Fun with friends

One of my coworkers, Deborah, came through New Orleans today with her family, and the boys and I met them all for an adventure. I haven’t seen her since we were in Barcelona, so it was exciting to see her again.

First, we braved the boiling heat to meet them at the streetcar stop on St. Charles. We stopped for fun pictures at the steps of One Shell Square first.

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Then, we met up with them and made her daughter, Vera, take pics with the boys, since they were all wearing their Wapuu shirts. Meanwhile, her son Isaac closely scrutinized the boys to figure out how best to tell them apart. (I will be asking him for tips.)

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We got on the streetcar and had a great ride down St. Charles.

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Until they kicked us off and made us get on a bus. At first we were disappointed, but then we realized it was air conditioned, and the kids got to stand up, and hey, the bus is really better than the streetcar!

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We got to the park where Deborah and I sat on a bench in the shade while the kids played. And she realized her hat was still on the bus. Ack!

If you look closely you can see Vera putting her stuffed animals in a swing. (Foreshadowing!)

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We made them pose by a tree.

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Got back on the streetcar and bus to go have lunch at Slice. Yum! I bought a Groupon on the way. Handy!

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After we ordered, Vera inquired about the whereabouts of her stuffed animals. ACK! Still in the swing back at Audubon Park!

Deborah zoomed off in an Uber to retrieve the animals – luckily they were safe! while I hung out with the kids and stuffed ourselves with yummy pizza and salad.

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After lunch, we headed back to the streetcar, and then to our car. I was sad our adventure had come to the end. I was very tempted to swipe Vera and take her home with me. She’s adorable and sassy. But I left her with her family, alas.

The end!

Say what you will

…but if buying a selfie stick means the boys not only sit still for pics but actually want to be in them, then it’s worth the embarrassment of admitting that I bought a selfie stick.

  

Another one bites the dust

  
The tooth fairy has been very busy this week. She needs to get some more golden dollars, stat!

I need to figure out how many teeth have been lost this summer. I’d guess ten, at least. 

Just little things

I keep thinking of little things to say, then I forget. Let’s see if I can remember.

  • Went swimming last night with the girls. Adults only, had festive beverages from the club’s bar. Too bad our membership runs out at the end of next week. There’s going to be a lot of evening swimming in the next two weeks, I hope!
  • School starts Monday! Second grade. Nuts.
  • The attic is getting insulated tomorrow, just in time, since it’s about a thousand degrees here.
  • I started running again, even though I am still dealing with Achilles tendinitis. I’m trying to do my stretches, icing, and rolling my calf muscle in hopes that I’ll survive the Jazz Half Marathon at the end of October.
  • Helpful hint: Don’t put the digital food scale too close to the hot element on your flat top stove. Unless you want a new digital food scale.
  • Promised I’d take the boys to see Pixels while we have to be out of the house for the attic stuff. I am not optimistic about the quality.
  • Took the boys to the dentist last week – no cavities!

Some pics ‘n’ stuff:

Oliver uses his head:

 

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What is the deal with these? I have seen “Asia” like eight times, but never a Linus, Oliver, nor Miles. But I had to buy these when I saw them both at Target. Sucker.

Linus update

Linus decided that he actually didn’t want the Star Wars backpack and lunchbox he’d picked out last week. (Because the lunchbox wasn’t rectangular like his brothers’. Okay.) So we returned them to Toys R Us and headed to Target, since Toys R Us was pretty picked clean.

He ended up with…

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A not-rectangular Mario lunchbox and backpack! Sigh. (Well, at least it’s more rectangular than Darth Vader’s head.)

We also went to the dentist so they could tell us how much it would cost to take care of his yellow tooth. Turns out it’s not as expensive as I’d thought it might be (I think it would be a veneer) so his smile won’t look like this for too much longer:

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Well, it’ll still be goofy, just a bit whiter.

It’s gone!

After 7.5 years (kind of a lie, we really put it up probably 6.5 years ago) we finally took down the baby gate.

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I know it seems weird – do 7 year olds really need a baby gate? Well, our living room is upstairs, and the floors are wood. And at the bottom of the (hard, wooden) stairs is a ceramic tile floor.

And with the amount of running and wrestling and general tomfoolery that goes on upstairs, I just felt better having the gate there. But I’ve forbidden socks upstairs now, and the boys are a pretty cautious sort, so I feel okay about it.

Hopefully we won’t end up with any more fractured skulls.

Linus, part deux (plus more)

I know you’re on the edge of your seat. “WHAT BACKPACK DID LINUS PICK!?!?” you’re screaming. Well, your wait has come to an end. He chose…

Minions.

But there was no matching lunchbox.

Okay.

Mario, then.

No matching lunchbox.

There’s gotta be something.

Lego? Nope. Skylanders? Nah. Power Rangers? Oh please, Mama. Eye roll.

How about…

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Darth Vader?

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Yesss!

Whew.

Now, this was after dinner. And honestly, because of what Linus did at dinner, I would have bought him every backpack at the store.

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This is what I put on their plates. Grilled chicken, a few square inches of sauteed kale, and half of a tiny roasted potato. The chicken, I knew they’d eat. The other two things I threw on just because I am an eternal optimist.

Well. Linus ate his kale. And liked it. And asked for seconds, and thirds. They all gobbled up the potatoes (you’d think roasted potatoes wouldn’t be a hard sell to kids who eat french fries, but well, you know my kids.) It was a triumph! Woot!

I’d like to thank Penzey’s for their help. The Country French Vinaigrette was what I tossed the potatoes in before roasting and the Trinidad marinade went on the kale. (They also will eat the heck out of fish when I sprinkle it on.)

Linus Day (part 1)

Finally, poor Linus got his turn. He’d been waiting and waaaaaiting and life isn’t fair and why does he always have to go last? I reminded him that he was the first pulled from my uterus, but he didn’t think that was funny.

We hit the mall first, where there’s a Payless. Shoes first!

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He knew exactly what he wanted, we were in and out in five minutes. I thought, this is going to go way faster than the other two!

The skies were black when we left the house, and while we were in the mall it started pouring. So we hit the salon in the mall for a haircut. I forgot to get a before, but here’s one from yesterday morning to give you an idea:

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He looked so cute in the chair, but I was sure he’d lose an ear because every time it thundered, he’d twitch.

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After. Still kind of a mess because of his cowlicks. But still adorable, right?

Dinner next! And so many choices at the mall food court! Ha! So fancy. He had chick-fil-a, while I got to have mall Chinese, my favorite! Bad mom, no pics of our fancy meal.

It was still storming like crazy, so we went to Dillard’s so I could get a wedding gift for a friend. Even got it wrapped all fancy since we couldn’t leave the mall.

Eventually made a mad dash for the car while it was still pouring, and we got soaked to the bone (see top pic for evidence.) There was no way I was going to drive all the way to Toys R Us in that weather – the roads to our neighborhood flood in storms like this – so I told him we’d have to wait for another day. He just wanted to get out of the storm, so he was okay with it.

So I’ll get two trips with Linus, lucky me. 🙂

 

Miles Day!

Last night, it was Miles’s turn. I decided I didn’t feel like driving all over the West Bank, plus I was crossing my fingers that Miles would choose Chipotle for dinner, so we headed across the river to hit Toys R Us first…

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Look, I don’t mean to brag, but I predicted that he was going to pick the Pokemon backpack. And he did. Do I know my kids or what? (PS early prediction for Linus: Skylanders.)

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He was pretty hungry after backpack choosing, so I asked him where he wanted to eat (heavily hinting at delicious chicken burritos) and he said IHOP. Sigh.

Well, the kid loves waffles and bacon. We don’t even bother ordering off the kids’ menu anymore.

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He also ate half my fries. (For which I’m grateful.)

After Breakfast for Dinner #2 for me, we hit the hair salon. (It would have been funny to bring them to the same places, just to see if anyone noticed, but I really wanted to have their hair cut by different people so the results wouldn’t be the same.)

Before:

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He wanted his hair a bit shorter than Oliver’s in the front. Results:

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Happy guy!

Finally, it was time to hit the shoe store. Miles is pretty picky about his shoes, and I think his feet are a little wider than his brothers’. He ended up with the same shoes as Oliver, only half a size bigger and in black:

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Tonight is Linus’s turn. I’m really loving this time with my boys, can’t wait to see what he chooses!