Curses on Jean-Michel Papillon

Who is he? Well, according to Google, he was a French engraver and is considered the inventor of wallpaper, way back in 1675.

What was he thinking?!?

Today I blame dear Jean-Michel for my aching back & blistered fingers as I slowly try to turn our fourth bedroom into something (anything!) other than the Victoria's Secret showroom it has resembled since we moved in. It's slow, slow going, getting that lovely floor-to-ceiling pink & white striped paper off the walls, even with the steamer my friend lent me. To be fair, I am making some progress toward my goal to have it done by Christmas. Arrrg! In the meantime both guest rooms are out of commission, so keep that in mind it you were planning to surprise us with a visit. Plus, I'd put you to work, so if I were you I'd make some new plans :)

Third Grade!

There he is, my big, giant third grader! O woke up today with just the tiniest case of nerves about school. By the time we walked there and met up with a few friends, though, he was back to being so very excited! By all reports the entire day lived up to his expectations. He had only good things to say about the day, his classmates, his teacher, and school in general. He had homework tonight, but it was fun homework, and even that was fine with him. What a great start to the school year!

Two Peas in a Pod

O and I got to spend some quality time with our good friends the Goodwins today. Their son Zach and O have been two peas in a pod since about the day they were born. Somehow summer schedules proved even busier than school-year schedules, and we hadn't seen them since Spring.... gasp!!! But these two picked up right where they'd left off, filling their afternoon with Legos, baseball cards, pretending and generally enjoying each others' company. Mere & I got to talk the afternoon away while playing with Elena... what a treat! Ryan even got home a little early from work, so I got to see him, too. He's about the only person from high school I see with any regularity, and I'm particularly proud to say "I knew him when...." given that he's a hall of famer now. (Couldn't resist it, Ry!)

This evening we headed up to school for "Meet the Teacher" night. Mrs. Bryan is super nice, the trailer classroom is awesomely air-conditioned, and O is psyched for school to start on Thursday! I still can't believe how quickly our Summer of Fun has flown-by...

Mrs. Bryan, Foul Ball & Clone Wars

We've had a busy fun-packed 24 hours here...

Yesterday afternoon we trekked up to school with our neighbors for the ceremonial posting-of-the-class-lists. O was so very excited to learn that he will have Mrs. Bryan for third grade (his #1 choice) and that he has a really great group of kids in his class. This will be his first year in a trailer, and he is especially excited about the air conditioning! He also received a letter in the mail from Mrs. Bryan today, and we got excited all over again for school to start on Thursday!

Then last night we went to the Aeros game with a group of friends from church. (It was so much fun last time, we figured we'd do it again, this time with fireworks.) We sat really close along the first base line, and O managed to catch a foul ball (with an assist from dad)!!! He was so stinkin' excited. He held on to that thing all night like it was his Wonka Golden Ticket. We also took pictures with Orbit, chowed on yummy pricy snacks, and got some autographs from the stars of the future of the New Britain RockCats.

Today we rounded out the big 8th b-day celebration by taking some buddies to see the new Star Wars movie. I'm being kind to say that cinematically, it was lacking, but the boys loved it. O really was thrilled to celebrate with his good friends and the entire galactic alliance. Here's the crew at DQ before the movie and then with all their testosterone a-blazin' afterwards...

"Nice Gorge!"

That was the exclaimation from O as we & the Brubaker Herd entered Brandywine Gorge this morning, and what a nice gorge it was! It had taken longer than anticipated to reach the promised water because when we tried to go to Blue Hen Falls we were foiled by construction projects. So we backtracked to Brandywine Falls, where we got to meet up with Baba, too!! But it was about half-way through our hike by the time the boys got to play in the creek, and they were more than ready. We played for quite awhile... exploring, skipping rocks, looking for fish, making ginormous splashes with big rocks, and just getting good & wet... and then we hiked up to Brandywine Falls, where we had started our day. The boys are still really fast on the trail, not nearly as apt as Mom, Melissa & I are to just take in our surroundings, but we all had a great time! There wasn't much water going over the falls today, so we promised to take them back in the spring when they're really roaring. Can't wait!

New link for pics

Heard from Aunt Lynn that the new Smugmug link I tried did not work afterall. Bummer. So here's an old-style link...

http://spando.smugmug.com/gallery/5637735_Esifa/1/346662548_qvtpL

Have a great day!

Great 8th Birthday

Having a summer birthday is really a lot of fun!! This year, O's big 8th birthday coinsided with some McFamily coming into town (Nana & Grand-dad, Auntie E, Uncle Ry and Sophie). So we invited a few good friends and Baba & Gumpa to join the McCrowd to celebrate on Saturday afternoon. We had a few of O's favorite foods for lunch-- pizza, watermelon, DQ cake--and then headed outside for a big giant water battle and some slip'n'sliding. As you see in the pics, kids of ALL ages had a ball!

On the actual birthday day, Baba & I took the b-day boy to the Science Center. We got to explore the exhibits, watch an IMAX movie, learn about Einstein, and explore the Mather. We topped the afternoon off with a humongous sundae at the Honey Hut. In the evening we had dinner at Applebee's, ate some more ice cream, and opened presents with Daddy. We even managed to squeeze in a little Playstation Indiana Jones between birthday greeting phone calls. It was really a great day. We'll continue the celebration in a few weeks when we go to see the new Star Wars "Clone Wars" movie with some buddies (the movie doesn't open til the 15th).

There are, of course, more pics to see on Smugmug. Both grandma's are having trouble viewing pics, so I'm trying a new way to link... leave us a comment to let us know if this works!

http://spando.smugmug.com/photos/346662548_qvtpL-Th.jpg

So far, O thinks 8 is pretty great! I'm still a little awed by the fact that he's eight years old!! And a third grader!! Frankly, it's a little much for mom at this point. This of course is confounded by the fact that summer flew by entirely too fast and school starts two weeks from today. We are so not ready for that...

Scientific Proof!

Here it is: scientific proof that my mom's hands really are as cold as ice. That's her big icy blue hand behind O's warmer green & yellow hand, as seen on the thermal imaging cam at the Science Center. We spent O's big 8th birthday there yesterday exploring the exhibits, watching an IMAX on the Mysteries of the Great Lakes, learning about Einstein and touring the Mather. Also had the requisite day-with-Baba ice cream treat, and since it was also a birthday treat, he got a bigger-than-his-stomach sundae at the Honey Hut. Yum! More birthday pics to come tomorrow...