Squeezing Out Summer’s Last Drops

We had a late flurry of activity this week leading into Labor Day and the kids’ first day of school.

Monday, August 26 – Hallie had the week off from work as the Neighborhood Club goes through its annual facilities maintenance. Mike had an all-day College of Education retreat at the Detroit branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. We are sure the other three did something while Mike was away, but it must have been so boring no one remembers.

Tuesday, August 27 – We went to Ohio today. First we stopped at the Spaghetti Warehouse in Toledo. The restaurant has franchises mostly back east and got its start 40 years ago. The old building down near the river was cleverly decorated, and there is even a trolley inside you could eat in.

Then we went to the African Safari Wildlife Park in Port Clinton. This is the same park Hallie, Priscilia, and the kids went to last year on their way to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. The park has both a walk-through and a drive-through safari experience as well as little shows where the kids can see the animals up close. We arrived in the walk-through part just in time for the kids to get showered with mud at the pig races. Landon rode a camel, and we all touched a boa constrictor. The kids laughed when the giraffe slobbered down Mom’s hand and laughed even harder when Mom screamed when a buffalo pushed his head inside the car through her window. We had a great time!

On our way home, Hallie received a phone call from the Neighborhood Club asking if she was available to come in the next day and other days during the week. She was, so she agreed to come in the next day. While she would have enjoyed another couple of free days, she was also happy for some more hours.

Wednesday, August 28 – Hallie worked in the morning (not at her usual pre-dawn hours, but early) while Mike looked after the kids. He took them to speech and then the annual Racing for Kids event up in the Farms. The event uses motorsports to focus public attention on children’s health care needs. While they went on the scavenger hunt, Hallie came up and met them. Summer started to remind us that, despite the unusually mild weather this year, she could still pack some heat and humidity. It wasn’t too bad though, and the kids didn’t seem to notice too much. Landon did say that he was really tired after walking up and down the four blocks of the event course, which is something coming from him.

Eliza being told by Officer Puckett (from Safety Town) to always wear her seat belt. 

Brittany came over in the afternoon to work on her college essays. While Hallie went down to her house to pick her up, the missionaries came by. They and Hallie have been trying to coordinate getting them tickets to this Thursday’ Tigers baseball game at the last minute, and Mike was only vaguely aware of what everyone was doing. While the missionaries waited for Hallie to come back, Mike visited with them on the front porch. A visit with Mike will sometimes lead to some unusual conversations relating to the Church, its history, and its practices. Mike tries not to take the missionaries in too deep if he can help it. Anyway, Hallie got back home and, over the course of a couple of phone calls and website visits, managed to get the missionaries tickets for tomorrow’s game all in roughly the same section. In a phone call to Sara, she also scored tickets along the first base line to share. Yay!

In all the excitement between phone calls, visiting with Brittany, Hallie working on projects, and Mike trying to get some work in, we missed the new family orientation at our elementary school. Hopefully we received all the information we needed at the kindergarten orientation and the registration event last week. If not, we’re sure to find out soon enough.

Thursday, August 29 – Hallie took a few hours in the morning before taking the kids to gymnastics.

After the kids came home from gymnastics, Hallie went back to work and Mike took the kids to the baseball game, thanks to Sara’s tickets. He and the missionaries never were able to coordinate or find each other, but when Mike did finally get in contact with them, they seemed happy to have had the seats they did. Most of the good hits seem to have headed their way, anyway. After a disappointing start, the Tigers pulled off an exciting bottom-of-the-ninth-inning win over the A’s with a home run by Torii Hunter that went straight their way. Sadly for Mike, he only got to hear about the comeback win because the kids did not last past the sixth inning. Still, we all had fun drinking in the experience and getting some summer color in our cheeks!

Friday, August 30 – Hallie’s job at the Neighborhood Club has been a mixed blessing. While she has had a renewed opportunity to enjoy interacting with other grown-ups, she has had to get up early and miss time with the kids at home. Thus, Hallie has considered ways she can help provide for our kids and their activities and get in that positive time interacting with other adults while still being able to stay at home. She accomplished one step in that direction by becoming a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts. We have several of the company’s products that we use on a regular basis to help keep us organized. The totes have put up with quite a bit of wear and tear while remaining beautiful and intact, so we feel this is a company we can endorse with confidence. If you want to place an order with her, she would greatly appreciate it! ;-)

Saturday, August 31 – Landon came to bed with us during a wild thunderstorm we had in the middle of the night, and Hallie slept poorly. The other three of us spent some time in the morning building more LEGO models and watching a movie. 

Mike has finally figured out, though, that morning screen time is a big mistake with our two little rug rats. We ended up taking time we had wanted to spend at the Romeo Peach Festival Kidfest (like we did last year) with Landon cleaning his room and otherwise dealing with discipline issues. We know there are many families out there who manage more children than we have with far greater finesse, but we feel like we have our time and hands very full with these two, especially at their current ages. 

Mike took the kids on a walk down to the farmers market to help the kids get the wiggles out. 

"Flowers in her hair"

"I love my flower girl!"

It will feel like something of a shock when they are not in the house or in some activity with us somewhere in the background looking on. Mike’s dad sent a book called The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun, which arrived today. A timely present, we think.

We attended the baptism for Otto in the afternoon. We have had the pleasure of teaching him in our home and having him over for Family Home Evening. It was nice that his mom attended his baptism. Shortly after Brittany, Hallie, and Landon went over to Costco to buy supplies for our latest economizing/timesaving/organizing venture, freezer meals. 

Sunday, September 1 – Hallie wasn’t feeling well today and so she stayed home from church while Mike went to church with the two wee ones. When everyone came home shortly after 1:30 PM, lunch was ready for the kiddos. Hopefully this will be truly a day of rest. What was an invite by our friends/Hallie’s visiting teacher for Labor Day has now turned into a Branch Picnic tomorrow. So, we are now going to a picnic! Hopefully in between all of the fun we will be able to get ready for Landon’s first day of school on Tuesday and Eliza’s first day on Wednesday.