Another Soccer Season (With Movie!)

This morning was the first game of Sam's fall soccer season. We were disappointed this year that Sam's coach from last year moved on to a league in Dublin - he was really excellent and taught Sam a lot of ball handling skills last year. But this year's coach is fine, just a little different that last year. And the games are longer now, with more focus on player positions (at least offense and defense) as opposed to everybody going after the ball all the time.

Sam had a great game today - probably one of his best to date. He has been playing fall and spring seasons for 3 years now (this is his 4th), and it is really starting to show. Our team won 14-0, and Sam scored 7 of those goals. And he played defense without an opportunity to score for half the time he was in the game. The coach likes to focus on passing to other players, but Sam was not a ball hog - during the last half of the 4th quarter no one on his team even went to the goal to try to get the ball - Sam had no one to pass to. And yes, we did feel bad for the other team, but we have been on the receiving end of a game this one sided before too.

The movie shows one of his goals in the first half today - the little boy in the green shirt is really part of the blue team. And Sam is in red - #4.

Jonas Brothers Concert!

Last night Ben and I took Maria and her good friend Lily to the Jonas Brothers concert at Nationwide Arena. We had gotten Maria the tickets for her birthday in May. I ordered four tickets, in case Sam wanted to go, but he didn't want to at all, so Maria was able to take a friend which ended up being much more fun for her.

Maria doesn't tend to like every tween band that comes along. In fact, she dislikes Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus, whatever) a lot and is resentful when people assume she should be a fan just because she's a young girl. But she likes the Jonas Brothers. And truthfully, they are pretty cute - I would have liked them at her age. So surprising her with tickets was awesome. But it has been along wait for the concert date to get here. And on a school night was not the best timing, but we made it work. Ben was even flexible by ending band early (of course we are still a month away from the first contest!)

The girls had a blast. They were a little bored with the 2 opening acts - the concert started at 7:00 but the Jonas Brothers did not get on stage until 8:20. And the screaming, my god, the screaming. Unbelievable. Some kids at school had warned Ben the screaming would be bad and so he had ear plugs to wear. I did not, but I survived. Once the Jonas Brothers came on stage the music mostly drowned out the screaming, but between opening acts and the main act the teens and tween screaming was just insane. Maria and Lily had their hands over their ears!

Both girls really enjoyed themselves. It was the first concert for each of them, and I think they were in awe of the size of the crowd, and all of the stage tricks and laser lights. There was only one song they didn't know. And Ben and I actually enjoyed the it too - once the Jonas Brothers got on stage it was a pretty cool show. And several times Maria would lean over and thank us for bringing them and say, "This is the best birthday present ever."

We got home at 11:00, and Lily's Dad was here to pick up Lily and sister Paige (who had babysat Sam for us). Maria got in bed by about 11:15, Ben and I at midnight. We were all exhausted this morning - the first week of school is so busy and such a shock to begin with, let alone having the concert on the first day of school. But it was so worth it - Maria will probably remember it forever.

*The pictures were taken with Ben's Blackberry - which did a really decent job for being a phone, but not quite as zoomed in as it would have been with a camera. And there is a great picture of Maria and Lily in their seats, but it's still on Ben's phone and I can't add it until he returns tonight.

First Day of School

It's hard to believe, but school started yesterday. Each year, the summer flies by more quickly that the last year. And we really did have an awesome summer.

But now it's time to return to reality. Tuesday night was "Back to School" night for both kids - Ben went with Maria to her 5th grade classroom and I went with Sam to his 1st grade room. Sam found that he was seated next to friend Gage, and on his other side was a little boy that he went to a sitter with when he was 2 and 3 years old but hasn't seen since. Needless to say, Sam didn't remember Dominick or his Mom (who was the sitter), but it was just weird that they ended up next to each other. Anyway, Sam and I completed his scavenger hunt, put his things away in his cubby, briefly spoke to his teacher, and left. Sam was very disappointed that of the five good friends he made in kindergarten last year, not one of them were in his class. And it seemed that put him in a bad mood the rest of the evening - he was a grouch both Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. I can't really blame him - he just didn't want to go back to school.

Maria did well in her classroom too. They got to pick out seats, and many of her friends are in her class. Fifth grade is in the elementary (instead of the middle school) this year, and so there will be some challenges as everyone figures out how that will work. For example, the students go to their "Specials" first thing in the morning at the middle school, and then walk over to the elementary at the end of first period. Their "special" teachers are middle school teachers rather than elementary teachers, so it is a little weird. And we're hoping for the best when Ben has to travel to the elementary school to teach band every day starting next month.

After their first day, both ids said they had a good day. Maria (and friend Lily) most enjoyed their gym teacher (Mr. Geer), which surprised me, and otherwise didn't have too much to tell us other than who sits by whom. The girls talked a lot on the way home from the concert - it was fun.

Sam said he had a good day, but I didn't get much more information than that out of him. He likes his teacher, and he did find that friend Reed is in his class, so one kindergarten buddy is there. I am hoping to get more information in the next few days. I also didn't get a chance to see Sam much last night because we had the Jonas Brothers concert (see next post).

Homemade Ice Cream

Many months ago (maybe years) Maria mentioned she thought it would be really cool to have an ice cream maker. So I told her we have one. This was a surprise to her, since I got it for my 31st birthday (she was 2 at the time) and used it exactly once. It just seemed like a lot of work and with little kids around, it just never sounded like a fun thing to do. After a while, I forgot I had it.

So at one point I promised Maria that we would take out (find) the ice cream maker, dust it off, and make some ice cream. Of course, I never did. I was feeling bad about my empty "Sometime" answer, so I recently told her we would do it sometime this summer. I always make this stupid promise, because during the school year, the summer always seems like an endless, perfect time, and if summer would just hurry up and get here I would promise to do just about anything.

But of course, I had forgotten about the ice cream maker. Until Saturday when Ben and I were killing time at the mall and Williams Sonoma had cans of "Ice Cream Starter" in the window. You only need to add Half and Half and Heavy Cream and drop the mixture into the ice cream machine. Could it be? A way to keep the promise to Maria with as little effort as possible? Perfect! Sign me up! I bought it without even checking the price. I will be a good mother! I will keep the ice cream promise!

Tuesday was a blah day. Rainy, and we had to go to school in the morning for Sam's reading assessment. Ben was gone at a middle school retreat all day. In the car on the way to school, Sam says, "So, what are we going to do today?" which usually makes me crazy, but not Tuesday. I said, "Let's make some home-made ice cream." Cheers from the back seat. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, I have to admit.

On the way home from school, I told the kids I would dig out the ice cream machine and clean it up, then we would make some right after lunch. I found the machine in the basement, brought it upstairs and cleaned it out. Then I realized even though it's a very simple machine, I still had no memory of how to run the thing. And the idea of trying to find the directions in our "Black Box" of instruction manuals of any appliance we have ever owned seemed daunting.

But we have the Internet! I downloaded the manual fairly easily and was once again pretty pleased with myself for getting this project in motion. Then I ran into the first road block. The main part of the ice cream machine needs to be frozen. (O.K., it makes sense, but I am not ashamed to admit that I had not thought of that yet.) And guess what? It takes anywhere from 6-24 hours to freeze. Either lunch was going to be at 5:00, or we were not going to be making ice cream right after lunch. So I put the ice cream bin in the back of the freezer, hoping to make it freeze as fast as possible, and then told the kids it looked more like a mid to late afternoon project.

They took the news well, since ice cream was still in their near future, and we had lunch. Meanwhile, I read in the instructions that once you couldn't hear the water inside the insulated bin swishing around, it was good to go. So around 3:00 I checked, and there was no swishing, I'm certain of it. It was short of the 6-24 hours (only about 4 hours), but I heard no swishing. And the kids were really bored. So we made the recipe and poured it into the machine. After it had ran for 30 minutes, the ice cream was still very runny, but since that was the longest the machine supposedly needs, we poured our runny ice cream into a container and put it in the freezer. Slight disappointment, but we were holing out hope we would have ice cream for dessert at dinner.

That didn't happen. "Maybe for an evening snack" I told them. And sure enough, by about 8:00 it was edible. And actually very good. Ben and Maria especially like it - it's a little too rich for me and Sam just gets tired of ice cream easily.

Tonight, we made the second batch. The ice cream bin has been in the freezer since the first batch. And tonight it was way better. So creamy, so rich. We ate some right out of the machine without having to put it in the freezer first. Now we know the bin was just not cold enough the first time.

And since you can never have too much of a good thing, we started wondering if the vanilla ice cream starter is as good as the chocolate. We should buy some and try it! We should make some for Sam's birthday party! We should order it online right now because summer is almost over and they might run out before we get to a mall with a Williams Sonoma again!

And guess what? It's back ordered until September 29, which is after Sam's party. So either I suck it up and put more work into an ice cream recipe from scratch, or we get to a mall soon. Or we give up the idea all together. Who knows? We'll probably forget all about it when we go back to school.

Summer Wrap-Up

As I was putting Sam's name on all of his school supplies a few minutes ago, it occurred to me that summer is really over. One three day weekend stands between us and the beginning of another 9 months of work, crazy schedules, and other obligations. And as usual, it's time. We need structure, and the kids need something worthwhile to do. It's exhausting trying to keep them busy, and even though they do spend quite a bit of time entertaining themselves, I struggle with guilt about not planning enriching activities more often. I'm pretty sure most mothers of my generation feel this way, but that is the topic for another blog post. Today, I'll review some of the fun things we did this summer, which will make me, at least, feel better about having to head back to school. So here it is, the Keller Summer 2009:

*We took 2 very wonderful but very different vacations. First to Disney World with the Smiths, then to Kiawah Island with Ben's parents. Disney was crazy and exhausting but such fun, and Kiawah was relaxing with pool, biking, and beach, but also a blast.

*Maria survived her first year at sleep-away 4-H camp. Survive is probably not the best verb to use, since she loved it and can't wait to go back again next year.

*Sam played another season of T-ball, and was one of the stronger members on his team.

*Maria participated in Union County Junior Golf Academy and Tour, and was also one of the strongest girls in her age group. Unfortunately, Ben also had to go along on these 9 hole outings, and while he enjoyed helping Maria, he did not enjoy the other parents and their lack of golf etiquette.

*Ben and I celebrated 15 years of marriage on June 25, although waited for our official anniversary dinner until we were at Kiawah.

*The whole family went to Miami's Alumni weekend, where Ben and I renewed our wedding vows (with over 1000 other couples) and after the BBQ the 4 of us slept in a dorm room, which was surprisingly fun.

*We took advantage of local festivities as well, attending a Columbus Symphony Popcorn Pops concert and a Columbus Clippers baseball game.

*Saw fireworks on the 4th of July at Kiawah Island, then watched the New York City fireworks on TV (in Ashville, N.Carolina) where our Miami classmate Steve Reineke directed the New York Pops.

*Hosted Ben's annual birthday party with 68 adults and kids in attendance this year.

*Maria took a photography project to the fair this year, and won an Outstanding award for her category.

*We all went to the fair with the Smiths, ate some fair booth food and rode the rides there.

*The kids and I spent the night with the Nesters in Akron and then two nights with my parents, where the kids swam (briefly) in Lake Erie and also went to the Great Lakes Science Center.

*Went on many bike rides as a family or in smaller groups - usually for several miles.

*We had a few bonfires with the Smiths - with hot dogs, S'mores, drinks, and the kids have discovered how much fun it is to play Hide and Seek in the dark.

*Ben took the kids to the pool at least once a week. They spent almost all of their time there jumping from the diving board.

*We have had a few lunch picnics in the park.

*I've seen more movies this summer than I have since the summer between my senior year of high school and freshman year of college, and most of them have been in 3-D.

*Ben ran in his first half marathon, recording a time of 1:50:58.

*Wednesday Ben and I are taking Maria and her friend Lily to the Jonas Brothers Concert in Columbus. It will be Maria's first concert and she is so excited!

*And as usual, we will end the summer Labor Day weekend near Toledo at the Stullers', where we will swim, play, and camp out at their pond.

It seems like a lot, but still Sam says each day, sometimes even when we have just returned from an outing, "So, what our we going to do today?"

Ben's First Half Marathon

Ben ran his first half marathon today - 13.1 miles - in 1:50:16. His goal was to break 2 hours and so he easily accomplished that. The kids, Ben's parents and I went to watch him cross the finish line - the first one we've been able to attend - and we were sweating just standing there. I can't imagine how difficult it was to run in that heat! Ben said it was a nice run - a lot of it was through a park, and shaded, and he had a good time. I still can't believe he didn't even start running until February, just 6 months ago. We're so proud of him!

Dugo ran the race with Ben, and although he started off faster, he had a rougher time and finished in 2:09. But we stayed to cheer him on as well and got to see Andrea and Elliott too.

Zoo

Yesterday we went to the zoo. We get a pass every year, but never made it for a visit last summer. This year they have a new baby elephant, born in May, so that was the first thing we wanted to see. And since we got there early, we only had to wait 15-20 minutes, instead of the usual hour or longer that most people have to wait.

The kids had fun (we thought they might be bored), and the weather was beautiful, but by about 1:00 they were ready to go home- especially Sam, who hadn't been happy since lunch. He's so moody lately - we're assuming it's all of his allergy medication or his allergies in general that is making him so unhappy. And hoping it doesn't last much longer - I hate to see him suffer.

Each kid had a favorite that they wanted to go see - for Maria it was the aquarium, and for Sam it was the alligators. We also saw the gorillas and monkeys (most of whom were napping), and went to the fairly new Australia exhibit and watched the kangaroos (also napping) and koalas (you guessed it - napping). And you can't go to the zoo without riding the carousel, which was how we ended our trip. And then we came home, since watching all of those animals napping made me want to nap too.

Allergy Relief

Unfortunately, Sam has inherited Ben's hay fever allergies. We noticed it last year, but over-the-counter medication seemed to do the trick. This year, he's been taking Claritin since the spring, and having that pill each morning was enough for the spring and most of the summer. Lately, though, he has been really stuffed up. He has trouble getting to sleep at night, and is constantly sniffing and sneezing, even while on the Claritin. Last week I called the Dr.'s office and they gave us a sample of a nasal spray to try. That helped immediately, but the effect seemed to wear off quickly. The last two days he has so much congestion that his voice was hoarse as well. And he was very grouchy yesterday, which I'm assuming was because he feels so bad.

So yesterday Ben took him to the Dr. office to see if there was anything else they could do. And they came home with a variety of drugs. Now Sam takes an oral steroid twice a day, 24 hour Zyrtec once a day, continues using the nasal spray, and he has eye drops in case the itchiness in his eyes gets bad. The bad news - everything tastes horrible, and he actually liked the taste of the Claritin (they're chewable tablets). The steroid was so bad (it's a liquid) that we had to get a puke bowl because he kept gagging, even several minutes after he swallowed it, but he kept it down in the end. So getting him to take it is difficult. The good news - the drugs seem to be working. He just started them last night, but when he got up this morning he was only slightly stuffed up and his voice is back to normal.

I hate to have him on so many drugs, but if they're helping it's worth it. It's rough for him as the reality of feeling like this every summer/fall is starting to sink in. He was so hopeful last week that this was a cold (which I thought it might be), which would mean that it would go away in several days. But when Ben came home from camp he said he had been having a bad time with his allergies, too, so then we knew it was probably the reason Sam felt so bad. The Dr. confirmed yesterday that everything else looks good - throat, ears, etc., so allergies have to be the problem. And Sam is a question kid lately - so the "Why me?" happens every so often - Maria has been spared the allergy problem so far and he wants to know why. And he's too young to really understand that while allergies are inconvenient, they're not the end of the world - a lot of people have much more serious problems. But hopefully if the medicines continue to work he will forget about it go on to worry about more pressing issues - like school starting in 2 weeks!

The Legos are Conquered, For Now

We have a lot of Legos in this house. A LOT. Between Sam, Maria, and even Ben's old sets, we have tens of thousands of those little pieces, in every color and shape available. Over the past few years, we would run out of room for the completed sets in the kids' rooms and have to put them downstairs, where they sometimes fell victim to other children tearing them apart. This was a huge problem at Ben's birthday party where lots of little kids took many of the big sets apart, and none of us noticed until the next day. Sam and Maria were a little upset, but we reminded them that they never played with those sets anymore and they could always rebuild - that's the point of Legos, right? And we promised we would figure out some way of organizing the mess, so when they want to rebuild they can actually find the pieces they need. So here's where the Legos were 48 hours ago:

Lots in a huge container in Sam's room:

And the huge mess in the basement (this exclude all of the ones all over the floor down there as well):


There are also a ton in a play cloth in Sam's room that he didn't want sorted yet, and he has about 10 sets in his bookcase that have not been taken apart.

So we went to the Container Store at Easton on Saturday and went up and down each aisle until we found what we needed (and they were on sale, too). Lots of drawers of different sizes in which to sort the Legos by color, then by size. In addition to sorting, we also had to take each piece apart, because even though they look like they're in pieces, most are still attached to others in some way. The four of us spent over 2 hours sorting on Saturday night - Ben worked continuously, the kids took a break for a new iCarly movie, and I got a workout in during that time. But when we finished for the night, Maria spent another half hour downstairs taking apart the Legos down there. She was so obsessed we had a hard time getting her to quit to go to bed. Here is what our system looked like Saturday night:


Sunday morning, Maria was up before 8:00 and working in the basement. She worked all morning and into the afternoon. Sam helped sporadically, and I helped when I was done cleaning the house. For about an hour after lunch all four of us sorted. And by about 2:00, we were done. Each color has its own big drawer and small drawer, and there are also drawers for the mini-figs, wheels, and other special parts. We also found out we don't have quite enough drawers and need to get back to container store to get a few more before the project is complete. We decided the Legos would be easier to use if they were upstairs for now, and so we cleared off the craft table and set up our system next to the table. And here's the almost complete project:



We still have to get rid of that orange shoe box, which is holding unique pieces that go with specific sets, and hope to have the entire project done after we go back to Easton this weekend to get a few more drawers.

I am mostly happy it's done, but I was hoping it would take a few days at least, to give the kids something to do. But we finished it in 24 hours. Which means soon Sam will get up and ask that question he asks EVERY day (even when we return from an outing): So, what are we going to do today?

Random Updates

Here's what's been going on around here the past few days:

Ben finished band camp and came home last night. We are all very happy to have him back, although other than the flat tire Wednesday, our time without him was easier than ever before. The kids are so good, and other than a disagreement about who got to sleep on the inside of the double bed at Mom and Dad's (which I solved with a coin toss), they didn't argue at all.

Sam's allergies have been getting worse, and he was really suffering by Thursday. I called the Dr. and they gave us a sample of a nasal spray to try - so now he takes 24 hour Claritin and the nasal spray, which we trying to space apart every 12 hours. It's helping more but he still sneezes and sniffs quite a lot.

The kids got their teacher letters this week - Maria has Mr. Fillman, and Sam has Mrs. Dulle. Ben and I are pleased, but neither child got their first choice. They both have found that they have at least one friend in their class, though, and probably more - we just haven't run into very many people to ask yet.

Maria will be taking her good friend Lily to the Jonas Brothers concert in a couple of weeks - we originally got 4 tickets but Sam flat out refused to go (if we had only gotten three tickets, then he would have wanted to go, I'm sure). So Maria got to ask a friend, but I was concerned that some parents would not want their child to go to a concert on the evening of the first day of school. But Ben talked to Lily's Mom at camp (Lily's older sister is in band), and she said it was fine and that she probably wouldn't let her go with anyone but us, which was a nice compliment. So Paige, Lily's older sister and our sometime babysitter, will stay with Sam while Lily goes with us to the concert, and everyone's happy.

We went to the new Lego store at Easton today - we've only ever gone to Lego stores in Florida and Chicago before this, so it was a treat. We let each kid buy a small bin of assorted bricks that they got to pick, and did some looking for Sam's birthday - he decided he wanted a Lego theme for his party and we are having to do it ourselves - there is no pre-made older kid Lego theme that we can find anywhere. We also went to the Container Store and found some drawers to use to organize the huge amount of Legos the kids have collected over the years, and I think this project may keep us busy during the next two weeks until school starts. We all spent a few hours working tonight and Maria just did not want to quit to go to bed. When we're done, I'll write a post including before and after pictures, but it may be a few weeks!

Road Trip

The last few days the kids and I have been traveling by ourselves while Ben has been at band camp. Sunday we went to Elise's to visit with her, Mark (almost 6), and Elizabeth (2). The three older kids got along pretty well and had a good time playing at their house and walking at the boardwalk at the Cuyahoga park. Elise and I had a great time catching up.

Monday morning we left Elise's and went to my parent's house. That afternoon Mom and I took the kids to Geneva on the Lake, where we played mini-golf, bumper boats, and let the kids swim in the lake for a little bit. I think they were a little surprised at how rocky the beach was, despite my warnings. They've only been to the ocean, and the lake shore is much different. But Maria enjoyed skipping rocks and both kids collected rocks - Sam even found a fish tooth.

Tuesday we all went to the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland. It was much smaller than COSI, but they had lots of displays for the kids to participate with. Grandma and Grandpa bought them each something at the gift shop - Sam's gift is a remote control flying saucer that is a little unpredictable in its movements, but he loves it. Maria got some "Mystery Marbles" and a little snake toy.

The kids also enjoyed riding their bikes around the circle in my parent's neighborhood - they got to go by themselves and I think they really liked being on their own.

Today we came home, but our usually easy trip was not easy today. The front left tire on the van went flat between Mansfield and Delaware, and I tried to wait to get off at an exit but it just lost air too quickly. So I pulled over and planned to call AAA but a car pulled in behind me, and two respectable looking men offered to change it for me. So once we found the spare (Honda hides them pretty well) they got started and a Highway Patrolman pulled in behind us. Surprisingly, the kids were most alarmed by the appearance of the "police" - "Oh no, the police are here." I think they thought we would be in trouble for being on the side of the road. Anyway, I assured them this was a good thing, explained to the patrolman what was going on, and the two of us stood there and watched the two men change my tire (the kids stayed in the car). When they finished we all left, but I could only drive 55-60 miles per hour so it was slow going after that.

We stopped to visit Ben for just a few minutes, so that we could stop at Honda on the way home. We replaced both front tires - it was time. Unfortunately, they were more expensive than we were expecting, but that's how it usually goes. We finally arrived home a little before 4:00, a mere 6 hours after we left my parents' house. But we're glad to be home, and up until the flat tire, we had a great trip. Today wasn't really that great.