Boxes for bones

Andy took E around to some local pizza parlors today to ask for clean pizza boxes. That was her job as her Girl Scout troop participates in the One Million Bones project. The girls have been making bones out of clay, then have to let the bones dry on the clean boxes before they're fired in a kiln. They'll also use the boxes to transport the bones to Springfield for a demonstration on April 28. E got 10 boxes from two different places and one at another (really, that's all they could spare?). So she has a total of 21 so far. And an Irving mom might be giving her some pizza boxes that she has been storing in her basement. She said not to ask why, so we won't. :)

Also today, Andy took B and his visiting-from-Ohio friend, L, to mini golf this morning. Then they had lunch at Culver's. E and I went to Oakbrook so she could show me all the cool stores she went in with cousin C earlier this week. We also found her a pair of white sandals for the bone demonstration. L spent the afternoon hanging out at our house, joined by IB later in the day. L's mom picked him up at 5 p.m. When she got here, B said, "Are you here to take L away?" She took him to the friends' house where they were staying for the weekend with plans to leave for Ohio in the morning. He even let B keep his Nintendo 64 and a few games. His mom said it would be fine if the entire system "got lost" before they returned to Oak Park. Guess she doesn't want it in her house anymore.

Hangin' out

Today, B hung out at home with his friends L, IB and IR. Apparently he, along with L and IB, never went to sleep last night. The four boys were here most of the day. I sent them outside twice to go to a park or somewhere and sent them away when Andy got home from work. L was going to sleep over again, but B was asleep as soon as they left.

E was also enjoying the visit and went to Pete's for lunch with M. She hung out with him and a few of his friends on Lake Street for the whole afternoon.

And not to be left out of the playdate arena, L had four of her neighborhood friends over. Fortunately, they played really well together.

This evening, E decided to make a bow and arrow out of wooden fruit skewers. It entertained her for a few hours. The first arrow she shot went from the living room onto the back porch. Yikes.

Back in town

B had his friend, IB, over this afternoon waiting for the arrival of L from Ohio. He arrived around 4 p.m. They played some video games, walked around to a few parks, had lunch at Pete's (and even let little sister tag along). L already had been planning to spend the night and when they came home from dinner, they all told me how much fun they're having and that they loved me and could IB stay over too? How could I say no. I doubt they'll be getting much sleep.

While they were playing, Andy took E to the movie theater to meet up with L's brother, M, and another friend to see the "Hunger Games" again.

Siblings

This morning I found B and E sitting in the same chair, quietly and contently watching TV. (E is wearing her new Illini sweatshirt from PINK that cousin C bought her yesterday.)

This is what happened when L found out they were happy without her:

Later, E and B were fighting over who was going to put the last piece in the puzzle. We finished and found that two pieces were missing. E is covering them up so if we give the puzzle to Mom, she won't know where the missing pieces are. :)



They also started a third puzzle of the week. Again, 1,000 pieces to tackle.

Cousin C

E had a treat this afternoon when her cousin C took her shopping to Oakbrook Center. It's nice to have an older cousin who can drive. They were gone for three hours, which included lunch, and did quite a bit of shopping. There must have been some good sales going on. E got an Illini zipped hoodie sweatshirt and five shirts and said she spent less than $50 on it all. E was thrilled that C took her to the trendy teen shops (H&M, Urban Outfitters, Aeropostale) we usually skip when we're shopping together. C even bought E the hoodie at Victoria's Secret PINK store.

We also started another puzzle today, but we're pretty sure one of the red pieces right in the middle of the puzzle is missing. We hate when that happens.

Can I have a blanket?

B had two friends, IB and IR, over yesterday to hang out. That hanging out turned into a double sleepover at which not much sleeping was being accomplished. This afternoon, B sat on the sofa and asked for a blanket, saying he was cold. After more than a week of 80-degree weather, it's only about 50 today and it's a bit chilly inside the house. I covered him up and by time I turned around, he was sound asleep. Turns out he and the boys were up till 2 a.m. His friends are probably home sleeping too.

Meanwhile, L went to her friend M's birthday party at Enchanted Castle. She said she had a great time. His dad even bought L a pretty, pink (of course) princess hat. She won the little red monkey at the crane game and also won a fan.

E got a hankering for a chocolate chip bagel and decided to try to whip up a batch. She found a recipe on the internet that doesn't use yeast (since we don't have any in the house). She greased her hands with Crisco, but the dough was too sticky to form it into bagels. Her friend, A, called and convinced E to abandon the failed bagel dough and go for a bike ride instead.

1,000 pieces

Last night I was so bored, I pulled out this 1,000-piece puzzle I brought home a few weeks ago from the Economy Shop. For $1 I figured it would give us a few hours of entertainment. We've done puzzles before on spring break. It's my sneaky way of peeling the kids away from the computer and TV. E got started on it with me last night and this morning, both E and B were busy putting the puzzle together.

E and Andy went golfing this afternoon with one of E's friends from the golf team, L, so B had his friend IB come over. Our goal was to have it done before E got home. With B and IB both helping, we easily beat her by two hours. In all, it took about five hours to finish it. Not too shabby. Surprisingly, all the pieces were there!

The puzzle is Frank Lloyd Wright's Saguaro Glass Design. According to the puzzle box, Wright "created Saguaro Forms and Cactus Flowers in 1927/28 as one of a series of unpublished magazine covers. He later chose it as the cover of Modern Architecture, a collection of his lectures delivered at Princeton University in 1930." We might have to tackle another puzzle this week.

Seriously?

We had to laugh when E told us this week that her gym teacher has nominated her for "Gym Student of the Quarter." It's funny, first of all, that there is such a thing and for E to be nominated is close to hilarious. This is the girl who asked her doctor for a note to get her out of swimming. And what did E do in swimming this past quarter? Swimming! E does have a great gym teacher and I imagine it's her "can do" attitude that earned her the nomination. We're not what happens if she "wins." As they say at the Oscars, it's an honor to be nominated.

Game on

Today E and a group of her friends went to see "The Hunger Games" right after school. She said it was a good movie. They were going to get dinner after the show, but filled up on popcorn at the theater instead.

On this last day before spring break, L's teacher decided it was time to do a spring cleaning of her classroom. She gave L this pin for helping out.

Nookin' it

The high school emails its announcements every day and recently I saw that students can check out the Nook from the school library. E stopped by the library yesterday to learn more about it and came home with a form telling me how much I'd be responsible for if she lost it or it gets stolen. She's so responsible (stop laughing) that I figured she won't lose it, so I signed the form. Today the school called and said they received her form and wanted to check that I did, indeed, sign it and that it would be OK for E to check out a Nook.

This afternoon she brought it home. She has it checked out for three weeks. She loaded "The Help" onto it for me, a book for her and the audio version of "The Hunger Games" so we can both listen to it a bit. It's a color Nook and I have to say, so far I'm liking it a lot.

L's mythical fish

L brought this beauty home today. It's a mythical fish she made of clay in art class. She has a name for it, but she keeps changing its name. She said the design is "just something that was floating around in my head." Alrighty, then.

Good-bye expander

B finally got his expander removed today at the orthodontist's office. He's had it in since July. When he goes back to the orthodontist in May, he'll get the rest of his brackets on. B also got to spin the wheel of prizes during his appointment today. He was hoping to win a $50 Target gift card, but ended up with a $10 gift card for Coldstone ice cream. He's going to try to sell it to E since he's not that big on ice cream.

Pajama Day

It's not everyday you get to stay in your pajamas and go to school. L went all out this time, wearing her robe and slippers and carrying a teddy bear.

L's string art

I love when L brings home her artwork.

New wheels

I'm driving this baby today - a 2012 Buick LaCrosse with almost 500 miles on it. Andy got it as a loaner today at the Buick dealership. He had to take the Enclave in to get the air-conditioning fixed. Fortunately, it's under warranty. Who would have thought that we'd know the air-conditioning wasn't working in March?

E and I decided we needed to take the car for a little spin and went to Old Navy and Kohl's.

This car drives smoother than my Malibu and the dash is amazing. I've hit my head on the roof every time I've gotten in it and the view out the rear window to back up isn't great. It's also Buick's full-size sedan. I'd prefer one a little smaller - not that I'm in the market for a car. I told E she'll probably learn how to drive in my Malibu and when she crashed we can get a new car. I liked the radio control best of all:

Signed up

We registered L for church camp today. She's headed to Pilgrim Park for a week in June - the same week E will be at golf camp at the University of Illinois-Champaign. L will be there with a few other girls from church. I guess B will be an only child for that week.

Temperatures reached into the 80s again today. Yesterday, the kids were wearing tank tops and they're still in shorts today. It feels more like summer.

St. Patrick's Day & Mythbusters

Today we took the kids into Chicago for a family day. We ate a late lunch at Pizzeria Due. Since it was St. Patrick's Day, there were a lot of people downtown, everyone dressed in green. We saw some pretty outrageous outfits! Of course, we had to walk over the Chciago River and see it dyed green. It's always green, but they add dye to it on St. Patrick's Day to make it even more green. We also walked through Daley Plaza where they dyed the fountain there green.

Perhaps the weirdest moment of the day was meeting the German exchange student E goes to school with. We were laughing about meeting a German student who's in E's Japanese class on a street in crowded Chicago on St. Patrick's Day. What a multicultural experience.

After lunch, we stopped in Andy's office (we parked the car in his garage) for a bathroom break. He didn't know the code to get into the women's restroom, so we went in the men's. Here's B doing one of his favorite tricks - using soap to make huge bubbles. At least he uses soap!

Here's L on the drive to the museum - wearing sunglasses, sticking her head out the window and singing along to the radio. She looked like a rock star.

And the highlight of the day:

After lunch, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry for a members' viewing of the new Mythbusters exhibit. E is a huge fan of the show and the exhibit had props from the show and several experiments to try. Andy and I did the "do you get wetter walking or running through the rain?" experiment. We both got pretty wet. The museum put a special dye in the rainwater so when you stand in front of a black light you can see where you got wet. That part freaked L out a bit.

A second set

While selling Girl Scout cookies last week, E's leader and I got to talking about how heavy the backpacks are at the high school. E carries hers around all day because she claims there's not enough time to go to her locker to switch out her books. E's leader mentioned that because E is so small, like her daughter, I should get a doctor's note requesting a second set of textbooks. She still would carry her textbooks around during the school day, but she wouldn't have to bring any home - she'd have a second set at home. Hmm.

We called her doctor and the doctor wrote the note. We actually weighed E's backpack. It's 19 pounds. She's almost 100 pounds. She took the note to the school nurse and brought home this form to sign. She brought home her extra set of textbooks today. I wish we had known about it sooner.

Daffodils!

My daffodils are blooming. I have two bunches that bloom along the fence in the backyard. Our neighbor, who has flowers blooming all summer long and well into fall, only has one daffodil blooming. L said it's probably the only time all year we have more flowers than he does. I think she's right.

Stylin' on Pi Day

L headed off to school today in a cute black skort and pink shirt, wearing her blank ankle boots (with metal studs). After school, she changed into shorts, a tank top and flip-flops before heading out the door to play with her neighborhood friends. Meanwhile, E and her friend, A, rode their bikes to the north side of town to get some ice cream. I saw a bank clock that said the temperature was 80 degrees at about 2:30 p.m. Wow.

And it's March 14, that means it's Pi Day (3/14). B was disappointed his algebra class didn't do anything to mark the day. He said other students got to throw a pie at their math teacher (really?) and another class got to eat pie. "All we got is a 'Happy Pi Day,'" he said. To make matters worse, E came home with a little fruit pie her math teacher handed out.

Spring?

Temps today were in the high 60s. The news reported that O'Hare reached 70. I noticed our crocus blooming. B and E both rode their bikes to school. L was out playing with friends all afternoon.

I also put the kids' snow pants and snow boots back in the basement. Let's hope I'm not pushing my luck.

100 years of Girl Scouts!

Today is the Girl Scouts 100th anniversary. I had so much fun in Girl Scouts - go to see Ice Capades, dancing on The Admiral, selling cookies, earning badges, camping at Camp Chan-Ya-Ta, Cadette Chaos, being the troop scribe for several years, making a haunted house at the VFW for Brownies to go through, and of course, camping at Twin Rivers in Missouri. I won't mention when I told my Cadette leader where to enter our driveway in a flood and she ended up flooding her car. I was so lucky to be in Cadettes with my BFF Darla. What fun times we had together!

Cycling injury

E and her friend A, along with B, went for a long bike ride this afternoon. The weather was beautiful, close to 60 degrees. E was riding along Lake Street when her foot hit a concrete planter. Ouch! It immediately started to bruise. You can see the bruise below her pinky toe.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Sure, it's a week early, but it was St. Patrick's Day in the western suburbs as Forest Park hosted its annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. It was a beautiful, sunny day. L even took her coat off, probably so she could move faster and grab more candy.

Here's L with M, one of her neighborhood friends, who spotted her from across the street and then came over with his mom to join us at the parade. M and his whole family are big golfers so E spent most of the parade talking to M's mom. B, on the other hand, slept through most of it. Not much of a parade person, I guess.

Banana bundt

I can't tell if B is trying to lick the cake or just stick his tongue out at it.

Tonight Andy and I had a church party to go to. It was the church employees' Christmas party. Apparently, Christmas is too busy for church people to have a party so the Personnel Committee, which Andy is on, plans the Christmas party for spring. The party was held at a neighbor's house a few blocks away. We were told to bring dessert. I made this banana bundt cake. The cake looked fine, but the frosting hardened up before I could pour it on the cake. Regardless, it tasted good and several of the women asked me for the recipe. I think they're going to be a little disappointed to learn the base was a banana cake mix. (Thank you, Duncan Hines!)

While we were at the party, B and E were at church learning about Chicago's Night Ministry and then making lunches for the ministry volunteers to distribute to the homeless. L was at a sleepover with Grandma B.

Mousetrap car

B was busy this morning writing the report for his mousetrap that was due - you guess it - today. I couldn't resist taking a picture of him as he's working on the laptop. I love how he tucks his feet under himself while sitting on a stool. Once wrong move and he's flat on his back on the floor. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

Any way, back to the cars. In science class, the kids were divided into groups and told to make a car powered by a mousetrap car. They're not given much direction. It's a matter of trial and error to see what materials and design make the car go the farthest. Along the way, they had to (or at least were supposed to) keep track of how they changed their car and the results. Here's the car B's group designed:

Sleepover

For at least a week, E has been planning a sleepover with her two new friends, R and F. E met F at engineering camp at University of illinois the summer between seventh and eighth grade. E was describing her middle school when F said it sounded a lot like hers. They soon discovered they both lived in Oak Park. E was at Julian and F was going to Brooks. E met R at her friend A's bat mitzvah, which A and R hosted together. R is now in E's Japanese class and they eat lunch together.

E and F went to see "The Lorax" today, then came home for pizza. R was dropped off just before we got the pizza. The girls played various computer games and talked, slept in the basement. Not sure what time they called it a night. Tomorrow is Pulaski Day so the kids don't have school.

Staying home

L has had a cough for a few days and last night she had a fever of 102. She stayed home from school. After watching a morning of TV and eating lunch, she decided it was time to sleep.

Four-year plan

E met with her high school counselor last week to figure out her four-year plan. She has a pretty hefty schedule this year and it looks like it won't be easing up any time soon. On tap for next year is English Lit, Plane Geometry, Chemistry, American History (all honors classes), Japanese, Small Business Management, Video Game Programming and the class she's most excited about - Driver's Ed.

Her big news from school today was that she passed the swimming portion of gym class. She had been dreading swimming since eighth grade. The girls are given suits from the school to wear so no one looks decent in them. She started out in the low end as a "Nemo" while the "Dories" served as instructors. Though she didn't want to take the class, it was the one she talked about every night when she got home. For the next nine days she'll be playing water polo. Then it's on the next unit.