Sister Summer Stints

School has been out for a week and half and we're having a grand ol' time!  Everything is more relaxed, more fun and less stressed.  We haven't hit a lot of our summer list yet, but, there's time.  My brazen two are open for new adventures and honestly, so am I.  I *just* bought an archery groupon (see last entry) and we'll be doing that next week!!   Oh and weirdos out there, don't steal my pictures, k?  Thanks :)

Sidewalk Scarfing

almost Swimming

Stylish Skating

Specific Snacking

 Spent Swinging

Shooting the.....breeze

 Slurping (on opposite day, its a tea party)

Scholarly Studying

Cinematic Surveying

Stringing and Strategizing

 Standing Stripes

 Stenciling & Socializing

Snarling doggy Superstructures

Striking a Spirited pose (Go Astros!!)

  


I'm sapped.

Set off and Savor your Summer!!!!!

Reason #46 why groupons rock

First, please, watch a minute or two of this....

Now, doesn't that make you go "WHOA"!!!  "Awesome"!!  "I'm buying the next groupon I see!!!!"??

Omgosh,  Me. Too.   In fact that is exactly what I went and did.  Bought a g-pon for parkour.  Oh you don't know what parkour is?  You think its practicing occultists or sorcery on your screen, don't you?  Well, this is what is called Parkour or l'art du déplacement.   "Practitioners aim to move quickly and efficiently through their environment using only their bodies and their surroundings to propel themselves, negotiating obstacles in between. Parkour is non-competitive. It may be performed on an obstacle course, but is usually practiced in a creative (and sometimes playful) reinterpretation or subversion of urban spaces. Parkour involves 'seeing' one's environment in a new way, and imagining the potentialities for movement around it". Thanks Wikipedia, (what DID we do before Wikipedia.....oh yeah, I remember the Encyclopedia Brittanica).


So, I bought it, registered, signed the waiver (that seemed to say "if I bust my ass, I relinquish any right to a lawsuit because.....well, sorry, there really shouldn't be an IF, you will bust it"), made a reservation for an outdoor class in our beautiful downtown and went on my merry way to z class (my fake french accent for Parfaux).  I was early, had all of my documents scanned and emailed to the instructor, had my workout wear.  Dude, I was ready to bust my ass do this!  I wanted to leap tall buildings in a single bound, I wanted to creep up the side of railings like a cat or play leap frog with cement.

As soon as the class began I knew that I would NEVER, EVER, be able to do any of that.  Like, never. Ever.  Had I started training in my mother's amniotic fluid then maybe and then just a big maybe.   The funny part to me was that I did not hurt myself.  I mean, I wasn't even good enough to hurt myself....are you understanding me???? Like, my movements were like a record on 33 rpms, so it never got dangerous or anything.  I was moving like a snail.    The instructors were incredibly patient and awesome and I had a great ass time.  I really loved it. I was actually looking forward to the next outdoor class!  It was fun and different and got my body moving differently than usual.  I waved au revoir to my new friends and took my sweaty, yet super giddy self home to tell Michael all about it.

The next day, I went to the park to walk.  My friend didn't show up so I was on the trail by myself. I saw this bench calling my name.  I was going to practice what I had learned, on that lonesome bench.  I had this. 

Cue in the ass busting.

Oh my god.  ouch.  I managed to scrape/bang/bruise/wallop my right shin on some new move tomfoolery. I could barely walk the rest of the way to the car.  What a dummy, I was.  Typical day in the life of me, though.  Thinking I can master something, INSTANTLY.  Wrong, once again, Babs.

 I needed these for a couple of days

and I couldn't even shave over the patch of red/black/yellow.  It was all just a big misunderstanding between my leg and the bench.

Anyhow, that was a whole month ago and I am now healed and ready to go back to the class.  I am, however, going to finish out my groupon and go back to the safety of my.........

Thanks,
Barbie

Bar-b 101

My percent chemical composition breakdown...........

20%     C8-H10-N4-02 (coffee)

20%     C6-H1-206 (glucose and fructose) + 
            C2-H5-OH (Ethanol)    

5%       H20

35%     A-W-E-S-O-M-E

20%     80's commercial jingles

Momma Moody and the not so bummer Summer

So, it's SUMMER BREAK over here!!!  Yes, the girls' last day of school was yesterday and boy are we all happy.  Lazy mornings, no strict routines, being able to watch Kitchen Nightmares together at night, basically just all around good and relaxed time.  I ASSumed my daughters would be dialed in to this feeling this morning.  Well, they were, SUN dialed in.  Those little jerks girls that I heart were all up in my business at 6:57am this morning.  Apparently, in my haste, I had not CC'd them on the Leisurely Summer memo and hadn't filled their chill pill Rx in time (same Rx and memo that I always forget on Weekends).  Not only were they in my bedroom at this time, but, Athena had already compiled what they wanted their summer to look like.  As you may remember from last year (wait, maybe I didn't blog about it...ooops...shoulda) Athena's list (when she was 6) included 12 things, some were things like 1. learning a new language that uses symbols like Chinese, 2. reading the bible. the whole thing, 3. learning how to make a french braid, and 4. watching the entire Thriller video. The whole thing.  We did about half of the list last year.  None of the things mentioned, but, the other more attainable things like go swimming, go visit North Carolina, go ice skating.

Now, the list this year seemed more reasonable.  Including things like going fishing, learning the words to a song and performing it, and eating a dish from a different country everyday.  The ONE thing that seems to have carried over from last summer to this summer was the Thriller video watching.  She had this illustration at the end of her list.............

I asked her what she was doing in the picture, she said "watching the video and there is super glue underneath my butt so that I do not get up from the chair".

Saylor's list included having dance parties, going to Hawaii, eating at Crave cupcakes every MWF, and having a lot of playdates "that you always promise but we never do" with friends.

Ladies and gentlemen, I actually did wake up jazzed for Summer, gotta tell you.   I immediately wanted to do something not on the list. We've toyed with the idea of going blackberry picking at some point.  We'd missed it twice before before of timing.  One time we'd driven ONE HOUR to the strawberry fields and they were EMPTY and the fields were barren and had all been picked.  The owner was all "you shoulda called" and I was all "yeah".

Anyhow, luckily both of my girls go with the flow, so they were stoked after I CALLED and the blackberries were ready for us to go pick them..  I mean, we go to farmer's markets all of the time and joined a co-op (THIS one) so they understand the role/function of the supermarket and what it all means.  It seemed (like everything else) like a teachable moment, I wanted them to actually see what a farm looks like and how it feels to pick fresh fruit and how differently it tastes.   And so that's what we did. We headed out to a local farm that was about 40 min away from our house.  We arrived and other gung ho families were there getting their blackberry pickin' on.  There was a system that the owner/farmer had created and it seemed to work well for us.  Instructions given, buckets handed out and sunscreen applied.  We. were. doing this.

After....mmm.....12 minutes...we'd had our fair share (pun intended) of blackberry fun.  It was hot, not many were actually ripe enough for picking, and there were Texas sized hornets and beetles and insects.  It was really fun though.  It was great to be amidst nature and watching the girls get excited when they picked a nice, dark, ripened, juicy, succulent berry.  We saw the blackberry flower, then the green bud and then the pink/red berry and finally the ripened blackberry.

So, all in all, it was fun!  It was 40 minutes there, 40 minutes there, 40 minutes back.   Our first two hours of summer vacation, done!

Now, off to our Japan inspired lunch.   Day one, half way done, just 80 more to go :)