August Here Already ... and Halfway Over!

How can August be halfway over already? A flock of geese just flew over the house. I'm so not ready for fall. Not not not ready. Next week is vacation Bible school, and the week after that real school begins for HJ and EK and HE. The beginning of school always feels like the end of summer to me, even though I haven't been in school myself for *ahem* years.

This is our last year of NO school as the Boogie will be in kindergarten next fall. This year I will do some workbooks with her on a regular basis, to get her used to sitting and working for periods of time. I will also be doing some research into Christian homeschool curriculum. You homeschooling moms who read this, I will be hitting you up soon for recommendations!

My birthday is in two days and I'm going to be ... I'm going to be ... oh, I can't even type it. As much as I'm not ready for summer to be over, I am one hundred times more not ready to be ... that age.

The R family has come and gone and we really enjoyed their visit. The kids got along pretty well for the most part. After a few days I figured out why: the Boogie wants H-man to play with her. She likes to play "house" and would tell him, "I'll be the mom and you be the dad." Most of the time H-man couldn't care less about playing with her and mostly does his own thing, but if he is in the same room she thinks that he is doing what she wants, and everyone is happy ... as long as she doesn't refer to him with terms of endearment, like this conversation I overheard one day:
Boogie: "Honey! Hon, I ate that whole turtle." [I have no idea why she was eating a turtle.]
H-man: "I'm not your honey."
Boogie: "Well, I'm just pretending you are my hon."
H-man: "I'm not your hon!"
Boogie: "Well, I just like to pretend you are."
H-man: "I'm not."

I worked my regular hours while they were here, and the girls went to 52 while I worked, which I think turned out very nicely. HR had the house to herself for a few afternoons, and all the kids got a little break from each other. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, or so they say. In any case I believe we had the minimum of expected meltdowns and sharing traumas.

One afternoon MIL came over during nap time and she and HR and I did some creating with beads which was really fun! I've hardly done any beading at all over the past year or so and I've missed it. 


Yesterday afternoon the parents went to pick up their rental car and do some final shopping, and the boys stayed here. Peabody and H-man's little brother Koto napped. H-man and the Boogie played nicely together ALL afternoon. Like, literally, for hours. I think that was the longest stretch ever of nicely playing together. And when I say ever, I mean EVER, even considering when they lived here in Jersey.

They left early this morning and will be back in about 3 weeks. I think they'll stay with us for a few days while they try to catch a flight back to Germany. They were here for almost 2 weeks and I took no pictures whatsoever. That's terrible! I'll have to make sure to get some when they come back. I think Peabody was just a bit overwhelmed with all the maleness in the house. She did, however, learn one prime new word from 2-year-old Koto: "Mine!" And repeated it with much vehemence. 

One Sunday after her nap the Boogie climbed onto the couch next to her daddy and told him, "I taked a nap: check." She held up one finger.
"Then I goed potty: check." Another finger
"Then I eated a snack: check." A third finger.
"Then H-man woke up from his nap: check." A fourth finger.
"Then H-man goed potty: check." The last finger. "And that's all the checks!" She held up the other hand. "But, these aren't any checks."

Last week we went with  my office to our annual Camden Riversharks game. We didn't tell the Boogie where we were going. She was very excited to be going anywhere, until we arrived at the stadium and she realized where we were. She is terrified of anyone in costume and she knew that the mascot would be there. She was very apprehensive as we went in. Of course we stopped first for a picture.

Once we got inside she clung to Eric's hand and searched everywhere for the shark. We found our seats and when she was safely sitting between Eric and her Uncle B she relaxed and chatted Uncle B's ear off the whole evening. At one point the doctor took all of the kids into the team store so they could pick out a toy. While they were in there we saw the shark go in! Uh-oh. I was sure there would be tears or hysteria (since the last time she saw the Chick-fil-a cow she had to be held by Eric's brother and cried so hard she fell asleep. And this was recently, too.) But when they came back to our seats there were no signs of tears. The doctor told me that when she saw the shark she glued herself to the doctor's leg, and asked to leave right away "out that door" pointing to the one as far away from the shark as possible. But no tears! Maybe we are making progress with our repetition of "it's only a person in a costume."

Peabody thoroughly enjoyed herself at the game. Whenever there was applause she shrieked loudly and clapped her hands. She wandered up and down in front of everyone's seats, and stuffed her face with popcorn. Right before we left she caught a cameraman's attention and was on the "big" screen in the outfield!

Before we left Eric took the Boogie for a ride on the "mega-ro-round." The Pheebs and I just watched. It's hard to get a picture of that with a cell phone! She had a blast.

It was a fun evening and the weather was beautiful, a perfect night for a ball game.

Next week is vacation Bible school and once again Eric is sort of involved with skits, while I am craft lady this year. The theme is Treasure Quest so we will be making things like treasure maps, etc. I have all but one craft figured out. Now I need to gather supplies and make prototypes. It's a little last minute, but I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do -- hopefully it will come together smoothly.

And, next month we will have more company when the Specktacular family comes to visit! This will be their third trip to see us. We are looking forward to that -- it's always nice to spend time with friends.