Summer is Officially Here

So even though the calendar says it's still spring, summer doesn't wait for no calendar in this neck of the woods.  Here was our outdoor thermometer at 3:00 this afternoon.

We're pretty sure it isn't 111 degrees because it doesn't feel like 111 degrees but it is definitely a tad on the warm side.  It was hot enough that mom actually ventured into the pool today and it was quite refreshing.

Continuing to rock my new sunglasses.  A girl is never too cool for shades indoors.

We had a nice, relaxing week here.  Dad had the week off work so he and I hung out Tuesday and Wednesday doing daddy/daughter things.  He and two friends left early Thursday morning for a mountain bike race in Grand Junction Colorado so Grandma Sue and Grandpa Vern took over on Thursday.  That is always a good time!  Mom started her new schedule of longer days Monday through Thursday with Fridays off so she was home on Friday.  I didn't see her too much because I was over at Claire's house most of the day.  Apparently, she did some cleaning and grocery shopping. Who knows.

Because mom got all her "have to's" done on Friday, she and I had a quiet, relaxing weekend.  As a matter of fact, Saturday was a little on the boring side.  I'm a little limited in my activity with my cast and we  couldn't take Ginger anywhere because Dad took the dog car to Grand Junction, we weren't quite sure what to do.  We finally dragged ourselves out of the house to pick up dinner about 5:30.  On our way back, we happened to spot two women of a certain age in cotton-polyester blend, khaki capris and sensible walking shoes carrying lawn chairs to the park near our house.  Any time you see that, you know it's something good.  So we headed home and mom did a quick internet search and found out the Arizona Symphonic Winds were doing their annual summer concert series.  It is a free event that goes for several Saturday evenings at the amphitheater in the park.  We decided to pack up our water, picnic blanket and Ginger and head over to take it all in.

There was a lot of white hair but we parked ourselves in the way back, near the families with young kids and had a pretty good time of it.  Keeping Ginger under control was a bit like wrangling a two year old but at least she didn't bark and completely embarrass us.  We ended up having a pretty good time and finally made it home about 9.

We slept in on Sunday and so we didn't have a repeat of a boring day, we headed to the zoo for the morning.  It was warm but a lot of the animals were still out and we enjoyed it.

 We came home and made what will hopefully turn out to be a good S'mores cake and jumped in the pool.  Dad made it home about 4:30 all in one piece.  Apparently the bike ride was on the difficult side and I don't think it will make the schedule next year.  Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

It's My Birthday!! And Other Things About Me....

This has been an adventure packed couple of days!  When I last saw you, I had just found out I had a broken bone in my foot.  It was a small avulsion type break at the base of my little toe.  We got right in to see the pediatric orthopedist Monday afternoon.  Turns out, he is the same one I saw when I was three weeks old with a right hip click.  He checked it out to make sure it wasn't a dislocating problem.  Mom loved him then and we love him know.  He explained how the fracture happened (When kids roll their foot like I did, the peroneous brevis spasms and pulls off a part of the base of the 5th metatarsal where it attaches.  When adults roll their foot, it breaks the ankle.  In case you were wondering.)  I ended up with a cast and I got to pick the color.  It was a hard decision but I went with highliter yellow because it would be easier to see all the signatures.  I can walk on it, I only have to wear it until June 10 and I can swim in it too.  The only real bummer is that I was going to softball camp the week I get my cast off and the Dr. didn't sound too excited about me going so we had to cancel that :(.  Other than that, we are happy with the outcome.  And I'm happy to be off crutches- that was a major pain the armpit.

That little detour didn't stop any of my birthday related fun.  On Tuesday, mom brought in Otter Pops and Hawaiian leis for everyone.

This picture is a little blurry but it's hard to keep 17 nine year olds corralled long enough for a picture.

It's hard to beat Otter Pops for a good time but beat it we did.  We had our end of year class party on Thursday at the Tucson Racquet Club.  We got swim, run around, play games, eat pizza all day long.  The teachers gave each kid a special award and I got a Remarkable Reader award.  Ms. Stalkfleet said I always had a pile of books on my desk to read- and not just little skinny books but big, thick books. Mom knows that because I usually made her carry them to class for me because they didn't fit in my backpack.

It was such a fabulous day that I almost didn't mind the obnoxiously itchy cast.  Amazingly enough, it was dry by the next morning.  Perfect!

Friday was our last day of school and that was pretty great.  We cleaned out our desks and I came out with two huge back packs full of stuff.  Both are still sitting on the dining room table waiting to be gone through.  I think mom is waiting until I'm gone for a few hours because I like to hang on to a lot, ok, everything if I lay eyes on it.

Saturday was even better, if you can believe it!  My friends Claire and Lily came over for my birthday sleep over.  We decorated up the inside of the RV (AKA The Party Bus!), put some movies on, got some snacks out and headed up to Dave and Buster's in Phoenix.

Dad was our fearless driver, navigating us through the holiday traffic and picking up the bill....

After a fun filled few hours there, we headed back into Tucson.  The three of us proceeded to lock our selves in my room for most the night, only coming out to get cake-pops.

We finally got to sleep around 10:30.  (At least that's what we told mom.  She and dad went to bed at 10 and our only instructions were to be quiet.)  We did OK until someone got up to go to the bathroom at 2:30.  We then decided we couldn't sleep so we turned on the lights and kind of woke mom up.  She wasn't overly excited about that and let us know.  In hind sight, she probably could have been a little nicer but she doesn't think too clearly at 2:45 in the morning.

After everyone went home, we spent most of Sunday laying around watching movies.  It was a beautiful day outside but we were all a little tired and couldn't imagine much more than pressing play on the remote.  We did manage to eat dinner out on the patio.  It has been a unseasonably cool and pleasant May here- only 84 degrees on Sunday.  Unheard of for this time year!

After hitting the hay early on Sunday and getting a good night's sleep, we were able to properly celebrate my real birthday.  Grandma Sue came over and took us to IHOP for my favorite breakfast, then we went to see a movie AND THEN we went to Cheesecake factory for dinner.  I really wanted to go there because I love their Oreo milkshakes and I wanted to do some shopping at the mall where it is located.  Yes, me.  I wanted to do some shopping.  We headed to the Children's Place and mom turned me loose.  She was looking for summer clothes for me and I came back with this look.  I totally love it.  Mom thinks I rock the head band and sunglasses but was a little taken aback at how grown up I look.  A preview of things to come.....

To sum it all up, I had a spectacular week and I should have end of school/birthdays every month!

Well, It Was A Good Weekend.....

Oh my goodness- the end of school is so close, I can taste it!  5 more days but really we can't count even that many since my class party is all day on Thursday and Friday is a half day.  Woot woot!

We had a nice, easy week.  Nothing to exciting to report and that is good.  Dad had his off Friday and spent the morning bike riding and the afternoon relaxing.  Mom and I got home from work/school and we headed out to dinner.  Because we go out to eat at the  geriatric hour, we were done in time for dad to head out for a night ride and a beer with some of his friends.  Mom and I held down the fort and kept Ginger company.  It was all good.

I had my last game of the season on Saturday.  We lost by one run but I did OK.  I got two hit- not big home run hits but good, solid ones.  One would have been an RBI but our runner didn't step on home plate as she crossed.  Oh well- so goes our season!

Saturday night, we met my friend Simon and his parents at Playformance for a fun night until.....

Playformance is a super fun kid's gym with big foam things to climb on, walls and ropes to climb, dodge ball to play.  They are also conveniently right next door to Borderlands Brewery.  So Saturday night, they had a Parent's Night Out so Simon and I hung out there and wore ourselves out while the grown ups went next door for beer and grown up stuff.  The fun was over about 9 and the parents headed over to pick us up.  I mentioned that I had had a collision with one of the other kids and now my foot hurts.  Because I have been known to be a bit dramatic on occasion, mom told me to sleep it off and it will be better in the morning.  In mom and dad's defense, there was no swelling and I said it only hurt when I walked, not when I jumped or run.  So there's that.  But when morning came, I had a nice big bruise and swelling so off to the urgent care we went.  9 AM on a Sunday morning is a nice time to go to urgent care if you have too.  Pretty quiet.  It turns out I have a Salter-Harris Type 1 fracture of my 5th metatarsal.  So now, I am on crutches with a referral to an ortho specialist.  It's kind of a crappy time for this- our softball playoffs are next week, I have the UofA softball camp in three weeks and fun times coming up with Nana D and Mr. Walker in 4 weeks.  We'll see what the doctor says before we get too bummed....

Happy Mother's Day!

Well.   This has been a pretty spectacular day ( a pretty spectacular weekend, come to think of it) for mom but we'll get to that in a minute.

We had a pretty lowed keyed week- no softball games this week and only one practice.  Mom did have snack bar duty Tuesday night from 6-8 but that wasn't too bad.  And it saved us $200.00.  At the beginning of the season, we have to write the league a check for $200.00 and if we don't do a shift of snack bar duty, the check gets cashed.  Tough stuff!  Mom kind of likes doing that sort of stuff and she got to meet some other moms so it was all good. 

We made it through the week and mom had a girl's night out scheduled so Dad and I headed out with Uncle Brian and his kids for dinner and a little shopping.  Mom had a great time catching up with friends and I know the dad's had an equally fun night with the kids!

Everyone had a kind of late night and unfortunately, we had to get up bright and early to get to my 9AM softball game.  We did all right- lost by 1 run.  No hits for me because that's because the pitchers were not good.  It's really hard to hit home runs with the ball rolling across the plate.

Mom and I spent the day relaxing on the couch while dad was busy with Mother's day prep.  He surprised mom with a chaise lounge for poolside!  This has been missing from our backyard for forever and now mom can "watch" (read: take a nap) while I'm swimming.  Saaaweeet!

We all went to be early Saturday and slept in Sunday.  Mom went out for a run and while she was gone, dad and I were little house elves.  She came home to find the beds made, the kitchen cleaned up, the laundry done and floors vacuumed.  It was pretty spectacular.  We even managed to have breakfast waiting for her.  I convinced dad that mom REALLY wanted doughnuts for breakfast and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I have been wanting doughnuts for the past several weeks.  I was pretty positive that she would want a croissant doughnut too so that is what we got her. And since we were there, I decided we shouldn't wast the trip and got me a doughnut too.  And it was good.  And mom loved it because she can never break down and buy them for herself.

We then headed out to see Grandma Sue for a little bit and then up to the fancy mall for some shopping.  After that outing, we left mom to her lounger while dad and I went to Toys R Us to look for some new Skylanders.  We came home to find her snoring away in her lounge chair with book on her chest and drool on her chin.  Told you it was a fabulous day!

We wrapped up the evening with dad making mom's favorite chicken dish.  I told her she could watch whatever she wanted on TV for the evening like Survivor or Top Gear.  Again, just because those are my favorites had nothing to do with my suggestions.
It was a super great day all around and we hope everyone had a great day as well!

This Week in Sports

We had a pretty uneventful week this past week and that is a good thing.  It was finally warm enough to get into the pool for a bit so I donned my eye protection and got my speed boat out onto the water.  It was pretty awesome.

I had a softball game Wednesday afternoon and we weren't sure how it was going to go.  I had a huge meltdown right before the game because I think I should be a professional player and mom and dad keep telling me I have to practice more.  I don't know what this practice thing is exactly but I'm pretty sure it's not something I want to do.  Anyhoo- after a screaming, door slamming fit, I got ready for my softball game and proceeded to hit a huge home run.  It wasn't a "ball through the left fielder's legs, error" home run.  It was a real, honest to goodness,  over the head of the left fielder home run.  And there was someone on third so I got two RBIs out of it to boot.  I'm thinking practice is not the answer but throwing fits....

On Friday night, my school had our Art Expo night.  This is the night when all of our art work from the past year is on display.  It was a really cool night and mom and dad were really impressed with everyone's artistic talent.

We made these really cool silk paintings,

and a wire sculpture horse among other things.

Even though my best friend Claire and I were supposed to be docents for the evening, we spent most of it running around being goofy but it was all good.

I had another softball game Saturday night.  I was expecting big things hitting wise but our ump had other ideas.  We try not to say anything bad about the umps because they are essentially volunteering their time. But.  Our ump was about 110 years old and couldn't stand up straight or bend down so his strike zone was whatever he could see out of his one good eye.  He was calling strikes that rolled across the plate and that the catcher had to fall over to catch.  Oh well.  I did have a fairly good night in the field with two good catches at third and at second base.  We did win so that was a good thing.

On Sunday, my friends Max and Claire came over for a few hours and we Minecrafted, Skylandered and swam for the afternoon and it was good.  While the kids were busy, dad cleaned the fish tank and mom made salted caramel ice cream and brownies.  And it's dang good ice cream if she does say so.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!