Fletch Sketch: Trying to pretend like we are a fun family.

We are not going on a vacation this summer, and also, I am trying to ditch my kids as often as possible so I can study. Steve has still been working a lot (teenagers want their wisdom teeth taken out during summer vacation, go figure), and in his spare time, he has been over at our old house repainting, repainting and repainting. Not a very memorable summer for anyone. Poor kids.

Here is some evidence that we are trying.

Park visit:

Steve made green eggs (no ham).

Every Fourth of July, it has been our tradition to eat breakfast at IHOP, and every year we regret that tradition. This year we found our new tradition: The Bluebird Cafe in downtown Iowa City.

Soooooo much better than IHOP, with similar prices.

(Uh, sorry for posting this shot, Steve, but every time I tried to take a picture, you were putting food in your mouth. You should work on being more aware.)

The next day, we went to go see Despicable Me 2, and we were really disappointed. It had some funny parts, but all I really noticed was the inappropriate references to body parts. We would not recommend it.

This was taken before the movie, when the kids were still in a state of innocence (I mean, except the two who attend junior high, because--well--they attend junior high).

Last week I promised the kids I'd take them to the neighborhood pool. The one day available, we drove over, parked, walked to the pool and...sudden downpour. We waiting for fifteen minutes (the weather channel said 0% chance rain), but then the lightening and thunder started freaking us out, so we left.

The next day was sunny, so I was forced to go back. Uck, I hate the outdoors, but I guess the kids can't be holed up all summer.

I did find a small solution to my finding-some-quiet-time-to-study-each-day-yet-feeling-like-a-bad-parent-for-ignoring-my-kids problem. If we go to the pool early (at 9:00 AM) no one else comes for about two hours, and we get the pool to ourselves. I can study while the kids swim. We've done this three times in the last week so far with overall good results...although one windy day, my binder blew open and all my notes flew out. Two pages ended up in the pool, and Lincoln had to fish them out. No fear, sympathetic readers, next time I will bring a clip board--problem solved. I feel like a big time problem-solver this week.

Laura was at girls camp this week, and Steve recruited Lincoln to help at the old house, so one afternoon I took my little two and put them in a torture chamber, just like the one in The Phantom of the Opera, only it was disappointing. No iron tree, no heat.