August 2016

Family fun
—Afternoon at Anna & Ella’s: We were all invited over to the twins’ house on a Saturday to hang out and swim. It was good to get to know their parents, and all four kids had a blast on that very low-key afternoon.
—Back to School swim party at the twins’: This was only about ten days later, the day before school started for everyone — an actual party at Anna & Ella’s, which was another chance to kind of get back into the social swing after a summer off. Lukas spent most of his time on the trampoline, and I spent mine talking to some of my favorite mom-friends.
—Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: We put those season passes to good use with a weekday trip down to SC for some boardwalk fun. The big headline this time was Annika riding the Big Dipper (the old wooden rollercoaster); she was terrified, and I don’t really feel good about how I persuaded her to ride it — she’d said maybe, on the way down, but HELL NO once we got there … But anyway, it’s always a good time walking around eating dippin’ dots and whatnot.
—The Rio Olympics: We watched thousands of hours of Olympics coverage, to the neglect of every other kind of entertainment while the games were on … the kids loved gymnastics and the equestrian events, and the swimming was very exciting; Annika watched Katie Ledecky’s swims in slow-mo and took actual notes on her form, which the then taped to a piece of construction paper and put inside a Ziplock for reference outside in the pool. Love her focus!!
—Lazy days: Most of the month that wasn’t spent on school prep (e.g. the hellish trip to Target for school supplies, the shoe store, etc.) was given over to our usual stuff: swimming, bowling, playing around on screens (Annika’s heavily into something called Roblox), and watching Octonauts (Lukas’s new discovery, of which we all heartily approve).
—Parade of Broken Appliances: First the ovens died, then the washing machine, then the freezer. So we worked around (sending out the laundry) and did without (no more ice cream), until after a solid month, the oven got fixed — we celebrated restored oven functionality by baking these amazing Finnish cookies Annika had discovered a recipe for; still waiting on the other appliances. Ugh. 

Annika
—Brownie sleepover: Annika’s troop had its first official event, a sleepover and cookout at R&R’s magical wonderland of a house. They actually slept in tents in the backyard; I had to sign up for a 2-hour volunteer shift, part of which included setting up those tents, but otherwise Annika was on her own with the girls. She loved it, and now wants to go camping with her troop. I’ll … send marshmallows. Have fun kids. 

Lukas
—The Empire Strikes Back: Lukas finally decided he was ready to watch Empire, so we set it up in the movie room the day Annika was at her Brownie sleepover (she was actively against seeing it herself, thus the choice of showtimes). He loved it, wasn’t scared, and now has new stuff to yell when he runs around pretending to be a stormtrooper.
—Play dates: Lukas is fully committed to the playdate lifestyle, asking for one at least once per day. He had one with Lawson (in the two hours between Kinder/TK dismissal that first week) and one with his TK classmate Manir — his good buddy from preschool — whose mom I love and get along with really well. He fell apart at the end when it was time to leave — exhaustion plus just really not wanting to stop playing — but the during part was awesome!
—Wacky Wednesdays: We had to move Lukas’s swim lessons to Wednesdays, because obviously he can’t do Thursday mornings anymore, so it’s going to be a very, very tight turnaround getting from school to AVAC by 3:15 for his lesson (hers is at 3:30). Should be fun. 

Third grade and Transitional Kindergarten!
Astonishingly enough, Annika started third grade, and Lukas started TK. She got the “cool” teacher, a young guy named Mr. Dinh (who, it turns out, kind of stresses her out by being a loud talker but! redeemed himself in other ways, including the optional Pokemon Friday lunch trading card sessions). Most of her runnin’ buddies are in other classes, but she is back with Niamh this year, and her BFF Raina is in her class, so it’ll be OK. Lukas is loving the otherworldly-good Miss Bingham, and she has highest praise for him so far. He has been reunited with preschool pal Manir, whom he runs to and hugs in line every morning, and is making lots of other friends (most of whose names he doesn’t know yet, ha!). He comes home with a half dozen scrapes, bruises and scratches every day, so I guess he’s having a fabulous time on the playground as well. It’s looking like a good year for both — although we found out at Back-to-School night that Mr. Dinh is going to be taking parental leave (he has a newborn daughter) starting in November. Boo! But I mean, excellent for him and I support it and all that. Heh. 

Quotable
—Me, sifting through forms & permission slips: "Hey, did you wanna join the Green Team at school?"
—Annika, with the levelest look I have ever seen on any human face: "No. I'm not gonna spend my recess digging through the garbage with gloves on."
—Me: [thrilled beyond measure that I haven't passed on my Overachieving People-Pleasing Joiner gene] "OK then."

July 2016

Grandparents’ visit
So G&G came for three weeks this summer, straight from NY (where they are fixing up the Long Island house for sale). It was the usual mix of Lukas & Grandpa rowdiness, Annika & Grandma sequestration, afternoon swimming, too much screen time, and a couple date nights out for R. & I, except for two things: 1) G&G’s anniversary dinner, in which the six of us went out to celebrate 56 years for the guests of honor (the kids held up much better than expected — a gift all by itself!), and 2) Grandpa getting vascular surgery five days into the visit to repair a blockage before it could do any damage to the old guy. It went extremely well, and Grandpa only spent a single night in the hospital before coming home to recover with ease — couldn’t have asked for an easier experience (at least for those of us who didn’t actually have the surgery!).

Family fun
—The Glorious Fourth: We had a great 4th of July weekend, featuring a spot of bowling, a lot of time in the pool and grilling out for nearly every meal, a day visit from everybody’s favorite Tom, and on the 4th, a short trip to see our local parade with R.’s work friend and his family, plus that evening, an awesome fireworks show, where we were joined by the cousins & Uncle Paul & Aunt Amy.
—Gilroy Gardens: We needed to make use of those season passes we bought, so we cleared a weekday and went again. Another fun trip for all! Annika sure does love that one roller coaster … :-)
—The abortive trip to Marin: Our friend Ian had a book reading & signing at a bookstore in San Rafael, and we were invited over to their house after to hang out and eat dinner. And everything was perfect … until we got stuck in absolutely insane traffic on the way up, and yada yada yada, three and a half hours later, still on this side of the Golden Gate Bridge, we called it — turned around and came home, feeling horrible about missing everything we’d planned with our friends, but with no prospects of getting there before sundown. Ugh. Hell of a day. 

Annika
—Brownie swim party: Annika’s Brownie troop had an informal get-together at the twins’ house (Rachel & Rebekah) for swimming and whatnot, so she spent a crazy town afternoon there, after having really not seen her friends since school let out.
—Pokemon GO!: This mobile game has more or less taken over the world, and our lives — good thing it really is so much fun! When we finally figured out what we were doing, A. and I really started to get into going on walks and to parks to hunt the little critters. We even got to go Pokemon hunting with Paul and Alyna, when their family came over to visit G&G.
—Mom & Annika time: While she’s still out of school but Lukas hasn’t finished at preschool yet, Annika and I did a bunch of just-us things, e.g. bowling w/o her obsessing about Lukas getting a better score than she did; going to the tea party restaurant and the new coffee shop near the house (for crepes and coffee); seeing Secret Life of Pets in the movie theater, and spending a couple of hours at two different paint-your-own pottery places — the kind of thing a younger sibling couldn’t really handle yet. 

Lukas
—Goodbye to Discovery Years: At the first of the month, I turned in our 30-day written notice, withdrawing Lukas from preschool. We have high hopes for TK, and it’s just time to do this; his teacher was very sorry to know we’d decided for certain to take him out, and spent the rest of the month making a fuss about it, but the deed was done!
—Mornings with Lukas: On another note entirely, Lukas has turned into quite the morning cuddler/snoozer; he’ll sneak into our room verrrrrry quietly in the morning and climb into bed with us. Some mornings, it’s nice, and he’s sweet, and he’ll give lots of kisses and sometimes even go back to sleep draped on top of one of us; other mornings, he’s the frickin Tasmanian Devil and rousts us both out of bed, grumpy and angry at him for disturbing our rest. You just never can tell with this one. 

Quotable
—“I like Rusty Rivets because he can fix anything, just like you!” -Lukas, to Daddy

—“Lukas did that. He says it's his booger army.” —Annika, with the most perfectly deadpan eye-rolling comedic delivery of all time, when I catch sight of some stuff wiped on a wall in the bathroom.

—“You’re a monkey, Lukas!” —Grandpa
“No, I don't like bananas!” —Lukas, indignantly defending his honor

 —“Why does Batman have to verse Superman?” —Lukas asking the age-old questions

June 2016

Second grade is over!
—The second grade picnic, and a limo ride to Chuck E. Cheese: The second to last day of school was the day of their class “picnic,” which this year was held at Parma Park. I took Lukas with me and walked with the class to the park; it was hot, but the kids had a bomb-ass time (Lukas had Lawson to play with), so all was well. Then, when we got back, it was time for Annika to go with her pal Niamh in a limo to Chuck E. Cheese’s for lunch — a treat Niamh had won in a raffle back on Dandy Day in October, which included inviting four friends along (her friend Alana was one of the others). We got pictures of their departure in the white stretch limo — it was hilarious, and she loved it!
—On the last day — which as always is a minimum day — we hung around for a bit saying our good-byes, and then went to get ice cream in Willow Glen (per our first-and-last-day tradition). Lukas is so much less sensitive to dairy now (I want to say his allergy is officially outgrown, but of course I’m scared to actually do that) that I was going to let him order real ice cream (but he wanted a Dole Whip, so that’s fine). Anyway, we were sitting outside to eat, and a girl — about 12 years old — nearby was talking with her mom about her karate class. Lukas jumps out of his seat, strikes a pose in front of her, and declares: "I'm a real ninja!” (to the general hilarity of all). It was a good last day! And only three days till … 

Hawaii 2016!
With the dance recital week not a factor this year, we planned our trip for as soon as we could — school let out on Thursday, we took off for Hawaii for two weeks on Sunday. This was the year Lukas was finally a real swimmer (and we were confident enough in his abilities that we could let him do it, heh). The fact that he didn’t have to cling to one of us, or be watched like a hawk anymore, opened up a lot of things for us. And it was glorious! Most days, we spent at the beach club, chilling in our cabana, going out to swim, building some crazy sandcastles, etc. Annika and R. went snorkeling every day (and she did a lot of free-diving in the channels); Lukas even got a set of fins and goggles, but he’s not quite ready to go out there yet. I rented a two-person kayak one day, and Annika and I went pretty far out, just paddling around and looking at stuff. But several days, we went up to Hapuna Beach, which is north of where we stay, and is one of the best beaches in the world. It’s unprotected (no reef), so there are waves — the kids both did some boogie-boarding and bodysurfing, with mixed/very sandy results), but most of the time, we would just jump around on the soft, soft sand and go out to jump and float in the chest-high waves. The water was so warm and wasn’t at all rough, despite the scouring wind up on the beach; the only real downfall of Hapuna is the complete lack of shade (except if you get there early enough to get a spot under the kiawe trees … which is a whole other kind of problem). On those days, we either brought lunch or got food in Kawaihae, the little town just north of Hapuna, when we quit beachin’ for the day (absolutely delicious fish tacos, burgers, etc.) and pick up some fish to grill for dinner, too, at a place that sells the day’s fresh catch. We cooked at home a lot, but went out a lot too; Lukas would order “chicken fenders, french fries, lemonade, and ketchup” from any place we went, while Annika managed to get some variety in her orders. We decided to take a chance on the luau again (having skipped it last year), and it was a MUCH better experience this time: Nobody was scared, everybody could eat what was on the buffet, the kids behaved themselves, we actually got to enjoy the show. Victory! Once again, we visited some units in the condo complex that were for sale, and almost talked ourselves into buying one … that story is not over yet. Eventually, of course, the trip was over and we headed home … only to end up spending NINE HOURS in the Honolulu airport (some mechanical problem with our plane). They moved us around a bunch, gave us vouchers for dinner, and eventually we got settled in the Magnum, P.I.-era wing of the airport, from whence we finally departed. We walked through our front door at about 5:30 on Sunday morning (Father's Day, lol), and didn’t get ourselves righted for a week, time-wise — but the kids did OK (thank all the large and small gods for Apple mobile technology!!!), and it was worth everything it took out of us. Aloha till next year!

Quotable
“Betsy — the one with a face helmet, that wears green and black.” —Lukas describing the Star Wars character Boba Fett
—“cheft hat” —Lukas’s take on “chef’s hat”
—“legendary nut” — Lukas describing a kukui nut that still had green on it