Belated B-day dinner

Because of B's party and L leaving for camp, we had to delay B's birthday dinner this year. He decided we should go to Red Robin for dinner last night so we headed to Woodfield Mall. He had a burger with bacon (a newly discovered favorite) and pickles. Andy had a burger, E had fetuccine alfredo, L had chicken strips and I had a Mexican flavored chicken breast with salad. Course, B and L took advantage of the restaurant's bottomless fries and even shared a few with me and E. (Andy had his own). All of it was pretty yummy and we got seated right away so you can't beat that.

After dinner we did a little shopping. We checked out some sporting goods store for a Blackhawks hat, but Andy couldn't find the one he liked. And then he asked if he really needed another hat. Um ... no! E went to Hobby Lobby and bought herself some more soapstone.

Back from camp

L was supposed to come home from camp today with her friend K's parents, but the camp director told me by email that L wanted us to come pick her up. Didn't really give a reason except to say there's been no conflicts with anyone at camp - that was good to hear. Andy did donuts this morning, then we drove out to camp to get L.

Before we left for home, she had to show us the pool and the "rickety bridge" that sways when you jump up and down on it. Here she is bouncing as I tried to walk across it.

L slept most of the way home.

Reunited

E's friend, F, is in town from California visiting her grandmother till early July. Last night, E and F met at the library then went to downtown Oak Park for its Thursday Night Dine-Around program. They walked home and F slept over. E was getting ready to go golfing with Andy this morning when F was packing her things, waiting for her grandmother to pick her up. They decided they wanted a picture before F left. Notice E has the permanent marker and a golf ball in her hand; she was marking some balls. She accidentally (?) marked a blue dot on F's upper arm when they were giving their elaborate good-byes.

Double rainbow

It was pouring today so Andy called for a ride home from the El station. When I got there to pick him up he was snapping pictures of the double rainbow, just like everyone else who was passing by.

Farmer boy

A couple of years ago the neighbor to our north planted a few raspberry plants between their garage and ours. They admitted they didn't know much about growing raspberries so Andy took it upon himself to research it a bit and this spring he asked if he could use some rope to tie the raspberries so they wouldn't fall over. He's been waiting and waiting for them to be ripe enough to pick and today our neighbor called to say they had picked some and said they won't pick any for the next two days so it's Andy's turn to go out and get some.

Camp life

The counselors at L's camp take photos then post them for all the parents to see. Here are a few of L so far:

Togetherness

I just might have to frame this one. It's hard to get a nice picture of them together.

Skateboarding kitty

Muffles will sit anywhere, even on a skateboard. The higher, the better.

Camp!

This afternoon we dropped L and her friend, K, off at church camp at Pilgrim Park. They'll be there till Saturday if things go better than they did last year. They were so excited to get there. We left B at home. He had three friends spend the night for his birthday and last I heard they were still awake at 4 a.m. Here's L and her friend, K. K's parents will bring the girls home next weekend.

Here are the girls from Pilgrim who are at camp (missing two, I think):

E went along and drove home. It started raining really hard when she was on the interstate so I had her pull over and let Andy drive. But then it cleared up and she drove the rest of the way home. Probably a good hour or so, and highway driving which can be scary up here. She did great.

Happy birthday, B!

Today is B's 14th birthday and he planned an elaborate, all-day scavenger-type run/race for his friends throughout the village. They started in the house with a clue like the one above ("Where the epicenter of games is, a clue is between 2 games that begin with S." I have no idea what that means!) that he had taped to the pew on our back porch. From there, they were off.

They visited a few parks, a school ... I'm not sure where all they went but they were gone for a good four hours at least. They all had cell phones to keep in touch with each other, and to call B if they got to a location and the clue that was supposed to be there was missing. There were a few of those. Some of the clues had letters on them and they had to figure out what the letters spelled. The answer was "fuzzy pickles" of all things! It seemed like they all had a good time following B's clues and fortunately, it was cooler outside today than it was last year's for B's all-day visit-ever-park-in-town party.

We ordered a huge cheese and pepperoni pizza for dinner:

E wasn't able to do the scavenger hunt; she was at a planning meeting for her upcoming mission trip to Canada. She did, though, sneak in by her friend M (who is IR's sister and was able to do the scavenger hunt) for the picture.

And I was able to get a pic of B in front of his birthday cupcakes, but it was after he had already changed into his pajamas.

Making a wish ...

'My retainer is dead'

L woke up the other morning with blood dried onto her retainer, and she was complaining that it was cutting into her gum. She has perfect timing because B had an orthodontist appointment this afternoon and they were able to fit L in. She came out of the appointment and said, "My retainer is dead." I thought it broke and we'd have to pay to replace it, but the hygienist said L has a couple of teeth coming in and they probably erupted the night we saw blood. She also said L no longer has to wear the retainer. L was very, very happy about that! She suggested to L that we tie a string on it and hang it on the Christmas tree. B thought that was a disgusting idea. L goes back in mid-July and if the teeth have come in, it will be time to start Phase 2 of her braces.

B, meanwhile, chose red and blue for his bands - perfect for the Fourth of July. And although he thought he was going to get through the orthodontic experience with no rubberbands, he got one put in today. He's supposed to wear it seven days a week, 24 hours a day. He doesn't even need to take it out to eat.

Dye job

L leaves for church camp on Sunday and one of the things she had to do before she leaves was to re-dye the pink stripe in her hair. I combed her hair and had a nice, small strand pulled out ready to dye, but when I turned away, L must have grabbed more hair. What I thought was going to be a pink stripe in her hair has somehow grown to cover almost the entire side of her head! L, of course, loves it. Next time she wants to put some purple in there. I'm not sure about that. I did get used to the pink pretty quickly though.

Soapstone

Since E got back from Washington, D.C., she's been wanting to buy some soapstone that she could carve. I'm not sure what the connection between Washington and soapstone is, but today we went out to Hobby Lobby (she drove there) and found a kit that had the soapstone, a tool to carve the stone and some steel wool to polish it. She sat in the back yard and carved for probably a couple of hours before she brought it inside and polished it. It's a bear. Now she wants to buy more.

Bunny visitor

I've been trying for weeks to take a picture of a bunny that's been nibbling in our yard now . This morning, I went to open the storm window on the back porch so Muffles could sit by the screen and the little bunny was in the yard. I quietly opened the back door and was able to finally get a picture of him.

Kitty comfort

Whenever I can't find Muffles in the morning, it's a pretty sure bet he's resting on L's top bunk while she's sound asleep in the bottom bunk. He'll probably be up there all the time next week while she's at church camp, waiting for her. He did that when she went to Disney World in the spring.

E after work

E never got a call back for the Park District job this summer so she's going to do some clerical work in Andy's office. Today was her first day. She filled out all the tax forms, worked a few files and did a mass mailing. Andy took her to McDonald's for lunch, but I bought some lunch meat today so she'll be able to pack her own lunch tomorrow. She said she had an interesting day. She's not even sure what they're going to pay her! She'll work about three days a week, and be off for vacation around July 4th, a week of U of I engineering camp, then again for her mission trip to Canada. The picture is of her after her first day of work. She mustn't be too tired, though. She went out to play tennis with her friend, A.

A good note, B came home and said he got 42 out of 42 possible points on his health project.

Bag sale

Today was the Economy Shop's annual bag sale for volunteers. For a $5 kitchen-sized garbage bag, volunteers can roam the rooms filling the bag with whatever is left on the shelves. I got two Harry Potter books for the kids, a magic kit for L, some scrapbook items including two Creative Memories square makers, a couple of baskets, two dozen hair bands for L, some shirts that B might like, a golf shirt for E, a cami for myself, some glass candleholders, two Crate & Barrels containers (for nuts, maybe?), three little crocks that I could use for dip and lots of wine gift bags.

Here's L doing one of her magic tricks. She has a pen and dollar bill:

And she magically puts the pen though the dollar bill:

I couldn't stay long because I had to get E out to West Chicago for her second golf tournament of the season. This one was at St. Andrew's Golf Club which was very nice. L and I spent the afternoon shopping and were able to find her some shorts and a swimming suit, all marked down. E scored 100 and tied the girl she was playing with who recently graduated high school. L spent the evening entertaining the neighbor kids with her magic tricks.

Father's Day

I took the annual picture of Andy with the kids this morning for Father's Day. At least I thought I took a Father's Day picture every year. Can't find the 2012 one, though. Here's 2011 and 2010. We got him a card and he'll buy his own present. I'm guessing something golf-related or a power tool. Two things which I should not be buying for him.

L, though, surprised him with a big package. Inside were three golf balls she colored bright yellow (so he wouldn't lose them) and decorated with smiley faces. When he asked why it was in such a big box, L said she wrapped it "Cindy style." That's something for Cindy to keep in mind when Christmas rolls around - at least for L's present.

Work in progress

"Work in Progress." That's the title of the health project B is working on. It's due Monday. For the project he has to visually present information that depicts him. He has to name three character traits (caring, serious and respectful); values (education, friendship and ambition); successes (eighth-grade graduation, Virtual Classroom awards and confirmation); short-term goals (finish summer school, join an extracurricular activity and read five books this summer): long-term goals (graduate college, find a good job he enjoys and be financially secure); and three people who influence him (me, Andy and E). That's a lot of info on one board, but he has it laid out pretty well. I haven't used my Cricut much for scrapbooking but it sure does come in handy for school projects. His title is "work in progress" because as a teen, he is still a work in progress.

E and I spent this morning at the Farmers Market selling items in the church youth group's bake sale. One man bought a $1 bag of cookies, gave us $10 and told us to keep the change. One woman asked why the kids are going to Canada when they could do mission work in Chicago. Fortunately, our youth minister was working with us and said it's easier to get the teens excited about going to Canada than it is taking them to the Austin Neighborhood. Then, of course, E's friend A drops by and tells us that she could bake items cheaper than we were selling them. Well of course she could. It's a bake sale. We're trying to raise money, not just doing the baking for you. In all the kids raised $400 for their trip!

More kittens

L had her neighborhood friend, E and B, over today while their parents were at work. They got here at 8 a.m. and stayed till about 2 p.m., when they decided to play in front of their house until their mom got home. They have some ropes and swings hanging in their parkway trees that have become quite the attraction for all the neighborhood kids. L visited her friend, K, yesterday and they went to the Animal Care League to see the animals. L left her there (by mistake, she claims) so we had to walk other their with the girls this afternoon to pick it up. Of course, we couldn't leave without visiting and playing with the kittens, cats and dogs that are available for adoption.

While the girls were here, I washed two loads of laundry and baked about 10 dozen cookies for a bake sale tomorrow to benefit the church youth group's upcoming mission trip. That forced me to do the dishes twice today. B finished his first week (half week, really) of summer school and spent the afternoon at his friend IR's house. Later they went to the pool then came back here to play video games. E and I went to church to help bag up the baked goods for the sale tomorrow.

Back from D.C.

E's leader dropped her off at home this afternoon at about 1:30. She had souvenirs from Georgetown Univeristy for everyone - shirts for me and B, a Hello Kitty thermal cup for L and a divot repair kit for Andy. Of course, she bought herself a shirt:

And this shirt from the Spy Museum which ties in nicely with her Japanese studies:

Here are some of the pictures she took while in Washington:

These are the bones they helped lay out in the National Mall. A pretty impressive sight considering that all the bones were handmade and transported to Washington to be displayed.

The Lincoln Memorial - a must-see destination for Illinois residents. Her comment about the monument was that it had a lot of stairs.

The World War II memorial.

And the White House. No Obama sightings.

We offered to take her out to eat tonight so she could tell us all about the trip, but she wanted a home-cooked meal instead and requested her favorite, Chicken Rice-A-Roni Casserole.