Sleepover breakfast

B skipped the church talent show last night to stay home with his friends, IR and B. IR had to go home around 10:30 p.m., but friend B stayed over. They requested bacon for breakfast when they were raiding the fridge last night in search of something for dinner. Surprisingly, they were up about 7:30 a.m. and, no surprise, Andy was out golfing with E, so the bacon-cooking fell on me. I cooked the entire pack and the boys ate it all except for two pieces for L and three for me. B was a die-hard breakfast sausage eater until one day he decided to try bacon and immediately learned what he'd been missing all these years.

It's magic

Tonight was the children's talent show at Pilgrim Church. L performed some magic tricks with her friend, R, as her assistant. One little girl sang, R played the piano, her brother did magic tricks with matches, and another girl did a short gymnastics routine.

At the beginning of the, L sang church camp songs with the group of girls she went to Camp Lead with in June. She was quite the song leader. Here they're singing a song about a shark that ends up eating a person. Great church camp song, eh?

Volunteering

It's that time of year again when we turn the bags of toy donations at the Economy Shop into beautiful, organized displays of used toys. Judging from the looks of things, this could take a while. The shop opens for the season next Thursday so we have Tuesday as the official day to get things in order and price everything.

And she scores!

E had her first golf match of the season last night. The Huskies beat Downers Grove South! The match was the first time E scored for her team! The team sent eight varsity players and the top four scores get counted. She scored 51 for the nine holes. She had to take two penalty strokes. One, her ball was in a bad spot she couldn't hit and the second one she couldn't find.

Middle school

Today was L's first day of middle school. She walked to school with her friend, J. L decided to wear her "Dr. Who" shirt she got in Disney World. She told J's mom it would be a good conversation starter with other kids who like the show. The temperature got up over 90 today and here's L after she walked home from school:

She said all of her teachers are nice and Ms. P is funny. She has Ms. P for English and she's L's advisory teacher. She also came home with a list of more supplies we need to buy. She thinks tomorrow she and her friend, J, will bike to school since another 90-plus day is expected.

Hawaiian drinks

A few months ago I bought a Groupon to Hala Kahiki, a Hawaiian bar that Andy and I have driven past for years but never had an occasion to stop in. The Groupon was going to expire in a week or so and we were having a difficult time finding a night that we could go use it. L was over at a friend's house yesterday afternoon and E and B were home with friends, so we took a couple of hours to ourselves to use the Groupon before it expired. The bar is decorated tiki/Hawaiian style (though I didn't see anything like it in Hawaii), the drink menu is huge and the only food in sight was chips and salsa. We had sweet potato chips with pineapple salsa.

This was our first round of drinks. Andy had a Harpoon and I had a Hawaiian Caress (rum, cherry brandy and pineapple flavoring). We sat by the garden which looked really nice, but it was a little warm so we opted for the air-conditioning.

Andy's second drink of the night was a Scratch Me Lani (a spicy drink with rum and Grand Marnier) and I had a chocolate shake with rum and banana. We both agreed round two was tastier than round one. The Groupon cost us $15 for $30 worth of food and drinks so our bill at the end was $3.75. We thought it would be a nice place to take a group of friends who wouldn't mind tasting each other's drinks.

Worn out

B went over to sit by Andy last night on the sofa and before I knew it, they were both fast asleep. He may be a teenager, but he remains a creature of comfort, and Andy makes a pretty good pillow.

New shirts

The golf team got its new shirts today, just in time for the team pictures after school today. They're similar to last year's shirt, but orange instead of blue. They're thinking they'll typically wear it with a navy skort. They had their first meet of the season scheduled yesterday against Evanston but it was canceled due to rain.

New playground

For years, the Irving PTO has been raising money to redo the playground, add some green space and move the teachers' parking lot. L participated in the "good-bye blacktop" celebration at the end of the school year. This is how the playground looked in July:

And this is how it looks today:

Most of the work has been done in the last couple of weeks. The principal told E they requested additional workers be brought in to ensure that the playground is complete before school starts. The soft surface under the playground needs to dry, but it's pretty much done. School starts Monday (yeah!) and a grand opening celebration is planned for next week. Though my kids aren't at the school any longer I'm sure they'll be over there with their friends pretty often.

First day of school

Yesterday was the freshmen-only day. Today was the first real day of high school.

Freshman and a mentor

Today was B's first day of school as a freshman at OPRF! Only freshmen attended today, along with the mentors who volunteer to make the Class of 2017 feel welcome at their new school. E got to be there with B so she was able to make sure everything went smoothly for him. His introduction to the school was sitting in Japanese with Sensei (who E has had for two years already and met B when we were hosting Ai in the spring). She likes to welcome the newbies by ranting at them in Japanese as they all look on clueless. Sensei pointed at B and yelled at him (in Japanese) for slouching and then motioned for him to sit up straighter, which then inspired the whole class to check their posture. E, who was told to socialize throughout the day, was sitting in on B's Japanese class and sensei told her afterward that B was snickering throughout her rant. He's going to have an interesting time in that class. His other classes were pretty uneventful. Here's a link the high school posted of the freshmen and their mentors dancing today.

Meanwhile, L has another week at home before she starts school. Today she had two neighborhood friends/sisters, E and B, over, as well as their cousin (surprise!) L slept over at their house last night and the gang arrived here about 9 a.m. The girls certainly kept busy. L gave away a lot of her toys as "prizes" to games she had them play. They gave the cats baths. They ate a pizza lunch. They baked a cake and divided the vanilla frosting into five bowls so they could create different colors. They tortured (I mean played) with the cats. They watched a few Dr. Who episodes. They decorated the cake while I ran out to pick up E from school because she got her golf equipment today. It looks great. The girls are coming back tomorrow and we're not supposed to eat the cake until they return. That may be difficult.

E has the same golf bag she had last year, but is most excited about having the varsity jacket back! After figuring out the girls' scores from tryouts, E is tied for second highest ranked player on the varsity team. She's happy with that and will have to work to keep her rank during the season.

Late this afternoon was the sixth-grade orientation/ice cream social. L picked up her ID (which they printed with her third-grade picture on it), her gym uniform, a form to be on the yearbook staff and information about the robotics club. We bought a pair of pink and black Julian pajama pants and a Julian T-shirt so she's set for spirit days. Best part of the night was the ice cream, of course.

Sharing the mission

Today after church most of the kids who went on the mission trip to Canada took turns telling tales about their trip while the congregation watched a slide show and ate pizza. Collectively, they made it sound better than E's personal recount. Seems like they did some good work, had a few glitches along the way with timing and traffic, but shared a lot of laughs too. I can't believe the one picture I took during the presentation was when the slide with a misspelling was being shown! Boarder crossing? Ugh. At least E had nothing to do with putting the slide show together. I was happy to see this group picture they had taken at Niagara Falls. E didn't take any pictures on the trip (is this really my daughter?) so I'll have to ask the adult chaperones to send me some of their photos so I can at least do one page in her scrapbook.

L got to participate in the children's moment today. Our education director, who leads the children's sermon, put an empty backpack on L and told her to run across the front of the sanctuary and back. Then she started loading bricks into the backpack of the things kids could be carrying around with them - fear, lies, etc. - and when she had it loaded up with about five bricks, she had L run across the sanctuary and back again. She was obviously slower that time. L put her theatrical face to work and the sermon was pretty cute (and, according to L, the backpack was pretty heavy!).

Ireland shirts

In 2006:

In 2013:

Our next-door neighbors just returned from a long vacation in Ireland. We were "watching" their house while they were gone and watering their plants. When they visited Ireleand in 2006, they brought T-shirts home for the kids. B was wearing his up until a few months ago! When they told of us their trip this summer, we joked that they should get B a new T-shirt. They said it was nice to see him wearing the old one so much! So when they returned they surprised us with T-shirts for each of the kids. Then they suggested that we take their picture on the back bench like we did seven years ago. They were likely joking, but I couldn't resist. Now I just have to print it out and drop it off at their house.

Kitty's bunk bed

If L's bedroom door is open you can bet Muffles will walk on in and take a nap on the top bunk. I think he thinks it's his bed. Lately, August seems to prefer the top bunk of B's bed.

Putting B to work

With the understanding that he'd be earning some money for his effort, B decided to paint the front porch steps this afternoon. It's a long-overdue project. Maybe I could convince him there's a little more money for him if he does the back stairs too.

Junior schedule

E had the first day of golf tryouts this morning so she wasn't able to go pick up her schedule and books at her assigned time. However, she went to the school this afternoon and, fortunately, they let her pick everything up. Looks like the doctor's note we have to get a second set of books will come in handy, especially for her physics and math books. Her junior schedule is gym (first period!), computer science, English (American lit/language and composition), trigonometry, Japanese 3, physics and modern Middle Eastern history. She's kind of excited about having lunch fourth period because they won't be out of the food she wants, and that she didn't get the dreaded physics teacher no one wants.

Mentor

E had her mentor training at the high school today. She's one of the juniors and seniors chosen to help freshmen acclimate themselves to the school on Monday, when freshman only (and the mentors) will attend. She got this nifty, really bright pink T-shirt, "Mentor, lending a helping paw," and a free pizza lunch. Her job on Monday is to introduce herself to any freshmen she encounters and help lead their games, etc. She learned a dance today, which they'll teach the freshman, but so far she hasn't shared it with us.

Freshman schedule

B biked to school today to get his high school ID made, have his yearbook picture taken, get his schedule, buy his gym uniform and lock, check out his regular locker and walk through his schedule. E thinks he got pretty lucky with his teachers. His schedule includes Japanese, gym, world history, geometry, biology, English and a mandatory study hall. He has the same teachers E had for Japanese and world history.

Shopping with Dad

The whole family did a little shopping today because I had Kohl's cash and a coupon burning a hole in my wallet. I was able to find B two pairs of Levi's for $22 after all our discounts. Later in the afternoon, E went out with Andy to hte PGA Golf Superstore (not my favorite place) and she ended up with a new putter. As I've said before, shopping with Andy has its benefits. He's no bargain shopper.

Disney's pictures

Here are a few of our pictures that Disney's photographers took and sent to us on our Photopass CD. Make sure you read all the way to the bottom for a funny story.

This was our first afternoon at Disney. Andy took the kids to Magic Kingdom while I napped in the room. Our flight was too early.

Could these two look a little more serious on this ride?

My first time on Space Mountain. Usually I can't go because E won't go on it. Without her along, I no longer had an excuse.

Can you tell B hates doing stupid/silly things in photos. I won't even post the one where the guy had him hold his arm up in the air so it looks like he's holding balloons.

This ride was a little more up and down than I expected. L said she and Aunt Cindy went on it a bunch of times in the spring. If I had a dollar for everytime L referred to her Disney trip with Cindy and Mom during our trip there, I would be a rich woman.

B refused to go on Splash Mountain so Andy took L on it while B and I were at the resort swimming and relaxing.

OK, so here's the funny story. We were at Epcot waiting in line for the Photopass photographer to take a family picture of us. This family, who I think is French because of their accents, had their picture taken just before us. We expect to see kids dressed up in Disney costumes, but the mom's Minnie Mouse outfit just cracked us up. I told Andy he should get a picture of them on his phone because the guys he works with would never believe it if they couldn't see it. Turns out we didn't need Andy's photo. The Photopass photographer apparently gave us a few of their family's photos by mistake. Of course, a few of our photos apparently ended up on the Photopass of the person/family behind us but at least we weren't in costumes.

An iPad case ... finally

I've been searching for an iPad case since Christmas when Andy surprised me with an iPad. It seemed only fitting that L encouraged me to buy this one we found on sale at Vera Bradley since she uses it almost as much as I do. It's the Heather pattern which is one of their new patterns for fall.

E didn't want to part with the money she spent all summer working for, but she found a cute wristlet there that will hold her cards and eventual driver's license, cash, change and iPhone. And it has a strap so she can wear it as a crossbody bag if she wants. She thought it would be on sale too. Unfortunately it wasn't. She left the store without it and walked around the mall a bit mulling it over until she decided to head back and buy it. It's the Cocoa Moss pattern which she decided wasn't too girly for her, also new for fall.

Camp's over

E's three-day golf camp at the Country Club ended today. They ended by having lunch (on the club's tab), playing nine holes of golf (she scored a 53 - not great, but first time on those nine holes) and getting a camp T-shirt. E said the shirt looks a lot like the OPRF gym shirts and she's right about that. Still, I always love a free T-shirt. Andy plans on taking her golfing this weekend to prepare for the golf team tryouts that start next Wednesday.

More rubberbands

B has done such a good job wearing his rubberbands, he now has them on both sides of his mouth. He didn't think that was fair, especially after being told he might not even have to have rubberbands. And to reward his diligent rubberband wearing by giving him more rubberbands? What a bummer! The good news is that he only has to wear them when he's at home.