Contract Law

Next week my daughter, Sprout, and I are going to a orientation meeting for Middle School.

I need a moment to get my head around that.  OK, I am better now.

Like I said, Middle School.  As in, no longer Elementary School.  As in, one of the more traumatic experiences of many pre-teen lives.  My baby is going into the belly of the beast.

Earlier this week we were talking about this big transition, and Mike said something about "soon she'll be leaving home".  At which point, Sprout looked at us with panic in her eyes and said, "But we still have the contract, right?"

Ah, yes.  The contract.

Walk with me down memory lane to about 5 1/2 years ago.   Little Sprout was just turning 5 and in Kindergarten.  And, being the oh-so-funny Mommy that I am, I looked into her big green eyes and said, "Pretty soon you'll have to get a job and your own apartment."  Ha ha ha!  I am FUNNY!

The next day, the Kindergarten teacher reported that Sprout had spent much of their naptime crying.  Something about how she didn't want to have to get a job and move out?

Doh!

Of course I reassured her that I had been TOTALLY KIDDING about the whole job/apartment thing.  Totally!  And that she could always, ALWAYS live with us. 

But a mere verbal contract was not sufficient to re-assure her.  So we drew up an official document showing that she could always live with us.  Signed and everything. 

Not notarized.  We might need that loophole later with this whole contract thing comes back to haunt us.

This official document has now been filed away for all of those years.  But when faced with the impending (like, 8 years from now!) end of life-at-home, Sprout went and dug it out and put it on the counter.  Just so we won't forget that we promised.

We won't forget.  I am in no hurry to get rid of her permanently.

I am assuming that by the time she is able to leave, she'll want to.  She probably will choose a college far far away.  (Sob.)  She'll probably seek her fortune in a big city somewhere. (Sob.)

But I am happy for her to have this piece of mind that if ever the road points her back toward home, there will be room at the inn for her.  Always.

Go Daddy!

We made this poster to commemorate Mike's first (and possibly last, depending on how he feels over the next few days) marathon!

YAY!!

I am beyond amazed. My boyfriend ROCKS!

The Maine Event

We went to Maine for the last week in July and stayed in a lovely cottage on the coast near Boothbay Harbor (the area is actually called Ocean Point). Starfish Cottage even has its own Facebook page, so Maine isn't quite as cut-off from civilization as you might think. The cottage even had a wireless network so we were able to check e-mail despite the fact that no one had any cell phone coverage at all!

Technical considerations aside, we were in Maine because my parents rented the house and invited my brother and me to bring our families along for the week. Mom's idea. Yay, Mom!

It took us a while to get up there - a flight from Philadelphia to Manchester, New Hampshire and then about 2 1/2 hours in the car. But I have to say, I think it was worth it!

Maine is bee-oo-ti-ful! The house had this incredible view of the bay, lighthouse, boats, rocks, wildflowers... stunning.

Maine is also rainy and foggy much of the time, leading to quite a bit of in-the-house time. Luckily we had a challenging puzzle, several decks of cards and three kids who haven't played together in a year or so. The novelty of my gorgeous nephew was enough to keep my kids playing nicely almost the whole time!

The fog also ensured that we could enjoy the blast of the foghorn every 30 seconds for approximately 5 days straight. Honk.

On the first full day of our vacation, the rain was coming down and the kids spent the entire day in their pajamas building forts in the "bunk room" - where no children wanted to sleep, but they all loved to play.

Mid-day we found this note on the door.

The guns were made of Lego, so we weren't all that concerned.

Late in the afternoon, the rain stopped and the kids (mine still in their pajamas - but with jackets) went out to explore the rocks and tide pools. They each came back with a bucket of crabs and snails and they were SO happy about it. Check out the smiles!

In the morning we found that most of the snails had attempted to make a break for it and were scattered around outside of the buckets. Oops. After we gathered them all up, they were swiftly returned to the ocean.

But our big adventure was a whale-watching boat trip.

Tater has some motion-sickness issues, so I was worried about his sea-worthiness and dosed him with Dramamine before the boat trip. He slept part of the way out to sea, but woke up when we got to the whale feeding area, said "A whale!" and scampered off to see.

I, on the other hand, took a Dramamine just in case and totally should have taken 2 (or 3 maybe...) Luckily the whales came close enough to the boat that I could see them without standing up. And luckily Mike was taking pictures. Because standing and focusing were so totally not on my list of things to do while out on the open ocean.

The next day my parents, my mother-in-law-in-law and all the kids went on another boat tour to see puffins. They really enjoyed it - but I have no pictures since I wasn't there. I was shopping in Freeport, which was very entertaining in its own way!

We set up a badminton net out front and there were several heated tournaments.

Three Interesting Badminton Facts:
1) I can totally smash the birdie over the head of a 6-year-old.

2) Saying shuttlecock is funny no matter how old you are.

3) My mom totally rocks at badminton.

Not much story here except how cute are the lobster hats?

And Tater lost a tooth while we were away (see the enormous - or as he would say "hue-normous" hole in his smile) AND the tooth fairy TOTALLY found him in his bed in Maine. That is one smart fairy.

Because where we were was on a point out into the ocean, there was a west-facing side that looked out over the water. This means a sunset over the water.

Of course, that only works if it isn't foggy and/or raining. My Dad went and saw an amazing sunset, but the night that we all went it was pretty much a big cloud with light around it, which was cool anyway.

This is our group of grown-ups at the "sunset party" (except Mike, who took the picture). At the moment when the sun disappeared over the horizon, someone fired a cannon (an actual cannon!) before lowering their flag.

Cannons are loud, especially when you aren't expecting them.
I am surprised none of us fell off the rock.

Here is the younger set enjoying the sunset - and climbing around on the rocks.

I think they enjoyed the rocks as much as they do a sandy beach. With all of the climbing and exploring, they thought it was very exciting!

We couldn't really swim near the house since it was freezing cold and so rocky, but we did find a "real" beach about an hour away and went there on our last day.

Here are the sandcastle builders at Reid State Park Beach.

The day started out very nicely, but soon after we finished building our sandcastle, the rain started to fall and we had to high-tail it out of there.

Hmmm...other highlights of the trip:

1) Both kids tried lobster, and of course both liked it. Sprout, who complains bitterly when she is served chicken again, declared it to be "sort of chewy", but she will surely order it again!

2) My sister-in-law taught Sprout to play double-solitaire.

3) We finished a 1000 piece puzzle that was crazy hard. My brother was utterly obsessed and did most of the work.

4) S'mores.

5) More fort building.

6) Several highly competitive rounds of Monopoly.

7) A giggly game of Rummy 500.

8) A more-than-3-mile walk along the more-highwayish-than-we-thought road to the store.

9) Lots of smiling.

10) Quality time with our far-away people.

I have to say I would totally make the Maine coast my go-to summer destination if it wasn't so very far away. The cool weather, beautiful scenery, laid-back atmosphere, smell of the ocean, cute shops...all good stuff.

Just have to remember next time - more Dramamine!

Vacation Surprises

By the time you read this, I will be here.
I mean, there.
Where the picture is.
Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

I've never been to Maine before. It looks pretty, huh?

My mom has decided that we need to take family vacations together again. My brother lives far away (Dallas), and we need to get the whole gang together and vacate.

And we do what Mom tells us to do, so we go. We're no dummies.

The last trip was a week in Italy in 2007, which was completely awesome. The kids were just happy to have their cousin there. And a pool. They thought it was sort of amusing that they couldn't understand what people were saying. And Tater enjoyed the Carousel enough to want to go back.

This time we are staying a bit closer to home - at least in the good old USA. Although pretty much as far from Dallas as one can go and still be in the country. I wonder if there is a message in there for my brother...hmmmm. Anyway, in commemoration of this event, we decided to make t-shirts.

We went to the Dollar Store and got plain blue shirts for each child and then we got some of this (fabric paint that doesn't get weird and crunchy...and is washer safe after 72 hours...):

And some of these (letter stamps - from JoAnn Fabrics - $12.99 for the set of two sizes):
We folded the t-shirts carefully and put a piece of cardboard between the front and back to make sure the paint wouldn't bleed through. Then we painted the fabric paint ever so carefully onto the stencils, and we made these.

The kids each did their own and did a great job. They were careful about spacing the letters and making sure they were pointing the right way. Very impressive, I think!

I made one for my nephew and the plan is that they will all arrive wearing these tomorrow and surprise my Mom (Nana - in case you didn't guess).

Check out the backs:

Get it? "Maine" event?

My brother is in advertising. He's my go-to tagline guy. Not that I need one that frequently. But when I do, I go to him.

I am hoping this isn't one of those things my Mom will look at and say, "I don't get it."
That would suck.

But then, we will be spending the rest of the week hanging out here, so I can probably handle it either way.

Thanks for the trip, Mom! You rock!
Yay for Nanafest 2009!!