week at uncle jed's house

Let me just say that I love vacations. The vacations I normally love are the fly-somewhere-new-and-see-as-much-as-you-can sort of vacations. This year we drove north to my brother's house. A went to summer camp with her cousin while J and Z spent the week running around outside with the other cousins. Mr. D and I spent the week sleeping, reading, eating, talking and laughing at the kids.

Best. Vacation. Ever.

My favorite things:

Swimming.
The kids running outside as soon as they wake up.
Hearing the kids playing and laughing outside until they collapsed at 9 or 10 at night.
Impromptu soccer games with the dads.
Sitting around and reading. And eating. And eating some more.
Uncle Jed taking the kids fishing.
The snowball fight in swimsuits after fishing.
Neville the Deer Stalker.
A (aka Miss Independent) having a fabulous time at camp.
The many hours the kids spent on Uncle Jed's tire swing.
The kids riding the little Jeep until the battery died.
Z plowing over the plants and into a tree while driving the little Jeep.
Having the entire family together on Friday.
Staying up until 1 in the morning multiple times, talking and laughing with Jed and Casandra.
No RA for the entire week.
Resting.
The amount of love I have for my family.

Seriously. Next summer I think we are just gonna move in to their house.

I'm waiting for the camera battery to charge so I can upload the hundreds of photos and post a few. Or twenty. In the meantime, here are a couple of the trip up and back:


Z had to stop and pee about 7 times.


Mister never-take-a-nap slept almost the whole way home.

p.s. i need a sitter

My friend Mary (whom I used to go see the Harry Potter movies with back in the day) found this article on The 25 Greatest Harry Potter Characters.

Let me say first of all that I love the Harry Potter series so much that I have actually lost track of the number of times I have read it. This is a great article, pretty spot on (Yes! Luna Lovegood made the top 10!), with some great wit and quotes. This is my favorite part of the article, in reference to Molly Weasley (one of my favorite characters):

In the final book, we get an emphatic reminder that Mrs Weasley is a considerable witch in her own right, and more than capable of bringing the hurt when called upon to do so. Just because someone is red-haired, a bit dumpy or fond of cardigans, it doesn't mean they can't kick ass. There's a valuable lesson there for us all.

I can't believe I haven't seen the last movie yet. I. Need. A. Sitter.

an almost fogotten quote

A was in a musical two weeks ago. It was long and torturous. Really. It was. She and 3 of her friends had a speaking part and some solos. They were the best part of the show. Really. They were.

Anyway, the day before the show she announced that she needed to wear some sort of military style costume. Huh. Her closet is decidedly low on camouflage. She finally decided on some plain black pants and her old Girl Scout vest. This was the conversation we had:

Me: Are those pants OK? Do you want to see if you can borrow a pair of pants from one of the boys in your class?
A: Ewwww! That is SO disgusting!
Me: Why?
A: Because. All boys pee in their pants. Right?


My Goober Pea Kid. She rocks.

when z is left alone

I swear I was in the kitchen for only 2 minutes...


(It's sunscreen, by the way.)

walk

The boys and I took a walk along the water today after dropping A off for a sleepover (on a houseboat, nonetheless). The walk soon turned into rock skipping then crab hunting. J was determined to find as many crabs as possible, but had a panic attack every time we did. Go figure.




One of the giant, killer, dog eating crabs.

blueberry boy bait cakes

School ended on Wednesday, which meant that the kids and I went into a cooking frenzy to make treats for their teachers. This year we decided to make Blueberry Boy Bait Cakes from my very favorite cooking blog. A trip to Sur La Table (aka my very favorite store) resulted in 10 paper baking molds, which made them easy to give away. The recipe will fill 2 molds, so we just doubled it. 3 times. It was a baking extravaganza.


A was in charge of measuring, J did the mixing, I did the pouring and we all helped lick the bowl numerous times.


They looked pretty yummy. Sadly, we didn't make an extra one for ourselves. Soon.

school's out for summer

School ended on yesterday. It was a full day of Kindergarten graduation (complete with a mini-concert), a "stepping up" ceremony for both kids, a trip to the yogurt shop and a houseboat BBQ with friends.


Another one done with Kindergarten. I may have cried a little.


Our new 1st and 4th graders.