Tiny Fell Off Her Bed and Bashed Her Face

Tiny was in bed one day, and we heard a loud crash. Then Tiny cried and cried, inconsolable. We weren't sure what had happened until the next morning, when we saw the bruise line on her right cheek. She had somehow fallen out of her bed (the lowered crib with one side removed) and hit her face on the frame of the extra bed next to it. That whole side of her face swelled up. She looked so messed up. We actually discussed the possibility of a fracture in her face, and I wondered if I should take her in. Instead, we packed and took off for Mammoth that next afternoon. Once she finally calmed down after it happened, she never complained about pain, and her face seems to have healed just fine.

Father's Day

In accordance with our tradition, we didn't really do anything for Father's Day. I believe I made Jim's favorite pasta dish for dinner, and Ever gave him a mug she made at activity days.

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I know she just forgot the "n" in "outstanding" for no. 5, but I like to think of the middle syllable as "stud."

She was very proud of the mug she painted for him because she used his favorite color, orange.  

Courtney once said, "Jim is one of the few men who listens, appreciates, and modifies." I thought that was such a nice compliment, and so true. He always wants to make sure I'm happy. He used to check in regularly: "Are you happy? What can I do? Is there anything that I can do better?" He is so loving, supportive, generous, tender, funny, and forgiving, and he puts his family above all else (even himself). I am so grateful for him and could not have asked for a more wonderful husband or a better father for my children.

Favorite Books, Swimming, Typing, New Shower, Enjoying Nature, and S'mores

I asked Wrenzy what her favorite book was, and she answered in a funny voice.

We were reading James and the Giant Peach at the time and had just finished George's Marvellous Medicine before that. So apparently her favorite books are the ones most recently read.

The week school got out, Cikaneks' pool was warm enough for us to start swimming in. The girls got in twice that week. Scott rigged the slide from the playset up onto the palm tree next to the pool, which was a little sketchy but fun.

Wrenzy shooting her water gun while Scott threw her:

Those first couple times, I put Tiny in her floaty so I didn't have to get in. Soon I learned that she was capable of going in all by herself sans floaty (staying near the side of the pool).

The girls also swam at Leela and Rafi's. 

As soon as school got out, Ever begged to learn typing. I googled typing programs for kids, and for a few (several?) days, she was obsessed with typing.

Jim finished our shower and took it for its maiden voyage. Although it felt weird to take pictures of him in the shower, I thought it had to be done. It looks beautiful, and he was so very happy to finish it.

Sunday afternoon, Tiny opened the french doors and planted herself just inside them. She said, "Mom, I'm jut enjoying the beautiful outside. It's so beautiful."

Jim made a fire (in June, but fires are justified anytime it's cloudy, right?), and the girls enjoyed s'mores on chocolate graham crackers.

When Tiny Stuck Something Up Her Nose

While Ever was at her last day of school, Tiny disappeared upstairs for a long time. Eventually I went to check on her and found her like this, going through book after book:

A while later, she came down complaining that her nose hurt. I had a hard time understanding what was going on. She told me she put something in it. I asked her what. She said it was something from the crib. I asked her to show me. She took me upstairs and pointed to a screw hole. I didn't see anything there. She pointed to a different screw hole. I did not know what was going on. At one point she said it was feeling better. Then she complained again that it hurt. The whole discussion was very confusing, and what she was saying didn't totally make sense. I finally figured out, however, that she had, indeed, shoved something up her nose, and it was still there. Fortunately I was able to get it out without much difficulty. It was this oddly shaped little piece of wood:

That was the first time any one of my kids ever stuck something up her nose, and I hope it was the last. Silly Tiny.

Three-Piggy Opera and Other End-of-School-Year Stuff

On June 8, the first-graders performed The Three-Piggy Opera. Ever was a narrator, which was the role she'd wanted. Video quality is terrible because of my phone, but I'm saving some highlights for posterity.

She had a number of lines, but they were pretty much just one or two at a time.

Months later, we're still singing at home, "No way, no way, no-o-o-o way! No way will I let you in."

Post-show shot with the sisters:

The littles and I hung out outside (and tried on Ever's cowboy hat) while we waited for her to finish up.

Also for posterity, I'd like to record Ever's first-grade memory book.

People describe her as smart.

She played tetherball (apparently at school they call it "handball") pretty much every recess for the entire school year. 

Favorite song: "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky. Favorite movie: Home Alone. Favorite place: Hawai'i. She was also into Encyclopedia Brown at the time.

Last day of school, June 13:

Wrenzy helped me make a last-day-of-school treat. Then she treated me to the cutest little dance.

The girls and I had a slumber party that night, complete with a viewing of the old Pippi Longstocking (Swedish, dubbed in English), which was so much better than the '80s remake. They loved it, although they still claim to like the '80s version better.

We got the festivities started really late, so it was an incredibly late night. I read to the girls for a long time. The idea was for them to listen from their beds, but Wren was too interested - and too concerned about missing any pictures - to lie down.

I finally invited her to join me on the couch while we read.

I believe we ate cinnamon rolls the next morning. Can't remember why we had them.

I have a picture of the girls watching that same Pippi again two days later, on June 15. Possibly we were just watching a clip with the theme song? In any case, the fact is that the girls became SUPER Pippi-obsessed.

And  that was our summer kick-off.

Girl Scouts Camping Trip and Bridging Ceremony

The first weekend in June, Ever's troop went on their last camping trip as Daisies. I didn't go, but Marin (one of the leaders) sent a few pictures.

Then Marin and Sara planned a really wonderful bridging ceremony for June 8, where the girls "bridged" from Daisies to Brownies. It started off with a talk by a ranger, who let the girls touch her snake. I was pleased that all of my creature-phobic girls were brave enough to touch it.

The kids could have played all day on the bars by the bridge. It was all we could do to get them off the bars and over to the bridge for the ceremonial walk.

When it was her turn, Ever took a really long time to walk across the bridge, and when she finally did, she was holding hands with another girl. I wasn't sure what happened and thought maybe she was helping the other girl, who I think was pretty new. Turned out Ever was just nervous. They did some sort of pledge at the end, but I couldn't hear anything.

Back in the picnic area, the girls did a little skit about becoming Brownies.

It took them a while to get their hands all set up for this:

They said the pledge and did a few more cute things.

It was all very lovely, and Marin and Sara did an amazing job. They put in so much work.

After everything was over, Anna and I had a brief chat with Sara about cookies. She'd sent out e-mails the night before telling some of us that we owed money for cookie sales. Cookie season had been over for months, and she sat on the accounting forever. Sara said I owed $124, and Anna owed $56. That meant our combined balance equaled exactly 36 boxes of cookies - three entire cardboard boxes (they come a dozen packages of cookies to a box). Anna and I had pretty much pooled our cookies, and Ever and Leela did all their door-to-door sales together. I tried to keep careful track and make sure we collected money for every box sold. (Sales at Jim's office were confusing since his nurse took around an order form and collected money over a period of time). Anna was meticulous. We knew we had not stolen cookies or embezzled money. (I also realized later that I had made sure that the total amount of money I turned in exceeded the value of the cookies we sold [since we got some donations].) We had no idea how Sara had figured out our balances or how she had known what to attribute to me and what to attribute to Anna. I paid the entire $180 Sara thought we owed collectively, figuring that if anyone had messed up, I had. I told Sara, though, that if she told me I was off $5 or $10, I would've believed it, but I certainly didn't sell that many cookies and not collect money for them. Anna was not pleased about how it was all handled, and we were both bewildered. Nevertheless, during our unproductive discussion about cookies, wherein Sara just said, "I don't know what to tell you; the math all worked out," the girls enjoyed the playground equipment. I had a heck of a time getting them out of there.

Fast forward to August, when Anna figured out why Sara thought we had underpaid. She found a text exchange between her and Sara detailing the exact cookies we returned at the end, when we decided we wouldn't do any more door-to-door sales. I remembered taking all our extra cookies to a troop meeting and setting them on the side of the room. I asked Sara if I needed a receipt, and she said no, she had Anna's text. Leela and Ever weren't credited for all those cookies we returned. I have no idea how in the world Sara worked out the accounting. It's all very confusing. She ended up not being able to be at the meeting at the beginning of this month (September) when we explained to Marin what happened and showed her the texts. Marin believes our account and thinks we should get our money back, but I haven't heard anything further. In any case, Sara has a full-time job with the Girl Scouts now and can't be in charge of cookie money, and Anna and I volunteered to be the cookie people this year. I hope we can avoid anything screwy. It is really hard to keep track of everything, and I don't think Sara stole money. Somehow, though, she messed things up.