5 on a Friday: THE NEST IS EMPTYING WHAT (35/52)

 1. IS THIS THE LAST NIGHT ALL 5 KIDS ARE AT THE POOL FOR THE FINAL WHISTLE?

2.  Not only can Jack go get our first PSL’s of the season, but he is also committed to driving Dorothy from school to dance one night a week. THE TIMES ARE A-CHANGING.

3. The BLUE BAGS are packed and some have even been already unpacked in his dorm (you could move your stuff in early for a small fee, which is so cool when real move in happens on the way to a family wedding and you have 7 people in your car).

The pre-move move was clearly very sweaty. Also he is sharing a room smaller than Dorothy’s with a whole- ass other grown person. For 20k a year. COLLEGE IS WILD.

4. Dorothy is also growing up. No mini dances this year and some serious big kid tapping. She went to an awesome intensive in the Chicago burbs and had a blast and learned a ton.

It was really hard

5. And don’t even get me started on Minnie! Who is all of the sudden into CHAPTER BOOKS at bedtime. My heart can’t handle all of this at once.

Bonus random tidbit: saw this hat in the juniors section at Von Maur today and really missed my dad

Big Feelings

 SO MANY FEELINGS.

I am so thankful for this wonderful blogging community. I had a core group of blog friends who stopped blogging when their kids got big (but I just kept having more kids), and I was mostly OK with a smattering of comments and emails from internet friends here and there for year. BUT THEN. Elisabeth started commenting here, and through her, I found so many wonderful writers and new friends. AND I AM SO GRATEFUL, especially now because Harry is leaving, and I have SOME FEELINGS about it. It is wonderful, for example, to hear Nicole and Jenny tell me how hard it is going to be and sort of give permission for big feelings. And to have Ernie assure me that kids grow up and still need you and everything is FINE even if it doesn't look like it always has. And to hear from old blogging friends like Maya and Julie and Allison who also prove that there is life and joyful connection on the other side of kids growing up.

I am feeling very Golden Girls about all of you (I want to be pretty like Blanche and just devastating like Dorothy, BTW) right now as my OG mom blog friends’ group text is getting Very Sad because we are all moving our OG blog babies into college and also menopause and WOW.

To do his part to help me prepare, Harry has been an absolute ASSHOLE to us and his siblings, and also moving a kid to college is a sinking hole of a money pit— sooooo I am also not not looking forward to the big day being behind us, you know?

Dance placements came out, and Dorothy made too many dances (a good problem for her ego but also she came up against our max line, and we had to turn two groups down which makes us the bad guys) but then a friend QUIT THE TEAM, and now I feel bad for passing on a great dance that needs another dancer. I have Lisa’s voice in my head about making decisions based on the end game, and I know it does not matter in the scheme of things if she does 5 or 6 dances, but it feels very important right now. And maybe my dance feelings are just a side shoot of college feelings and middle school feelings and having no kids at the neighborhood school this year and Minnie being such a big kid and also MENOPAUSE. 

Look at these middle schoolers!

Dorothy got a major big kid haircut, too!

BEFORE

After:

Love that she has her eyes closed in both pics. I’m the best photog, obvs.

Ok, friends. Sorry I have been MIA from your blogs, too. I am off to order a target cart for the Eau CLaire Target and probably cry the whole time.

5 on a Friday: Welcome Week Adventures (34/52)

 1. Before the madness of 3 full days in the office (LOL I know exactly how stupid that sounds) hit, we added 2 chairs to our living room and WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE?

A PERFECT PLACE TO HAVE COFFEE IN THE MORNING and likely TAKE A ZOOM or two

A vantage point I never got before:

Some place to relax with Kamala Harris

SO MANY PLACES TO SIT NOW

2. Harry and a friend went to the Harris-Walz event in Milwaukee!! So cool to have a grown up kid who can take himself to do grown up things.

3. I FREAKING LOVED being the parent who goes to work and has the WHOLE OTHER PARENT IN MY TOWN to depend on. Pretty sweet when the stars align.

4. We got to see a Bradley volleyball game at the UW field house because they came to play a preseason match- SO FUN!

5. Harry goes to college in eight days, and my denial bubble is definitely starting to burst. BABY HARRY who just this week celebrated the 11 year anniversary of LEARNING TO TIE HIS SHOES is going to COLLEGE?!?!

Ok, friends. We are just 12 days away from the start of my school (but I don’t have on-campus obligations until 9/9) and school for Jack, Cooper, and Minnie. Dorothy starts in 11 days because in our district, kindergarteners, 6th graders, and 9th graders go a day before everyone else because they are the youngest grades at their schools. The pool closes in 10 days!! Minnie makes her flower girl debut in 9! BIG THINGS in a small amount of time. **cue anxiety attack**

Minnie’s first trip to Pekin

 Can you believe that Minnie Marigold-- named for the MARIGOLD CAPITOL OF THE WORLD-- has never been to Pekin before?? The only time she has even been to Peoria is the weekend we moved Ben into his college apartment (will this ever not make me laugh? doubtful). Pandemic babies, amiright? No but really it’s terrible that we never go to there, and I am SO GLAD we had a quick visit last weekend and have 2 more scheduled for September.

We mostly drowned in junk food and cocktails, and I shared a few of those pics with no explanation in my last post. But did I show you the potato donut place?

We stayed at Embassy Suites because it was move in weekend at Bradley, and a student apartment seemed…not the best.

Minnie Very Seriously packed for her doll (a $9 Target doll who has supplanted Bitty Baby as her true love)

We went to BU where Dorothy enjoyed the weird campus art. (This is def a vagina, yes?)

LYDIA!!

I love hotels like this one where the room ring a huge lobby because the elevators are usually glass, and I am not claustrophobic in a glass elevator, so I don’t make my family lug everything up the sad interior stairwells.

Dorothy and Coop are old enough to go paddle boating by themselves on the Pekin park lagoon

Minnie and I watched

Spoiler: Coop did most of the peddling. After the ride, he said , “We could have done more teamwork.”

Mineral Springs Park has an excellent playground. It did when I was a kid, too, but it was one of those 1980s metal dangerous sharp hot playgrounds with peddles to cushion your inevitable fall. Now it’s safe but still fun!

Bradley move in day looked fun! And Ben got some great tips!  That I already got from Eau Claire parent FB groups but now he believes them because he saw them with his own eyes! Love that for us!

Dorothy left Ben ALL KINDS of note in his office

We visited my dad’s bench

Unfortunately the lovely river view is… obstructed. But I think there’s a new splash pad coming. My dad and I took the kids to the old splash pad here, so I think he’d approve.

(Not the best view behind the bench either…)

I got all manner of treasures from my mom’s house, including my wedding dress (!!!!!!!), tons of cringey writing from elementary-high school, and a quilt my grandma made for my room at her house that is pieces of all the clothes she made for me when I was a baby/toddler. Can’t wait to show you the murder mystery I wrote in 3rd grade about rival beauty queens that depicts an actual murder (kids could NOT draw/write that at school today w/o a visit from a school counselor and possibly a CPS home check up).

See you soon, Central Illinois!

What We’re Eating This Week

 According to my wipe off fridge menu, I last meal planned on June 16th— a day that I just wrote HARRY’S BDAY.

Soooooo, after 2 months off, I am making a sputtering return.

Here’s what we’re eating this week:

Sunday: salmon, green beans, salad

Monday: breakfast for dinner

Tuesday: pizza and volleyball (Bradley women are playing UW women in a pre-season exhibition game)

Wednesday: Shrimp pasta with spinach, tomatoes, etc; French bread, salad

Thursday: Shrimp or buffalo cauliflower tacos, chips and salsa

Friday: Grilled cheese with leftover French bread and that Costco garlic spread I am obsessed with, chips, veggies, dips, etc.

We are EASING IN to a more scheduled life, friends.