Happy end of the summer-for us that is! The kids both start back to school tomorrow. We celebrated (the end of summer that is)by visiting ComicCon on Saturday. This is a huge comic book convention which is held all over the US and involves a lot of people in costumes as well as tons of comic books! Tom and Allison were primarily interested in searching through comic books for great discounts. Tom enjoys the combined comic book collections(big books of a series of individual comic books). Tom usually reads Spiderman and Superman-the classics. Allison has been reading Spider girl and enjoys the Teen Titan series. ComicCon varies with the old classics like the Hulk, Superman and Batman, etc, but also involves Star Wars, the Xmen, Ninjas, Godzilla, KISS the Rock band, the old Archie series, McScrooge McDuck and anyone who has ever been turned into a comic book. Scott's favorite is the Nintendo series, especially Mario. So Scott and his buddy Sammy dressed up as Mario and Yoshi and were a big hit at the convention. I could not believe how many people wanted their picture taken with Mario and Yoshi. There were many adults dressed up at the convention, but not as many kids. And we only saw one other adult Yoshi(looks like a turtle) along with a baby Mario. Scott and Sammy enjoyed hunting through all the booths looking for Mario stuff and both bought stuffed Bowsers(bad guy). I was actually surprised there were not more vendors selling "stuff" like lunch boxes or other souvenirs(like boxer shorts), but I guess the emphasis really is on the comic books. We already have lots of tshirts and cups. There were also a lot of comic book writers but we did not feel like standing in long lines for autographs. My only regret is that I did not charge $5 bucks per photo of the kids like ex Illinois Governor Rob Blagovich(spelling?). I hear he charged $50 bucks per photo at the ComicCon he attended.(He has a lot of lawyers to pay off).
As if that wasn't enough activity for the day, we also were invited over to dinner at Sammy's new house. Our old neighbors(Sammy's parents) have been wanting to give us the tour of their new, incredibly large house(about the same size of my parent's lake house but maybe a bit bigger). They lived across the street from us for about 5 years. And now they have moved out towards the county fairgrounds with only about 6 houses on their street. Plenty of trees, corn fields and cows. We enjoyed our tour, especially the mini concert in their new conservatory with their baby grand and grand Steinway piano. We all had a wonderful meal of steak, salads, potatoes and boston creme and banana creme pies. Everyone left very stuffed and the kids were all worn out from their long day. The kids I think were especially tired since they all had sleepovers the night before(little emphasis on the sleep). We hosted the boys, and the Santiago family had the girls. We figured it would probably be a while before all the kids had a chance to visit again so we let them get in a lot of togetherness.
After a very busy Saturday, you would think our Sunday would be much calmer(but it wasn't). Tom left for California on an early morning flight. He arrived early enough to take my brother Mike out to dinner. Mike has been feeling a bit down since he recently interviewed for a full time librarian position at the same library where he is currently working part time. Alas he did not get the job. So he is back job hunting for a full time position. Tom will be in LA all week.
Scott had a swim birthday party to attend all afternoon, and Allison was busy once again working on her confirmation retreat presentation most of the day.
I was trying to squeeze in housework and yardwork in between drop off and pick ups. I also scrutinized Scott's book reports which are due the first week of school.
I also sent Allison out in the evening with Scott for a run since she got a scolding from her coach last week on the "need for speed". Once again our temperatures have been in the 90s making it very difficult to get out and exercise during the day, or even during the night.
Allison wrapped up her last week of morning and afternoon Field Hockey practices. On Thursday her team had a scrimmage, but Tom and I were too busy running around to get to the game. We also managed to squeeze in a few evening piano lessons. Weds night Tom went up to the school with Allison for an open house of the new renovations. Allison does not seem to have any of the new classrooms this year. They plan to be done with the remodeling by the time Allison is a senior. Monday night we were at school for the parent meeting for all athletes and to hear the low down from the Field Hockey coach. (We did a lot of eating out last week!).
Scott wrapped up his last week of summer at the Y. Not very organized and a lot less kids during the last week, but it was well worth the trip to the Baltimore National Aquarium. Scott really enjoyed the outing and can't wait to go back.
I had one of my last Dragon Boat paddle practices. I was excited to find a dragon toy at the yard sale at our YMCA on Saturday morning. It may come in handy on top of a Team Hat some day. (and all for a quarter). This dragon actually moves. And I added a gold dragon from Target for a buck. We only have one more practice left this coming week. I hope we find someone to drum for us! I also got to my aerobics class on Friday since I can use all the conditioning I can get. The race is still scheduled for Sept 11th.
So next week I will be on my own getting the kids back to school. Again, wish me luck! As if I wasn't stressed out enough. The week before at work a pipe burst during construction on the 4th floor above our out patient dept and all the water came crashing down into our waiting room along with a hot water heater. We have all been working in cramped conditions for the past week and the end does not appear in sight. Meanwhile, our full time Physical Therapist quit to move the family to Alabama with her husband(so my boss is a bit freaked out right now). Such is life in the rehab world. And another PT left to go work in the school system. I am so glad I am in high demand. But then again, it is hard to get everything done that I would like to do. At least I hung out the "Back to School" flag!
Happy New School Year!