce.

It is remarkable how you go from theses lovely yellow blooms

cucumberblossoms
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

to this funny little baby cucumber:

cucumber
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

The green beans have one of the prettiest blossoms

greenbeanblossom
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

and I love the beans they produce.

greenbeans2
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

They all look so fresh and tasty with the raindrops clinging to the leaves.

The tomatoes are not fairing as well. I blame the weather. We had a week of nearly 90 degree weather in early spring followed by a cold snap. The constant rain has also been a trial for my tomato plants. One looks stunted, but the other is struggling on. I give the stunted one another week or so and then I replace it with something a bit more robust.

What Kind of Princess are You?

What Kind of Princess are You? - Beautiful Artwork

The Noble PrincessYou are just and fair, a perfectionist with a strong sense of proper decorum. You are very attracted to chivalry, ceremony and dignity. For the most part you are rather sensible, but you are also very idealistic.Role Models: Guinevere, Princess Fiona (of Shrek)You are most likely to: Get kidnapped by a stray dragon.
Take this quiz!








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Well, I don't know about a strong sense of proper decorum and being attracted to dignity. I am a mother of three boys and girl with possibly the world's worst table manners. If you don't beleive me, go ask Meryl. The worst seat at meal times is directly accross from Rebecca. She regularly horrifies her 7 year old brother. That and I lost all dignity when I had twins. However I do like Princess Fiona from Shrek and I have a soft spot for dragons.

Anniversary Getaway

This weekend Larry and I went on our deferred anniversary trip.  Grandma and Grandpa graciously came down from Connecticut to watch our brood while we were gone.

Jake had spent the last week up at my in-laws and his trip was planned to end when they came down. Friday was interesting. Jake was suffering from a major case of what I call post-Grandma let down. He just spent a delightful week as an only child under the care of very loving Grandparents. He spent a fair amount of time on the bench that Friday afternoon. It was not outright rebellion on his part, he just needed to be reminded what his proper place was and what behavior was expected. By Saturday morning he was back in the groove. Then it was Larry’s mine turn to run away.

We didn’t go too far, just over to Charlottesville. We stayed at a very nice hotel that was at the end of the pedestrian mall in downtown Charlottesville.  This was not our first visit to Charlottesville. Five years ago we had spent a night at a very fancy B&B nearby and spent a few hours on the mall. I was hugely pregnant with Max and Rebecca so my walking abilities were somewhat limited. I was happy to just sit while Larry puttered about. I remember it being quite hot, but that may have been just me.

This time the weather was perfect, sunny with a light breeze and temperatures in the mid eighties. We had a lovely time strolling up and down the mall and eating outside at the outdoor cafes. Saturday night we even caught a bit of a concert being held at the Charlottesville Pavilion.  It was late when we reached the pavilion, so we only lingered for a short while. Our time was spent eating, napping, strolling and lazing about the hotel room. It was a very peaceful and relaxing way to celebrate 14 years of marriage.

Swedish Chef

I was perusing my referrer logs last night when I saw that somebody from Sweden had stopped by.  And what were they looking for?

Why my Swedish Sugar Cake with Ligonberries!

I thought it was absolutely hilarious that I am the number one website for Sweden Sugar Cake on what appears to be a Swedish search engine.

I out Swede the Swedish!

Rainy Summer Day

Today was a cool and rainy sort of day. When I awoke I heard the pounding of the rain on the skylight and realized that there would be no tennis today. We had signed up Nate for tennis lessons this summer and after two lessons he was hooked. So instead of tennis we messed around the house. Our only other commitment was to meet Aunt Meryl for lunch at our local IHOP. Meryl was initially concerned that Jake would be disappointed since he would not be with us. He has spent the past week at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. I pointed out that he was at his Grandparents. In Connecticut. Without his parents or any of his siblings. She conceded that I had a point.

Lunch was a very loooong affair. The food and company were good, but it took forever for the food to reach our table. Glacial is not an exaggeration. Rebecca and Nate had a snack before we left the house and were only a bit rambunctious. Poor Max, however was hungry. He kept twisting around and asking where was his food. Of course his plate was one of the last one s out. We won’t be patronizing that particular IHOP again.

As we were sitting there Meryl and I discussed what she might do with the boys this weekend. The subject of Cars came up when it suddenly hit me, Jake has probably seen it. After a quick call to the in-laws I found out they had indeed just seen the movie last night. Since the rest of the crew wanted to see it I figured now would be the time. The theater was nearby and we could just pop over after lunch.

Max wanted Meryl to join us and tried to convince to ask her boss for time off to go see a movie. He is a very perceptive little guy and the whole thing was very cute. Sadly she couldn’t and we parted ways. Meryl back to work and the rest of us finishing up lunch and figuring out when was the next show time for Cars.

I had just found out that we had eleven minutes to get to the theater when my phone rang. It was Meryl to tell us the next show time was at two. I told her we were already on it and that the theater was only two minutes away. We got in just as the trailers began. It was a bit tricky, but I found 4 good seats together in the darkened theater.

Rebecca wasn’t in the mood for it; she was jonesing for popcorn the whole time. The rest of us, however, had a very good time. It is a very cute movie, it works for both kids and their parents with good dialog and gorgeous visuals. I loved seeing the Tappet brothers in car form. The plot was straight out of Doc Hollywood, but that is not a bad thing. We will probably end up getting it on DVD at some point.

Oh and the best thing about seeing a movie on a rainy day, all three passed out in the car during the drive home.

Artist of the week: Duplo/Mega Blok Star Wars

This week’s artist is Max.

builderMax
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Anyone who has spent any length of time with Max knows he is very keen on the whole Star Wars thing. He loves talking about the movies and building star ships inspired by the movies.

This is one of his latest creations.

starwarsfighter
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

It is a Star Wars fighter ship.

Duplo blocks and the compatible Mega Bloks are a larger, little kid friendly version of Legos. The Duplo play sets available are generally limited to trains, farms and rescue vehicles. Mega Bloks are a bit more adventurous and we have a Spiderman and Friends set from them.

This limitation on official play sets does not deter Max. He watches his brothers cannibalize their Lego sets to create something new all the time. Thus inspired, he creates and builds his own designs.

As much as I dislike the mess created by the myriad of building blocks we have in the house and the pain from stepping on them, I do appreciate the creativity they inspire.

Happy Fourth of July!

flag
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

"The things that the flag stands for were created by the experiences of a great people. Everything that it stands for was written by their lives. The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history." -- Woodrow Wilson


flags
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Long may she wave.

Pony League Meets Minor League

Yesterday Nate’s baseball team got to go out on the field with the Richmond Braves. It is a neat little program that has the team go out with the R Braves during the National Anthem with the kids standing with the corresponding R Braves player at their position. They also got to meet a couple of players and get autographs.

Jake got to do it two years ago with his Little League team. His coach organized it and it was a huge hit with the kids. Larry thought it would be fun for Nate’s team and took it upon himself to organize it. There is a minimum purchase requirement of fifty tickets and I admit that I expressed doubt that we could get that many people together.

Boy was I wrong.

We ended up getting 84 tickets for the event. All but one team player was able to go.

The plan was that we would meet at the front of the stadium. While we milled about waiting for the team to be ushered on to the field Max, Nate and Rebecca climbed the stairs for this cute little photo op.

steps
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Then it was finally show time. The team and the coaches, all in uniform, were escorted to the field. The rest of the group was instructed to go into the stadium by the section near the home team dugout.

The first order of business was a team photo.

team1
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

And yes, there are five coaches in the photo. There are actually six for the team, but that was the one family that couldn’t come.

After a longish wait the players started to emerge from the dugout. Tony Pena was first out and one kid rushed up, at his father’s urging, clutching a ball. Tony was gracious enough to stop and sign, but he and the rest of the team that followed were first going to go warm up on the field. With a little wave he then jogged off.

Then it was autograph time. Some of the other families were a bit more prepared than us and their kids had balls for the players to sign, others used their gloves and hats. We realized our goof before our team was taken to the field and Larry had the excellent idea to buy a program. Larry would open up the page to the player’s bio and the player would sign there.

Tony then came back and had a true autograph session with the kids.

pena
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Then it was James Jurries turn to stop and sign his autograph.

jurries
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Even Rebecca got in on the fun and had Diamond Duck autograph her thunder sticks.

thundersticksdiamondduck
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

At this point Nate was really starting to feel the heat and humidity. Normally he doesn’t notice such things, but he was still a bit under the weather from his tonsillectomy. He rested against the wall while the team waited for the National Anthem.

waiting
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

At one point he even sat on the ground. Larry picked him up and held him while I went to fetch something for him to drink.

He is a tough little guy and he was able to run out with the team and stand with Martin Prado.

anthem
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Nate is on the left and is slightly obscured by Martin.

Meanwhile Max was crabbing all along wondering when he was going to be fed. He couldn’t care less about what was going on the field. He wanted food and he wanted it now.

Then the team ran off the field and we were rejoined in our assigned section.

I didn’t get to see much of the game. All I know is that the R Braves got trounced by the Charlotte Knights. The bulk of my time was spent getting food and ferrying children to the bathroom. But that’s alright; the kids had a great time. It was thunder stick night and they too watched precious little of the game. It was much more fun to whale on each other than to pay attention to what was happening on the field.

As the night wore on Nate perked up as the temperature dropped. That and the combination of a hamburger and Dipping Dots made him feel much better.

Concert!

Last Wednesday I got treated to a full afternoon of concerts.

poster
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

As you can see on Jake’s poster even Nate participated, which was remarkable because just that morning he had a tonsillectomy.

Originally it was just Max and Rebecca in their little combo “Rock and Roll little.” They set up a toy keyboard next to Max’s drum kit up in their room. Jake acted as a promoter and ticket seller. He made up both the poster and the tickets. Then he set up shop inside the easel downstairs and sold the tickets.

I happily went along with the game. I got my ticket and went upstairs for the concert.

The music was a bit, how shall I put it..., uneven. Max bashed the drums with enthusiasm while Rebecca noodled on the keyboard and sang disjointed words and sounds. I think they need to do a little more practice before their next gig. They are not ready to quit their day jobs, but it was very cute.

Once they were done I then attended to the pressing matter of laundry when suddenly I heard the piano downstairs.

Apparently Nate had woken up and had decided to practice.

After lunch I was rounded up for Nate’s concert. He elected to play piano and had a little stool next to him on the bench acting as a drum.

His performance was a bit more polished and melodic, but very brief. This was about what I would expect from someone who had studied piano for several years and was just recovering from surgery.

Afterwards we all had popsicles.

Nate is still under the weather, but he is quite a trooper. I fell bad that we put him through this, but he missed a ton of school last winter and this should help him stay healthy.

Hopefully he’ll be able to do a few encores after his next concert.

The Big One Oh

Today Jake officially turned ten years old. We had his party last Saturday at our local laser tag establishment, Laser Quest (they have a web site, but I found the site to be very loud and annoying).

Jake had three of his friends (Davis, Chris and Ian) at the party. They along with Nate, Aunt Meryl and Ian’s dad had a great time playing laser tag. Max and Rebecca are much too young and they have some sort of misty junk that is not good for people with compromised lungs.

Once they were done playing we settled down in the party room. While we waited for the pizzas to appear we noshed on leftover cookies and brownies from that mornings dog show. I didn’t intend to bring the leftovers; I had simply left them in car. But, it turned out they were nice to have at the party.

Once we were done with the pizza it was cake time.

b-dayboyJake
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

I got Jake half through blowing out his 10 (!) candles. I can’t believe it has been ten years.

We had a great time at the party and it was very pleasant, except for one thing. 10 minutes before our time was up an employee poked his head in and said he would be happy to help us clear out in the next few minutes. Nooo, we still had 10 minutes before we were scheduled to leave. Larry, in fact, looked him straight in the eye and confirmed this. The guy nodded and left the room. Ten minutes later we were done and out of the room exactly on time. It would have been better if he just gave us a 10 minute warning and not tried to push us out before our time. Otherwise it was tons of fun.

Today we continued our tradition of cake for breakfast and otherwise had a quiet day.

Happy birthday to my big boy.

Artist of the Week: Rain

The past day and a half we got a boatload of rain. The rain came down with such force that it blasted the soil out of our little egg carton nursery forcing an emergency transplantation of Rebecca’s asters into a more substantial container. The poor little things were floating in pools of water with their roots wholly exposed. I popped them all into the remaining flower box and so far they are doing alright.

Yesterday we got the bulk of the rain. It alternated with gentle sprinkles with torrential downpour. Meanwhile I had four active children trapped inside and itching to do something.

I decided to send them outside.

It was warm outside and the rain was warm too. Also there hadn’t been a rumble of thunder all day.

The three boys charged out and even little Miss Rebecca danced outside for a moment. Of course she came right back inside, complained about being wet and changed into dry clothes.

Jake, Nate and Max, however, had a wonderful time playing outside in the rain. At one point Nate’s shorts were so waterlogged that they kept slipping to his knees.

wetboys
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

wetboys2
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

All three are so wet it almost looks like I turned a hose on them.

When I was taking these photographs it was raining so hard you can see it in the form of vertical white streaks.

Oh and the plants in the box behind them, those are Jake’s green beans. They are doing very nicely.

Suburban Olympics

The 100 yard recycle truck dash.

Yesterday morning I was enjoying our first true morning of summer vacation, we had no commitments and we could take our sweet time getting up.

After the kids were fed breakfast I went back upstairs and lolled about in bed. After a long while I heard a noise, the distinctive sound of a large truck coming to a stop on our street. As I listened to the whoosh and screech of the brakes I wondered why a truck was on our street. It was an oddly familiar sound.

Then it hit me, today was recycle day and that was the truck.

Ack!

I hurriedly changed out of my pajamas and rushed down stairs. I jammed shoes on my feet and dashed out to the garage and grabbed the recycle bin. The kids were stunned by my rapid appearance and subsequent disappearance. They asked my retreating form what was going on and I replied “recycle truck!” and ran down the driveway with the bin.

The truck was out of sight at the end of the cul de sac. I dropped the bin next to the mailbox and sprinted back for the bags of paper.

Jake and Rebecca, meanwhile, had spilled out of house and were watching me in wonder. As I approached the garage I told them to move aside and for once they listened. I tore through the garage and into the house. I leaned over the gate blocking the entrance to the dining room and grabbed the two bags of paper. A few sheets fluttered to the ground as I whirled around and retraced my mad dash back to the mailbox.

I reached the end of the driveway just as the truck came to a wheezing stop. After our bin was emptied I handed over the bags. The man thanked me and asked if I needed to get more. I replied no, this was it.

He nodded his head and we went our separate ways.

Whoot! I had beat out the truck!

In reality I could have hauled it all to the dump myself, it’s not that hard.

It was just another day in suburbia and the Suburban Olympics.

Soccer Camp Wrap-up

I was looking over my latest batch of photos from soccer camp and I thought I would share this final batch with y’all.

I love this picture of Max in action.

Maxgoal
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

He is in mid-stride and is completely off the ground along with the ball. He has such wonderful expression of concentration. He is going to make that goal!

Here are two photos from a scrimmage on the last day. In the first one you can see how hard Nate is trying to reach the ball. He is at top speed and is bending towards his objective.

soccernate2
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

In the next picture I captured Jake in mid-stride.

soccerjake2
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

I really like it when I get a photo of them with both feet off the ground when they are running.

And here is my last photo from camp. It is of my three campers and the two coaches, Craig and George.

soccerboys
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

As you can tell by Jake’s expression he was less than thrilled with the photo session, but I didn’t let that stop me. All five are in their hot, sweaty and very grubby glory.

I think they all had fun the past week, even though the temperatures were well over 90 for a good portion of the week.

So Tired

I was completely wiped out today.

I admit it was partially my own fault that I was functioning on a bit of sleep debt, but last night was not my fault.

For the past couple of days I have been going to bed much later than usual because I had a bit of baking to do. Since I was spending my days in Dinwiddie, I had to do everything at night. Thursday night I baked the cookies, Friday I baked and frosted the two cakes. Normally two cakes wouldn’t be a big deal but I discovered just as I was making the first that I was one egg short for the second cake. Of course the second cake was the one intended for the next day’s specialty dog show and I had to be there bright and early.

Dang.

And of course this was just a few minutes before 11:00 pm. By the time I would get to the market it would be closed. Waiting until morning was not an option. I needed to be at the show site by 9:15 am. There is no way I could buy eggs and then bake and decorate a cake. I was stuck. However I could try the quickie marts, they would still be open and there was a good chance they would have eggs.

The first one was a bust. It had plenty of milk, ice cream, beer and soda, but no eggs. Then I remembered the Wawa that was about a mile away and decided to give it a shot. When I first went in I found the snack packs of two hard boiled eggs, a nice quantity, but not in a usable form. Filled with despair I rounded the corner of the dairy case, my egg buying options were running out. Then I saw them, the eggs, in all their glory. The four boxes were tucked in the lower left hand corner of the display case. I scooped up one and quickly made my purchases. Wawa had saved my bacon.

Back home I finished up Jake’s birthday cake and then started the second cake. At the same time I was making two batches of frosting. Orange for Jake and chocolate for the dog show. Fortunately the rest of the evening went without incident. I was able to bake, cool and frost the two cakes. I was even able to fit them in our garage fridge. This would harden up the dog show cake's frosting and would give me a better surface to decorate in the morning.

The next morning, Saturday, I was up by 6:15 am. I staggered down and whipped up a double batch of brownies. They would be still warm and lovely at the show. Once they were in the oven I decorated the cake. I decided the club’s logo would be the way to go. I printed out a copy and used it for reference as I freehanded the design on the cake.


dogshowcake
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

All in all I think it turned out pretty well. It’s not perfect, but then again I not getting paid for it. Then it was time for a quick bath for John.


wetdog
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

He looks like a sad little hound when he is wet in the tub.

And a quick shower and change for me.

The cake and the luncheon was a success and we were all done before 1:30 pm.

Good, I would be able to haul all the leftovers and dog home and get to Jake’s party only 15 or so minutes late. Which was about what I predicted, Larry and I planned that he would take the kids to Laser Quest and I would met up with them with the birthday cake. The schedule for the party was two rounds of laser tag, and then we would have the party.

It all worked out and the kids had a great time.

That night I made a serious effort to get to bed at a decent hour. I had to be up early Sunday for another dog show. My ring time was 8:00 am. Ugh, but at least the car was already packed, the dog was clean and I didn’t have to worry about bringing food for a party.

I was happily tucked in bed when I was awoken by Max’s voice.

“Mama my blankie is filthy.”

“Wha..?”

“My blankie is filthy.”

“Alright, bring me your blankie.”

As his steps faded away I glanced over at the clock. It was 3:30 am. I desperately hoped that the filthy blanket was a figment of his imagination.

Max’s thudding footfalls heralded his arrival. I blearily held out my hand and Max placed his blankie in it.

It was a sodden mess.

My heart sank. My dream of a decent night’s sleep slipped away as I went down the hallway to check out Max’s bed. It too was soaked. I then had the special joy of stripping a bed and then remaking it in the wee hours.

After Max was tucked into a clean bed with new pajamas I dumped the soiled linen in the tub and went back to bed.

Waking up was painful. I so wanted top go back to sleep, but I had paid my entry and the judge was a good one. I really did not want to miss out.

So I got up and pressed on.

Once I got moving it wasn’t so bad. I was able to get out and to the show in plenty of time.

The funny part was when I was ready to go. I told the dogs it was bed time and Crunch and Rally dutifully went to their crates. John, however, danced to the garage door. After one show he figured out if I was all dressed up it must mean a dog show.

He’s no dummy.

At the show he was full of confidence and even tried to get up on the table when it was his turn, just like his daddy, Crunch, used to.

He didn’t get any points, but he did look good.

We were done in short order and home by 9:45 am.

I was drawn out and exhausted. After lunch and a few chores about the house I finally collapsed in bed and got a nice nap.

I’m still tired, but not as wiped out as before.

Baseball and Coaches

Yesterday we had the two soccer camp coaches over for dinner (spaghetti and meatballs a perennial favorite in our family) followed by a baseball game. It was a make-up game for Nate’s team and the last one of the season.

It was a perfect night for baseball, the temperature had dropped to the low eighties and the bugs were not out in force. All we needed were hotdogs to make it a classic baseball experience. We arrived just after the game had gotten under way. Since Larry was on the field coaching, it was up to me to give the guys an explanation of what was going on.

Fortunately I like baseball and I have even played softball, so I do have a clue.

Sort of.

Anyway, when we arrived Jake promptly disappeared to the adjoining playground. Max and Rebecca, however, were stuck with watching the game. I wanted to actually watch the game and be able to answer any questions our British guests had. Of course I had to take pictures too.

Here is Rebecca with George. She got mad at me when I snapped this. She wanted to take the pictures, not be in the pictures.

George+Rebecca
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

“No pictures!”

Max was a bit shy at first, but warmed up to the idea that he was with Craig, who had hair just like him. He asked Craig to sit next to him at dinner for just that reason. (It’s hard to be the only blond in family with otherwise very dark hair.)

Craig+Max
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

There is such a cute smile on Max’s face.

But I digress; we were there to watch baseball.

Shortly after we arrived Nate stepped up to bat. I was able to catch him just after he hit the ball and was stepping off towards first.

Nateatbat
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

You can just make out Larry; he is the first base coach.

The team had a good night and our Nate was 3 for 3 at bat. Not bad for a kid who had been careening about a few hours earlier at soccer camp in 90+ degree weather.

Afterwards we brought out a full sized bat to give the guys a chance to learn how to hit.

First off Larry gave them a brief lesson on how to hold the bat and proper foot position, then it was time to play. George was first up and promptly smacked the ball to the outfield.

Georgeatbat
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

It was a very impressive showing for someone who had never played before. He even had a fairly level swing. At one point he said “I’m going to chuck soccer, this is easier.”

After quite a few solid hits from George, it was Craig’s turn. For whatever reason, I was unable to take a decent picture. Then I remembered that our new camera could also be used as a camcorder.

So I present to you Two Brits Playing Baseball.

George is pitching to Craig. The voice you hear is me with the added bonus of Nate’s appreciative shout when Craig knocks one to the outfield.

Both of them had a good time watching the game and had a wonderful time hitting a few balls afterwards.

Artist of the Week: Magna Doodle

This week’s artist, as per Meryl’s request, is Max.

doodleMax
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Most Thursdays Max, Rebecca and I get together with Aunt Meryl for lunch. Sometimes it’s fast food, sometimes it’s pancakes and more often or not it is in the cafe section of the “the good Ukrops.” Not all of the cafes at the various Ukrops are created equal. The one closest to Meryl’s new job is particularly bad, but if you drive 15 minutes further you find yourself at a particularly good one hence the nickname.

Last week we met at “the good Ukrops” for lunch. Afterwards we across the parking lot so I could return a DVD we had borrowed from her. It was a trek since I like to park in the shade. It’s worth the longer walk to avoid having the interior of the van becoming a blast furnace.

Anyhoo as I rummaged around the interior of the van to dig out the DVD Max showed Meryl his latest creation on his Magna Doodle. Meryl was quite impressed and told me, nay insisted, that Max should be the next Artist of the Week.

So here is Max’s creation:

Maxdoodle
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

As I recall it was one of his epic Star Wars creations. I’ll update this tomorrow when I have a chance to talk to the artist about his piece.

Here We Go Again

This week is shaping up to be another baking week.

I have my dachshund club’s big specialty show on Saturday morning AND Jake is having his big 1-0 birthday party later the same day (Eek, he’s going to be double digits!)

It is customary for the hosting club to put out a bit of a spread during a specialty show and my club is not the exception. As usual, I volunteered to bake a few cakes. Last night (Monday) I got a call from the member organizing the food. He wanted to know what I was bringing (he completely trusts me, since I saved his bacon last year by making an extra cake). I told him three cakes and then we started to chat.

At one point I made a comment about baking cookies and he started to rhapsodize how great it would be if we could have mini-chocolate chip cookies. Well duh, I can do that. So we changed the three cakes into a double batch of cookies, brownies and a sheet cake for good measure. Which is all very easy for me.

Then there is Jake’s birthday cake. He, once again, wants an orange cake. We haven’t discussed how to decorate it, but it’ll be something simple. He is not into fussy cakes.

So starting tomorrow, it will be bake, bake, and bake.

Of course it would be during one of the hottest and nastiest weeks we have had so far.

Dinwiddie Days

This week the boys are all at soccer camp, even little Max is going to the 1 ½ hour mini-camp. Rebecca, in light of her less than enthusiastic performance in her first (and possibly last) soccer team, is only going along for the ride and is not participating.

The camp is being held in Dinwiddie County, about 30 minutes from our house. Last Friday I got a desperate call from the organizers wanting to know if I could possible take in one of the coaches for the week. The coaches are from the UK and they tour around the US all summer long going from camp to camp, staying with host families.

I said it was a possibility, but I have to talk to my husband first.

Well, after a brief call to my husband I called back the folks at Challenger Sports and said we were willing, however...

1) We have four kids.
2) We have three dogs.
3) We live a fair distance from the location of the camp and...
4) We have four kids.

This didn’t seem to faze them and it was arranged that we would be hosting one of the two coaches.

At this point I’d like to mention that it was arranged that we would meet the coach at 6:00 pm on Sunday at the soccer fields.

On Sunday we got ready for our guest and went to the meeting point.

Where we waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

All the while I was checking our home voice mail.

Finally we got a message at about 7:15 pm.

He was an hour away and could we please call him at the following number.

The number was no good.

At that point we bagged the whole thing and went out to dinner

Well it turns out that the poor guy was fried, having just gotten stateside the day before and then subsequently driven down from Baltimore. The main office had told him that he would be dropping off his partner with the other host family and then head over to our house (this was news to me). They had arrived late at the first house, determined that the two houses were too far apart and decided that they would both stay put.

So the new plan is they will stay half the week with one family and then spend the rest of the week with the other family.

Okay, that works for me. We can stick our air mattress in the guestroom and they can figure out who gets the bed.

Anyhoo, today was the first day or soccer camp.

The boys had a very good time and I got this fantastic shot of Nate just after he tried to kick a goal.

flyingshoe
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

As you can see his cleat came flying off. Sadly the ball did not go in the goal, but I got this great picture instead.

The coaches seemed to be a nice couple of guys and they interact well with all the campers. At one point Max buttonholed one and they had a very long conversation about Star Wars.

max&coach
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

The coach really paid attention to Max and did not just brush him off after a few minutes. It takes a fair amount of patience to really listen to a four year for any length of time.

We will be spending the rest of the week in Dinwiddie (I love saying Dinwiddie, typing it is fun too). It’ll be hot this week, but it looks like it’s going to be fun.

Happy Fathers Day!

Almost ten years ago Larry became a father for the first time.

Here he is with an infant Jake.

Today Larry is an experienced dad of four.

So what did he get to do?

He got to buy paint all by himself without any little helpers in tow. Then he got to use the paint without any assistance from various small people.

Next he got to watch a little World Cup action and take a short nap with Nate.

There was also an unfortunate hour and half wait for a soccer coach that never showed, but I’ll write about that later. At least we were able to go out and have some tasty Mexican food for dinner before I spooned all the kids into bed.

Normally I handle just Max and Rebecca and Larry takes care of Jake and Nate. But today he got to skip the excitement of putting the boys to bed. Lord knows some nights it can be a challenge just to get them to brush their teeth, much less get into bed, but by 9:15 they were all tucked in.

So for all you dads out there, I hope y’all had a good father’s day.