Getting Better All the Time 3.18

what I did with my summer vacation

so...I took vacation Thursday, June 12th - Monday....and I am still recovering from its effects. OK, actually I felt mostly recovered around Wednesday, but Mr. Grunty had a nightmare around 3AM Friday, and they've been sick, waking up crying...it's almost like de ja vous all over again with the interruptions of my beauty sleep. Anywho, less about me, more about my vacation.

First of all, round these parts, we had been calling it June-uary, because it has been cold, overcast, drizzling...seriously, we're like having the coldest June in forever. But, I was blessed with great weather for my vacation. Which is important to have, if you have ten people living in one house. The poor kitties, they hid for most of my vacation.

Thursday, me & my mom took the childrens to visit MyBetterHalf (MBH) at her work. The cute overload of my childrens disrupted a lot of productivity. Later, that night, since it was their birthday, our children had their first taste of ice-cream. They were like, "eh, it's alright, but it's no banana (Mr. G) or American cheese (Miss S)."

Friday, me & MBH took turns cleaning, or watching the childrens. And then her family arrived, her sister T and her kids K, D, C, M. Her parents, and her youngest brother. It was nice, having so many folks to watch the childrens, that we could actually take the baby-gates down.

Saturday, started out early, firing up the smoker, and putting the pork shoulder on. I chatted w/ my sis-in-law about the garden I'm attempting. (Hmmm...I still haven't thinned out those radishes.) Then, in preparations for the party, we decided to have an overflowing toilet, MBH & I yelled at each other...whilst I was cleaning that...lets just say there was a cat "issue" I had to deal with also. (But we have a wet vac now!)

Later, we had Mr. Grunty & Miss Squeaky had their first Birthday Party. There was fire, and hot dogs, and hamburgers and a doggie, and gifts, I got everyone to sing the "gimme gimme gimme, gimme my cupcake" song, and they had their first cake with tasty frosting and everyone laughed, and Miss S naturally put it in her hair, and Mr. G put it in his ear.

They got a few gifts. A cute moon pull toy, from a delightful Moonbeam. A super awesome drum set, from a delightful aunt. Their parents got them both cars and dolls - they both prefer playing with the cars. They got a walker / scooter that only took me 3 hours to figure out how to assemble. They got a down-payment on outdoor toys for the yard from my family. And one of the things they liked the most, the tissue wrapping paper - it like, crinkles so very nice with a great sound and a fun feel when you shake it - SHAKE IT!

Father's Day.
YES! I was visited by the Father's Day Fruit Bat! I got a fruit bat, and a NBA dvd, and some shirts for work, and a new neck-tie for formal Friday. Later we went to the park for a picnic, we rode down the slide with the childrens, and MBH and her family went troll hunting, whilst me & my childrens got to walk around in the park. It was awesome. On the walk, I (because they fell asleep) saw a dog in a wheel-chair like contraption. It's owners saw me with twins, and said, "who's got it tougher." I quickly responded, "I'ld say the dog does." Evidently, the doggie has MS, and the wheels by his hind legs and straps around his body, help him be able to still go on walks, so he's happy. Later that night, MBH her brother, sister, mom, dad, and niece K went to go see Blub host an open mic. I stayed with the childrens, and D, C & M. D, C & M, were very well behaved, and were having a great time entertaining the childrens, sometimes they would crowd a toddler too much in their desire to play with them. After Mr. G & Miss S went to bed, we told a collaborative story. What it would be like if we got sent to Narnia, I asked them questions, and had each wait their turn to answer their own particular question. After a bit, C said, "why are we just sitting here talking when we could be outside playing?!?"

Monday we played "Calvin Ball"...whenever something happens, you get to change a rule. The toughest was, "no touching the ball," luckily for me, I saw some sandals, and so could pick up the ball w/o actually me touching it, but we had lots of fun approaching the ball, and pretending to bounce off of a force field around it. The toughest rule for some people was yell out your favorite vegetable when you throw the ball. Then people left, and we started the process of getting things back to normal.

At some point we also got to play CSI:Shoreline, because a dart head was lost somewhere in the lawn, so we on hands and knees looked for it, then we moved a few inches to the right, and looked again, for half an hour. Gee, I hope my childrens are up to date on their tetanus shots in case they step on the dart latter this summer.

I would like to send a special thanks out to my nieces K & M, and nephews D & C, who helped lots. Everyone helped feed the childrens bottles, and they actually fought for the privilege. Here are some things that went on with each of them.

K - going into middle school in the fall...my advice to her, to focus on math, music and foreign language. And she cracked a lot of eggs, and scrambled them. She learned that when making pancakes for lots of people, as soon as the pancakes are done, some one is hungry again, and it took her forever before she got to eat her breakfast.

D - played catch w/ Mr. G, Mr G loved it and would sometimes push the ball back, and sometimes have his arms together and "catch" the ball. D took Mr. G on walks. I scolded him and made him cry, because he was throwing a dart straight up into the air. I could've handled it better, but I think I embarrassed him. D was very patient, and mastered the technique of getting a Hershey miniature skewered and slowly roasted it until just melting...TASTY! His favorite part of the weekend, "the Fremont Troll"

C - helped take out the trash, and the compost, and quickly learned the difference between the two. He learned how to flip pancakes. His favorite part of the weekend, "playing with the babies and the swings"

M - naturally helped again cleaning dishes. She & C took Miss S for a walk, she held one had, C held the other, and Miss S led the way. Helped make pancakes. Her favorite part of the weekend, "Slide, swings."

Posted by joncim at June 22, 2008 10:12 PM