Why is it already a billion degrees inside this house for the love?

I’m just not ready to turn on the air conditioning yet – I wanted a buffer month in my electric bill, you know.  Can’t spring give me that?

This weekend the kids put in a little farm labor at a local fruit and vegetable farm.  It was just supposed to be the big kids but Piper was eager to work too and she found a job that fit her particular skill set beautifully – welcoming the berry pickers and instructing them where to pick their berries.  (Truth be told, that ten year old had a dramatically better attitude about the entire day than her older sisters.)

Berg was a champ too – his job involved mostly standing there in the 90 degree heat and waving that flag so people would know where to park.  (Piper’s directions included – turn left by the boy waving the American flag.)

We also took in the inaugural home game of a new soccer club team in our town.  What a fun night.  The weather was breezy and warm, but pleasant.  The crowd was enthusiastic and the soccer skills were superb – especially to my kids who have just come off a season of a Y girls team.  Watching those athletes trap and pass and spin and jump and slide tackle their way ahead, practically dancing down the field, was a fabulous sight for us.  We cheered and felt like it was our team too!  We’re fans already.

I’m still reading Nothing to Prove and loving it.  I’ll take this read more slowly because there’s a lot I want (and need) to digest in this one.  I finished The Boy in the Striped Pajamas on Saturday.  London is reading it now and I’ll soon have Bergen and Mosely read through this book too.

Now that watermelons are available, I’m guessing we’ll pretty much constantly have one cut up in our fridge.  The entire family is obsessed with watermelon.  Do you add salt or no salt to your watermelon?

You know what’s thrilling?

The fact that this week is our LAST week of school before our summer break.  Next year I’ll have TWO high school students but I can’t think deeply about that right now.  I’m just going to focus on the good news of a wonderful break stretched out ahead of us.

I keep slowly gathering items for our Circumventing Flatlands trip.  All of the fun food in our cabinets is labeled Off Limits because it’s for the road trip.

Mom – can we eat that kettle corn?
No, it’s for the trip.

Hey, what about the goldfish?
Nope.

Okay, can I have some applesauce?
No, you cannot.

Well, what CAN we eat?
Watermelon.

They’ll thank me later.

Side note – check out Otto’s shirt in the above photo.  Kid gets attached to the most hilarious and random of shirts.  Right now he has about three shirts he wants to wear in a constant rotation – Dab Cat, a Spiderman shirt and a Steelers shirt.  The end.  Over and over.

Have you heard about the Every Kid in a Park program?  I won’t say I understand why we have this program, but I’m thankful for it.  If you have a fourth grader (which I do) then you can fill out a simple form and that fourth grader (and her entire family) get a free pass to every National Park in the United States.  That’s why we are making our route an out of the way one with stops at Wind Cave National Park and the Badlands National Park.  Why not go during a free year?  (If you have any great advice about either of those parks, I’d love to hear what you have to say.)

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