Volleyball

I dug into the shed today and brought our some new games for the kids to play. I remembered the old croquet set. I though they would really enjoy it. It lasted all of five minutes. Alexa was frustrated by trying to use the mallet. Chloe adopted a bulldozer type maneuver, declared herself the winner, and that was that. Six or seven years ago when the croquet set was purchased it was part of a buy one yard game get one free sale. The second game we picked out was volleyball. For no other reason that it was the only other one that seem to have a remote possibility of being used. Well, today it finally was.

The girls thought it looked like fun. So I attempted to set the net up. I think combination of a cheap net and my inability to construct the most basic of items made things harder than needed. I know it really isn't up correctly. I mean it should be a lot taller, but they don't really care and are short anyhow.

We had fun. The girls tried out a lot of different types of balls. The actual ball that came with it died long ago. Being that it was the only thing I had actually used from the set.

They both took turns hitting them over to me.

Now I think we might have to find a badmiton set too.

Bowling

We went bowling today with one of  Alexa's friends from preschool. The kids haven't been in quite awhile and both girls were excited to go. They had some interesting strategies to get the ball where they wanted it.

Chloe found directing the ramp to bounce off the bumper was helpful.

She also liked to wave her arms in the right direction.

Alexa was very determined as she pushed the ball down the ramp.

It is also helpful to sit and give your friend moral support.

Or you can wiggle in the direction you want it to go.

The biggest hit by far was the ball return. I had no idea they would find it so exciting.

Historically Speaking

This conversation took place this morning while Alexa was eating cereal and I was sipping my coffee.

Alexa: Mommy I know who our president is.

Me: You do? who is it?

Alexa: We learned in preschool. It is Obama.

Me; You are right it is.

Alexa: I know the one before that too.

Me: You do? Who was that?

Alexa: Abraham Lincoln.

Me: (Trying not to laugh) Well, he was before Obama that is true. But there were quite a few others in between there kiddo.

See how fast history can just whizz right by?

A Good Book

My kids were mad at me today. It actually happens multiple times on any given day, so it isn't all that shocking. You build up a sort of immunity to it all after a bit. Today they were mad that we missed the ocean costume party at the library. In all fairness it wasn't really my fault that the furnace guy was running late and that our furnace had a lot of gunk to be cleaned out of it. I mentioned that in say January they would be glad that there was heat in the house. Chloe, to be fair, was fine with it. Alexa was pretty pouty about the whole thing for a bit. Until her sister offered to let her pick and keep the prize from her check in at the library this week. This opportunity to fish through a bowl and pluck out at five cent toy made everything seem all better. I was very grateful to Chloe for her generosity.

Chloe has become something of a reading machine. I gave her a small light by her bed and most nights she sits up until about 9:00 PM reading. It has gotten to the point where we bring a huge tote bag with us to the library just to be able to lug it all.

We will head back in about three days to return these and check out more.

She has also been enjoying Nancy Drew books as well. Each night we have been reading a chapter from the first book. Actually both girls have really gotten into the book. Tonight Alexa tackled me from behind hanging on my back yelling, "Don't stop there read another chapter of Nancy!" Since they were so into the story I did some basement digging.

Aunt Andrea gave us all her old copies of Nancy Drew that she had collected as a kid. I brought them all out and the girls are pretty excited to have so many to listen to. We may be reading Nancy Drew mysteries at bedtime for the next two years.

Sand Bar

With temperatures soaring to 87 degrees (hey that's hot for Vermont), we headed to the beach this afternoon. The girls had a great time.

Alexa was determined to try to catch a minow,

but those little buggers are fast.

Chloe was swimming around with her noodle.

They built some pretty intense sand structures.

Alexa took the lazy swim with her ducky float.

I almost thought she would fall asleep like that.

Sewing Projects

My kids love to create things. Chloe has been sewing (by hand) for a while now. Alexa started a few weeks ago.

It isn't that I mind that they like to create these things, but it can be a bit of a project to say the least. They both like to plow through the bag of fabric scraps. Each little scrap gives them an idea of what they want to create. It is usually something that they need me to assist with and to tell you the truth I am not so good at making a stuffed: bird, dog, cat, snake... etc at the drop of a hat. But I have, at one time or another, been asked to make each of them. And that isn't even counting the number of things that I just shook my head and said I couldn't do it. At any rate this time it was dogs. Dogs sitting down to be specific. Alexa choose a brown fabric. Chloe went through about three or four different colors before settling on the white, black, and silver. They both wanted to use the sewing machine.

Now my poor sewing machine has been around for about 20 years. It still works, most of the time. But I wasn't too sure how it was going to work after this little adventure. Alexa was happy to sit with me and remove the pins as we sewed along. She liked poking them into the pin cushion. I let Chloe operate the foot pedal and I helped her move the fabric around. Both kids are addicted to the bag of puff. They love to create things just so they can stuff them with puff.

In the end both dogs came out cute enough to satisfy them. Although I think it is safe to say the stuffed animal industry is safe from any threat from my handy work.

And look they played together afterwards. Peace... at least for a few minutes.

Jump Ropes

My children own about ten jump ropes. What is really funny to me about that is neither one of them can actually jump with the rope. Nor do they seem to be inclined to learn to jump the ropes, although Alexa has been known to try. Invariably what happens with the jump rope is something along the line of this...

They are all tied together for one reason or another.

Today they were putting on a show. Something involving a bird, limbo, and a hoppy ball playing the role of a mooring ball. (Chloe has been rather fascinated by mooring balls since our most recent trip to Maine).
The show took some time to set up.

When it was ready Cabbie and I were summoned to be the audience. The show was rather complicated and at times was hard to follow.


There were acrobatics,

some musical numbers,

some comedy.

And, of course, there was a grand finale.

My fellow audience member seemed to have some difficulty concentrating and wandered off to chew a stick.

In the end it was very entertaining and all the jump ropes were returned to their bin until the next time someone needs them for another creative venture.

Alexa Hula Hooping

Smiling Biker

So there are moments as a parent when you don't get to be a really nice person. It is ok in some ways because you know it is for their own good. I always feel though that other people are looking at me in judgement. It is usually people with hypothetical children. You know the ones who don't actually have their own children, but like to have strong opinions about how they would parent them if they did. The thing about real children is they have really wonderful qualities and qualities that are, shall we say, a little more challenging. Now Chloe for example is an extremely smart, artistic, and creative kid. She stuggles immensely with things of a physical nature. Her struggles do not come quietly either. They come with loud protests and dramatic flailing. Everything from pumping a swing and pedaling a bike to cutting with scissors has come with  a lot of arguing, dramatics, and tears. It is the process that we go through. It is draining, but at this point in the process I just know to stick it out long enough and she will be whizzing through the task like an old pro.

Last year I bought Chloe a bigger bike. She is tall for her age and had really out grown the other one she had. The problem being that the new bike did not have training wheels. I bought some training wheels at the store and attempted to install them. I seem to be incapable of installing them correctly. I couldn't, for the life of me, get those things on tight enough that they wouldn't slide backwards. I spent a fair amount of time trying to teach Chloe to ride the bike on two wheels last summer, but I gave up. There comes a point where you just throw the towel in and call it a day. Between her lack of coordination and anxieties of falling off my upper body was taking quite a beating from her grabing me every time the bike wobbled.

As summer approached this year I decided to ask for some help. I asked my friend Pat from work if her husband could help me put the training wheels on correctly. I figured that someone with two grown children had experience in installing these items. Well boy did I ask the right person. Tom came over and picked the bike up one day while I was at work. He took the bike to his garage and installed new training wheels for me. It turned out he had a brand new pair of much better training wheels that his own daughter (now 21)never needed. Check out these babies...

Well even with these training wheels attached Chloe has still stubbornly refused to ride. "It still wobbles." She would then proceed to throw herself onto the ground and shout, "See!" Today I had had enough. Alexa loves to ride her bike and with just one parent you have to have both kids with you. It is impossible for me to be outside with one kid and inside with another. So today I announced it was not optional. She was riding. Well she yelled, threatened, and stormed around. I matched her word for word. I told her she was riding until she rode without complaining. We headed over to a nearby park where there is a safe loop for the kids to ride. It took about eight loops before Chloe, forgetting that she was planning to be miserable, started zooming around ahead of everyone. Which meant that I could quit sounding like a heartless drill sergeant and could hug and cheer for her.

We headed back home to get some water and she looked like this...

I guess there is some luxury in knowing the process that she goes through to learn new things, but it is extremely draining. 

Hat Day

I want to thank mother nature for making an afternoon where things got a little crazy. I mean here I completely filled the kid's pool, fed them, got everyone in swimsuits and sun screened. We were outside for all of 45 minutes and we are hit with heavy rain complete with thunderstorms and tornado warnings. Sheesh. So they were driven to creating things on their own. What did they create? Hats.

They started with your basic paper hats.

Then they made stuffed animal ones.

Decorated the hats...

made sure the dog had a hat too.

and decorated it... poor Cabbie.

It might have been worse than when they put him in the pool.

Tomato Delivery Service

We have been away. Have you missed us? The girls had some time with their dad, and I had some time with adults. We are all back from our respected travels. There were the usual reunions...

There were also a surplus of tomatoes to be harvested. So many in fact that we needed to give some away. We found some willing recipients in our neighbors Doug and Marty. Marty is home recuperating from surgery and was more than happy to have some dropped off today. So Alexa headed out with her box.

Pretty yummy looking huh?

She was lucky enough to get a cookie payment for her tomatoes.

and one for Chloe too...

We will be picking more tomorrow. Wonder which neighbor we can deposit some on next.