Living in a Furnance

Wee ones had an awesome time playing with their new water hopscotch thingy.  Good times with weather that includes temps in the 90s and heat indexes into between105-110...   Just so you know that means our dew points and therefore, humidity levels that are comparable to what you feel in RAINFORESTS!

 

But I distinctly remember living in Minnesota and would prefer to see this right now...

Sunscreen Required

Despite being sicker than a dog for the past three weeks [I'm now on a stronger antibiotic, steroids and a neb regimen in the hopes of better health], the wee ones and I had the awesome privilege of boating /swimming on the river all day with Fab Neighbor. It was so much fun!  And bonus - little to no sunburn on any of us, thanks to the constant stalking of Momzilla (me) armed with spray sunscreen.

Burning Up

In Minnesota we were lucky enough to break some truly awful weather records with soaring high temps on Monday and Tuesday.  Monday it reached 97 with crazy humidity and then on Tuesday it was102 with air so thick you could cut it with a knife... none of that pansy-arse "dry heat".  We were straight up living inside a baking oven.

So in an effort to remind myself why summer rocks (the absolute shortest season in Minnesota), below is a list of 100 things I love about summer. This list was put together by the bestest friend ever and it is not in any order -- just random thoughts.

1 - Green grass
2 - Smell of fresh cut grass
3 - Wading in the creek
4 - Grilling delish food outside
5 - Boating
6 - Swimming
7 - Fresh flowers
8 - Feeling the warm breeze float in through open windows
9 - Outdoor concerts
10 - Sand volleyball
11 - Bike riding
12 - Fishing
13 - Canoeing
14 - Warm sunshine on my skin
15 - Sounds of kids playing outside
16 - Socializing with friends and family on the deck
17 - Golfing
18 - Yard sales
19 - Playing with the hose
20 - State Fair (Minnesota has the BEST State Fair ever!)
21 - Baseball
22 - Bonfires
23 - Gardening
24 - Fireworks
25 - Festivals
26 - Wearing shorts and t-shirts
27 - Eating outside
28 - Car races
29 - Go-carting
30 - Walking around a lake
31 - Exploring and hiking
32 - Going Up North (You have to be Minnesotan to understand...)
33 - Driving with the windows down
34 - Eating fresh fruit and veggies
35 - Going out to eat on a patio
36 - Sounds of the birds chirping in the morning
37 - Home improvements projects (not top of the list)
38 - Blue skies
39 - Fresh air
40 - Jet skiing
41 - Classic car shows
42 - Cute chubby babies in onesies
43 - Puppies
44 - Farmer's Market
45 - Walking dogs
46 - Sunshine
47 - Good jokes
48 - Calling of loons from the lake
49 - Vacations
50 - Summer Block-buster Movies
51 - Washing the car
52 - Impromptu BBQs with Neighbors
53 - Dairy Queen
54 - New swing set
55 - Chalk art with the wee ones
56 - Picking flowers
57 - Gazing down on a beautiful view while sitting on a big mountain
58 - Daylight longer
59 - Spectacular sunsets
60 - Sounds of the waves crashing on a lake
61 - Smell of a lake or river
62 - Watching wind surfers glide across the water
63 - Building sandcastles
64 - Feeling the sand between my toes
65 - Dangling my feet off a dock and in the water
66 - Taking a nap outside
67 - Doing anything barefoot
68 - Rock climbing
69 - Playing outdoor games
70 - People watching
71 - Going to the zoo
72 - Street markets
73 - Balloons slowly floating away
74 - Weddings
75 - Birthday parties outside
76 - Soccer
77 - Crickets chirping in evening dusk
78 - Summer cocktails
79 - Road trips
80 - Heat (not so much, but it's better than hypothermia)
81 - Freckles!!!
82 - Morning dew
83 - Sounds of rain on the roof as you cuddle in bed with a good book
84 - Sandals
85 - Sound and feel of bouncing a basket ball (playing HORSE)
86 - Seeing clothes hanging outside on the line.
87 - Picnics
88 - Mini donuts
89 - Leaves on trees
90 - Fresh smell of mulch
91 - Sound of lawn mowers
92 - Air conditioning (!!!!!)
93 - More skin revealed
94 - Painted toe nails
95 - Cave exploring
96 - Drive-in movie theaters
97 - Beaches
98 - Mini golf
99 - Water park
100 - No winter boots! Or shoveling! Or falling on ice on your heiny!

Swimming Beauties

Weeks ago we went swimming at my sister's apartment pool. I have been lazy and preoccupied and extremely busy and sick (and all the other excuses I can think of), and haven't had time to post the pool pictures. Enjoy my poor photography skills and enjoy staring at my darling children.

Play Ball

Each Tuesday, Little Princess plays t-ball. This is her first year being old enough to play. She's on a co-ed team of four to six-year olds. She's such a doll! Most of her team mates are at least a head taller than her.

Swimming

Last week, on a perfectly phenomenally sunny Friday afternoon, three of the wee ones and I went boating on the St. Croix river with our fantastic neighbor. Husband was out of town on a boys-only golf weekend, so we decided to take advantage of the grand weather, and even better company.

It was a heavenly beautiful day!!! The wee ones were so exhausted from playing in the sun all day that they konked out on the boat ride back to the dock/launch.

Loving the Water

We had a fantastic, lazy Saturday on the St. Croix river with our phenomenal neighbor CP. She rocks! Here are a few pictures of the festivities.

Friends playing a fun game of disc-thingies together nicely.

Friends no longer playing nicely together, but note they are both still laughing so I had to start snapping photos.

We tuckered the children out so much that they all (with the exception of Precious E) fell asleep on the boat ride from the island to the boat dock.

Perfect Example

WARNING: These pictures may not be suitable for younger viewers. (Seriously!)

The below pictures are perfect examples of why it is not always a good idea to take impressionable young children for an innocent boat ride on the St. Croix or Mississippi River.

Yes, the man has his swimming trunks down to show off his tattoos on his buttocks (all I can say is OW!) and then twe have the pic that includes at least three women with only pasties over their..., well you'll see.

You should have seen the excessively scandalized look of my eight year old daughter as she pointed and yelled her very loudest, "MOM! They are NOT dressed all the way. What if they get sunburned?!?!"

Ummm... yeah, Honey. Somehow I don't think sunburn is even on their radar...

Not Ready To Call It Yet

The kids are dressed in playclothes and are sort of playing nicely with each other while I work around the house. I'm not ready to call it yet, but I think we will have survived the second full week of summer vacation.

Cold Stone Creamery

With the kids out of school and with the temperatures, finally, on the rise, it will only be a matter of time before you hear the first screams of summer: "Moooooooommy, my ice cream is dripping!"

Enter Cold Stone Creamery. The company known for its staff of singing ice cream scoopers is coming to the rescue of parents, whose frozen treat loving kids, can't lick fast enough to prevent massive meltdowns.

Cold Stone just announced that it is working with Jell-O to create a non-melting ice cream. According to the folks at Cold Stone, their product will remain creamy at ice-cold temperatures, and as it warms up, instead of melting, it will develop a pudding-like consistency.

Translation: No more kids standing in puddles of vanilla with sticky streaks of ice cream traced on their arms and legs.

The new non-melting ice cream will be available at select Cold Stone locations beginning next month.

Mark your calendars!

Arteries

Forget about parental guilt. We've all done it from time to time. Heck, some do it on a daily basis.

I'm referring to the time honored tradition (translation: bad habit) of using the fast-food drive-thru as a culinary crutch. While you may not be a fan of the high sodium, artery clogging selections, let's face it -- the convenience of shouting into a metal kiosk, and almost instantaneously receiving a bag of food, simply cannot be beat.

What's more, fast-food restaurants are everywhere! They're right there.

All. The. Time.

On the way home from soccer practice, on the way to Nanny's, in between Target and the grocery store... basically, they're right next to wherever you happen to be at any given moment.

I have been awful about this bad habit, er... tradition, since summer began and I am hereby making a promise to my children to swear off all of that horrendous food that will end their precious little lives early.

Trucks with Music

Is there a better way to welcome "SUMMER"

than sitting on the front steps eating ice cream

delights that are hand-picked from the

ice cream truck?!

Perfect for Boating

Today the kids were FINALLY feeling okay (after almost an entire week of quarantine in the house with no guests and no field trips due to two hideously awful cases of strep throat with E and D), so we went out on Katie's and Jim's boat on the St. Croix river. It was really windy, but gorgeous.

To see many more cute pics, go to our Picasa web albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/BlumerLaMotte.

We hung out on an island in the St. Croix. D was so tired after all the sun and running around that he zonked out in my arms on the boat ride back to the dock. He didn't care how bumpy it was or how hard the boat hit the water, as long as he was in my arms -- he was out cold!

Why Do I Have to Study Math?

I finally figured out the answer to the question kids have whined to their parents for decades: “Why do I have to study math?”

The answer: So that someday, when you are a parent, you can plan your own children’s summer schedules.

It doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult. You take a finite number of weeks, investigate summer day camp and activity options, determine your budget and your goals for the summer, and register. That’s it; you’re done.

Hah.

It would be more accurate, I believe, to describe summer-camp planning as a complex algorithm. You must assemble all of the factors and plug them in at the appropriate times and places to arrive at the correct result, and at all points in the process, you must be aware that any single change can affect the outcome of the whole.

I have collected a list of camp options for my daughter. Ready, Set… GO!

I take a pass through the camp options with E and we highlight the camps we think she’ll like best and pencil (never use pen) our selections on the calendar I have printed out for this purpose.

Time for that pencil eraser...

I then remember that we don’t have a date set for mini family vacation we plan to take around Husband’s work schedule (3 or 4 days). I send Hubby an email to inquire about this year’s dates and receive back a frenzied reply about the uncertainty of which items he will need to travel for. Time for that pencil eraser … As soon as he figures out the lives of himself, his subordinates and all other company staff, he promises to get back to me. No problem. I return to my calendar and cross-reference the selected camps with the descriptive brochures—specifically now, I am looking at the deadlines for registration and cancellation and the non-refundable registration fees and matching those to my summer budget. I said budget… HA!

My budding scientist of a daughter informs me that she wishes she could go to the Science Museum of Minnesota “every day.” Naturally wishing to encourage such intellectual devotion, I revisit my initial rejection of summer camp that are exorbitant and excessively over-priced. I print out the museum’s summer offerings and run through the brochure once more, taking into account which camps are offered for my daughter’s age group and the weeks still open on my calendar.

Okay. Time to finalize the summer. Some weeks are set on my calendar (though I’m still not prepared to use a pen). For others, my daughter has to make a choice. I spread out the options on the kitchen table. For week X, she can choose between week one of a two-week drama/acting camp or staying home, but that decision must be made in conjunction with the decision for week Y, which is week two of the two-week drama/acting camp versus a two-week multi-sport camp. She has already decided to go to the second week of the drama camp. The drama/acting camp’s two weeks can be selected independently, but the sport camp’s two-weeks go together, so it’s all or nothing. What does she want to do?

“Mom,” E asks in a plaintive voice. “Can I decide this later?”

“Sure,” I respond. Who can blame the kid for not wanting to deal with this? I’m, well, older than eight years old, and I find this confusing.

But she’d better decide soon: registration begins Monday. And I think they’re going to make me use a pen.

THAT Word

Oh, sweet friends, we are two thirds of the way thru summer, and I am at my wits end. I am up to my knees in bug spray, sunscreen, sand, dirt and grass clippings. Summer has exploded into my house with a vengeance.

As much as I love the break from the school-year rat race, this year summer is turning out to be quite chaotic too and all the "home time" occasionally presents a challenge.

In particular, there's THAT word my children use, the word that makes me cringe like crazy:

BORED.

"If you're bored, you're boring!" I shout back cheerfully. They just love that.

I'd love to hear from you all about how you combat this issue in your home. Share your general outlook on the subject, or provide a list of specific modes of entertainment that work for your family -- whatever you'd like.

In the past, I have written and posted a list of activities the children may do if I hear the dreaded word. It's a list of every imaginable non-electronic diversion the children and I can think of. We list out every toy, every board game, all imaginary play, EVERYthing, so when the kids get twitchy I can point them to the list.

This year, I'm adding another list. *wicked laugh*

If the first list doesn't get them, then we go to "Mom's List Of Things You Can Do To So You Won't Be Bored". This second list include things like folding towels, picking up your room, practicing math equations, picking weeds from the flower beds, washing the front sidewalk with a toothbrush on your hands and knees while the hot sun bakes their developing little brains, etc.

Oh, yes ma'am.

What are your best tips for helping the kids engaged and busy and happy over the summer? I can't wait to read your ideas. I may print them all out and wallpaper the kitchen with them.

God's Bounty

The morning of Fourth of July, Nanny and I took the three girls to Afton Apple Orchard to pick yummy, delectable, juicy, red strawberries. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. We could not have asked for a more grand day. I had not strawberry picking since I was little girl. I think I was more excited than the children!

We arrived at the strawberry field and were promptly whisked away by tractor to our own patch of berry bliss.
The children quickly got down to business and were busy loading up our baskets with strawberries galore. YUM! It doesn't get better than this...

G ate the most strawberries ever. She was such a darling mess as we rode the tractor back to our car. All the adults around us were chuckling at her enthusiasm as she munched away on berry after berry.

Of course the morning wouldn't be complete without a ride in the cow tractor thing...