Adventures on Campus

Nick spends his entire day in this room.  Every single one of his classes takes place here.  But Nick is a champion with inner stillness to spare and when class is over he continues to sit in this room studying for a couple of hours until I come to pick him up with the kids I hang out with.

Nick -- passing along the wisdom he gained in this room just hours earlier.

And drawing a portrait of Roz.  It’s uncanny his ability to capture the small girl with dry erase. 

You can push a button at your seat which activates a microphone, and the camera turns on you.

I thought this was really interesting, so I was trying to take a picture of myself in the video picture.  There I am down there in the lower left.  Well, the more I tried to get in the picture the more the camera moved until finally I stated “it’s like someone is moving the camera.”  A loud voice came over the speakers “I AM.”

Nick seemed un-phased – perhaps he spends so much time in the room it speaks to him.  But no, there’s an AV tech that thought I looked suspicious.  So we stopped in to let him know that we’re cool.  It was 6:21.

And then we took the elevator to the second floor.

Where Nick used to work in a research lab.

And then proceeded up the stairs to the third floor.

We discovered a dead end stairwell and then headed back down.  The boys took the stairs, the ladies the elevator, and we all met back in the lobby to get our pictures with the deans.  Yes.  Hello, Deans

Then we headed out this hallway behind me.

And back to the van.  What an adventure.

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But these adventures happen all the time, so here is another.  This time: a trip to the bell tower that turned into much more than a mere trip to the bell tower. 

We’re off to a good start:

She popped right up and we arrived at the tower:

This tower has a Carolina blue tile ceiling.  It is Roz approved.

I then convinced Nick that dinner out was brilliant and we headed over to Wendy’s…

…via the entirely unnecessary escalator trip.  Well, it is not unnecessary if you’ve a few 2 and 3 year olds around.  Note:  the pictures are a wee bit blurry because my kids run everywhere and therefore I run everywhere.

Here we are checking out the goods in the student union.  Overpriced.

Then a sweet and thoughtful gal who noticed me running after everyone taking pictures offered to take a picture of all of us together.  Yes, the tourist photo on campus, because really, that’s what we are every night.

Maps are high excitement when you’re three and know exactly where you are and where you are going.  Watching moving traffic is high excitement when you are two.  And taking pictures like  a tourist is high excitement when you’re in your late twenties and you have kids like mine.

The map worked and we did arrive at Wendy’s.  Wendy’s was not featured on  the map.  We ordered.

We ate.

We went to the pool.

Roz really couldn’t understand why we weren’t swimming.  Luckily, we are observant parents and stopped this desperate attempt at getting in.

We headed back to the van once again.

This is what my family likes to do.

Gingerbread House 2012

This year our gingerbread house started with some serious internet research.  I’ve an entire pinterest board that I’ve started in years past.  But I wanted a really original shape, and I found this lovely cottage, and decided it would make an excellent gingerbread house shape.

And, yes.  I modeled it in SketchUp to get the right dimensions.

Annnnnd, yes, I made a cardboard model to make sure I had everything right and to make the stencils for the dough.

I made the dough with my mom

while Nick hammered jolly ranchers for stained glass.

The assembly.  Even after all that planning it turns out that we made all the pieces in mirror image of what I had imagined, and it threw me off a bit.  It still throws me off looking at it.

My parents planned on making a forest:

Here I am using tweezers to place holly berries.

The mess of candy:

I was all concentration, but at some point (when Nick conveniently had a camera in his hand) I heard something that I evidently found entirely startling.  This picture makes me laugh and laugh.

And here’s the finished house:

Look at Nick’s weathervane!

And our duck pond:

I like the shape of this house, but I think we needed another day of decorating.  More snow under the eaves, an awning over the front door, and a fence maybe.  And a snowman.  I miss the snowman from 2010.  Each year I hope to get better and better, so check back next year.

My mom said she saved this house in a box!  I guess you can check back next year for its condition as well.  Will the weathervane duck still stand?  Only time will tell.

blogging and I…

Blogging and I haven’t been hanging out very much.  I don’t blog and I haven’t been reading blogs.  Why, just today I saw a friend, who is living a fairy tale dream over in the Alps, comment on her new baby.  New BABY!  I mean, I’m missing an entire gestation?

One of the things that stops me is when I don’t get a chance to blog a big event I feel like I can’t move on to something new until I cover it.  So, instead of my eipc gingerbread house that should have been blogged long ago, you get the park, in January, in weather warm enough to wear short sleeves (well, if you’re a 3.5 year old boy – I had a sweater.)

So here we are at the park:

And this is what it’s like at the park:

My kids like a challenge, a struggle.

Even Roz, but she’s only two and she made it as far as she could.

I am always really excited when I manage to get all three movers and shakers in the same picture.  They never turn out very majestic but they are telling.

 

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTE. Wow, sorry.  That popped out.  I guess I am exercising a mother’s prerogative. 

We took a little hike through the empty trees:

 

I was there.  I was trying to get myself  in the picture with them, but that’s impossible.  So, here you get an awkward smile on a bare face and some trees.  You’ll have to take my word for it that the kids were there too, and that we were all having fun together. 

 

 

 

And since I may not be motivated to blog for a while, here’s another hike on a different day.  A day when I didn’t pack warm enough clothes and the hats were too small, and we ate bagels with cream cheese and had a generally good time.

I intended for these pictures to reflect the epic nature of poking sticks in a small pond, but alas, they are what they are.  You needed to see the big sticks though.

and let’s just …let me show off my valentine décor:  You know, because I can.

And where we sat beneath said artwork and had valentine cookies.  Cutters generously donated by Grandma. 

You know, you do less laundry when your kids don’t wear clothes.

Eat the frosting first.

Until next time I feel like blogging!