GR and his sister grew up going to lots and lots of airshows with his Dad ... GR loves them, Elspeth, despises them. So when we found out many of our friends were taking their kids to the KC Airshow today, GR jumped at opportunity to go! We decided Anna, Alex and I would stay behind and he would give the older kids the choice of staying, or going. He tried his best not to candy coat the outing, trying to give those most likely to whine the most accurate description of what the day would be like - long, hot, cool airplanes, long, hot, etc. His description did not discourage any of the older three from going, and quite honestly they were all really excited about it.
There have been many times over the last 12 years I've wished GR or I could call his dad and gain needed perspective on a situation and today was no different. In order to get good seats and to see all the different planes scheduled, they left the house at 8am. By 11:30 when I called to check in on them, Emily was asleep on the concrete, Rebecca was complaining about how hungry she was and Sam had asked 3-4 times to go home. When I asked GR if he had loved his first air show, of course his answer was "Yes!" ... when I mentioned this to Diane later in the afternoon, she laughed! Turns out the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. As a child, GR got just as hot and tired and bored and hungry as our kids did, but in the end, just like him, all three of them came home happy and all said they wanted to go again!
Monday was a busy but exciting day ... I had a dentist appointment downtown - which Alex was a dream for! He sat on my lap eating a grape sucker (no worries, it was a sugar free sucker from the office receptionist) watching the Olympics and the fish in the aquarium, while Gwen cleaned my teeth.
Then Alex, Anna and I popped into one of the downtown quilt shops - we had about 30 minutes to kill before meeting GR for lunch - he had a rare in town meeting for work, so we planned to met for a really good Mexican lunch. I wanted to see if they had any of Heather Bailey's new fabric line Pop Garden, or Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom fabrics in stock - and they did! I was so excited!
I haven't made Anna any of my signature blankets yet - she isn't going without or anything. Grandma made her an awesome pink quilt, and Aunt Mary Ann made her a fantastic yellow nuzzie, and of course I've been using the blankets all the other kids have used, but I don't have any girlie blankets. So, when I saw that the quilt shop had Sandi's fabrics in flannel, I bought enough to make two blankets for her, and two for the shop. The top fabric is Heather Bailey (cotton - and I have no idea what I'm going to make it into), the second two are from Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom line in flannel. I'm thinking of ordering this print to make a third blanket for Anna.
After a nice lunch with GR, the little kids and I went to check on my butternut and blue quilt. For the last year it's been in the care of the Quilting Group at the Methodist church, being hand quilted. They've been working on it one afternoon a week for 2 hours and are finishing the last column of blocks, then they have the top and bottom borders to do and it's done! They are doing a wonderful job and I'm quite pleased with how it's turning out.
This summer the public library summer reading program theme was "Catch the Reading Bug." And as we've done every summer, all the kids participated and got their name on the wall numerous times. Even this little mama participated in the adult program and got all four of her books "read" by the deadline (thanks to being allowed to count audio books!!).
As an incentive to the kids to read lots of extra books this summer, the library director, promised to eat bugs if the kids could read enough books to make a line of paper ants — representing 10 extra books each — go around the kids’ room, around the library lobby and back. Last week, while helping Sam get settled into his Kindergarten room, we got the news that the kids did it, they'd read enough books and the director was going to eat bugs at a bug banquet hosted by the library.
The banquet was yesterday afternoon and we all headed to the library to witness this feast. I think there were as many adults (library workers) as there were kids in attendance. The bug of choice, BBQ Millworms.
As you can see there were plenty, and the children were told they could try one if they wanted. Emily and Sam both tried one of their own choosing. Rebecca even took one - which floored me, my child who doesn't try ANYTHING new!, and promptly handed it right over to Alex who without even blinking put it right in his mouth. I think by the end of the program he'd eaten four or five of them, before I was able to get to him and say enough is enough.
