Team pictures

E's coach just posted the girls' golf team pictures. I guess the individual ones should be arriving soon. Here's the varsity team picture:

And here's the JV picture:

E said the photographer got a little miffed when the coaches had girls pose for both pictures. He had to mark on their order form which team pic each girl wanted. E chose varsity.

She shot a 52 on Wednesday at the varsity meet against Glenbard West. It was her first time playing the course and when we were picking her up her coach told us she was just four strokes away from scoring for her team. He must have been happy with that because he's scheduled her to play varsity again on Wednesday.

Cooling off

It's a 95-degree day and B decides it's time to wear his new jeans to school. He comes home (sweating, of course), goes upstairs to his room and comes back in shorts and with his T-shirt soaking wet. It's his attempt at cooling off. Usually he just tosses his T-shirt in the freezer for a few minutes, no water necessary.

Filling in

With E's golf pratice and meets, L has taken over her job of walking Raffi, a neighbor's dog, and she loves it! I go with her to make sure she locks the door when she leaves. L is especially loving that she gets $5 a day for walking the dog. She can't wait to get paid.

Golf shirt

The new golf shirts for E's high school team finally arrived. She gets to wear it tomorrow at the meet against Glenbard West.

Homework

School is back in full swing. E and B are back to hitting the books. He's doing alegebra and she's working on chemistry. At least I can help B. I should have paid more attention in chemistry.

Ryder Cup clothes

Andy drove out to the Medinah Country Club this afternoon to pick up his uniform for volunteering at the Ryder Cup golf tournament next month and to go through their training. He'll be working in the merchandising tent as a bagger, I mean, cashier assistant, as they're called. His uniform package contained a shirt, nice jacket, hat, pants, backpack, water bottle and ID. He has to pay to volunteer, but he gets in to all the tournament days free. He'll work four four-hour shifts, receive eight bottles of water and four meals. He's pretty excited.

Governor visits

Gov. Quinn was in town today. He signed a bill at nearby Rehm Park to promote physical education in the schools, then walked with the group to Irving School. (Notice the signs in the school windows) Andy went out to take some pictures for the yearbook. Quite a group of Irving staff, students and parents were there.

E and L went along. L had the governor sign and date a Frisbee that was handed out at the park. And he handed L one of the pens he used to sign the bill.

E talked to the governor about Irving's plans to get rid of its blacktop and make a greener playground area for students. I love how serious they both look in this photo. It looks like she's telling him how the solve the state's pension problems! After their chat, he told the crowd, "This one is a fountain of facts."

Miss Personality

I had coffee this morning with a couple of friends who volunteer with me at the Economy Shop. All of us have kids in high school and it was fun hearing about the various classes, teachers, etc. I found out that E's small business management class, taught by her golf coach, is considered a "blow-off" elective, mostly filled with junior and senior boys.

Apparently E and her classmates were supposed to decorate a bulletin board in the business class today, but instead her teacher gave everyone a personality test. His plan is to match students with their opposite and have them work together.

The test determined that E's personality is extroverted, intuitive, thinker and judging. She's bossy, likes plans, dreams big, likes finishing projects more than starting them, is a good public speaker, likes taking control (shocking!). Her teacher asked if their personality is similar to anyone famous. E answered, "Al Gore." He said, "I meant someone interesting." Then she said FDR and Nixon. That's interesting.

Homework helper

L came home from school today, sat down at the table and finished her homework. August decided to sit there and watch her. After her homework was done, she asked for a snack. I'm not sure what got into her, but I like it.

OPRF

E's first day of school was today. She rode her bike to school with her friend, A. They left from A's house, though, so I didn't get a picture of them together.

E played golf with the varsity team again yesterday. Here's a picture of her relaxing with her teammates (she's on the far right). The meet was at the Oak Park Country Club which E said was very nice. She shot a 58 on nine holes, but it was her first time on the course, and it's a hard course. Two of the girls who are members at the club were only a couple strokes behind her so they told her she did really well for her first time.

I think E's favorite part of the club was when one the little sister of one of her teammates, whose family belongs to the club, told E to come inside and get some free lemonade. E also took a couple of complimentary large pretzel sticks they had sitting out.

Back to School

Today was L and B's first day back to school. They've both grown a bit since last year's first day. Here's L and her friend, J, on the blacktop before school.

E starts tomorrow, but she went to Irving me and met some of her former teachers (including the one who has L this year). Here she is hugging her fourth-grade teacher, Ms. P, who is one of only two Irving teachers to be lucky enough (!) to have all three of our kids in their class.

B thought he was going to be walking to school alone since his friend IR, hurt his leg (at his trampoline-jumping birthday party) and was getting a ride to school.

However, while B was upstairs packing his school supplies in his backpack - once I found the backpack for him (hidden in the closet, where it belongs, of course) - his friend IB showed up. B usually leaves the house by 8:30 a.m. to get to school on time and decides to start packing his backpack at about 8:25? And to make matters worse, IB had to go into our basement and search for his ID he left here last week! The boys left the house realllly sloooowly. Not horribly excited about being eighth-graders. Now I remember E wasn't too excited about her first day of eighth grade either. He said they made it to school on time.

L came home with exciting news! One of the fourth-grade teachers apparently went into labor while at school and an ambulance was called to take her to the hospital. All the kids are expecting to hear an announcement about her baby tomorrow.

Computer help

E was goofing around on the computer tonight and had to laugh when Muffles jumped on the counter and started following the pointer around on the screen.

Good golfing

E played with the junior varsity team today against Hinsdale Central, the team that's been nearly impossible to beat. (That's E on the left in a picture her coach took at the meet.) On a par 30, nine-hole course she scored 38. That was the lowest score on her team even though they still lost to Hinsdale. E did, though, tie with the girl she was directly competing with. She's hoping the score is good enough to earn her practice with the varsity team this week. They're practicing at the Oak Park Country Club and she's been dying to get on that course.

Cross-dressing kitties

L and her neighborhood friends, E and B, have come up with a new pasttime - dressing the cats up in our American Girl clothes. They go upstairs with the cats, put them in an outfit, then parade them around the house for a "fashion show." The cats seem to like the attention, but once the girls take the clothes off them, they run away. Maybe because they're boy kittens being dressed in girl clothes?

Breakfast at George's

Here's a (somewhat blurry) picture of the varsity girls' golf team having breakfast Thursday at George's a diner-type restaurant in Oak Park. E is on the left side of the pic, again the wall. You can see part of her head. Here's the link to the golf team's home page. Hopefully, the coaches will update it with photos after every meet.

Hiding spot

August found a good hiding spot - in the cabinet below the computer on the back porch. We think he likes it in there because it's warm. Later, though, Muffles found the spot. They seem to be sharing it ... for now.

Sophomore schedule

E had a golf meet this morning, but the girls got to the course and weren't allowed to start playing because of incoming storm. Instead, the coach took the girls out for breakfast. That meant she was able to get home in time to go back to the school to have her yearbook picture taken, get her books and pick up her class schedule. She shared the schedule on Facebook as her friends do to see who will have class together. She and her friend, A, don't have any classes together except for lunch.

This year E is taking English literature (first course of the day - ugh), gym, small business management (with her golf coach as the teacher), chemistry, Japanese, American history and geometry.

Kitten fun

I snapped this picture last night when Andy fell asleep with August in his lap. They both look so peaceful, don't they?

Today, L and I took a trip to the pet shop to use a few of the coupons we received when we adopted the kittens. L used the toy coupon to buy a laser light. The kittens love chasing it around. Muffles was chasing it so fast he slammed himself into the bookcase. Ouch. This should provide hours of entertainment for L.

First meet of the season

Today was E's first golf meet of the season and first time playing with the varsity team. She was at the school by 6 a.m. for the ride to Aurora. The tournament was a scramble with the JV boys and E was teamed up with a freshman boy. (E is third from the left in the front row of the picture; her partner is to her left). He would tee off on one hole, then she would hit, then he would, etc. Other holes she would tee off. They ended up scoring 110 and her team came in third place. One of boy/girl pairs on her team medaled for second place overall.

Varsity perks

E picked up her golf equipment today. One of the perks of being on the varsity team is having one of the new wind jackets and a prettier (and newer) bag than the junior varsity team gets. The bag she got last year has been tossed. The JV girls get hand-me-down bags from the boys JV team. The girls won't get their new shirts until next week. Probably after the team picture is taken. For their first meet tomorrow, they'll be wearing last year's blue shirts.

The boys' golf team gets much nicer things - they were all wearing Titleist hats with OPRF embroidered on the back. And E said those were the JV guys! Hmmm. First meet is tomorrow, and the girls are actually playing with some of th JV boys. Should be interesting.

Masquerade party

L got all dressed up this morning to attend her friend J's three-hour (!) birthday party. The party invitation said it was a masquerade party, so we came up with this costume for L. I was a bit surprised when we got to J's house and she wasn't wearing a mask - isn't that the "masque" part of the word masquerade? L had a tank top and shorts on under the dress and when I went to pick her up she had ditched the dress, her shoes, lace sleeve and mask. I still have no idea where the beads are. Those didn't make it home with L, but that's perfectly fine with me.

Varsity

The girls' golf team had its informational meeting today and E found out she'll be playing varsity in the West Aurora meet Tuesday and the Evanston meet on Thursday. Coach said the varsity team will be flexible during the year, depending on who's playing well. It's a good start! Here's E with the Huskie golf sign we got for the front yard:

So bored

E was so bored this evening she decided to start working on her summer math packet. She's had it since school let out in June. With a little over a week before school starts it's a good time to get started. Maybe she can manage to be a little more bored next week and start annotating her summer reading book.

The pressure's off

Only 16 girls showed up for Day 1 of the golf team tryouts today, so the coach announced they're all on the team. There was room for 18 girls and last year he had to make cuts. He probably enjoys not having to do that. Tryouts, though, continue for the next two days. Today the girls were at the driving range showing off their driving, chipping and putting skills. Tomorrow and Friday they'll be playing nine holes each day to see who makes varsity and who will be on the junior varsity team, at least at the beginning of the season. The coach has been known to make changes throughout the season as he gets a better idea of how the girls play.

Settling in

August (the gray one) and Muffles are settling in nicely to their new home.

Bejeweled Queen

It's easy (perhaps too easy) to play on my iPod while I watch TV. Tonight, I got a new high school. I had to keep checking to make sure one of the kids wasn't playing a trick on me and switched it to infinity mode. My new high school beat my now second highest score (325,348) by more than 100,000 points! I am a bit embarrassed to say the game lasted an hour and a half! Yikes. The battery on the iPod died right after I took this photo. I have a feeling this high score is going to stay for a looong time.

Tale of two tomatoes

So here's the tomato, the only one so far, I've gotten from the two plants we planted this spring:

And here's the huge tomato the neighbor brought over for us today:

Maybe I should try some Miracle Gro.

Anniversary dinner

While the kids (and E's friend, A) got acquainted with the new kittens, Andy and I went downtown for our anniversary dinner at Frontera Grill. We had to wait 45 minutes just to get the buzzer to wait for our table, but once we had that our wait wasn't too long. Definitely worth the wait, though. Andy had a delicious "Oaxacan-Style Carne Asada: Red chile-marinated Creekstone Natural Black Angus rib steak. Black beans, sweet plantains with homemade crema, guacamole" and I had "Pork in Clemole Castellano: Grill-roasted Gunthorp pork loin, clemole castellano (ancho, pasilla, 3 nuts, avocado leaf). Sweet potato mash (roasted garlic, bacon, ancho chile), local wild greens (grilled white onions, chorizo), toasted pecans." Yummy! Perhaps the most exciting part of the night was seeing the chef, Rick Bayless, walk out of the kitchen to pour himself some soda. Course, he did that while Andy was in the bathroom. This may have been the third time we've eaten at Frontere Grill and it was my first Bayless sighting.

Here's the bar where we waited for a long time to get a table. It's a great place to people-watch.

Kittens

The kids have been wanting a cat for a long time. They took care of Allison's cat when we went on vacation for a week last year and we pet-sat for her cat for a week while she was at a convention. Yesterday, L cleaned the house (really) and left Andy a note, asking if we could get a cat. I had heard on TV that a local humane society was going to be at a nearby PetSmart with lots of animals for adoption. We stopped by "to look" with no guarantee of getting one. We filled out the no obligation application and the woman told us to go look in the trailer to see if we like any of the kittens. Of course, the kids fell in love with the kittens. Andy picked one up, started petting it and it purred. I figured then we'd be bringing that one home. I was surprised when Andy suggested getting two instead of one so they'd each have a playmate. Fortunately, the agency only charged us to adopt one. They are about 3 months old.

Here's August:

And here's Muffles (B named that one):

Barbie catastrophe

E got a bright idea last night to make a Barbie hang glide. She said she saw a Barbie and she felt the need to destroy it. (Nice, eh?) She spent at least an hour cutting styrofoam, decorating the board and taping in the Barbie. In the picture, she's working on hers. The one in the forefront is one L was going to try. E somehow convinced B and his friend, IR, and her friend, A, (along with L) to head to the sled hill at Barrie Park around 9 p.m. last night to see if the contraptions would glide. L's collasped in the front yard before they even crossed the street. She tossed it on the shelf in our front porch and went along with the others to the park. E said hers glided for a little while before nose-diving into the hill and sending Barbie flying farther down the hill. E and IR also strapped a parachute to another Barbie and it was a bit more successful. I don't think this was the future Grandma saw for the Barbies when she sent them home last weekend with L.

Imagine the surprise on the UPS driver's face when he delivered L's new backpack today and the naked Barbie was strapped into the glider sitting on the shelf in the front porch. No, I don't know why Barbie was naked. Better aerodynamics, perhaps?

Here's L with her new backpack. It was on sale from L.L. Bean for only $15 - and free shipping. What a deal! It's sturdy so hopefully it will last more than a year. She's already packed it with her school supplies. When we were walking to Walgreens today she saw her favorite custodian outside power-washing Irving's windows. He waved to her and she waved back. A few more feet down the sidewalk, she saw her principal, Mr. H., across the street, walking back to school after getting his lunch from Pete's (one of B's favorite places to dine). "Hi, Lindsey," he yelled. "Want to come to school today? It's open." Of course, she answered, "No!!"