Doin' math

The girls and I are doing math on Khan Academy this summer. I'm reviewing my probability and statistics because I'm teaching that second semester, Nina's doing 3rd and 4th grade math, and Maggie is doing their early math curriculum.

A few times a day you can do a "Mastery Challenge," and Maggie had one with a clock face but no numbers. Tricky! So I said to her,

"Maggie, what time is it on this clock?"

And she said, "Is this a 'what does the clock say' question?"

And I said, "yes."

And she said, "The clock says 'Tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock, DONG... DONG... DONG!'" then giggled like the little punk maniac that she is.

Get it? What does the clock say? The clock says "tick-tock." Funny kid. I can't wait for her to learn telling time at school.

Water bottle rockets

Today one of my now fellow teachers (and former teacher of my own) and I taught a little session on water bottle rockets for a dozen kids aged 2 to 10. Boy did we have a blast! Nina and Maggie made their own rockets from 2 liter soda bottles, part filled them with water, and then launched them from our little rocket launcher apparatus.

It was pouring at 6 am, but just foggy at 9, so Chip and I decided what the heck, let's just hope the rain stays away and proceed as scheduled. It did rain a tiny bit during our first round of launches, but water bottle rockets aren't the driest things ever, so it didn't really matter.

After that, Maggie had a friend over for a playdate and Nina went over to a different friend's. Let's just say they've been needing a little space from each other. On a totally related note, I'm planning a lovely, week-long, solo vacation. So if things get even quieter around here, you'll know why.

Then another round of thundershowers came through this evening, which reduces poor Moxie to a shaking, drooling, panting mess. To calm him, the girls and I took the dogs down to the basement, where it turns out you can't here any thunder. And then we played Katy Perry at top volume, which isn't very relaxing, so we switched over to some classical. Now he's chilled out and relaxing on the cool basement floor, happy as a clam. Marley never really cared about the thunder, but he's also conked out, happy to be in the nice cool basement.

What exciting lives we lead!

How the summer doth fly!

It's Saturday? What's happening??!! Summer is going too fast!

On Wednesday, our friends Paul and Sarah visited. The girls were nervous about spending the day with three little boys, aged 2, 4, and 6. They just didn't forsee it going well. But it was great! The oldest boy was an absolute doll, the littlest a real cutie, and the middle one... well, he was both a middle child and a 4 year old. But 2 out of 3 ain't bad!

On Thursday we had our first quiet day since Vanessa and the boys arrived on June 27. It was continuous people and traveling from then until Thursday! Busy busy! So on Thursday, I'm not even sure what happened... I think we relaxed and swam in the pool. Probably some trampoline jumping.

Friday Emery and Heather came over, more swimming and some bottle rocket launching. Great fun!

Then today the girls and I went kayaking, Marley took off on a great adventure, he came home all by himself, and we swam in the pool. Excellent times!

No plans yet for tomorrow, I think more lounging for sure though. The weather has been just perfect, the pool's been over 80 for weeks now, and the sun's been shining.

I have to go now, Nina's arranging a wedding between the vacuum and the hoover floor mate. She's having trouble getting the vacuum to hold her bouquet, I might be needed....

UPDATE: The Bissel and the Hoover Floormate tied the knot! It was a beautiful wedding, with the dust mop serving as the bridesmaid, the swiffer as best man, a can of carpet cleaner as ring bearer, and Nina as the officiant. Touching.

Here's the happy couple:

Vaculetta, the blushing bride, and Hoove, the handsome groom.

Do you, Vaculetta, take Hoove to be your cleaning item?

You can see a video HERE

I've gotta go join the reception now, man is it a kickin' party!

Squirrel Island

Today the girls and I took Philip to the beach on Squirrel Island. What a perfect day! One of my friends, Kelly, owns the boat company that runs out to Squirrel, and she gave all of us Boothbay moms half-price tickets so we could have a beach day there. The Novelty left pier 8 at 9 am (we barely made it! We've been staying up so late, getting up early was painful!). Here we are:

The girls with Philip. We're really going to miss Philip!

Just behind the three of them you can see the float that we walked out to. My was the water cold! It burned at first and made one's joints feel all achey, but after that, it just felt cold. So I got used to it faster than I thought I would. I wouldn't have swam out to the float, but it was only waist deep, so the three of us girls spent some time there. Our landlubber visitor was not thrilled with the cold water and didn't go in any deeper than his ankles.

My big little beach lover

Maggie was being a goofball. For the most part she wouldn't even open her eyes for the camera.

Us girls! (With Maggie's eyes closed)

After we got back to the harbor, Philip treated us all to some ice cream, and then we cooled off again in mom and dad's pool. Such an amazing summer we've had so far!

Philip leaves tomorrow, Maggie tried to convince him to stay until Christmas, but Philip didn't think that could work. We're sure going to miss him!

Update: Got some dresses in the mail that we ordered the other day. The size 10 fits Nina perfectly. So if you're thinking of getting Nina any clothes for her birthday, it'll have to be in a 10. She's so big!!

NYC

We're back! What a busy week. Let's see, the girls and I drove down to NYC with Vanessa, Wyatt, and Ray on Wednesday. It was a lovely trip! The kids did a great job and we didn't hit any traffic until it started to downpour like all getout on us in Connecticut. Then things had to slow down because of the extreme puddling on the roads. All things considered though, the slowdown was minimal.

We rendezvoued with Nick and Ethan at the hotel, then headed to Pete's place for the night. The extreme weather had caused his flight to be cancelled, so we actually got to see him! The girls were very happy.

Thursday Vanessa and I took the five kids to Rockaway beach. It was wonderful! The girls had never gotten to play in such warm ocean water and they absolutely loved it. Here we are, loving it:

Loving it while staying safe from the sun, of course!

We loved it so much that we went back the next day!

This day, the clothing was more about staying warm than sun protection...

On Friday, it was Happy Birthday America and Happy Birthday Grandma! Uncle Thomas and Aunt April hosted a giant party at their place. There must have been more than 100 people there, many of them under 30. Lots of beer consumed.

Two cakes! One cannoli cake (left) and one ice cream cake (right. obviously)

Then even though it was storming, the pool was warm and the kids swam, swam, swam...

Look at these cuties!

 Nina even got into cannonballing!

Don't worry, it was the shallow end. She still hasn't gone under.

On Saturday we swam again, had pizza at great-grandma and great-grandpa's, and then picked up Philip to head home.