My sidekick

Amelia and I had a great day hanging out today. She has spent all summer hanging out with William and playing. I think I maybe only saw her at mealtimes.

With William back to school, we got lots of talking in. Not surprisingly, Amelia has a lot to say. We enjoyed library story time (sunglasses photo) together, had a lovely lunch, played a math game, and then we made cookies to celebrate the first day of school for the big kid. Cookies from a tub, but still cookies.

It's nice to have my sidekick back again and see the girls play together. I'm looking forward to watching the girls forge their sister relationship this year before Amelia head off to kindergarten next year (!!!).

1st Grader!

Today is the first day of school for our big guy! We made it to the bus on time- which was a minor miracle. I can't wait to hear all about it!

Best friends

Sometimes these two are so sweet to each other (most of the time, in fact when they aren't trying to maim each other). Today I caught William giving Amelia pushes on the swing. She is going to miss him tomorrow when he starts school!

Disappointment

Summer is winding down here, although weather-wise it doesn't really feel like it.  William starts school (1st grade!) on Wednesday next week.  Amelia starts the following Tuesday (pre K) and I start the Tuesday after that (GED, still).  We have our summer checklist pulled out and we have checked off everything with one exception.  Time is getting scarce if we are going to make CAMPING happen!

Last Thursday, we realized the weekend weather was going to be camp-able.  What that means is that it will be cool enough that we can sleep at night and comfortable temperatures through the night.  It also means the daytime temperatures are cool enough that we can hike/play/wander/climb/hang out without wishing we could sit in our air conditioned car and cool off. 

So, we tentatively planned on camping Saturday night into Sunday.  Friday night there was a strong chance of rain.  While that isn't a huge problem, it isn't fun to camp wet.  It is really not fun to camp while wet with 3 whining kids.

Saturday morning we spent devoted to preparing and packing up the car for the trip.  Not surprisingly, there is A LOT of work that goes into prepping for a camping trip and it is quite time consuming.  It might be why we don't do it more often.

John made hundreds of trips to the car and one trip to the store.  I packed and repacked stuff the kids unpacked.

After Gemma napped, we loaded up the kids in the car and set out to the park.

It is a 40 minute drive one way to our favorite localish camping park.

We pulled up to the camping station to buy our camping permit for the night.....and they were full.  No campsites available.  Apparently, there is a lot of flooding in the southern portion of Missouri and many people came north for their camping adventures.  I wanted to pull forward and roll down the back windows on the car so the campground host could have the pleasure of informing the backseat that there was no room in the inn.  I wanted to cry. (I had just spent 7+ hours of getting ready to camp and found out there would be no camping.  Boo.)

 The campground host did not have information available about other campgrounds nearby.

There wasn't any wireless in the park, so we couldn't research alternatives right there.

We finally had signal enough when we reached the highway, although here is a piece of advice for you:  When traveling 65+ miles per hour, it is not the best time to have a discussion and make any type of decision.  Especially when you have 3 crying kids in your backseat.  Even if one of the three is only crying because the others are crying. 

I made a valiant effort and called 1 local campground (number no longer in service), found another local campground (no contact information available), found a state park 40 minutes the opposite direction (contact number went straight to voicemail), and the state park reservations center (who helpfully offered to make me a reservation for Tuesday.  Because they only make reservations 2 days in advance.  No way to know about availability for today.  Sorry.).

So, we went home and unpacked the van.  We unpacked the van in a very crabby fashion because we were very crabby about not going camping.

We discussed camping out in the backyard, but with the hill down to the forest taking up 97% of the backyard, it would have been uncomfortable for the person in the southern end of the tent as everyone would end up there by midnight.  Or, we could elect to pitch the tent on the patio.  Which is a very hard surface to sleep upon and could result in ripping the floor of the tent.  Did I mention we have a brand new tent?  We've never slept in tent?  It is 2 years old and we've never slept in it.

Plan B included: grilling some burgers, tater tots and making s'mores over our new fire pit in the backyard.  We sat in our camping chairs around the fire and just tried to keep Gemma out of the fire.  We roasted the specialty flat marshmallows John acquired for s'more making and spent time together.  It was lovely, although it wasn't camping.



*It was mentioned by one of us that it might be good to have a reservation.  The other adult disagreed....or maybe just didn't think it was necessary.  Although the first adult was CORRECT in that we needed a reservation, by the time we decided to camp, it was to late to make a reservation.  So I will admit that although one of us was CORRECT, it wouldn't have helped.  No names used to protect the person who was wrong.

Dinner conversation

Amelia: mmmmm! I love this corn! I'm super hungry! Can I have more corn?

Mom: you need to eat some more of your other food.

Amelia: okay.

Mom: Amelia do you want some more chicken?

Amelia: NO!

Mom: No.....what? (Teaching politeness appears to be a years long grueling marathon of epic length).

Amelia: NO WAY!

Mom: (not at all what I'm going for here!)

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William v.6.5

William v.6.5

William turned 6 and a half on July 26th in the midst of our crazy travel until you drop month.  I didn't get an update then, but I did want to spend a few minutes talking about our big guy.

William:
-still loves to read.  Currently loving the Magic Tree House chapter books, Magic School Bus Chapter Books, Geronimo Stilton Chapter books and any book on dinosaurs he can get his hands on.  Although he is capable of reading the books on his own, he still loves (and prefers) to be read to.  I find him up many nights reading by the hall light at the end of his bed until 9:30.  This will have to come to an end when school starts, but until then I turn a blind eye.

-He is Amelia's best friend and she is his.  Or worst enemies.  There isn't any inbetween.  Most days after breakfast, these two will disappear into their rooms and play (almost) happily until lunchtime.  Until I go in and demand they put clothes on (remind me to tell you sometime about my pajama hypothesis).  Somehow after they are dressed, everything becomes more difficult.  Although they still play and play and play.  I think both of them have enjoyed reconnecting after the busy school year and having down time to set up their elaborate play schemes.

-He adores Gemma.  He is kind and gentle.  He tells complete strangers at the park proudly that she is his baby sister and she is CUTE.  Even strangers who clearly do not want to talk to a 6 year old about how cute his baby sister is.  William was so helpful with Gemma while John was in Korea.  Without his help, life would have been much more difficult.

-He adores dinosaurs.  Everything dinosaur.  He has long since left me in the dust (fine by me and I will say that I'm not trying very hard at this particular subject) with his breadth and depth of knowledge on the subject.

- We've become much more interested in trying new foods.  Maybe just a bite or two.  Even last year this was so difficult for him.  Now he enjoys trying something new.  He might not eat more than a bite, but at least he is trying some new things.

-Much of the time he is so easy going, it takes me by surprise when he digs his heels in about something.  He wears whatever clothes I put out, no arguing.  He eats what is on his plate with little to no interference from me.  Time to go to the library?  Sure mom.  Hand me some wipes?  Sure, do you need anything else mom?

He sure isn't perfect, but we do love him lots and lots.  This summer has been wonderful and I have enjoyed spending more time with his as company.  I've enjoyed listening to his ideas, thoughts and questions rather than being exhausted by the constant stream of thought that used to come from him.  We're currently working hard on learning that some words have big meaning and can lead you to big trouble.  Like a lot of kids, he talks first and thinks about the words much, much later.  And that mouth has been a source of trouble for him, but we're working on in!