Wednesday, June 18, 2025

May

Apparently, very little happened in May. The school year ended. Rory got the physical fitness award for his grade and both boys made the honor roll. Silas had his first middle school playdate at Turner's pool. We had a summer kick-off water war with the Brouceks. Logan finally got his bunny. The boys and I started a running club where we progressively added minutes each morning. We made it to Rory's birthday and were all happy to stop. Our neighborhood is very hilly. I mostly worked on the house like a maniac and got the boys rooms "done" for the 2nd time and sanded and repainted all but 4 doors. Fingers crossed I finish the rest and all the trim before summer concludes.

 


 

Sunday, June 15, 2025

8

We had an Inbestigators party to celebrate Rory turning 8. It pretty much allowed me to use all the more fun parts of my CSI unit and cram them into one investigator training session. I did get asked "Is this all the party is?" during my lesson so potentially they were not as fun as I thought. The kids learned how to process a crime scene, find and collect evidence, fingerprint, analyze footwear impressions and handwriting samples, and interview suspects. Then they got deemed junior detectives and received their Inbestigator notebooks. That was a wrap on the fanfare and we ate pizza until by coincidence one of the party guests decided to be a prankster and made our poor Nox into a party animal by dying him orange with pompoms and ponytails. The kids then got to put their skills to the test by collecting evidence to identify the culprit. Did they apply said skills? Hardly. Did they use the suspect board, notebooks, or any of the tools provided? They did not. Did they have fun pointing fingers and accusing everyone in the room? I think they did. In the end they did match the shoe print to 2 possible suspects. We used chromatography to wrap up the case and reveal that it was Mr. Roebke's pen that wrote the "Party Animal" note. I was nervous how it would all play out, but I am calling it a success. It was fun having my folks in attendance. Dad played they perfect baddie. Another noteworthy moment in the evening was when the remote control eagle Meemaw got as a gift was flown onto the neighbor's roof. It was recovered and has now subsequently spent several days in a tree. Fun times.