School Year Winding Down

Last Monday I met up with our contractor who is doing the kitchen remodel and went over the plans. He isn’t doing it until August, but we want to look into getting things ordered and have everything ready to go when he is. I also worked on teacher gifts for the end of the year. We didn’t have anything going on that night which was nice. It gave us time to go through Jackson’s closet and take out clothes that were too little or wouldn’t be worn. I had a decent pile to put back for Lincoln and a pile to take to the thrift store. Tuesday was back to school for the twins and I got to bring home Miles’ Mother’s Day booklet  while Bennett brought his home the week before. I have to say I was impressed with Miles’ bike J.

While they were at school I worked going through all the boy clothes I had in the basement. I had gone through them before but saved stuff in case people wanted to borrow it. I then decided to just save a few memorable pieces and give away the rest. So I ended up with three big bags to give to the thrift store.

Jackson had a field trip on Tuesday to the Union Ridge Conservation Area that I had hoped to go on with him but my schedule just didn’t allow it. I had to pick up the twins at 11 and Lincoln had a music program at 1:30. But Kevin Powell got to help out with it and sent a picture to Andrew.

Andrew, my mom and Molly and Mary were all able to make it. They did their usual kindergarten American flag with a couple different songs than previous year. Lincoln’s favorite was Yankee Doodle. I remember him telling me about at the beginning of the school year and he thought it was so funny that he “stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni”. Another fun one was Take Me Out to the Ballgame and it was fun to hear the kids say “Cardinals” instead of “home team”. They ended the program with Fight Song which was especially touching with all that Lincoln’s teacher is going through as she battles cancer.

Lincoln wanted this picture and Bennett was up for it but not Miles

That evening we went to my parents’ house to celebrate Molly’s birthday. Andrew and Lincoln met us there since Lincoln had practice at 5. They made a delicious fried chicken dinner that Ellie had to eat quickly since she had ball practice at 6:30. Then we got to have ice cream cake. Since Dairy Queen is still closed for renovations, my parents used some different ice cream that they just got at the store that included cookies and cream and a kind with Whoppers.

Wednesday I got my swim in before a storm blew in. Jackson got to visit the Middle School and is halfway excited about going there next year. He had to make the decision of whether or not to do band. Originally he said he didn’t want to do it but then he saw what the alternative was and decided maybe he would do it. If he doesn’t take band he takes four different classes throughout the year-music, foreign language, art and family and consumer science. I think some of those scared him but Andrew was determined he take the four classes instead of band. He has never had an interest in music (except for when he was a toddler) and he hates music class right now, especially the performances. I can’t imagine him practicing an instrument, attending band class every day for the whole school year and doing several concerts.

Because of the rain we got on Wednesday, Jackson’s ball practice was canceled. It was actually our last practice as games already start this Friday and they generally don’t practice once games start since it is hard to get field time. So we had a quiet evening at home. I’m cherishing those as our month of June has ballgames 3-5 nights a week. Thursday I finally got back on the treadmill. Andrew actually didn’t go to the office which is rare but was a good thing because when I got back upstairs he yelled to me from upstairs to bring some towels and carpet cleaner. Bennett had some diarrhea. He got him cleaned up from the first bought and while Bennett was trying to get dressed, he had some more and there was some on several spots of the carpet. Andrew got ready while I got Bennett in the shower and got breakfast and lunch ready for Lincoln. We kept Miles and Bennett home from school and Andrew took the others. I was actually supposed to have a massage that morning. Andrew gave me a gift certificate for Valentine’s Day that I hadn’t used but I had to cancel it. So instead of my massage I got to spend my morning cleaning poop. Bennett thankfully did get better that morning and didn’t have any more accidents.

That afternoon we met up with Andrew’s old secretary, Aubri, and her husband and daughter for lunch. We had not seen them since they moved away a couple years ago and it was so nice to reconnect. Their daughter was adorable. They were in town for Jonathan’s med school graduation and then they were going to Michigan where he will be doing an emergency medicine residency. We tried to convince them we needed ER doctors back here. That evening our neighbor, Rebecca, came over to try out a couple of our bikes. She did the TriFAHL and decided she liked it and has started looking for a road bike. Andrew researched it a little for her and found some options if she wanted to buy one online. I knew that would be a task he would like.

Jackson had his big field trip to Nauvoo Friday and I was afraid he was going to be late and woke up almost every hour through the night. I couldn’t go since I was signed up to help with Lincoln’s field trip that same day. So Jackson was able to catch a ride to school with Leah which was great since they had to be there at 6:15. Andrew took Ellie to school and she had a field trip out to the lake also. I was sad I was only able to do one. I dropped the twins off with my mom and then Lincoln and I went to his school and got ready to go on his field trip out to the lake. It is the same one I have done with Jackson and Ellie and it was a good day. Lincoln was excited to have me there and we had some nice weather. It was a little cooler in the morning where we needed jackets but then warmed up a bit, but not too hot at all. I was a group leader and had a couple other parents help me take a group of 7 kids from a couple different kindergarten classes around to several different stations throughout the day that involved activities dealing with the different habitats they had been learning about. Before lunch, they got to play on one of the playgrounds. There was a boy climbing on top of one of the tubes and it looked like he was about to fall off. Another parent asked if he was in our group, so I approached him and asked him to not climb on it. After some discussion with him not wanting to agree with me and looking over me, I realized he wasn’t in our group and his dad was standing right behind me. He never intervened but then when I apologized to him, he wasn’t very happy with me. I just didn’t want a kid getting hurt on my watch, but I think he thought I was telling him what to do. Oh well. We ended our day with a hike and got back to school around 2:30. It was nice to be able to spend the day him and get to know some of his classmates a little better.

I was able to take Lincoln with me when we got back to the school and we went to pick up Ellie. We ran by McDonalds and got some shakes to end a fun day at school. Andrew ended up picking up the twins a little earlier and took them out to the ranch. When we got home, the kids went out to play while I did some yard work as a storm rolled in. Jackson got home from Nauvoo around five. He said he had a great time and his favorite part was the gun shop. His first baseball game was scheduled for that night but it was eventually cancelled as we did have a decent amount of rain. Lincoln was over at Alex’s at the time and Joe sent me a picture of them sitting on the porch watching the storm come in. And I guess a little later, Lincoln fell out of his chair and hit his head. He had his arms in his shirt and couldn’t put them down. He ended up with a good size goose egg but he didn’t even come home and Leah called me about it later.

We didn’t have rain Saturday but it was cold and windy. We were kind of hoping they would call off Lincoln’s 8:45 ball game but it didn’t happen. Andrew took Lincoln early while I took everyone else around game time. I even got out the Cocomotion and made some hot chocolate for Jackson, Ellie and I. It was so cold. Lincoln had two long sleeve and two short sleeve shirts on and was still cold-poor guy. I think he had a hard time concentrating in the cold. And the twins started complaining the second we got out of the car. I was hoping they would be easier to handle this year and now I’m hoping all the complaining was partly because of the cold and wind. I didn’t keep a good eye on the game because I was trying to appease the twins and talked to Andrea for most of the game. Besides being cold, Lincoln did have a fun game.

At dinner that evening, we realized Lincoln had purple spray paint in his hair. He said Alex brought it to their fort and was painting some things. Their fort makes me a bit nervous J. After dinner Andrew took the kids out to the ranch while I cleaned up and did some grocery shopping. Then in the middle of the night, I thought I heard some crying and went out to find Andrew with Bennett in the bathroom. He thought he needed to throw up but was actually just coughing. He was coughing the morning before but seemed to get better. But this was a bit of a croupy cough, so I put him in the shower and let the humidity work on him. I got him set up to sleep in the bathroom and put some Vick’s on his feet with socks. I let him get on his Kindle for a bit and when I checked on him an hour later, he was sleeping well and slept well the rest of the night. But then I wasn’t feeling well the next morning. It had kind of started the day before and I just felt worse in the morning. I was considering doing the criterium race that morning. Andrew hadn’t been feeling the best throughout the week but he was determined to do it. He got all of his stuff ready and got my bike ready and loaded in case I wanted to do it. He went ahead and rode his bike to the course which started in front of Stokes Stadium and I brought the kids later. I went ahead and wore my bike clothes and brought everything I needed. The women’s race was after Andrew’s. But I felt nauseous just making the trek from the car to the stadium so I thought I probably shouldn’t do it. We were excited to cheer on Andrew though and he had the best cheering squad there…or maybe one of the only cheering squads. There were 10 guys racing in his group and he did a great job staying up with them at first. Most of them are on cycling teams and race regularly, so that is a great feat. I guess there was one part of the race where if you are the first to do four laps, you get an extra prize (or something like that). Andrew decided he wasn’t going to for it but then he realized that he made the mistake that if you don’t go for it, you get dropped. And that is what happened and he couldn’t get back with the group. And it is harder to keep up your speed if you aren’t with the group. So he ended up 7^th but he was faster than he was last year, so that was great. The kids cheered him on all the way and I tried to get some video and pictures but the twins both had to go to the bathroom so I wasn’t always there when he would lap back around.

I gave up on my race but the kids realized there was a kids race that started soon so we rushed home to get their bikes and got back over to the stadium to get them registered. Ellie really wanted to do it and Lincoln decided he would do it to. It was the same loop Andrew had to do, from the stadium east to Florence, the south on Florence to LaHarpe, west on LaHarpe to Franklin and Franklin to Stadium Drive. I was a bit worried that it would be too much for Lincoln because it included two hills. Thankfully the course was closed to traffic though. He didn’t seem intimidated by it at all though. There were just six kids signed up for the race and he was the youngest. They both did a great job. They were supposed to go for 20 minutes but the girl that was in first (she had an actual kid’s road bike J) decided to quit after two laps so the others stopped too.  Ellie came in second and she was disappointed it didn’t last longer. Lincoln was fourth with his little legs just going as fast as they could and he thought that was long enough. They were awesome and we were proud of their drive to do it. I think Jackson felt like he was too old and he almost was-12 was the oldest you could be for it.

We headed home to get lunch and then I took Ellie to a birthday party while Andrew and Jackson cleaned out our outdoor fireplace. Back when the concrete floor of the fireplace blew out, we just put some of the extra brick we had on the floor but some of those have been cracking when we would have fires. So I ordered some firebrick to put in it and it was coming in the next few days. So they cleaned it out so I could put the firebrick down when it arrived. When I got home, I laid down for a bit. I hardly ever take naps, so I really wasn’t feeling that great. Andrew thankfully stuck around home instead of going to the office. The time went by quickly before I needed to get up and start working on dinner. Andrew grilled steaks while I made some baked potatoes, cut up some fruit and did rolls. We ate outside and it was nice if just a tad bit chilly. The kids played and enjoyed the last moments before having to head in and get ready for the last week of school.