Milkshake Tuesday

After a long day of swim camp, we decided to "take a rest" at Johnny Rockets before heading off to swim team. Please note that this is the table before we attacked it with ketchup, nickels, and strawberry milkshakes.

Before we left, the waiter came over and said, "You know, you guys are really well behaved. Probably the best behaved kids I've ever seen in here!" I started laughing because I assumed he didn't see the crayons all over the floor that Kenzie kept diving for, or the water from the vase that Jack spilled all over his lap in an attempt to attack the mini juke box with five nickels at once, or the fact that you could no longer see the top of the table due to our variety of straw wrappers, "nakins," spilled ketchup, etc. When I told this to their dad, he said, "Well I bet the bar is pretty low there. . ." Indeed.

And apparently after swimming all day and then going to swim practice, the kids still had energy to play on the playground. They created a game where they tried to throw a ball over the monkey bars without it going through the bars. Please recognize that Kenz is oblivious to this and is singing to herself as she swings through the danger zone.

For all you non city people: This is what a park in the city looks like. This playground is at a really cool school in Philly that has soccer fields on the roof and a pool in the basement.

Summer!

It is now officially summer, and that means summer fun with the kiddos I babysit!

The reading chart is now sweeping the nation (and by sweeping I mean that I did it in Kansas and now I'm doing it in Philadelphia)! You may remember it from here. Basically the way the reading chart works is you get a poster board and put each kids name on it. For every ten minutes that the kid reads, he or she gets one sticker. Get to 100 stickers, and you get a special prize. I learned the hard way last year that you have to make the prizes far out there...Austin had gotten about three prizes within the first night because he read for something like eight hours straight....oops.

Something that is also really important to me during the summers is family dinners. I make a huge effort to make sure that everyone sits down to dinner; Johnny will sometimes join if he can make it. The kids set the table, and I do the cooking. At family dinner, the kids usually try some kind of newish food (like salad), and they get to share the best part of their day and the worst part of their day. There are also enlightening conversations like this one:

Jack: "I'm glad I'm not going to die."

Rachel: "I hate to break it to you but you are."

Jack: "But I threw that penny...ah man."

I believe that at some point in the recent past he had wished in a fountain that he wouldn't ever die and apparently thought that the deal was done. If only it were that easy Jack, if only.

Baseball

It's been extremely hot here these last few days, so when babysitting, we do the only logical thing: go outside and play baseball.

Twin six year old boy is super into all sports ever created, especially baseball. This evening he convinces his twin sister and me to come outside and play baseball in the driveway. Let me paint a picture for you. I am still wearing my work clothes which include a pencil skirt, long necklace, and pearl bracelets. Girl six year old is in a skirt as well. But six year old boy is decked out in baseball shirt, baseball hat, and shorts, ready to roll. Of course.

Six year old boy decides to pitch. Not only are his pitches terrifying because they are definitely faster than anything that I can throw, but his aim is a little off, so the ball usually ends up hitting me somewhere in the torso if I'm at bat. He also does the whole pitcher spitting on the ground thing while looking at the catcher and nodding or shaking his head at the signals. I turn around to look at the catcher, she's not even behind me but is off picking flowers on the side of the driveway. And while we are playing baseball, six year old boy certainly can't keep his real name, so he makes us call him Chase Utley (Phillies player pictured above). Six year old girl decides that she and I need names. She is now Rose, and I am Red. Perfect.

Chase Utley pitches for awhile, gets bored, and decides to bat. Rose is now the pitcher. Calling her Rose the pitcher would be enough for me to enjoy the festivities, but she punctuates each pitch with doing a handstand, skirt over her head, feet flailing in the air.

It's going to be a good summer.

Spring Break

I've been catching a lot of flack for saying I'm bored on Spring Break. It's not that I have nothing to do (make a quilt, grade senior papers, plan lessons and units, do the dishes, do the laundry, etc), I just want to have fun things to do. So yesterday I decided to make a few things.

Still using the frozen berries until it gets warmer, but I digress. I made a berry crisp, and let me tell you, I have tried tens of different crisp recipes, and this one has consistently been my favorite.

Next, I decided to use the KitchenAid to make sugar cookies for Easter. A little known fact is that this is not the actual mixer that I received as a gift for my wedding. That one decided to turn itself on high speed in the middle of the night when it was supposed to be turned off. KitchenAid brought us a new one.

I made some Easter Bunny cookies last night and gave them to our neighbors. I saved a few for us. I'm just looking at the tupperware now, and I'm pretty sure Johnny had one/two for breakfast.

Other fun things that we've been doing include hanging out with the kids I babysit here. On Saturday night, Johnny and I babysat the nine year old and twin six year olds, and we all decided to go out to dinner. The highlight of the meal was not the grilled cheese but instead feeling Johnny's new haircut every five minutes and laughing hysterically. When we got back to their house, Johnny was hanging out with boy twin six year old in his room, and Johnny commented that he thought it was nice that boy twin six year old had a picture of his older sister in his room. Boy twin six year old looked at it and said, "Well...she was born first...so we wanted to tell her, 'Congratulations!'"

I don't remember my siblings having congratulatory pictures of me in their rooms.