Author: Michelle

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Summer Haze

I’m not quite sure how it’s suddenly the middle of July, but it is. After road tripping most of June, we’ve spent most of July by the pool. 

I’ve come up with an equation- for every hour of swimming, bed time moves a half hour earlier. It’s kind of amazing. We swam for FOUR hours yesterday, and the boy fell asleep, on the living room floor, at 6pm.

When we’ve been out of the water, we’ve been at the library, reading books and earning points through the Gear Up for Good Summer Reading Program. Turns out, I’m a little obsessive when it comes to earning the “good” prizes, which I categorize as “free pass” or “BOGO pass” to attractions around town. The kids, on the other hand, are obsessive about their “good prizes”, which so far includes Laser Fingers and Blob Goo.

Enter my big discovery of 2012: Non-Fiction Books are Worth FIFTEEN POINTS. That means every non-fiction easy reader is worth three times the points of a book classified as a picture book. WIth this discovery, we’ll be rolling in all the “good” prizes in no time. Which is good, because there’s only two weeks left to earn points.

For real. Where has the summer gone??

Also..if you are itching to take a dip, check out Fort Harrison’s YMCA BRAND NEW Outdoor Pool. There’s a grand opening this Saturday, July 14th, and admission is free and open to the public. Read all about it!

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And Now He is Four

It’s been a whirlwind week at the Kahuna house- last weekend we made it as far north as Milwaukee. This morning I’m writing this from Atlanta.

In between all of the travel, the Fox turned FOUR. FOUR I say!

One of his favorite things at the Children’s Museum, the Rube Goldberg machine.

He’s all about good guys and bad guys, fast cars and high flying planes. He climbs. He jumps in to the pool. Anything MaM can do? He attempts to do.

He’s our family early bird, and every day, when he realizes he’s the first one awake, he wakes me up and says, “I’m the early bird, Mom!” to let me know.

He’s been planning his birthday for a long time, and at some point, I told him we’d spend this birthday in Atlanta, at a hotel, with a pool, and we’d get a cake for him (I mean, you have to have birthday cake, right?).

As the June calendar filled up, it turns out, we celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa last Saturday, with cake.

Then the babysitter had a party for him on Wednesday, with cake.

Then at home, on Wednesday, we celebrated with cupcakes and presents.

Thursday, as we were driving south he asked, “Is my cake at the hotel?”

Really kid, you feel like you need more cake? (We went to a birthday party last Friday and had cake, had cake for him Saturday, and had cupcakes Sunday at my niece’s baptism)

Thursday we checked in, met up with friends and the kids got in the pool. We ordered in pizza, and by 8pm, he’d falled fast asleep on the couch, with no mention of cake. I thought we were officially done with his birthday. 

Heh.

Friday morning, right after exclaiming he was the early bird, he asked, “Am I getting my cake today?”

Huh. Um, buddy, I don’t know.

Driving in the car to The King Center, he asked, “Is my cake in Downtown Atlanta?”

Driving to dinner last night, “Is my cake at this restaurant?”

Thankfully, Gigi’s cupcakes was three doors down from the restaurant. I verified that a cupcake would count, and that this, indeed, would be his LAST birthday cake until he was five.

He concurred.

And really enjoyed that long-awaited birthday cake in Atlanta.

Happy, Happy Birthday, my sweet, sweet boy. May you always be so relentless in getting what you have your mindset to!

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Sky Vacation Bible School: A Recap

This past week the kids and I spent our mornings at vacation bible school. Every day, from 9:00am- 11:30am, we participated with about 100 of our closet friends. There were flying pigs, a talking chipmunk, some cool science experiments and fun games.

And there were songs.

Oh my were there ever songs. As a volunteer, I received a CD with the music for the week. Every day, twice a day, the whole group sang a few songs, all with actions. Every day, on our way to and from VBS (and everywhere we went) we listened to the CD. Well, MaM wanted to listen. The Fox wanted to sing. After a few screaming matches we compromised.

The ride to VBS is for listening.

The ride home from VBS is for singing.

It really is the little things that can make or break a day.

This year the service component of the program was raising money and awareness for Operation Kid-to-Kid’s efforts in suppling mosquito nets to African children in need. Each day, in addition to learning to TRUST GOD, learning Bible stories and having fun, the kids learned a little more about the importance of helping others and the dangers of malaria.

MaM and the Fox didn’t talk much about VBS at home, except for singing the songs non-stop.

Then tonight I noticed the mosquitoes must have gotten the Fox last night. One of his thighs was a maze of welts, and he was scratching them as he got ready for bed.

“Mom, why did the mosquitos get me?”

“Well, they get everybody. They use your blood as food.”

“They use your blood too, right?”

“Right.”

“And the kids in Africa!”

“Right.”

From there, he explained to me that the mosquitos in Africa have bad germs, and kids can die. And that mosquito nets can help keep the bugs out. And then he used his sheet as a mosquito net, and showed me how the bugs couldn’t get through. He talked and talked, and quite clearly had a grasp on what the whole project was about.

He never ceases to amaze me.

Are your kids experiencing Sky this summer? It’s seems to be the go-to theme for Catholic and Protestant churches alike. Want to get them excited about it?  Check out this video: