School's out for summer

On Monday I went to the ReStore and found a new fixture and light-bulb covers for our half bath project. Then I stopped at Lowes and got some ORB spray paint to replace our empty can. 

Much of our house is done up in shiny 80's brass and as we have had so much success covering that I just picked up another piece , the shape of which I liked, to work with.

Both kids helped spray bits and unscrew bits. Together we managed quite thorough coverage.

Megan started the week doing fairly well with her sore throat and congestion.

She even got a beautiful new "Rapunzel after the hair cut" look at Great Clips.

Unfortunately by that evening she had a fever that lasted 3 days. She also couldn't sleep very well due to not being able to lay her head back plus a sore throat.

We sat up a lot.

On a brighter note all the rain is making the snap peas go crazy. The cherry tomatoes are looking pretty good too.

Thursday was the last day of the school year for Frederick County.

Lets all sing along with Alice Cooper now.

Kiernan has learned and grown so much in this year. He definitely has some social issues to work out yet. He is too impatient with others and he needs to read social cues more diligently. On the other hand he has the foundation for those skills.

He will be studying every week day this summer for a half hour or so and he will be playing educational games instead of Minecraft in the mornings. At least he will have an academic leg up next year. Of course it will be easier to wrangle him in the day to day with this structure in place as well.

We had so much rain this week that my workplace flooded.

I went for a walk just after the rain passed and saw every drainage ditch turn into a river.

By the end of the week Meg's was doing much better and sleeping through the night. She even had a big potty training success and earned an Equistra Girl .

Potty training has been so hard with Megan. She has no pee accidents anymore but its quite another story with the other. This was all solved a year ago but a series of  UTI's from antibiotics scuppered that.

So we celebrate the success and try and try again.

Wish us luck.

Kiernan found a new exciting world in Pokemon.

It begins...

On Friday we went out to play in the park and pick blackberries.

We brought Pax and let her run around the whole while as there were no people around.

Then we went to California Tortilla for experiment number 2.

I have let the kids get too picky about food and have decided to nip that in the bud. So this time instead of quesadillas only they both had some burrito. That went very well as the kids burrito (veggie version) is full of black beans and rice. We eat black beans and rice nearly every week. That made things fun and much more healthy.

We got the wonderful surprise of seeing Mrs. Deane, Kiernan's Kindergarten teacher, there and Kiernan was over the moon.

After lunch Kiernan got his summer hair also at Great Clips.

The hair-cutter asked me what we wanted and I said I would like a 1950' or 60's buzz cut or flat top.

She replied (somewhat huffily to my ears) that she didn't do flat tops. So he got short hair.

David took down the medicine cabinet and the lighting in the bathroom on Saturday.

Apparently the bathroom used to be lime jello green.

For Fathers Day weekend we sent him off to a guitar shop while we went to the park.

Then I met him for Indian food buffet for lunch.

We moved some light into the bathroom to make it usable.

In the afternoon I did some mulching and some weeding and general cleaning up of the front bed.

Aunt Lore came over to return a toy that Megan left when we went kitten visiting.

She entertained me while I gardened. And nursed my blister and sore arms from my major success against the blackberry bushes.

Our training really did pay off. Those berries are plentiful and accessible and sweet.

On Sunday morning Megan and I went out early to pick up ingredients for Fathers Day breakfast in bed.

Notice that she is such a princess that even her bed head turns into a sort of crown. haha

We took the kids to the park and Pax to the Dog park.

I made veggie fried chicken with biscuits and gravy and mom made fresh berry cobbler served with vanilla ice cream.

After eating all we could we went to the Four County Little League picnic, much moved due to rain.

It was life in the 1970's and I loved it.

It was chaos!

There was barely any supervision and serious injury might have occurred at any moment. The big kids were leaping down the slide and the small ones were piled on each other in dense elbow filled packs.

A few of the older kids were protecting the smaller ones. I saw one big boy probably 12 guide a little guy to the slide and block everyone off to send him down. Later that same boy walked Megs through a mass of shouting chaos to the same spot and back when she decided she didn't want to go down that way.

Meg's went to an equally chaotic but far less older kid populated bouncy castle.

She was very happy.

Then we all got free cupcakes and Rita's icy's and colorful hair if we wanted.

There were girls (8 or 9 years old) painting stencils on anyone who asked. I was really pleased to see so much of the action carried on my the kids them selves. It sets a good example for my kids and it gives all of them the responsibility that they should have.

Megan looked great with lavender hair.

Kiernan showed off his pitching arm lightning.

All was well.