We were just at dance class and I was pulling into a parking spot and made a comment about being kind and not running over the guy slowly walking in our way. Juliet responded "Eh, he looks like he doesn't know his purpose in life. You should run him over." I asked her what her life purpose was and she responded, "to watch screens!" So everything is going great, I'll be writing that parenting book any day now.
Juliet was a basketball champ by the end of the season.
And Sookie ... has been living her best life since Meg died. Zero grieving as far as we can tell. Our cats were pretty cuddly as kittens but perhaps turned into crabby old ladies in their golden years? Regardless, they tolerated the existence of each other and cuddled once in a blue moon if it was cold enough, but the cats mostly seemed annoyed when the other one was near. Meg was always much more aggressive about getting her cuddles and Sookie no longer has to compete with her.
She gets to sleep wherever she wants on the bed without Meg hissing at her if she comes near to her spot. And she paws at me and Nathan when we start waking up in the morning because she wants pets. She comes downstairs and finds me sometimes when she wants extra cuddles. It's been very sweet and I feel a little bad that she's been ready for more attention and is only getting it now.
We took the Girl Scouts out for a fancy activity at Taste Buds Kitchen with our cookie money. It was very popular, turns out we like fancy things.
They made donuts and the parent chaperones didn't have to do anything. We're going to do this every year.
There were no refunds and two girls were sick on the day of the event so Patrick and another 5th grade sibling got to attend. Patrick enjoyed the perks of being an honorary Girl Scout!
The girls got two donuts! I don't think anyone ate much dinner that night.
Eleanor had a band concert. We appreciate how she always sits on the end of her row.
And I got talked into the club championship day at my tennis club! My friend Nui was my partner for the day. It was a long day and there wasn't as much actual playing of tennis as I had hoped but Nui and I dominated in all of our tennis matches but one and we had a great time. And I met a guy who owns a pool company so he's now doing our pool maintenance. Ahhh, the connections that happen at "the club."
Nathan left on a work trip the next day and Juliet talked me into a sleepover. She brought a few buddies with her.
She actually slept really well and barely kicked me at all.
The next night Patrick insisted it was his night for a sleepover but Juliet had heard there might be a thunderstorm so she was desperate to sleep on the floor. She snored a bunch and drank from her water bottle noisily at 2AM, I don't particularly want to have sleepovers with her anymore.
The angel child who slept quietly
Nathan got back in time to go with the boys and my dad to see Iowa State play in the Big 12 Tournament.
The boys missed a day of school for this, it was deemed worth it.
Then awesome daddy came home and did puzzles with Juliet
Patrick got to have his first private tennis lesson! I picked up balls for him so he could go go go the entire time and he was pretty tired by the end.
Especially when Coach Alex had him running around cones. Good tennis players are quite fit, it seems.
Then he came home and spent ages making a very large sign in honor of Iowa State. Fun fact: he originally wanted to take this to the games downtown and carry it around all day. Nathan vetoed that plan, much to Patrick's distress.
We left Juliet unsupervised with body glitter and hair chalk and somehow this happened. We were impressed by the neck tattoo, he stayed pretty visible for quite a few days.
Juliet remains a tiny person. I can't believe she's the 20th percentile for height.
At least she's starting to get some of her teeth in. Still a pretty impressive smile!
We had a very early flight for our spring break trip to Santa Cruz to visit my aunt and uncle. I borrowed Juliet's neck pillow for a snooze and Nathan thought it was hilarious to take a picture of me.
We flew out on St Patrick's day and there was just one child who was excited to coordinate shirts with me
Getting comfy on the floor at the airport. Ewwwww
We stopped at In'n'Out for food once we landed and we were excited that X marked the spot in the parking lot but we couldn't find any treasure.
Perhaps the food was the treasure! The girls both hate burgers so they survived on French fries and milk shakes while the rest of us ate real food.
We remembered to bring the teeth along this time for the fish tanks! Patrick is pointing at a tooth that we placed in the tank.
The shrimp loved them! And I don't know that we'll ever have this many teeth again, there were at least 15. Bradley has lost his final tooth and probably Eleanor too, it's just the younger two donating teeth at this point.
Eleanor got into some pretty photography on this trip, any pictures without people in them are most likely courtesy of Eleanor. This is Diana and Bill's driveway.
Big trees and sunshine in the driveway
They were in the midst of a heatwave so we really tried to cool the house down in the mornings. It meant Juliet needed some cozy cuddles with her daddy!
Beach time! Capitola Beach is so little and it remains our favorite.
The first day we were there the younger two played in the water a bunch and the older two dipped a toe right before we were going to leave.
Patrick crashing our cute couple picture
So much digging in the sand. We love the beach.
Eleanor and I left Bradley and Nathan playing Cinco Linko while we wandered around some shops
Bill joined and played catch with Patrick
Family pic in front of the cute painted houses.
Then an obligatory ice cream store stop.
Oh Juliet
We stopped by a store as we were leaving and Patrick found a sticker that said Scott Patrick - he's famous!
Some scenic shots from Nathan's and my fancy dinner out at Shadowbrook. A tennis friend told me about this place and I couldn't believe we hadn't heard of it. It's so close to Diana and Bill's!
One of the fun things about the place is the trolly that you can take down to the restaurant
In the trolly!
It was very nice out so we had open windows at our table that was right by the water. So pretty and fancy!
Cute couple pic of the trip!
We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium the next day. It turns out that Bradley has developed quite the phobia of squid and octopuses and anything with tentacles really so it was rather a short trip through the aquarium all things considered.
We still had a lovely time though.
Patrick with his new best friend
I insisted that we stop by Seaside on the way back for some high quality Mexican food. I found a place that we all loved, I was quite proud of myself. Zero dollars were spent on ambiance and the food was delicious, it was perfect.
There were chicken nuggets on the menu but I respectfully said, "over my dead body" and the kids did really well eating tamales and we tried memelitas for the first time. They are basically thick tortillas deep fried in lard with beans and meat and a dry cheese on top. Everyone was full and happy when it was time to go.
And Nathan insisted that we stop by a roadside fruit stand. So happy!
Children were the expected amount of not interested
Ah, fresh food I have foraged!
Then we headed back for a family game night!
More beach!
Fun Eleanor story - after being at the beach for two and a half hours, Eleanor finally decides it's time to get in the water. She dips a toe in, gets a bit further in, and then decides the waves are annoying so she's going to swim out past them. It's incredibly cold in the water, she's already out past everyone else on the beach. Then she decides it might be nice to see if she could swim out as far as the pier. After a while a group of concerned citizens have gathered to watch her I come over and start yelling at her to come back in. Side note, Bill thought she wouldn't be able to hear me with how far out she was, but I am louder than the ocean. So now the group of concerned citizens knows her name and they are all hoping that Eleanor from Kansas doesn't drown at sea. I probably would have been at least a little nervous, but there was a stand up paddle board near her and I figured they would rescue her if it came down to it. They were actually quite lovely, they checked in on her a few times but Eleanor insisted on swimming back on her own. There was great joy on the beach when Eleanor made it out of the water and Eleanor was quite proud of herself. I did find out later on that she was frozen solid by the time she was getting close and she was pretty exhausted, but she knew she'd never hear the end of it if she had to be rescued so she persevered. Smart girl ... I guess? We had a talk about swimming out so far on her own and in Hawaii we discussed me accompanying her on a paddle board and her having full permission to ditch out on her swim and catch a ride back with me.
Meanwhile, Bradley decided around the same time Eleanor took to sea that he enjoyed playing in the sand. We were delighted.
Later we discovered he had decided he didn't need any sunscreen when he took off his sweatshirt and he had quite the burn. We're really hopeful the older two children will develop some survival skills any day now.
Round two of ice cream for happy children
Bradley and Bill played a few games of chess on this trip!
And we made it to fancy Gayle's Bakery for breakfast one morning, although the daily waffle breakfasts that Bill whipped up for us were pretty lovely in their own right.
Juliet got a cinnamon roll and the other three had bear claws. McLains doesn't do bear claws, this was a good choice.
Then we went to the nice playground that's really close to Bill and Diana.
I tried to talk Eleanor into climbing on the blue ball
We discussed the merits of climbing a tree and jumping over onto the ball. Patrick declared it a fine idea but a no go.
Then we went on a walk through the redwoods. Fancy scenery shot courtesy of Eleanor.
Eleanor who gave Bill heart attacks by climbing around on a fallen tree.
All the kids like climbing danger objects
Kids with aunt and uncle!
My children enjoy the redwoods because they can climb things
We thought it was going to be too warm for banana slugs but we found some - Patrick rejoined the banana slug club!
Diana did too. The rest of us gave it a hard pass, despite the cool points.
More pictures from Eleanor
Juliet had a meltdown over sibling injustices mid walk. I don't even remember what Patrick did, but I'm sure it was heinous.
More climbing
Cute walking buddies
We got a group photo courtesy of some nice people who didn't mind making silly faces at us for photos. It works on adults too.
Triumphant exit from the redwoods
A stop by Book Shop Santa Cruz
Then Thomas came and visited for the afternoon. He did some coding with Patrick
Chess with Bradley
Then some family games of 10's and 2's
We played a game of Liar and I had to work on Juliet not blabbing about what we had in our hand
Goodbye hugs
We went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and found a flex themed cyber truck
Boardwalk!
We hit up the rides, ate yummy churros, it was a good time
The first ride for the older three was the best ride. Somehow Eleanor, who does not love touching, ended up in the middle.
Nathan and I watched from the side and laughed and laughed
We discovered that they had super cheap face painting so everyone but Bradley got their face painting
Eleanor and I both had sea otter shirts on from the Monterey Bay Aquarium! One of us was more excited about matching than the other one was
You can see a little orange blob that is Patrick in this photo. Bradley is finally over this horrible ride, and I doubt Patrick does it again. He said it was cool but it also hurt his neck.
Winning arcade prizes
Nathan went with the older kids on the giant boomerang while Juliet and I shopped. Juliet was desperate to get a necklace on this trip, despite hating the feeling of a necklace rubbing against her neck. We settled on a cool pen but the memory of the necklace lives on.
We walked to the end of the pier and saw bunches and bunches of sea lions! The kids probably enjoyed this more than the aquarium. Typical.
Some scenic shots of Diana's garden courtesy of Eleanor. I really want to get her in a photography class.
Goodbye photos!
We decided to leave Sookie and Callie with my parents for the week. Usually we would just have the cats at home and my dad would come visit them but Sookie has been so much more affectionate lately and I thought she would be lonely all on her own. Also we're going to Hawaii for two weeks at the end of May and I wanted to test it out before that, to see if she would be okay at my folks' house. She was fairly nervous for a couple days but then got comfy and when I went to pick her and Callie up she was snug and happy on my dad's lap at the computer.
And we ended the month by celebrating Bradley turning 14!
