The perfect storm

This past Saturday we headed over to a lake in Indiana where we met up with Mr. Crackers' parents & many members of his extended family for the annual lake outing. In total about 25 family members showed up for the event with 2 pontoon boats, a ski boat and a jet ski to ferry our floating family reunion around the lake.

The weather was very hot and hazy with some forecasted showers later in the afternoon. This may not sound like ideal boating weather, but honestly we don't really spend all that much time on the boats during the trip. What we do is anchor all the boats together to form this giant flotilla and then everyone gets in the water for a nice refreshing swim. The boats are really just there to hold our snacks and beverages.

As Mr. Crackers can attest, I'm not really much of a boating person, or a swimming person. I'm more of a sit next to a large body of water in the shade with a book and a drink while ocean/lake breezes keep me cool kind of person. But, since my husband and my kids love, love, love the water, I spend a lot more time in and on the water than I would normally be inclined to.

Thankfully the day was hot and the water in the lake was cool, but not so much that I got chilled too easily. Yes, I get cold really easily in the water. As I said before I'm really not much of a water person & also may be considered a bit of a wimp. But the water felt so great, I spent a lot of time in the lake with the rest of the family. It was really lovely.

Of course, Mr. Crackers found another way to stay cool. He fell in love with his uncle's jet ski and spent quite a bit of time zooming around the lake. I was sure pretty sure after the first hour, that a jet ski would be appearing on Mr. Crackers' Christmas list this year.

We probably stayed anchored in the same spot for about 2-3 hours until (for some reason that I don't quite remember) we decided to head across the lake to see how things looked on that side of the world.

Once we anchored in this new spot, which was very similar to our last spot just a bit farther east, everyone piled out of the boats and into the water once again.



Well, not everyone. By this time, I was pretty waterlogged and feeling a bit too fried by the sun, so I opted to stay on board one of the pontoon boats with a couple of Kevin's aunts and eat some snacks. Seriously, this family does not mess around the provisions. There was a cheese ball, Doritos, Pringles, Combos, pretzels and Oreos. In short, I was quite content to stay on board.

Just as I was contemplating applying sunscreen for what seemed like the 4th time, I heard someone say, "Was that thunder?"

I didn't hear it though and although the sky was a bit overcast as I looked to (what I now know was the eastern) sky, I didn't see any clouds looming ahead of me so I settled back down with my crackers, and Oreos, and maybe a bit of that cheese ball.

And then...I heard it. The thunder. It was loud enough to make me turn around and that's when I realized how important it is to scan all of the sky when you're on a boat. As I looked to (what I now know was the west) I saw a wall of black clouds that were apparently behind me the whole time. (Note to self...it's a good idea to keep an eye on the sky to the west if you're trying to see what kind of weather is heading in your direction. Duh!)

Anyhoo, just as I said, "Wow that sky is really, really dark.", we all heard a larger boom of thunder that was considerably louder than the last one. So, I looked over at Kevin's aunts & said, "Does anyone else think it's a bad idea to be caught in a thunderstorm on a metal boat in the middle of the lake?" There was a little bit of conferring and looking at the sky when one the aunts agreed, "Yea, we should probably start to head in."

That was all the encouragement I needed. I headed over the the water, pointing to the sky & telling Mr Crackers & his father my whole metal boat in an electrical storm concern. Apparently though, no else seemed as worried as yours truly. So, it took a bit of convincing (which may or may not have appeared to my husband and father-in-law as a small panic attack. I'll repeat again here that I'm not really much of a boater). Eventually though I think people began to agree that it may be wise to avoid the storm while on the boat (or at least they agreed that I seemed to be getting increasingly agitated & it was time to get me off the lake no matter what the weather looked like to the west).

Eventually all 25 of us loaded back onto the boats, but when we looked west to where the marina happened to be, we couldn't see anything anymore. The rain and the dark clouds had now obscured our view. And that black line was marching it's way right in our direction.

After a quick conference, (where I kept repeating "I really think we should start the engine & get moving now" with increasing amounts of conviction & okay yes, a bit of panic) it was decided that we should proceed east to the beach & see if we could find some shelter there.

And so our ill-fated race against the elements began.

I think we all knew we were going to get wet. Quite frankly almost all of us (at least those who hadn't been enjoying the delicious cheese ball and snack bar on the boat) were already wet. It's just that we all forgot just how cold the rain and wind of a summer thunderstorm can be...in a boat...out in the open...on a lake.

To my children's credit, they remained calm, even breaking into song, "Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day." This was good since it kept them occupied and allowed me time to contemplate our impending doom and estimate just how many life jackets were within my reach if we were going down. Thankfully the kids already had their life jackets on, so that was at least once less thing I needed to worry about.

Our last anchor point had been relatively close to the beach so we didn't have too far to go. It was ironic though, we were so close to land, but the wind and the rough waters was making it almost impossible for my father in-law to steer the boat up to the dock so we could get off. In an effort to help get the boat to shore, Mr. Crackers and his cousin jumped into the water (it was only about 4 feet deep this close to beach) and tried to help guide the boat in.

It was at this point that things took a downward slide. My father-in-law, worried he would hit his son with the boat since he couldn't see him, began yelling to Mr. Crackers to be careful. Then the rest of the family, my self included, started also yelling out helpful phrases like " Watch out!" and "Be careful!" and "Your Dad can't see you!" and even "Please don't get hit by the boat!". None of which the guys in the water could hear anyway over the sound of the wind and the rain and the thunder.

At some point during this melee, some family members on board the boat decided to hold hands and start praying. Out loud. Just as they finished the phrase, "Hail Mary, Full of Grace", my 7 year old son C reached his breaking point, and began to cry...loudly. He was truly freaked out by the lightning, the wind, the rain, our inability to dock and...the final straw - the sight of several family members with joined hands saying their prayers. I'm sure he thought we were all doomed. And, I have to admit that by now my nerves were starting to fray at the edges a bit too.

Finally the guys got the boat docked and I took the 2 kids and ran like a crazy person into the woods adjacent to lake for shelter. I know, you're saying "Mrs. Crackers don't you know that you aren't supposed to stand under a tree during an electrical storm?"

Yes, yes I did know that. And I'm here to tell you that when faced with a metal boat on open water, the middle of a sandy beach or under a group of trees as places to stand in the middle of a fierce thunderstorm I choose the trees every time.

I noticed two things once we were standing huddled together under the semi-cover of the trees. 1. I had lost one of my shoes in the mad dash off the boat.
2. We were standing in an area where the ground was covered with copious amounts of poison ivy.

I realize now that it was a bad idea to announce the fact that we were standing in poison ivy within earshot of my already somewhat hysterical son, but at that moment I wasn't really thinking ahead. My announcement seemed to just push him that much farther over the edge. Even after I tried to point out that he was in fact wearing shoes, it was for naught. He had already been through enough. So I cuddled him a bit closer and wisely shut my mouth.

Happily, there was no hail and like most summer storms, it was over pretty quickly. I think we were probably only hovered under the trees for about 8 minutes when it was all said and done. Mr. Crackers and a lot of the other guys stayed out in the storm by the boats the whole time. I'm not sure why since they were all tied up, but I think it has something to do with testosterone.

Once the sun started peaking out from the clouds, we headed back for the boats. I think by that time all of us were pretty much done with the boating trip, so we found some seats at steered the boat for the marina.

After everyone got a chance to dry off and change clothes, we had a great time back at my in-laws lake house (well, it isn't really a house and it's not really on the lake, but that's what I call it since it's not their primary residence and honestly I'm not sure how else to refer to it). Everyone brought a dish for the potluck dinner and the kids had a blast running around and playing with their cousins.

In the course of the day, only about 30 minutes of our time was spent on the storm. The rest of our time on the lake was relaxing and fun (and delicious!), but I don't think any of us will be forgetting this year's outing for quite some time.

Meatball subs of doom

My in-laws are coming over tonight, and I had to run to Kroger earlier today to pick up some ingredients for the meatball subs I planned on making for dinner. It was going to be a quick trip to the store just to pick up a few ingredients I was missing...you know ingredients like meatballs and hoagie rolls and sauce (and some mozzarella too).

When Mr. Crackers suggested the idea last night while we were eating dinner, I told him that I didn't have anything on hand to make the subs but they sounded delicious! As we were cleaning up the kitchen he made the comment, "I keep forgetting you've got the kids all day long without a break. How are you getting things done?"

While he may have forgotten this fact, it has remained in the forefront in my mind all week. A late July and an early August free of camps, vacations and activities sounded like bliss to me back in June when we were running from VBS to summer vacations to family visits and back to more camps. I loved the idea of 3 weeks without commitments so the kids and I could just relax and really enjoy summer ...... and start to drive each other a little bit crazy. Now just 4 days into the "bliss" and I am starting to see the error of that decision.

The kids are not sleeping in like I had planned so there are no peaceful morning coffee breaks for dear old Mom. And while they do play together pretty well they are after all siblings, so there is a lot of yelling, screaming and attempted tattling.

As I reflected on Mr. Crackers words, I took a gander at the mess in the family room, and the sitting room, and the dining room, and thought about all of the messes in the rooms upstairs and replied back, "Yea, I'm really not getting anytime to clean the house. I started cleaning the upstairs bathrooms ealier today and only got as far as wiping down the counters before one of the kids caught my attention with something else."

Mr. Crackers looked at me and said, "Oh, that's not what I meant. I was just thinking that you wouldn't have any time to get the ingredients for the subs tomorrow night for dinner since you've got the kids all day."

"Oh that," I scoffed, "going to the store with them will be easy. They're both old enough now that they actually help out quite a bit in the store. We'll make a quick run and get what we need -- no problem."

Seriously, it's like I didn't even know my own children anymore. A quick and easy trip to the grocery store with 2 children? Well, let's just say that's not really something I see in my immediate future.

I attempted the "easy" trip with them this morning and after 1 hour and 15 minutes we finally had what we needed to make the subs. I spent most of the time in the store on 3 activities:

1. Trying to corral my hooligans so that they were out of the way of other shoppers while also trying to prevent them from touching EVERY SINGLE ITEM that their eyes fell upon in the store.

2. Taking them to the bathroom 3 -- yes 3 -- different times.

3. Backtracking down aisles several times because I kept passing items I needed while my attention was focused on item #1.

As with all shopping trips that involve my kids I ended up purchasing items that were not on my list, so my few intended items ballooned up well beyond what was allowable in any of the store's express check-out lanes.

Oh, well. At least I got something out of the deal too. As I was pulling the cart toward the check-out lanes I noticed that 12 packs of assorted Mike's Hard beverages were on sale for $12.99. It's like the angels were sending me a message or something. I mean, while a meatball sub sounded good, a Mike's Hard Lemonade to wash it down with sounded absolutely divine after the hour I just spent in Kroger. So I added the 12 pack to my now full cart and headed over the registers with a smile on my face.

And so goes another day of summer vacation...

Water under the bridge

Last week we traveled with some good friends to western New York where we rented a cottage on a small lake. The cottage was in the quaint town of Batavia located between Buffalo and Rochester and while you couldn't pay me enough money to live in that part of the country from December - March, it is absolutely a beautiful place to be in the summer.

We spent the week fishing and swimming in the lake as well as visiting some of the local attractions. Since we were only an hour away, Niagara Falls topped our list of places we felt we really needed to go see.

After doing a bit of research we decided that the Canadian side of the Falls was where we wanted to be, so we loaded up the mini-vans and headed for the Falls...and parked on the American side. Apparently our friend Kris had heard from one of his friends that it was easier to park in America and then walk across the bridge to Canada -- which according to this friend equated to a walk of about 2 city blocks.

So we paid our $10.00 to park & made our way to the Falls. It was a somewhat cool overcast day, but that didn't damper our spirits (much). After we got the viewing area we realized that while the walk across the bridge itself may have only been 2 city blocks long, getting from the American viewing area to the Canadian viewing area would have been a walk closer to 3 miles. This was something that neither family was willing to take on with 4 kids under the age of 8. So, since we already paid to park, we figured we'd make the most of the attractions on the American side.



After a short time gazing at the Falls from above, while Mr. Crackers continually asked me, "What's next?", we headed to buy our Maid of the Mist tickets. Note to self: DO NOT drive to the Grand Canyon with Mr. Crackers. A 3 day drive followed by a 5 minute viewing of the Canyon while Mr. Crackers peppers me with the question "What's next?" will make my head pop off.

While I had visited Niagara Falls a couple times in my past, I've never ridden on the Maid of the Mist & I was excited (and a little nervous) to get on the boat and see the Falls from the water.

So we put on our blue ponchos and prepared ourselves for the trip.

My family...a bunch of goofballs!

Little did we know that these would be the last moments of the morning where we would see a smile on my son's face. Apparently Mr. Crackers & I had both (conveniently) forgotten that while he loves to swim and jump in the water, C hates to be splashed in the face with water. I mean he really hates it. Oops.

We boarded and at the request of our son (who may have already started to realize that he was going to get more than a little wet) we stood back a bit from the front of the boat. This was the moment I realized that I was not going to be able to take very many pictures of the Falls while standing near the front of the boat because of all the water... you would have thought the ponchos would have clued me in earlier to this fact, but it wasn't until I got that first cold spray in the face that I stuck the camera back in my pocket.

I did manage to snap a couple of shots without ruining my camera. I wish it had been a clearer day, but I was still in awe of the power of all that water crashing down. The American side of the falls was cool, but the Canadian horseshoe portion of the falls was even better (that is unless you are my son C and don't like to be splashed in the face with water AT ALL, in which case you won't really like either one of the Falls, but you will especially HATE the Canadian side)

Here's the view of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls as seen from underneath the boat's canopy where I stood with my now irate son C who kept shouting "I hate this! We are getting too wet and we are too close to the those waterfalls! I just want this to be over!" Well, at least he can say he tried it. And even though I also got nervous a couple of times, I loved it. It was a terrific experience.

After we got off the boat, we asked the kids if they were up for climbing the path that went closer to the falls and we were met with these expressions that were mixed with equal parts of crankiness, hunger, exhaustion and incredulity.



Apparently, none of them cared that the sun had finally made an appearance and that the adults could get better pictures of Niagara now. Since we were also getting tired & hungry, we beat a hasty retreat to Buffalo so we could dine on the chicken wings from Anchor Bar that made the city famous. Mmm...

After lunch, our friends decided to head over to Canada to see the Falls from that side. Based on my own children's reaction to the American side, we opted out and headed back to the lake house.

Once there, we put on our own water show.

Where my three favorite people demonstrated how much they like water that wasn't rushing by in rapids and falling down into deep gorges with tremendous power.

Water that was cool and still and begging to be disturbed with a jump or a dive.

The princesses and the frog

We had a blast this past weekend with my niece M who was visiting with us. The girls spent about 85% of their time playing dress up. Almost every game they played seemed to involve some kind of princess -- usually played by M in full princess regalia including a gown, shoes and a crown. K varied between being a doctor, a Jedi knight, and the mother of the princess, who was coincidentally a princess herself. Both girls had a lot of fun spending time with one another. We had tea parties, went shopping, even played beauty parlor. Playtime definitely had a more feminine feel without their 2 older brothers around.

But, we did some other fun stuff too. We went to a small farm to see the animals, visited a butterfly exhibit at a local park and even managed to do a bit of frog hunting at our neighborhood pond.



We didn't manage to catch this big fella, but Mr. Crackers was quick enough to net a couple of his friends.

We've been catching frogs at the pond for years. K has never been the least bit squeamish about touching bugs or reptiles. This is a trait that she shares with her Daddy. My son C & I like to accompany them of their frog hunting exhibitions, but we only touch those things under a bit of duress. For the two of us, frog catching is a really more of a spectator sport. I really don't even like to try to catch them - that's Mr. Crackers game. Knowing my lack of coordination, I'd manage to trip right into the pond trying to net my first frog.

But K, she loves frogs. She loves holding them...

And she loves tossing them back into the pond again. We've tried to get her to gently set them back into the water, but she prefers the overhanded toss. The frogs kind of do a mid-air ballet as they tumble head over flippers before landing with a gentle splash back into the murky waters. I'm not sure they enjoy the ride, but at least it doesn't hurt them.

M wasn't too sure about all this frog touching and throwing.

It took some convincing from her cousin and her uncle. And they went through quite a few frogs in their whole catch-and-release fun until finally....

She did it. She reached out her little fingers and petted this small guy a few times. Mr. Crackers wasn't quite able to convince her to hold the frog, but then he's not able to get me to try to hold on to them either.

After a few failed attempts at catching another frog, we called it a night and headed home to get cleaned up.

I'm sure this guy was relieved to see us go. But he shouldn't relax too much, I'm sure we'll be going back again soon.

The estrogen levels here are higher than ever

Well, I am officially on day 2 of the great child shuffle of 2010. My son C went out to California with my parents and his cousin A to visit his own personal version of heaven...Legoland. They took off for California yesterday afternoon & are probably running around like maniacs even as I type this post. I hope my Mom and Dad have taken all their vitamins and supplements. I'm not sure who is going to come back to Ohio more worn out from this mini-vacation, but I'm betting it's going to be my parents. Just thinking about traveling for 5 days with two energetic 7 year old boys makes me tired.

Since C was heading out on an adventure this week, I thought it might be fun if my niece M (A's little sister) came to stay with us. M is just about a year younger than K, and I knew they'd have a blast playing together. I figured they could dress up or play house without having their two brothers hijack them into one of the many Star Wars battles that seem to break out around here all the time.

So far, so good here at the House of Crackers. I think Mr. Crackers is feeling a bit outnumbered surrounded by so many females, but he's taking it all in stride.

With the heat wave here in the mid-west, all of our activities so far seem to be revolving around water.





We've played in the pool.

Run through the sprinkler.

Watered the flowers.







And gone to a local playground to cool off in the water park.







I think we're starting to get a little bit silly from the heat.





Not to mention more than a little waterlogged.

But the heat is supposed to break tomorrow when a band of rain and thunderstorms move through the area. So we'll move this caravan of fun inside. We're going to pick up my grandma and head to the mall to do a little shopping and a little eating. We'll have some fun female bonding time

Of course, I think we've already bonded just fine.

Weekend update with Mrs. Crackers

Before I get too far, I wanted to give you an update on the status of all the summertime household projects that I mentioned in a previous post. If I had the time on Saturday morning to do a little blogging, I would have told you that I finally finished painting all of the shutters and that I had high hopes that by the time Mr. Crackers returned to work Tuesday morning that I would have the back door completed too.

A few short hours later it became clear that my painting karma had gone terribly awry and I'd end the weekend without a single painting project crossed off my to-do list. The first bit of bad news came as Mr. Crackers was getting ready re-hanging the last two shutters on the house (#3 on his to do list for the weekend, right after re-shingling the playhouse...Mr. Crackers is no slouch when it comes to project completion unlike yours truly).


What I should probably mention here is that when Mr. Crackers was removing the shutters from the house so I could paint them, one broke (I would have probably broken all of them if I had been taking them down...I was very happy that we only lost one in the whole removal process which was very tricky and involved using sharp tools while on an extension ladder). So, I ordered a pair of replacement shutters online (apparently you can't buy just 1 shutter) and painted them just like I painted all of the other shutters.

They all looked really good with the new paint on them. That is, they all looked really good until Mr. Crackers uncovered a problem with the new shutters (thankfully) before he hung them on the house. He had stacked them on top of one another so that he could drill holes to mount them, and as he pulled them apart from one another lots of paint began peeling off the shutters. So much paint was peeling that in about a minute and a half we had peeled half of the paint on one of the shutters using only our hands. Clearly something had gone terribly wrong. As I looked more closely at the new shutters now back to their original unpainted status, I realized that I had forgotten to prime them ....duh!


So, if you happen to drive by the house today (and let's be honest it'll look the same if you drive by the house next week too.) this is what you'll see. A nice house with freshly painted shutters on most of the windows...








Oh well...




I also tried to finish painting the backdoor, with different yet similarly troubled results. I spent a lot of time sanding and priming the door before I began painting it. Between kids and dogs, the door had seen quite a bit of damage done to it over the past 6 years, so I knew it needed a bit of TLC before painting. After a few hours on Saturday afternoon, I got it nice and smooth & took Mr. Crackers up on his offer to take it off it's hinges for the first coat of paint.

What I didn't think about was that the strong sun and accompanying heat wave that had hit us in the Midwest made painting the door in direct sunlight where we placed it on the patio a really dumb idea...Really. Dumb. Of course, I began thinking about it in earnest as the paint began drying almost as quickly as I was applying it so that I managed to immediately botch the smoothing technique I had completed only hours before...

At that point I put the brush down and just walked away. It seemed the best course of action after such a dissapointing day. Once I could face it again, I came back and finished the first coat of paint on the door (in the shade). Even though it's not as smooth as it could have been if I had been paying a little more attention to my surroundings, I think I still like color. And hopefully no one else will notice that the paint is a bit lumpy in places...(or if they notice maybe they won't mention it to me).







Oh well...



The good news is that the rest of the weekend (the non-project portion) went really well.

We did all of those things that make a Fourth of July weekend typically American. We got to go swimming, attend a cook-out, watch an local Americana parade, and of course get to see some fireworks.


We even went to a local amusement park for an afternoon of fun




We rode our favorite rides





And visited our favorite characters

We even managed to meet up with some friends and cool off a bit on the log flume ride.

Despite all the painting setbacks, I still consider the weekend a success.

Summer reading

I enrolled the kids in a summer reading program at a local library last month (seriously, is anyone else in total shock that it's already July 1st?). C finally decided in the last 2 weeks of school that he liked reading, so I was hoping that the reading program would motivate him to keep it up during the summer months. I was also hoping it would provide something else for him to do other than following me around the house and saying, "What should I do now?" like he did all last summer.

The name of the program is Going Places with Great Books and the tracking sheet they gave to us is filled with tiny suitcases. Every time C spends 30 minutes reading a book, he gets to color in 1 suitcase. In total, the paper has 20 suitcases for him to color, which of course means that he needs to read for 10 hours to complete the sheet. Once we found the right books, including the Captain Underpants and Mighty Robot series, he was off and running.

By yesterday morning, he had completed his 1st sheet and I told him we'd run to the library to turn it in & pick up a second tracking sheet. I may have also said something like, "I wonder what sort of prize you'll get for completing your first 20 suitcases?"

As soon as the word prize was out of my mouth, three things immediately happened:
1. Both of my children strained forward in their booster seats with excitement.
2. Both of them began peppering me with questions about the type of prizes they'd be getting.
3. I realized that I probably should have read the brochure about the reading program a little more closely, because I suddenly wasn't really sure if there would be any prizes waiting for us once we got to the library.

Of course in hindsight perhaps I should have thought a little more carefully about the prize situation before I let those fateful words pass my lips, but it was too late now.

I immediately started back peddling a bit as I imagined the possible scenarios that would occur if we got the library and there were in fact no prizes for completing the first summer reading list. None of those scenarios seemed to end happily.

"Well," I said, "maybe they won't actually have prizes for you to take home today. Maybe there will be some kind of drawing that we can enter. Maybe they'll pull a name out of a bucket later and they'll announce the prize then."

As I looked in the mirror to gauge their reaction to my revision of the earlier prize announcement, I was met with somewhat hostile and disbelieving eyes.

"No Mama," said C, "I'm sure they'll be handing out prizes."

Hmm... I had a sinking feeling that he was going to be disappointed.

Well, we got to library and sure enough, there were no actual prizes to be had. A very young and perky librarian congratulated them on their reading achievement and then explained to the kids that they could write their names on a piece of paper and drop it into one of 5 buckets for a chance to win one of 5 different prizes. She also handed the kids the forms containing their next 20 suitcases and said something like, "Happy reading!"

We went over to the prize buckets so the kids could choose which drawing to enter. C went for the family pass to our local Bounce U and K dropped her name into the bucket labeled "leisure package" that included a lawn chair, bubbles, and a reusable plastic drink bottle.

While thankfully, there were no tears, the mood was decidedly a bit somber as we left the librarian's table. As we walked away, I noticed that there were some coupons attached to the new reading forms. "Oh look guys!" I said enthusiastically, "There is a prize after all! Here are some coupons for us to use. Look, a coupon for a free ice cream cone & check this one out...a coupon for a free meal at Beef O'Brady's!"

C turned to me with a very serious look on his face and said, "You know Mom, those prizes are really more for you than for us. All it means is that you have to pay less money the next time we go out."

When did he get so smart anyway? Since I felt a bit guilty about uttering the word prize prematurely (clearly I am slipping a bit this summer) I decided to throw them a bone.

"Who wants to go over to the Wii game section and pick out a new game to rent? It will be your prize for completing your first reading sheet!"

Suddenly, the mood of my offspring did a 180. "We do, we do!"

And so, another day of summer vacation passed peacefully.