I had fun at Art Camp!

So sayeth my little hurler.

Better day...

After, for all intents and purposes, totally losing his marbles yesterday on the first day of Art Camp, M4 was MUCH better today. I think a good night's sleep helped. The previous nights had been very stormy. I was totally exhausted from being awake those nights, and I think M4 was, too. For those of you I haven't already mentioned this to, he almost made himself throw up when we arrived at art camp yesterday. He was much more chipper this morning, although he did tell me "he didn't feel good" at first. I think the prospect of going home afterwards with a friend he adores helped sweeten the deal today. Plus they are making awesome, cool dragon heads!!! which I will post pictures of later.

P.S. Blogger isn't loading images right now for some reason. Computers...bah.

The stereotypes are ingrained at a young age...

M4 found a pair of Mark's old glasses...needless to say, quite large old glasses in comparison to today's styles. He put them on and was goofing around. I told him he looked like Poindexter (M4 learned this name from a friend and has been mispronouncing it "Poinexter."). I explained that Poindexter was a name associated with geekiness. (Um...yeah...OK, I'm perpetuating the stereotypes.) Then M4 put the glasses on Mark, started giggling, and said, "You look like a scientist!!!"

Lazy Days of Summer?

Today was the first day of no school. I was looking forward to the lazier summer schedule; getting to hang out with the kids. But...that doesn't really work when I have to teach at 8 a.m. Darn that work stuff! It just gets in the way. It will be interesting to see how the kids deal with being dragged to work with me all the time. When their other buddies are there, it's OK, but when they're not...well, we'll see. (Hey, that was all three uses of there/their/they're in one sentence! Probably bad English.)

Redonkulous!

Our favorite new word around here is "redonkulous," courtesy of the movie Bolt (which I think was one of the higher quality kids' movies, despite the presence of Miley Cyrus...at least we didn't have to see her!). Usage: There are so many toys on your bedroom floor that I can't walk without tripping! It's redonkulous!!

We went to the Devonian Fossil Gorge (near Iowa City) on Memorial Day for a family outing. We saw some water snakes eating a fish (ewwww!) and caught some of the hundred of tadpoles that were wiggling around in the puddles. At least, M3 did. M4 was not keen on that idea. Afterwards we had some outrageously overpriced Indian food. Oh well, the kids chose the lamb, which I thought was pretty adventurous of them!

First Days of Summer

School will be over on Friday! The past few days have been quite warm, so we broke out the sprinkler for the first time!
M3's friend B was over. I know this is blurry, but I just liked it because M3 is airborne.

Round and round they go! I love our new yard. And I also love my clothes line! Go figure...

News of the Weird

How's this for strange? The kids' gymnastics teacher was walking her dog along a rural Iowa road, turned around and realized she was being stalked by this:A serval!! In Iowa!! When she sends us the pictures she took, I will post them. (She freaked out, called her husband to pick her up, and they happened to have a camera in the car.) She got some amazing pictures!

Clearly, it was someone's pet, but it's just so interesting to contemplate...how long has it been loose? Has it been wandering all over Iowa? From a quick web search, it seems they are popular exotic pets. Which makes me sad. One site said they will not knowingly sell serval kittens to families with children. Uh huh.