Toothless (Practically)

Caroline lost another tooth last night, and three others are pretty loose.  I think that if those other three fall out before any others grow back in, I'll be forced to puree her food!

Unexpected

An unexpected vacation sighting occurred when we stumbled into watched a huge team of construction workers assembling scaffolding for the DEW tour right off of the Boardwalk. Now, I don't follow BMX bicycling or competitive skateboarding (shocking, I know), so I had never heard of the DEW tour.  We were surprised to see that the event was broadcast nationally on ESPN and NBC. We didn't stay to watch any of the events (no need to give Ben any stunt ideas, right?), but the construction was pretty cool.

I had control of the camera here. This reminded me of old photos of skyscraper construction from the 1940s and 1950s.

First Day of School!

Today is the first day of school for Abby (4th grade) and Caroline (2nd grade)! Ben will be enjoying two more weeks of summer vacation and will begin Kindergarten on September 10th.

This side view shows how stuffed their bookbags are with school supplies. There are 12 glue sticks and 36 pencils between the two of them (and more)!

Boardwalk Shots

We spent last week in Ocean City, Maryland, enjoying all the beach, family fun, and the end of summer vacation.  Now that we have been home for a week, all the beach memories are happy ones:  playing in the waves (no broken bones this year!), sand castles, beach combing, flying kites, playing frisbee, kayaking in the Bay, eating steamed crabs, riding Trimper's rides, slurping Dumser's milkshakes, and more.  I've almost forgotten about all the sunscreen and continuous bathing that the trip required.  Almost.

We went biking on the Boardwalk on three different mornings.  Abby and Caroline are able to pedal their two-wheelers on their own (with me constantly reminding Caroline -- STAY TO THE RIGHT, THE OTHER RIGHT!).  Ben isn't quite ready yet, so he rides along in the carrier attached to the back of my bike.  Although he's comfortable, in the past he has gotten bored with it after about 15 minutes and then starts putting his feet on the carrier wheels to make the fun zzzzzzzzzz noise which makes my bike ride significantly more challenging with all the drag.

This year I got creative and encouraged Ben to take pictures with our old digital camera while he rode along.  I had no idea how much fun this would turn out to be. Ben was totally occupied, either taking photos or previewing all the pictures on the memory card.  We were shocked -- seriously shocked -- to find out that Ben has very specific photographic interests.  He has an "aesthetic".  Who knew??

Check out these totally unaltered photos from BEN:

 
Those are cool, right??

Of course, Ben is a still only a 5-year old boy, so he also took a bunch of these:

Ben's Self Portrait
(I love how he smiled for his own picture)

My  Lower Half  

(oh yes, I'll be going on a diet)

I took this one of the photographer. 

Significant Stitches

This past spring, Scott got a great deal on some new khaki shorts from Eddie Bauer.  The only problem was that they were 1.5 inches too long.  I called the tailor to find out how much they would cost to hem.  I was expecting that it would be kind of pricey given my recent experience with a junior bridesmaid dress, but I was surprised to hear that the hemming would cost $20!  $20?!!!  That is more than the cost of the shorts.  My "great deal" was no longer looking so great.

I have been interested in learning to sew for a long time. Sewing is on my top secret life list of things I really want to do or learn and places I want to go, but these personal dreams seem absolutely impossible while the kids consume practically every minute of every day. Heartbreaking, but true.  How can one pursue dreams when constantly interrupted for snacks, questions, random requests, bickering, etc.  Even in the ten minutes I've typed these two paragraphs, Caroline and Ben have soaked the kitchen floor with water and poured hand soap on the floor.  I don't really know what they are doing, but I know that for every minute I type, it will take me at least 2.5 minutes per minute to clean up and require one load of laundry.  I am not exaggerating here.  They have just emptied the towel drawer. Sigh. Can't they just read a book?

Getting back to my sewing fantasy...In my ideal parenting reality, I would be able to pick a pattern, maybe even a Halloween costume, out of those pattern books at Jo Ann's Fabric store, while my children would sit patiently by my side.  Then we would quietly, politely,and pleasantly enjoy selecting fabric and notions together, while all the old ladies (who, I should add, are the only other people at Jo Ann's that seem to be buying fabric, except for the professional seamstress purchasing curtain material) smile at me, giving me that knowing nod that says, "Golly, what a beautiful and perfectly behaved family you have there. Well done."  Then, after soaking in all those positive feedback glances and nods, we'd come home and I would work un-interrupted for hours, and whip together whatever garment they had selected before dinner while everyone played nicely together.     

In order to make this dream a reality, I called the best seamstress I know who would give me lessons for completely free:  MOM.  Mom to the rescue again!  She agreed to my invitation to come to a "Sewing Camp" held at my house in June after school ended.  I promised to let her play with the grandchildren as much as she wanted (see how generous I am?) and she would walk me through sewing an apron from a Simplicity pattern step-by-step AND teach me how to hem shorts (those khaki shorts from Eddie Bauer).  

We had to start at the very, very beginning.  Unlike most other people (even Scott), I never had any kind of home economics class in high school.  I think it conflicted with my chemistry lab.  While I have some memories of watching my mom sew my Halloween costumes, mostly I only remember racing her metal weights down the hallway. I really had no idea where to start.  

After three full days of lessons and a whole lot of ironing (who knew there would be so much ironing in sewing???), check out the hem on these shorts -- see how straight the line is?  I hemmed them! The shorts are wrinkly because Scott actually wears the shorts!  I didn't ruin them -- even when I had to cut material off the bottom of the shorts!

And, look how well the aprons turned out!  Caroline and Abby picked out their own fabrics and trims, and their selections perfectly reflect their personalities right now.  The girls have absolutely no interest in wearing the aprons now that they are finished, but that is beside the point.

The sewing "experience" was nowhere,  I mean nowhere, as idyllic as I imagined.  The "easy sew" aprons and hemming took three full days to complete because lessons were crammed in between the regular amount of interruptions and parental duties.  But, even so, I can claim concrete and substantial progress towards a life goal; however, pedestrian it may be.  As the last month of summer vacation continues, I will be clinging dearly onto this little glimmer of hope for more future progress.

Burpee Wasn't Kidding -- Mammoth Sunflower

Stalks are 9 feet tall and still growing!

WINNER!

On Tuesday night, Scott and I went (alone, on an actual adult date) to watch the Reading Phillies play the Altoona Curve.  We had a wonderful relaxing evening at the minor league ballpark, watching the game, watching the people, and enjoying the fun atmosphere in "Baseballtown".  It is a terrific family ballpark that provides free scorecards when you walk in the door.  We even got free baseball hats because of the evening's promotional giveaway to the first 2000 adults.  So, all for the price of only $18 we received FREE parking (love it!), 2 great seats, a free scorecard and 2 baseball caps.  You cannot beat that, right?  

One of my favorite parts about visiting minor baseball games are the quirky games and races held in between the innings, like Dizzy Bats or giant inflatable things dancing/battling, and launching hot dogs into the stands.  It's all in good fun.  Well, GUESS WHAT???!!!!  I got picked to do one of the games!  The General Manager was walking around talking into a headset saying, "I need a female for this next game."  I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm female and I even am wearing my brand new Reading Phillies baseball cap."  So before I even realized it myself, I waved to him and said, "I'll do it!"  I must have looked either cute or incredibly desperate, so the GM picked me to play the HIGH-LOW game after one of the innings.  I was (and still am) completely thrilled!

I should note that this experience, believe it or not, is the second time I have been selected at a ballpark to play a game.  About 10 years ago when Scott and I were in San Diego, we went to a Padres game and I was selected to play a scoreboard game (I represented the yellow train) because whoever was picking the game participants happened to be friends with the people sitting behind me.  Although the yellow express was not victorious, I appeared on a major league scoreboard and won a free yellow Westfield Shoppingtown t-shirt and yellow bucket hat, which Scott still regulars wears.   

For the Reading Phillies game experience, I stayed at my seat and they brought over a camera and my picture was up on the ballpark scoreboard.  I had to answer 3 questions into a microphone, by picking either "HIGHER" or "LOWER". 

Question #1 -  Of fans polled coming into the ballpark, 65% said hot dogs were their favorite ballpark food when compared with french fries.  Higher or Lower?   (I picked higher, but the correct answer was lower, 58%!)

Question #2 - Of the baseball players that answered the poll, 50% had at some point had a manicure or pedicure.  (I picked lower, but the answer was HIGHER!  62% of ball players had either had a manicure or pedicure. WHAT??!!! 62%?  Nobody could have predicted that.)

Question #3 -- How old is the Reading Phillies ballpark relative to the next oldest ballpark in the league.  30 years?  Higher or Lower?  (I had absolutely no idea, so I guessed Higher, and I was right. Whew!) 

Even though I was only supposed to win 2 tickets for one correct answer, the GM gave me 4 free tickets to another Reading Phillies game, and we all had a good laugh about the ballplayers getting their nails done.  How exciting!!  Can you believe it?!  I am a WINNER!!!!

P.S.  Thank you to Mom, Dad, Doris, Pete, and the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania for making this evening possible!