Assaulted by summer

 I feel, like, ASSAULTED by summer 2024 sometimes. 

Like, it's fun, but also DANG there is so much happening! And it is all very loud and requires me to be awake most of every 24 hours.

So much happening EVERYWHERE-- in the NEWS, in my house, at work, at Ben's work, with my family-- EVERYWHERE. Kid activities are boiling over. College prep is sooooooo underway. I have Fall Things that I really need to handle, but Summer Things are FRONT AND CENTER. We gotta buy backpacks for 3/5 of the kids. Schools are sending supply lists. Ben and Coop head to West Virginia for USA Diving nats next week. Minnie's first ever friend bday party is soon. IT'S ALL HAPPENING.

SO LET'S MAKE COOKIES

Minnie is Very Into her old Costco winter dresses-- because it's July, so WHY NOT. Yesterday, she wore her 2022 favorite to camp LOL.

Sometimes all of the things collide and I find myself grading at the pool during swim lessons after 90 minutes in the car driving the dive carpool. 

Baseball is slowing way down, though, as the Little League season is over for us, and Coop's travel ball team is pondering a re-org to join a team franchise with pro coaches, more travel, and winter training requirements. We are hesitant to commit to more ball because he also plays club hockey and dives, but we'll probably do it because he likes baseball, and he's only 12-- too young to specialize, I think. Does anyone else have a kid who plays multiple sports at a really competitive level? When did you ask them to narrow it down? Having a tough time with this one because HE IS ONLY 12. I don't think he should have to pick yet. But also! Club sports are way different than rec sports in terms of commitment.

We had a great time last weekend watching his travel team go 4-0 and win a tourney. And we found a place nearby with excellent truffle cheese curds and bloody marys.

Not only is Coop gearing up for the end of his dive season with nationals, but Jack and Dorothy are getting ready to cap off the summer dive season with All City-- we have their last dual meet (Coop will compete, too) this Friday, and then they dive for the City meet next week. It really did fly by and was SO FUN. Jack has consistently gotten amazing scores all season and has beaten everyone except this one awesome diver at our pool. Coop is killing it, and Dorothy is getting better every week. Definitely a non-assaulting part of summer and one I am going to miss. (Minnie likes scoping out all the pools)

Zoom in to see Dorothy absolutely terrified of going off the 3 meter during warm ups

Just wait though! In LESS THAN 2 weeks, diving of all kinds will be done. We will have no baseball. Camp will be over for Minnie, and so will swim lessons. I will be done with my summer classes. (Dorothy will still have dance, but that's a 9-minute drive each way, and she's there for HOURS at a time, so it feels like a worthy drive). We wil have nothing to do. And this, too, will be something I can complain about.

Something I will not complain about? These giant cookies from Aldi that you warm up and eat gooey-- do not sleep on these!

Teaching outfits 81/27 and 19/27

Smattering of Summer Things

 I thought-- when I first looked at the dance schedule-- that it would be completely perfect for long nights at the pool, and I was RIGHT. I need some help from the big boys to watch Minnie at the pool and get her started on her picnic dinner while I grab Dorothy and sometimes a friend or two, but then it is a pool night all the way until bedtime.

We are working on leaving BEFORE Minnie is so grumpy and tired that she loses her mind, but for some reason, I am a slow learner, and we have missed our window a couple of times. BABY STEPS.

Dorothy is a very good sport about eating, say, room temp buttered noodles by the time she finally gets to the pool, and she doesn't even mind hanging from dance clothes to swim clothes in the locker room and joining the last half of diving practice if she's able.

Minnie, working on her posing skills.

Minnie is also working on her independent imaginary play skills. She really likes to play Calico Critters WITH Dorothy, but Dorothy doesn't really want to play-- and Minnie is slowly but surely learning to play on her own. She told me that sometimes she likes playing by herself better because she can make up her own rules. I love listening to her on the monitor while I fold laundry, an she is just babbling a stream of a story, speaking for all of the characters, singing songs, etc. It's darling.

Minnie always always always wants to help these days. While this is also darling, it can be, um, less efficient. Here she is scrambling her own eggs, for example.

Jack went Full Buc-ee for the staff pool party

Is it even date night if you don't add a grocery store stop on the way home? (We were bringing dessert to share with the kids).

Ben texted me this pic of Minnie at baseball-- LOL for days. Love her set up (that's a cupcake in a Tupperware that she's snacking on).

Dorothy was being TERRIBLE the other morning, and I could not figure out why. But then! It dawned on me that she did not want to be home alone while Coop was diving and Harry and Jack were working and Minnie was at camp and I was teaching, and the worry was making her mean. So she came with me, and I felt like basically THE BEST PARENT EVER. Thanks, Inside Out 2, for the insight. (Also she acted way annoyed that I suggested she come but then she got dressed and grabbed her computer and a book in 3 minutes flat, so I could tell she was glad and that she loved that she could just blame the whole thing on me being overprotective).

Cooper’s Little League All-Star team played their district tourney and went to the championship game! They lost, but it was fun to make it that far, and people from all over town came to cheer them on. Our Little League has 2 charters, which means we have 2 tourney teams, so our power is not consolidated into one team. Our teams usually lose to the east side org (just one charter), and this year was no different. BIUT SO FUN TO WATCH. They even got to play 2 games at the Madison Mallards stadium!!

I broke my no kids’ sports team gear on myself policy to wear Coop’s jersey from last year to the championship game, and I dressed the girls similarly. Of course you want a photo dump from the whole week, right?

And don’t think we’re sad about the end of baseball because BASEBALL NEVER ENDS. His club tournament team plays this weekend in fact **melting emoji**

5 on a Friday: Summer Glimmers 28/52

 1. WATER SLIDE with Minnie: She is so delighted and giggles the whole time. Yes it’s cold, but also? That slide is fast and really fun. I wish I could tell my former self that she’d ride again.

She’s also really fun to swim with generally now— LOOK AT HER GO!!

AND SHE WENT OFF THE DIVING BOARD!!!!

2. Glimpses of baby talk in our very conversational preschooler

3. The feeling when the house is still asleep and chilly from a night of a/c and so very quiet. It's the reason I get up so early. I love a steaming cup of coffee (coffee pot on a timer, of course) and a throw blanket and fogged up windows and a barely pink sky and Wordle through still bleary eyes.

4. Summer matinees. I love a cold, dark movie theater on a hot day. We saw Inside Out 2 and loved it. There's a line where the joy character says something like maybe Riley doesn't feel as much joy now that she's older, and Dorothy goes, "That's right." 

5. Dive meets and date nights. I forget every year how adorable the summer dive league is in Madison. We had a terrific home meet with perfect weather. Jack had a PR. Coop set a new pool record. Dorothy got scores on all her dives! Success all around.

And then! Ben and I went out to a fancy dinner and even had time to walk somewhere for a pre-dinner cocktail. I had my very fave drink in town, a spicy, fruity marg-like tequila drink called hola from the other side because it;s been on the summer menu since Adele was first super cool because that's how good it is.

Teaching Outfit 12/27:

I have only taught 12 days in the first 3 weeks of summer school because my students have 2 days off for orientation this week and had a day off for the 4th. So! 12 dresses down, and 15 to go. This H&M number is older than both girls and still going strong: