You've heard of playing in the sprinkler....

But have you heard of playing the sprinkler?

Yes, Trevi has created a new musical instrument that has the added bonus of keeping you cool when the mercury is about to shatter the thermometer.

We're off to Nova Scotia in the morning, where I'm guessing the temperature won't be in triple digits (especially in Celsius!). Farewell to California, your sea-bound coast! :)

And now for something completely different...Soccer!!!!

Ya, ya, I know that all I seem to talk about is soccer, but it does suck up a monster portion of our life around here. Eleven hours of today. You heard me. Clara's team played their hearts out, and just impressed the heck out of me. I can almost smell the college scholarships....

Extra super duper cool was the fact that the team played in their snazzy new uniforms for the first time. Check 'em out:

And here's Clara in action (she's right on the ball):

Eleven hours of soccer tournament, in my humble opinion, is a tad over-the-top. But, when your kid falls asleep in the car with a smile on her sweet and sweaty little face, you know it was eleven hours well spent.

Camp: Part Deux

Today marked the end of the second and final week of summer camps for Clara and Trevi. This time, they were together at the exact same sports camp, and they didn't torture each other even once during that time! (unless the counsellors are omitting something)

We have such an amazing parks and rec department. Lucky lucky lucky.

One more soccer player in the family

Trevi had his very first soccer practice today. Oozing with cuteness, and close enough to walk, so, yay!

Jumping jacks were the warm-up du jour. (Note that his arms and legs aren't quite in synch, hence the extra dose of cute):

Practice wrapped up with a team chat. I love the officialness of Trevi's pose:

He was over the moon. Imagine how it must feel to sit on the sidelines for an entire year, watching your sister have all the fun, and then finally get the chance to lace up some cleats of your own. This was a big day for our little guy. Now, if I could only find a way to earn a living while watching soccer.....

Where in the world are we?

Another chunk of Toys R Us gift card furnished us with a lovely globe.

Tonight's game was simple:

1. Pick any country on the globe.

2. Spin the globe.

3. As it's spinning, try to stick your finger on the exact country you'd picked previously.

Everybody won.

Sonia

I don't often let Clara read news magazines, since they are loaded with inappropriate stuff, but when she saw Sonia Sotomayor on the cover of our latest copy of The Week, Clara just had to get the full scoop. Throughout the "gavel to gavel coverage" of Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, Clara listened with me in the car, in the kitchen, and even in her own room. She tried to convince a friend to listen with her, but was shut down with a curt, "Let's do something fun instead." Confirmation hearings apparently don't float the boats of most eight-year-olds.

My headstrong girl had characteristically distinct opinions about those questioning Judge Sotomayor – "You can tell that guy's just trying to make her look bad!" – and was overflowing with questions about law and government in general. I really got a kick out of sharing Clara's odd fascination with her. We both learned a lot.

PS: We think you rule, Sonia!

The Hammock

Whoever invented the idea of relaxing in a hammock clearly did not have kids. This deceptive photo was taken during the one nanosecond in which these two weren't fighting over whose turn it was to sit in the hammock, who was squishing whom, or whether there was too much or too little swinging going on.
In theory, though, hammocks are lovely. Which is why I put ours up today. Now I need ibuprofen and a stiff drink.

11 Years

Chad and I didn't actually realize until mid-afternoon that today was our anniversary. Whoops. It's kind of funny, considering the big deal we made about our 10th last year. This time around, it just wasn't on our radar. Too much soccer on the brain, I guess. The first half of the day was all about Clara's tournament.
In other soccer news:
After a full year of watching his sister have all the fun, Trevor gets to play this season! And although I'm not overflowing with enthusiasm about the extra schlepping, I do love to watch these kids in action. Also, Trevi is crazy cute (and very proud) in his uniform:

After we were done playing the beautiful game, Chad, Andy, and Grammy set to watching it on TV (Grammy watched with perhaps a bit less enthusiasm). Canada lost to Honduras, and then the US either won or lost against some team with red uniforms. While all of this excitement was going on, Clara and Trevor were hanging with Ruby and Zeke.

We also busted out the barbecue for the second time this summer, and feasted on hot dogs (and veggie dogs). So, it was kind of like a 10-day Hawaiian vacation anniversary.

Chad and I did wrap up the day with a few champagne toasts, while we watched our wedding and honeymoon video footage, laughing (and sighing) at how young we looked back then. I think we should make sure that the celebration of our 12th includes some beaches, snorkeling, and fruity tropical drinks. Whaddya say, Hun? I hear 12 is the new 10.....

Camp!

A fabulous week of camp ended today. Both Clara and Trevor have spent the past five mornings being entertained by energetic teens. Yay for energetic teens!

Trevor's was called "Tadpole Camp", and it rocked. He came home wet, dirty, and glowing every day, singing golden oldies like Boom Chicka Boom and There Ain't No Flies On Us. This was his first camp experience, and it was perfect. Perfect. He swam in a pond, collected bugs, made leaf books, birdwatched, and ran around a lot.

Clara went back to the same dance "camp" that rocked her world last year. This time, the dances were set to the soundtrack of High School Musical 3: Senior Year, giving Clara a bunch of new moves to add to her karaoke routines at home. Today's end-of-camp performance was nothing short of adorable. I'll post some video later, if the computer stops arguing with me.

Next year, Trevi will have metamorphosized into Frog Camp, and Clara will no doubt be kickin' it to High School Musical 4: Everyone From Our High School Magically Ended Up At The Same College.

Waiting

Clara and Trevor have accumulated what seems like hours of waiting (often at the window) since summer vacation began. Here you see them waiting for the arrival of some friends who we've invited over to play:
What these two don't realize is that we parents spend a hefty chunk of summertime waiting, too. We wait for the phone to ring, so that our children will occasionally be the invitees, instead of the inviters.

Wodr Bloons

Trevi has been petitioning to play water balloons for the past few weeks, and I've been putting him off. Today, I woke up to a special message on our kitchen white board:
Now, even if Trevi weren't ridiculously cute already, the phonetic wrap-around writing (with mirror-image bloon) would make me do anything for him. I dug the balloons out of their hiding spot in the laundry room, and we had a grand old time.

First, the kids terrorized each other:

Then, they "washed" the windows:
I actually got wetter than both children and windows combined, since filling up those bursty little latex monsters is no small feat. It was quite a laugh, though. Wet fun.
(ETA: I found a little funnel-spout thingy at the Dollar Spot at Target that is designed specifically for this task, and will keep me dryish while filling water balloons in the future.)

Sno Cones

Clara's main purchase with our Toys R Us gift card was a Snoopy Sno Cone Machine. I seemed to recall this same thing existing years and years ago, and, sure enough, I found an old one on ebay that looks IDENTICAL to this one (except for the box). It's not the easiest thing in the world to operate (note the effort on Clara's face), especially since our ice cubes are not cubical, but it does make fluffy, snowy stuff, just as it's supposed to do.
Naturally, both kids wanted to have sno cones for dessert. And, since we had no actual syrup stuff in the house, we substituted orange juice. So, dessert was a couple of ice cubes with a bit of orange juice drizzled on top. Seriously. Our children passed up their usual cookie for ice. Heh heh. Thanks, Snoopy. You're a good guy.

Toys R Us

When the kids were really little, there was a Toys R Us not too far from us, that served as a great rainy day playground. We'd go in and the kids would walk/toddle/crawl around, testing things out. Since we never bought them anything, it didn't really occur to them that everything was available for purchase. We just played, and then went back home to our own toys. It was awesome. After a few years of this, the Toys R Us was transformed into a Babies R Us (or, "Baby Russ", as Trevi called it back then). We were well past the stocking-up-the-nursery stage by that point, so we stopped going.

Fast forward to now. Toys R Us has fallen completely off our radar as a destination of choice, and both kids have an excellent grasp of consumerism, which usually manifests itself at Target. I have to prep them both as we drive there: "Repeat after me. We are only buying a birthday present for Emily, a box of granola bars, and sunscreen."
Enter the giftcards. Four big, fat Toys R Us giftcards that the kids received for past birthdays and Christmases, never redeemed. Which is great, because both birthdays are squished up close to Christmas, and the rest of the year is pretty giftless. So, off we went today, to get free stuff!

I didn't really intend to drag this story on and on. I must be avoiding doing the dishes.
Nutshell version:
Trevi knew exactly what he wanted: Mousetrap. Right up his little inventor's alley. Our family movie nights lately have all been inventorish as well (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hotel for Dogs, and Robots among others). I must admit that I really, really wanted this game when I was a kid. Trevi and I trapped the poor mouse 86, 000 times.
Trev also picked a big box of Bendaroos. Love those.

The dishes are crusting over as we speak, so I'll save Clara's story for another time....

Stop the presses!

Shock of all shocks, I SEWED TODAY!!!! Funny, because I follow a couple of blogs by some (annoyingly) crafty people, who are always whipping stuff up out of thin air, like clothing, food, and home storage units. I admit that I would love to be more of a maker and less of a buyer, but, well, people who make and do everything kind of irritate me, especially when they talk like they're always in a state of bliss. Also, I haven't yet found the wormhole to the parallel universe that facilitates the knitting of all one's family's sweaters and the growing of all one's salads from seed. So why do I read these blogs, if they irritate me? Well, I guess it's the wavering ratio of irritation to inspiration. After all, there must have been some force acting upon me this morning when I dug my sewing machine out of the garage ("I didn't know you had a sewing machine, Mummy!") and proceeded to make bedding and nightwear for all three of Trevor's cats.

Trevi said he wished that the cats had blankets, pillows, and jammies. Apparently, his wish was my command. I ironed up some old scraps from my (ancient and few) quilting days, somehow remembered how to thread the machine (which, thankfully, already had a full bobbin), and even managed to decipher the IKEAesque sewing machine instructions for different settings, with their wholly unclear pictures of fingers pointing at various spots on the machine, and exes telling me what not to do. I kind of got into it, actually. And the kids were so flabbergasted to see me sewing that they just stood there quietly watching, looking through the fabrics, and soliciting opinions from the cats.

Here you see Lisa in the foreground, who chose a farm animal pillow, an orange nightgown, and a blanket which finally put to use a handquilted sample that's been taking up space in a garage bin since the nineties.
In the middle is Buttono. Not sure how I should be spelling that. Trevi pronounces it like "Butt-no", but he says he named her after the buttons on a robot. So, ya. She (a girl, since our black and white cat is female) has a nightgown that matches Lisa's, and a blanket made from the bottoms of our too-long curtains, which are now more pink than red.
Way in back is Chocolate Penny (a boy, like our orange and white cat), who is named after Hanukkah gelt (in Trevi's words, "...the chocolate money you get for Christmas when you play with the dreidel."). Chocolate Penny chose a fishbone pattern for both jammies and pillow, and his blanket is made from one of my favorite scraps (Lime green, orange, turquoise, and yellow. Heaven.)

At Trevor's request, I made a little tail hole for Chocolate Penny.

Clara was completely in on this whole process, and didn't ask for a thing for herself. She enthusiastically helped Trevi coordinate fabric and stuff pillows. As a thank you for her selflessness, I started making clothes for Gracie. An old bathing suit with dead elastic turned into a summer dress:
And something a bit more conservative for the times she doesn't want to look like a hussy:

I've got the fever! Clara's ripped shorts will soon be a new denim outfit for Gracie; the cats may just get that tent they've always dreamed of....
Oh, shoot, do I sound blissful and crafty? This might be a good night to have Easy Mac for dinner, and leave the homegrown heirloom tomato salad for another day.....

Happy Fourth!

One of the slightly weird things about this town is that many people our age have lived here their entire lives. Oh, maybe they went a couple of hours down the freeway in this or that direction during their college years, but they came right back. The result of this hometownness is that everyone seems to be saturated with friends they've known since middle school. Tight, tight circles. I admire it, envy it in a way. If it weren't for Facebook, I wouldn't know where to find a single soul from middle school. Or high school, for that matter. Except for my brother. I always kind of assume that everybody spreads out. But I guess spreaders are more the exception than the rule. In any case, Chad and I have managed to insinuate ourselves into some groups, by virtue of the fact that I teach a bunch of their kids, and he has good fake-leg stories to tell. We've also joined the not-so-tight circles of some other foreigners, from distant lands like San Francisco. Today, we were thrilled to spend the holiday with a family who landed here four years ago, from some faraway place called Los Angeles. Our girls are friends, so that breaks the ice automatically. A great time was had by all.

We did the full-on 4th, with sparklers and everything! Let me tell you, though, these are no longer the sparklers of yesteryear. They burn out before you can say, "Ouch! I just burned myself!", and you can't write your name in the air with the glowing stick. There's no glowing. The kids liked them, though.

What did glow were those tube things with some toxic liquid inside (always a hit). Clara and her friend were more fascinated by the glow sticks than by the fireworks.

The city's fireworks extravaganza was a drastically shorter, less extravagant version of its previous, fat-budget self, but there was plenty of ooooing and aaahing nonetheless. And Trevor, who spent the whole show lying on the grass with his fingers in his ears, hopes the budget won't increase next year.

Bye Bye Biomass

We have this little elf around here who tiptoes into the yard with a machete and/or chainsaw when the trees look like they're about to make a move toward world domination. Thank you, elf! Now we can play out back without fear!

Happy Canada Day!!!!

Bonfante Gardens was the celebratory destination of choice for Canada Day. We've been there so many times that it feels a bit silly taking pictures (even for my blog-obsessed self), so I just snapped a handful.

One big bonus today was that Trevi has finally reached (and surpassed!) the 42 inch height requirement for roller coaster riding, so our little thrill-seeking foursome spent a good portion of the day screaming, with our hands in the air.
This photo commemorates Trevi's first coaster ride:

Vanity almost prevents me from posting this next pic (not sure whether my eye bags outnumber my crow's feet or vice versa), but Clara and I were halfway down a big hill at this point. I was trying to save us the fifteen bucks they were asking for the photo taken by the coaster cam. Wrinkles or no, you can clearly see our Canadian spirit!
The day could have only been made more perfect if I'd had a Coffee Crisp bar. Oh, ya, and spending it in Canada would have been a nice touch. Maybe next year......
Thanks again for the awesome shirts, Ash!