Boring.

You guys, seriously.  We are having such a wonderful, relaxing summer that I have NOTHING to blog about.  We lie around the house.  We play outside.  We shuttle the boys to golf, swimming, T-ball, Little Gym, dance, and play group. We go to the pool.  We grocery shop and grill stuff.  We eat frozen novelties.  That's it.  That's what we do.

See?

Today, I had to go to campus to give a talk on public speaking at a women and leadership symposium.  It's always daunting to talk about public speaking because you have to be really polished and speak well (duh).  Today, on my way into the building, I happened to glance at my phone and I saw a picture from Ben of Jack covered in blood, lying on the kitchen floor in his underwear bleeding from the face.  "Everything is okay." said the caption.

I called Ben immediately.

The kids were changing out of their swimsuits after swim lessons while he made lunch.  Jack has been super whiny lately, and Ben heard him screeching in the basement and figured he was freaking out because it was time to turn off the TV, and Jack HATES the end of TV time.  Jack's whine noise moved toward the stairs, and Ben told him if he couldnt stop screaming he wouldn;t get to watch anymore TV all day.

"But Daddy I am bleeding," he said.

Apparently, Harry kicked Jack in the nose when Jack tried to pull of Harry's sock.  The blood stains on the bottom of their socks support this theory.

After I hung up the phone, I walked into the large auditorium where I was slated to speak and discovered that I left all my notes and the jump drive with my presentation on it in my office.  My office, a 7-minute slog through 95-degree weather.  My building, guarded by fist-sized wasps at every door.  So, I winged it.  BRUTAL.

Tomorrow, we hope to enjoy more of the nothingness that is summer.  Sorry we're so boring.

Another Awesome Weekend

Ben's old roommate and duo partner, who was also my lifeline from home in Oxford, Ohio, when we were both at Miami getting our MAs, got married at her parents' house in Illinois, and Ben, Cooper, and I went to the wedding.  She very graciously invited all 3 kids, but we left the big ones with my parents (thank you, parents!) because we figured it would be easier for us to talk to our friends with only one kid.

Spoiler alert:  We were right!  Cooper was the best! baby! ever! He was pleasant and quiet during the ceremony.

 After dinner, at his normal bedtime, Ben walked him around the golf course until he passed out, and he slept in his stroller in the middle of music and laughing and clinking glasses for 2 hours:

When he woke up, he sat on my lap outside and snuggled up against me to sleep some more while I talked with old friends in the firefly-speckled twilight.  So sweet I have 2 pictures:

Ben and I were so thrilled to be showered and coiffed and dressed in new clothes that we took a thousand selfies.

It was a lovely ceremony-- under a tent with wildflowers hanging and program fans, with cool breezes ruffling skirts and birds singing in old, lush trees.

Before the ceremony, I talked with friends seated near about what the bride's dress would look like.  I knew it would be cool because Alison always looks cool-- she's naturally gorgeous and knows exactly what to wear.  Sure enough, she had a dress made from 2 vintage patterns, a sleek french twist, and a romantic veil:  super cool and beautiful.

Not only did we take lots of selfies, Ben and I also took turns taking shots of each other with Cooper.

And of Cooper in his cute little sweater and shoes (navy blue deck shoes, not that you can tell from this picture).

Cooper, by the way, had an awesome time, clearly

So did we!  Here we are at dinner, where I was fooled by the frosted glass that held my vodka tonic.  I thought the frost line was the drink line, and I downed the whole drink in under 2 minutes because I kept thinking I had barely drunk anything.  Ooops.

All of the original Girls Night girls who were at the wedding posed on the putting green and in the photo booth (Ben and I got married before the photo booth trend, which bums me out)

Here's a great shot of Ben and his old roommate Dana:

After the wedding (which we left early because we are old and lame and have a baby), we went back to our room, which had an awkward jacuzzi next to the bed.

Even though I hate herpes, we decided to soak our feet in it.  Cooper was intrigued

So we included him

Soon after, he lost the status of best baby ever by not going the eff to sleep until after 11 and waking up at 5:40.

This morning the big boys were happy to see us, and I am pretty sure my parents were too.  We lunched at Steak n Shake (yes, again):

Cooper and my mom and I went back to my parents' house where I used my mom's Dyson to clean out the van and the kids' car seats, which was deeply satisfying in a way I can't quite explain.  We also went to an open house across the street from my parents', and oh my goodness would we love to buy that house!  Too bad we already own 2 houses.

Cooper and my mom played

Ben, my dad, and the big boys went fishing, and Jack caught his first fish

Home tonight, we reflected on a lovely trip and thought for the millionth time that college friends are the very best.

Home School

Right before Memorial Day, Harry's teacher sent home a scary flyer about how much information students lose over the summer that encouraged us to work on math and reading skills at home to make sure our students were ready for school in the fall.

And then Harry's class stopped learning anything.

Seriously, they replaced literacy centers with eating watermelon and spitting the seeds on the playground and played with wet sponges during math time.  We parent volunteers got to stop volunteering, but we had to be sure to send our kids to school with bubble gum for bubble blowing day.  WTF??

Maybe if schools didn't assume that summer was going to rot our kids' brains and kept, um, learning, for the last 2 weeks of school, kids would not equate summer break with mind candy, huh?

Anyway, we heeded the flyer's advice, and H and J are elbow deep in workbooks, journals, and library reading lists. We have a lovely time after breakfast doing a few pages of Harry's kindergarten-to-first-grade bridge book and Jack's little "preschool scholar" books.  Then Harry reads to us for a little while, and both kids write a journal page-- something fun they did or something they have learned-- Harry's has words and pictures, and Jack's is just pictures.  So far the kids love it, but I absolutely do not have the patience or the technique necessary for for-real homeschooling.

Here's Harry in action: 



Cooper FINALLY got to go to Little Gym for a baby class. It went terribly-- I carried his out of the building when he became a screamy ball of screams at 9:35. Naptime. 10 minutes before class ends. Scheduling FAIL. He also went up to all the other babies and smacked them in the head/bang/eyebrow area and yelled "Haaaaaa!" which is his Frankenstein way of saying hair. That went over huge with their parents, as you can imagine.

 I have been obsessed with making Shutterfly photo books. I decided to start making the kids each one on their birthdays, but after I put Harry and Jack's together, I realized they need to have photo books starting from babyhood, so I have been pouring over 6 years of pictures on external hard drives trying to condense each year into about 20 pages. Tedious and fun!

Next week, I need to go to campus a lot-- one day to meet with my intern, one day to attend a super long workshop, and one day to speak at a women and leadership symposium. That's going to seriously cut into my pool time.

 Look! It's Jack pushing mini-Jack!

Everyday's a Saturday for Academics in the Summer

We spent Father's Day at a cute little kiddie amusement park in a neighboring town. I have no idea why we've never been to this place before, but we will definitely be back. It's like a stationary carnival, and you know we love to roll around in the dirt and flush $100 down the toilet carnivals.

Cooper hates sunscreen.  Creepy cemetery behind the rides, no?

Jack looked nervous when they boarded the kiddie coaster

I have no idea why so many adults rode the kiddie coaster, but I am pretty sure that's why it broke later that day and this guy had to mount the track to fix it.

He liked going up the hill

And LOVED going down

Tiny kiddie Ferris wheel

They rode a creaky wooden roller coaster with Ben (Jack rode twice) and totally dug it

Cooper hated the whole outing and sobbed most of the time until we left

More creepy cemetery

Really the pictures don't do this place justice-- it was really kitschy and cute, and the big boys loved it. We took a break from the 91-degree weather to drive Cooper around in the air conditioned car until he passed out. The we walked around for another hour or so letting the kids ride all the tiny rides solo while he slept in his stroller (he woke up so angry and sweaty). Ben took the boys on the big roller coaster and the Tilt a Whirl. I mostly manned the screamy baby but did ride the merry-go-round. But don't feel bad for me-- I actually hate rides and am happy being the person who holds everybody's crap and takes pictures. Only the crap I was holding was a person, and it was too hot to pull out my camera or do anything but sweat and complain.

We finished the day at the pool where I fed and bathed the kids.  SO. LAZY.  We came home and stashed them in their beds so Ben could grill for Father's Day (shut up-- he loves to grill) and we could drink wine on the deck, our favorite thing to do.

Today I woke up with a huge case of the Mondays until I remembered it's summer, and every day is a Saturday.