Or rather, a trim. She freaked out every time I called it a haircut because she DID NOT want it short. I assured her I just meant a trim.
Katie’s school haircut
Category Archives: Kids
Meet the teachers!
Owen ran into a few friends in his math classroom!
Katie has the same teacher for fifth grade that Owen did (Mrs. McCowen).
Ice cream treat before school starts
We took Olive with us!
And she got a pup cone!
Good morning, girls!
Olive helping fold a blanket
Owen & Olive
Lunch with the kids
I surprised the kids and took them out for lunch today!
My two cute girls!
I had to wash her hair myself today because she said it’s been about a week since she did it. Ugh kids. (She also wanted to wear LipSense today so she’s wearing Sunshine with Diamond Kiss gloss.)
But look how cute they are?!
I’m not crying—you’re crying.
I found this text on Katie’s phone tonight during one of our regular random checks.
REUNITED!
Don’t let all the smiling faces fool you—leaving Agate sucks.
Until next year…
Saturday
The kids wanted to go mini golfing and us ladies wanted to go shopping so we piled in the car and off we went—Katie actually sat in the waaaay back without a seat and she thought it was great fun!
It was hard, but we did it.
It was a loooong and emotional day to be sure…but it was good. It was healthy. We grieved. We celebrated. We were extremely proud of Owen as he read one of my dad’s poems at the service. We visited with family. We heard some good stories. We got hugs. We ate cookies (y’all know my dad was a cookie fiend!). And we laughed.
And then my stepmom and I had a Thimbleberry margarita after everyone left.
And then the kids went kayaking and I took photos and just enjoyed the perfect weather sitting on the dock with my feet in the water.
It was hard, but we did it.
All the feelings tonight.
It’s really strange being here at my dad and Lin’s house…and he’s not here. I keep expecting to see him shuffling in to say good morning, coming to the table for lunch, grabbing a Coke from the fridge, sitting in his rocker, sneaking some cookies, or giving him a kiss goodnight.
But at the same time — and of course something I feel immensely guilty about — is that it’s almost… easier? less stressful? a sense of relief? because there was so much involved in his daily care and dealing with his anxiety.
I’ve pretty much been avoiding any serious grieving before now because we only really saw him 2-3x a year so it was mostly “out of sight out of mind” (as crass as that may sound). But being here…and the memorial service is later this morning…well, I predict I will be a hot freaking mess. Just writing this is hard.
I don’t want to adult today.
An evening at Agate
Esrey Park
The kids love this park—and it’s right down the road from the house—so we took them there tonight!
And the best of the bunch.
And we’re off to the UP!
It’s time to pick up the kids from grandparent camp!
First, my traveling face. LOL
We had to drop Olive off at the sitter’s (we’ll take her next year once she’s more potty trained). She loves car rides!
Stopping for lunch at a gas station! They opened the side of the RV and we had a quick non-fast-food lunch!
The last 15 miles looks like this.
We’ve arrived!
And Lin had bought Thimbleberry margaritas so that happened first thing!
Grandparent Camp 2022
All photos and captions are from Gramma Jean!
Grandparent Camp moves to the UP!
I didn’t even get out of my PJs!
The weather was perfect again so I spent the day in the chaise—in my PJs—and finished my second and third books!
Tom kept me from being parched with my new tumbler full of margaritas.
Got this photo update from Anna:
And then it was campfire and s’mores time!
A damn fine day.
We started the day at the craft show…where Katie decided to spend some of her money on a henna tattoo!
Then the kids took grandma and grandpa’s bikes out for a spin. Can you see them?
Right in the center of the picture!
It’s not the pool and it’s not my egg chair but it’s still a damn fine day.
My view!
I made the kids stay outside because it was just perfect weather. They’re making up their own rules to Candyland—which involved running around the house and naming fruits and vegetables. It’s crazy what creativity happens when they don’t have their devices!
Then Tom worked at getting the swing up!
And Owen enjoyed riding around the yard on grandma’s bike!
Once the swing was up, that was Katie’s favorite place to be! Sometimes she even let Owen push her!
Tom kept me from being parched with my new tumbler.
Got this photo update from Anna:
And then it was campfire and s’mores time!
We’ve wanted to stop here for years!
It’s always too late or too early when we drive by…but today it was perfect! It was tooo much ice cream for sure!!
Wow, that was a doozy of a storm last night!
And Tom slept through it all thanks to two Tylenol PMs!
Katie was having a sleepover so her and her friend came bursting into our room at 1:45am just when the power went out (the first time). Katie was REALLY freaked out but her friend was so sweet trying to comfort her. Owen had been sleeping out in the gazebo but came inside at some point. (He later said he was getting rained on—but it was just rain coming in through the open vent of the gazebo.)
Both of our computer battery backups were beeping and I couldn’t turn them off (I could barely manage to reach one and unplugging it did nothing). So then I was wide awake…so read for an hour—and the power came back on about 3 and then it started storming again…and the power went out again and is still out. I’m exhausted.
Milwaukee v Colorado
Tom and Dave took Owen and Evan to Milwaukee for a major league baseball game!
Post-swim lesson playtime
It’s for damn sure 5 o’clock.
Ten year old girls are GRRRRRRRRRRR.
Making cotton candy!
Katie decided to get a cotton candy machine with some of her birthday money. I might have showed it to her.
Unfortunately it got taken away for a bit since she left everything out after me telling her about four times to take care of it.
He looks sooooo much older with a fresh cut!
Exposing the kids to fine culture.
Outdoor movie night — Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure! Katie didn’t care for it, Owen enjoyed it. We couldn’t believe it was 35 years ago.
Katie’s a Shark 2!
We thought she was a Turtle 2 for the last while… But turns out she was a Shark 1, so today she graduated to Shark 2! So now we have two Shark 2 swimmers!