Howe Two: Summer Fun--Week 5

Jillian attended her first FCA camp this week. She chose basketball and volleyball as the sports (two full days of each). I think she had a good time. I have no pictures, but so it goes. This was her first time trying volleyball and when I asked her what she thought about it she replied, "It's just very complicated". She wants to learn the sport very much, so we bought a volleyball and I am going to try and help her a bit in a low key way. It's unclear to me whether or not she thinks she likes it because SHE really likes it, or because she thinks I want her to like it since I played it and love the game.

This week we also spent a lot of time trying to stay away from the pool. It was warm and would have been great pool weather the first part of the week, but with Adrienne's clavicle fracture we were trying to keep things low key. On Tuesday afternoon, the girls got it in their heads that they HAD to put on a concert for us that evening. They spent two hours after camp locked away in the piano room planning costumes and routines. We were treated to quite a hilarious and sweet little show, full of Tangled songs (Adrienne) and Kidz Bop numbers (Jillian). Jillian had some very consistent choreography to go along with each number that corresponded well with the words. She asked to wear my hat and told me that "this type of outfit is what all the singers/dancers wear". I have no clue how she knows this, but she looked remarkably like a teenage dance member of a pop group.

Adrienne (in a dress and braid akin to Rapunzel) sang all her songs seriously. It was quite a switch.

Continuing with a Rapunzel obsession, Adrienne came down to breakfast on Wednesday morning with her long "hair".

This "hair" was rather delicate, and so you can imagine it broke easily and often. We had huge crocodile tears each time. Oh, how I love the imagination on this kid.

I bribed the girls with a drive through McDonald's cone after camp so that I could hit the mid-week Farmer's Market with less drama. It worked.

On Wednesday evening, our week took a dive. Adrienne suddenly proclaimed that she was freezing and insisted on staying under a blanket. She started running a fever, and when I went to get her up Thursday morning, she was crying that she hurt so bad she couldn't get up. Her temperature was almost 104, she had chills, body aches, tummy ache, headache, sore throat, and her neck hurt. I was just sure it was strep. I got her dressed while she was still laying down and carried her to the car. We took J to camp and then went to the dr to get checked out. Such a seriously pitiful scene in the back of the car.

And while waiting for the dr.

We got the strep swab and went home to wait for results. I was so thankful Matt was able to sneak away from work early so that he could make it to the closing ceremonies assembly for Jillian's camp and to pick her up.

When he picked her up, he tried to take her to a park to try out Pokemon Go and she started to complain of a headache and that SHE was cold. She was quiet and subdued when she got home, and sure enough--101 temp on her. The girls just laid on the couch watching whatever was on Nick Jr (which NEVER happens, they always use the DVR to find a favorite show), and I was flabbergasted to see both of my anti-nap (for many years now) children both asleep! At the same time! Inconceivable!

Strep results were negative, so we were just prepared to ride out a long virus. Adrienne perked up by the end of the night a bit, but had a hard time sleeping, so she snuggled up next to Matt as he watched the Tour de France and suddenly she was snoozing away. So sweet.

And just like that, both girls woke up Friday morning DRAMATICALLY better! Still some headache action, but no fevers or other complaints. Kids are so strange, I tell ya. We decided to lay low that day, but had to go into the dr for ME because I had a lingering earache (turns out it was wax...an ear lavage is definitely not high on my list of things I'd want to do again). The girls were so good and happy coloring in the room and you would never have known they were in dire straights the day before.

That afternoon I pulled out what we refer to as "the special boxes", which really are rubbermaid totes that contain the keepsakes for each girl. They had SO much fun getting to see their hospital hats/shirts, first artwork, pictures, baby books, sonogram photos, old blog books, and so on. The most hilarious moment was when we came across the pregnancy tests (why I saved these, I don't know). This of course led to Jillian asking "how do you find out you are pregnant? Do they put you in a machine or something?" When I revealed the pee-on-the-stick technology, they were mortified! If you wanna gross your kids out, let 'em see something you peed on many years ago. Ha!

On Saturday, everyone was feeling well, so we headed up to the Cities to help Matt do some shopping for RAGBRAI. He wanted to go to a bike store on the West side of the metro, so we ended up in the quaint little Long Lake area. We stumbled upon a fabulous little Brew Pub right on the water. Passion Fruit Witbier, I heart you.

Our lunch view.

Checking out the water front while we waited on our food.

Crazies in their sunnies.

After lunch and the bike shop, we went to the lake front park to play and explore a bit.

Beautiful scenery along the dock and little nature trail. The girls were mesmerized by all the lily pads.

Before we left the park, we had to try some Pokemon Go. Just to say we did. And now I'm all done.

After several more stops all over the Twin Cities, we made it home just in time to pick up pizza and put the kids to bed. Matt got out all of his purchases and practiced blowing up his mattress and pillow and tried out his new warm-weather sleeping bag.

Today was such a gorgeous day. We had some more RAGBRAI shopping to do (I told him I have zero personal shopping guilt after all this bike gear shopping we've been doing for him--a very expensive adventure!). First, outdoor brunch at Chester's with some very wiggly kids.

We finished our shopping and spent the day at home--I dealt with my 25 lbs of Georgia peaches from the YFC fundraiser. By "dealt" with them, I mean I made a pie and made jam. My kitchen smelled lovely this afternoon.