Happy Birthday Grandma

We met for dinner and cake to celebrate Grandma's birthday last weekend. Here are all her grandkids. The boys are now taller than Jackie, the oldest, though they were standing on a rock that made them look even taller!! We love you Grandma!

A Princely Visit

The Royal Nephew, Sir Marcus, came to visit us this past week. The boys are the same age/grade and had a royally good time at the lake, the water park, bowling with Grandma, lunch with the Royal Aunt (she was trying to steal my title of "Cool Aunt" but I declare myself the coolest--I am the queen, after all!), and golfing with the king. I've been negligent in my photography this summer, so here are the only photos we took! We hope Sir Marcus comes back to see us again next summer!

Did you know...

I got this in email form. I don't know how accurate it is, but it's interesting.

Did you know...

A giraffe's tongue is blue.

The bigger the naval, the sweeter the orange.

At the first Thanksgiving dinner Lobster was one of the main entrees.

Worcestershire Sauce is basically an Anchovy Ketchup.

The ashes of an average cremated person weighs 9 lbs.

33 million Hershey Kisses are made each day.

In Disney's Fantasia, the Sorcerer name is Yensid which is Disney backwards.

Race car is a palindrome. (Think about it. You'll get it.)

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

The space between the two front teeth is called the diastima.

Now you know!

Summer School--week 3

Yeah, the final day of summer school. I was the hero this morning when I let them all play outside until it was time for school. Usually they have to wait in the lunch room, but not today!

My favorite kindergarten story of the week came from Madison. She has cried off and on the last 3 weeks because she misses her mom. She was crying for me on Monday and I decided maybe there was more going on here, so I started asking her questions.

Is your mom at work?

Yes.

Does she go to work every day?

Yes.

But she always comes home at the end of the day right?

NO!

Now I'm thinking maybe she lives with Grandma or something since she's crying pretty good, so I ask if she lives with her mom or her grandma.

My mom.

Well, then your mom must come home from work at the end of the day, right?

NO, (she's sobbing now) because sometimes she works OVERTIME!!!

Duh, could I be any dumber????

I calmed her down--we thought about our favorite fair rides--and she survived another day of missing her mom!

Fish News

Mourning for Azul was quick. The princess went out Wednesday and bought two gold fish--20 cents each!--which she named Tom and Jerry. By morning, Tom was dead. Jerry's hanging in there. She knows gold fish don't usually last too long--especially FEEDER GOLD FISH! She's planning on a betta next. Can you tell she doesn't get too attached to her fish!!

Summer School--week 2

Two weeks down, one to go. I have decided I've missed my true calling and should be working with kindergartners. They are my new favorites! On Thursday I was playing with a pair of green sunglasses one of them had and pointed out that they matched my pants and let them know how cool I thought I was!

One of them said, "Yes, but you need some tassels," as she pointed to my BREASTS!!!

I thought, "No, I've misunderstood."

So I said, "What do you mean?"

She said, "You know, pom-poms," as she pointed at her own breasts!

I'm still pondering that one!

Jury Duty update

The king's jury duty ran Mon-Wed. They found the defendant Not Guilty on 4 charges having to do with weapons. The king thought the defendant was railroaded by small town B.S.. When the trial was over the judge met with the jurors and told them that he thought they made the right decision, as he thought the case was weak. Additionally, he said the federal government is cracking down on guns the way they did drugs in the 1990's to set a precedent, and this was a case they were hoping to use. The king enjoyed his first jury duty experience and hopes to get the chance to do it again. As luck would have it, the queen got called to a year of duty on municipal court that will start in September. Could there be anything more boring than municipal court????

Jury Duty

The Skabelund-do-be-do-be-dooblunds are visiting. Not much time to post with all the sitting around, relaxing we're doing--not to mention the eating! I will post more later but thought I'd better let you know the King has FINALLY been chosen to be on a jury. He's NEVER even been in a jury pool, and this past year was pulled into 3 court pools. He's been called a couple of times, but they've always been settled. He was finally able to show up for selections Monday. He proudly became Juror #3! More when the trial's over, but I will say that they should begin deliberating today, and he might even get a free lunch in the bargain! More later...

Farewell Azul

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Betta. The princess is in mourning. But do not despair. We'll soon have a replacement and will update you promptly. Your prayers and well-wishes are greatly appreciated.

This compliments yesterday's blog post!

Summer School--week 1

The best thing about summer school is that it's only for 1/2 a day, and we only go Monday-Thursday. So today was really FRIDAY!! Yippee!!!

There is MAJOR construction going on in our school right now so getting the kids safely from point A to point B is sometimes challenging.

We have had issues with the Middle School kids stealing milk during lunch and stupid stuff like that, but mostly I don't have to deal with them so that doesn't affect me. Otherwise, it would really make me re-think if it's worth the money.

I usually work with 3-5th grade, so working with K-2nd grade has been kind of fun. My favorite moment this week happened yesterday when the kindergartners came into my lab. There were already 3-5th graders in there so I told Allona (she's beautiful, by the way) to sit by Jake--a 3rd grader.

She just stood there.

I told her again.

She just stood there.

I finally said, "Allona, go sit down."

She whispered, "I don't like boys."

I rolled my eyes at the other teacher in the room, got down on eye-level with her and said, "Yes, they stink. I don't like them either. But we're at a school with boys and girls so today you're going to sit by a boy."

She wasn't happy about it, but she did it. Oddly enough, she was absent today. I hope it wasn't that stinky boy. And I really hope it wasn't me!!

Work, work, work

I went back to work today. Summer school. Three weeks. NO AIR CONDITIONER!!!

But a funny thing happened when I left the kids home this morning. I called about 11:30, told them I had to attend a meeting and would be home later than planned. I told them to eat lunch and then go take care of the neighbor's yard (the kids are watering while they are out of town.)

So I get home around 1:00 and they are out front, having a water gun fight. They are both SOAKED and laughing!

What strikes me as odd about this are these two things:

1. They never choose to go outside but have to be sent out.
2. They never choose to have fun with each other but are sometimes forced to.

So I say, "Looks like you guys are having fun."

The prince smiles and says, "Well, we locked ourselves out of the house so had to find something to do!"

They'd been locked out for about 1 hour! Funny! Good thing the weather was good and no one had to use the potty!!!

Tomorrow they'll be at Grandma's in the morning...we'll see how it goes Wednesday when they're home again!

Hilarious!

We had lots of fun yesterday with a bbq at the king's sisters--yum--followed by more food and swimming with all our old neighbors and other friends later. The highlight for the kids was the 2+ hours of lighting fireworks. There were about 11 kids fighting for their turn to light and that more people did not get burned by wild punks is quite amazing! The funniest thing I heard all night happened at the end of the night and went like this:

Pudgy girl: I burned my thumb on a punk tonight.

Skinny girl: I did that last summer, but the worst burn was the time I burned myself when I was making donuts with my grandpa.

Pudgy girl (with real concern in her voice): Yeah, but were the donuts good?

Today we're off to look for good deals on clearance shrubs and trees and maybe take in a baseball game tonight. How about you?

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Birthday

If my dad were alive, he'd be turning 66 today!

You can bet there's a party going on in heaven today!

Busy Week

So far this week we've...

had pizza and played in the park,
went mini-golfing and then
played at the arcade,
went to the lake to cool off,
and that was all by Wednesday!

We're not on vacation (technically), but you wouldn't know if by all the fun we're having! I'm making a little Amish Friendship Bread today--anybody need a starter?--and then tomorrow there are more big doings: a bbq, swimming, and fireworks. Saturday we'll probably take in a baseball game, and Sunday we might hit the waterpark. Did I mention we're NOT on vacation! What are you doing to celebrate the birth of this great nation???

Canada Day

I sometimes "blog hop" as I like to call it. Just hit "next blog" up at the top and away I go. I see people I'll never meet in real life and now and again, I see a "naughty" blog, so I don't recommend this for children. Mostly I look for cool things on other blogs and how to incorporate them into mine. As you can tell by the blog, it's slow going! However, as I was blog hopping today, I learned that yesterday was Canada Day. They are 141 years old. Don't you just figure they've been around as long as us? I know that's egocentric, but it's what I have always thought. I know Mexico's been around longer, and I know the Native Americans will say that they've been here longer, but in my own little mind--emphasis on LITTLE--I just figured Canada and the U.S. were the same age! Huh!

Bestest Gosh Darn Kids

These are just the bestest, gosh, darn kids in the whole kingdom. It seems I have a lot of work to do this summer--cleaning and whatnot. (Where are those darn servants and peasants when I need them?) So a few days ago I had the prince and princess help me to empty out all the kitchen cupboards, wipe them out, and put everything back. Yeah! That's one icky job down!

Thanks kids!!