When it is hot outside...

and the pool has turn green (and is thus unusable).... it is time to blow things up! (Or so proposed Patrick)

So off we went to the grocery store to buy dry ice and another $60 some odd dollars worth of science experiment materials.  Items as benign as cabbage and flour and as exotic as paraffin wax, isopropyl alcohol and gelatin (OK maybe gelatin isn't exotic... but it certainly isn't a normal purchase for me... hmm, well I guess neither is cabbage...) Anyway, I am pretty sure after homeland security gets a copy of our shopping list we'll be on their list....

 Our first experiment was to use the dry ice with dish soap and warm water to make big bubbles that dissipated into thin air when you touched them. We tried a few different versions of it, in a small glass, big glass, coffee cup, and bowl.  No replications were made to ensure precision, however, the coffee cup appeared to create the coolest bubbles.
Next we took the last of watermelon juice and turned it into monster punch....

Then Patrick moved us outside (in the 110 degree heat..) to try to blow up some plastic bottles
There was much explosion expectancy....

But ultimately the first attempt failed to launch.  A second attempt involved Patrick filling a smaller bottle and then hurriedly lobbing it into the yard.... where no one could see what was happening.  This one did explode... and shot back toward that tree the girls are standing under and then the bottle landed (empty) at their feet.  Another attempt (not sure why we kept doing this....) resulted in a squirty bottle in the middle of the yard, and the final attempt, again with the first larger bottle, exploded ferociously and almost offed the cat. A good time was had by all :)

Later that afternoon we were blessed with a monsoon, which of course meant mud:

 And fairy garden tending fun....

Then yesterday we went over to my folk's place to watch a recorded women's soccer game (US v China) and once again watch the monsoon clouds roll in and get wet.  Although this time the wet had nothing to do with clouds, but rather with a present Mom bought for the girls... a water balloon maker/squirt gun/I don't know what (the label says three in one...) Regardless of the third use it was lots of fun for all!

Sorry....

Evie:  She kicked me!
Patrick: Izzy, say you are sorry
Izzy (petulantly): I am sooorrry
Patrick: Izzy, say sorry with your heart.
Izzy: No, I'll say sorry with my mouth.

June goodness

Father's day love from Izzy....

While it has been very, very hot June has also been filled with goodness.  Last weekend we did a lot of swimming in the pool, jumping at an indoor trampoline place and bidding on guns at a National Wild Turkey Federation event. (The last was perhaps the most unique date I have been on with Patrick.)  This weekend we play in the pool and then today celebrated father's day with waffle breakfast and a break from the heat on Mt. Lemmon, which ended with Evie off to another week at sleepaway camp, this time with 3 friends from school!

But first a few belated photos of Evie at horse camp, courtesy of her friend's Mom:

That is a real horse, his name is Spirit...and apparently is happy to be painted...

So last Saturday night Brendon and Claudia babysat their nieces while Patrick and I headed out for a night on the town at the National Wild Turkey Federation (commonly known as NWTF... I kid you not) at a downtown hotel.  The web add said that there would be fun for the whole family and "of course guns, guns, guns!"  And oh my, it did not disappoint.

We bid on a waffle maker with a stag's head imprint for each waffle (and won...score!) a lady's raffle with all sorts of pink camo (and won a pink camo hat...score!) and 27 gun safe with a mystery gun (and did not win....score!).

Pictures from the people at the zoo... the one raising her hand is Evie :)

This week Evie went to her 4th year in a row of Zoo camp.  She made a couple of new friends and enjoyed, as is usual, her time behind the scenes at the zoo.  On Thursday she came home with this bag that she made...

Then today we spent some time in the cooler clime before dropping Ms. Evie off at camp with her 3 of her friends from school (her best friend hadn't arrived by the time we left, so she isn't in the photo....)

Quick stop at Windy Point on our way up the mountain (and yes Patrick is wearing cateye sunglasses... but don't worry they are mine :)

Evie with 2 of the 3 friends she'll spend the next week with at camp!

Horsin' Around

Around January Genevieve decided what she most wanted to do this summer was attend the Horsin' Around girl scout camp where the kids get to spend most of their day learning how to ride a horse.  This camp is considerably more expensive than her usual fair, so we told her that if she could save up $100 of her allowance we would pay for the rest of the cost for her to go.  Although we have not yet collected this fee from her, she did indeed stick to her guns and raise and save the $100.  In talking to her about her week I think it was worth the multiple sad days where she couldn't just run out and get another doll with that $30 dollars she had in her piggy bank.  According to Eve, this past week she learned to trot on a horse, ride bareback, and (perhaps most exciting to her) interact with an old "retired" horse named Spirit to learn how to brush, saddle, shoe and other important horsey care items.  On their last day they even got a chance to paint Spirit... for what reason she could not explain except to say that it was a lot of fun.  I don't, unfortunately, have any pictures of her riding her horse, whose name is Dandy, but apparently a friend's mom was there so maybe I will have some pics eventually.  What I do have is this note she asked to write on Thursday night.....

Izzy also had a good week at "IST camp"  It was a bit hard for her I think to see her sister get dropped off at a place with horses while she had to go to school.  At least she didn't have to wear a uniform and had a new teacher... Mme Bouchard (Evie's usual teacher).  She came home at the end of the week with this fabulous piece of art.... 

When the sister is away...

the Izzy will play...  We just dropped Evie off for a week at residence (aka sleepaway) camp and the first thing Izzy said as she was being strapped into the car was: "Now all the toys are going to be mine!"

First Week of Summer

Just like last year we spent the first week of the summer up at the cabin on the Blue.  This year my parents were there with us as well, which made it that much easier for me to work in the mornings from the cabin.  Despite some internet issues I was actually able to accomplish quite a bit... I think this may very well become a tradition.  Patrick had work down in Tucson, so he joined us on Wednesday.  

Main activities included hanging out streamside, playing on the bag swing, a few Blue River happy hours, smores, and a fabulous day of hiking/bushwhacking just Patrick and I for our anniversary. Inspired by some friends staying upstream Patrick and Evie spent one afternoon at the stream catching crayfish.  They managed to catch over a dozen, the plan was to cook them (ewwe), but fortunately (for me at least) they all died in the bucket before Patrick got a chance. We also had a fair number of rubber ducky races, courtesy of our neighbor Peggy loaning a whole slew of rubber ducks to the girls. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to catch a little fish to look at it, and ultimately failed.

The other big event(s) were nightly campfires and smores. We had bought the makings of smores, but the girls were told they couldn't partake until he arrived.  So, no great surprise, the first thing that Izzy asked when Patrick arrived was if we could have smores....  Once Patrick was there though we had smores every night, which I think more than makes up for the two nights of "torture" where no smores were had.  Izzy, although excited about the idea of smores, actually only made it up late enough once to partake.  Patrick though made sure that she had a toasted marshmallow or a full on smore waiting for her the next morning.  It was interesting to me that she was willing to go to bed even though she had not had her sugary treat.  Almost every night around 8 pm she just proclaimed her sleepiness and after a story went to bed. On the last night Evie decided that we should do closing campfire and put together a pretty elaborate show with Izzy.  Izzy, of course, decided to go to bed before the show, making it  a mostly one-woman show.  At one point she was doing a skit about a girl and her dog, trying to play the part of both the girl and the dog, and stopped to let us know "It is much better when Izzy is here to be the dog."  Awesome.  Other skits included a pretty darn good rendition of the beginning and end of Wizard of Oz, which was called Saidie of Oz, Funny Lord of the Rings, the great reveal of the Chocolate Thief (there had been some funny business during the week involving missing chocolate bars), and the Surprise Ending, which entailed us all throwing water balloons at the fire to put it out.

On Friday afternoon we decided to leave the cabin and go canoeing on Luna Lake.  This turned out to be a least favorite activity for Ms. Isadora, who spent the entire hour on the boat clinging to Patrick's neck for dear life and commanding us to row, row, row because she was convinced that if we stopped the boat would sink. Despite her displeasure, after we were off the boat, she indicated that the canoe ride was "only a little bit of fun." She (and Evie) were rewarded for their tolerance of our aquatic activities by a trip to the Alpine candy shop.  Back on the Blue that night we went to the second of our stream side happy hours, both were a lot of fun.

New aspens emerging

On Saturday Patrick and I celebrated our anniversary early with a hike up Escudilla, lunch at the Tal Wiwi and a bushwhack up the ridge at my parent's Alpine place.  Escudilla is fascinating right now as it recovers from the 2011 fire.  There are now areas where the new aspen are 7 feet tall and just a sea of vibrant green.  The very top is still quite barren, but we made up for it with fudge we had bought the day before (Patrick had jalapeno fudge, which was quite tasty, but ultimately not for me). As seems to happen whenever we hike Escudilla, it started to rain just a bit as we were leaving and it was quite chilly as we sat down to a late lunch at the Tal Wiwi.  After a big lunch we went over to the "homestead" and did a little hike there.  On that hike we saw about 20 deer, 6 elk and some turkey... no wonder this is Patrick's favorite place to go hunting!

Sunday came all to quick and it was time to go home.  Just before leaving the girls got in one last swing by the spring....

End of the school year

Really?  I swear the school year just started...  this must be what all of those people who lectured me when I was pregnant meant when they said "Savor every moment, they grow up too fast" A smile and a nod later here I am with a soon to be 3rd grader and 2nd yr preschooler!

Izzy and her best friend.

Anyway, today was the prize giving ceremony at the girl's school.  For the first year ever we had a child in both preschool and junior school (I distinctly remember feeling sorry for "those people" who had to be there all day in the past...) which meant that we were at school for festivities from about 9:30 until 2:30 today. Even though it was a bit of a haul, it was great fun.  Izzy went first, with a cute all preschool song and a song sung by the french preschoolers.

Izzy receiving her award.

She just looks most responsible doesn't she? (or is that most skeptical... but there wasn't an award for that)

Perhaps the highlight of the day was Izzy receiving a prize for being the "most responsible" kid in the preschool.  She was super excited to go up on stage and get her envelope with a whole $10 to spend at amazon.com :)

After the preschool event we had two hours for the kids to jump like crazy in a (mercifully) indoor jumping castle and eat from a buffet of food trucks (I am amazed that such a small school could command 4 food trucks).  As you might imagine, when 1 pm rolled around and it was time for Evie's event Izzy was pretty worn out.  Izzy was, however, well fed on homemade ramen noodles so she actually fared pretty well after I found a big long pillow for her to "rest" on at my feet during the junior school performance.  The big kids also sang a song for each of the languages (all of which were surprisingly entertaining) and one very sweet all junior school song at the end.

All in all it was a fun (but exhausting) last day of school for the year!

Hooded

 

 This morning was officially the absolutely very last PhD student-y thing I will ever do.  I decided to go for the total closure on the whole thing and get my hood... and although it felt a little silly because I have been "Dr. Mott Lacroix" for an entire 4 months now :) I am glad I did it, if for no other reason than the opportunity to be on the McKale Center jumbotron....

  and this photo...

Ladybug Chorus

Picture from Evie's choir, a view from backstage, Evie is in the front row, three girls over.

Last night Genevieve had her first ever Tucson Girl's Chorus concert.  It was held downtown at the historic Temple of Music and Art and was (if I do say so myself) fabulous!  This year Evie is in the youngest preforming choir, the Ladybugs.  The preformed three songs alone and an additional 4 songs with the entire set of 7 choirs.  The cutest was their rendition of There's no business like show business, complete with choreography and the most moving was a very pretty (and complex for a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds) This is why we sing.  Dad... you would have particularly enjoyed the full choir rendition of the Beach Boys Fun, Fun, Fun :)

All choirs (although you can only see about 3/4 of the girls) singing Fun, fun, fun.  Evie is in the front row just left of the mic.

What was perhaps most exciting for me was watching Evie up on stage for the first time wholly engaged and involved in what she was doing.  Patrick says he could even hear her singing (I didn't notice this per se, but then I have a cold so that is my excuse).  A few nights before the preformance she was practicing and it literally brought tears to my eyes, both because her signing was so beautiful and to think a child of mine could possible sing :)

After the performance

Getting to the point of performance required a blocking rehearsal Friday and then an additional extra 3 hours on Saturday.  While Evie rehersed I took Izzy across the street to the Tucson Children's Museum (which of course Evie did not like the idea of her having to work while Izzy and I had fun) and then out to ice cream.  I think Izzy really enjoyed being in charge for a few hours and had a lot of fun leading me around the museum.

After the performance we all walked around through the music and people of 2nd Saturdays Downtown to the Hub to get (of course) bubble gum ice cream. Although we were out late (for the kids) until 10:30 this morning no one slept in... I guess I'd better stop blogging then and eat dinner (which Patrick is making) and get everyone to bed so it won't be (more than usual) chaos next week!

Homebodies

After multiple weekends away we have been sticking pretty close to home these past few weeks...  excitement has included Patrick dismantling the scooter, me cleaning the carpets, and Evie and I finding a treadmill on the side of the road (and it works!).  While not as exciting as road trips we have still had our highlights (and low lights).   A low light, which is becoming more of a high light the further from it I go, was Izzy's freakout (tantrum?) last weekend while I was cleaning the carpets....  I had pushed together our couches and suggested that I could build the girls a cool fort to play in while I cleaned the room.  Izzy liked the idea of a fort, but as it turns out this idea of hers was not realizable.  She got very upset when I suggested I would go get sheets for it, started crying and told me "You do not know how to build a real fort."  I asked her what a real fort might look like and she told me "I DON'T KNOW!"  Tough sitation for her, wanting a perfect fort but unable to create it.  As I tried to talk her off of the fort-building ledge she became even more angry and informed me: "You don't know how to build a real fort, all you can build are things that are flimsy flamsy." Trying not to laugh I suggested she take a break from the idea of forts.  About 1/2 hour later I suggested to her that instead I turn the two couches into a boat... this she accepted and both girls played (and watched cartoons) in the boat, not exactly happily ever after, but at least I was able to finish cleaning and not (gasp) have to pay an extra $40 for another day of the cleaner :)

A highlight this weekend was picking a whole bowlful of peaches from Evie's peach tree!  And perhaps even more exciting for the girls, spending their first Saturday afternoon in the pool.  It was, of course, still too cold for me, but they had fun. It was even so hot that today Izzy and I went down to the neighborhood splash park (again a bit to cold for me) but Izzy had fun!

Although it wasn't on a weekend, I actually spent most of last week in Portland... so I guess I am not a complete homebody