Last week we went to our single A baseball team here in the QC with the camp staff. Our local baseball stadium has been rated one of the best in the country. Here’s why:

It’s beautiful! Plus it comes complete with the same creepy mascot as every other athletic team in the country. “Rascal”.

They are so cute my camera can’t stop itself.

She is too.

The staff.

One of Zach’s besties was home from Alaska. It was so good to see him, can’t wait to see his wife in a few weeks too!

you all asked about the cake Chrissy made me for my birthday. So I asked her what it was (besides delicious). This is what she wrote:

-Devils food cake as per directions on box
-top with large box of vanilla pudding made per directions
-top with a can or two of cherry pie filling
-top with whipped topping
-let sit in fridge for a few hours before serving
Voila!

It sounds easy enough. It tasted amazing. I say go for it! Clearly this is not on the Weight Watchers approved menu but it is certainly approved for the birthday celebration menu!!

Today is my birthday. It was awesome. I’ve somehow managed to surround myself with the most amazing people. Amazing. people.

The first amazing people to greet me? My family. I was sleeping peacefully and suddenly heard “Happy Birthday” being sung by sweet little voices from heaven. Those voices from heaven were carrying a veggie omelet, toast and OJ. Fuggetaboutit. (No picture because for the first 5 minutes I was pretty sure I was still in a dream.) Then we called my mom because it’s her birthday too! Love sharing the day with my rather amazing mom.

After breakfast I went and swam 300 yards and retrieved a brick from the bottom of the deep end of a pool. No joke. Why? Well, I’m training to be a lifeguard so that I can take my family to our pool whenever I want and do so according to Camp standards. Interestingly enough, I did this same test about 15 years ago. Today, I almost died. Winded, arms tired. Whew. The brick thing was crazeballs. I ended up just choosing to swallow water. Don’t ask. Let’s just say 15 years is a big difference when comparing how well one does at lifeguard training. (No picture here either because the swimsuit I wore-the only one that would definitely not show my ladybits-was about a decade old and was Nast-to-the-E.)

Lunch with the Klipschs at Woodfire Grill. Where I got wine (yes, please!) I also got 4 sessions with my mother-in-law’s cleaning lady (a prayer has been answered ladies and gents), a Juicer (spinach smoothie anyone?) and some cutlery I’ve been lusting after for a very long time. (Don’t ask why I’m making that face. No idea. I was trying to look like a hardass but instead I look like I’m pooping my pants-I’m not, for the record.)

Some of my besties and my sister came out to swim. Camp was having their open house so we didn’t see much of Zach but the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Speaking of beautiful…these ladies. H.O.T.

And because Chrissy loves me so much and has a heart the size of Tiger Woods’s lust for women, she made me homemade guacamole.

And a Millionares Cake.

Then she gave me the gift she, my sister and our Annie B got me. They put the sweetest little note on it. I literally got choked up but think I played it off well.

In it…a garden basket with some much needed tools for an avid gardener like myself.

And a Clarisonic. Apparently this thing will make it so I won’t have any more zits. Ok, that might not be true, but it is supposed to be orgasmic life changing.

These two walk around with major pieces of my heart in their pockets.

One of the best parts about living at camp and having a bunch of people not afraid to make outright fools of themselves? They sing you happy birthday with gusto!

Not interested in their rendition of Happy Birthday? How about a little poem written for yours truly? By someone from Barbados?

The words to match:

“I like big butts and I cannot lie
When I take your step class I feel like I want to die
But I know you always try to teach me how to fly.”

Truly a great day. I look forward so much to the next many decades. With Zach and the kids waking me up every morning and friends giving me some of their time. Friends and family sending me little love notes. I am so blessed. So unbelievably blessed.

huge bag of spinach and leaf lettuce. The spinach has started to bolt so it looks like we’re done with all of our harvesting. We got LOTS of good spinach off of our plants. We were very impressed with our beautiful (and super delicious) spinach. Lettuce hasn’t bolted yet so I’m hoping to get 1 more harvest in. Fingers crossed, it’s getting pretty hot here in the Heartland. Now what should I plant in place of my spinach? Any good ideas?

Our first sign of tomatoes! My first Early Girl tomato. Isn’t she beautiful?!?!?!?

Also my first yellow squash. There are 2 of them on this one plant. They look equally beautiful and miraculous.

My cilantro bolted too. Now what? I hear you can somehow use the seeds to replant but I’m not sure it’s worth it. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

And my onions. Still looking bold and beautiful.

The garden has been surprisingly successful for our first shot. We had A LOT of radishes that were huge and tasty (even for someone like myself who doesn’t like them). We ended up giving most of them away just because no one in our family loves them. Probably won’t do those again.

Our “carrots” were actually radishes. The seeds were somehow mixed up (which I read happens) so that was kind of a let down.

Other than that it’s been fun! Not too much weeding is needing to be done. We have a lot of little super tiny weeds that you can kind of see in my cilantro picture. That’s about the only weed we’re dealing with and they’re so tiny it’s hard to pull all of them from their roots.

I’m trying to write down stuff I want to remember for next year but more than likely it’ll just be easier to document on the blog so get excited for more of that! 🙂

the boys had an awards ceremony at their school. A ceremony celebrating the ways they showed good character in school.

Trysten’s: “Trysten has a special gift that enables him to understand and experience the feelings of others.”

Tomas’s: “Tomas has such an exciting curiousity for learning!”

Tariku’s: “No matter what the incident is Tariku is there to help out before he’s even asked.”

So proud of them for showing their teachers and their friends the boys I know them to be. Have I mentioned I love them? Mmmk.

was superb. Relaxing. Kind of rainy and gross, but great. Zach starts gearing up for camp this week which means, amongst many things, that we lose lots of quality daddy time. So we soaked it all up this weekend.

We also harvested a bit from our garden. Spinach and lettuce. They both tasted like little bits of heaven the second you bit into them. I think this gardening bit is growing on me.

One month until I head to Colorado to be with some pretty remarkable ladies. Oh man am I excited about that. Especially because I’ve been wanting really badly to reach through the computer and give a few of them true (not just cyber) hugs.

The bigs are done with school next Monday. Littles finished preschool. I am busy scheduling dentist appointments, Kindergarten physicals, and other things we’ve been putting off far too long.

That’s it. Summer is starting and I couldn’t be more excited about that.

it’s done. Tomas’s ESL celebration went off without a hitch. He was beyond happy, the kids at school were excited to learn about his country (and most of them disliked injera, much to his shock and horror), and I was happy to be done with it.

The good news: I was able to let myself go at the end and not become overly ridiculous. The bad news: I had just enough time to snap a few photos before my camera ran out of batteries. Facepalm.

First, pics of the night before the big event!

The food. Ohmygoodness I love Ethiopian food.

The happy diners.

And the rather silly diner.

My pictures pre-battery dying of the celebration.

The table

When no one was looking I could find all of my kids stealing some of the injera.

It was good fun. My favorite part was seeing Tomas light up, definitely. My second favorite part was listening to Tomas tell the kids about each thing we brought and about little details from Ethiopia. I was so proud of him.

go to Jody’s blog. Do exactly what she says.

I signed up my entire family (including kids!) today. It’s easy. It took 2 minutes because I did a pretty basic page.

Here’s the thing, I’m not asking for your money (though I’m sure The Adventure Project wouldn’t mind that ;)) I’m just asking for your time. Mere seconds of your time can do HUGE things to rural farmers in Africa.

Read more about that here.

But please do it. And if you need help, email me and I’ll help you set it up. There really are no excuses why you can be one of 1000. 


Wooohooo!

— House is clean after…a long time. It feels good. I was tempted to move into a hotel for the night just to make my hard work last more than 4 hours. Didn’t happen and right now there is a dirty footprint on my freshly mopped floors. Such is life!

–I’ve spent way too many hours thinking about this ESL celebration. I want it to go so well for Tomas. I know there are many deep seeded crazy reasons why I’m making such a big deal about this but I assure you they are all rooted in my deep love of this boy. And a deep love for the country that produced 3 of my sons. I get that the country itself can’t see my tribute to it, and I also get that the special people in the country can’t see how hard I’m trying to honor their sacrifice, but for some reason that hasn’t stopped me from trying as hard as I can to do it anyway.

–I bought some injera from an Ethiopian man who lives about 45 minutes away. I asked him if he’d make us dinner for tonight too (I obviously paid him) since I was driving all of that way. Tomas cried when he saw the injera. And then he hugged Dawit and told him he was the best cooker ever. The Ethiopian food tasted so good. I felt totally ashamed at how bad I’ve been at making/buying this connection to their culture. Shame on me, seriously.

–Went to the pool tonight. Summer is almost here. June 3rd is our last day of school. I’m wanting the kids home with me now. They are so much fun. I miss them. Ready to see more of them.

Stay tuned for these 3 boys tomorrow. There will be pictures of them in their traditional Ethiopian garb and, probably, pictures of masses of girls (and some boys) throwing themselves at my adorable sons. And how could they not?

I’m aware it’s a perfunctory part of having kids, the preschool graduation. Doesn’t change the fact that I cried when I saw my wee girl in her cap and gown. Doesn’t change the fact that I was super proud that she spent the last year making some beautiful pictures and singing some beautiful songs. Doesn’t change the fact that I’m nervous as hell to send her to Kindergarten, and be without my faithful sidekick every day. Doesn’t change the fact that I think she’s the most beautiful girl in the world.

Had some time to take some fun ones too.

Why does he look 20 here?

Same question for this guy.

These two are absolute besties.

They dance.

And they make quick getaways.

Awesome day.