Saturday, July 6, 2013
Friday, July 5, 2013
Back Yard of Fire 2013
Guess what?
This year's Back Yard of Fire actually had fire! We've had a very wet, very mild summer. In fact, on the 4th the high was only in the low 80's. There was a slight breeze and it was so very pleasant.
In other words, the polar opposite of last year's Back Yard of No Fire inferno.
We had a great time this year, and not just because of the weather. We had a lot of great people join us. And these great people brought some great food. Great food + great people = great evening.
Last year I had bead necklaces for the kids, which went over very, very well. This year I decided to do pinwheels. These did not go over as well. Dang. But don't they look festive?
I also made festive cookies. You wouldn't believe the battles I had to fight with Cole - the little sneak tried every trick in the book to steal those dang cookies before the party. (I know, I should be flattered. But really I was just annoyed.)
Because the weather was so mild it was just a bit chilly for playing in the water. Not that this stopped my and many other children. Poor Cole was shivering within the hour!
I had found a slip-n-slide on clearance the year before for only $2.50. Score!
As per usual I didn't really get any good pictures of people this year. Mainly just generic shots of everyone looking awkward while eating. You're welcome, friends! (Hey look! The Sister missionaries came for a bit!)
Miss Tess in her third or fourth outfit of the evening. Seriously, the girl could not stay out of the water and/or mud. Nor could she keep those fingers out of her mouth - poor teething girl!
Lance and his fellow pyromaniacs. (The guy to the left of Lance is not Tad Colver. It's his younger brother, who just happens to look exactly like him! He actually lives in Korea, but was here on a visit. He was supposed to be on a plane going home, but he missed his flight and got to spend the 4th with us. Fortunately, we were serving A&W Rootbeer, the one thing he claimed he really wanted to drink while here in the states. Also? He apparently has a sordid childhood history when it comes to fireworks. He was in his element helping light them all! Bad luck missing his flight? Kismet, I say.)
Just to prove you were here, Smiths, Hartwells, and Hansons!
The Tate family brought a ton of their leftover fireworks and sparklers, which we used first. The kids LOVED this.
Our neighbor, Justin, with a sparkler. See that blur behind him? That's the only picture I got of Josh the entire evening. (At least he got a blur - I'm not in a single shot!)
Yes, that's my oldest son in just a bathing suit holding a stick on fire. Yes, after this I did tell him to go put some shoes on. No, he did not listen to me. And no, he did not get burned. (He got super lucky, because there was all sorts of craziness going on up on the hill!)
There's Cole, also in just a bathing suit. The fire on the ground? He had picked up some sort of sparkler he wasn't supposed to pick up and the end fell off. Yeah, all the dads were at the top of the hill but none of the moms (except me). Not so much supervision going on. I think next year we will need to be a bit more proactive in that department. (Just after this shot I manhandled him down the hill to get some shoes on the boy.)
This year we put lights up with the pennants. I really liked them!
Someone's child playing with fire. Because that's how we roll in Indiana.
This year Lance did a great job in buying awesome fireworks. The pictures don't do justice to just how big some of them were - we're talking professional sized. They were HUGE! Even better? Our neighbor to the south - the one with the pond whom we affectionately call "Pond Guy" - also had a ton of fireworks! It was like getting two shows in one! At one point our guys and Pond Guy were battling it out over who had the best fireworks.
We kinda worked Pond Guy over.
It was awesome.
The grand finale included a rather large firework that started coming back to earth before it exploded. It exploded really close to us, producing lots of screams and a general rush of adrenaline from the crowd. Ack! Fortunately, all lived to tell the tale. (There were no injuries.) We found powder all over the place, though, including our food tables, my garden, and the swing set. That thing was LOW.
This morning while I was being the worst mother in the world and making my kids help pick up all of the fireworks detritus I discovered stuff all the way over in our neighbor's yard - two houses down. (I'm sure they just love us now.) I'm pretty sure that's a sign of a great fireworks show!
So mark your calendars now and let us know if you'd like an invite for next year. Lance is already making grand plans!
This year's Back Yard of Fire actually had fire! We've had a very wet, very mild summer. In fact, on the 4th the high was only in the low 80's. There was a slight breeze and it was so very pleasant.
In other words, the polar opposite of last year's Back Yard of No Fire inferno.
We had a great time this year, and not just because of the weather. We had a lot of great people join us. And these great people brought some great food. Great food + great people = great evening.
Last year I had bead necklaces for the kids, which went over very, very well. This year I decided to do pinwheels. These did not go over as well. Dang. But don't they look festive?
I also made festive cookies. You wouldn't believe the battles I had to fight with Cole - the little sneak tried every trick in the book to steal those dang cookies before the party. (I know, I should be flattered. But really I was just annoyed.)
Because the weather was so mild it was just a bit chilly for playing in the water. Not that this stopped my and many other children. Poor Cole was shivering within the hour!
I had found a slip-n-slide on clearance the year before for only $2.50. Score!
As per usual I didn't really get any good pictures of people this year. Mainly just generic shots of everyone looking awkward while eating. You're welcome, friends! (Hey look! The Sister missionaries came for a bit!)
Miss Tess in her third or fourth outfit of the evening. Seriously, the girl could not stay out of the water and/or mud. Nor could she keep those fingers out of her mouth - poor teething girl!
Lance and his fellow pyromaniacs. (The guy to the left of Lance is not Tad Colver. It's his younger brother, who just happens to look exactly like him! He actually lives in Korea, but was here on a visit. He was supposed to be on a plane going home, but he missed his flight and got to spend the 4th with us. Fortunately, we were serving A&W Rootbeer, the one thing he claimed he really wanted to drink while here in the states. Also? He apparently has a sordid childhood history when it comes to fireworks. He was in his element helping light them all! Bad luck missing his flight? Kismet, I say.)
Just to prove you were here, Smiths, Hartwells, and Hansons!
The Tate family brought a ton of their leftover fireworks and sparklers, which we used first. The kids LOVED this.
Our neighbor, Justin, with a sparkler. See that blur behind him? That's the only picture I got of Josh the entire evening. (At least he got a blur - I'm not in a single shot!)
Yes, that's my oldest son in just a bathing suit holding a stick on fire. Yes, after this I did tell him to go put some shoes on. No, he did not listen to me. And no, he did not get burned. (He got super lucky, because there was all sorts of craziness going on up on the hill!)
There's Cole, also in just a bathing suit. The fire on the ground? He had picked up some sort of sparkler he wasn't supposed to pick up and the end fell off. Yeah, all the dads were at the top of the hill but none of the moms (except me). Not so much supervision going on. I think next year we will need to be a bit more proactive in that department. (Just after this shot I manhandled him down the hill to get some shoes on the boy.)
This year we put lights up with the pennants. I really liked them!
Someone's child playing with fire. Because that's how we roll in Indiana.
This year Lance did a great job in buying awesome fireworks. The pictures don't do justice to just how big some of them were - we're talking professional sized. They were HUGE! Even better? Our neighbor to the south - the one with the pond whom we affectionately call "Pond Guy" - also had a ton of fireworks! It was like getting two shows in one! At one point our guys and Pond Guy were battling it out over who had the best fireworks.
We kinda worked Pond Guy over.
It was awesome.
The grand finale included a rather large firework that started coming back to earth before it exploded. It exploded really close to us, producing lots of screams and a general rush of adrenaline from the crowd. Ack! Fortunately, all lived to tell the tale. (There were no injuries.) We found powder all over the place, though, including our food tables, my garden, and the swing set. That thing was LOW.
This morning while I was being the worst mother in the world and making my kids help pick up all of the fireworks detritus I discovered stuff all the way over in our neighbor's yard - two houses down. (I'm sure they just love us now.) I'm pretty sure that's a sign of a great fireworks show!
So mark your calendars now and let us know if you'd like an invite for next year. Lance is already making grand plans!
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Swimming Lessons
This year we took swimming lessons at Happy Hollow Pool instead of at McCutcheon High School. Even though Happy Hollow is a 15 minute drive for us, it was literally half as expensive as at the high school, and with three kids in lessons this year that made a big difference!
Spencer and Josh decided they liked this pool even better, which made all the slathering of sunscreen and driving worth it. (The pool at the HS is indoor.) I liked it, too, since my friends Cyndi and Kanien had kids in lessons and we got to chat. The only thing I wasn't much of a fan of were the swim suits the instructors wore - well, the lack thereof. All of the girls wore rather skimpy and ill-fitting bikinis. Okay, I'm not sure how professional you can really look teaching four year olds how to blow bubbles in the water, but I'm pretty sure a one piece suit would be a step in the right direction. On top of that, if you're gonna wear a bikini, you'd better make sure it, well, fits. Just sayin'. (Yes, judgemental Maren has made an appearance.)
Anywho, a grand and glorious time was had by all. I was planning on doing 2 sessions, but the next session was full and Spencer said he was kinda tired of lessons. (I don't know that he was really tired of the lessons themselves or of how they took up our entire morning.)
I tried to get some pictures on the last day, but it was hard to get close enough. I didn't get any good ones of Spencer, but I did get video of him jumping off of the diving board. This was the first time he ever did it all by himself - and he did great! After that he probably jumped off a dozen more times!
Poor Spencer still sinks like a rock in the pool. He must have lead bones. (And zero percent body fat.) He still has issues treading water and doing a few other things. So he'll be repeating level 2 again next time. This wouldn't be so bad, but Josh was just promoted to level 2! Josh is a little water bug. He LOVES swimming and actually wants to learn how to do proper strokes and such. I suspect we will have years of issues with the little brother being better at sports...
On the last day they got to bring pool toys.
Josh would go swimming every day if I'd let him. And we would, but it's been so dang unseasonably cool this summer! (Seriously - it's only been in the high 70's and low 80's lately. In July. In Indiana. Insane.)
Given Cole's sordid past with anything structured, I was a bit worried about how he would do.
He rocked it. The kid loved swimming lessons! Hopefully this will transfer over to preschool this fall...
And where was miss Tess during all of this? Sitting with momma. She's just a bit too young for lessons this year, much to her dismay. But next year? I'll have a whole half hour to myself while the kids are all in lessons!
Spencer and Josh decided they liked this pool even better, which made all the slathering of sunscreen and driving worth it. (The pool at the HS is indoor.) I liked it, too, since my friends Cyndi and Kanien had kids in lessons and we got to chat. The only thing I wasn't much of a fan of were the swim suits the instructors wore - well, the lack thereof. All of the girls wore rather skimpy and ill-fitting bikinis. Okay, I'm not sure how professional you can really look teaching four year olds how to blow bubbles in the water, but I'm pretty sure a one piece suit would be a step in the right direction. On top of that, if you're gonna wear a bikini, you'd better make sure it, well, fits. Just sayin'. (Yes, judgemental Maren has made an appearance.)
Anywho, a grand and glorious time was had by all. I was planning on doing 2 sessions, but the next session was full and Spencer said he was kinda tired of lessons. (I don't know that he was really tired of the lessons themselves or of how they took up our entire morning.)
I tried to get some pictures on the last day, but it was hard to get close enough. I didn't get any good ones of Spencer, but I did get video of him jumping off of the diving board. This was the first time he ever did it all by himself - and he did great! After that he probably jumped off a dozen more times!
Poor Spencer still sinks like a rock in the pool. He must have lead bones. (And zero percent body fat.) He still has issues treading water and doing a few other things. So he'll be repeating level 2 again next time. This wouldn't be so bad, but Josh was just promoted to level 2! Josh is a little water bug. He LOVES swimming and actually wants to learn how to do proper strokes and such. I suspect we will have years of issues with the little brother being better at sports...
On the last day they got to bring pool toys.
Josh would go swimming every day if I'd let him. And we would, but it's been so dang unseasonably cool this summer! (Seriously - it's only been in the high 70's and low 80's lately. In July. In Indiana. Insane.)
Given Cole's sordid past with anything structured, I was a bit worried about how he would do.
He rocked it. The kid loved swimming lessons! Hopefully this will transfer over to preschool this fall...
And where was miss Tess during all of this? Sitting with momma. She's just a bit too young for lessons this year, much to her dismay. But next year? I'll have a whole half hour to myself while the kids are all in lessons!
Monday, July 1, 2013
A Bit of This and That
We've been busy around here, which is why I haven't been blogging regularly. You know about most of the big stuff that's been going on, but here's some of the day-to-day and behind-the-scenes things that I've been able to document.
One morning I forgot to turn the water off in Tess's bath. (I was actually in her room cleaning, just across the hall. So no danger! Other than flood damage...) Luckily, Josh walked in and thought clearly enough to hurry and turn off the faucet and then run to get me! The picture doesn't do justice to how high the water was - it was at the very edge when I first walked in and the emergency drain was working really hard!
Tess was sad we ruined her fun.
Cole got super dirty one day. I still can't figure what he got in to.
Is that not the epitome of a little boy?!
We're working on getting Spencer's Bear done for Cub Scouts. One of the things he had to do was make cookies with adult supervision. So he did, and he served them at the LAN party. He was quite pleased with himself, and the cookies were really good!
Tess thought she was going to play at the LAN party. See? She even has her laptop out. Boy, was she disappointed when I took her upstairs!
Tess still has a thing for socks. At any given time she's walking around the house with at least one random sock in or on hand. I've taken to calling her Dobby the House Elf.
She discovered that it's kinda hard to eat with socks on her hands.
Problem solved.
One morning I forgot to turn the water off in Tess's bath. (I was actually in her room cleaning, just across the hall. So no danger! Other than flood damage...) Luckily, Josh walked in and thought clearly enough to hurry and turn off the faucet and then run to get me! The picture doesn't do justice to how high the water was - it was at the very edge when I first walked in and the emergency drain was working really hard!
Tess was sad we ruined her fun.
Cole got super dirty one day. I still can't figure what he got in to.
Is that not the epitome of a little boy?!
We're working on getting Spencer's Bear done for Cub Scouts. One of the things he had to do was make cookies with adult supervision. So he did, and he served them at the LAN party. He was quite pleased with himself, and the cookies were really good!
Tess thought she was going to play at the LAN party. See? She even has her laptop out. Boy, was she disappointed when I took her upstairs!
Tess still has a thing for socks. At any given time she's walking around the house with at least one random sock in or on hand. I've taken to calling her Dobby the House Elf.
She discovered that it's kinda hard to eat with socks on her hands.
Problem solved.
Kid's Meal Science Experiment
We decided to conduct a little science experiment this summer: determining which kids meals the kids like best. Each week we've been going to a different restaurant and then recording our findings on an Excel chart. So yeah, we're really scientific and such.
We started with McDonald's because that's pretty much the gold standard as far as kids meals are concerned. (At least in my kids' eyes.) Spencer and Josh always get the cheeseburger meals with sodas and Tess and Cole always get the chicken nuggets and chocolate milk. That's just the way they roll. I get whatever I feel like having.
I could bore you with all the nitty gritty results, but I won't. Mainly because I don't feel like typing them. Also, they're boring. But here's a brief synopsis:
- Everyone liked the fries a lot
- Only Tess really liked the apples
- The toy was a Hot Wheels car, which they all really liked.
I asked each child to give it a score, with 1 being the lowest (YUCK) and 10 being the highest (YUM).
Spencer: 9 (that boy loves McDonald's)
Josh: 8 (he was mad I made him eat his apples)
Cole: 3 (he really likes the number 3)
Tess: 12 (Tess is unclear on the concept)
Maren: I had a cheeseburger meal. And it was delish.
Last week we went to Burger King to see how things compared. I even remembered to take a couple of action shots!
Verdict? Surprisingly, all the kiddos seemed to like Burger King better!
- Everyone liked the extra-thick fries. They were really tasty!
- Tess was upset that they forgot to give her ranch for her nuggets. The horror!
- Burger King now has one of those Coke Freestyle machines, which the boys LOVE.
- The toy was LAME. Jungle Book was the theme for the month, and each kid got some weird orange, plastic, cell phone-shaped thing with a picture of a tiger on front, with a tiger pennant/bandana/piece-o-junk thing on the inside. They were thrown away within the week.
Here are the ratings:
Spencer: 10 (he was just as surprised as I was)
Josh: 10 (I think this was in reaction to the Coke Freestyle)
Cole: 3 (still with the number 3)
Tess: 65 (I didn't even know she knew that number!)
Maren: I had a grilled chicken salad. It was gross. I forgot how gross Burger King salads ALWAYS are. Blech blech blech. Next time I'll just go for the Jr. Whopper.
And today we went to Wendy's. I had the carpets cleaned this morning and they still weren't dry, so I schlepped all of the kids into the car and went to the drive-thru. Where we waited. And waited. And waited because they were having computer problems. I was seriously about to drive away, but they got their act together.
We ate at the little park by our community pool. It was actually chilly and windy enough that we were cold in the shade!! Seriously, it's the 1st of July and the rest of the country is broiling in the heat, but Spencer was literally shivering. Weather is weird.
Here's how things turned out:
- No one was really into the fries. I know they're supposed to be all natural and such now, but seriously? When I'm eating fries I don't care if they're natural and have sea salt. Bring the flavor or go home!
- Tess was in LOVE with the nuggets. She chowed down on those first.
- The toy - a Sea World Board Game that you have to put together - was kinda lame. Spencer tried putting it together and playing with it, but wasn't very impressed. But that's okay because Wendy's toys are always expected to be lame. (Sorry, Wendy's.)
Here are the ratings:
Spencer: 9
Josh: refused to answer. He's being a punk today.
Cole: 3 (surprised?)
Tess: 3 (She likes to be like Cole.:)
Maren: I had a Almond Strawberry grilled chicken salad. It was awesome! Seriously, yummy. I mean, no fast food is going to match the magical salads of The Cheesecake Factory or other restaurants like that, but it comes pretty darn close. It had a TON of blueberries in it, which was good because Tess wanted to eat half of them.
So there you go. Over the next few weeks we'll start hitting some of the more unusual places for kid's meals. Any suggestions? (Not Chic-fil-A, though. My kids never eat when we go there and I'm not willing to waste my money.)
We started with McDonald's because that's pretty much the gold standard as far as kids meals are concerned. (At least in my kids' eyes.) Spencer and Josh always get the cheeseburger meals with sodas and Tess and Cole always get the chicken nuggets and chocolate milk. That's just the way they roll. I get whatever I feel like having.
I could bore you with all the nitty gritty results, but I won't. Mainly because I don't feel like typing them. Also, they're boring. But here's a brief synopsis:
- Everyone liked the fries a lot
- Only Tess really liked the apples
- The toy was a Hot Wheels car, which they all really liked.
I asked each child to give it a score, with 1 being the lowest (YUCK) and 10 being the highest (YUM).
Spencer: 9 (that boy loves McDonald's)
Josh: 8 (he was mad I made him eat his apples)
Cole: 3 (he really likes the number 3)
Tess: 12 (Tess is unclear on the concept)
Maren: I had a cheeseburger meal. And it was delish.
Last week we went to Burger King to see how things compared. I even remembered to take a couple of action shots!
Verdict? Surprisingly, all the kiddos seemed to like Burger King better!
- Everyone liked the extra-thick fries. They were really tasty!
- Tess was upset that they forgot to give her ranch for her nuggets. The horror!
- Burger King now has one of those Coke Freestyle machines, which the boys LOVE.
- The toy was LAME. Jungle Book was the theme for the month, and each kid got some weird orange, plastic, cell phone-shaped thing with a picture of a tiger on front, with a tiger pennant/bandana/piece-o-junk thing on the inside. They were thrown away within the week.
Here are the ratings:
Spencer: 10 (he was just as surprised as I was)
Josh: 10 (I think this was in reaction to the Coke Freestyle)
Cole: 3 (still with the number 3)
Tess: 65 (I didn't even know she knew that number!)
Maren: I had a grilled chicken salad. It was gross. I forgot how gross Burger King salads ALWAYS are. Blech blech blech. Next time I'll just go for the Jr. Whopper.
And today we went to Wendy's. I had the carpets cleaned this morning and they still weren't dry, so I schlepped all of the kids into the car and went to the drive-thru. Where we waited. And waited. And waited because they were having computer problems. I was seriously about to drive away, but they got their act together.
We ate at the little park by our community pool. It was actually chilly and windy enough that we were cold in the shade!! Seriously, it's the 1st of July and the rest of the country is broiling in the heat, but Spencer was literally shivering. Weather is weird.
Here's how things turned out:
- No one was really into the fries. I know they're supposed to be all natural and such now, but seriously? When I'm eating fries I don't care if they're natural and have sea salt. Bring the flavor or go home!
- Tess was in LOVE with the nuggets. She chowed down on those first.
- The toy - a Sea World Board Game that you have to put together - was kinda lame. Spencer tried putting it together and playing with it, but wasn't very impressed. But that's okay because Wendy's toys are always expected to be lame. (Sorry, Wendy's.)
Here are the ratings:
Spencer: 9
Josh: refused to answer. He's being a punk today.
Cole: 3 (surprised?)
Tess: 3 (She likes to be like Cole.:)
Maren: I had a Almond Strawberry grilled chicken salad. It was awesome! Seriously, yummy. I mean, no fast food is going to match the magical salads of The Cheesecake Factory or other restaurants like that, but it comes pretty darn close. It had a TON of blueberries in it, which was good because Tess wanted to eat half of them.
So there you go. Over the next few weeks we'll start hitting some of the more unusual places for kid's meals. Any suggestions? (Not Chic-fil-A, though. My kids never eat when we go there and I'm not willing to waste my money.)
One of These Things is Not Like the Other
I bought two jalapeno plants for my garden this year.
Or so I thought.
Either these are some very rare anaheim-jalapeno variety, or someone mixed up the plants. (By the way, here's what my plant was marked with. I stuck it in next to the plant when I planted it in order to avoid confusion. So at least I know I didn't pick up the wrong plant by mistake!)
Or so I thought.
Either these are some very rare anaheim-jalapeno variety, or someone mixed up the plants. (By the way, here's what my plant was marked with. I stuck it in next to the plant when I planted it in order to avoid confusion. So at least I know I didn't pick up the wrong plant by mistake!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)