Weekend Warriors

Yet another chance to get away...

Our weekend, in numbers:

34- Hours that Eva was early in putting on her floatie. Notice the Blackberry. Looks like kids pick up on every example we set.

2- Minutes that it took us realize that Samuel was pulverizing his cup full of ice... FROM THE MIDDLE? Why does that just seem so Samuel?

3-Dishes that we can always count on at Gutke family gatherings: Orange fluff, the veggie tray in the Tupperware container, and rainbow layered Jell-O.

11+-Dimes Natalie had in her wallet to buy duck food. Is it silly that I was impressed? I mean, that is a lot of dimes. The ducks ate right out of the kids hands.

8ish- Times that Karl threw Samuel super high into Grandma and Grandpa's pool. "Daddy do the big thingy!"

2- Minutes it takes super cautious Eva to go down a slide.

5-Seconds it takes everyone else to go down the same slide.

2- Kids we have because that is how many hands Karl has.

3- Cute cousins that Eva and Samuel got to hang out with.

1- Time we had to re-light the candles on the cake so everyone would have a chance to blow them out.

4- Dresses I got at the Oneity closing sale. Because the more I buy at a sale the more I am saving, right? I am so sad that store closed. Eva is wearing one here.

Uhhh... 7- photos I took that night at Bear Lake (I am getting sick of the numbers thing...). Samuel having a ball, Samuel harassing Karl, Samuel harassing Karl again, Eva being cautious with the water again, cool texture in the water, Eva having a ball, beautiful skies... phew!

4-shadow puppet stories and Karl told us in the tent. Samuel kept interrupting and crashing the stories with his shadow gorilla. I know it doesn't sound funny, but I giggle as I sit here typing just thinking about it. He really made this huge shadow gorilla head. I was the was the first one to fall asleep.

20+- Times we told Samuel to be careful around the fire. Hot dogs, s'mores, and what? Yep, bacon and eggs in a bag cooked over the fire. I read about it on a bunch of camping websites and thought it looked easy enough, wanted to try it out, and, well, what a waste of bacon. Poor Karl was hungry all day.

8-Hours we spent on the beach. Samuel wore those goggles almost the whole time.

0- times he put his face in the water.

20+- Birds that Eva and Samuel chased on the beach. One minute Samuel is eating his snack, the next minute Karl looks over and Samuel is standing on a picnic table surrounded by birds. Samuel was so scared and was freaking out. It didn't take long for Samuel to realize that the birds would run if you chased them. They ran so hard. Samuel was chasing them and Eva, who was finishing up her chips, yelled, "Save some for me!"

7-dollars I found on the beach... among the trash scattered around.

5-too many hours I spent reading Breaking Dawn.

20-Times I wished I was done reading it. I know there are so many fans, but there were just too many things that Miss Meyers writes that I end up thinking, "Ew, that was way TMI."

9- Years that I have been married to Karl and the number of summers that Karl has fried his skin on the beach and then comes up with a plan on how to prevent it the next time.

4- lady bugs that we saw over the weekend. I heard they are getting scarce.

15- seconds it took for Samuel to fall asleep once we packed up and got in the car. That kid played so hard. He said, "This is a great day for the beach!" He slept through dinner at La Beaus (a Bear Lake tradition is shakes at La Beaus) and then all the way home.

Everything She Needs to Know She Learned Way Before Kindergarten

*Cliff notes for this entry: If you are only going to read part of this, skip down to the last video. It is the one that makes me smile the most.

I took Eva to her new school for kindergarten registration. She met her super nice teacher and got to see her classroom. The photo pretty much captures how much enthusiasm Eva showed. I think her motto might be something like, "When in doubt, be so calm that everyone around you appears over caffeinated." We got a little packet titled, "Kindergarten is Great" that listed a bunch of things that Eva will be learning in kindergarten. This has been a great summer for us and I was just thinking about some of Eva's milestones. Seems to me, we already have a few things covered...

Reading and Writing

"Mom and Dad goodbye for the rest of your lives."

If Eva can write this, does she need to learn how to write anything else? She swears she didn't mean anything by the note and that she was just writing. Um, sure, Eva. Just in case, maybe I'll keep the car keys hidden.

Math

Her deep love for chocolate milk has driven her to develop her math skills. She already knows measurements and ratios... the amount of Ovaltine powder to milk. She also knows how many times in a 30 minute period that you have to ask for chocolate milk in order to bug your parents so bad that they just say, "go ahead."

Science

How much air does it take to blow this bubble?

The Arts

This girl can create. See the "envelope" thing? I showed her ONCE. That crown, she just came up with it, the dimensions and everything. And balloon animals? Um, the lady at the library story time was showing all the parents how to do it and then Eva just whips up this butterfly. She's got art covered until Jr. high because if I recall correctly, all I did in Jr. high is write notes and then fold them up like this to pass to my friends. But, do kids just text now? Uh, who has a hard time staying on subject?

Health

As far as I know, no one has ever died from not being able to play t-ball or soccer or from not being able to dance or tumble. Seems to me, swimming is an essential skill. Last year, Eva refused to put her face in the water. Something clicked this year. It was awesome. Yes, I know we still need to be careful around water, but it just feels like such a relief to know that she is kind of in control in the water.

and last but not least...

Social Studies

Eva is set for the rest of her social life... this party trick never gets old (at least for me, I am an easy laugh). If this is a genetic thing, we'll just say she didn't get this from me. One day she just did it. Out of nowhere.

Paper skills, beverage creation skills, belly rolling skills, back floating skills, balloon animal skills...

Watch out kindergarten, here comes Eva.

Boys vs. Girls

Karl and Samuel went up to Brighton Meadows for the Fathers Sons campout.

I tried to get some details on the event and it went kind of like this:

Me- How was it?

Karl-Good

Me-What did you do?

Karl-We ate and then went to bed and that was about it.

Me- You didn't even roast marshmallows?

Karl- Well, yeah.

Me- Who was there?...

You get the picture, talk about pulling teeth. But I can tell from the photos that they had a great time. I mean, look at Samuel's smile. In his prayer, Samuel said, "Thank you that I could ride the 'kazoos'." Samuel has also been obsessed with hot cocoa for the past couple of days so my detective skills conclude that they probably had hot chocolate. Oh, Karl did volunteer that the group ate like four pounds of bacon. Gross.

Fighting the urge to take advantage of just having one kid with me and getting a bunch of stuff done, Eva and I had a girls' night. We started the night by going to get Glitter Toes. My friend, Courtney, told me about it and I thought that she made the cute little name up. But when I called around to book an appt., everyone knew what Glitter Toes were.

After that we went looking for a delicious meal. Surprise, surprise, we ended up at my parent's house... best meal in town.

Next stop was V-Chocolates for the second best caramel apples that I have been able the find (the best is Chocolate Covered Wagon, but they were closed).

We took the apple home, sliced it up and watched Eva's choice of movie... Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer? Uh, definitely not my choice. Eva, I hope you know how much I love you...

The next day we got all primped (I even wore hairspray. Yep, pulled out that bottle that I bought right after Eva was born) and went to a friend's Tea Party. Eva was right at home. The decorations were all pink and green, and super cute, and super fancy.

Another Night of Overindulgence

Karl's work sponsored another night of getting our family out into society. This time it was the Bees game. Here are the highlights, low lights and everything in between that I may want to forget but want Eva and Samuel to remember. A long post for a long night.

• Eva didn't want to wear her Bees shirt. She wanted to look like Polly, as in Polly Pockets. She even wanted me to "scraggle" her pig tails like Polly.
• We took Trax down because Karl and my mom already had a car downtown. Eva talked on her toy Blackberry all the way down.
• My mom and dad were able to join us. My mom runs into someone she knows everywhere we go.
• Food was provided. Sam's dinner was 4 bites of meat, 2 of those huge looks-like-chocolate-but-tastes-like-playdough (I know because I used to eat them in Jr. High and call it lunch) Grandma's cookies, and a can of Sprite. Eva ate 2 bites of meat, mint brownie, cookies, and a can of Sprite. Nice.

• Who knew that Safety Night at the Bees game was going to be such a big deal? They got so much free stuff (I love free stuff and apparently my kids do, too)... duffel bags, helmets, pens, pencils, bike helmets (which Samuel modeled for most of the game), fans, water bottles, whistles (whoever chose those was not a mom), key chains, gum, toys, tattoos... all in the name of safety. Samuel carried it all in a "the Jerk" like manner until it got too heavy.
• The balloon lady could create amazing stuff... swords with a belt to hold it, crazy hats, bees with a plastic stinger, any animal under the sun. Samuel chose a blue cat. I could have predicted that. He likes blue. He likes cats. That is all. I love the photo of Samuel watching her in awe. Mout open and all.
• Eva and Samuel got all shy and wouldn't say, "Hi" to Bumble. Eva had no problem using her balloon butterfly to spank him though. The butterfly popped 5 minutes later. On accident. The cat popped 6 minutes later. On purpose.

• Using the fond memories of the "string gum" from the last game to my advantage, I got the kids to clean their rooms, the living room, and the basement so they could have a pack at this game. Samuel's lasted 10 minutes. We chose not to figure out how a kid can eat that much gum in 10 minutes. See Karl's tiny bubble? That is how much they would share with him. We need to work on that. Add that to the list after nutrition and respect.
• Much to the dismay of the lady in front of us, the kids started entertaining themselves by climbing over the seats. Then they started climbing the wall. So, we need to add safety to the list of things we will someday teach them. The security guard helped us, though, he was so kind as to come all the way down and tell them to get down. Embarrassed, I climb over the two rows of chairs (do you know how short my legs are?) to get them. Right when I get there, Karl yells, "Where are you parents?" at Eva and Sam. Everyone around us who had been bugged by our kids for the past 20 minutes laughs. Ha Ha.

• They finally get to ride the train. Last time they asked and we said, "in a little while." They trusted us and waited. They got up there in time to see it close. This time they knew better than to wait patiently and asked every three minutes. They had to wait through a tire change. They survived with $3.50 snow cones (doesn't that seem like a lot?). Eva couldn't finish hers because she over syruped it with all the self serve flavors. Whoever thought it was a okay to let a five year old put as much sugar on a snow cones as she wants wasn't a mom (um, it was a dad).
• They love rolling down the grass hill, playing on the bouncy house, and making friends on the playground.
• I drag/bribe/force them back to the game in time to see it end. As we walk to our seats one of the players tosses them each a baseball. Never mind the fact that basically everyone in the stadium would have appreciated it more but what is a night of overindulgence without an official baseball? Karl was envious.
• They got to run the bases again. Samuel must relate bases to his t-ball experience because they seem to make him want to sit down.
• Bumble the Bee signed their baseballs. They cared. Can you tell by Eva's face? Another thing to add to the least of things we need to teach them... gratitude.

On a completely unrelated note:

Oneity, one of my favorite places to buy my kids' clothes is closing their retail store. I am sad about it but happy about their clearance sale. They have boutique looking stuff at reasonable prices and the best part is that they are a company with conscience and a heart.